Chapter Nine
All it takes is a whispered, “Does your wife have antlers? Because my mate does, and she’s in trouble,” for Evander’s I might just kill you vibe to completely fizzle out, replaced by one of extreme — and genuine — concern.
“Are they here? Your mate?” he asks quietly, his jaw clenched and his dark brows furrowed. Sitting this close, I can tell he’s an alpha; there’s a quality to him that is similar to the way Josh is, some innate charisma, and maybe a little bit of magic.
I shake my head. “No, she’s not. That’s part of it. She’s trapped, or dead. It’s hard to explain.”
At my words he grows very still, gold eyes searching my face. “Did they take her?” he asks. There’s a growl in his voice he can’t quite disguise, and I see the way other guests turn their heads at the sound, watching us.
I ignore them, focusing on the fact that he knows something. “I think so. Back in 1915.”
Evander leans forward. “What do you mean, 1915?”
I step inside Evander’s small office, tucked away out the back of the vineyard’s original building, the setting sun lighting up the room in an orange glow.
In the span of five minutes, everything changed; I’d told Evander what I know and what I suspect about Rose, and he had listened, nodding woodenly at the end and saying, “Wait here,” before rising from his seat and taking off in long strides. I’d watched his wife, Ellie, react to his approach before he was even halfway across the event space, her brows turned down in a worried frown as she swung around to face him, and her expression had given me another eerie jolt of recognition because I’ve seen that same face on Rose before.
And now the three of us are here, having slipped out of the party as soon as the cake was cut. Ellie takes a seat next to her husband on the couch that lines the back wall while I sit on the office chair he gestures to. I’m impressed that it doesn’t creak under my weight, but then again, Evander is a fairly big man himself — not orc-sized but definitely not small — and he’s rich enough to have all the fancy gear, that’s for sure.
“Van said you have a mate like me?” Ellie starts, and it takes me a second to realise she’s referring to Evander. I take a deep breath, nodding.
“Yeah. I mean, we’re not officially mated in any culture, but she’s mine,” I shrug, feeling the pull of my shirt on my shoulders. “Her name is Rose, and she’s wonderful. When I saw you today I got a shock, because for a moment I thought you were her, even though that’s impossible. It’s just the ears, and the hair, and I don’t know, there’s just a vibe about you both.”
“And she’s in trouble?”
I nod, and Evander says, “I haven’t had a chance to explain to Ellie what you told me. I didn’t want to say anything in a room with so many guests that we don’t personally know. Call me overly cautious, but you never know who’s listening or what their intentions may be.”
“Everyone here today should be safe,” Ellie interjects, placing a hand on Evander’s knee, before turning to me again. “There’s a ward around the vineyard,” she explains. “Those who have ill intentions towards us can’t pass through.”
“People are still gossips,” Evander states, and I glance between the two of them. There’s a slight tension between this couple that I didn’t pick up on at first.
“ I want to hear from you , Zak, about what’s going on,” Ellie starts, “because Van hasn’t told me a thing except ‘I’m going with him to the mainland tonight and you’re staying here where it’s safe,’ ” she says, mimicking his American accent with a surprising level of accuracy, “and quite frankly, I understand my alpha husband’s instincts to keep me safe, but I am going to make an informed decision myself.”
Ah.
I clear my throat, crossing my arms over my chest, doing my best to ignore the way Evander opens his mouth and then closes it again, clearly thinking twice about arguing with his wife.
“When I first saw Rose, I thought she was a ghost,” I tell her. “And up until very recently I thought that she was already dead, but certain events have made me reconsider that. She was born in 1893, in Auckland. She was last alive in 1915.”
Ellie looks stunned, and continues to look more and more shocked as I explain everything. How she only appears at night, and how she was always so translucent at first, but now she’s more solid. How the moon seems to influence how long she hangs around for.
“She’s using her own magic,” Ellie says with absolute certainty, after I explain last week’s incident with the glowing mushrooms and Rose’s antlers. “She can’t be dead, surely, if she’s using magic like that. Like this .” In an instant Ellie’s demeanour changes, her back straight and her eyes determined, and in the blink of an eye there are antlers on her head. I stare, shocked, because fuck , they are exactly the same as Rose’s, down to the little flowers that bloom on them.
“Is this what she looked like last week?” Ellie asks.
I nod, grinding my teeth. “Yeah. What does this mean?”
“It means she has fae heritage. The same type of fae as me, if the antlers are similar.”
“I swear, it’s like someone copy-pasted those from her head onto yours. But what does this mean? Fae have been taking people, right? I tried to find some of the stuff that was on the news a couple of years ago but I couldn’t.”
“You won’t find anything.” Evander’s tone is absolute, his jaw clenched. “The fae seem to have a way of making these things disappear from public memory.”
“Well, shit, that’s scary.”
The couple nod in agreement, their voices blending together as she says, “Yep,” while he answers with a very serious, “Yes.”
“Rose has no memory.” That statement has Ellie looking even more worried. “I mean, she remembers her life before she… died, or whatever happened. She says her last memory is of mushrooms surrounding her in her garden. She has no memory of wherever she’s been. She doesn’t know where she goes when she fades away, but the other night she said it felt like it was under. ”
Ellie shakes her head, blinking back tears, and Evander’s arm settles around her, pulling her closer against his side.
“I think Rose has been taken by the fae,” he says, and I nod.
Evander’s expression is grim. Ellie looks shell-shocked. I feel both sick and full of adrenaline at the same time. They might actually help us.
“Please —”
“Van’s mother is a witch. A powerful one, with connections,” Ellie cuts in.
“I can’t promise anything yet,” Evander counters. “I need to see this for myself, before I ask anyone else to get involved.”
An apologetic early goodbye to Zara with a promise to explain later, a phone call to swap my car ferry ticket from tomorrow morning to this evening, and an awkward explanation to the millionaire couple that no , I don’t need to cancel accommodation on the island because I wasn’t staying anywhere anyway — I was going to park up at a beach and sleep in my ute overnight because the $160 return ferry ticket was all I could afford — and our two vehicles are pulling onto the huge red boat bound for Auckland City. I watch the other passengers eye up Evander’s fancy car as he’s directed to park behind me underneath the upper deck, one woman blatantly tapping her husband on the shoulder and saying “Look!”
Evander and his brother Seth climb out, and I join them. The resemblance between the two is ridiculous; Seth is an inch shorter and his hair is more brown than black, but it’s otherwise as if someone cloned Evander and made a younger version. If someone were casting a film, either one of them could be the leading man for sure.
Their wide-blown pupils shine yellow-green under the overhead lights, a clear reminder that they are wolves. All three of us are still dressed for the wedding, and between us we attract even more attention from the human passengers onboard.
“It’s fucking freezing out here,” I say, ignoring the stares. My breath fogs in the air.
Evander nods, gesturing to the stairs. “Let’s go up and find a seat inside. I need a coffee.”
With drinks and food acquired — Evander offered to pay for mine and as much as I’m embarrassed, I didn’t say no — we take our seats in one of the large-species-inclusive booths in the back corner.
“I really appreciate this,” I reiterate, looking between both brothers. “I wasn’t expecting to find anyone that had any idea of what’s going on, and I definitely didn’t expect you guys to help immediately.”
Evander takes a sip of his drink, his eyes serious. “Let’s just say I’ve learned my lesson before; when it comes to matters regarding fae, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and that means not wasting time and hoping that things will just work out. The Unseelie are a serious threat, especially to changelings like Ellie.”
“That’s why we left her at home with the rest of the pack,” Seth adds. He grins at his brother. “I think you pissed her off.”
“Hm,” Evander grumbles, his lips momentarily pressing into a thin line as he stares down at his coffee cup. “Tell me something I don’t know. I can sense it through the bond. Believe me, she’s making it known.” He looks up, his gold eyes intense as he meets my gaze. “She’s scared for me; Ellie thinks I should involve my mother right now, but I need to see this for myself before I take this further.”
I still don’t fully understand why this guy would drop everything to help Rose and I, though I’m not going to complain about it.
“Ellie has had a few near-misses,” he says, as if reading my mind. “She’s supposed to be safe already, but I’m overly cautious about things. She wants to be here with us even though she’s afraid, because she’s my mate and we do things as a team, but I’m not bringing her near any source of danger, not when fae are involved, not until I know more. It’s worth a grumpy mate to know that she’s safe.”
“Rose isn’t dangerous,” I say. “I haven’t felt in danger at her house.”
“I believe you,” Evander says. “But I don’t think any of these kidnapped changelings ever felt in danger. They thought they were safe, until suddenly they weren’t. A lot of the evidence has been erased in the last two years but I’ve been paying attention to it all.” He leans back in his seat. “It’s not her that I’m worried about. It’s them . If she’s travelling between realms, I’m not taking unnecessary risks.”
“I thought you needed a portal to travel between realms.”
“And I thought ghosts weren’t real. Something isn’t adding up here.”