by Leah Silver
“You haven’t won anything. In case you missed it, two of your lackeys have been sent beyond the void.”
“There are plenty more where they came from.”
I sighed, shifting my weight, beyond impatient with him. “Get to the damned point, Devlin.”
“I have your daughter.”
Too much shit, not enough crap bags
My world stopped in that moment. I grabbed the blade off the table, and my feet started moving on their own accord. Slowly at first. One footfall for each heartbeat. I pushed past Devlin, ignoring his broad, I-win smile. The crowd parted for me, apparently horrified by what I’d done—bunch of pansies. I picked up the pace. Slamming into the door, I shoved it open so hard it crashed against the wall behind it. By the time I was free of the pub, I was running full force, thinking of nothing but Sara. My mind tried to puzzle it out. Where was Oscar? What happened to him? Why wasn’t he there? What happened to Ed and the others? Were they all okay? But I couldn’t bring myself to care about those answers half as much as I cared about disproving Devlin.
He couldn’t have her. Tempest was watching over her. He would never dare attack another council member. Would he? I hadn’t thought twice about picturing him turning to ash in front of me in the pub. The pooh-bah probably would’ve thanked me for it.
I arrived back home faster than I’d ever crossed the six blocks between there and the pub before. Everything seemed normal. Quiet. But a sense of dread seized my heart. It made me throw the gate open recklessly. I bolted up the steps two at a time.
The door was unlocked. As soon as I entered, my nose was accosted by the burning smell. But there was no smoke. No flames. Nothing to be responsible for the scent.
I darted upstairs, crashing into the wall as I rounded the corner and barreled onto the landing. Nothing looked amiss. I threw her bedroom door open to find wizard fire engulfing Sara’s room. Tempest lay on the ground next to the empty bed.
There was no sparkle surrounding her. No magic in her hair. Her skin had changed from the flawless light color it was supposed to be to a charred leathery brown. But my affections for her kept me from recoiling at the horrific site.
I fell by her side. “Tempest. Please.”
But I got only silence.
“No. How can this be?” The room burned all around me, threatening to claim me, too, but I refused to move. Wizard’s fire was a funny thing, never burning objects, but magic? Oh, yes. The more supernatural someone was, the faster they burned. And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to leave.
I stood and went to Sara’s bed, pulling the covers back in disbelief. Gone. My baby was gone. The nightmare had come true. Damn Devlin to the deepest, darkest level of the void.
“You weren’t wrong, you know. In calling me a puppet master.” The voice from behind me made my blood boil as red hot as the room.
“You killed Tempest. One of the oldest Fae in existence.” My fingers twitched at my sides as I itched to grab a dagger and throw it at him. Right between the eyes, just to see him scrambling, trying to pull it out before he turned to ash.
“You’ve no proof of that. Tempest is in your home after all,” he said confidently.
“If I’m going down for killing a council member, it’ll be you, not her.” I took a step toward him, but he just smiled, unmoving.
Oscar appeared in the doorway behind Devlin, but remained silent. I kept my eyes off him, so as not to alert Devlin.
“Tell me something, Devlin. When you see the future, what happens if I change course? Make a different decision. Clearly, you saw this going differently. You thought you’d get me at the pub.”
He coughed out a laugh. “Why would you think that? If I thought I’d get you, as you so eloquently put it, why would I have a wizard at my disposal who set your home ablaze?”
“Because you still saw yourself winning this.” I said it more to myself than to him. Was there any way out of this? I didn’t have much experience with seers. The less arrogant ones tended to trust their visions less. Interpreted them as possibilities, not gospel. But this guy acted like he was some kind of end-all-be-all god or something. And I’d had enough.
“This ends here. I don’t even care what your involvement is.” In a flash, my hand freed the dagger and loosed it in his direction. But it stopped midair, about three inches from his forehead. It would’ve hit. Right between his eyes. But I missed the satisfying sound of the blade piercing his skull. Instead, my emerald beauty hung in front of him, making that shit-ass grin on his face grow even wider as a hooded figure appeared silently at his side.
“No, my dear. This is just beginning.”
Oscar lunged at him. In that moment, the hooded figure disappeared. Coward. Oscar got two hands around Devlin’s middle. In that instant, I saw the full breadth of Oscar’s power. He turned to stone before my eyes, his skin going grey. But not a sickly grey—a strong, unbreakable grey. As he squeezed, I heard a crushing sound. Was it Devlin’s body? One could only hope. I stepped closer and plucked my favorite dagger from the air, keeping it aimed on him. It yearned for the kill as much as I did, and the frustration I felt coming from it pushed me forward, fueling my anger.
“So, why didn’t you see Oscar coming, hmm?” One step closer. I was almost close enough to slowly jam the blade between his eyes myself, rather than throw it.
“Wait,” he croaked, his eyes bulging. It made him even more unattractive than he already was.
The fire was starting to lick at my skin. It found me. I knew there was no more time for waiting.
“No. Your time is up.” I nodded to Oscar, who squeezed a little harder.
“I have. Your. Daugh … ter,” Devlin croaked out.
I held up a hand, ignoring the pain climbing up my leg. Only seconds until it consumed me. Oscar loosened his grip a bit. “Maybe we should take this out into the hall,” he suggested.
“Fine,” I reluctantly agreed, but I refused to give into the urge to pat my legs. That would only spread the flames to my hands. I needed Ed. Even water wouldn’t put out wizard’s fire. Separating it from the larger flame would slow its progression, but now that it had me, it would kill me if I let it. I had bigger problems at the moment, though.
“I promise I won’t kill Sara if you play my game.”
“I’m not interested in games, Devlin. How do I know you haven’t already killed her? You killed Tempest.” Saying it out loud didn’t make it any easier to believe. My longtime friend. Gone. One I considered second only to Agatha. One I just assumed would outlive me. Because why wouldn’t she?
Devlin reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. It held a picture of Sara in a new location. Darker. Certainly not the nurturing environment Tempest had made for her.
“Let me go, and I will keep her alive. Let you wake her up when you’re done.” Devlin’s voice was hoarse from being squeezed. I’d like to say I didn’t take any satisfaction at all in that, but I’d be lying.
Oscar looked at me, giving no indication of which way I should go. He didn’t press me either, not rushing me to make a decision. The flames at the bottom of my leg did, though.
“Where are the others?”
“Distracted,” he answered.
“Where?” Oscar demanded, squeezing a bit harder.
“Detained. Near where I’m keeping Sara. I will release them upon your agreement to go to the hive.”
“What’s with you and this hive? Did the demon wrong you in some way? Because you’re pretty stupid if you think you’re special because a demon didn’t do right by you. That’s what they do. Cause pain and chaos in people’s lives. Especially supernaturals.”
“It doesn’t matter what this demon did or didn’t do. What matters is you take them out. And you find the evidence connecting them to the plague. Present the council with it, and I will release Sara back to you.”
“And what happens when I don’t find your evidence, and instead I tell the council of your blackmail?”
“Oh, you wo
uldn’t do that. Because I know how to get to you now. Your precious little girl will never be safe as long as you hold that little threat over me. Tit for tat, isn’t that what the humans say?” In all my years, I’d never encountered someone so stupid, who’d planned something out so well. He was a walking contradiction. But his arrogance was bound to make him misstep. I just had to bide my time and wait for it.
“And if I don’t? If I kill you, right here, right now? Then what? The council will know it was you who killed Tempest, and that I was justified in killing you for it.”
“You’ll lose your daughter forever.”
“Why? Because your life is somehow tied to hers? All I have to do is find her. You’re not as slippery as you think you are, Devlin.”
“Maybe. But are you willing to risk it?”
I was. I wrinkled my chin as I frowned. I was. The handle of the blade dug into the soft part of the palm of my hand. I was. I told it to myself over and over again. He wasn’t trustworthy. I couldn’t believe him no matter what. But what if this time, he wasn’t lying? If I gambled with Sara’s life and lost … could I forgive myself for that? Because when it came down to it, that was the risk I was making.
As it turned out, I wasn’t. I shook my head, and Oscar released Devlin, but remained a giant human stone, keeping one hand on his shoulder. “One wrong move, and I’ll turn you to stone right here, right now,” Oscar warned.
“You can do that?” I asked, rather impressed.
“Stay on task, Merry,” he cautioned.
“Right. Let the boys go, and we’ll go into your stupid hive. Then you let my daughter go, and we go our separate ways.”
“Not exactly. I sit on the council now. I’m afraid you and I will have plenty of interactions.” His voice was clearing a bit, and he stood straighter, having been released from Oscar’s grip.
“No. No, we won’t. You’ve seen that I’m stronger than you. That the only way you can win is by manipulating me. Someday, you will make a misstep. And I will be there to cut you down in an instant. Unless you walk away. Leave the council when this is over. Go back to the hole you crawled out of. Go live with the demons for all I care. As long as Sara and I never see you again.”
“That goes for the rest of us,” Oscar said, keeping a hand on Devlin’s shoulder.
“Perhaps we can iron out the details of our arrangement later. For now, let’s focus on Sara and getting her back, shall we?”
“And what of Tempest? Are you going to set the council on me while I’m trying to get into your stupid hive? Because that could be a distraction, to say the least.”
“No. As far as the council knows, she’s here, caring for Sara. No one needs to know what befell her for some time.”
I shook my head. “Everyone will know. Her children probably already do, you idiot.”
“Only if she’s actually dead.” He just loved to drop those bombs, and I was absolutely exhausted by it.
I looked at Oscar and he groaned for me. “Enough games, Devlin.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, gargoyle,” he spat. Like a gargoyle was an inferior race or something. But by the look of him, he was pretty damned superior to me. The stone looked good on him. Amazing, in fact. Every one of his muscles was a chiseled piece of art, as if Michelangelo had carved him himself.
Devlin’s voice brought me back to the conversation. “You seem to be laboring under the impression that I’m wasting your time. But if you’d just listened to me in the first place and gone to the hive like I asked, we wouldn’t be here, would we?”
“Who can say, Devlin? It’s hard to make predictions of trust with a man who doesn’t know what that word means.”
He turned his overconfident look on me. “Oh, I know what it means. And I know where to put it, unlike you. Trust is worth nothing next to power. Control. These are the things you put your stock in. That’s why I’m on the council and you aren’t.”
“I never wanted—you know what, suck a dragon egg, Devlin. I’ll go to your hive and fight your battle for you, because you’re too much of a cuntcake to do it yourself.”
Oscar nodded approval at my insult.
“What would ever make you think I would lose sleep because of your opinion of me?” Devlin countered.
“Nothing, I suppose. There are darker things that will keep you awake at night,” I said, knowing I could set any number of things on him. Sure, I hunted demons, but I also made alliances. Those who didn’t want to be dispatched often traded their freedom to me in exchange for life. Plenty of them would be willing to kill again. Particularly if it came with no punishments.
He cleared his throat and shifted under Oscar’s grip on his shoulder. He threw a glare at Oscar before looking back at me. “As I said … we can discuss terms after the agreement is fulfilled. Kill the hive, I will give you Sara, and we will move on from this ugly affair.”
“Oh, if only it were that easy. I know your type, Devlin. I will do this for you, and you’ll have something else for me to do before you give Sara back. And then another thing. And another … until I’m under your thumb indefinitely.” I walked toward him until I was right in his weaselly looking face. “If you think I’ll tolerate that, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“Oh, I don’t. Don’t worry.” The way he said it told me he had something else in mind. Something I hadn’t thought of. But it definitely wasn’t adhering to our bargain.
“Fine. Let the boys go, and I will release you. You can walk out of my home unscathed.” The pain in my calves had climbed to my knees, reminding me I needed to wrap this up.
He took out his phone and typed out something. “Done.”
“When they get here, you may go.”
“I’m afraid that will take some time.”
I narrowed my eyes. “No more time than it took for you to put them there in the first place.”
“Yes, well, magic was used for that.”
“Then magic can be used to bring them back.”
He sighed loudly. As if I were the one being difficult. Did he really just roll his eyes at me? “What are you—some kind of spoiled teenager?” I asked, making no attempt to hide my disgust at his behavior.
He ignored me while he typed out another message. “They’ll be along shortly.”
“Good.”
After a few beats of silence, Devlin glared over his shoulder at Oscar. “You can let me go now.”
“No. I don’t believe I will, cuntcake.”
I lifted my chin and smirked.
Oscar winked at me. “It suits him, don’t you think?”
“I do,” I said.
“Get a room, why don’t you?” Devlin said, and I took another point for grossing him out.
“I’d love to,” Oscar said, surprising me. The look in his eyes told me he wasn’t toying with Devlin. He was telling the truth. He wasn’t looking at my body, though. His gaze never shifted from my eyes, and I swallowed hard.
“Let’s take this out into the hall, shall we? It’s getting a bit warm in here,” Oscar suggested.
“Don’t mind if I do,” I agreed, my legs becoming more and more uncomfortable with every passing moment.
The banged against the wall downstairs, the sounds of the others storming into the house loud.
“Merry?” Levi called.
“Up here. Is Ed with you?”
“I’m here,” he called from the bottom of the stairs.
“Good. I need you.”
He appeared at the landing in no time. “Always nice to be needed.” He flashed a rugged smile under his white beard, and I wondered what was happening to me. Could I be attracted to all these men under these circumstances? Maybe it was the circumstances leading me to it—my subconscious trying to distract me from the fact that my entire life was collapsing on my head. That sounded good enough to me.
“Demon’s breath! You’re on fire,” Ed said as he glanced down, immediately getting to work putting it out.
“Welcome to the party, Captain O
bvious,” I said.
Devlin tried to shift out from under Oscar, but he wasn’t successful.
“Our deal was—” he started to say.
“It’s fine, Oscar. Let him go. I assume you won’t go far, so we can find you when the deed is done?”
“Oh, believe me. I won’t be far away at all.”
“Fine.” I heard him stomp downstairs, the men all standing aside to let him go by. When the front door closed behind that stupid twatwaffle, everyone started talking at once.
“How could you just let him walk out of here after what he did?” Levi demanded.
“He has Sara, or so he says. He must’ve nabbed her during our stakeout while you and Ed were busy. Maybe he has a back entrance? He has a wizard on his side, so it’s hard telling how they came and went.” My mind was spinning with the reality that had been the last few hours. “No matter what, I can’t risk calling his bluff. As much as the logical part of me wants to.”
“And what will you do if he runs? You’ll do his dirty work, and you’ll never see Sara again,” Levi pointed out.
“Quite the Debbie Downer, huh?” I asked as Ed worked on my legs, making me wince. “Sara’s room is ablaze, too.”
“One thing at a time,” he said without looking up.
Oscar came to my defense. “You weren’t here, Levi. Merry knows what she’s doing. And she’s not without a few aces up her own sleeve. Or at least, that’s what I took out of her threats to Devlin.”
“That’s true. I have some powerful allies who would be happy to hunt him down and wipe him off the face of this earth. Although, I’m not sure I can let anyone else do that at this point. I want to see that arrogant grin turn to ash right before my eyes.”
The boys were silent while Ed worked. “You know, the first time I put out wizard’s fire was on my sister.” I looked down to see him with a thoughtful look on his face. “She died many years ago. A bit too bold with her spells, as evidenced by the fact I had to put out a fire she started.” Slowly, my legs cooled as he spoke, and I started to relax. Well, maybe not relax. Sara was with that stupid—nope. Don’t go there, I thought as I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw started to ache.