Chapter 33 #2
“Is it?” Lancaster smirked. Slipping a hand around my glass, he lifted it to his lips. Where it had been empty before, he now tossed back two fingers of liquor. The subtlety of the magic went unnoticed with the others, but I tucked away that little skill of his.
“You believe in this great creator, then?” the woman asked Lancaster, trying to peek beneath his hood.
He pulled it tighter. “I’ve studied many different denominations in my long lifetime. Which I succumb to is beyond the point. I believe it is foolish to rule any out.”
Briefly, I wondered how fae texts conveyed the histories. Warped, I was certain, but curiosity still bloomed within me. And Lancaster couldn’t lie, which made his theories on power even more intriguing.
The woman brushed her long brown curls behind her shoulder and leaned forward, her low-cut green dress shifting with the movement, but before she could respond, her partner interrupted, “It’s a load of shit.
” His voice was less kind, but his attention dropped to the woman’s breasts pressed against his arm.
I stifled a laugh, and it appeared Lancaster did, too. Some people were so easily distracted.
The man propped his arm on the back of his partner’s chair, his sleeve rolling up to expose—
A silver cuff hung around his wrist, the chain connected to it dangling, broken. Lancaster stiffened.
Though he couldn’t see my face, the man raised his brows as if he knew he’d caught my attention. “See something you like?”
“Certainly interested in whatever story deems that necessary,” I intoned, waving a hand at his wrist.
“It’s from my latest stint as a prisoner.”
“Your latest?” I asked.
A smug smile lifted his weathered cheeks. “There’s been a few.”
“You can’t take it off?”
“I could…but then women such as yourself wouldn’t ask.” His eyes were curious as they rested on my hood, like his attention alone could convince me to pull it back.
“I wouldn’t get on her bad side,” Lancaster scoffed, leaning back in his chair. I couldn’t decide if that made me like him more or not. Though I’d agreed to a tentative peace with the faerie the last time I’d seen him, I would never forget his original intentions for Santorina.
“I’m Lessel, by the way. This is Mora.” The former prisoner ignored Lancaster’s advice.
“Pleasure,” I deadpanned.
“What’s your story?” Mora narrowed her eyes at me when I didn’t offer my name.
“What’s yours?” I asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Lancaster’s amused exhale. He waved a hand above his glass, and it refilled once again. A handy trick.
A smile cut between her high cheekbones, softening her features.
“I ran away from a husband who gave me one too many bruises.” My stomach lurched.
Lancaster’s fingers curled around the glass, and I thought a low growl escaped him.
“Now I do what I must to get by.” Which apparently included spending evenings with men like Lessel.
Part of me wanted to offer her money, to give her whatever she needed, but I clenched my hands within my cloak and pictured Tolek. I had to keep a low profile, and handing out money was certainly not the way to do that. It was bad enough I had a possibly untrustworthy fae to deal with now.
“Your turn,” Mora said, pushing her bottle of rum across the table to me.
I ignored it. “I’m looking for someone.”
“Descriptive.”
Lessel narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re awful cagey, the two of you.
” He shot a glance at Lancaster, face still shadowed beneath his hood.
“You don’t have anything to do with that strange, black-tented camp, do ya?
” His words slurred slightly at the end.
Mora refilled his glass again, winking at me.
“What camp?” Lancaster perked up.
“The one in the woods just north of the capitol. With the active guard. More weapons than I’ve seen since the war.” I sat straighter, too. “They’re silent. Didn’t see ’em until we stumbled right into their line of defense. They sent us away right quick, they did.”
“What clan were they?” I rushed, leaning forward. Lancaster mimicked the motion.
Lessel shrugged, but Mora answered, brow furrowed, “They wore all black armor. Not identifiable as any clan.”
“Weapons?”
“Daggers, small swords, mostly. Some axes.”
A variety, then. Maybe it wasn’t Kakias. But maybe—
“Where?” I nearly spat, but scratched at my Curse scar beneath my cloak to temper myself.
“About a mile south of here. Like he said, it sprung up on us. Silent as the deepest night, and deadly as it, too.” Mora’s eyes widened as she remembered it, pale skin nearly gray. “I’d advise you not to look for it. But if you must…you’ll know it when you’re near.”
I fought every instinct to tear out of the place, doing my best to remain calm. “Thank you for the information.” I fished some coins out of my pack and dropped them on the table.
Before anyone could respond, I was outside, running through the brisk night to reach Sapphire at her post down the road.
“Warrior, wait!”
I spun to meet the faerie on my heels.
“Wait?” I snapped. “Why are you following me?”
“As I said, I was looking for you.” He strode down the stairs, hood falling back. And I finally had a view of those pointed ears poking through his hair.
“And why is that?” I walked backward, unable to stand still for too long.
“I can’t—” His voice stopped, whether because he was bound from telling a warrior of his mission or because what he’d been about to say was a lie, I didn’t know. In the night, Lancaster’s canines reflected the moonlight when he growled in frustration. “I wish to help you.”
“Why?”
“Don’t ask questions if you aren’t prepared for the answers.”
“Are you going to assist me, then, or threaten the life of someone else I care about?”
Those canines glinted again, frustration piercing his controlled immortal demeanor. “That was a misunderstanding. I swore not to hurt her.”
He couldn’t lie, so it had to be true.
“Excellent. Now if you don’t mind, I have somewhere to be.” I stepped into the dark street.
“You won’t get in there without me.”
I froze and turned back to the shadow watching me. I swept my eyes over his broad form, stopping on the blades strapped to his side.
I curled my hand around my own.
“Watch me.”
Lancaster did, to my ire.
With that infuriating fae speed, he kept pace with Sapphire as we tracked the camp Mora and Lessel mentioned. Frost crept over bare tree limbs as we traveled deeper into Mindshaper Territory, but we were far enough north that we did not have to face snow or sleet.
Mora had been right. A slinking presence crawled to us while we were still a quarter mile out, like shadowed hands slithering around my muscles. Coaxed us through the trees, a misty voice on the wind, right to a clearing.
Four pointed tents were raised, dark as night with fabric that looked thick as leather, wide shielded pathways connecting them all. It didn’t appear to be a camp that was easily collapsible, made for quick retreats or last-minute marches.
No, this was a base.
There were too many signs of permanent inhabitation for it to be anything else: stores of weapons and food being carted in, fires burning in the frigid Mindshaper air. Travelers concerned with being caught did not dare light fires.
The largest tent was in the center, the three smaller ones forming a guard around it. Based on the number of people traipsing in and out of the dim opening, it seemed the most secured.
The most likely place to keep a hostage.
Tolek was in there. He had to be.
“Something here isn’t right.” Lancaster’s voice was barely a whisper as he crouched beside me. Though I’d suspected as much myself, the tone undulating through his words chilled even me—terror.
“What is it?”
The fae only shook his head. “I can’t name it. Never felt anything like it. But there’s a barrier here I can’t pass.” He extended a hand. At the edge of the shadowed tree line, his palm flattened.
Mimicking him, I tested the air, but my fingers passed straight through into the dim moonlight filtering through the branches woven atop the clearing.
I pulled my hand back quickly.
“Looks like you won’t be any help to me, then. You can go.” I needed this faerie to stop distracting me so I could form a plan.
He groaned, mumbling something under his breath.
Then, “Make a deal with me, Mystique.”
I whipped my head toward him. “You have got to be out of your immortal mind.”
“I can’t enter that camp, but I can get you in. In turn, you help me.”
It was reckless, making a bargain with a faerie. They were tricksters, enemies of the warriors.
But if he truly could get me into the camp…I looked at the array of guards surrounding the clearing. They swept around with the same unnatural, windy movements of the Engrossians we’d fought in the Southern Pass.
Tol was there; I knew it in my bones. And I’d do anything to reach him.
Without letting myself second guess it, I said, “This way.”
We walked until we were far enough to not be overheard.
“What do I need to help you with?”
“When the time comes, I’ll call on you.” From the predatory curve of his lips, I had a sick feeling there was more he wasn’t saying. A concrete reason he needed me.
“Absolutely not.” I wouldn’t make such a loose deal.
“Set your parameters, then,” he agreed quickly, and I realized he’d known I wouldn’t be so easy to sway. And that—that feeling of being a step behind this immortal being—had me reconsidering.
Conflict warred in my gut at the thought of trusting him, but I supposed I didn’t have a choice. This damn fae was forcing help I very much needed upon me, and I wasn’t sure what that meant for our history with them.
I did not want to offer this to him, to trust even a breath from his lungs, but…
“Parameters,” I repeated. “If I make this deal, it cannot harm anyone I care for. It cannot touch them; you cannot use or manipulate them. I will do what is needed, but everyone else is left out of it. I will not come if I am in the middle of my own war, nor will I respond immediately if doing so will jeopardize any members of my clan.”
His eyes flicked over my face, narrowing in his search for loopholes with that expert mind of his. I repeated my words, checking for any myself.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.” Now my smiled turned wicked. “I want to be able to call on you in the future, too. If a time comes when I need your help again, you come.”
“An indefinite bargain?” He almost looked impressed. “I’ve never made one before. Not in the centuries I’ve lived.”
I held my hand out. “Afraid of one small warrior?”
“Never.” He looked at my hand. “But that is not how bargains are sealed with my kind.”
“For the love of the Angels, Lancaster, what do you want?” I was growing impatient with his games.
“A kiss.”
My stomach hollowed out. “A kiss?”
“I did not create the magic,” he grumbled with an impatient eye roll. “It’s the only way to seal our bargain.”
The alternative to a kiss…possibly losing Tol. That thought nearly carved out my chest.
One kiss. That was all he asked. I could kiss an immortal faerie and sign over a piece of my loyalty indefinitely if it meant getting Tolek back.
“Fine.”
Lancaster leaned over me, his hand grabbing the back of my neck. Then, his lips were on mine, and I jolted—it was the first time I had kissed anyone besides Malakai.
It was different, kissing this faerie. Wrong. Despite the magic that passed between us as I opened for him, there was an unnatural collision in the way our mouths moved. Though it was clear he was skilled, had probably spent centuries bedding females, I did not want him beyond this deal.
His magic twisted along my bones as the bargain solidified itself, tying us to each other indefinitely, until the day one of us broke our end of the bargain. It tasted ancient, made of secrets and the foundations of nature.
A bolt of lightning flashed between the trees, striking the frosty ground where we stood, and he backed away.
“Done.”
His smile turned vengeful, ready to hunt. And fear flooded my gut at the gravity of what I may have just agreed to.
Lancaster lifted his hand, conjured a small charm out of nothing. Gold and engraved with a symbol too worn to make out. “Add that to your necklace. Wish on it when you want to invoke our deal, and I’ll know.”
Shaking myself of the inexplicable sensation that bargain had wrought within me, I pushed every fear of what I’d just committed to from my mind.
“Can we get on with this now?” I asked once the charm was hanging beside my token from Angelborn.
“Give me five minutes,” Lancaster said. “And your path into that camp will be clear.”
I nodded, watching him disappear silently into the trees, unsure of what he was about to do but knowing there was a time we would meet again.
Creeping back to the edge of the camp, I tried to form a plan as if this was nothing more than one of Cyph’s drills. Find the guards’ weaknesses, look for those who seemed slowest, map a route in and out.
The seconds ticked by painfully as I waited for a signal. Doubt crept in. If that pointy-eared bastard had bailed on me, left me sitting here like patient prey through some loophole, next time I saw the faerie, I’d ensure he paid—
But a satisfied smile split my lips when an inhuman roar cut through the air.
Thank you, Lancaster.
The guards snapped to attention, running from the clearing toward the supposed threat.
I shot out of the brush, heading for the largest tent.
I peered inside. There was nothing—
A second scream froze me, this one guttural. Desperate and strained. And it was coming from the opposite direction of Lancaster’s distraction.
From a voice I recognized all too well.