Authors: Sierra Dean
Holden cursed behind me, and Desmond said nothing. It was possible Desmond didn’t understand how bad it was to owe something to a fae. You couldn’t even
thank
a fairy without them thinking it meant you were in the red with them. Kellen couldn’t have known the implications of her actions.
“She didn’t know,” I told Gia. “There was no way she would promise
herself
to a fairy if she really understood.”
“The girl came to our club, and she came often.” Gia tapped the ledger as if I was supposed to understand the story the Chinese scrawl was telling me. “She made her bed. And now she will lie in it. Perhaps it will not be so bad for her. He does specialize in happiness after all. Maybe you should let her be.”
“Where
is
she?” I demanded, rising to my feet and slamming the ledger down on Gia’s desk.
The small woman raised her wrinkled face to me, and the smile was gone. “She is beyond the gate. Your friend has been taken by the fairies, child. You will never see her again.”
Outside the air had a chill to it, reminding me spring was not always willing to easily yield to summer. I beat both men to the car and was pacing in front of it while I waited for them to show up. Leave it to Kellen to fall into debt with the fae and be spirited away by the fucking
fairies
.
“What does she mean
taken by the fairies
?” Desmond asked when he reached me. “Is that a code for something?”
I shook my head. “Remember when I took you to the Oracle?”
He nodded.
“We were beyond the gate then.”
“Technically,” Holden interrupted as he came to the driver’s door, “you were
inside
the gate. Calliope’s mansion is the gatehouse. It’s a way to get to and from the realms. Your friend’s sister is on the other side of the Oracle.”
Desmond didn’t say anything, though Holden had dropped a lot of knowledge with one little speech. “If we want to find her,” the vampire continued, “the Oracle is our only hope.”
I stiffened. Normally I’d be the first one to say,
We’re off to see the Oracle,
but right now I was pretty sure Calliope was killing humans. Not a hundred percent sure, but not convinced of her innocence either. I couldn’t exactly waltz into her home and ask for a favor when I was half certain she was a murderer.
She’d know.
But Holden was right. If we were going to find Kellen, and Kellen was with the fairies, Calliope was our one slim shot in hell of getting to her. I cursed loudly and kicked the car tire. “I don’t like this,” I hissed. “How the hell did she get herself in this kind of trouble?
Goddammit
.”
Holden frowned at me. “Honestly, love, there’s no need to take it out on the car.”
Bracing my hands on the roof of the car, I glared at him. “Would you prefer I take it out on you?”
The vampire clucked his tongue at me and started to say something else, but Desmond interrupted. “Maybe, before we let this tension get too far, we should go see the Oracle. Okay?”
I didn’t like it, but what was to like?
If I wanted to bring Kellen home, I needed Calliope’s help.
After a brief stop at home to collect my katana, some spare bullet clips and a few assorted weapons, we made our way to Calliope’s. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the fae world, but I didn’t think I wanted to go in without protection.
Not so long ago the sight of the Starbucks down the block from my house came as a relief to me. It was my safe place, a refuge from the insanity of the world around me. I used to come for advice, for blood, or to see someone I thought was my friend.
But if my friend was a murderer…
I didn’t know how to finish that sentence. For the first time since mentally accusing Calliope of Petey the Pizza Boy’s death, I had to ask myself
why
it mattered that Calliope might have killed him.
I worked daily with vampires, people who had been alive long before they started to obey the rules of the council. Sig and Juan Carlos had been killers in their human lives. I was kidding myself if I didn’t think Holden had killed anyone. Even Keaty was a killer for a living.
And what about me?
What a hypocrite I was for getting up on my high horse and looking down on someone else for being a killer, when it was all I’d done with my own life since I was sixteen. Until I had real answers, I couldn’t start judging anyone based on their murderous habits.
It only felt different because it was a teenage boy. And because I thought Calliope was above that sort of thing.
“Okay,” I said with a sigh. “Let’s get this over with.”
Holden could go through the gate on his own, but Desmond was another story. Desmond was technically
extra
forbidden in Calliope’s realm. First, because he was a werewolf, and shifters were notoriously unstable in fae realms, and second, because the Oracle had outright forbidden me from ever bringing him back.
But he was staying with me until we got to the bottom of the whole Kellen situation. I was worried if I let Desmond out of my sight for even a moment, Lucas would manage to make him disappear. God knows what would happen if I went into a fairy realm. I might come back out and find Desmond was long gone and there was no easy way for me to get him home again.
So the wolf was staying with me until I brought Kellen home.
I took Desmond’s hand and held tight as we approached the entrance to the coffee shop. The gate to Calliope’s realm was designed to allow through only those in need of her aid. I was pretty damned sure we qualified, but whenever I came to the passage with anyone else, I had the nagging worry it wouldn’t let me through.
Don’t let today be that day,
I thought.
Holden passed through first, and instead of stepping into the foyer of the Starbucks, he vanished. One down, two to go.
“Don’t let go,” I instructed.
Desmond said nothing but squeezed my hand firmly. I approached the door and pulled us both through. Normally a faint tingling sensation was all that accompanied my transition through the pass. Stepping in this time felt like entering a vacuum, which was the first sign something wasn’t right. Desmond’s hand tightened on mine so fiercely my bones felt like they were grinding against each other. I tried to call out in protest, but the air was sucked from my lungs, leaving me gasping.
When I looked at Desmond, his face was pale, and he was clutching the front of his shirt. He couldn’t breathe either. I kept trying to suck in air, but it was about as fruitful as a fish on dry land gasping for water.
Then the cold came, chilling me so suddenly I wondered if we hadn’t been dropped into ice and frozen solid. Shivers racked my body, setting my teeth chattering and covering my skin in goose bumps. Desmond’s hand felt clammy and waxy in my own, like he wasn’t real anymore.
I tugged him onward, not sure anymore if we were actually moving, or if we were going in the right direction. It was obvious we couldn’t stay where we were, though. He resisted. His nails dug in, and in an instant they weren’t human nails anymore. His lupine claws shredded my skin like Kleenex. I didn’t want to let go, but the agony of his claws burned through my wrist like my bones themselves were made of hot coals. I screamed soundlessly and swiped out at him.
It wasn’t until the blood pooled on his forearm that I realized my own hand had transformed.
We stared at each other, truly breathless, and I understood what was happening. We were too close to the full moon, and now that I’d changed, I could no longer control my wolf in Calliope’s realm. I started to panic, wondering if we’d be trapped here forever, however short a time that would be without air, when the vacuum gave way.
Desmond and I, both bloody and gasping, stumbled through the other side of the passage and found ourselves safely in Calliope’s waiting room. A fire was burning, and Holden stood next to the Oracle, waiting for us. Desmond pulled his claws free from my wrist and collapsed on the rug, sucking in air and holding the wounds on his forearm. I cradled my brutalized wrist in the crook of my arm and tried to keep my half-wolf hand hidden.
It was pointless. Neither of them missed that we’d staggered into the room claws-deep in each other.
Holden’s nostrils flared as the scent of fresh blood filled the room.
Calliope, wearing a crimson-colored satin party dress, her black hair hanging in loose waves over her shoulders, gave Desmond and me a cursory once-over.
“Secret, you promised me.”
“I know.”
“Yet here you are, and here he is, and it seems once again you’re asking me to break my rules for you.” She crossed her arms and frowned, her supple lips turning into a delicate pout. It was almost offensive how beautiful Calliope was.
“We need your help,” I said.
“Clearly.”
I followed her gaze to Desmond and watched him tremble. A line of hair grew and then faded on his neck. Over his body the same thing was happening—coarse hair appearing and instantly vanishing, seemingly in time with his heartbeat. Just watching him made a shudder rumble through me. My wolf could smell his wolf, and she wanted to accept the invitation to come out.
I had to look away from Desmond. I wanted to help him, to hold him until he got himself under control, but I was certain the moment I touched him my humanity would melt away entirely and we’d all be screwed.
My inner wolf wasn’t exactly a good listener.
Holden seemed to sense the internal dilemma I was wrestling with and came to stand beside me, placing a hand on the back of my neck like Desmond had done in the elevator. His touch felt blissfully cool against my too-hot skin. Just his touch and the nearness of the scent of vampire helped me pull back from the edge. The bones of my hand realigned—very painfully—but by the time I glanced down again they were normal.
“Now him,” I said, pointing to Desmond. I still didn’t trust myself with touching him.
The vampire hesitated until one glare from me, and he grumbled but did as I asked. He bent over Desmond’s shuddering form and put his hand on the werewolf’s neck. Desmond jerked, but Holden didn’t back away. He lowered, whispered something to the wolf, and Desmond went still.
For a long moment I wasn’t sure if it had worked, but then Desmond let out a sigh and got to his feet. His claws had retracted, and he didn’t have any hair other than what he was meant to.
One problem down.
I looked to Calliope, her mouth set in a firm line. She was angry with me, and I wasn’t sure if it was solely because I’d broken her No Werewolves rule. She motioned for us to follow her. “Let’s get this over with, shall we? If you thought this was dramatic, you have no idea what you’re in for on the other side.”
Thankfully being pissed didn’t impact Calliope’s hospitality. She provided fresh blood for Holden and me, and made sure Desmond had eaten about half a cow, before she explained what we should expect from
the other side
. I gathered we’d be needing all our strength for this coming experience.
“Did Gia say what Kellen had promised?” Calliope asked as she walked us down one of the many winding halls of her estate.
Desmond, his voice gruffer than usual, replied, “From what we were told, she promised herself.”
Calliope stopped walking and turned to face Desmond. “Are you sure? Those exact words?”
Not accustomed to being under the direct scrutiny of Calliope’s gaze, Desmond stammered for a moment before answering, “Yes.”
The Oracle drummed her nails on the wooden door we’d stopped in front of. “That’s…complicated.”
“How complicated?” I asked.
“I don’t know if you’re going to be able to get her back,” Calliope admitted. “If I had to guess, I’d say she met one of the high court, he whispered some sweet nothings, and she said something you stupid human girls are wont to say.
I’m all yours
or some such nonsense. To a fairy lord, that’s a promise. In our laws, he has every right to lay claim to her.”
“You’ve
got
to be kidding me.” I chose to overlook her lumping me in with
stupid human girls
.
“If I were kidding, Secret, you wouldn’t be running off to the fairy realm to reclaim a missing girl, would you?”
I bit my tongue.
“This one is going to be difficult for you.” She pointed to Desmond. “I can promise you’re going to regret bringing him.”
“No more than I’d regret leaving him here.”
“I never thought I’d say this, but I wish your fate was clearer.” She grabbed my hands, not bothering to look at the palms, and gave them a squeeze. “I don’t know how this is going to end for you.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured her, although I had no way to know that, and I was hoping she’d be telling
me
I had nothing to fear. “Cal? Can I ask you something before I go?”
“About the boy.”
I had anticipated she would know. She was the Oracle after all. She might not know if I’d live to see tomorrow, but she knew I wanted to accuse her of murder. Funny how that worked.
“Did you…?”
“No.” She rubbed my hands between hers, warming them. “I knew him, but I didn’t kill him. You’ll find out soon enough, lovely, that I am not the only one of my kind. Though I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”