by Lisa Cardiff
He had hesitated before asking Peter to come along and aid in Avery’s capture. He knew Peter harbored some romantic fantasies concerning the girl that could endanger the mission, but when he thought it through, he decided Peter would be an asset. Peter—being such a romantic fool—would sacrifice anything to save the girl, including his own life, and that might be just what was needed when they were going into this house with little reconnaissance. Perhaps he could even manipulate the situation to get rid of Peter now rather than worrying about killing him later.
It wasn’t much of a noise, almost like tree branches brushing the roof tiles, except there wasn’t any wind to blow the trees. The sky was clear blue without a cloud and the air almost stagnant.
Avery wondered if Kalen still lingered around the house. No—he had left as soon as he could get away from her. She would still feel that connection with him if he hid near the house. In fact, she didn’t know why she even bothered to ask her father where Kalen was, she felt it in her bones when he walked away and abandoned her. It was something else; maybe it was Dierdre’s ghost haunting her old house, or better yet, haunting her estranged daughter and ex-lover.
Cian looked to the ceiling. “We’re out of time. They’re here,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” Cian didn’t turn to look at Avery’s face, but he didn’t need to see her to know she was scared. It was in her voice.
“Kalen thought someone was leaking information to Foundation, and it looks as though he might be right. There are six Foundation operatives surrounding the house.”
Avery didn’t question how he knew it was the Foundation or how he knew their number. She knew he was right. Crossing over without any further encounters with the Foundation seemed like more good luck than she experienced in her life recently.
There was muffled whispering outside the front door. “They’re right outside,” she murmured.
“The wards will keep them out for another fifteen to twenty minutes, but I need to get you secured and safely hidden before then.”
He grabbed her arm and pulled her off the sofa onto the floor. “The curtains are open, and the Foundation will be ready to shoot when they dismantle the wards. We shouldn’t give them an easy target or confirmation that they we’re in the house.”
On all fours on the floor, she turned to gawk at her father. “Are you planning on leaving me here while you face all of them alone? Let’s get out of here together. There has to be a way to leave without them seeing us.”
“No. We can’t keep running. I have a score to settle with them, Thomas Flannigan in particular. He stole my family. Your presence will distract me from what needs to be done. You’re going to hide while I deal with the Foundation. I’ll send a message for backup once you’re secured. If everything goes well, I’ll come back for you within an hour.”
“And if you don’t?”
“I’ll let Kalen know where you’re hiding. I know you’re angry with him, but you’re familiar with him. For what it’s worth, I think I may have been wrong about him using you.”
“Why?”
Cian hesitated, tapping his hand on his thigh. “It’s something he said when he left and something I remembered from before you left Ireland, but there isn’t time to discuss it now. I have to hide you quickly.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re going to leave me in some hiding place, hoping that if you fail, Kalen will come to rescue me rather than let me rot?”
“I wish I could offer some alternative, but this is all I have to work with right now.”
He pulled one of her hands, catching her off balance, and she fell onto her stomach. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, careful to stay out of view of the windows. Her body trembled, and she knew he felt the wetness on the back of his shirt from her soundless weeping.
“It’ll be okay. I failed you when Dierdre left Ireland, but I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe now that I have you back. I don’t want it to end like this, so it won’t. We’re going to come out of this just fine.”
Cian gently put her down on the kitchen floor and pulled the rug back in the center of the room to lift the hatch to a crawl space leading to a safe room beneath the house. Her knees hit the dirt floor with a loud thump.
“Are you okay?” Cian whispered. When their eyes met, she felt the panic etched on her face, but there was nothing he could do to erase her fear so she nodded affirmatively.
“I need to close the door and put the rug over it, so it’s going to be really dark and musty down there. Try not to think about it. I’m going to set some wards around the entrance for extra protection.”
Chapter 16
Ever since the incident with Mary Margaret, Kalen worked to make his instincts near infallible. He tuned into a mission so fully that he knew without a doubt when the mission was in danger of collapse, when to escape and when to attack. There was never room for anything except success, or least that was true until he met Avery and now his life was just as fucked up as when he let Mary Margaret slide in under his defenses.
He had been relatively new to field work when he met Mary Margaret, and he let her delicate, doe-eyed beauty slither around his heart until he couldn’t imagine a life without her. He shared his secrets with her, promised to dedicate his life to her, and told her he couldn’t live without her. Unfortunately, she didn’t share his affection, and it nearly cost him his life.
While he had been busy planning their life together, she had been busy being an operative for the Foundation and diligently sharing all of his secrets. In the end, he didn’t have any choice but to kill her; so that’s what he did, vowing never to be vulnerable again. Trying to numb his pain, he let the old King turn him into a mercenary, often doing things that gnawed at his conscience, but that was fine because he didn’t have the luxury of being sentimental or righteous.
When he saw Avery outside the Foundation, he had felt the frozen walls around his heart melting. He tried to ignore it because the connection he shared with her scared him, pushing to the surface every insecurity and wound caused by Mary Margaret’s betrayal. So when Cian confronted him, rather than fight for her or explain, he took the easy way out, pushing her away, not wanting face the possibility of disappointment again. After all, he couldn’t afford to waste more time and energy mooning over Avery.
When he didn’t deny Cian’s accusations, Avery looked so stricken with her eyes wide and vulnerable that he had to shove his hands in his pockets so he didn’t wrap his arms around her and recant, promising her the Queen’s suggestion never even registered in his mind when they were together. Instead, he let her believe everything Cian said, feigning indifference and callousness. Knowing his words shattered her, he never fully answered her questions because when it came down to it, he couldn’t lie to her. Still, what he did say was enough to cause the systematic destruction of their relationship. And just like that, she wasn’t his problem or his weakness any longer and all the complications that she represented disappeared.
He should feel some satisfaction at successfully ridding himself of her and all the drama that having her in his life would cause because sentimentality had no place in his life, not anymore, not ever. Instead, he felt equally furious and empty as though he had destroyed everything that meant anything to him.
Now he was so confused, he didn’t know what his instincts were telling him. Losing Avery and losing his intuition seemed to go hand-in-hand. Maybe it was as straightforward as listening to those voices whispering to him, swirling in his head. He didn’t know anymore.
He walked down a dusty back road that led to the faerie mound, the crossover point. The road was empty. He hadn’t seen a car since he walked out the front door of Cian’s house. He was ready to leave Avery behind. She was Cian’s problem, his responsibility, and that was exactly how it should be. Cian should have taken care of this mess from the beginning. He was going to concentrate on his life, his goals, and forget about this passing weakne
ss for Avery.
Except he couldn’t let go and he knew it. Something wasn’t right and it had the hairs on the back of his neck standing at attention. He trusted Cian to do everything in his power to get his daughter to the crossover point without any mishaps, but that didn’t mean he would succeed. The way the Foundation seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of his and Avery’s whereabouts didn’t make sense unless they had inside information. Everything in his body told him to turn around, that something wasn’t right, to go back to the house, but he didn’t know whether it was his intuition or the sudden void in his life talking.
Aerin had an unnatural dislike for Avery, and that didn’t sit well with him either. At every turn, Aerin acted like a woman possessed. Scorned was probably a better word. The Queen was another story altogether. She was fighting to maintain her ever-dwindling power. The shift of power over the last ten years was slow but steady, and now her power was reduced to such a level that her rivals could almost smell her blood. Kalen knew this, and he was sure this hadn’t escaped the Queen’s attention either.
He wanted to dismiss his misgivings as total nonsense and concentrate on other things. Everything that happened between him and Avery didn’t make sense, so why should it start now? Just as he was about to step through the veil to the Faerie Realm, his phone rang, startling his concentration, and he jumped back so fast that he nearly tripped over a pile of smooth stones marking the crossover point.
Seeing Aerin’s name on his screen, he almost rejected the call, but at the last minute he changed his mind and answered the phone.
“What do you want?” Kalen asked, his voice cold and hard.
“The mission has been compromised,” Aerin said her breathing ragged.
“Compromised? How?”
“You need to get out of the house now. The Queen has been feeding information to the Foundation.”
Kalen realized that something was going on the minute the Foundation found him and Avery at the coffee shop the morning after they spent the night at the Spanish Arch, but he still didn’t know if he could trust Aerin. “Why should I believe you?”
“Because I’m telling the truth!” Aerin screamed. “The Queen sees this as an opportunity to solidify her power. She’s hoping the Foundation will get rid of all three of you and she’ll be able to reestablish absolute power over the Faerie Realm.”
“The three of us? Do you mean Cian, the girl, and me?”
“Yes.”
“I left them twenty minutes ago. They plan to crossover without me.”
“You need to go back. She thinks the Foundation will kill Cian and the girl and then she plans to convince the Court that you leaked information to the Foundation leading to Cian and Avery’s death.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. No one would believe that,” Kalen replied running his hand through his hair.
“She’s already planted the seed with the Court that you’re a traitor. It won’t be that big of a stretch.”
Kalen instincts told him to believe Aerin, but he didn’t understand her angle. “Why are you telling me this? You can’t be innocent in this whole scheme.”
“Let’s just say I came to my senses. I let the Queen play my insecurities. She convinced me that if the girl fulfilled the prophecy and became the Guardian of the Treasures, Cian would be positioned to claim the throne with absolute power. The idea of Cian benefiting from his relationship with Dierdre felt like another slap in my face, but once I realized that she wanted the Foundation to kill Cian, I couldn’t go through with it.”
“I can’t imagine that you care what happens to Cian.”
“I wanted to hurt him,” she said in a small voice, “but I don’t want him to die.”
“Right,” Kalen said. “It’s more than that. If you want me to help you, you need to tell me everything.” That wasn’t true. He had no intention of letting the Foundation hurt Avery, but Aerin didn’t need to know that.
Aerin exhaled loudly. “She plans to blame me too. She said I would be a believable villain, fully capable of betraying the Tuatha Dé for my selfish revenge against Cian. That’s why she recruited me.”
“So, this is about saving yourself.”
“Of course, but it’s also about saving Cian, and I can’t betray my own kind. It’s not right.”
“Do you have proof?”
“Yes. The Queen accused me of being inept when it came to the inner politics of the Seelie Court, but she’s wrong. I documented everything. If the Queen thinks I will take the fall alone, she’s truly delusional. I’m going to email the evidence to the members of the Seelie Court. Once I’m done, I’m going to Cian’s house to intervene.”
“I’ll meet you there,” Kalen responded then hung up.
Without analyzing his motives, he sifted back to the house. Avery probably didn’t want to see him again, but he couldn’t walk away without ensuring her safety. He owed it to her. He didn’t fully understand his feelings for Avery, but he didn’t have time for reflection. He needed to get back to the house.
Chapter 17
With the last ward disabled, Thomas Flannigan directed the Foundation operatives to guard the front and back doors and each side of the house. He tried to open the front door, but it was locked, which was hardly a surprise or an inconvenience.
He gave the signal, and a Foundation operative aimed his gun at the lock. The wood of the doorframe shattered upon impact, but the deadbolt held, so the operative repeatedly slammed his heel into the broken door until it sprung open, ricocheting against the wall in the foyer.
The operative cautiously slid through the opening with his back pressed to the wall, his knees bent and his weapon pointed in front of him, ready to shoot. Flannigan ducked in behind the operative, effectively using the man as a shield. The room was empty. Flannigan cursed and started kicking furniture in a sudden burst of ill temper. His source was always correct. He couldn’t believe Avery’s protectors could’ve gotten wind of his approach and left before he arrived.
Ignoring Flannigan’s eruption of violence, the operative checked the house then, finding nothing, went to the back door, opening it for the remaining Foundation operatives. When the house was thoroughly searched, Flannigan sat down on one of the few chairs to remain upright. He couldn’t begin to wrap his mind around what would happen if Avery made it to the crossover point and was now gone.
Peter walked into the disheveled home and surveyed the damage.
Without turning around, Flannigan mumbled, “We looked everywhere. My source must have had old information or Avery’s protectors were forewarned.”
“Did you use the thyme smudge stick?”
“Do you think her protectors would sit here cloaked in some invisibility spell, not moving while we ransacked the place?”
“Perhaps,” Peter responded, reaching into a duffle bag he had thrown on the floor near the shattered front door. When he found the bundled dried thyme, he lit it with a lighter from his pocket, blowing out the flame, leaving it to smolder. He held in front of him as he walked the perimeter of the living room, waving it through the air. Peter paused when, through the building haze of smoke, he saw a flickering image in the corner. “Well, well, well. I think we know the answer to where her protector went to,” he said without taking his eyes off the image of a man flickering through the smoke.
Flannigan shot out of the chair behind Peter, pulling out his gun. The Faeth Fiada spell faded and Cian stood in front of Peter and Flannigan, his eyes steely with determination.
“What are you going to do with that?” Cian said, nodding his head in the direction of the gun in Flannigan’s hand. “I thought manipulating young girls and killing old feeble women was more your style. Normally, you’re not up for a real fight.”
“This won’t be much of a fight either. You see, I have a gun and you have nothing, not even the benefit of your pathetic invisibility spell.”
“That gun doesn’t concern me,” Cian responded tersely.
�
��It should. The bullets are tipped with iron.” Flannigan laughed. “Does that mean anything to you?”
Cian stepped to the side, trying to get out of range or find some cover. “What difference does that make?”
“I’m not stupid. I know iron is your weakness. When this bullet passes through your body, rather than suffering a slight wound, you’ll be dead.”
“Is that how you killed Dierdre? Did you shoot her too?”
“Oh no, she was far too sick to bothering wasting a bullet. I merely put the pillow over her face and it was done within minutes. She barely struggled.”
Cian bristled with contempt. “I see you are picking on dying women now too. That’s so noble of you.”
“Yes, Dierdre thought so too when she hopped right into my bed before yours was even cold.”
Cian flinched. “That hardly matters. I already got what I wanted from Dierdre.”
“Yes, but I found a way to take that from you too, didn’t I?”
Cian lunged toward Flannigan, knocking him on his back. A gunshot sputtered into the air as Flannigan’s finger compressed around the trigger. Without faltering, Cian reached out, clamping his hands on the sides of Flannigan’s head. He looked at Flannigan, his preternatural glaze boring into him. “How does it feel to know you are going to die?”
Thomas’ eyes widened with fear.
Cian smiled malevolently. “This is for Dierdre.” He jerked Flannigan’s head sideways with a sickening snap, breaking his neck. He released Flannigan’s limp head, letting him fall awkwardly to the floor.