Dog Eat Dog World: Limited Edition Bundle (Black Dog)

by Hailey Edwards

  Yeah. Wonder which of those two possibilities was more likely.

  “I knocked,” he said by way of greeting. “No one answered.”

  “No problem.” The slow burn of anger simmering under my skin was cut by an icy blast of fear. “What brings you here?”

  With a knowing glint in his eyes, he announced, “We have reached a decision.”

  We, as in the gathering of magistrates busy determining my fate.

  “Okay.” I knew better than to hope he would give me a heads-up as to the verdict.

  “Your father’s voice was the determining factor. Recording his vote is merely a formality.”

  “All right.” No clue what he meant there. “I’ll change and meet you with Mac at the office.”

  “Please do.”

  Astringent magic scoured my nose, then he was gone. I pulled out my cell and sent a quick text.

  “Thierry?”

  I glanced over my shoulder at Mom. “Hmm?”

  She pushed to her feet. “If they decide to send you back, how soon will you leave?”

  I pocketed my phone. “Tonight. Tomorrow at the latest.”

  “And your father…” she swallowed, “…he’s leaving too?”

  My heart lurched when her eyes went blurry. “He didn’t tell you?”

  Mom ducked her head as a sigh shuddered from her lungs.

  Please don’t cry. Please don’t cry.

  A single, hiccupped sob escaped her before she clamped a hand over her mouth.

  I decided right then if this mission didn’t kill Mac, I just might have to.

  Chapter 5

  Mac’s errand lasted long enough for me to change into a pair of mostly unwrinkled khakis, a clean white blouse, black polka dot cardigan and the black flats I snitched from Mai’s closet before he arrived. I combed my hair and pulled it back in a bun then checked myself out in the mirror. Still tall. Still pale. Still Mac’s mini-me with deep green eyes and inky black hair.

  A quick twirl verified all my bases were covered and then I was out the door.

  I bumped into Shaw, who had taken up position outside my bedroom after learning of Evander’s visit. He was kind of snarly. A little mad. It was pretty hot, actually.

  I walked my fingers across his collarbone. “Where are the ’rents?”

  He jerked his chin toward the door across from mine. “Holed up in Mai’s room.”

  “They’re not…um…” I waffled my hand. “Wait. No. Don’t tell me.”

  Shaw wrapped a warm palm around the back of my neck. “Agnes was loaded for bear.”

  Meaning Mom was pissed.

  “Serves him right.” I shook my head. “Mac didn’t tell her he was leaving.”

  Wariness pinched Shaw’s features. “She wants him to stay?”

  “It looks that way.” I shrugged. “No accounting for taste.”

  “We need to get moving.” His hand tightened, fingers digging into my nape as he drew me closer. Shaw lowered his head, and his soft lips feathered over mine. “The magistrates are expecting us. Don’t want to be late.”

  “Not my fault,” I murmured against his mouth. “I was accosted outside my bedroom.”

  He nipped my bottom lip. “I don’t hear any complaints.”

  “I’m working up to it.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” He reared back and knocked on Mai’s door. “Time to go.”

  The door swung open under his knuckles, and he rocked back, taking me with him as my mother darted from the room, eyes red and swollen. Mac prowled after her with a determined set to his jaw. I let her escape through the front door before I caught him by the sleeve, which wouldn’t have stopped him if he hadn’t let it. “You need to back off. Let Mom calm down before you go sniffing after her.”

  His eyes narrowed, probably at the sniffing comment. “I must speak to her.”

  I raised my hand. “You’ve had three days to tell her you were leaving.”

  Quiet anger crackled in his voice. “I never expected to be welcomed here again. If I had told her I was leaving, she would have shut me out. I didn’t want her to be hurt. I wanted to see her…happy.”

  Understanding crept in and sanded the hard edges from my reprimand. “It was selfish, Mac. You wanted to see her at her best, I get that. I like seeing her happy too. But now it’s over. You’re going to leave her—again—and this time she’s got nothing to show for it. She’s hurting. She…loves you.”

  His nod was sharp. “She’s my mate.”

  Shock buckled my knees. If Shaw hadn’t caught me, I would have face-planted onto the cow-skull-shaped area rug and choked to death on the dust bunnies.

  “So…” I let Shaw hold me upright. “You’re saying you love her too?”

  His brows sloped downward. “You have to ask?”

  “Um, considering the whole abandonment thing, yes.”

  “Life is too short not to tell the people who matter that you love them,” Shaw interjected.

  A spark of understanding lit Macsen’s eyes. “You told him you love him.”

  I blinked at him. “What?”

  “Your mate.” Macsen stabbed the air where Shaw stood. “You tell him you love him.”

  “Yes.” I drew out the word. “Several times a day.”

  What? We were still in our honeymoon period.

  “I didn’t know I was supposed to do that.” Mac glared at us like it was somehow our fault. “She has never said she loves me. She would know that was the proper custom. Why didn’t she tell me?”

  “That’s not how it works,” Shaw answered for me. “We have to say it first.”

  “The male goes first?” He darted a glance at the door. “I will go say it now.”

  My lips parted as I reached for him, but Shaw clamped a hand over my mouth and held me still.

  “Go on,” he said to Macsen, holding me while I squirmed. “Make it quick, though. The magistrates are waiting.”

  Mac strode from the room, sparks lighting his palm.

  I sank my teeth into the meat of Shaw’s palm, threw my elbow into his gut and ducked under his arm. A spin on the ball of my foot had me facing him in time to catch his whuff of breath and a spark of white frosting his pupils.

  “They’re both adults,” he rumbled. “Let them handle this on their own.”

  I growled, “He’s going to hurt her again.”

  “She’s a big girl.” He rubbed his side. “She knew what to expect from him.”

  “He should have told her.”

  “He should have.”

  I anchored my hands at my hips. “I’m not fighting with you about this.”

  His lips twitched. “Could have fooled me.”

  “It’s just that I’m leaving—we’re leaving—and I don’t know if I’ll… If you and me…” I set my jaw. “I wanted her to be in a good place when I got the call. Crying over her ex is not a good place.”

  He hooked his thumbs into his back pockets. “Did you tell her where we’re going?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you tell her why we’re going?”

  I hesitated. “Yes.”

  Nodding, he lowered the hammer. “Did you tell her we might not make it back?”

  I mashed my lips together until they tingled.

  “You wanted to leave on a high note. So when you looked back at this goodbye, if that’s what it turns out to be, you had no regrets. No memory of her fear or doubt or pain. I’m not saying what you did was wrong.” He blew out a harsh breath. “I’m not saying what Mac did was right. All I’m saying is you both wanted the same thing and went about getting it the same way. Be honest with yourself.”

  “Fine. You made your point.” My arms fell to my sides. “We’ll let them sort it out on their own.”

  And if they couldn’t, well, ten dollars would buy me a shovel and I had a Sharpie to write Mac’s name on it.

  After thirty minutes ticked past and neither of my parents returned to the apartment, Shaw and I made an executive decision and left for the
marshal’s office without them. A ball of worry tightened my gut. Not fear for Mom, exactly. I knew Mac wouldn’t hurt her. But if this was it, I wouldn’t get a second chance to say goodbye. The magistrates would expect Mac, Shaw and me to head out immediately.

  And if things went south in Faerie, I wanted all my loose ends tied up in a bow here.

  Shaw leaned forward and killed the radio in his truck. “Agnes is fine.”

  I toyed with my seat belt so the strap wouldn’t saw off my head. “I know.”

  “She’ll be there. She wouldn’t miss her chance to send you off right.” He rested a hand on my thigh. “Don’t worry.”

  I popped his fingers when they ventured into zipper territory. “What are you, a mind reader?”

  “That or you’ve been muttering come on, Mom under your breath since we left.”

  “Oh.”

  Shaw flipped on his blinker and turned the wheel. The orange lights illuminated his face and his tight expression. The truck bounced hard once then the tires dug in and spun loose gravel. Careful of potholes, he navigated the familiar road leading to the charmingly dilapidated farmhouse the marshal program called home. Behind it hundreds of acres of dried cornstalks bent and swayed in the breeze.

  Moonlight spilled over the pitched tin roof, glinting off the sparse patches where rust hadn’t eaten through the metal. The structure stood two stories tall with white clapboard siding sliding down the walls and teal shutters hanging on by the determination of corroded hinges. Busted slats gave them gap-toothed grins that smiled at us in welcome. The stairs leading up to the front porch were missing boards, and the dentil molding could use a good flossing to clean out the abandoned birds’ nests blackening the gaps.

  The truck rolled to a stop, and Shaw killed the engine. We sat there in the silent cab, gazing up at the heavy moon as tension built between us. Every step we took tonight held an unsettling finality to it, whether real or imagined. The thought of never seeing this place again, never sitting here again…

  But the thought of the Morrigan enslaving Faerie was worse. The possibility she might bring her war to this realm, to humans who had no hope of surviving a magical attack, was the absolute worst. Regardless of how unresolved I left things with Mom, everything I sacrificed was to keep her safe.

  That was enough. It had to be.

  “Do you want to go inside?” Shaw’s voice sliced through the quiet.

  “Sure.” I unfastened my seat belt and hefted our messenger bags from the floorboard, passing his to him and opening my door. “We can wait on Mac in my office.” I eased out, feet crunching on loose gravel. “That should buy us a few minutes before the powers that be get twitchy and come looking.”

  Not to mention a breather before we had to face the roomful of scheming magistrates.

  Careful to watch my step crossing the rotting porch, I grasped the front doorknob and spoke the Word keyed to the lock. All around me, the glamour concealing the farmhouse slid down the walls to pool on the ground. The flaking wrought-iron doorknob became smooth brushed steel in my hand. A ripple of magic revealed the modern brick building protected from human sight. Other buildings that were a part of the compound appeared to flicker into existence where before dried acreage sprawled.

  “Thierry, dearest, there you are.” Wearing magenta glasses, a persimmon blouse and white hobo skirt, Mable greeted us at the door. Her white hair hung in a single braid down her back, her red cheeks glowing flush with excitement. “I thought I heard someone. Get inside. Come on.”

  “Hey, Mable.” I hustled inside. “What’s with the rush?”

  “So much has happened.” She gestured Shaw to hurry. “The magistrates have made a decision.”

  “We heard.” I lowered my voice. “They can’t make it official until Mac gets here.”

  “Macsen has been upstairs for half an hour.” She linked her fingers. “I thought you knew.”

  “He’s slippery,” I told her. “Like an eel. Wonder if he has one of those skins.”

  Things with Mom must not have ended well if he beat us here on foot. Two legs or four. Demanding she fess up and admit she loved him? Huh. Who would have thought that could ever possibly go wrong?

  Parents.

  Shaking my head, I pushed those worries aside. “Where do you want us?”

  Mable twirled a finger. “Why don’t you two wait in your office?”

  “All right.” I dug in my messenger bag. “That we can do.”

  Her eyes followed the motion. “I’ll fetch you as soon as they’re ready.”

  From the depths of my bag I pulled a jar of pine honey I’d had imported from Turkey for a special occasion. Tonight was shaping up to be one, so I felt it required a commemorative token. That and if I didn’t make it back, I wanted her last gift from me to be the very best I had squirreled away for her.

  With a flourish, I presented the delicate brown glass jar to her. “This is for you.”

  She clapped with delight. “What is it?”

  “Pine honey.” I winked at her. “The only jar in Wink.”

  Maybe even the state of Texas. I had pulled strings to get a conclave outpost in Turkey to ship it here.

  “Pine honey,” she repeated. “I’ve never heard of it before.”

  I shooed Mable toward her desk where she kept her dainty tasting spoons. She walked in a daze with the jar held up to the light, studying its contents, and I laughed. “Let me know what you think of it, all right?”

  “I’ll do that.” She sat in her task chair and placed the jar on her desk. “You didn’t have to—”

  “I know.” I smiled. “We’ll see you in a bit.”

  I reached behind me and grabbed Shaw by the wrist, hauling him up a short flight of stairs to my office where I shut the door and locked it behind us.

  “This is moving too fast.” I pressed a hand into my gut. “How did Mac beat us here? And where the heck is Mom?”

  “Breathe.” Shaw gripped my upper arms. “She’s probably blowing off steam. Don’t get yourself worked up. We knew this day was coming.”

  I puffed out my cheeks. “They’re upstairs deciding our fate right now.”

  His eyebrows lifted a fraction. “They’ve been doing that for days.”

  “But now Mac is up there with them. They could flap their gums all they wanted, but the motion couldn’t pass without him being present and giving his formal vote, and he’s been with us, so I knew they were just blowing hot air. Politics, right? But if he’s up there, then it’s real. This is happening.”

  Shaw led me across the office toward the task chair where I seated visitors, and shoved down on my shoulder until I sat. Then he kept shoving until I bent forward and my head was between my knees.

  “Just breathe.” His wide palm stroked down my back. “Everything is going to be okay.”

  Tears gathered in my eyes. “I wanted to see Mom before we left.”

  “There’s still time,” he soothed.

  I turned my head and caught him playing with his cell. A few days ago I would have snapped a nasty comment about booking hookers, but we were past that. Or trying hard to get that way. I didn’t want to be the girlfriend who kept dredging up the past to poison the present, but it was hard. The old pain was sharp, and fear made it so much worse. Times like these I wanted to still be a little girl. I wanted Mom to pull me onto her lap and rock me and tell me everything was going to be okay, but I was an adult now. I was a marshal. I used to be a princess, and here I was about to reclaim my throne. A freaking crown I never wanted. A title I couldn’t care less about. But it was what it was.

  The doorknob wiggling made me jerk vertical, and blood rushed in my ears. I clutched at Shaw’s arm and stared at the door as though the frame was an archaic gateway into a future that terrified me.

  “Hel-to the-lo,” Mai sang. “I brought coffee and donuts.”

  I was on my feet with the door open and Mai in my arms in a heartbeat. “You got my message.”

  She lifted a finger.
“Daddy only thinks he knows all the places a girl can hide her cellphone.”

  I burst out laughing, which almost covered the pained noise Shaw was making.

  “Um.” Her fair skin flushed red hot as she escaped me. “That didn’t come out how I meant it.”

  On her way past I plucked a cup of coffee from the paper tray she carried. “You’re the best.”

  “No argument here.” She passed Shaw a cup before setting the tray and donut box on my desk.

  While perusing the assorted pastries, I asked, “So the Hayashis are going on lockdown?”

  “No,” she grumbled. “The Hayashis are on lockdown. I was the last holdout.”

  I picked up a chocolate-covered candidate. “It sucks, but it will be the safest place for you.”

  “I’ll pretend you didn’t say that.” She pointed a finger between Shaw and me. “If this doesn’t work out, let me know. With that mentality, you and Dad could be a match made in heaven.”

  I snorted. “Heaven is exactly where we would end up too, if your mom caught wind of our torrid love affair.”

  “Good point.” She made a grouchy face. “Though I have to admit I’m a little disturbed you took it that far.”

  I shrugged. “It’s what I do.”

  Her gaze slid to a point behind me, and her eyes narrowed. “Why is your closet glowing like that?”

  “Glowing?” I turned around and froze. “Oh crap. It’s not supposed to do that.”

  Sultry red light pulsated in the crack between the door and the floor, flashed between the hinges and snaked through the wood grain to make eerie patterns that throbbed with an unsettling intensity.

  “I have some herbs in my bag.” Shaw eased forward, placing himself between the closet and me like it was a bomb waiting to explode. “I can cast a divining spell. See if someone tampered with the closet.”

  I stepped up beside him. “As in divine who caused the whatever-is-in-there to start glowing?”

  “Or divine what it does.” He grabbed my arm. “We don’t want to open the door and have it go boom.”

  “See, that’s the thing.” I laced my fingers. “I know what the closet does—did—and the door doesn’t open.”