by Karen Lynch
An agonized scream came from above. Trey.
Strength surged through me. I pulled my body upward with such force that I cleared the bottom of the window and flew through it. I hit the floor in a roll and came to my feet in front of the banshee and Trey. He was on his knees facing me, and she was behind him with her gnarled, hands on either side of his head.
Her head snapped up, and her dead eyes locked with mine. I felt a frisson of fear until I realized her stare had no effect on me because I was no longer human. I rushed at her, and she released Trey as she backed away from me.
“Jesse! Jesus, I thought you were dead,” Trey said between gasps. “How…?”
The banshee whirled to flee, and I leaped, tackling her. We went down in a tangle of limbs, and she shrieked so loudly in my ear it sent needles of pain through the side of my head. I managed to clamp a hand over her mouth, but even my new strength wasn’t going to hold her for long.
“Trey, shackles,” I grunted. I heard movement behind me, and it seemed to take forever before Trey appeared holding a pair of shackles.
The banshee screamed against my hand and bucked viciously to throw me off her. I lost my grip, and one of her arms flailed, hitting my cheek with such force that I saw stars.
Trey dived into the fight, and between the two of us, we finally managed to pin her down. Looking around, I found the shackles three feet away, and I was the closest to them. I moved my hand so Trey could put his over her mouth, and then I went for the shackles.
My head jerked back violently when the banshee’s bony fingers snagged my hair. Tears pricked my eyes as I pulled out of her clutches and felt my hair coming free from my ponytail. Ignoring the pain in my scalp, I reached for the shackles and snatched them up.
Waves of cold nausea slammed into me, and I swayed on my legs, which were suddenly unable to bear my weight. I fell to my hands and knees, gasping for air and fighting not to pass out.
“Jesse!”
Trey’s shout penetrated the roaring in my ears. I lifted my head to see him staring at me as he struggled with the banshee. I tried to push up off the floor, but I was like steel stuck to a powerful magnet.
It wasn’t until I caught a glimpse of strands of red hair in the banshee’s fist that I realized what was wrong with me. When she’d grabbed my hair, she had pulled the goddess stone from it as I had done with the kelpie.
A horrifying thought hit me. The goddess stone was the only thing protecting me from the iron in this world. What if the stone passed to her now? Without it, I didn’t know how long I could last.
Fear propelled me forward, and I crawled the few feet to Trey and the banshee. It took supreme effort to reach up and catch her hand, but as soon as I made contact with her fist, energy flowed into me like rainwater into parched soil. I forced her fingers open, and there on her palm was the stone in the exact same shade of red as my hair. I touched it, and it disappeared. The strength flooding my body told me the stone was back in my hair where it belonged.
“The shackles,” Trey shouted.
I snatched up the shackles from the floor and made short work of securing the banshee’s wrists. Her thrashing stopped, and she lay weakly in Trey’s hold while I pulled off my backpack and found the muzzle I’d stuffed in there earlier. Trey took his hand off her mouth, and I fitted the muzzle in place, ignoring the hateful glare she shot me. She might have been scary when I first saw her, but she was no danger to anyone now.
Sitting on the floor, I stretched my jaw to relieve my ears that still ached from her wailing. My fingers touched the cold head of a hammer, and I jerked my hand away as if the metal had burned me. A shudder went through me, and I tried not to think of what it must feel like for the banshee to wear those shackles.
I stood. “Watch her. I’m going to check on the others.”
Trey grabbed my arm before I could leave, and I met his eyes, which were round with shock. “You… You’re a faerie,” he whispered. “But how?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Trey.” I pulled away from him.
He scowled at me. “I know I’m not as smart as you, but I’m not an idiot either. I saw what just happened to you, and the banshee didn’t affect you at all when you looked at her.”
I shook my head, intending to deny it, but his expression told me it wouldn’t work. Any explanation I came up with would sound lame after what he’d witnessed.
“You can’t tell anyone about this,” I said.
His eyes grew even wider. “You’re really a faerie? When? How?” He paled as he connected the dots. “You were shot. Oh, Jesse…”
One of the twins groaned somewhere off to our left.
“Yes,” I hissed at Trey. “Can we not talk about this here?”
His look was incredulous. “It’s not like you can keep it a secret.”
“I will for as long as I can. And you are not going to tell a soul, not even your dad.”
“But…”
I leaned in to whisper, “If you breathe a word of this, I will tell the whole Plaza about the time you were so afraid of the clown at the neighborhood Halloween party that you peed your pants.”
He stared at me aghast. “I was a little kid, and he was dressed like Pennywise.”
“You were fourteen.” I gave him an evil smirk. “I have the pictures to prove it.”
I left him sputtering and went to check on Adrian and Aaron. That clown incident was Trey’s most embarrassing secret, and I had happened to be in the right place at the right time to witness it. I wasn’t lying about the pictures, but I would never humiliate him that way. He didn’t know that, though.
Adrian was out cold, but Aaron was coming to when I found them. It took half an hour to get them both on their feet. I suggested they go to the hospital, but they wouldn’t hear of it. Neither of them was happy when they saw the bound banshee and Trey’s smug look. We’d all get credit for the capture, but this was going to leave a bad taste in their mouths for a long time.
We gathered our stuff and got into the elevator with the banshee between Aaron and Adrian. It was their job, so it was only right for them to bring her out of the building. Trey grumbled under his breath until I shot him a warning look.
Out on the street, we got plenty of stares from passersby who gave us a wide berth. Bounty hunters were common, but it wasn’t every day you saw a real live banshee.
“Our van is around the corner,” Aaron said. “Do you guys want to follow us to the Plaza?”
“Not unless you need us to go,” I said, speaking for Trey and me.
Adrian shook his head. “We can handle her from here. We’ll leave your shackles and muzzle and your share of the bounty with Silas.”
“Sounds good.”
We said our goodbyes, and they limped away with the banshee between them. Aaron looked like he’d gone a few rounds with a prizefighter. Adrian hadn’t fared much better than his brother. Trey was sporting a black eye, but that was from me, not the banshee. He’d gotten off the easiest among us. I didn’t have any facial bruises, but my ribs felt like they’d been kicked by a kelpie. I’d soon find out if faeries healed as fast as I’d heard they did.
“Hey, isn’t that one of the faeries who was at your apartment on Christmas Eve?” Trey asked.
My stomach did a little tumble as I followed his gaze to the other side of the street where a lone figure stood outside a restaurant. I let out my breath when I saw it was Faolin, not Lukas.
Faolin’s head turned slowly as if he was doing a sweep of his surroundings. His eyes met mine, and he frowned. I couldn’t tell if it was from displeasure or surprise.
I gave him a cheeky grin and a little wave that was sure to annoy him. I was rewarded with a scowl as a large black car pulled up in front of him. He made no move to get in, and I realized too late that he was waiting for someone.
The door behind him opened, and a couple walked out. The man was handsome, in his thirties, and he looked a little familiar. A celebrity maybe? His companion was blonde, beautiful,
and Fae.
Another person appeared behind them, and my gut clenched when I saw Lukas. The female faerie turned to say something to him, and he laughed.
The day after Faolin’s visit, I had summoned the nerve to call Lukas and thank him for what he’d done for me. I’d gotten his voice mail instead of him, and I’d left him a short, rambling message to which he’d never replied. I had been telling myself that the reason I hadn’t seen or heard from him in the last two weeks was that he was busy dealing with the barrier problems. Apparently, I was mistaken.
Faolin leaned over to say something to Lukas. Seconds later, Lukas’s head swung in my direction, and his gaze locked with mine. His smile was gone, but that didn’t stop the quickening of my heart or the physical pull toward him. It felt like months, not weeks, since I’d last seen him, and I was relieved for the traffic that prevented me from giving in to the urge to go to him.
The female faerie said something to him. When he didn’t respond, she followed his gaze to me. She clearly wasn’t happy that someone else was stealing his attention from her, and I could feel the hostility she directed at me. If not for the street between us, her glare might have reduced me to cinders.
“Jesse?”
I tore my eyes from Lukas to look at Trey, whom I realized had said my name a few times. He glanced between Lukas and me, and I could almost see the light come on over his head.
“Was he the one who…?”
“I’ll tell you about it on the way home.” Pasting on a smile, I hooked my arm through his. I don’t know what compelled me to do it. Maybe I wanted to show Lukas that I was doing fine without him, too.
I cast one last glance across the street. Faolin now sported a knowing smirk, but Lukas’s mouth had formed a thin line. I might have allowed myself to believe he was jealous if he hadn’t avoided me for two weeks. My anger flared. He had been ignoring me, and now he looked annoyed that I wasn’t sitting at home waiting for him to finally have time for me. He couldn’t have it both ways.
I turned my back on him and tugged on Trey’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“Do I want to know what that was about?” he asked as we started back to where the Jeep was parked.
“Nope.”
We walked in silence for a few minutes before he spoke. “Why don’t you want anyone to know about… what happened to you?”
“Because the media will go nuts, and I can’t put Mom and Dad through that.” Dad had been doing well this week, but I’d seen the strain around his eyes a few times when he thought I wasn’t looking. It had to be killing him to know his son was alive but to not be able to reach out to him. I’d never been a vengeful person, but every time I saw what this was doing to my father, I wanted to hunt Queen Anwyn down and make her pay for what she’d done to my family.
Trey stopped walking and turned to face me. “I swear I won’t tell anyone – even without the blackmail. I like your parents, and I wouldn’t do anything to hurt them.”
“Thanks.” I smiled. “I wouldn’t have told anyone about Pennywise.”
He laughed. “I know. Otherwise, you would have done it back in school.”
We started walking again, and we’d barely gone ten steps when he asked, “Can I have those pictures?”
“No.” I grinned, feeling lighter.
He sighed heavily. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
* * *
Finch whistled, pulling my attention from the spreadsheet I was working on. I looked up as he sat on a stack of books on the corner of the desk.
I thought we were going to see Mom today, he signed.
“We’re going when Dad gets back.” I glanced at the time on the computer monitor. “He’s only been gone an hour.”
Finch’s big eyes sparkled. Do you think he’s getting your present?
“Probably.” I laughed. Finch was more excited about my birthday than I was.
A series of soft whistles came from the top of the shelves where we kept our gear. Aisla had started coming into the office with Finch, but she was still too timid to sit on the desk.
“What’s she saying?” I asked Finch.
She said maybe Dad will bring Gus home. Finch gave me such a hopeful look that my chest squeezed in response.
I cleared my throat. “Gus went home to Faerie to live with all the other drakkans, remember?”
Finch’s eyes grew sad. We miss him. Do you think he misses us?
“Of course. How could he not miss you?” I couldn’t tell my brother that Gus had most likely forgotten all about us and his time here. Faris had said that would happen once he was among the wild drakkans.
The doorbell rang, and I jumped up. I had no idea who could be calling, but I was glad for the interruption.
I peered through the peephole, but all I saw was a wrapped box sporting a large, blue bow. Dad. I rolled my eyes at his antics as I opened the door.
“Happy birthday!” shouted a voice that was definitely not my father’s.
I gaped at my visitor. “Violet! What are you doing here?”
“Some welcome home that is.” She threw one of her arms around me and hugged me while awkwardly holding the present. I pulled her into the apartment, took the box, and tossed it on the table. Then I hugged her until she grunted that I was crushing her.
I let her go. “Sorry.”
She pretended to shake out her arms. “I see the faerie strength is finally kicking in.”
“It comes and goes.” I couldn’t stop smiling. “You’re home!”
“You didn’t think I was going to miss your birthday.” She took off her coat and hung it over the back of a chair. “Where is everyone?”
“Finch and Aisla are in the office, and Dad had to run out. He should be back soon.”
She walked into the living room and sank down on the couch. “Perfect. That gives us time to catch up before the birthday festivities begin.”
“Tell me everything about the movie. What was it like being on an actual movie set?” She and I had texted every day, but she hadn’t gone into a lot of detail.
“It was exciting at first, but it gets old fast. This movie has a ton of CGI, so there’s a lot of green screen shooting. I was able to get away for a few days because they won’t be shooting the rest of my scenes until later.” Her face lit up. “Oh! I’m doing two extra scenes I wasn’t supposed to have. The director thought there weren’t enough females in them, so they’re switching out a male actor for me.”
“That’s amazing!”
She lifted a shoulder. “I would rather have gotten them because of my awesome acting skills, but this will give me twice as much screen time.”
“And it will give everyone more time to see how awesome you are,” I added.
“Exactly.”
I threw up my arms. “My best friend is a movie star!”
The two of us squealed and jumped up and down like we were thirteen and I’d gotten a valentine from Josh Warren, the cutest boy in our class.
We fell back onto the couch, laughing, and I reached over to take her hand. “I missed you.”
Her smile waned. “I wish I could have been here with you. The timing for this movie could not have been worse.”
“I wasn’t exactly a fun person to be around for the first two weeks. It’s good to be hunting again because it keeps me busy.”
“You must have been desperate to hunt if you went on a job with Trey.” She snickered. “I wish I’d seen his face when you blackmailed him with the clown story.”
I laughed with her. “He’s been pretty cool about it, actually, and he kept my secret.”
Violet tucked her legs under her and fixed me with a searching look. “Soooo?”
“So, what?”
“You’ve been texting about hunting, Harvard, and the fact you can no longer drink coffee – which is tragic, by the way.” She gave a sorrowful shake of her head. “But one thing you haven’t said a word about is a certain Unseelie prince.”
I ignored the tiny pinpri
cks of pain in my chest. “Because there’s nothing to tell you. I haven’t spoken to him since he brought me home. I’m starting to wonder if he regrets making me Fae.”
“You don’t believe that, and neither do I. I saw him at the hospital, and I think he would have attempted the conversion even if your dad hadn’t said yes.”
“Then why haven’t I heard from him?” I asked glumly.
She pursed her lips. “Have you tried calling him?”
“Once.” I puffed out a breath. “I left him a message, but he never called back.”
Her brow furrowed. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“I’ve given up trying to make sense of it,” I lied. I wouldn’t admit that his absence consumed my thoughts every night when I lay in bed. I could have asked Faris or Conlan about it, but my pride wouldn’t let me. If Lukas wanted to ghost me, I wasn’t going to chase after him.
“You know what? We should go out one night before I have to go back to Utah.” Violet’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “We can meet up with Lorelle at Va’sha or go somewhere else.”
“I don’t know.” I bit my lip. Except for work, I hadn’t gone out much lately. I didn’t know if I was ready to be around a lot of people.
My phone rang, and I was grateful for the reprieve until I saw Ben Stewart’s name on the screen. My stomach tightened. The only time the Agency’s head of the Special Crimes division called me was when he had bad news.
“I don’t suppose this is a social call,” I said.
He chuckled. “No, although I do believe a happy birthday is in order.”
Of course, the Agency knew everything there was to know about me – except for a few closely guarded secrets. “Thank you.”
There was a brief silence on the line, and then he said, “I’m calling to give you a heads-up. There’s been a leak from someone at the hospital.”
“A leak?” My pulse leapt.
“We got a call today from a reporter asking about a Fae conversion that supposedly happened there. They didn’t have any names, and they wouldn’t give us the name of their source. We’re looking into it, but I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. All they have is a rumor, but even a hint of a conversion is too much for them to pass up.” He paused to take a breath. “The network is going to run the story. I didn’t want you to be blindsided by it.”