by Karen Lynch
“What about Mom? What if she gets her memory back and tells someone?”
Dad nodded. “I’ll talk to her. She’ll be okay.”
I didn’t ask what he would say to her. If he said he would take care of it, he would. My parents’ marriage was built on a deep foundation of trust and mutual understanding. They were best friends and partners and knew each other better than anyone else ever could. Whatever Dad told her, she would trust him and follow his example without question.
“That takes care of Mom. How do we protect you if the queen’s guard comes around?”
A gleam entered his eyes. “The guard took me by surprise last time, but now I know what I’m up against. I’ll make some preparations and call in favors from a few friends. Don’t worry about me.”
The pressure on my chest eased. “Are you going to tell Maurice the truth?”
“Yes. I’ll ask him to come by this evening.”
Maurice normally didn’t stay in town this long, and I’d assumed he’d be off on another big job now that the ke’tain had been found. He felt guilty that he hadn’t been there for us when Mom and Dad were missing, and he wanted to make up for that by sticking around for another month or so. I’d never been so happy to know he was next door.
“Now what do we do about you?” Dad asked, startling me from my thoughts.
“What about me?”
“It’s you Prince Rhys came to see. Even if the queen believes my memories are gone for good, she’s not going to allow you two to continue seeing each other.” Dad paused. “Especially if she thinks his interest in you is more than platonic.”
My stomach rolled at the mere suggestion that Prince Rhys might have any romantic interest in me. He was raised a Faerie, but he was still my brother. The fact that I’d never been attracted to him didn’t ease the ick factor one bit.
It made much more sense now why Queen Anwyn had sent her guards to warn me away from him. It had nothing to do with me being a lowly bounty hunter and everything to do with me being his sister.
“I doubt we’ll be seeing that much of him anymore. You heard what he said when he was here. He’s Seelie and I’m Unseelie, so it wouldn’t be right for him to visit me.” I let out a breath. “And I don’t think the queen will come after me now that I’m Unseelie. She knows I’m friends with Lukas, and after the whole ke’tain thing, he would suspect her if anything happened to me.”
“That’s true.” Dad smiled, but there was no mistaking the flicker of sadness in his eyes. His focus was on keeping our family safe, but at the root of all of this was the child who had been stolen from him. What turmoil he must be feeling. To protect the rest of his family, he had to pretend he didn’t know his son was alive and well.
He cleared his throat. “I’m going to the office to make a few calls.”
“I’ll make us some coffee,” I said a little too cheerfully. “That is if you haven’t used up my stash.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” He chuckled, and the sound warmed me.
As soon as he left the room, the weight of everything I’d learned pressed down on me again. I moved on autopilot as I put the coffee on and took down two large mugs. The last week I’d wallowed in my misery, thinking about what I’d lost. That was nothing compared to what my parents had suffered and the loss to our family.
Caleb is alive. I wondered how many times I’d have to repeat those three words before they sank in. I thought back on all the years of visiting his grave with my parents, of looking at that tiny, white headstone and imagining what my life would have been like if my brother had lived. Not in a hundred years could I have envisioned a scenario where he was stolen by faeries and raised as the crown prince of Seelie. Or that if I breathed a word of it to anyone, the monster he called a mother would have my entire family killed.
The coffee finished brewing, and I inhaled the rich aroma as I poured it into our mugs. At least some things didn’t change. I made my father’s just how he liked it and then my own. I had been so depressed for the last week I couldn’t even think about food, and the smell of the coffee made me realize how much I’d missed it.
I raised the cup to my mouth and closed my eyes to savor the first sip.
And then I sprayed coffee across the kitchen.
I set the mug on the counter and ran to the sink, ducking my head under the faucet to rinse the awful taste from my mouth. It was bitter and ashy and made me think this must be what burnt dirt tasted like. No matter how much water I gargled, I couldn’t get rid of it.
Raising my head, I wiped my mouth with my sleeve and stared at the coffee left in the pot. Someone was pranking me. They’d switched out my coffee for this horrid stuff and…
Realization hit me like a blast of cold air, and I let out a cry that would have put a banshee to shame. Dad came running into the kitchen, wild-eyed like he expected to find the entire Seelie guard attacking me.
“What’s wrong?” he asked a little breathlessly.
“I hate coffee,” I wailed.
He stared at me in confusion until understanding dawned on his face. “I’m sorry, honey. It was bound to happen.”
I bent my head so he couldn’t see the tears burning my eyes.
“Jesse,” Dad said at the same time the doorbell rang. I grabbed some paper towels and cleaned up my mess while he went to see who else was paying us a visit. The way this day was going, it was probably Queen Anwyn.
I didn’t look to see who it was, but I could hear the murmur of male voices. Seconds later, footsteps approached, and I looked up at Faolin’s scowling face. I would have preferred the Seelie queen.
“Are you crying?” he asked brusquely.
I tossed the wet paper towels in the trash. “I’m just that happy to see you.”
He scoffed, but I caught a glimmer of amusement in his eyes, which only annoyed me more. His sharp gaze moved past me to the coffee machine and the two mugs on the counter. He quickly put two and two together, and in typical Faolin fashion, he said, “You’re crying because you can no longer drink that stuff?”
I glared at him. “It’s not about the coffee.” I didn’t need to add the words “you insensitive jerk” because my tone more than implied them.
“Then what is it?”
“It’s nothing.” He was the last person I wanted to confide in. I hadn’t even told Dad about it. That ever since I’d woken up and learned I was Fae, I had taken comfort in the fact that I still looked and felt human. I had no magic or Fae strength, and iron didn’t affect me thanks to my goddess stone. As long as none of that changed, I could pretend I was the same old Jesse.
I crossed my arms. “Why are you here, Faolin?”
“I brought you some food.” He set a bulging cloth bag on the counter.
I eyed the bag warily. “We have plenty of food.”
“Human food.” He loosened the drawstring and took out various Fae fruits, a few of which I recognized, along with a bottle of green juice and two small, round loaves of dark bread. The juice looked like the same stuff Faris had drunk during his convalescence.
Faolin finished his task and looked at me. “Your father said you have barely eaten since you came home.”
“Did he?” I shot Dad an accusing look. He hadn’t been at the door long enough to discuss my eating habits, which meant he’d talked to Faolin before his unexpected visit.
Dad leaned his shoulder against the wall, not looking the least bit contrite. “You have certain nutritional needs you didn’t have before, and I wasn’t sure exactly what to buy.”
“Faeries can eat human food,” I reminded them.
“Yes, but we also require Fae nourishment.” Faolin picked up something that resembled an elongated pink pear. “Fruits and juice will be the easiest for you to digest until your body adjusts to the change. You can have Fae bread but only in small portions at first.”
“What? No crukk steak?” I quipped. Crukks were the main source of meat in Faerie. They looked like a shrunken version of a wooly mammoth and they were raised do
mestically like our cattle.
He gave me a mocking smile. “You can eat crukk if you don’t mind it coming back up an hour later.”
I made a face. “I’ll stick to beef.”
“As long as you make sure to include enough Fae foods in your daily diet.” He waved a hand over the food. “You can get any of this at the local Fae market, or you can call us, and we will bring you what you need.”
“Thanks,” I said without much enthusiasm.
“Do you need anything else?” he asked.
Yes. I want to know why Lukas didn’t bring the food, and why he is the only one who hasn’t called me, I thought, but all I said was, “No.”
“Then I’ll be going.”
Dad stepped back to let Faolin pass. “Thank you for coming by. We appreciate everything you and the others have done for us, and when my daughter gets her manners back, she will tell you the same.”
I scowled at my father. What was he talking about? I’d thanked them. Hadn’t I?
“You’re welcome,” Faolin said. His back was to me, but there was no missing the note of laughter in his voice. At the door, he turned to face me. “Don’t think your new status means you no longer have to train. We will resume that after you build up your strength.”
“Oh, joy. I can’t wait.”
“Neither can I.” He flashed me a devious smile as he left. “See you soon, Jesse.”
Dad followed me back to the kitchen. “It was nice of him to bring you food.”
“He’s a real boy scout.” I opened the bottle of juice and sniffed. It was the same stuff Faris used to drink. I capped it and put it in the fridge then grabbed a basket from the cabinet for the fruit.
“You’re not going to eat any of it now?” Dad asked when I was done.
“Not hungry.” I picked up my mug and gave it a longing look before I poured the coffee down the drain. After rinsing the mug, I placed it in the draining rack to dry. “Well, I guess I’ll save a lot of money on coffee.”
He came over to put an arm across my shoulders and gave them a small squeeze. “There’s the Jesse I know.”
I heaved a sigh. “I’m sorry I’ve been so hard to live with this week.”
“You had a good excuse, so I’ll let you off easy this –”
The floor vibrated beneath our feet, and a rumbling sound filled the air as if a plane was flying low over our building. I clung to Dad as the windows rattled, and car alarms started to go off down on the street.
It was over as fast as it had started, leaving the two of us staring at each other in stunned silence.
I was the first to find my voice. “Did we just have an earthquake?”
Chapter 2
Before he could answer, flashes of colored lights outside drew my gaze to the window. I ran over to look up at the sky and saw the familiar light display. We weren’t having an earthquake. It was a Fae storm. Only, this time, it was over land instead of the Hudson.
I twitched as static electricity moved across my skin. That was new and not at all pleasant. Shaking it off, I said, “Dad, come look at this.”
“Jesse!” Dad’s voice held a note of alarm that had me spinning to face him. Or I tried to. It’s a little hard to turn when you are suddenly weightless and floating a foot off the floor.
“What the hell?” I grabbed for the window ledge, but it was out of reach as I drifted upward like a helium balloon. My head bumped gently against the ceiling, and I put my hands up to brace against it. I fought to keep the panic out of my voice. “Dad?”
He had barely taken three steps toward me when the door opened, and Faolin burst in as if he expected to find us under attack. He came up short, and his serious expression relaxed into one of amusement at the sight of my predicament.
I glared at him. “Don’t just stand there. Get me down from here.”
He made a sound suspiciously like a laugh as he came over to place his hands on my waist. Pale blue magic poured from his fingers, and the uncomfortable tingling sensation disappeared. Seconds later, gravity took over, and I floated back to the floor.
“Thanks,” I said, too happy to be back on solid ground to care about the smirk he wore. “What was that?”
He stepped back and gave me a once-over. “Your body reacted to the storm. Humans can’t feel a storm’s energy. Faeries feel it, but it doesn’t affect us. You, on the other hand, are newly converted, and you have barely developed your magic. That makes you susceptible to it.”
“Great,” I muttered. “I hope I’m not outside the next time there’s a storm, or I’ll be the first faerie in orbit.”
Faolin actually chuckled. “I think we can give you something to carry with you when you go out that will suppress your magic until you can control it.”
“Like a dampening ward?” Dad asked.
Faolin nodded. “We can’t ward Jesse, but she should be able to carry something on her person. It will allow her to feel other magic while not reacting to it.”
Dad folded his arms across his chest. “I thought the storms were supposed to get weaker now that the ke’tain is back in Faerie.”
“It’s taking longer than we expected,” Faolin said. His phone rang, and he walked away to answer it.
“I can’t wait to see how the Agency tries to spin this one with the public.” I glanced out the window and saw that the lights were gone from the sky. The Hudson storm had been passed off as a freak tornado that had happened at the exact same time as the aurora borealis. I still couldn’t believe people had accepted that explanation.
“I don’t think they can.” Dad turned to the hallway. “I’m going to check on Finch and Aisla. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Now that I was alone with Faolin, snatches of his phone conversation reached me. “She’s okay. I was outside when it hit.”
I didn’t need to hear the other person’s voice to guess who it was. Anger and hurt licked at me. If Lukas was concerned about me, why didn’t he call me instead of Faolin? Was the thought of talking to me that abhorrent to him now?
Faolin ended the call and looked at me. “One of us will bring the ward to you later today. It will most likely be a bracelet or something to wear around your neck. Try not to go outside until then.”
“I won’t. Thanks.”
“Thank you for your help,” Dad said, rejoining us.
We said our goodbyes again, and Faolin left for the second time today. Dad and I went downstairs to check on Mrs. Russo and the other residents who were shaken by the storm. As scary as it had been, it was nothing compared to the violent one I’d experienced on the ferry two months ago. I was more rattled by the whole floating thing than the storm itself.
I was unnerved when we checked the news reports an hour later and learned Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo had all experienced similar storms around the same time. It was no coincidence that these five cities were the most popular in the world for faerie portals. Our storm had set off a citywide panic that had prompted both the mayor and the governor to go on the air to reassure people they were safe.
Two hours after the storm, the White House and the Agency did a joint press conference. Without going into too much detail, they informed the country about an artifact that had been brought here from Faerie, causing some instability in the barrier between the two realms. After telling viewers the object was safely back in Faerie, they assured people the barrier was healing, but there could be more storms until the damage was repaired.
“The worst is over,” said the national head of the Agency during the barrage of questions fired at them by reporters.
I looked over at my father. “Do you believe that?”
“No.”
I rubbed my suddenly cold arms. “Me either.”
* * *
“Are you ready for this?” Dad asked as he reached for the door handle.
I smiled at him. “Are you?”
“Guess we’ll find out.” Grinning, he opened the door, and we stepped into the lobby of the Plaza.
It felt like it had been a lot longer than three weeks since the last time I’d been here. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for him coming back after a four-month absence.
There were at least a dozen hunters in the lobby, and all heads turned in our direction. It surprised me to realize I knew everyone there. So much had changed since the first time I’d set foot in this building all those months ago.
A cheer went up, and some of the hunters clapped as they called out to Dad. In the next instant, we were surrounded by his old friends clamoring to welcome him back.
Warmth filled me as I watched him talking and laughing and looking more like his old self than he had since he’d come home. I’d been a little worried it was too soon for him to come here with me today, but this was exactly what he needed.
I spotted Maurice, Bruce, and Trey standing on one side of the room, and I walked over to join them. Maurice dropped by our apartment every day, but I hadn’t seen Bruce or Trey since before the day I’d nearly died from a bullet to the chest. As far as they and the other bounty hunters were concerned, I had been shot in the arm and had taken time off to heal. Outside of my family, the only humans who knew the real story were Maurice, Violet, and the Agency.
“Jesse, good to have you back,” Bruce said as Maurice gave me a one-armed hug.
“It’s good to be back,” I replied lightly. I had been practically floating since I got a call from the Agency this morning letting me know my license had been reinstated. I’d immediately called Levi, who told me to drop by this afternoon.
Trey pushed away from the wall he was leaning against. “How’s the arm?”
“Like it was never shot.”
He gave a slow shake of his head. “I can’t believe you were shot by Davian Woods, of all people.”
My jaw went slack. “How do you know about Davian?” I was under the impression the Agency hadn’t released any details of that day.
Trey smirked. “You should know by now that word travels around here. We heard you found the ke’tain, and Woods tried to take it from you.”
The rumor was close enough to the truth, so I nodded. “Good thing he’s a lousy shot.”