Danica took a step back from the table to bump into something solid.
She whipped around and looked up. A redcap loomed over her, and he grinned wide, his teeth crimson and dripping with former kills. He wasn’t the only one who’d approached during their brief conversation. A rakshasa, another redcap, and an encantado strode forward, their shadows falling over her. Even with her hands balled into fists and the weapons she’d stored in her pockets, the sheer stature, venom spit, and vicious claws outclassed her.
“What, afraid to chip your nails, Alberich?” Danica called over even while she searched for a gap between the wall of creatures. Anywhere to run.
This idea had been terrible from the start, and it just got a whole lot worse.
Alberich didn’t even bother to look her way, his gaze on his lacquered claws when he gave the order. “Capture her.”
Danica bolted on instinct, her calves squeezing tight as she shot off toward the nearest door. The clap of heavy footfalls resounded through this room. Her heart jackhammered in her chest, and she rushed as fast as she could. No time to contemplate any other exit strategy.
The encantado slithered across the floor, veering in front of her so fast she almost tripped. The second cost her.
The redcap stepped behind her, his shadow falling first, before his fist descended. Her vision went black.
****
“Wake up.”
A voice sounded above her.
Danica clutched at her head, fighting the heavy throb in her skull, like she’d downed a couple of bottles of whisky before bed. She blinked, her vision hazy at first as her eyes adjusted to the dim room. This place smelled like citronella, polish, and a deeper tang she couldn’t identify at first. Her nose twitched with familiarity. Blood. Oh, joy.
A familiar face hovered over her, with deep-set hazel eyes and her usually smiling mouth in a frown. Her long golden hair hung down her back, messy strands escaping from what was once a tight braid. Lenora.
“Funny meeting you here, Nora,” Danica mumbled, a wave of relief crashing through. The mere sight of her sister hit her better than the first sip of coffee in the morning, warmth saturating her from the inside out. “What’s the free breakfast like? Does he offer room service?”
Lenora snorted and squatted in front of her.
Danica pushed herself from the slump, realizing cold bars pressed into her back. She patted herself down, checking her pockets, but Alberich’s mercenaries hadn’t been idiots. They’d taken her weapons.
“At least the bastard locked us up together,” Lenora muttered. “You shouldn’t have come for me, D. He’s just getting what he wants.”
“Not everything,” Danica muttered, staring at the bars overhead. The cage they sat in was tall enough for them to stand and lay down in but didn’t offer much more space. The short proximity she could wander made her skin prickle. She wouldn’t survive long trapped in here. Danica leaned toward her sister and lowered her voice. “At this point, I’m relying on the boys in the Discord’s Desire to pull through and praying Kincaid’s good on his word.”
“What did you steal?” Lenora asked, slumping next to her. Even though Danica’s stomach twisted in guilt at seeing her sister behind these bars, Lenora hadn’t swung an accusatory glare or comment her way once.
“Just some mirror in his treasure trove,” Danica said, wrinkling her nose. She never got the time to sit and figure out the significance of that item, but it had gotten him riled enough to send wave upon wave of mercenaries after them. Not like he couldn’t afford them. Her gaze drifted past the bars to the rest of this massive ballroom. More cages lined the marble flooring, most of them elevated on wide pedestals. Fae hunched inside, sleeping, curled into the small space they’d been given. Some stared, while others ignored them. All contained a haunted look in their eyes she recognized.
This must’ve been the room Trevor spent years and years imprisoned in.
She was surprised she hadn’t voided the contents of her stomach yet. Danica gripped the bar beside her tight, the coldness imprinting into her palm.
“Whatever you stole, forget kicking the hornet’s nest—you took a flamethrower to it,” Lenora said, tugging on the end of her braid. “I had been heading out for work when they cornered me.”
Ouch. Danica opened her mouth, but her sister fixed her with a glare.
“Don’t you dare apologize,” Lenora warned. “It happened. You’ve bailed me out of so many bad situations in the past, and we both know why you agreed to take a loan from Alberich in the first place. If I have to hear your guilty conscience for the next century, I’m taking us both out.”
Danica closed her mouth, grinned, and gave Lenora a gentle shove. “Fine, you caught me. This was all an elaborate plan, so I could keep a better eye on you.”
“You might want to see a shrink for those attachment issues.” Lenora’s lips twisted into a wry smirk. “It’s getting creepy, sis.”
The creak of footsteps pushed her to sit upright and look around. After all, the long strides meant someone moved outside of a cage. A shorter figure crossed the ballroom, one she recognized by the knobby joints and the pale green skin, the same cowering creature who had plagued them since the Mandalay Bay show.
“Come to gloat, Crags?” Danica called over. She had been hoping Alberich would mosey on in so she could spit in his face.
Crags didn’t respond at first, his caterpillar brows furrowed fiercely as he approached.
Danica locked gazes with him, refusing to look down. If they wanted to cage her, she’d make their lives hell.
“Why didn’t you bring the mirror?” he asked. The hesitation in his voice scraped her awareness, a genuine confusion from the brownie slave.
Danica shrugged. “Truth be told, maybe I could’ve used the Discord’s Desire crew and nabbed it out from underneath them. However, I’ve already done too much to them. I’ve become someone I hate. If I took Trevor’s freedom away from him, I doubt even my sister would still love me.”
Lenora shrugged. “Not like I’d have much of a choice. But I’m proud of you for making the right call here.”
Crags stepped to the bars, his fingers skimming over the surface as if he remembered them well. From what Trevor told her, they’d both resided in this hall in separate cages. Where Trevor had rebelled and claimed his escape, earning a life on the run, Crags’ loyalty earned him a place in this house outside of the cage—still a slave.
“I just don’t understand,” he murmured. Seeing the soft shade of this creature, the hunched-over brownie clarified in her mind like he hadn’t before. He was small, terrified, and not built for a life on the run. For him, this had been the only option. Hating him would be easy—after all, he’d been running Alberich’s errands for far too long. But the loathing would be misplaced. Alberich had imprisoned them. Alberich was the one they needed to take down.
Danica placed her hand on one of the bars and looked him in the eyes. Oftentimes, she hated her abilities. Unlike a redcap who was effectively a killing machine, or even an incubus who could soak up energy from any sort of passion—including a fight—Danica’s abilities allowed her to inspire. Not like she could whip out ‘inspiration’ when an Unseelie merc had razor sharp teeth and claws.
Yet here and now, maybe she could do something.
“I showed up today empty handed, because I believe in what we’re doing,” Danica said, concentrating as she tapped into the honey-sweet inspiration she dabbed upon any artist or musician she strode paths with. The act of using those abilities bubbled up inside her like liquid sunshine, like the first note of a heartbreaking melody. Her skin prickled in response to the emotion that emerged, the sort she often pretended didn’t exist for her.
“That mirror is the one thing that can take Alberich down, and granting freedom for every soul caged in this castle is worth a little self-sacrifice. Took me a long time to learn, but the lesson stuck.” Her words resonated more than normal, and Lenora’s eyes crinkled with amusem
ent at the realization of what Danica was doing.
Crags shook his head, those dark eyes gleaming with fear. “He’ll find a way around it. He always does.”
Danica reached out, her fingertips brushing against his. He snapped them back, but she’d already done the deed. In a single touch, she’d conveyed the jolt of bravery he might need to stand tall here, even after he’d been crushed more with every passing year. What he did with that gift was up to him, but Danica had to try. She had fought her entire life, but what she did best, was inspire.
“Not this time,” she intoned, a seriousness in her voice traveling deep to her bones. Maybe, in the secret heart of her, she believed her own words. “This time, he’s finished. I bet my life on it.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Trevor texted Kieran after searching Danica’s hotel room and her normal haunts in this city to no avail. He headed back to the RV. When he’d checked in at Kink and Candy to find out Lenora was no longer employed there because she hadn’t shown for work two days in a row, his marrow turned colder than the winter realms in the Otherworld.
Alberich must’ve taken Danica’s sister. The family emergency hadn’t been a lie, but the sunset smile and relief on her face was. The entire night they’d spent together—she must’ve known it’d be their last.
He thundered across the asphalt toward their RV, bringing his storm cloud with him. They’d handed over the mirror to Kincaid, and supposedly, cinched Alberich’s impending destruction, but at what cost? If he knew turning it in would sentence Danica and her sister, he would’ve returned the mirror to Alberich and stayed on the run for the rest of his days. He’d survived so far, but he wouldn’t be able to surface above the water if he discovered he’d lost her for good.
The darkened windows of their RV glared. Trevor loped to the front door and opened it. Silence greeted him, meaning he was the first of the band to return. When he stepped inside though, his nose twitched from the scent of lemon polish. Trevor climbed the steps and entered. Inside lay the same RV as always—the booth they lounged in, the kitchenette they cooked their weird-hour meals at, and farther in the back, the bunks and bathroom.
His brows furrowed. Something was off in here, but no signs leapt out at him.
He took another couple of steps forward, his fingers gliding across the surface of the wall. Not an ounce of dust. The sink full of dishes had been cleaned and put away into the cabinets. The windows sparkled. None of their crew ever did this sort of deep-cleaning, and in all his time spent on this RV, no matter how they’d tidied, the place had never reached these levels of neat, organized, and polished.
Someone had broken into the RV.
Based on the lack of overturned tables and the sheer cleanliness, he could easily figure out who.
Trevor wandered over to the kitchenette, the counters now free from grease stains and the normal gunk gumming into the cracks. Since the mirror already rested in Kincaid’s eager hands, Trevor wasn’t worried about anyone trying to break-in, not if the brownie wanted to do them a favor by cleaning their place.
His gaze landed on a square of white paper in the center of the counter. All it contained were a few simple lines.
‘She turned herself in. Fremont Hotel and Casino.’
The confirmation he’d been searching for slammed into him like a car crash. Trevor leaned over the counter, his palms digging into the edge and his breaths coming out ragged. Danica was in the hands of that monster. Something tightened in his chest, a keen understanding he’d been missing. He might not have been able to trust her due to past deceptions, but she was a woman of actions—this one spoke volumes.
It reaffirmed what had grown between them, how when Danica truly cared about someone, she would sacrifice everything. Even though she might lie to protect herself or others, she was honest about what mattered.
They both understood what destroying Alberich could mean. How so many others would find the liberation he fought every day to preserve. And even Crags had come to realize that.
The door to the RV creaked as Kieran tromped in, followed by Liz close behind. Once they caught sight of him, they both stopped in their tracks.
Liz’s brows furrowed. “I don’t suppose you went on a cleaning spree…” She trailed off as Jett slunk up the steps. Renn was nowhere to be found, so the satyr must’ve made a detour along the way. Trevor didn’t have to wrack his brain long to figure out who Renn had stopped to visit.
Trevor lifted the piece of paper, but the words dried on his tongue.
Liz marched forward and snagged the note out of his hands, scanning the contents. When she looked at him, her eyes widened in horror. “Danica turned herself in?” Liz asked, her voice small. Apart from him, their band manager was the other one who’d grown closer to the leannan sidhe, and the other one who’d been hurt at her initial betrayal. Despite her reluctance, Liz must’ve warmed to her once more. “Trev, what happened?”
He leaned against the kitchen counter, and Jett strode by him to pluck a handle of Jack Daniels from the cabinet.
“Take a sip,” the siren said, understanding in his dark eyes. “You look like you could use it.”
Kieran paced up and down the aisle, his gaze glued to the ground as he brimmed with the same anxiousness that descended on all of them.
Trevor lifted the bottle to his lips and took a swig. The golden liquid burned as it traveled down his throat. Even though the warmth couldn’t permeate through his panic, the whisky scorched his mind clear. “Alberich must’ve threatened her sister over the mirror,” he said. “The family emergency was real.”
“She was in the RV with us for most of the night. The mirror sat right there on the table,” Kieran said, glancing at him. “Why didn’t she take it?”
Liz exchanged a glance with Trevor and nodded. “Because her feelings for Trevor are the real deal.” Liz walked over to place a hand on Kieran’s shoulder, if only to stop his pacing. The admission out loud made his skin prickle, made him feel so vile, desperate, and afraid in a way he’d almost forgotten he could. He wanted to say something, anything, but he’d never be able to communicate the maelstrom within.
He wanted to do one thing so, so badly, but he could never ask the rest of them to go along with him. It was suicide.
Kieran’s gaze softened when he locked eyes with him. “If she’s in Alberich’s clutches, we can’t just leave her there.”
Trevor’s heart broke right then and there. Warmth soaked through him from this family he called his own, like entering home after wandering in the winter woods for far too long. He might not be able to ask, but Kieran always knew. Trevor trusted their band leader to make the hard call every time.
Kieran snatched the paper out of Liz’s hands. “I mean, fuck, the who-what-where’s pretty much already all out there waiting for us. And the mirror’s in safer hands than ours, so we don’t have to worry about Alberich getting it in his clutches.”
“Sorry, but doesn’t this reek of a trap to you?” Jett interjected, the siren operating as the devil’s advocate—his normal role.
Trevor rifled a hand through his hair. “Crags is loyal to Alberich, so yeah, I don’t know why he’d be giving us this information. He stayed behind when I escaped, even though I offered him the chance.”
Kieran shrugged. “Sure, maybe he’s looking for us to show up with the mirror as a trade, but that’s not what we’re doing. We’ll sneak in, set off all his fire alarms, and nab Danica in the chaos.”
Liz let out a sigh and grabbed the handle of JD, taking a swig. “Who let you make the plans? That’s a terrible one.”
Jett stared at the ceiling. “This just seems like a suicide mission. We’re neck-deep in this as it is.”
“You don’t have to come,” Trevor responded, with a little more force than intended. Guilt corroded his insides for not realizing what Danica was up to, for getting the guys into this mess with Alberich, and for being such a coward that all he’d been able to do these years was run. “This is
my fight, my problem.”
Jett leveled him an arched eyebrow look. “Enough of the pitying martyr shit. You know I’m with you regardless. I’m just saying there are ways of handling things, and this sort of situation begs for an exit strategy.”
Liz sat at the table and plunked a mug of cold coffee in front of her. She looked at all three of them. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started.”
****
The hours ticked by, each one making his nerves buzz even more. In the stranglehold of his panic over Danica, rushing to Alberich’s manor to save her seemed the obvious move. However, in the dizzying haste, he’d ignored the barbed claws that place sank into him, how he bled every night from the nightmares that dragged him from his sleep.
Trevor had taken to standing outside of the RV to chain smoke. The smog drifted from his lips as fast as he could spew it.
The manor. He hadn’t returned there since he escaped, all those years ago. Back then, the entrance had been in a different location, but places in the Otherworld always shifted.
If he closed his eyes, he could still feel it.
Cold steel bars against his back.
Air thickened with despair.
The raw throb of his throat after screaming on command.
Bile rose in Trevor’s chest. He sucked down another drag from his cigarette, spilling the smoke into the night sky.
The RV door creaked as Kieran hopped out to join him. “Everyone’s almost ready,” he said. “Pass me a smoke, brother?”
Trevor handed him a cigarette, and as Kieran lifted it to his lips, he lit the end. Their band leader donned his beat-up leather and had pocketed enough weapons between his waistband and boots to make him rattle if one of the massive redcaps decided to turn him over and shake. Not like Trevor didn’t have his own at the ready—he just didn’t know if he’d ever be prepared to face the manor and that man, even if they’d come up with as good of an exit strategy as any.
Hypnotizing Beat Page 18