“You’re welcome to stay here for as long as you like.” Mom was more than a little upset by the thought of us leaving, especially when it would come so soon after our wedding.
Our wedding. The words were so simple and yet contained so much reassurance and ended so much heartache. They were a promise containing a lifetime of happiness and dedication. The date that would change our lives was set for Evie’s birthday, just under a week away, and I was looking forward to it far more than I’d ever expected I would. I was positive that the moment I was able to wrap my arms around Evie and call her my wife would be the happiest one of my life.
It was almost unbelievable that a little under three months ago, I’d held a vigil at her bedside imagining the worst.
“I know,” I said, “and we’d love to stay, but it’s not fair on Evie having to survive on enchanted food and hide away here. Plus, we still don’t know what effect it might have in the long term.”
I knew Mom couldn’t argue with that one. It had only been a few weeks since we’d learned that Evie was expecting a daughter—one I’d fathered the natural, fantastic way rather than the terrible alternative of Evie’s death—and the whole court was still buzzing with excitement about it. The biggest problem for me was that no one could know the consequence of a constant diet of fae enchantments on the phoenix baby. It wasn’t something either Evie or I were willing to risk though, and as soon as I found us somewhere safe to live, we would be moving out of our private room in the court.
“If you are certain that you must leave, there is a place I am aware of which may suit your needs,” Mom said, albeit reluctantly. “There is a small community of others in a little town called Greig. The journey is a little less than five hours drive from here. Of course that journey is significantly shorter through our network.”
“Do you know anyone there?”
“Linus Galen is the official leader, but Laura MacClellan, the proprietor of the Cats Whiskers Country Market, and her husband, Kieran, are the unofficial spokespersons.”
“Are they others?”
“Laura is human. However, Doctor Galen is a paean and Kieran is a púca.”
The word brought back memories of a time in my life I didn’t like. My journey was long, but I’d come so far from the hate-filled hunter I’d been when I first met Evie. That didn’t mean all of the choices along the way had been good ones. One I regretted more than most was the Púca I’d killed in New Mexico, and the child who I’d left orphaned until Eth had . . .
“What is the matter, sweetheart?” Mom’s voice pulled me from the memory.
My lip quivered as I thought about the murder I’d committed. There was no other word for it in my vocabulary; we’d had no evidence that the Púca had harmed anyone, just the assumption that she might have been evil. “Nothing, just a bad memory.”
Even though I hadn’t told her everything about my past, she knew enough about the Rain that she could probably guess the memory was of a hunt I’d been on or someone I’d killed. She brushed my hair back off my forehead and I smiled at the motherly gesture. It was strange having her back in my life all of a sudden, but after everything that had happened since the day she’d arrived in the tiny cabin I’d shared with Evie and turned my life upside down, it felt right.
“You are not the product of your father’s hatred,” she said as she cupped my cheek. “You fought through it and you came home.” Her voice wavered as she finished.
“But—”
She shook her head to silence me. “No one wants to see you punished for deeds you did before you understood the truth, and that includes you punishing yourself. You have a family to consider now.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
She practically beamed when I said the “M” word, just like she always did. It made me smile in return. The word still felt a little awkward on my tongue on occasion, but it felt stranger to call her Fiona now that the truth was out in the open.
“Do you think you’d be able to arrange for me to meet up with Laura and Kieran?”
“I am positive I will be able to arrange an appointment. However, it will have to wait as I am due to a meeting to plan your wedding.”
“Sounds great.”
She made it to the door before I remembered the other duty I needed to perform.
“Actually, I have one other favor to ask.”
“Yes?”
“I need to meet up with the court that’s based in Oxford. In England. Is there, um, transportation between here and there?”
“I believe there might be. However, it would not be wise for you to use the network alone to go to a court where you are not known. Many courts will treat you with suspicion despite the few fae traits you do display.”
“Who could I take?”
“I believe Aiden is free. If not, advise him that his new duty is to be your escort for as long as you require to be in Oxford.”
“Thank you.”
She started through the door again.
“Oh, Mom?”
“Yes, dear?” I could tell she was being polite even though she really wanted to just leave already.
“Don’t tell Evie about the community or my overseas trip, please? She’ll only worry, and I don’t want her stressing.”
Mom reversed in her tracks a few steps. “Would there be valid reasons for her concern?”
I shook my head. “No, definitely not.”
Her mouth twisted into a tight knot as she assessed me, no doubt trying to work out whether or not to believe me. She sighed. “I am certain, if there is trouble, you and Aiden will be able to handle it together.”
AIDEN LED me through the forest in the Fairy Rings room. Our relationship was a little strange, but mostly friendly. It was impossible to run an operation like the sting on Bayview together without some sort of resulting trust, but there was an undercurrent that ran through our friendship. He'd saved Evie when I couldn't; he'd also been with her first. I wasn't sure I could ever just forget that.
“Inform me again of why I am travelling halfway around the globe with you?”
I wasn’t sure how much to tell him—he was likely to spill the beans to Evie the first opportunity he had. “When I was last in Oxford, I managed to get my hands on some artifacts that held a lot of information about Evie’s nature.”
“That does not explain why you are returning.”
“One of the Rain operatives there helped me to steal them, and then she helped get me out of trouble.”
“You are lying to your pregnant wife-to-be about where you are in order to go see another woman? Was I mistaken in my belief that you care about Evie?”
“Ass.” I flicked at a spot behind his ear. “Of course I care about Evie. I love her. You know that better than anyone. I just think I left Toni with some very bad impressions of me, and I want to right them before I move on with whatever comes next. If Eth keeps the momentum of change going at Bayview, things might change and I want Toni to know where I stand before that happens so that she doesn’t make things . . . difficult.”
“What impression do you believe you left her with?”
“Well, first that I believed fae were the most disgusting, vile creatures on Earth.” A few passers-by gave me a strange look and their wings ruffled in surprise, but I just cast them a warm, hopefully reassuring smile. “And second, I might have made her believe that I was a murderer.”
“Yet you had the nerve to call fae disgusting.” There was no malice in his voice despite his words.
I scoffed. “Yeah. Anyway, I want to set the record straight and let her know what’s happening here. She had an underground network of sympathizers, which, if united, might lead to a change over there as well.”
“That is very revolutionary.”
“Exactly.”
“How do you expect us to contact her once we arrive at the Oxford court? They will not look kindly on suggestions of approaching the Rain headquarters.”
“Uh, actually, I think we’ll be fine.” I scrubbed the
back of my neck. If Aiden didn’t know about the partnership, maybe it was some sort of secret that the Oxford court didn’t want announced. It didn’t matter though, Aiden needed to know what he could expect. “They work with her team quite a lot. And she’s not at the headquarters. She’s at the Dove.”
If Aiden thought my statement was odd, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he pointed to a series of eight small rings that looped around the outer wall of the forest. They were tiny, barely wider than shoulder width.
“These are messenger rings,” he explained. “They take a little longer than conventional rings, but can be linked to any court in the world. If you have the ability and knowledge, that is.”
It hadn’t been long after my twin sister, Lou’s, fae abilities were unbound that she had the full force of her fae heritage coursing through her body. She had the wings, the aura, and the ability to use magic like any regular fae. I, however, was not as fae as her. Nor was I as human as Eth. I was a freak, stuck somewhere in the middle. Even though Aiden was only teasing and didn’t mean any harm with his words, my fingers still curled at my side in response.
“I would offer you the first passage, but it is probably wisest if I go first to smooth the way and let them know of your”—his gaze hovered just over my shoulder, where my wings would have been if I’d completely been fae—“uniqueness. They may not kill you on sight that way.” He shot me a grin, and then before I’d even had a chance to respond, he disappeared.
Knowing that it didn’t really matter if I waited for a minute or went straight after him, I stepped into the ring behind him.
CHAPTER FOUR
ALTHOUGH I’D TRAVELED through the fae network a couple of times, it wasn’t something I could say I was used to. The sensation of it was odd, so many different experiences happening all at once. Colors flew by my eyes, whizzing around me in a nausea-inducing rainbow. I felt both compressed and stretched at the same time. It was almost like being on a roller coaster, only with no seat underneath my ass to orient myself.
The time it took to get to Oxford was a little longer than the last overseas journey I’d taken with the rings—when we’d travelled from Sweden to New York. I guessed it was something to do with Mom forging the ring to Sweden herself.
By the time I arrived, Aiden was already in the middle of a conversation with three fae from the Oxford court. When the gaze of one of them—a tall, thin female with flaxen hair and delicate birdlike features—turned in my direction, I got the distinct impression I wasn’t welcome.
“He is the son of our queen,” Aiden said. “He is, therefore, extended certain privileges by his birthright, regardless of his limited abilities.”
I moved closer to them.
“Forget it, Aiden,” I said before turning to the fae who had openly watched my arrival. “I’m not here as a representative of any court. I’m here to see an old friend, and I know you can help me with that.”
“As I asked your guardian here, why should we extend the welcome of our court to a murderer?”
I grimaced.
“I see his legend precedes him,” Aiden joked. His smile fell faster than his joke at the glare he received from the other fae in the room.
“If you are implying that we have knowledge of his person and his history, then that is correct.” The female fae turned back to me. “Based on that information, we can only assess you as a threat.”
I laughed. “A threat? Maybe once upon a time I might have been, but not now.”
After a scathing look from the female fae, I kept talking.
“I’ll explain it all, but you have to get Toni from the Dove first. She needs to know what I want to say, and I’m really not in the mood for explaining it twice.”
“Toni will not walk these halls any longer,” she said.
“Then take me to her; it doesn’t really matter. I’ve got important information to share with her. Just don’t give her my real name. Tell her it’s Monty.”
Aiden frowned at me, no doubt wondering why I would be giving my so-called friend a fake name.
“It’s just an inside reference so no one else at the Dove knows I’m here.”
“I was under the impression that these were your friends,” Aiden said.
“It’s a long story.” Even as the words left my mouth, I knew neither Aiden nor the flaxen-haired female would be satisfied without an explanation. “Which I will tell you on the way. Is there a meeting house you can take me to for a meeting with Toni?”
There were a number of small meeting houses around New York, like the small deli Aiden had taken Evie to during their first meeting. I was certain other courts around the globe had similar resources. After all, they needed to assess the trustworthiness of strangers before inviting them into the court.
“Please? I’m really not here with any malicious intent. I just want to clear the air with an old friend and then get back to my wife-to-be.”
“We will escort you to one of our meeting houses. However, if Toni does not agree to meet with you, we will not force her to come. If she asks us to, we will restrain you for her.”
I snorted at the image of anyone trying to force Toni to do anything she didn’t want to. She may have been petite, but that didn’t mean she took any crap.
“That’s fine,” I said, hoping that I wasn’t making a mistake. Toni wouldn’t have me locked up . . . would she?
Within half an hour, I was waiting inside a church. Although the fae had led me through a back entrance that wound through the crypts beneath the floor, when I reached the surface I was able to recognize the church as one just a little way down the road from the Dove.
I sat on one of the hard pews, waiting for Toni’s arrival with nerves twisting my stomach. The last time I’d seen her was when she’d escorted me from Gatwick to Heathrow to get out of the UK and back to the States; we’d been on perfectly amicable terms then.
However, the last time I’d spoken with her was not long before Zarita’s death, and she didn’t know the full story there. I was certain that she’d have been informed of my link to that case—a link I’d ensured was cemented to draw attention away from Evie’s presence. Toni could have made any number of assumptions about the reasons behind the murder.
I was almost positive she would have assumed the worst when the flow of deciphered information from the artifacts I’d taken from Oxford the last time I was in England had stopped. It was a logical step for her to guess it had something to do with Zarita’s death—for anyone who knew about both events, the timing would be too obvious. I could only hope Toni would listen to me long enough to allow me to explain that I wasn’t the murderer.
Leaning my head forward onto the pew in front of me, I took a deep breath. I probably should have told Evie of my plans to come here, but that would have meant explaining more about what happened in Oxford, and I was happier to leave the past in the past. We’d spent so much time being pulled apart that I wanted to focus on what was coming, not what was already done. If things went well, I’d explain enough to Evie to introduce her to Toni, but that was something that I’d deal with only after I was certain Evie wouldn’t be in any danger from anyone at the Dove.
I glanced down at my hands to find my fingers trembling. Although I'd wanted to see Toni to ensure she knew what was happening in the grander scheme of the Rain, part of me was also desperate to make sure that we could get back to being friends. Being back in Oxford again reminded me of how much she'd done for me. She'd risked more for me than most of my own blood had, and that made her family in my eyes. She was the big sister I'd never had; able to dole out an ass-kicking just as readily as Eth, but with a sensitive streak that I'd so desperately needed the last time I was here. The person I was now was worlds away from the one I'd been back then. Evie had helped to strengthen me and given me back the pieces of my mind that had been shattered.
A hand smacked down hard across my shoulder, jolting me to attention. I was so lost in thought that I hadn’t heard anyone sneak up
on me, but when I turned to defend myself against the attack, Toni stood beside me, watching me with her hands on her hips and an eyebrow raised in my direction.
“You have some explaining to do.”
I grimaced. “I know.”
I slid along the pew, allowing her space to sit beside me. She cast the bench a wary glance before slipping in alongside me.
“So?” she asked.
I tipped my head back and sighed. “Where do I start?”
“The beginning.” Her voice was still slightly caustic, but it held an edge of humor that made me think we might be okay in the end.
I started with the last time I’d spoken to her—the phone call I’d made to her while Evie was in the hospital after attacking the Wendigo—and told her the story of our escape across Europe. Of course, I had to explain who Zarita was, that she’d been my contact who’d done the translating.
When it came time to talk about her murder, I stalled. My emotions stuck in my throat, making it difficult to talk.
“You didn’t kill her, did you?” Toni’s voice was almost a breathless whisper. It was almost as if I’d confirmed that Santa was real and about to burst through the church doors.
“You thought I did?” I wasn’t sure whether to be happy that my subterfuge in Zarita’s apartment had been convincing enough to fool even someone with faith in me that I was a cold-blooded killer, or sad that her trust had been shaken by a few bloodied fingerprints.
She shrugged. “I didn’t know what to think. I thought she might have told you something about your—” She cut herself off. The widening of her eyes confirmed she’d realized how close she’d come to revealing a secret. She twisted to consider the fae in the room with us—hanging close enough to intervene if I was a threat but far enough away to give us some semblance of privacy.
I guessed what she wanted to say.
“My fae heritage?” I teased, figuring she was uncomfortable saying the words to me after our last conversations about it. “It’s okay to say it.”
“Well, you didn’t exactly seem willing to discuss anything fae before, and I thought maybe Zarita had . . .” She trailed off. “You were pretty angry about it all last time you were in town.”
Living with Embers: (Son of Rain #4) Page 3