CHAPTER TWELVE
Myra
I did not, in fact, thank Yael again that night.
Instead, I woke up feeling like I’d been put through a blender, with my fae counterpart nowhere to be found.
I wanted to grate his face against a brick wall, but I had to settle for cursing his name and making pacts with every god I could think of to eviscerate him just enough for me to enjoy watching his life fade away.
Whoever the witch or warlock or demon spawn he’d left me with was, they had definitely fixed my leg, but that bullshit wood chip Yael had given me to gnaw on hadn’t put a dent in the pain.
At some point I’d blacked out, then woken up alone on a stainless steel slab in a darkened room—and not the one I remembered Yael delivering me to.
The second I realized this, I was on my feet and out the door in my tank-top skirt and jacket, running through the streets of the Playground at an ungodly hour.
It took a block or two for me to get my bearings, but once I did, I ran to the safest place I could think of.
Above The Riff Raff were two stories of apartments, all owned by Ravi.
His place was nestled on the east-facing corner of the third floor so he could enjoy the sunrise on the days it cut through the fog.
I raced up the stairs and banged on the door of 3E like it wasn’t the dead of night and waited.
In the blink of an eye, a rather bedraggled-looking Ravi stood before me, the press of magic swirling all around him as though he expected a fight awaiting him behind the door.
Maybe the sight of me was even worse, given the way he took one look at me and dragged me into his home.
“What’s going on?” he asked as he ushered me to the vintage floral sofa in the living room. “What happened?”
Not sure where to even start, I exhaled hard and plopped down on the weathered polyester, taking in the space that looked like a time capsule from the 1970s. “I got in a bit of trouble.”
“I gathered that much,” he replied, sitting down in the gold velvet armchair across from me. “What I need to know is how bad and what kind.”
In my rush to escape the hell Yael had left me in, I hadn’t fully thought through what I’d say to Ravi once I arrived.
Given our earlier conversation, he would undoubtedly put together part of it, but the rest?
The rest he had no way of knowing, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell him for more reasons than I could count, not the least of which was plausible deniability.
Ravi had spent too long carving out a place for himself amid the chaos of the Playground, and I would never intentionally do anything to jeopardize that for him—especially not if I was going to bail at the end of it all.
“It’s about that deal with the fae,” I said, fixing my gaze on the wicker coffee table to avoid his keen stare.
“You’re the one that made it, aren’t you?” he asked, though it wasn’t really a question; more a confirmation of what he’d suspected from the beginning. I nodded in response anyway. “Oh, Myra, you know better than that—”
“I promise you, it was so far out of my control at the time that I had no other choice.”
“There is always a choice, bitiya,” he said, using his Hindi pet name for me. “Always.”
“Except mine was literal and imminent death, so forgive me for not choosing that path.”
His eyebrows rose with that little tidbit and he sat back in his chair, fingers steepled by his chest. “And what exactly did you bargain away in this deal you made?”
Careful, now…
“I have to use the Siren’s Song to help find someone who is missing.”
He cursed under his breath in his native tongue. “You know how dangerous that will be—”
“Of course I do, but what options do I have? I’m magically bound to do it.”
“You must speak to the fae king… have him force the one binding you to undo it. Surely Yael could get you a meeting with him to—” I don’t know if it was the look on my face, the pieces of the puzzle falling into place for him, or both, but realization hit Ravi hard, cutting off his thought.
It took a full ten seconds for him to recover before he spoke again.
“Yael did this… he’s the one you are bound to. ”
A strange sense of shame washed over me. “Yes.”
Ravi was on his feet, raw and violent anger emanating from his entire being.
“I will kill him,” he said, seething as he paced the worn-out carpet, “and see if that gets you out of this ridiculous bargain. If he thinks he can come back into my house and use my people for his personal gain, then he didn’t learn a thing about this place in his short tenure.
” He paused long enough to pin his malicious gaze on me.
“But I will be more than happy to teach him.”
Ravi rushed toward the door as thunder cracked loudly outside, and I was on my feet, running to catch up with him. “You can’t kill him! If you do… I can never return home.”
He was halfway down the stairs by the time my words stopped him, and he turned eerily slowly to look back up at me. “What are you saying?”
I inhaled hard and let it out slowly to buy time.
Telling him the truth would be admitting to what I’d done—how I’d nearly left without saying goodbye—and my mind raced with lies I could tell him to avoid that fate.
But in the end, I couldn't think of any that would keep him from killing my potential ticket home. Only the truth would.
“I’m saying that I promised to help Yael, and in return, he promised to get me back to the Deep.”
“Oh, Myra…” He climbed the risers, slowly and fluidly, until he was standing before me, deep brown eyes so full of pity I had to look away. “Believing he can do this for you doesn’t make it true.”
“It could be,” I whispered. “It has to be.”
“No, bitiya. It doesn’t.” When I wouldn’t meet his gaze, he leaned down to intercept mine.
“The fae are often tricksters, and Yael may be among the trickiest of them all. I have no doubt that he arranged this to benefit only him while using you. I must put an end to this—to him. Anyone who comes for my people—leverages them into bargains upon threat of death—deserves only one fate.”
“The death would not have been his doing,” I said, so ashamed that my cheeks burned scarlet. My nails bit into the flesh of my palms to fight back my emotions. “I did something reckless that nearly got me killed, and Yael capitalized on my stupidity. Nothing more.”
He leaned away to better take me in. “And what was this reckless act?”
In that moment, I wished I’d drowned the previous night—anything to avoid admitting what I forced myself to admit. “I bought a potion that was supposed to allow me to return to the sea, but it failed. Water filled my lungs while I stood in inches-deep water, and I nearly drowned.”
“And Yael watched rather than help you so he could get you to do his bidding.” A statement, not a question. “Is that why he returned?” My throat was too tight with emotion to reply, so I merely nodded. Ravi’s rage returned in an instant. “Then he dies.”
“You cannot start a war with the fae,” I argued, hoping reason might cut through his murderous haze. “He’s the king’s second, Ravi. There will be consequences—”
“As there are consequences for what he’s done to you.”
He turned on his heels and marched down the stairs, unfazed by my pleas for him to stop. “Is this really about Yael, or do you just not want me to ever leave?”
His feet stilled, his body went rigid, and he faced away from me, unwilling to look back.
“What I want for you is happiness, and if you think returning home to claim your revenge and face the queen is how you will find it, then you have my blessing. But I will never want you to leave—especially not if I feel it will only get you killed.”
“Will you let me, though?” I asked as I slowly descended the stairs behind him. “If I promise to say goodbye next time?”
Silence.
“To say goodbye is to admit I will never see you again, so no, Myra, I will not agree to those terms.” He turned slowly to look over his shoulder, and even in the darkened hallway, I swore I could see the sheen of tears in his eyes.
“But I will let you go.” He stepped aside so I could pass.
“And I will let Yael live if you truly believe he can deliver what he promised. For now.”
“Can I… would it be okay if I stayed here tonight?” I asked, hoping he wasn’t frustrated enough with me to turn me away.
Without saying a word, he gestured toward his apartment door and waited for me to walk back up the stairs.
Once inside, he looked at what I was wearing, then disappeared into his bedroom, returning with an armful of stuff.
“I’m not sure what’s going on with your outfit, but it can’t possibly be comfortable, so here.
” He handed me some grey sweatpants and a long-sleeve tee.
“And here are some blankets for the couch. I’d offer you my bed, but I know you wouldn’t take it, so I'm sparing us another argument.” A soft smile graced his face.
“Be sure to put one underneath you. That fabric is terribly itchy, especially if you sweat.”
“I’ll do my best not to.”
“And I’ll do my best not to throttle Yael if he shows his face at the bar.”
“Thank you… for understanding.”
He hesitated for a moment as an awkward silence hung between us. “Myra… what was the ‘trouble’ you got into tonight? The trouble that drove you here looking like that?”
I panicked internally, doing all I could to keep it from my face.
I’d already divulged way more than I should have; telling him whoopsie-I-accidentally-blew-someone-up would have sent him over the edge, something I couldn’t afford if I actually wanted to help Yael find his sister so I could return to the Deep.
Instead, I racked my brain for a lie with just enough truth in it to deter his interrogation.
“I had to go with Yael to Demon’s Horn to get information. It went a bit sideways.”
“Went sideways how?”
“There was a fight, and my leg got hurt—possibly broken. Yael took me to a healer. I woke up there alone and freaked out, so I ran here because it’s the safest place I know. The end.”
“Myra—”
“Please don’t give me a lecture right now, Ravi. I don’t think I can handle it. It’s been a long night.”
He lips pressed to a thin line as he held back whatever he wanted to say and nodded instead. “I will leave it alone for now, but if this nonsense with Yael brings danger to my place or my people, I will do what needs to be done. Is that understood?”
“Understood.” As silence stretched between us, I hugged the items he’d given me tightly. “Goodnight, Ravi.”
“Goodnight, Myra.” He gave a small bow of sorts, then withdrew from the room, leaving me alone in the darkness with his clothes, his blankets, and his warning hanging over my head.
Moving forward, I would have to make certain that whatever chaos Yael and I caused, we kept it under wraps so that none of the fallout landed on The Riff Raff’s doorstep.
If not, Ravi’s promise to let Yael live would be dead and gone.