“Please, forgive me, but I’m bound to him in more ways than one. He made me promise to not ever divulge such information to anyone.”
I’d had enough and spat on the ground next to him. “That’s what I think about your faery bonds. Go to hell, Atieran. All your clan can go to hell for all I care. Let your brother burn it all down. If he self-destructs, it’ll save us a lot of effort.”
Amy bent down to help Atieran back up, looking as uncertain about the situation as ever. “Look, arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere. We need to figure out the weakness of the faery king and go for it. Is there anything useful you can tell us?” she pleaded. “We need your help.”
I almost choked as I watched her inch closer to the faery. But she knew what she was doing, because not a moment later, as Atieran still gasped for breath, he caved.
“I’m sorry, Amy. I don’t want anything to happen to you. There is one way.” His raspy voice made him throw a quick glare at Craig for choking him out.
“Okay, what is it?” she asked. We waited impatiently as he sputtered and cleared his throat.
“Like I said, he and I are connected. You kill one, you kill the other.”
Chapter Twenty-five
* * *
Amy
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I backed away from Atieran, my anger rising as I stared at him in disbelief. “What the hell kind of solution is that?”
“Let’s do it,” Jay growled, his hand on his gun. “I’ll kill him right now and end this whole charade. Just say the word.” Craig already had a knife in hand, spinning it restlessly around in his fingers. I held my hand up to them, hoping to calm them.
“Stop! Just stop. No one is killing anyone. There has to be a better way.” I turned toward Atieran. “Why would that even be a thing?”
“We are bound. When siblings are inducted into a faery tribe, we are forever bound together, like two souls turned into one. It doesn’t work with mere injuries. When I was tortured and hurt by the other fae, he never suffered the effects of it. But if one of us dies, the other dies as well. Hence why I’ve always been guarded ever since he became king. The faery tribe usually doesn’t take more than one family member at a time, because one death means two; any battle would be twice as devastating to us. It’s why my tribe only took Amy when they abducted her and not the two of you.”
“I see. So, does your brother remember anything about this small hitch?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. That’s why he’s pursuing us.”
“He doesn’t want to die and hopes we don’t know this information. I see.” Amy chewed on her lip pensively. “Is there any other way? I’m not going to kill you to get to him. That’s just not going to be the plan, got it guys?” I faced my brothers, and they reluctantly put their weapons away. Good thing they wouldn’t want to fight me; we’d beat each other to a pulp.
“Come on, Amy. We can end this now. How hard is that?” Craig sighed, running his hand through his hair. We all were looking tired, a good night’s rest still far away. I pondered his question. Yes, we could end it, but how could I ever kill Atieran? That wasn’t going to happen. We had to figure something else out.
“Okay, look. No one is killing anyone. We need a plan. Let’s get the hell out of these dungeons and get to a safe house. Our townhouse that’s off the books would be good. It’s sturdy in case your brother figures out where we are, and it has a cache of weapons. This armor of his, it must have a chink in it somewhere, and we’re going to find it. Got it?” I glared at the three men, and they all nodded. “Okay, let’s get out of here. I’m feeling claustrophobic.”
I frowned, knowing no one shared my reasoning, but they didn’t want to argue. They knew they’d have to go through me to get to Atieran, a fight they didn’t even want to consider. They followed reluctantly through the tunnel, built before the Agency’s building had even been erected. For security reasons, it had never appeared on any blueprints, and only the most senior agents had been told about it. Ridley didn’t even know about it, and I was thankful for that. We’d be toast if she had. Luckily, she’d become director after every member of the Agency who’d known about the tunnel had either retired or was now long dead.
My brothers and I were the last to know of their existence. One of the old agents, who’d been just a month from retiring when we’d arrived, had taken a shine to us. He’d told us about the tunnel in case we ever needed a quick way out of trouble, and we’d had the wisdom to not share the secret with anyone else. There were too many such secrets at the Agency, and I was beginning to realize that it was because everyone seemed to be hiding something.
As we walked in silence, I pondered my allegiance to the Agency. Since when had we become exterminators, and since when did we negotiate with the fae to turn over agents? I frowned to myself as we walked on, gravel crunching beneath our feet, a hard rock sitting in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t like how things had turned out, and I wondered what it would take to change things in the Agency. There didn’t seem to be a simple solution, or an immediate one, but I swore that if we got out of our predicament in one piece, I’d work on the current policies to change how the Agency dealt with the supernatural community of Wicked Grove.
We finally entered the sewers and trudged our way through the bowels of Wicked Grove. At last, Craig motioned us over to a ladder leading up to a manhole which was hidden in an alley near the safe house. We crept past silent tenements where people with no worries or thoughts for the supernatural slept quietly in their beds, unaware of the monsters roaming the night. For a moment, I wished I was one of those naïve, oblivious people. Sometimes ignorance truly was bliss.
“Just around the bend.” Craig stepped up to a lone brownstone sitting a few feet from the rest of the row houses. It looked normal except for the slight space on each side of the building. No one would suspect it would be any different from any other house on the street. The lights were on timers, which kept the house looking lived in. We also paid a brownie housekeeper to keep it tidy and to keep our business private. We knew her secret—that she used a magical glamour to appear human, despite her true diminutive size—so that helped her keep ours. The only inconvenience was that she liked getting paid in solid gold.
It was off the Agency books, of course. The three of us had invested in it to keep as our own little sanctuary just in case something catastrophic ever happened at the Agency. We’d decided on this years before, when we’d first started at the Agency and realized that the supernatural community we observed weren’t the only ones being watched. We went there when we were down on our luck or needed to disappear for a while, to get off the grid. It was a place where we could relax and let our hair down.
I’d never been more relieved to enter the house than I was at that moment. Plopping down on the sofa, I let my head drop onto the back of the couch, deeply inhaling the fresh lemony scent lingering from the polishing our brownie housekeeper had done earlier that day. She probably wondered what an abandoned house was doing in the middle of a quiet residential street, but she was paid plenty to keep her mouth shut about it. A severe nondisclosure agreement kept her in line and us safe.
“Home sweet home.” Craig grinned and headed toward the well-stocked pantry. “Anyone hungry?”
Chapter Twenty-six
* * *
Jay
I stoked the fire and watched the wood spark and crackle as everyone finished up the dinner of pasta and salad I’d whipped up. Basic but filling. After everyone went to bed, I had the first watch. So far, Atieran’s mad king brother hadn’t located us, which was to our advantage for now. I hoped it would last, but the way things had gone lately, there was no doubt he’d find us eventually.
“Hey.” Amy came down the stairs and plopped down on the antique, flower-patterned couch, wrapped in a lap blanket. Her bleary eyes blinked at me as she smiled. “I can’t sleep. Why don’t you get some rest? My insomnia got the best of me.”
I nodded and stood up. “I??
?m not sleepy yet, but okay, I’ll try to get some rest. But first I need a snack. You want anything?”
She yawned, stretching out her limbs like a cat. “Sure. Some milk and cookies, if there’s any.”
“You betcha.” I meandered to the kitchen and rummaged through the cabinets. “How long do you think it’ll take for the faery king to locate us?”
“I have no idea. Honestly. I haven’t felt him swimming in my head since we were at the Agency. He might not know where to focus his energies to find us. I hope it takes at least a day or two. I need a break.”
“Famous last words.” I held out the platter of cookies, filled with a variety I’d found stocked in the jars. I wondered how much food got thrown out when we didn’t visit for days. I cringed to think how wasteful we were.
“You couldn’t be more right. Unfortunately, I’m sure that whenever he does decide to show up, it’ll be too soon.” Biting down on the cookie, she closed her eyes and sighed. “So good. I told the housekeeper to get Annie Gold’s cookies from the bakery down the street and keep them in stock. I’m in absolute heaven.”
“These are pretty amazing. Do you think the fae eat cookies?”
She shrugged as she polished off three more cookies before downing half her milk. “Who knows? I know they eat a ton of bugs.” She cringed. “I had to eat a lot of dried fruits and nuts. Their diet doesn’t vary much from what nature provides. It’s a simple life, really.”
“Too bad Atieran’s brother isn’t that simple.”
“Yeah. I wonder what’s going through his head. Why can’t he just let things be? He’s putting not only himself and his brother in danger, but the whole faery clan.”
“Why do you think he hasn’t brought the rest of them into the fight?”
She lifted an eyebrow, looking far more awake than she had when she’d descended. “I don’t know. I guess he thought he could take us without a fight?” Her eyes widened as she placed her glass of milk on the coffee table. “What if he comes back with more fighters? He might have more than one coat of armor, maybe even enough for the rest of his buddies. What if he returns with an army?”
I pressed my lips together, exhaling as I leaned back into the couch. Silence permeated the room as we both ran the scenarios through our heads. Our precognitive abilities weren’t cut and dry. They never served up exactly what could happen until it was happening or right before it happened, but sometimes we could coax them out like a delicate creature buried in a hole. If only it came more easily in times of distress.
“He just might do that. And if he does, you know what we’ll have to do, right, Amy? The question is, will he want to sacrifice them all for more power? If he does, he might be unstoppable.”
She pulled her legs up into her chest, curling the blanket more tightly around her svelte frame. She knew, but that didn’t mean any of us had to like it. I wasn’t keen on killing Atieran to save our hides, but you bet I would in an instant if I had to. Especially since it was looking like it was going to come down to that no matter what. The question was whether Amy would try to stop me. What would happen then?
“I know. And if it means our lives or theirs, I’d understand, but make sure that it’s down to the last dire second with no other option. Any time before, and I won’t allow it.”
She hopped to her feet and snatched one last cookie. “Now I’m tired. You still up to finish your shift?”
I nodded.
“Okay, then.” She headed toward the staircase, but before ascending, she turned back one more time. “And Jay?”
“Yes?”
“Promise me that if they take me again, you’ll end it.”
“I can’t do that.”
“You will. You’ll end all who oppose you. I can’t risk any more people being taken. They won’t take you or Craig, but you can bet they’ll return to take more humans. They are a dying race and desperate to return to their former glory. They will never stop. I… I think the outcome of all this will be a complete extermination. They cannot be reasoned with.”
“I’ll die before any of it gets that far. You know that.”
She shrugged, looking defeated. “I can’t be sure about anything. Just a feeling.”
“I hear you.”
“Goodnight, Jay.”
“Goodnight.”
I watched her leave and sighed, sinking back down into the sofa, watching the crackling fire. I’d have an hour until Craig woke for his shift, so I figured I could wait. Most of the time, working for the Agency was a lot of hurry up and wait. This was no different, though now we were not only hiding from a supernatural nuisance, we were running from the Agency we’d grown up in.
How ironic was that? I shook my head and rubbed my face, downing the last of the milk in my glass before getting up to throw on another pot of coffee. It was going to be a hellishly long night, and I had to be prepared for anything.
Chapter Twenty-seven
* * *
Amy
The wind howled as I stared out the window. Something had prickled my skin into gooseflesh, and no amount of rubbing made it disappear. Something was watching the house, but I couldn’t see it. Maybe it was my imagination. Maybe the magic was running wild in Wicked Grove.
Either way, I could feel the small tickle alongside the back of my mind that something was going to happen soon. Something terrible and magnificent all at once. It was a couple of hours till morning, and I had yet to stir my brothers and Atieran awake. I’d had the last shift, but I had gotten little rest during my downtime. Rubbing my face, I sipped from my coffee mug once more, shivering from the early morning coolness. It was going to be a long day.
“Come on, show your face,” I cursed under my breath, blinking hard to refocus my blurry eyes. The lights were out inside the house, so I had a good view as I surveyed the street and buildings. I needed more rest. My body screamed for it, but there would be none until this was all over and done with. Then I could sleep, confident there was no faery king hunting us. Having Azariah pissed for escaping and keeping Atieran from his grasp was not the best situation.
All I wanted was to be left alone, but when my job was to deal with supernatural nuisances, alone was the last thing we ever got to be.
The faery king would never stop, and because of this, I knew he would have to die. And that meant Atieran’s life would end too. How should I have dealt with that? There was no way I wanted him to die. I’d grown fond of him and really wanted to get to know him better, but it didn’t appear this would be the lifetime to do it in. Maybe another century, another life. It seemed every man I was attracted to was nothing but trouble. I really needed to get out more and stop falling in love with those of magical dispositions, even if I had some powers of my own.
It appeared the end of the road was rushing toward us at breakneck speed, and none of us were ready for it. I particularly wasn’t ready, even though I could feel the fae magic seeping into me like a morning fog drifting through streets.
Readying for death was like prepping to jump into the mouth of a shark. There was no preparing for it, nor was there really anything pleasant to think about before doing it. I shuddered, but my vision betrayed me and showed me nothing out in the dreary, wind-swept lanes of the road. Rain began pattering against the window, tapping its incessant fingers against the panes and filling my ears with a roar as it increased. It was pointless waiting at the window. Lightning flashed, and from the brightness I could tell it had been a ground strike. The streetlamps outside snapped off, and the few red lights on the appliances faded to blackness. A power outage.
“Great,” I groaned, afraid to switch on my phone to check the time. Every little light appeared bright in the darkness, so I avoided turning it on. One call up the stairs, and my brothers would come pouncing, so I wasn’t afraid, I just didn’t know what to do with myself sitting there in the darkness without another soul to open up to.
“You look like an apparition standing there staring out the window.” Atieran’s voic
e from the stairwell startled me, and I glanced up to find him descending it gently, like a ghost primed to repeat its last steps for all eternity.
“Says the vanishing poltergeist himself.” I turned back toward the window, feeling the veil of magic flow over the house and disappear into the city. There were more than just faeries out tonight, I could feel it. Sometimes I wished there were only one supernatural species to deal with in Wicked Grove. But no, of course there were dozens, living amongst the humans, blending in and dressing like them as though it was an endless masquerade. Glamours and magical shields served them well. The humans were clueless. But for those with the sight, like my brothers and me, it was constant work to avoid bringing attention to ourselves by pretending not to notice the strange variety of creatures prancing about the streets. One little reaction would cause a great deal of unwanted attention from any of the leagues of unusual creatures.
The three of us had grown up fine-tuned to block such monsters from our notice. We learned early how to place artificial blocks over our own sight so that the true appearance of all the supernaturals wouldn’t scare us into wetting our pants daily. Now seeing them was second nature, and we no longer had to wear the blocking spells. We simply existed alongside them.
“My brother will announce himself if he’s near,” Atieran said. “Trust me, you’ll know immediately, so will your brothers and me. You might as well come to bed.”
“It’s not just your brother out in the night. I can feel more than fae magic… the other powers of the night flourish. You let your guard down, and that’s when bad stuff happens.”
“Do you truly believe other magicals will come searching for you here tonight?”