16. Present Day
16
PRESENT DAY
Caly
“ Y ou need to be more discreet with your animal gift, Cal. Someone’s going to figure out what you are if things like that keep happening,” Eli said softly.
“They liked you, and you aren’t Artemi,” I replied.
But he was right, and I knew it. I needed to think ahead. Now wasn’t the time for me to slip. In fact, I shouldn’t relax again until I found a way to break the tie to Eli.
“They didn’t like me. Thistle did, if you could even call it that. She may be worse at handling affection than you are,” he laughed. “Come to think of it, maybe that’s why I started to like her—she’s the unicorn version of you!”
The path ahead began to widen into a cobbled street. Each side of the road was filled with sparse, Tudor-style shops. People and creatures of all shapes and sizes bustled about from shop to shop. Merchants sang and called to people passing by, several making their skin glitter and flash in the hopes of gaining others’ attention. Steam billowed from various storefronts, clearly food vendors of some sort. The air was thick with savory, appetizing scents, though none I quite recognized.
Eli’s voice was stern as he spoke now. “Stay with me in town. I don’t want us to get separated in the crowd. Here,” he said and pulled something from his pants pocket, then placed it in the palm of my hand.
It tickled and crawled against my skin. Alarmed, I opened my hand to reveal ten jewel-toned beetles crawling timidly around my hand, each no larger than a dime. I pursed my lips in annoyance and moved to set them free in the grass with a scowl when he grabbed my palm and held it firmly.
“They are tolkiens,” he explained. “Each color is a different value. I will help you learn what they are when you find something you’d like to buy.”
“Your currency is beetles?” I asked, still reluctant to believe he wasn’t trying to pull something.
“Gold is everywhere. It holds no value here beyond aesthetics and the family color. These are Gondor beetles. They are rare and cannot be duplicated from magic or forgery. Now, put them in your pocket before they crawl off,” he said, smiling. “You can get anything you like here with that handful.”
“I don’t have pockets in this dress. I usually just stuff a wad of cash and my phone down between my…” I trailed off, holding the low neckline of my white dress out. There was no way in hell I was putting beetles between my boobs. I couldn’t even wear a bra with how wide the cap sleeves were cut on this dress.
“Then I think your first purchase ought to be a pouch,” he replied. Eli placed his hand on the small of my back and guided me toward the rows of vendors.
Turning into the stall of the third merchant, the scent of leather and tannin knocked me in the face. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, just strong. Handmade leather items filled every inch of the canvas structure, and what wasn’t filled with goods was filled with shoppers.
I squeezed past several people in the tight space, hoping to get a better look.
Eli had barely reached the front of the shop when a horde of people collected around him. He smiled at me across the shop with a discreet eye roll while he talked happily with the people, patting someone’s back and causing the entire group to burst out into laughter.
I smiled to myself. It was a wonder he shifted into a fox and not a golden retriever.
After thoroughly admiring the talented craftsmanship, I settled on a rich brown pouch that I could wear cross-body. Not too big, not too small—perfect for when I needed to carry some books or weapons as well.
After working my way back to the front and showing Eli my find, he introduced me to the owner of the shop—a huge, burly man with flaming red hair and the kindest smile. Eli had to step on my foot to stop me from gawking. The man’s red beard was actually on fire, with smoldering flames that crackled when he laughed. He refused to accept any of my tolkiens though, and securing the beetles safely in my new pouch, Eli and I gave our thanks and said our goodbyes.
Every shop or booth we came to was a similar experience. Eli would get caught with a group of townsfolk thrilled to see him, and I would fight off the rest of the crowd to peruse the goods. I didn’t mind though; it was fun to see him in his element, and the items in these shops were nothing like anything I’d ever seen in the human realm, both in quality and peculiarity.
On the outskirts of one particularly crowded area in front of several deep stalls, I spotted a tattered wooden sign labeled apothecary in dingy black letters with an arrow pointing left. I peered in that direction.
The street in front of it was still somewhat crowded, but it was clear that we had reached a darker, seedier side of the village, both the shops and the crowd. The people were still happy and excited to talk to the prince, but they appeared a bit more soiled and unruly. The shops on this end were situated with the sun to their backs, making this section of the market darker under the heavy canopy of shadows.
“Stay with me here, Cal. It’s crowded today, and this side of the market is filled with vendors from the other realms. It’s good for our trade but bad for thievery.”
We stepped into the cool shadows of the next vendor’s stall. The temperature immediately dropped several degrees, sending a light chill across the top of my arms, but inside, it was also packed. Shoulders knocked into mine as I felt the hum and buzz of too many people around me. Eli squeezed my arm, keeping me at his side.
“I’m fine,” I said with a laugh when a large group stepped between Eli and I again. This time a small old woman and three men practically dragged him to a canvas tent across the road. Two of the men hoisted up some weird, scaled, squid-looking creature and before I knew it, they were all cheering and jumping up and down.
Suddenly the breath stilled in my throat and the hairs at the back of my neck rose. I swallowed. The thick sound of it was loud in my head. Tingles tiptoed up my spine.
I whipped my head around, knowing something would be there. I could feel it watching me.
It felt like my chest had shattered, forcing its jagged pieces into my scrap of a heart. I fell backward into several people and onto the grimy cobblestone. The crowd carried on, swarming around me like a current as I scrambled to get back on my feet.
When I did, the first thing I saw was the massive figure in the street, still and motionless, people parting around him like he was an unmovable stone in the moving stream of people. His black cloak billowed angrily as he towered above the crowd. The hood of his cloak hid his face, but it didn’t matter. I could feel who it was.
Malum Mendax, the Unseelie prince, tilted his head in a chilling movement.
I fell back into the current of people, barely catching myself from falling again. I think I tried to scream, but I was too horrified, and I don’t think I made any sound. My heart slammed in my chest painfully as I scrambled to move, to get away. I couldn’t think—all I could do was panic. Pure terror gripped me.
It wasn’t possible.
It couldn’t be possible!
This was not a horny, confused dream. He stood in front of me this very moment. Alive.
I had stood over him and watched the life drain from his eyes. I had forced my blade exactly between his wings, where I was supposed to. Just where he had confessed that a wound would kill him. He was dead!
He. Was. Dead.
Emotions punched me in the gut. My footing faltered, and I lost sight of him briefly, the pounding in my chest forcing my entire body to pulsate.
He was closer now, yet somehow his figure seemed unmoved in his black armor. Somehow I could tell that the shadow stared at only me.
You’re making this too easy, pet. Run.
His words rang deep and clear in my mind, and I knew then and there that all the times I had thought I was hearing things, it had been his fucking voice in my head.
I shoved through the crowd like a madwoman, taking a hard left and ending up in a tight alley between shops, an awning covering the darkened lane. I let out a string of curses. The dark wasn’t where you hid from a shadow.
How could he still be alive? And in Seelie?
Terror unlike anything I could have ever imagined put its claws into a tender place inside me.
The tie.
I had to keep him away from Eli.
I knew Mendax was going to kill me eventually, but I might be able to drag it out a little longer—he would toy with me. But he would kill Eli the moment he saw him.
My quivering hands pawed along the grimy brick wall until I felt the cold iron hinges of a door. I looked over my shoulder, only catching a glimpse of cobbled street at the other end. Tears prickled the corners of my eyes as I sent a silent prayer that the door would open, then nearly knocking a short old woman down on the other side when it did. Definitely not who I expected to be on the other end of this door, with how rough this part of the market had been.
“How the—?” the old woman shouted gruffly, surprising me even further.
Her appearance was exactly what I would have imagined a perfect grandma would look like, though really, what did I know? I had never had one.
The woman’s puffy, gray curls were cut short, framing her creased face. Her purple sweatshirt had a brown cat with glowing hazel eyes on it that perfectly matched her own.
“Please help me” was all I managed to get free of the panic in my throat.
Wise eyes inspected me for a beat before she grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me deeper into the dimly lit room. Dark wooden racks filled the space, with ornate, antique-looking suitcases and crates overflowing from them throughout, leaving only narrow and crooked aisles to walk through.
“Move, idiot!” her warbling voice reprimanded me. She was unusually nimble for an older woman. Lithesome even. I couldn’t see her ears under her poof of hair, but it didn’t matter—I knew she wasn’t human.
A thousand different smells overpowered me the farther we went. First I recognized pine, then damp, dirty fur—then cinnamon, lavender, something musky, and on and on it continued. Everything was too strong for me. I could taste the fragrances in the air.
The woman paused to look over her shoulder at me, a curious expression on her face. She looked at me so long, I feared she was having second thoughts about helping me.
I took a step toward the door closest to her, ready and willing to hide myself and her if necessary. For a moment, I thought about going back out the way I had come, but there was something intriguing about this place that made me feel a little safer.
At my advance, she smiled, almost as if she had been waiting to see if I would step toward the door, then she leaned ahead of me and opened it herself. The shadows poured over me as her strong hand pushed me inside.
“If this isn’t some shit,” she said, shaking her head with a small grin. The old woman slammed the door at my back, snuffing out the last streak of light as it closed with a bang.
Moving forward, I shuffled my feet loosely, taking something with them underfoot as I slid farther in. I inhaled deeply, poring over the loose files in my brain until I could pinpoint what the smell was.
Fresh straw.
The sound of movement echoed in the dark chamber, and I froze.
Something else was in here.
Every drop of blood in my body felt as if it had plummeted to the soles of my feet. Again, the thing rustled in the darkness before I was met with a forbidding silence.
Had the old woman sabotaged me?
A few deep snorts, then what I could only guess was the sound of claws scraping lightly against the concrete. My shoulders settled a little. It was an animal in here with me. I had to be in some kind of a makeshift stall or cage. I don’t know how I knew, but whatever was in here was large and friendly. Maybe it was the panic and fear that heightened my senses, but I swear I could even feel its surprise as it sensed me.
I took a step toward the animal, and the scent of straw faded into a woody, spiced fragrance.
The same scent from my room this morning and last night. Come to think of it, it was what I had been smelling since before we even left the human realm…
Realization slammed into me.
The spice and smoke fragrance of Malum Mendax.
I grabbed ahold of the wall to keep myself up. How could I have been so stupid? He’d been inside my room, watching me. My fragmented heart throbbed violently in my chest.
The dream…
I knew he was in the dark room with me now, the heady smell of him coiling around me. I could feel the fingers of his smoke trailing lightly up my leg. I could feel scentless smoke bleeding out of my arms uncontrollably, searching for him like a magnet, recognizing his smoke.
A low, lupine snarl echoed from the back.
I pressed my back against the wall and slid toward the door. I knew I could never outrun him, but I would make it as difficult as possible for him to catch me.
My knuckle finally hit the round knob, and I forced myself to stay calm and quiet my breathing. I needed to hear everything in the room, know exactly where it was.
I screamed as a gloved hand bracketed my throat to the back wall, holding me up by the neck as my legs buckled. His horrifying presence dominated the space in front of me, his smoke rolling in thick plumes over my body like it was trying to consume me. His warm breath ghosted across my face. I stabbed my fingernail into the V-shaped scar on my thumb to stop myself from fainting.
Feeling him in front of me now, I knew it had all been real.
Malum Mendax had been in my room, touching me.
My body couldn’t decide what to feel at the realization that he wasn’t actually dead. Ignoring the sense of relief that washed over me, knowing I hadn’t killed him, I struggled to focus on the bigger problem—he knew everything now.
And he was going to kill me for attempting to assassinate him.
My stomach tightened to the point of pain. I was going to be sick.
I felt his stubbled cheek brush against my face before his deep voice softly rumbled into my ear.
“Do you know what happens to pets that run away from home, Calypso ?” His hand around my neck pressed me harder against the wall. “They get punished.”
Hearing him use my real name and not the nickname I had given him summoned goose bumps across the back of my neck.
He knew my real name. How did he know my name?
If he knew my full name, he could crawl inside of my mind and impel me. He could make me do anything he wanted.
I had watched him take down a monster as big as a house simply by impelling it and forcing it to take its own life. I couldn’t even imagine what he would do to me—the obsession that betrayed and tried to kill him.
His hand released my neck to skate down my clavicle.
“You’re—you’re dead,” I forced out breathily, trying to jump-start my brain into action. Something was happening in my chest with his closeness and the realization that he wasn’t gone forever.
“Only on the inside,” he whispered across my skin, hovering his lips just above where my neck and shoulder met.
He was touching me, but the room was so dark, I couldn’t see him right in front of me. All of my senses amplified, taking in his heavy breathing and the hushed sounds of his clothes moving. I couldn’t stop my fingertips from stretching out to graze the heavy fabric of his cloak.
I heard the slip of leather against skin. A glove being removed. I flinched but couldn’t escape with his hand still pressed to my breastbone, keeping me in place. His bare fingers skimmed along the side of my neck so slowly, he may as well have been counting every pore.
Mendax let out a deep sigh. “Make me alive again, Caly.”
The sound of cracking and shattering echoed through the darkness. The creature from the back let out an angry snarl.
Mendax’s hand fell away from my chest, and my instincts finally emerged—I didn’t waste a second before I reacted. I no longer needed to hide who I was from him. He would learn quickly that the real Calypso was a far cry from the helpless Callie Peterson he was obsessed with.
I moved quickly, ready to slam my hand into his face after precisely angling my movement for enough momentum from the rotation to break his nose. As soon as I swung though, my hand only touched empty air.
He was gone. Whether from the room entirely or just no longer in front of me, I had no idea.
I grabbed for the doorknob as I heard the large animal rush closer. I got the sense that he wasn’t going to hurt me. It felt like he was coming to help me. Still, I couldn’t be one hundred percent certain, and I wasn’t ready to risk my and Eli’s lives on a feeling.
The knob jangled, but I finally managed to turn it and fall out into the dimly lit space from before. And then I ran, following the light until I almost tripped over the gray-haired woman sitting on an old wooden chair at a small table.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” said the woman with an unvexed expression. Her wise eyes held mine, giving the impression she knew a lot more than she was letting on.
Still panting, I took in her and the store with fresh eyes. We were closer to a door at the back, but I could see the front of her shop. It was filled with women. Glass jars of every shape and size with worn paper labels lined the walls. The strong smell of florals and spice returned to me as my breathing slowed.
“This is the apothecary. You run the apothecary,” I said, putting the pieces all together.
“What gave it away? The large sign or the herbs?” she asked sarcastically. She nodded at the plethora of amber-glass jars on the table next to where she stood and lazily scratched her arm.
I moved toward the exit, still panicked. “I need to find Prince Aurelius,” I mumbled, touching the side of my face.
I could still feel Mendax’s mouth on my skin.
“I fucking knew it!” she shouted at me. All of the women in the store snapped their heads to us briefly.
“What?” I asked in alarm.
“How have you stayed hidden? I can barely pick it up from you. If I didn’t know better, which I damn well do, I’d believe you to be a human,” she laughed, a deep rasp that sent her into a coughing fit. She wheezed before taking a drink from the teacup in her hand and scowling.
The tea smelled familiar. I winced from the pungent floral aroma before my eyes widened in shock.
“ Ricinus communis ,” I stated. “Castor bean.”
Her gray eyes stilled before she canted her head, giving me her full attention. “How?—”
“It’s in your tea. I can smell it,” I said, watching her movements.
“Does it taste familiar, Artemi?” She was taunting me.
Every muscle in my body stilled.
What was I supposed to do now? My gut told me to kill her, but I needed to know how she knew first. I needed Eli.
“You drink a lot of poison?” I asked, moving to sit in the wooden chair next to her. I needed to know what all she knew.
The woman raised her teacup as she eyed me. “Business is bad, and unwanted fae keep breaking into my wolf’s bedroom. Can’t take it anymore,” she said sarcastically.
Wolf’s room? That hadn’t sounded like any wolf I’d ever heard. I looked around the shop at the faces of the shoppers as they read labels and darted sideways glances at the front door.
“Business doesn’t look bad. I wonder, do fae have morgues? If so, you should warn them that a large number of husbands and lovers are about to be dead.” I turned back to her. “How did you know what I am?”
She wrinkled her brow at me before the lines softened and her eyes grew sad. “I’ve been around,” she answered.
I watched the crowd filter through the shop, noticing a younger woman with the same complexion and dorsal hump in the structure of her nose as the old woman. She wore an apron and walked around, talking to the women, measuring out their purchases, and taking their money.
“You’re over-steeping your castor beans. I guess probably the aconite as well,” I said as I leaned back, getting a little more comfortable. I needed to gauge her reaction.
“You don’t know shit about sh?—”
“I’m guessing that you’re practicing mithridatism: self-administering small amounts of the poisons you’re selling in an effort to develop immunity in case one of the many enemies you or your clients have tries to poison you,” I stated. My terrified and chaotic nerves were settling with the calm distraction of something I knew and knew well.
The woman’s face creased with a small smile.
“You’ve been over-steeping your herbs while doing so though and giving yourself liver damage.” I paused to look at her arms. “From my guess, it’s probably pretty severe. Your body is unable to develop a metabolic tolerance, so it’s causing cirrhosis of the liver.”
Her smile fell as she stared at me with glittering eyes, absently scratching her arm.
“I’m also guessing you have a bile salt buildup, and that is what’s causing your skin to itch so badly.” I stood up from the chair as I realized something was happening on the street in front of the shop. Had Mendax returned? Had he even left?
I couldn’t leave though—I was still anxious to get answers. “I also know the woman over there in the tan apron is your daughter. It would be awful if something happened to her. Now why did you try to kill me by throwing me in with your wolf, and how can you tell I’m Artemi?” I glared at her.
My pulse quickened as all the women in the store fled out onto the street, hearing the commotion themselves. Shouts and screams rang out like a chorus as the pounding of running feet echoed in from the street.
“There isn’t time, girl,” she replied, unfazed by my threats and whatever chaos was about to happen. “I do a lot of business in all the realms, and I’ve been around for far too long. I know exactly what you are, and that is why I put you in my wolf’s room.” Her eyes turned cold suddenly. “Have you ever wondered why the only two kingdoms at war in all the realms have two queens and no kings?” she asked, standing now as well.
The street outside was getting louder and more panicked.
“How do you?—”
“You really should know more about someone before you threaten them. You see, I know things too, child. I know that the queen isn’t the family member who is going to destroy your heart. There’s a lot more to know than they allow these Seelie sheep to believe. Nearly everyone outside of Seelie knows the truth. You’ve never wondered why the Seelie and Unseelie queens hate each other so much? Or why it is that they both happen to have dead husbands?” She lowered her voice, coming closer. “He’s nearly here.”
The energy in the room pulsed as screams rang out in the street, louder now. I didn’t care—a bomb could have gone off and I wouldn’t have moved. I needed to know how this stranger knew so much about me.
“You seem like a smart girl. What’s the main reason women want to poison their husbands? Or the reason two seemingly intelligent women fight? Wake up, child, and use that brain of yours. Get out of Seelie before it’s too late for all of you.” Her voice shook as she finished her sentence.
Heavy footsteps slammed down at the front of the shop, and both of us snapped our heads around to see a group of armored Seelie guards enter. Eli pushed through the middle, panicked.
“There you are! Thank suns you are all right! We have to go. There has been an attack on the royal grounds. It’s not safe for you—for us—to be out of the protection of the castle now. We have to hurry,” he commanded, breathing heavily. His handsome face was flushed as he glanced around, realizing where we were. He narrowed his eyes on me. “Why are you here?” There was the barest hint of accusation in his tone.
His sharp citrine eyes fell on the old woman. My best friend clenched his jaw before looking back at me with an expression I’d never seen.
“Versipellis.” Eli gave an unfriendly nod to the old woman.
“Does she have need to poison you, Prince? She was buying a pet, dummy,” she said as she squeezed my hand. “Jag, go to the back and box up that good-lookin’ critter we got in a few weeks ago. The little one from the wolf room. It must be the little one,” she called to her daughter in the corner.
The brown-haired girl paused a second to stare at her mother before hurrying to the back and returning with a small cardboard box.
“Caly, we have to go now,” Eli said impatiently.
“Thank you, uh, Versipellis?”
“Ver-sip-ellis, that’s right, and my daughter is Jag.” She winked at me kindly.
I took the box from Jag and tried to read the old woman’s eyes.
Eli stepped forward and grabbed my arm, impatiently pulling me toward the door. “Now!” he shouted.
Outside, I put the small box gently in my new pouch, thankfully I had gotten the larger one. I felt something weighty shift and heard the scratch of claws on cardboard. Had she actually given me a pet?
“Thank you. I’ll take good care of him!” I shouted back through the open door.
“Lovely! Our dear friend Alistair will be so pleased to hear his friend is going to such a prestigious home. His last owner tried to drown him! Poor thing looked like a drowned rat when he came to me,” the woman said with a sly smile. The brown, embroidered cat on her sweatshirt winked at me.
Wait, what? Alistair?
She couldn’t mean the nine-tailed panther from the Unseelie castle, Mendax’s personal assassin—well, at least until they made him leave for refusing to kill me. How many Alistairs were there?
Eli continued to pull me down the street like I was a misbehaving toddler, several guards on either side of us. People ran past in both directions, shops shuttered and doors bolted. Canvas tents were quickly torn down. Some of the people looked terrified, while others looked furious.
I realized I hadn’t even told Eli about Mendax yet. I had been so terrified and panicked, but as I sat and talked with the old woman, I had become distracted.
What was I more scared of: the Unseelie prince, who had become obsessed and convinced himself he was in love with me, or what would happen to me once the queen and Eli found out Mendax was alive?
Eli had warned me that if Mendax wasn’t dead once I crossed over to Seelie, then I would be killed for betraying the queen.
I thought about keeping it to myself that Mendax had been here, but it was obvious, with the chaos, everyone already knew. I needed to tell Eli.
“I saw him,” I whispered.
He continued to move me along, still keeping ahold of my upper arm as we ran up the cobblestone path. We were taking a different way than we had come. “Saw who?” he asked. His tan face was flushed, but he didn’t look as alarmed at my words as I had expected.
“ Him. Mendax. I saw him in the crowd at the market when you were across the street. He came for me, and I ran?—”
Eli stopped abruptly, his amber eyes hard as they darted over my face.
“Calypso, you couldn’t have seen Mendax. You killed him. You swore you killed him,” he said frantically. He was holding both my arms now, his grip tightening enough that it was starting to hurt, even over the adrenaline. Years of training triggered my reflexes to break his hold, but I pushed them aside. I wouldn’t hurt Eli even if I could, which I honestly wasn’t sure about anymore.
“I know, and I did …or at least I was sure I did, but I’m telling you, I saw him. He shadowed into the back room after I?—”
“Did he hurt you?” Eli cut me off, immediately softening his grip on me. He looked at each of the guards who had circled us with a hard glare, and they took a step away and turned their backs to us.
“No, he didn’t hurt me, but?—”
Eli cut me off again. “Then it wasn’t Mendax, Caly. It doesn’t matter how fond of you he was before. Mendax is an impulsive psycho with a ferocious temper and a need to dominate. Even if you hadn’t actually killed him like you thought, he would never have let you walk away alive. Never.” His toned chest rose and fell heavily as his breathing evened back out. “Besides, we have moles in Unseelie, and they all say he has been gone. It wasn’t him,” he finished quietly.
“He wasn’t in Unseelie because he’s been hunting me, Eli! He is following me. What about all of the chaos? You said there has been an attack?” I asked.
“We don’t know what is responsible for the attack, but it was near the royal portal just outside of the castle. Which means the attackers are here, and from the way they…did what they did, they wanted to make a point.” Eli dropped his hold on my arms and placed one hand gently on the small of my back as we began our speed walk again.
“A point, huh? Something like I’m not actually dead and I’m back to kill you all ?” I asked angrily.
Why was he not believing me? I felt like a child telling their parents a ghost lived in their closet—only my ghost was very alive and dangerous.
“This isn’t a joke, Calypso. You should have seen what they did. On my land!”
“What did they do?” I asked. “Do the Seelie royals have any other enemies?”
I scanned the sunny expanse of field to my left, paranoid and unable to shake the feeling of eyes pressing into the back of my skull.
“Yes, of course, but both our biggest adversaries use butterflies and moths as their symbols, so that doesn’t help decipher who it was.”
“What do you mean? I know Unseelie claim the luna moth but what does that—” I started.
“The Fallen fae,” he said, interrupting again . If he did that one more time… “They are the expelled Seelie. Besides the Unseelie, the Fallen fae are our largest enemies. I’ll explain what they are another time, but they claim the deadhead moth as their symbol,” he stated.
“What do the moths have to do with the portal attack?” I asked. There was a scuttle in my purse from my new pet.
Eli stopped to look at me, his eyes full of both anger and sadness. “The Seelie guard at the portal was skinned alive, hung from a tree, and wrapped in a cocoon of his own flesh.” Disgust was clear in his voice.
“Oh…”
Eli quickly grabbed my arm again and hurriedly moved us, but I was tired of being treated like a child.
“I know what I saw, Eli!” I shouted, ripping my arm out of his grip.
“No, you don’t, Calypso!” he snapped as he moved in front of me and pushed his face closer to mine. God, he was fast. “NO, YOU DON’T!” He took a deep breath, but I could see the panic was still coursing through him, even as he lowered his voice. “Because if Mendax is still alive, then that means that you didn’t kill him. And if you didn’t kill him, then that means you will be killed. Not only are you on Seelie soil without paying your allegiance to the court, but that would mean you betrayed and lied to the royal house.”
I flinched at his words.
“How does that even matter anymore? I’m not human. I’m allowed to be here anyway. And as for paying my allegiance, I’ve paid with my own fucking life already!” I shouted back.
“As far as everyone in Seelie knows, you are human, and believe it or not, as dangerous as that is, it is far more dangerous for anyone to know you are Artemi without enough power to do more than call off a few creatures’ attacks.”
Neither of us spoke for a moment as we stood in panicked silence.
Eli’s face and voice softened. “Seirra,” he called to the captain of his guard, keeping his eyes locked on mine. “Alert the castle that Queen Tenebris, the only remaining Smoke Slayer, has broken through the wards and is inside of Seelie as we speak. Lock down the grounds to level three, and sound the alarm. Everyone must go to their concealment stations.” He paused a moment. “Let the people of Seelie know they are no longer safe. There is a monster in our realm.”
By now, the mystery creature inside my purse was clawing frantically at the box, trying to get out.
“What the fuck kind of pet did you get?” he asked as we both stared at my noisy pouch.
I widened the opening of my purse to grab the top of the stiff box. “I got a…” I braced myself and opened the tabs to peer inside. “Oh my god,” I said, my vision blurring as I locked my knees in place before I could fall.
“What is it? Must be something cute,” Eli said, moving to look at the creature.
“It’s—it’s a brown rat. A brown rat with sweet eyes.” I swallowed the hard, thorny lump of emotions in my throat that I couldn’t show and scooped up the very familiar brown rat.
“Ew, he’s big.” Eli cringed at the rat crawling up to tuck into my neck. “You know, if you just want to cuddle something furry, I’d have been more than happy to shift into my fox to snuggle you,” he said with a smirk. “What are you going to call that thing?”
Brown Rat grumbled at him and burrowed farther into the back of my neck, under the curtain of my long hair.
“His name is Walter,” I said, unable to stop my shaking voice as a tear dripped down to my chin.
Mistaking my emotions for fear, Eli straightened to his full height and gave me a wink. “Don’t worry, Caly, nothing can get inside the castle. It is warded far beyond any other power. As soon as we are inside the walls, we are safe. I promise,” he stated.
I supposed now wasn’t the time to tell him about those nighttime visits from Mendax.