“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.”
“Oh no? Is there not always a need for more power when you’ve had a taste?”
“The only power I want is my own. You have it, and I’m willing to make a fair trade to get it back.”
“Ah, well, there’s the problem. If I give you your powers and my errant fae…what do I get?”
I didn’t like where he was angling this conversation. One of my biggest fears in this plan had been what would happen if Aubrey decided he was getting the short end of the stick. Sure, technically he owed me because of the broken promise, but a fairy was a fairy. If they could find a way to stay within the boundaries of their rules and still come out on top, they’d do it. Right now Aubrey was trying to determine how he was going to manage it, and I didn’t see an easy way to win this.
“You broke a promise.”
“Let’s be clear, I will give you the fae. I have no interest in protecting someone who would willfully disobey me. It’s whether or not I will restore your powers that is the question.”
“I gave you my power in exchange for Kellen. I’m giving her back.”
“Direct exchanges are so…”
“Boring?”
He snapped his fingers, and instantly the phantom hands vanished. “Yes. Boring.”
“Doesn’t fairness factor in at all?”
“Rarely.”
“You guys are old-fashioned… How about I promise you my firstborn?” Considering I couldn’t have children once my abilities were restored, this seemed like a safe thing to offer.
“An interesting offer, but we both know your womb is no good.”
It made me sick to my stomach that he knew that without my telling him. “If not that, you must have something else in mind.”
“Yes, something very simple.”
I doubted that. “Let’s hear it.”
“When I agree to your terms…I want you to say, Thank you, Aubrey.”
I froze, unable to move or breathe. When I was finally able to form words, I whispered, “You want me to be in your debt.”
“For whatever and whenever I see fit to ask for, yes.”
I wanted to say no. Desperately I wanted to scream at him, to smash all the mirrors and say no. But I had to be realistic. If I didn’t give in to his request, I would be dead soon anyway. What good would it do me now to worry about what might happen at some distant point in the future. I might never have to make good on this hypothetical favor. Aubrey would live thousands of years longer than me, and time was different for the fae. A few weeks for him would be years and years for me. I might be good and dead before he thought to call on me for his request.
That didn’t mean I had to like it.
“There’s nothing else you’d consider?”
“No. I want your gratitude.”
“And if I say thank you, you’ll give me the fae and restore my powers to me immediately?”
“By the time you leave this room everything will be set right.”
I was one hundred percent sure I would live to regret this. “Okay. I agree.” I took a deep breath. “Thank you, Aubrey.”
His smile was self-satisfied and ghastly. I knew this decision was going to haunt me. The fairy king was going to be a shadow of uncertainty that followed me around for the rest of my days.
“One more thing, Miss McQueen.”
“Yes?”
“This is going to hurt. Fantastically.”
“I don’t—”
I was flattened to the floor, my cheek pressed against the cold glass of the mirror. All I could see was the white of my own eye and my breath fogging my view of the room. Black fog swirled around me, dampening sound and grasping at my limbs with icy-cold fingers that couldn’t find a hold. Those fingers raked nails over my flesh, and I understood what Aubrey’s warning meant.
The fog hands swept back and forth over me while a fist of it parted my lips and clawed down my throat, shredding my esophagus and stealing my ability to breathe. Everywhere I was touched my skin split and shredded, leaving me torn and exposed, every inch of my body became one raw nerve. The fog moving over me was agony. I cried when I couldn’t scream, but my skin shrieked in protest from the salt poured over a fresh wound. I opened my mouth and tried to let the pain out, but I choked on the oppressive strength of the hand in my throat.
The instant I knew the torment was too much and my human body was about to shut down, my senses dulled. The white-noise feeling I recognized as vampire healing settled over me, and the black fog vanished, leaving me cold and broken but able to breathe.
I lay in a sticky puddle of my own blood and slowly, horribly, my skin began to knit itself back together.
I wanted to be angry at the violation, but I couldn’t feel anything other than relief. I was myself again, and that had been what I’d come for. “Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
My apartment felt cold.
Not in the way I’d become accustomed to with human senses, but in a completely psychological way. Only a month earlier I’d sat in my living room with Kellen and Brigit while they coaxed me through my heartbreak over Lucas leaving me at the altar. Now the room was empty, and neither of them would ever sit here with me again.
Only hours after my encounter with the fairy king, I sat on the loveseat and breathed in the smell of the room, with my senses newly restored. It smelled right, but I didn’t feel any better.
Rio poked her head out of the bathroom and said, “Breow?”
“Yeah, I’m all right.” I wasn’t, but she was a cat. She didn’t need to hear about my problems. She bounced across the room and up onto the couch with me, rubbing her head against my hand, demanding I pet her. I scratched her behind the ears and under the chin.
The trilling sound of my phone came out of my purse near the door. I let out a groan and hauled my still-sore sack of bones off the couch to collect my cell.
“Hello?”
“Where the hell have you been?” Mercedes’s voice was high with panic but still managed to convey annoyance.
“It’s a long story.”
The sound she made could only be described as a coughing growl. “You’ve been gone for three weeks. I’d say it would have to be one hell of a long story.”
“Cedes, I promise I’ll tell you all about it. Just not tonight.”
“You can’t brush this off, not this time. You need to explain why I just got an unsolved homicide across my desk for Brigit. The NYPD doesn’t usually investigate the undead.”
“She’s dead-dead,” I replied quietly.
“What?”
“Brigit is gone. Mercy killed her.”
“Your mother Mercy?”
“I don’t know of any other homicidal werewolf bitches with that name.” I rubbed Rio’s ears, focusing on the cat so I wouldn’t start crying again. After my experience in the mirror room, I wasn’t sure I even could cry.
“Oh, Secret…”
“Can you give me a pass now? I promise I’ll tell you everything.”
My front door opened, and Rio tensed as Holden came in. The cat hissed and darted under the armchair.
“Cedes, I have to go.”
“Secret, I—”
“I promise I’ll call you tomorrow.” I hung up before she could protest.
“You should probably come outside,” Holden said.
“I don’t feel like moving.”
“You should really come outside.”
I climbed to my feet, my body protesting with each movement, and followed him out to the front street. Lucas was leaning against the side of a town car. Dominick stood a short distance away looking more serious than I was used to seeing him. Desmond himself was standing near the trunk, running his fingers nervously over it.
I stared at them all warily and said nothing.
“Are you…back?” Desmond asked. He’d been gone when I left Calliope’s, and now I knew where he’d been.
“I am.”
He didn’t say anything, just gave a nod.
“Is she really gone?” Lucas asked, referring to Kellen.
“Yes. She’s where she belongs now, and I think she’s happier than any of us will ever be.” I directed the brunt of my glare at Lucas specifically. “What’s in the car?”
Lucas jerked his chin to Desmond, who popped the trunk and took several steps away from it. I skirted the car and looked inside. Five dead-eyed werewolf heads stared back at me. I didn’t ask about their bodies.