by J. K Harper
How do you spot a thief at a party? You look for someone who doesn’t fit in or someone who is trying too hard to blend in. Sure, no problem. Most of the guests were dancing and drinking in the center of the Queen’s great hall. The inside of the palace was all dark wood and darker stone, bathed in shadows and lit by candles. Above them the expanse of the tree loomed. Intercut with dozens of tunnels and hundreds of rooms, the palace wasn’t just home to the Queen but to all the raven people.
Below were storehouses, a well room, baths, vaults, and if you believed the stories, a dungeon.
Rhett believed the stories.
Stepping into the Queen’s lair was like visiting the shifter kings of old. Back when they ruled the land, before they’d been crowded out by mortals or killed off in one of a thousand stupid wars, all shifters lived like this.
Personally, Rhett preferred the modern world.
A woman in a red dress and with a mask made of peacock feathers lurched at him. Her eyes were wide with wonder or maybe panic. “Danny? Is that you?”
“Sarah?” Rhett said. Sure enough, it was her. “Where’s Danny? Why aren’t you two together?”
“Sarah? Is that my name? That’s such a plain name. Maybe I can have a different one for the night?” she giggled. “How about Marceline? Or Constantinople?” She weaved on her feet. Was it the alcohol or the mask making her drunk?
“Look, kid, I got a job to do here. I can’t babysit you. How about you go find a nice corner to sleep it off in? Or you can go outside? The Queen’s people have a care tent out in the driveway where you can have a safe space.”
Sarah made a raspberry noise and waved her hands at him. “I’m not going anywhere without Danny.”
Rhett sighed. He couldn’t leave her alone. Any guy there might think he was Danny and do something stupid that would only end up in tears and pain in the morning. Sleeping with the Alpha’s girl? That was suicide. He couldn’t let some dumb schmuck walk headfirst into that. And more importantly, he couldn’t let Sarah make that mistake. And if she was here, looking for Danny, then where was Danny?
“Okay, this is getting in the way of my job, but how about I help you find Danny?”
Chapter 5
Simone held on to Danny’s hand and dragged him around the periphery of the party. If she hadn’t seen Sarah in the van, the job would have been impossible. No one knew their names! None of the guests remembered a damn thing about themselves—not their favorite movies, not their jobs, nothing. The small talk she witnessed was excruciating.
“Hey, do I know you?” said Guy With Monkey Mask.
“Maybe?” replied Girl With Tribal Tattoo Mask, smiling at him. “Maybe if we touch each other, or kiss, we’ll remember?”
“I love that idea.”
“Me too.”
And so on.
It was like a parody of every party she’d been dragged to in college, only worse because she didn’t have any of her usual don’t-talk-to-me protections, and so a series of incredibly handsome guys kept getting in her face and asking if she wanted to dance or make out or something.
No, dude. She was on a mission. She had a heart to steal so that the next time she kissed a boy she could actually feel it, instead of thinking about bacteria and saliva and the weirdly rubbery texture of lips. If she had her heart back she knew she’d be able to understand what the big deal was with the kissing thing. And the sex thing. She wasn’t a virgin—she’d tried sex out of a certain morbid curiosity and because of the social pressure. All of her friends at the Penrose Magical Academy either lost their V cards first year or came to school with bedroom experience. There were only so many games of “Never Have I Ever” she could play and be the only one who had never ever.
And there had been a certain fun aspect to sex. She’d had an orgasm. That was cool. But being all naked and revealed in front of a guy she literally couldn’t feel anything for? That hadn’t been fun. And seeing his hairy pink body had been utterly ridiculous and he really hadn’t appreciated all the laughter.
Also, penises were surprisingly funny up close.
Simone really didn’t get what the big deal was.
She’d done the sex thing a few more times, because orgasms, and because of the lingering thought that maybe it wasn’t her lack of a heart that was the problem. Given the opportunity, she might do it again. But penises were still hilarious. She had to keep the lights off to avoid getting a mood-killing case of the giggles.
“The Queen certainly has a type, doesn’t she?” Danny said wryly as she pulled him along, searching for Sarah. “Tall. Handsome. Dark hair. Just a hint of stubble. It’s odd, my bear recognizes some of these people, but even as it tells me who they are I forget.”
“It’s the mask, dude. There’s an old spell in them that prevents you from recognizing people or even knowing yourself.”
“Why on Earth would someone make a spell like that?”
Simone sighed. She knew this one. “It was for exiles. It was a punishment meted out to witches who abused their powers over others. Names are everything in magic and being cursed to not remember them robs a witch of power over people.”
“That sounds monstrous.”
“It’s better than execution?” Simone smiled.
Danny narrowed his eyes as he watched her. “You’re a witch, aren’t you? That’s how you know so much about all of this and it’s why you aren’t affected.” He seized her hands in his and pulled her close. The man towered over her but he stooped down so that his eyes were on a level with hers. “Please, use your skills. Help me find Sarah. I can’t bear the thought of being apart from her like this.”
She could do it. She knew a charm that could remove his mask, but if she cast it, she’d be revealed and if she was lucky, kicked out. If she wasn’t lucky—best not to think about that.
“I can’t,” she lied. “It’s beyond my power.”
“I don’t believe that’s true,” Danny said. “And I’m not sure I can trust you. I think I’ll find Sarah on my own, thank you.” He yanked his hands away from hers and stalked off, shouting Sarah’s name, as if she could even respond.
As he walked off Simone felt a stab of guilt. That was new. Her heart must be close. She hadn’t felt guilt since she’d bargained it away.
It was odd the things you could still feel when you didn’t have a heart. She could feel happy and sad, angry and afraid. She could have orgasms and worry about what people thought of her, but guilt? Guilt came from the heart. As did empathy and love and hate.
Free of Danny, she could try to find her heart. Where would the Queen keep it? In her bedroom in a wall safe? Locked in a treasure room in the basement? Did she have a closet full of all the hearts she’d claimed, with each of them in its own separate drawer? She hadn’t planned enough, hadn’t done enough research. But how could she? The entire palace was hidden from scrying. And none of the servants had loose lips or even visited town alone.
Not that they’d even know where she kept the heart.
Simone pushed her way past the dance mob and past the couples sloppily making out in the shadows, all the while scanning for Sarah. The spells would last until daybreak. The sun would dissolve the masks and leave everyone surprised where they stood. Maybe they’d find new love, a new connection, like the Raven Queen hoped. Or maybe their lives would become incredibly complicated when they realized they were kissing a married man, or feeling up their boss, or unexpectedly pregnant.
The Queen loved chaos, but chaos had consequences.
She’d check the basement first. Perhaps there was a treasure hoard or a vault of some kind. Hidden in her bodice Simone had two tiny, weak, magical devices. One was a key—a fat plastic child’s key—that could open any lock. And the other was an enchanted coin that was her get-out-of-jail-free card. Using them was risky, but with the Queen partaking of her own chaos it was worth the risk.
Simone slipped away and made for the twisting wooden staircase that led to the rooms below.
; As her foot touched the topmost stair she could feel her heart tugging at her, pulling her closer like a magnet. But then an impossibly strong hand seized her wrist and yanked her back off her feet, off the stairs, and she landed hard on her ass on the stone floor.
Glowering down at her was a rough face. A face that had seen more than its fair share of fights. The face was attached to a thickly muscled man wearing a tight black t-shirt and jeans. His arms were tattooed and scarred and she could feel the power emanating from him even as he growled at her.
“So, you’re the thief, huh?” Rhett said.
Chapter 6
Rhett and Sarah couldn’t find Danny anywhere. You’d think that a handsome six-foot-three dude dressed like a Disney prince would stand out at a party, but the Raven Queen seemed to have solely invited tall, handsome, well-dressed men with dark hair who mostly dressed like princes.
Looking for him was like searching for a needle in a needle stack.
Even Rhett’s bear was confused, which shouldn’t have been possible. Something was drawing its attention away from finding his Alpha. Find Danny, Rhett commanded. Find our Alpha. This is important.
But his bear turned away from him. No. Not important, it gruffed.
His bear had never said no to him before. Usually they wanted the same things. A good fight. A good fuck. And something new to look at. The refusal spun Rhett harder and worse than he expected. He had a sensation of being at sea and swimming for land even as the current pulled him deeper and deeper into the cold black of the ocean.
He wanted to go investigate the dance floor. He knew Danny would be there, whooping and shaking his whiteboy ass, waving his arms in the air like he just didn’t care. But his bear pushed and pulled towards the shadowed back of the great hall, where the Raven Queen’s silver throne stood on an ostentatious dais.
“What is it?” Sarah asked. “You have this weird look on your face like you just remembered some old unpleasant smell.”
“I need to go check something in the back of the hall.”
“Is it Danny?”
“We’ll find out,” Rhett growled.
The farther Rhett got from the dance floor, the more his bear was acting out inside him. It roared and shoved like it was trapped in a cage, or like Rhett wasn’t walking fast enough for its liking.
What’s your goddamn hurry? Rhett asked.
Save her.
Save her? What did that mean? He didn’t bother asking because his bear was even more taciturn and stubborn than he was.
The back of the great hall had become some sort of unofficial make-out spot. Couples that grew tired of the dance floor found their way back here to take their nights further. Sarah tripped over a discarded tux and nearly took a header into the dais, but Rhett caught her just before her nose would have met the stone.
“You don’t think my Danny is back here, do you?” she said, eyeing the discarded clothes and the masked people in the shadows trying to shove their tongues all the way into their partners’ mouths.
“No. No way,” Rhett said. “You two are fated mates. You are both the one hundred percent perfect person for each other. You’re bound together on a primal level and always have been.”
“Really?” Sarah said, her eyes wide as saucers. “That sounds amazing. Is it amazing? Where’s your mate?”
“It’s amazing,” Rhett agreed. “You’re very lucky. Not everyone finds their mate. Most of us have to just sort of make do with ordinary, normal relationships.” The thought of his mate, somewhere out there in the world, filled him with the same cold dread it always did.
For those who found their mates, it was an amazing deal. You had lifelong happiness. You were stronger and faster and better at everything. You became more of yourself. And after the mating ceremony, your mate stopped aging. She inherited a measure of your strength. You had a best friend and a lover to share eternity with. Who wouldn’t want that?
But for those who never found their mates, it was a torment. Rhett knew in his bones that somewhere out there in the world there was someone who was right for him—impossible as that might seem. And every second that he wasn’t with her was a second that she could be in danger, or could be falling for someone else. It was up to him and him alone to seek out his mate. He’d tried—he even consulted an oracle in Novaya Zemlya once, a rat shifter who huffed radioactive fumes to gain access to visions—but he’d never had any luck. There was still time—he’d live forever unless his arrogance and his temper saw him off early. But hope had long since faded.
His thoughts must have been plain on his face, because Sarah was giving him a look that involved furrowed eyebrows and puckered lips like she’d eaten four lemons. “You’ll find her. I know you will. Love is out there for all of us.”
“Yeah. Thanks,” Rhett said. If he told her how he felt, about the fear of eternal loneliness that gnawed on him in the early hours of the night, would she remember it when the spell wore off? Would he want her to? What would be better, to have an honest moment of emotional engagement with a friend, or to forge that bond of friendship only to have it fade when the sun came up?
His bear pulled at him again and Rhett walked past the hot and heavy couples, checking subtly to make sure none of them involved Danny. He was pretty sure Danny wouldn’t kiss anyone that wasn’t Sarah, but with magic you could never tell.
Sarah came along behind him, giggling at the sight of some of the naked revelers. Rhett held her hand tightly, just to make sure she stayed safe. Behind the throne and the dais the great hall narrowed considerably. One lone lantern hung at the very rear of the hall, over the entrance to a great winding staircase. The bottom bit was stone and descended into the Queen’s secret basements, and the upper half was woven from living trees and reached up expansively to the homes of all of the shifters of Rook’s Roost.
At the entrance to the stairs, one of the partygoers was peering down into the darkness as if she wanted to go exploring. She was the first person he’d seen who didn’t look half drunk. She wasn’t dancing. She wasn’t making out with someone or trying to. She was ignoring the party entirely.
The hair on the back of Rhett’s neck stood up.
Her, his bear growled.
It was the thief. Rhett knew in an instant.
And just as the woman started to walk down the stairs, he seized her and pulled her backwards.
“Well, that was a dick move, guy,” Sarah said. “You just knocked this chick down.”
Rhett stared down at the woman and let loose one of his best growls. It was his you don’t really want to fight me do you? growl and he used it to stop fights before they began.
But his growl ended abruptly when he got a good look at her. The woman was all curves. She was rounded in every place possible—she had round cheeks, a round swell of a belly, thick thighs revealed by a dress that was incredibly tight, and big round breasts that very nearly popped out of the black bodice she was stuffed into. She was the softest woman Rhett had ever seen—except for her furious eyes glaring up at him—and his cock jumped alarmingly to attention.
Her, his bear said with great force.
I know, she’s the thief, Rhett replied internally.
The thief was dressed in a tight black silken witch costume, with a white mask that shone like a beacon against her brown skin. Of all the people at the party, she was the only one who was seeing clearly. Rhett was sure of it. She didn’t have the too-sparkly goo goo eyes that the rest of them had.
“So, you’re the thief, huh?” Rhett said, then immediately regretted it. He wasn’t a talker. He’d never wanted to be a talker. He’d always left that up to Pretty Brandon or Danny. He was the guy you called when you wanted something broken. But now, looking at the gorgeous thief, he wished for once that he had the words to say what he felt.
The thief laughed a bitter laugh. “I really should have known that the Queen would have guards hidden around the party. Why is there always some detail that slips away?”
“I lov
e your dress,” Sarah gushed. “It looks amazing on you.”
“Thanks, Sarah,” the thief said.
Rhett was about to hoist the woman over his shoulder and carry her out of the party when he stopped. “Sarah? You know her?”
The thief rolled her eyes. “No, muscles. I call every white girl Sarah and I get their names right half the time.”
Sarah laughed at that. “That’s so true! When I was in third grade we had five Sarahs in my class. And four Beckys.”
Rhett stifled a growl. He literally had the upper hand but it didn’t feel that way. The thief had a look on her face like lying on the floor in front of him, with her dress hiked up almost too far, was exactly where she wanted to be.
His cock twitched again, threatening to become a full-on erection. What was happening to him?
Her, his bear roared.
Sarah laughed. His bear roared. And the thief smiled at him lopsidedly with her thick red lips and Rhett wished he’d never agreed to the job.
“If you know me,” Sarah said, “then do you know Danny? I really want to find him. I think I’m in love with him? Or at least the big pile of scowls here says we’re like married mated fates or something.”
“Fated. Mates,” Rhett growled. “It’s a thing. Google it.”
The thief laughed again in a gently mocking way.
“I did see Danny. I was trying to help him find you when he heard something down these stairs and took off down them.” Her voice was pure California, with long vowels and a deepness of tone that made the hair on Rhett’s neck stand on end. He wanted to sniff her, to catch her scent, but the magic in the masks was playing hell with his senses. Or maybe it was all the pumpkin spice candles the Queen had burning around her great hall.
The thief tried to get to her feet but found it impossible in her tight dress. She was like an overturned turtle, if turtles wore flattering skin-tight dresses and had magnificently big asses. Okay, she was nothing like a turtle.