Authors: Sierra Dean
“Why do you insist on toying with your future?”
I released Holden and Kellen so I could stretch my fingers and shake off the uneasy feeling I’d gotten from passing into Calliope’s home. It sounded like she was building up for a lecture, and considering she was an ancient immortal, I didn’t think I had time to spare for a big speech tonight.
“I’ve made some terrible mistakes. People have suffered because of me. People… Someone I love has died because of me. You don’t need to tell me what a mess I’ve made. I’m here to set it right.”
“Mistakes cannot be undone, Secret. Spills cannot be unspilled, they must be wiped clean. Blood cannot be unshed, a wound must be stitched and healed. There isn’t an easy solution here. No magic snap of the fingers.”
“I know.”
“I can’t bring Brigit back. Neither can Aubrey. Sometimes death is as final as the poets claim.”
I hadn’t truly realized until right then part of me
had
hoped something could restore Brigit to life. I’d tried not to think about it, but in the back of my head a childish, innocent part of my brain thought there might be magic, something fantastic that could make things okay again.
I twisted my hands against the fabric of my dress. “I’m not here to change the past. I’m here to find a solution for the future.”
“And you think there’s a way to put it in order?”
“Stitch up the wound, you mean? Let it heal?”
“Yes.” She didn’t look pleased to have her own words echoed back to her. “What is your brilliant master plan?”
“Your brother made me a promise.”
At this, her brows shot up. “Why would he do such a thing?”
“Because of you. Because I told him you were at risk. He promised to keep his fairies from killing anyone else, and he failed. He owes me.”
She didn’t dispute this, further solidifying my own hopes that Aubrey’s broken promise
would
act as a favor. Fairies were hard to figure out when it came to knowing what did and didn’t constitute reparations owed.
“I also plan to bring him a gift. Something for one of his men.”
Her eyes went to Holden first, making me wonder if any of the fairies at the ball had made mention of him. I wouldn’t have been surprised. He’d looked so good I might have gone gay for him if I hadn’t already been his type. I shook my head at the Oracle and nodded towards Kellen.
“If you can assure me she isn’t under an emotionally manipulative spell and the attachment she has for Brokk is real, I’m going to take her back to him.”
Kellen clasped her hands together, looking like a lost, needy puppy. I could have sworn her eyes grew three sizes larger.
“Brokk?” Calliope’s nose wrinkled, and she rolled her eyes. “Oh she
must
be under a spell to believe she’s in love with that good for nothing—”
“Can you just, I don’t know…check her?”
“She’s not enchanted,” Calliope replied, never moving an inch closer.
I’d expected her to wave her hands over Kellen’s head or take her pulse. Maybe look deep into her eyes while reciting a strange fairy incantation. “That’s it? You can tell by looking at her?”
“She’s in love, that’s obvious enough. You can’t see it on her face?”
“Of course, she looks ridiculous, but that could be manipulated. Couldn’t it?”
“You live another six thousand years, Secret, and then you tell me what is and isn’t real love. Deal? Your friend isn’t under any enchantment. I’d be able to smell a love inducement from here.”
“Oh.”
“You seem disappointed.”
“No.” I wasn’t. And Kellen was obviously overjoyed. Yet part of me still felt let down by the whole thing. I’d wanted it to be showier. So far this plan of mine was going almost too easily, and it made me nervous. There was no way I’d come up with a plan clever enough to have no flaws. I wasn’t that smart.
“You will find as time passes the only thing you are surprised by is how so few things surprise you anymore,” Calliope said. It was one of those weird Oracle-isms she was inclined to toss at me. Something that didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the situation at hand, but in hindsight would prove to be the perfect thing she could have said at the time.
“Why do I feel like that line should be followed by you saying
surprise
?”
“You’ve obviously come here for me to send you and the girl through the gate, yes?”
“Yes.”
“I’m afraid that isn’t possible.” She smoothed down the front of her dress where some of the taffeta had bunched up, then after a beat, added, “Surprise.”
And there it was. The kink in the plan. The other shoe dropping. The…the wrench in my gears, or whatever. The fuckup of the whole thing. “
What?
But we went through last time, and you had no issues. Just unlock the door and let me take her in.”
“A human may only pass through as the…” She looked into the air, hands dancing at her sides while she tried to determine the best word to use. “Companion. The companion of a fairy. You and Kellen are human. I can’t let you pass.”
“You’re a fairy. You be our guide.”
Calliope rolled her eyes. “I do not
pass
through. I won’t set foot on the other side of the door. Not for you, not for anyone. This is my home, and I will not leave it for some fool’s errand you find yourself on.”
“And before?”
“Before you weren’t human. That which is other may go through at their own risk.”
“Can’t I accept the same risk now that—?”
“Rules are rules for a reason. You mustn’t ask me to break them because we are friends.”
“Friends
help
friends,” I reminded her.
She clucked her tongue at me. “I don’t need a lesson in friendship from the girl who thought I might be a murderer.”
Ouch.
“Cal. Calliope, please. I need to speak to Aubrey.”
With a sigh so dramatic I thought she might need a fainting couch, she flicked her dress behind her and pivoted on her heel. “I will
ask
if he wants to speak to you, but I make no assurances. And know this. If he does approve of this scheme of yours, it won’t change anything. You’ve done such damage to the course of your future I don’t know if I can see your way out of it anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
Calliope paused in the doorway. “It means once I saw a path that would lead you to remarkable happiness. Now I don’t know if that path will ever exist again.”
As she exited the room, the wisdom of her comment on surprises became clear. Once it would have shocked me to hear my potential happily ever after had been flushed down the toilet. Now I was only surprised to learn I’d had one at all.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Aubrey Delacourte was cut from the same stubborn-ass cloth as his sister. He wouldn’t come out of the fairy-land, and she wouldn’t let us in. That left only one bizarre option for Aubrey and me to have our one-on-one.
As it turned out, Kellen hadn’t been wrong when she’d thought mirrors opened a passage to alternate realities. Calliope led me to a room and shut me inside alone. When the door closed behind me, dim lights rose, and I realized the entire circular suite was lined wall-to-wall with mirrors. The floor and ceiling were both mirrored as well, making me dizzy as I walked into the center of the room.
I was busy looking down at the reflection of myself at my feet—trying to keep my dress pulled down and my legs together—so I failed to notice when I wasn’t alone anymore. I looked up, and the fairy king was standing behind me.
Letting out a squeal of surprise, I spun around, but the room was empty save for me. Except the mirrors told a different story. In each reflection of myself, the smug face of the king smiled back, obviously delighting in my shock.
“We meet again, Miss McQueen.”
“If that’s what you call this.”
“Ah, you’ll have to forgive our methods. The fae tend to live their lives on one plane or another, and we generally fear that to leave our favored plane may cause us to become forever trapped on a different one. Calliope and I are forbidden from being in the same reality as one another, because were I to die, she would have my throne. If we were in the same world, and were both to die… Well. You humans have a word for it. Anarchy.”
“Fairies don’t believe in anarchy?”
“The fae believe in rules. Always in rules.”
“So I’ve learned. Which is why I’m here.”
“Oh? I do love a good intrigue. Tell me.”
“The night of the ball you made me a promise.”
“Have I lived so short a time as to regret it already?” he asked.
“Maybe you should think better of the promises you make.”
“I make so very few.”
“Or maybe you should have better control over your people.”
His visage grew stormy, the quick flicker of rage I’d seen come over him in the past. I knew the fairy king was prone to sudden mood swings, but it was strange to see him overtaken so visibly. I didn’t wait for him to regain control, I merely pressed on. “Another youth was killed in
my
territory, the same way as the last. You assured me this wouldn’t happen again, and your word has proven to be no good to me.”
“You’ve begun to bore me. I dislike accusations and assaults on my character.”
“But you do like demands. I know that.”
“Do you think you’re in a position to demand
anything
from a king?” Briefly he became larger, the edges of his figure blurring and shifting into something monstrous and unstable. I swallowed the pit forming in my throat.
“I
know
I am. Don’t try to intimidate me.”
His outline became normal again, and he once more looked bored. “Then let’s get it over with. What do you want?”
“Two things.”
“That’s not typically how a return on favors goes.”
“Ah, but you make so few promises, Your Majesty. The outcome of a broken one must surely hold more weight.” This ploy was a hell of a long shot, but I wanted to try it.
“Let me hear what these two things are. Then I will determine what weight my promises are worth.”
“I want to reverse our arrangement.”
“Reverse it?”
“Yes, I want what you took.”
“And you’re willing to return the girl? The one who was so precious to you? Who you went to such
great lengths
to get back?” His tone was snide. I could tell he was trying to make me feel selfish or guilty. If that was his game, fine. He didn’t need to know how happy this would make Kellen.
“I’m willing to do what it takes to make it a fair trade.”
He gave a thin, thoughtful smile. “Maybe you really do have royal blood in you.”
“I’ve been told I have the cutthroat attitude of a queen,” I replied.
“Yes. You do.”
“Which leads me to my second request.”
“I’m all ears.” His face changed again, this time literally covering over with a hundred ears in all shapes and sizes, before changing back.
“That’s got to be a fun trick at parties.”
“It loses its impact when everyone around you can do the same thing.”
My palms were so sweaty from fear I worried I’d damage Brigit’s dress by wiping them on the material. Here went nothing. “I want you to give me the fairy who has been killing people in my realm. They’ve broken laws in
my
territory, and they will be made to suffer at
my
hand. I think that’s only fair since it’s an insult to me they were allowed to hurt those under my protection in the first place.”
“You honestly believe everyone in your city is under your protection?”
In vampire logic, saying this would mean almost eight million people now belonged to me. I had enough trouble keeping three humans safe, so I was thankful fairy logic didn’t have the same rule. At least as far as I knew.
“I believe anyone I didn’t protect is someone I failed. I can’t stop humans from killing each other, but I thought I’d protected them from one of your people, and I didn’t. I failed the girl who died. And for that, I want the one who killed her.”
“You have a cunning mind, my dear.”
“With due respect, every time you compliment me it makes me want to change whatever it is about me you approve of.”
Aubrey smiled and stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I admire your honesty, you know.”
“Because I’m not constantly kissing your ass like everyone else?”
“Yes.” He dropped his hands, and a shudder rocked me. The feeling of a thousand tiny hands caressing every inch of my exposed skin made me want to recoil from him, but he was only an image. He was on the other side of the mirror, and what was touching me wasn’t real.
I gritted my teeth together and forced myself to ignore the sensations.
“Do you usually molest the people you admire?”
“Depends on how much they test me. One must be on the lookout for weaknesses in those who might challenge me.”
I wiped my hands on my legs, trying to bat away the invisible fingers touching me. “I don’t want to challenge you. I have no aspirations for another throne.”