by Leslie Chase
It wasn't enough to stop Cole from recognizing him, though. It was Erion, the Count who had met him in the forest. I guess you didn't listen to my warning.
"I don't know why they're messing with the weather, or why they keep bothering you. The first time, I thought it was coincidence, that they weren't after you specifically. Otherwise, I'd have taken more care to keep you safe. After that, well, every time I saw them I thought that they were watching me, not you. Maybe I was wrong."
"Or maybe they were after me to get at you?" Fiona asked, and Cole thought it over before shaking his head.
"I don't think so. They would have to know that I wouldn't let that stand, and the Agency would back me to the hilt on that. But they could be that stupid. Only one way to find out."
Picking Erion up, Cole shook him. The elf groaned, eyes fluttering open.
"Time for you to answer some questions," Cole snarled.
11
Fiona watched the man — the elf, she reminded herself — return to consciousness, and wondered what she should do now. Could she still trust Cole? On the one hand, the things he'd told her about were too strange to believe, but on the other, she'd seen them for herself.
Her man could turn into a bear. Could find her when she needed rescuing. He carried iron handcuffs in case he needed to arrest an elf. At some point, not believing became the ridiculous choice.
"Release me," the elf said, voice angry and hard. "Or my lord will have your hide for a rug, bear."
Cole laughed, dropping him back onto the bed. "I'm an agent of Arcane Affairs, and you're attacking a human. Your lord is messing with the weather in a populated area, and doing it enough that the humans are getting interested. So no, I'm not just letting you go. Now tell me what's going on."
The elf stared at him, then glanced aside at Fiona. She saw his eyes, cloud-gray and angry, and flinched back from him. Turning back to Cole, the elf pulled himself up to his feet and smiled a nasty smile.
"I am Erion, Count of the Storm Winds, in service to the King of Storms. And that is all I have to say to you. Take these iron shackles off me at once."
"You're in no position to make demands, Erion," Cole said, shoving the man down into a corner of the room. "You're under arrest, and it won't go well for you if you don't cooperate."
He growled, towering over his prisoner, and the elf shrank away. He might be proud and dangerous, Fiona thought, but he wasn't stupid and right now only an idiot would provoke Cole.
"I've been ordered not to say," the elf said, quieter and more subdued.
"Oh for God's sake," Fiona said, stepping over to stand beside Cole to glower down at him. "Whoever told you that isn't here now, and we are. Just tell us why you and your friends keep attacking me."
"We're not attacking you, Princess!" The elf's protests sounded strangely sincere, and he looked up at her with a look it took her a moment to place. He hadn't shown any fear of Cole, but when he looked at her, his inhumanly beautiful face showed a hint of nerves.
Cole looked from the elf to her and back, confused. "What do you mean by that?"
The elf flushed and shook his head, but he answered. "It's not your business, Agent North, but I suppose it is hers."
He looked at her, almost as if for confirmation, and she nodded. "Our King is dead. All his power, all his strength, is fading from him and passing to his heir. So we have been sent to bring her back to the Court where she can rule from the Storm Throne in his place."
Fiona frowned, confused. "What does that have to do with me?"
"What does that—?" the elf laughed, shaking his head. "Princess, you are the daughter of King Keyne, master of the Storm Court and lord of the sky. We have come to take you home, if only this witless bear wouldn't stand in our way."
Cole's hand rested on her shoulder, a reassuring weight. "Her home is where she says it is, elf. You won't tell her what to do."
"Go call your precious Agency, bear. She's blood of our Court, not a human. Our interactions with her aren't your concern and if you want the weather back under control, then you want her to come with us. It's not our fault she can't control her gifts."
Fiona blinked. It took a moment for that to sink in. "Are you saying that the weather stuff is my fault?"
Outside, as though to punctuate her question, thunder boomed. The sound felt as though it echoed through her heart. Nodding to the window, the elf laughed again. "That's not me, Princess Fiona. That's you. You will come home with me and take your place at Court, and you will learn to control that gift."
Backing away, Fiona shook her head. The day had already been full of revelations, but this was too much. "No. No, I'm not a princess, I'm just — just me. I don't want to leave my life behind."
"You'll be the ruler of a great court of the fair folk," he said, looking at her with his strange, stormy eyes. There was a cold amusement in him, as though he didn't care about her protests one bit. "Live in the Palace of Wind and Rain, your every need seen to."
"You think I care about that? I'm not going to abandon my friends, my life, everything."
Cole put his arm around her, rumbling angrily down at his prisoner, but even his touch wasn't as reassuring as she'd hoped it would be. Hadn't he just finished telling her that his job was to keep the paranormal and the normal from mixing? He'd be part of the forces keeping her from Janet, from her mother, from everything that she knew and loved.
Fiona pulled away from him, stumbling toward the door. A wind picked up around her, rattling the window despite the fact that they were indoors.
"I won't, you hear me?" she hissed at the elf. The creature laughed again, almost merry.
"It doesn't matter what you want, Princess," he said. "The Court won't give up. You belong with us, and there's nothing you or your pet bear can do about that."
As she backed out of the door, she saw Cole lift the elf and slam him into the wall. That shut up his laughter, but it still rang in her mind as she fled to her own bedroom, leaving the shifter and the elf behind. She flung herself down on her bed, trying not to think. It was all too much, too quickly.
The knock on her door startled her, and she almost jumped out of her skin as Janet slipped inside without waiting for her to answer.
"Are you okay?" her roommate asked, looking concerned. "I wouldn't usually barge in on you but I'm kind of worried. I mean if I came home with a naked hunk and a guy in handcuffs, I guess you might just roll your eyes. But it's a bit out of character for you, right?"
Fiona couldn't help laughing at that. It was a half-hearted laugh, almost as much a sob as anything, but it was better than nothing. Janet's answering smile was worried but encouraging.
"So... what's going on?" Janet said, sitting beside Fiona on the bed and putting an arm around her shoulders.
"I don't know where to start," Fiona said. "Everything's really messed up right now, that's all."
"You've got to know something more than that. If nothing else, why is your gorgeous hunk of a man carrying someone into his room in handcuffs? That's got to be a good story, one way or the other, right?"
"That was one of the guys who attacked me," Fiona said. Her mind was starting to whirl through everything she'd learned, trying to work out what she could tell her friend without sounding crazy. There wasn't much. "Cole rescued me from him again."
"Well, that's good, right? So now he can call the cops on the guy, and you'll be safe."
If only it were that simple, Fiona thought, shivering and leaning against her friend. "I don't know. I don't think it'll be that easy."
Janet looked unconvinced but didn't press the point. "Well, the bottom line is that your hunk of a boyfriend rescued you from some guy twice, and that has to be a good thing, right? It's more than any guy's done for me, so well done on picking the right man, Fi."
Fiona managed to grin at that. The reminder that Cole was her man — even if he had turned out to be a lot more than that! — did make everything feel a little better. He was looking after her, and he
'd take care of her. That was the important thing, the one thing that she could cling to like a rock in this storm that threatened to engulf her world.
Even if he isn't really human? The little voice in her head was mocking, and she stifled a sob. It didn’t really bother her that Cole was part bear, but it was a reminder that she wasn't entirely human herself. If Erion could be trusted then she was half-fae, and she had no idea how to cope with that.
Wishing she could explain to Janet, she hugged her friend back. But what could she possibly say that wouldn't sound crazy? Fiona wouldn't have believed it herself if it weren't for the fact that she'd seen Cole transform, that she'd seen Erion control the storm wind. And the way that she'd felt the magic herself, the storm beating in her heart.
If Janet didn't see it for herself, she'd just think that they were all crazy.
Snarling, Cole slammed the fae noble into the wall again, and then dropped him to the floor. He trembled with anger at what Erion had done to Fiona, but beating up a bound man was beneath him. Even if it was tempting.
What the elf had said made sense, too much sense. There wasn't any reason for the Court to be messing with the weather like this, but if Fiona had some of the Court's powers, then she wouldn't know how to control them. And of course the Court didn't want to get Arcane Affairs involved in their succession, it was definitely an internal matter. At least, as far as they were concerned.
"Why didn't you just talk to her in the first place?" he snarled at Erion.
"She was raised as a human," the elf knight replied, pulling away from Cole as far as he could. "She wouldn't have listened to us. Lord Meallan wanted to bring her home and explain there, but no. You had to stick your nose into our business, shifter."
An angry growl shut the elf up, and Cole paced. On the one hand, the knight had a point: showing her would have worked better than explaining. On the other hand, the arrogant way that they'd tried to snatch her off the street hadn't been a good way to get her trust, and he didn't regret rescuing her from the fae either time they'd attacked.
"Release me," Erion said. "This iron is painful to wear, and you have no right to hold me. We’re settling an internal matter."
Cole's jaw tensed, and he fought down the urge to put his fist through the elf's smug face. "You can wait right there. I've got to make a call."
"Go ahead, Agency man," Erion said mockingly. "You know what they'll tell you as well as I do."
Retrieving his phone from the torn remnants of his clothing, Cole shot him a glare and then stepped out into the corridor to call in.
Summarizing the situation didn't take long, and at the end of it, Eric swore.
"That complicates things. Far too much," he said. "I'll have to look into this, but you can see how it looks."
"Yeah. Clumsy agent sticks his foot in things. But Eric, they were trying to kidnap a civilian off the street."
"I know that's what it looked like," Eric said, and then sighed. "And don't worry, I've got your back. If someone tries to say you messed this up, I've got the reports of your progress logged here. You made the right call on the information you had, every time. That's not going to be the problem."
Cole growled into the phone. "The problem is that you agree with them, right?"
"I don't. Frankly, it sounds like they're idiots. But... policy is that we don't interfere with the internal affairs of the Fae Courts. I don't think that the Council is likely to back you on this, no matter what I recommend."
"She isn't a member of the Court," Cole said, fighting to keep calm and make a case. Smashing his phone now would be an idiotic move, but it was still so very, very tempting.
"I don't know that the Council will see it like that, Cole. She's the daughter of the fae King, she's causing the storms you went there to investigate, and they want her back so they can teach her how to control her powers. That's hard to argue against."
"The fact that she has a life here, outside of the Court, that doesn't count for anything?"
Eric sighed again, and Cole could imagine the pained expression on his face. "Maybe it ought to count for more, but what are you proposing as an alternative? We can't just let the storms get worse, Cole. They are already drawing too much attention to Argent Falls, and eventually we're going to have to do something to cover it up."
"I'll think of something, okay?" Cole didn't have the faintest idea what he'd do, but that didn't matter. He'd find a way to keep her safe, no matter what. All he needed was time.
Eric was silent for a long time before he answered. "Look, I can't make the call on this one. I'll try to buy you some time to come up with a better idea, but don't think that you'll have long. One way or another, this is going to be sorted out quickly."
Cole growled, but he knew that was the best he could hope for. He might not get on with his supervisor, but Eric did do his best for all of his agents.
"Okay. Give me as much time as you can, Eric, and I'll work out something." He hung up without another word. Anything else he'd said wouldn't have been helpful, and there was no point antagonizing his boss.
Storming back into his room, he found Erion had struggled his way up onto the chair and was watching him haughtily as he came back in.
"Well, Agent? Time to uncuff me and apologize, I presume?"
Cole took a deep breath and reminded himself that hitting a cuffed man was beneath him, no matter how satisfying it would feel. "I'm not about to let you go so that you can terrorize my mate," he rumbled.
The elf shrugged. "I don't intend to do anything to her. If it will get me out of these damned iron shackles, I'll swear it to you. After all, you are going to have to turn her over to us. If you decide to put up a fight, then the Court has enough other warriors that they won't need my help."
Cole looked down at the man, growling. But after a moment he nodded. There wasn't any way to keep the man prisoner, not practically. If Cole could get an oath out of him that he wouldn't harm Fiona, that would have to do. Erion stood and turned, offering his cuffed wrists to Cole.
"Swear first," Cole said. "I'm not in a trusting mood."
"Fine," Erion said, his tone mocking. "By the Earth and the Sky, I swear I shall take no action against Fiona, daughter of the King. May I be struck down if I break this oath."
Cole didn't like hearing Fiona referred to like that, but it seemed like a solid oath. He picked up his keys and unlocked the cuffs, pulling them off. The elf rubbed his wrists, and as his powers returned so did his dignity. He seemed taller, more imposing, more beautiful as his glamour gathered around him.
"Good. Now, since you made me promise that, I take it your masters in the Agency haven't told you to give us our Princess? In that case, what are you going to do with me?"
"You can go if you want, elf," Cole said, ignoring the questions and stepping out of the way of the door. "Don't trouble her again, and don't get in my way."
Erion's laugh was musical. "Or I could go to Princess Fiona and offer answers to the questions that must be plaguing her. You wouldn't keep her from knowing about her family, would you, bear? That doesn't sound very nice."
He slipped onto my fist. A tragic accident. Ten or twenty times. Cole resisted the temptation, barely. His fist clenched, but the elf was right, as much as he hated to admit that. If Fiona wasn't going to the fae court, this might be her only chance to learn about that side of her family.
"Fine. If she wants to hear you out, then you can answer her questions," he said. "If not, you leave without bothering her."
"Agreed, of course. I did swear an oath."
For all his bluster, Erion's eyes did keep flicking to Cole's closed fist. The bear shifter grinned — it was good to know that the elf wasn't as unflappable as he pretended to be. Opening the door, he led Erion out into the hall in search of Fiona.
12
Fiona looked at Erion with suspicion and anger as the four of them gathered in the apartment's living room. Why isn't he cuffed? she wanted to ask. This was someone who'd tried to kidnap
her.
But she didn't want to raise the question so blatantly. Cole didn't look happy about the situation either, his glare settled on the elf and his hands gathered into fists as he paced. Whatever had happened between the two men, it hadn't settled the animosity between them.
Fiona's own thoughts weren't any more settled than when she'd run from the interrogation, but at least Janet's friendship had helped her calm down. And Janet stood beside her, not understanding any of what was going on but backing Fiona up anyway. That was real friendship.
"You've got something to say," Janet said when no one else seemed willing to speak up. "You came to speak to Fi, so get on with it."
Erion smiled, and the smug conceit on his perfect face made Fiona want to punch him.
"I'm afraid that Cole here will try to hit me again if I explain it in front of you," he said, bowing theatrically. "As much as I would love to include so beautiful a lady in our conversations, this is for Fiona's ears alone."
"I'm her friend, jackass, and this is my home too. You can't just tell me to leave," Janet said, glare strong enough that Fiona half expected the elf to burst into flames. But he just smiled, and Cole rumbled something under his breath. Looking unhappy, he caught Fiona's eye and shook his head.
"He's right," Cole said. "This is secret business, and I can't bend the rules to include you in it, Janet. I'm sorry, I know that doesn't seem fair, but there's good reason for it. For your safety, as much as anything else."
Janet put her hands on her hips, looking up at the two men as though she was going to fight them for her friend. And Fiona knew that she would, if she had to. But Cole was right. Fiona might not know why all of the strangeness needed to be kept secret, but she didn't want to drag her friend into it and put her in danger too.
She put her hand on Janet's shoulder and looked her roommate in the eye. "I'll tell you as much as I can afterward, Janet," she said. "Thanks for being here for me, but I have to do this alone."