Chapter 2
Nell
My head pounds like an army of tiny miners is drilling tunnels through my brain. I try to open my eyes, but the light stabs through my pupils. I don't know what the green-eyed girl did to me, but the pain is unbearable.
“About time you woke up,” a male voice growls.
I blink several times as I try to focus.
I'm sprawled on something soft, judging by the feel, maybe a leather couch.
A strange smell, like sandalwood, saturates the air.
Once my vision clears, I see a man sitting across from me.
He's attractive in an unsettling way, with slightly dark skin and a perfectly trimmed beard, peppered with premature gray.
His long hair falls in waves over his shoulders.
He wears a dark suit that probably costs more than everything I've stolen in a year.
“Who the hell are you?” I snap, sitting up too fast. The room spins around me.
“My name is Kaelisar Trothfinn,” he explains, offering no further details about what I'm doing here.
I take in the surrounding space. It looks like a luxury penthouse, with floor-to-ceiling windows showing an impressive urban panorama. But there's something... strange. The edges of my vision seem to ripple, like I'm looking through water. Nothing here feels completely real.
“Did you drug me?” I ask, touching my temple as I try to remember.
“Not exactly,” the man responds, leaning forward slightly as if he finds me interesting. “Though I suppose the effects of this place on your dormant magic could be considered a type of... intoxication.”
“Magic?” I scoff. “I think you've got the wrong person. I'm just a girl from the neighborhood who wants to get on with her life. Listen, if the Harringtons sent you, I had nothing to do with that robbery,” I rush to clarify.
“You're much more than a girl from the neighborhood, Niletta Collins,” he murmurs, pronouncing my full name like it's an incantation. “You're Fae. At least, partly.”
I look around. This has to be one of those hidden camera shows or this guy is completely nuts.
Discreetly, I feel my leather jacket and the diamonds are still there.
They didn't kidnap me to rob me. For a brief moment, I consider attacking him, but something about this man tells me he's extremely dangerous, so I decide against it.
This Kaelisar stands and walks toward me. I try to back away, like a cornered animal. I try to stand, but my legs don't respond the way they should. He sits next to me, too close, and I don't like the expression on his face one bit.
“May I?” he asks as he extends his hand toward my cheek.
“Don't touch me,” I snarl, pulling away from him.
My whole body goes on alert.
“I don't intend to do anything to you. You just need to know the truth,” he insists, and this time his hand moves faster than I can dodge.
He touches my forehead. It's just a brush, but I freeze, paralyzed.
In that instant, a strange sensation runs through me, like electricity, but something different.
.. deeper, much more ancient. A warmth begins to spread from the point of contact, traveling down my spine and coursing through my entire body.
And then, without any window open, a gust of wind rises around me as if trying to protect me. Papers fly off the table, curtains whip violently. I feel how the air circulates around me, like it's responding to my presence. The heat increases, transforms into a fire that consumes me from within.
“Stop, damn it!” I scream, doubling over in pain. “Whatever you're doing, stop!”
But Kaelisar doesn't stop. The heat becomes unbearable, and with it the pain increases. It's like every cell in my body is waking from a slumber. I scream until my voice gives out while the wind howls around me, responding to my agony.
“Leave her alone!” a woman's voice shouts.
The door bursts open and three figures enter the room. I recognize my captors: the tall woman with well-defined muscles, the slender blonde with the braid on one side, and the shorter one with eyes like the sea.
“You promised you wouldn't hurt her!” the green-eyed one exclaims, her musical voice now tinged with anguish.
“Calm down, Sabina,” the man responds serenely, like he's talking to a baby. “She's just reconciling with her heritage.”
I bring my hands to my stomach and double over, gasping, about to vomit. The pain begins to subside, but it leaves behind a strange sensation, like my body no longer belongs to me entirely. I've always been able to feel the surrounding air somehow, but now it's sharpened.
“You said it wouldn't hurt her,” the tall, darker-skinned woman murmurs, Althea, if I remember her name correctly. I could swear tiny sparks dance on her fingers as she clenches her fists, but it must be my imagination.
“And it shouldn't if her mother's idiot self hadn't sealed her magic so deeply,” he replies, clicking his tongue with indifference. It's like making me suffer doesn't matter to him in the slightest. I'd even swear he's enjoying himself. “Lasara was always paranoid.”
“Lasara?” I hiss. “You knew my mother?”
Kaelisar pins me with his gaze and for a moment I see something in his eyes. Sadness? Nostalgia? Whatever it is, it vanishes as quickly as it came.
“Yes, I knew your mother,” he admits with a sigh. “Just as I know your father well. We were... connected. Before everything went to shit.”
Something about the way he says “connected” gives me chills. It doesn't sound like romance. Or I hope not, at least. That's all I need. I'd rather not know.
I straighten up, ignoring the pain that still lingers. Something about this man puts my whole body on alert.
“My father abandoned us when I was born; he's a bastard,” I respond coldly.
Kaelisar smiles, but it's a smile cold as ice.
“Your mother always had a complicated relationship with the truth,” he adds with an almost theatrical sigh. “Your father didn't abandon you. He was... is an air elemental, like you.”
“I don't know what the hell you're talking about,” I growl.
“Your mother was human. She fell in love with a Fae. You were born, and one day she fled with you to this shitty realm when you could have had everything in ours. She hid you among humans, sealed your magic, and made you believe you were one of them. She was always a very unstable woman. Bad luck had her die when you were a child and leave you without answers. How inconvenient, right?”
“I don't believe any of this,” I mutter through my teeth.
“I can give you those answers, Niletta,” he whispers. “After all, that Fae your mother was once in love with, that's me.”
The silence that follows is absolute. My three captors exchange a quick glance and I can see the surprise on their faces.
I study Kaelisar carefully, searching for some feature of mine in his face. I find none. Besides, something about his claim feels... wrong.
“What a load of crap,” I protest. “I don't know what game you're playing, but I'm not buying it. That's a lie.”
Kaelisar laughs, a strange laugh, a sound that makes my skin crawl.
“Your intuition is sharp, fitting for a wind whisperer,” he acknowledges. “But you can't deny what you're feeling right now. The magic flowing through your veins. The air responding to your emotions.”
“Okay, let's say I believe you about the magic thing,” I concede, crossing my arms over my chest in an attempt to get more information out of him.
I've watched Chad negotiate with the mobsters we steal for and you always have to make them believe they're in control.
“What exactly do you want from me? Because I doubt you miss me, and this is a family reunion, right?”
“Straight to the point. I like that,” he exclaims, standing to head to a dark wooden table. He opens a drawer and pulls out a brown folder. “I need to recover three artifacts that were unjustly taken from me.”
After opening it, he shows us a photograph. A golden arrow, adorned with what look like diamonds.
“So in the end, all you want is for me to steal something for you?”
He doesn't bother to respond. He rolls his eyes in a dramatic way and continues with his explanation, as if talking down to a child.
“This is the arrow of Veritas,” he explains. “The first of three artifacts I need you to recover for me. The others are the Sphere of Emet and the Mirror of Alétheia, but we'll get to those.”
“And why should I care?” I ask, trying to seem braver than I actually feel.
“Because you, along with these three ladies,” he adds, gesturing to my captors who remain silent, “are going to steal them for me.”
“Not interested,” I respond, standing from the couch. “Thanks for the offer; you seem like a great guy and all, but I'll pass. I'm getting out of here.”
Kaelisar sighs, like I've disappointed him.
“I expected that,” he admits, pulling out another thicker folder. “That's why I took the liberty of gathering all the necessary evidence about your illicit activities and those of your little group. Especially about your dear brother Colt.”
My blood freezes. Colt is the closest thing to family I have left. Describing him as “brother” is basically accurate.
“What are you talking about?”
“Everything,” he responds, shrugging naturally.
“Every robbery, every scam, every forgery. I have dates, locations, photographic evidence. Enough for all of you to spend the rest of your lives in prison.” He closes the folder with a sharp snap.
“And believe me, in your case, 'the rest of your life' would be extraordinarily long now that your Fae heritage has awakened.”
“You're a son of a bitch,” I murmur.
“Maybe,” he concedes with a smile. “But a very clever son of a bitch. In fact, I was the one who provided your team with the information about the Harrington diamonds.”
Instinctively, I feel for the diamonds again. It's all been a trap, the intel seemed strangely good from the start. Everything too easy.
“Don't worry, you can keep them,” he scoffs like they have no value to him.
“And them?”
“Each one has her own... motivations,” he responds without further explanation.
“I'm not doing jack shit for you,” I growl.
“Not even for Colt? How disappointed he'll be when they arrest him! And all because of you.”
The wind intensifies, whipping my hair. For an instant, I feel the urge to launch myself at him, to let this new energy I sense inside me explode. But that would be stupid. I don't know how to control this, and he clearly does.
“Be reasonable, Niletta,” this Kaelisar continues.
“I'm not asking you to kill anyone. Just to steal a few objects.
Something you already do regularly and that I'm sure you enjoy.
The difference is that this time you'll have the help of a real team. Very specialized,” he adds, pointing to my three captors.
“If I steal what you're asking, will you destroy all the evidence?”
“Of course.”
“What guarantee do I have that you will?”
“None, though you don't have many options either.”
I look at my captors one by one. Althea, the dark-skinned woman, seems remorseful.
The tall blonde woman with the green braid maintains an impassive expression, still as a statue, but there's a flash of sympathy in her eyes.
Sabina, the one with the impossibly green eyes, looks like she's on the verge of bursting into tears at any moment.
“Yes, Sylara is an elf,” he adds, amused, seeing my gaze fixed on the tall girl's ears with the braid. “You'll get to know each other.”
“Fine,” I agree with a long sigh. “I'm not saying I'll do it, but I'm willing to listen. Though, if I do this, when it's over you'll leave us alone. All of us.”
Kaelisar smiles proudly. He knows he's won the battle.
“Of course,” he murmurs. “Now, I'll leave you to get to know your new companions better. After all, you're going to be spending a lot of time together,” he adds, suddenly disappearing.