Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
When I got out of the shower, Nick was accepting a couple of bags that smelled delicious and handing over ten dollars in tip. He’d pulled on his pants and undershirt and even though both were perfectly neat, it was like seeing a whole different person than the suave Detective King I was used to.
In the kitchen, he pulled out boxes of Chinese food, dividing up fried rice and veggie dishes.
“No Kung Pao?” I whined.
He shook his head and hid a small grin before opening the remaining three boxes.
Delicious, heavy scents filled the kitchen, and he spooned some Kung Pao chicken onto my plate, and then some orange chicken.
He added some seafood dish to his own and then split a box of spring rolls, two for me, two for him.
We settled on the couch, arguing over whether he should have sprung to have beer delivered, too. I watched him as he ate and blushed hot when he caught me staring.
“I thought you didn’t like me,” I said. “You said you didn’t!”
“I never said that,” he said. “I think I said you were a pain.”
“That means you don’t like me.” I narrowed my eyes and pointed my fork at him. “That’s what it always means when someone says it!”
“Well, I do.” He crunched on one of the spring rolls, neatly wiping away crumbs with a napkin. “I like you.”
I shook my head. “So what is this? A hook-up?”
He poked at some squid with his fork and didn’t look up at me. “Is that what you want?”
With a rising suspicion, I tested a theory. “Was the morgue visit a date? Was that your idea of romance? Were you trying to seduce me with dead bodies?”
“No!” He laughed. “But it worked, didn’t it?”
“I almost died! You almost killed the guy you like!” I bit into a spicy pepper and had to take a long drink of water.
“It wasn’t a date, but you seemed to need the money,” he said. “And I felt bad I couldn’t pay you your fee for consulting.”
“So you admit I’m consulting,” I said. But the mention of money had brought me down. I still only had three days before I needed cash.
It also reminded me I had another case hanging over my head, too. The Summer Queen wouldn’t take it well if she found out I was prioritizing another case over hers. In fact, it would get me a painful reminder of what happened when I resisted her directions.
“What was that, back at the morgue?” Nick asked.
I wet my lips, ready with a lie.
“I know it wasn’t witchcraft,” he said, forestalling me. He squinted at me. “What you use, it’s fae magic, isn’t it?”
“What’re you talking about?” I asked. My mouth was dry, and I felt my heart beating twice as fast as it should.
No one should know I was fae. Only two people did, and one was bound to secrecy, and the other was a vegetable. Malik suspected, maybe. But he couldn’t be sure, and that was enough to make it doubtful he’d talk to anyone about it.
“I know the reason you’re an expert in the fae is because they took you. You were eighteen, I saw your file.” Nick’s eyes were piercing me, searching for truth. He must be a defense attorney’s nightmare during an interrogation.
“Yeah, they took me,” I said. “But you can see I’m human.”
“I’m not accusing you of anything.” Holding up his hand, Nick said, “They taught you their magic, didn’t they?”
I exhaled. So Nick didn’t know. My stomach felt tight, the Chinese food sitting sour and heavy.
If I lied about that, Nick would get suspicious. I’d banked on him not knowing enough about witchcraft to suspect anything. In fact, in the past, I’d even made sure not to do anything a witch couldn’t do around him. That had all been thrown out the window when the spell latched on to me.
“Yeah.” I was reminded of Malik and how he’d said he could sniff me out. He made it sound like I wasn’t alone, but as far as I knew, I was the only one living here in San Amaro.
If I hewed close to the truth, maybe Nick would buy it. Maybe he wouldn’t ask too many questions and then I could get away with continuing my life as it was. Because if he knew I was fae, even part fae, not only would he not want to date me, he’d want to lock me up and throw away the key.
“I was in foster care from when I was little. They found me in front of a fire station when I was three, and I could just never find the right home. Not until I was fifteen. I got taken in by this amazing couple who ran a group home. Shannon was a head priestess, and she taught me how to use my magic. If I did all my work with her, Marco would let me help out on cases.”
Getting taken in by them had been the best thing that ever happened to me.
Marco was an old hand with foster kids, and the way he made even me feel bad about some of the stunts I tried to pull had been nothing short of a miracle.
Shannon had been more nurturing, but that was only until I started lessons.
She required perfection in magic, because anything less could be dangerous.
“When I turned eighteen, I went out partying with some friends and we ended up out in the hills. It was around the summer solstice, so we knew the fae might be there. We were a little drunk and… I don’t know what we were thinking.
They all made it back, but I didn’t. The fae took an interest in me. ”
Which was to say, I woke up in a room made of silver tree branches and drank water out of a golden goblet, and by the time a servant showed me to the Summer Queen I thought staying there might be a little fun.
A few nights couldn’t hurt. And Shannon had recognized my magic for what it was: fae.
In my mind, I would learn about my people and then go back to Marco and Shannon and my life in San Amaro.
“It didn’t feel like long, a few months, maybe.
But what no one tells you is time in the Far Realm passes differently.
It kind of matches up with our seasons, but it also doesn’t?
It’s hard to explain. I knew the summer solstice had passed and then the winter solstice, but it seemed like one long afternoon.
Everything was so beautiful, all the time.
There was always something fun to do, some game to play. ”
When we weren’t engaging in revelry, I could learn magic with the most experienced of fae.
I started with the children, the crèche, but after only a few weeks, I was already doing higher level stuff.
All the groundwork Shannon had laid out for me worked just as well with the fae as it did with witchcraft.
I knew I was an oddity. The Summer Queen—the old Summer Queen—used to enjoy having me attend at her side.
I was her most favored entertainment. My surprise and joy at all the Far Realm had to offer delighted her.
It took me years to realize her amusement acted like manacles around my wrists.
I would never be free until she grew tired of me.
And once I began to bore her, my life would be very short afterwards.
“Yeah, I learned magic from them. I could pick it up and I think they thought it was amusing to see me try.” I avoided details. Nick was leaning forward, his eyes on mine, a frown between his dark eyebrows. He smiled when I paused and then reached out, covering my hands with his.
I had been clenching my fists so tightly that when I opened them, there were crescents from my fingernails carved into my palms. Gently, Nick pulled my hand to his lap, lacing our fingers together.
He was buying this. It made me ill. Leaving out my fae nature made the story different—a human trying to survive in the Far Realm, outnumbered, out of his depth.
Because I was a fae, the real story was of going home, learning about my kind, learning to be as manipulative and conniving as the rest of them were.
“Like I said, time felt different there and one day, one of the Summer Queen’s court came to me and told me even though it had only seemed like a few weeks, I’d actually been there for years.
Two years. Which meant I’d just abandoned Shannon and Marco and the other kids living with us.
I’d just left. They probably thought I’d run away. ”
Swallowing, I felt the same fury rise up in my throat. The terror at realizing that as much liberty as the Summer Queen gave me, I was trapped.
“Lilacina—that was her name—she told me she’d set me free, but only as a favor. I would owe her my life.”
I let that sit between us. My debt was something which weighed on my soul, a tie binding me to Lilacina until I had paid it off. There was no way out; even my own death wouldn’t free me from the obligation.
“In FET,” Nick said, “I mean, Fae Encounter Training, they tell us to never accept any gift from the fae. And to never make promises.”
“Yeah,” I said, my grin unhappy. “That would have been smarter. But I had to get free and she could open a door I couldn’t.
So, I took her up on her offer. I came home, and I found out while I was away, Shannon and Marco had been in a car crash.
He’d been killed, and Shannon was in a coma.
Or, I don’t know, something. She can open her eyes and they say she can hear you, but I don’t think there’s anything there. ”
I used my free hand to rub at my eyes, a scratchy hot feeling under my lids. When I’d gotten back, I’d been so angry and bitter I hadn’t even mourned them. Even now, I wanted to shove the emotion down into a box and forget it existed. Swallowing, I continued.
“So Laurel—she was one of the other foster kids Shannon and Marco had taken in—she and I pool our money every month and pay for Shannon to be in a nice facility. Because Shannon was good to us. She shouldn’t be stuck in some state facility where they only check on her once a day.
“What I didn’t know was Lilacina wasn’t helping me out of the goodness of her heart.
When I left, the Summer Queen went a little nuts.
Every guard, every servant was sent to search for me.
She was convinced one of the other courts had taken me.
The Summer Queen almost went to war with the Autumn Court over it. ”
I pulled my hand back from Nick and he let it go. Pressing my hands together, I trapped them between my knees.
“With her weakened, with her guards out of court, Lilacina made her move. She killed the old Summer Queen and ascended the throne. I was just a distraction. She probably would have let me go even if I hadn’t promised her anything.”
Bitterness dripped from my words, acid in my mouth. I reached out and grabbed my glass, drinking deep. Nick rubbed my back.
“So you owe the Summer Queen your life. Do you think she’s going to collect?” Nick asked.
Of course he was going to be practical about it. I’d just told him I’d been an idiot and willingly accepted a deal with one of the most powerful fae, and he’d probably ask to see the contract next. He’d want to talk it over with a lawyer.
“She already has,” I said. “A few minor jobs over the years. She called me before you did. Wants me to find a girl. So now I need to figure out how to find her and fulfill my obligation to the Summer Queen without actually giving her the girl.”
“Did you find the girl the Queen wants?” Nick asked.
I shook my head. “I haven’t had time, in between being kidnapped by Dieter and almost getting sucked dry by that spell.”
“Give me the details,” Nick said. “I can help you track her down.”
Frowning, I glanced at him, trying to read him through his open expression.
“Hey.” He put a hand on my knee. “It’ll be okay. I can help.”
It would be nice to have one less thing to worry about. Slowly, I nodded. “Okay. Yeah.”
“But, maybe in the morning.” He moved closer, and his body heat was like a banked fire. My bitterness faded, and the terror I’d felt when I thought he might expose me melted as he pressed his mouth to mine.
“You don’t have to do this alone,” he said, lips brushing mine as he spoke.
My heart hurt. I wanted to believe him, but I knew when every word out of my mouth was a lie, all I would be doing was taking advantage.
I was the worst sort of fae. The kind who could take the truth and twist it and mold it until up was down and left was right.
He should apply every warning about the fae to me, and Nick didn’t even know it.
Pulling back, I said, “You should be careful with me. Fae magic is dangerous.”
He huffed a breath and leaned back, a smirk pulling at his cheeks.
“I don’t know if you know this, Parker, but I’m a pretty powerful alchemist. I think I’ll be okay.” His eyes flashed green as though emphasizing his point.
Closing my eyes, I tried to convince myself I should just let him think that. There was no reason to show him otherwise. Guilt forced me to speak.
“Okay, fine,” I said. I picked up his empty can of soda and headed to the kitchen. Opening the refrigerator. “Can I gift you another one?”
He didn’t even blink at the phrasing. “Yeah, thanks.”
I pulled it out of the fridge, and if he remembered we had drunk the last two cans, he must have just thought I had a secret stash somewhere. Walking over, I handed him the soda, standing over him as he accepted it.
The obligation settled over him like a rope binding him to me. He didn’t realize it, but now he owed me. And I was going to collect.
Using my magic, the obligation glowing between us, I said, “Hit yourself in the face.”