Chapter 21 What the Fae?
What the Fae?
“We should go back to Seattle.”
Thayer’s words barely registered as I sipped my coffee the next morning, tired and dejected. I’d barely slept a wink, and when I woke up, Lucien was gone.
According to Enoch, who was sitting in the living room with us for the morning coffee, he’d gone out with the Betas earlier to bring them up to speed before they came back for the continuation of the meeting from the night before.
Now, I looked at Thayer, pushed back my glasses, and sighed. “I can’t go back to Seattle.”
My brother’s gray eyes sparked. “When you were out yesterday, Lucien told me about how you came to know him,” he said through gritted teeth, his own coffee mug forgotten in his hand.
“I know you don’t care what I think, you think I only care about you for selfish reasons, but that’s not true.
You’re in way over your head, and you know it. ”
I shot him a foul look. He was right. I was in way over my head. But the truth was, I was already involved in this whole clusterfuck. Until the threat to Lucien, and therefore to me, was resolved, I couldn’t go anywhere.
Lucien himself said that it was not an option to believe what was written in that letter Thayer received. That the authors, the Syndicate, were fickle and cunning.
That meant Thayer was in danger too.
“We can’t go back,” I told him now, giving him a pointed look. “And to be honest, even if we could, I still wouldn’t.”
Thayer grunted. “Why the fuck would you stay around these . . .” He glanced at Enoch, who was reading a medical book next to us, and added in a whisper, “Monsters?”
It hadn’t occurred to me until then, but all Thayer had seen ever since his arrival yesterday was pain and violence—especially from Lucien. A part of me understood why he seemed to think of the supernatural creatures, the Otherborne as Lucien called them, as monsters.
But that didn’t mean it sat well with me.
“They aren’t monsters,” I said, downing the rest of my coffee before slapping the mug against the coffee table a tad too hard. “They might be different from us in essence, but they are still as human as one could be.”
Thayer did not like my response. “If I am to believe everything I’ve witnessed in the last twenty-four hours,” he murmured darkly, “and believe everything you shared about what happened eight years ago, then they are monsters, no matter what you say.”
I froze, not believing my ears as I stared at him with wide eyes. “What did you just say?”
His face suddenly relaxed, and he offered me a tentative smile. “After I received the letter, I started to suspect I might’ve been wrong,” he explained in a soft, sheepish voice. “Now, after everything, I’m sure that you’ve been right all along about what really happened eight years ago.”
The words—words I’d been waiting to hear all this time from someone, anyone—should’ve soothed the hurt, lonely part of me that felt like I was fighting alone in search of the truth.
Instead, they stoked a cold flame within me that iced my blood.
It was far too little, too late.
“Do you think it makes it all okay, then?” I asked in a drawl, masking my cold rage with pure sarcasm. “Did you think I would be thankful that you believe me after all this time, after all the accusations you threw my way a year ago?”
That wiped the smile off Thayer’s face, and I found savage satisfaction at seeing him shift uncomfortably in his place. “I wasn’t there, Drew,” he murmured, looking away with a grimace. “I didn’t see what you saw.”
“So you chose to alienate me and take Mom and Dad’s side to show me just how much you didn’t believe your only surviving sister,” I hissed bitterly. “Got it.”
He reached for me, taking my hands in his, gray eyes frantic.
“I’m sorry,” he said hoarsely, and to my astonishment, I saw tears rise to his eyes.
“I’m really sorry, Drew. I should’ve never called you all those names.
I should’ve never dismissed you outright.
I’m sorry I didn’t listen. That I refused to listen. ”
Seeing his tears brought mine to the surface as well, slicing through the coldness I was feeling.
“It angers me that you had to be in danger yourself to believe it,” I barked at him, tightening my hold on his hands.
“It angers me that the only reason you came looking for me was out of fear for my physical safety rather than my mental well-being.”
His tears fell, and suddenly I was enfolded in his tight arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry, Drew, I’m sorry . . .”
I cried now, too, as I found all the fight I’d felt leaving my body, defeated in the face of my brother, my strong, resilient brother, actually crying in front of me.
Even when our sisters died, I hadn’t seen him cry.
And for some reason, that broke me further.
I pulled my arms around him and hugged him back, burying my head in his shoulder. “You hurt me,” I muttered, whimpering. “You really hurt me. But I’m sorry, too, for the things I said.”
He shook his head, tightening his hold on me.
“Don’t be,” he said, sniffing. “I deserved every word you threw my way, because you were right. I had always promised you, Will, and Jules that I would protect you. Be there for you. Love you unconditionally. And I failed at each and every promise I made.”
My throat constricted as the memories of that day eight years ago hovered in my mind. “Even if you had been there with us,” I whispered, “you wouldn’t have been able to do anything, even if you tried.”
That’s rich, a voice murmured in my head as Thayer’s soft sobs filled my ears. Considering you didn’t even try.
I pushed the thoughts away. It was neither the time nor the place to deal with them anyway.
So I held on to Thayer and hugged him tightly, unable to hold on to any grudge anymore. Not now, now that he’d apologized, that he was crying in my arms, that he’d admitted I’d been right, even if it was far too late.
Life was too short to keep on hating the only sibling I had left.
And with the danger still lurking behind the corner, I refused to lose him too.
I could feel Enoch’s eyes on me as Lucien and his Betas returned to the house and settled around the table.
Ignoring his looks, which made me feel like he was trying to peer into my soul, I stared at Lucien, who motioned for me and Thayer to join them. Enoch sat at the table too.
When I sat next to Lucien, I could see the Betas were staring at me strangely. Yesterday, they had barely spared me a look, and now it seemed as if they couldn’t take their eyes off me.
I had a hunch as to why that was, and I knew I was right when Lucien leaned down and murmured in my ear, “They know.”
Goose bumps rose all over my skin, though not from his confirmation of my suspicions, but rather because his voice made me shiver. His lips had brushed accidentally against my earlobe, and that made me feel all kinds of things I really didn’t want to feel right now.
Giving him a jerky nod, I leaned back from him, hoping for some personal space.
However, while he leaned back, he spread his arm on the back of my chair in a way that made me feel as if he was making a claim of some sort.
That movement wasn’t lost on the Betas, nor on Thayer, who, with bloodshot eyes, stared at Lucien’s arm as if he had a personal vendetta against it.
When the minutes ticked by and no one was talking, I couldn’t help but break the silence and ask, “What are we waiting for?”
Before anyone could respond, the door opened again, and Anais walked in. Behind her was Oz, with a thick bandage wrapped around his throat.
He glared at Lucien, who stared patiently back, as he took his seat. Anais hesitated for a moment before Lucien gave her a nod, and she slid into the last free seat, next to Enoch.
“Let’s start,” Lucien finally said, and turned to look at Blaise, whose eyes were still on me. “Now that everyone is up to speed, it’s time that you, Blaise, head to the Underearth.”
Blaise glanced at Lucien and nodded silently while my brother asked, “What the hell is the Underearth?”
It was Anais who responded, to my surprise. “It’s a place under the earth,” she said curtly, and when I looked at her, I saw her staring at Thayer with open distaste.
Thayer seemed to share her dislike because he snapped, “I got that part, thanks.”
Anais jutted out her chin condescendingly as she replied, “Your question is quite redundant, then, isn’t it?”
I stilled as Thayer glared at her. Thayer was a scholar.
He prided himself on asking the right questions, which, he always claimed, was quite the achievement in his field.
With his bachelor’s in physics, then master’s and PhD in comparative literature, it didn’t seem far fetched. My brother was smart.
Yet Anais, for whatever reason, had found the right button to push.
Why was she needling him?
“Ana?s, stop,” Lucien now interjected, frowning at Anais, too, who nodded and sat back—though she still shot a smug smirk at Thayer that practically made smoke come out of his ears.
“The Underearth is the place where the Fae dwell,” Enoch now explained, drawing everyone’s attention to him.
He was into his third cup of coffee for the morning, and he sipped it as if it were his first before he resumed.
“Not all Fae, of course, but a very specific subrace of Fae. We refer to them as Underearth Fae.”
He paused and glanced at me momentarily before he looked at Thayer, who still seemed pissed off from Anais’s obvious provocation.
“The Underearth Fae are governed by an organization called the Sable Syndicate. While they dabble in all kinds of illegal businesses, and many of their actions warrant a healthy dose of suspicion, they care deeply for their kin and rule the Underearth fairly.”
“The irony of the Syndicate,” Blaise chimed in, his thick accent making his voice drawl, “is that their ruler, the Syndarch, is a part of the Council.”