Misfit Fortune

by Stephanie Foxe

  “The stuff I gave you should have faded those scars by now,” Ceri said, pushing her hair out of the way to get a better look.

  Amber tugged her hand away. “It won’t. It can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “An injury inflicted by another alpha doesn’t always heal right. Jameson explained it before I left. I’m stuck like this, but it’s okay.” She forced a smile. “Scars are kinda badass, right? Like Steven said. I can tell everyone I got in a fight with a werewolf.”

  Ceri laughed but it didn’t reach her eyes. “An alpha werewolf no less.” She cleared her throat. “Are they, uh, going to come get Carter’s body?”

  “I have to give permission to his beta to retrieve it for cremation. I didn’t have time. Just had to kick everyone off the property so I could get to y’all.” She snorted, dropping her head to Genevieve’s side. “They think I’m making a statement but I’m really not. I want it gone.”

  “Not so bad to make everyone a little scared of you, I think,” Ceri said, leaning back in her chair.

  “Is Tommy still with Deward?”

  “Yeah, he won’t leave his side. Can’t blame him. Deward isn’t…taking it well.”

  “Is there no way to heal the blindness?”

  Ceri shook her head. “Not since it was caused by a curse.”

  She resumed running her hands through Genevieve’s fur, a nervous habit at this point. “This didn’t turn out well.”

  “We all made it through alive.”

  “Barely. If I hadn’t given you the pack bite…” She shook her head, pushing the thoughts away. “Vernier ended up helping us, even if it wasn’t on purpose.”

  “I’m sure that pisses her off,” Ceri said with a scowl. “I still can’t believe Jameson didn’t do anything to stop them. I really thought he was on our side.”

  “I think he is, just not enough to be willing to sacrifice his pack for us. I can’t really blame him. He doesn’t owe us anything.”

  “It’s not about owing us something, it’s about doing the right thing. He shouldn’t have caved to Ito.” Ceri’s face darkened. “Shane shouldn’t have just dumped you on his alpha’s orders either.”

  She shrugged. “At the end, Jameson stood up for me when it looked like Ito wouldn’t honor the results of the challenge. I managed to kill Carter but I wouldn’t have been so lucky with Ito. And as for Shane –– he picked his pack over me. I would do the same thing.”

  “I’m still going to be pissed at him. Genevieve might try to kill him when she finds out.”

  Amber snorted. “I might let her.”

  Tommy walked in, looking somber. “How is she?”

  “Still asleep but not in pain,” Amber said, waving him over. “She can feel that we’re with her.”

  He walked over to her head and dug his hands into her fur. It calmed him too. She’d given up on suppressing the pack bond for today. It seemed they all needed it, the reassurance of being able to feel each other through it.

  Derek hobbled in too and dragged a chair over to sit next to Ceri. She frowned, wondering if she could give the pack bite to a human too.

  Chapter 79

  Genevieve

  “My father is willing to make a statement. That should help with the investigation,” Icewind said, leaning against her elbow tiredly.

  Genevieve took another sip of the awful tea Ceri was making her drink and grimaced. “That’s good.”

  “It means I have to talk to him for at least another few weeks. I’m tempted to just tell him no and figure something else out,” the elf muttered.

  “Suck it up, buttercup. Horan is still a threat to the pack. If Thallan can help, he’s going to have to.”

  Icewind groaned. “You owe me for this.”

  “I saved your life! You owe me.”

  Steven bustled back into the room. “You haven’t finished your tea yet!”

  She glared at him. “Quit hovering. I’ll finish it eventually.”

  “But Ceri said you need to drink it before it gets cold or it won’t be as effective,” he protested, advancing on her like he might try to force it down her throat.

  Icewind busted out laughing and rose from her seat. “All I’m going to say is: karma.”

  The elf continued cackling as she left the room. Abandoning her to Steven’s mother-henning. To torment.

  “Steven, I swear I will kick you out of the house if you don’t stop,” she said, taking another drink to pacify him. It was still awful.

  He huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms. “How is your leg feeling?”

  “Better,” she said honestly. She wiggled her toes for him. “Now that the silver is out of my system, it’s actually healing.”

  He nodded, still standing there tensely.

  “Steven, I’m going to be okay. I promise.”

  “I know.”

  “Then what’s wrong?”

  He looked away, hands curling into a fist. “I just feel a little useless. I was sitting in this house, hiding, while everyone else was out fighting. I didn’t even have the guts to walk outside when Amber needed help.”

  She grabbed him and pulled him down onto the couch beside her, leaning her head against his shoulder. “It’s selfish, but I’m glad you didn’t go outside.”

  “You can’t mean that––”

  “Shut up.” She planted her hand across his mouth to keep him from interrupting her again. “You’ve been dragged into this and it sucks. Honestly, they probably wouldn’t have even accepted you as a witness for Amber. Werewolves don’t tend to count humans for much. Icewind being an elf made a difference. Also, you were just attacked by werewolves. Anyone would have doubts about walking out in front of the same people that attacked them the day before.” She lowered her hand. “So, just…just let it go. I don’t need you to be some kind of knight in shining armor beheading monsters for me. I just need you to survive, okay?”

  He nodded mutely.

  “And I want you to move in. With me. Now.”

  “Are you––”

  She slapped her hand back over his mouth again. “Don’t say anything, just nod yes or no.”

  With wide eyes, he nodded yes.

  “Okay, good.” She settled her head back on his shoulder and glared at the murky brown liquid in her mug. “I hate this tea.”

  Chapter 80

  Evangeline

  “Where to this time?” she asked, settling into her seat in the Jeep.

  “Portland.”

  “Seriously?”

  Charlie nodded, chewing on his toothpick. “Your uncle said we’re done hiding out. Apparently, the pack is going to need ya.”

  “Do they know we’re coming back?”

  “Not yet.” He took out the toothpick and pointed it at her in the rearview mirror. “And they won’t hear about it ahead of time. They’re being watched. If you tell Tommy, the angels might figure it out.”

  “Oh come on, they’re not psychic––”

  “No arguments,” Katarina said, reaching back to smack the side of her head with a quick strike she was too slow to avoid. She rubbed it, scowling at the elf, who didn’t look the least bit apologetic. “Safety first. Always.”

  She slunk down in her seat with a sigh. “I hate you both.”

  Her mother laughed at her. “We all know that’s a lie.”

  “Then I hate Kadrithan.”

  Charlie snorted. “Who doesn’t?”

  Even Katarina smiled at that.

  She looked out the window, watching the trees fly by. Going back made her nervous because it meant things were about to get messy. Hiding was easier than fighting. Hiding was safer. She wasn’t ready for this. Kadrithan kept claiming she was strong and that she had a destiny to fulfill. A literal prophecy was depending on her.

  “Here we come, ready or not,” she whispered, her breath fogging up the window. She drew a frowny face in it.

  Chapter 81

  Tommy

  “Just get out.”

  �
��I’m not leaving.” Tommy crossed his arms and glared at Deward, even though he couldn’t see it.

  Deward rolled over in bed, facing the wall. He hadn’t been angry. Or scared. He hadn’t been anything. Once they’d gotten him home, Deward had just laid in bed staring at nothing.

  Tommy sat down on the edge of the bed, not touching him, just staying close. “You can’t just give up, Deward. They’re looking for a way to fix your sight. Maybe they’ll find something, but even if they don’t, you’re still alive. We’ll find ways to cope.”

  Deward remained silent.

  “What do you need, dude? Come on, just talk to me.”

  Startling him, Deward rolled over abruptly. “Kill me.”

  “What? No. Why would I do that?”

  “Because I remember everything. Everything we did.” Deward sat up, grasping wildly until he caught Tommy’s arm. “I killed innocent people and I can see their faces. It’s like I can’t open my eyes and they’re always there. I need it to stop.”

  “Maybe Ceri has something to help you sleep––”

  “You don’t get it,” Deward said, shoving him away. “I can’t live like this.”

  “You know it wasn’t you that killed them. It was just the curse.”

  Deward collapsed back onto the bed, hiding his face with his hands. “You don’t understand. You can’t.”

  Tommy tucked a foot up underneath him. “I guess I can’t, but I’m still not leaving. You said we were brothers. Brothers don’t abandon each other just because things have gotten hard.”

  They were silent for a moment, both of them lost in their thoughts.

  He shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sorry I didn’t get there in time to stop her from taking you. When you texted me, I took a minute to feed Captain Jack before I left even though I knew Ceri would feed him again when she got up. If I hadn’t done that…”

  Deward dropped his hands, sighing heavily. “She would have just taken you too.”

  “Maybe, maybe not.”

  “Are you trying to prove to me that regret is pointless?”

  “No, but if it’s working, then yes.”

  Deward snorted, a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips. “Your logic is flawed.”

  “Pretty sure I’m not the only one with flawed logic right now.”

  Deward turned his head away, plucking at the bedding nervously. “I’m mad that I can’t see.”

  “Me too. It sucks.”

  “Eloquently put.”

  “I’m a high school drop out, what do you expect?"

  “I spent months tutoring you! I expect a more varied vocabulary, at the very least,” Deward said, crossing his arms.

  “Guess you’ll just have to keep working on me.”

  The troll shook his head, smoothing down his blue hair. It was frizzy after being washed for the first time in a week. “I don’t know how to deal with this. Every time I try to think about the future, all I can think about is everything I’ve lost. I can’t read, Tommy. Do you understand how much that changes? No college. No learning. No books. It’s everything––” He stopped, unable to say anything else.

  Tommy grabbed his arm. “We’ll find a way to cope. You won’t be doing this alone, even if that means I spend ten hours a day reading to you.”

  Deward reached over, wrapping his hand around Tommy’s arm. “Okay.”

  Chapter 82

  Amber

  Amber stared through her window into the backyard, watching and listening. She knew sleep wasn’t going to come any time soon. Not after everything that had happened today.

  She was surprised the angels hadn’t come for their precious ‘key’ already. Kadrithan had warned her not to let her guard down and she had no intention of doing so. She grabbed her jacket, intending to go out and patrol the property but a familiar tug on her demon mark stopped her.

  For the first time, it was followed by utter relief. She whirled around as Kadrithan stepped out of a pillar of smoke looking very human. “About time.”

  “I had to update Zerestria and help them prepare for retaliation. Don’t worry, I was keeping an eye on you. If I’d sensed any danger I would have come.”

  She scuffed her bare foot against the carpet. “You kept them all alive.”

  “Not on my own. They fought well.”

  “Just let me thank you, jerk,” she muttered.

  He raised an eyebrow. “That looked painful.”

  “Well, I’m not repeating it, so I hope it sounded sincere too.” She crossed her arms and stared him down, feeling off-kilter. They’d been flipping back and forth between enemy and ally so quickly lately that she wasn’t sure how to act around him anymore. His promise not to lie to her had left her even more confused. “So, how long do we have? Do you know what they’ll do?”

  “Not long, a week at most. You’re going to have to leave.”

  ”What?” Her head snapped up and she frantically suppressed her connection to the pack bond. She didn’t want the others feeling this until she knew for sure what they were going to have to do.

  “They know where you live. Staying here, waiting for an attack, is insanity. I want you to leave and meet up with Evangeline in a couple of days, as soon as everyone is healed. She’s already on her way to Portland.”

  “We can’t leave. This is our home.” She hadn’t realized how much it had come to mean to her. This house. The security of having a home again.

  “Surviving is more important than any place,” Kadrithan argued, irritation clear on his face. “I’m trying to keep you alive.”

  “And keep Raziel’s key away from them.”

  “Yes, but believe it or not, it matters to me whether or not you survive this,” he said, closing the distance between them.

  She walked backwards until her knees hit her bed, sitting down hard. “Oh.”

  He groaned in frustration, dragging his hands down his face. “You have been a great help to me. I don’t intend to sacrifice your life needlessly. I can’t force you to leave, and I won’t, but the angels will come for you and your pack. They will come for the key. You can’t be here when they do.”

  “Will they hurt Illya if we’re not here?”

  “I don’t know.” He summoned a chair and sat down across from her.

  Captain Jack slipped in, pushing the door open a little wider. He wound through Kadrithan’s legs, meowing pitifully when he realized the demon –– or fae, though it was hard to think of him as anything other than a demon –– wasn’t solid.

  Dejected, he made his way over to her instead. She patted his head absentmindedly, barely even having to lean down to reach it. He just kept growing.

  “Where could we even go? It’s not like we can run forever.”

  “I have allies, marks I can call in.”

  She pulled her hair over her shoulder and began braiding it, needing to do something with her hands. “I can’t decide this without the pack.”

  “Of course,” he said, clasping his hands in his lap. His eyes strayed to her cheek, something unhappy flickering in his dark eyes. “I didn’t expect a decision tonight. You’ve barely recovered.”

  “Carter managed to make sure I’d never forget him,” she said, waving at the scar, not wanting it to be the elephant in the room. The others had all shied away from looking at it.

  A muscle in Kadrithan’s jaw twitched. “You defeated him. That’s all that matters.”

  “Yeah.” She looked away, remembering the way he’d twitched underneath her as he’d died. Even without the scar, she never would have forgotten him. He wasn’t even the first person she’d killed, which felt odd to realize, but his death had been the most intimate, not something she’d done in the haze of a fight. It had been horribly deliberate. “Anyhow, is there anything else I should know?”

  “No, I think I’ve told you everything.” He stared silently at the cat for a long moment, then his head popped up. “Oh, there is one thing that I have not told you. Something I’m sure you’d consider in vi
olation of my vow to not lie to you ever again, even by omission.”

  She crossed her arms and took a deep breath, steeling herself for more bad news. “What is it?”

  He pointed at her feet. “That is not a cat.”

  She looked down. Captain Jack was winding between her feet, purring. “I know, he’s a savage beastie with an unnatural love for human food. What’s your point?”

  “No, you’re not listening. It is not a cat at all.”

  Amber eyed the not-cat warily. She’d never trusted that mangy creature. Apparently, that was one hundred percent justified. She was going to kill Genevieve for bringing it home. “Then what the hell is it?”

  “A fae creature called the chimera. They’re attracted to trouble,” he said with a smirk. “And fae. He must have smelled my scent on Genevieve when she was at the shelter and lured her in. They’re very persuasive.”

  “They can use mind control?” She continued backing away slowly, but Captain Jack just followed, rubbing and purring like he was an innocent little kitty and not a savage chimera.

  “Not quite. They simply look for caretakers. They’re very lazy.”

  “Oh, so it’s not like dangerous or anything?” she asked hopefully.

  “No, they’re quite deadly. Even I’d be hard-pressed to kill one if it decided it wanted me dead.”

  “And you are just now mentioning this,” she whisper-shouted at him, afraid of startling the chimera. “I’ve been sleeping with it, Kadrithan. It sits on my head at night. Claws at my legs. Are you saying it could have eaten me?”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, but you keep it well fed, so it probably won’t. Anyhow…” He stood and smiled, as if the conversation was over. “I need to go, but I’ll see you early tomorrow.”

  “What?! You can’t just leave––”

  He disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  Amber lifted her leg out of reach of Captain Jack and began slowly creeping toward the door. He followed her, meowing curiously. She made it to the door and slipped out, slamming it shut behind her.