Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Nick raised his hand and slapped himself across the face.
His eyes were wide and his mouth opened in a choked off protest. I stood, fists clenched at my sides, feeling like I was a million miles away from him.
“What was that?” he asked, pulling his hand back and staring at it. Opening and shutting his fingers, he made a fist.
He turned back to me, eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”
“Fae magic. The talking tree is just part of it. The real stuff is what they can do with obligation. I gifted you something.” I gestured to the soda in his hand. “You owed me.”
He dropped the soda, the can rolling back and forth on the laminate floor. Squinting at me, he said, “Explain.”
“You’re the one with Fae Encounter Training.” My face felt hot. I knew I had to show him, but that didn’t mean I had to do it like this.
Nick was getting too close. He wanted to help, and he didn’t want anything in return. When he heard my story about how I got in deep with the fae, he didn’t think I was an idiot and deserved what I got. I could tell by his expression he felt sorry for me.
With an eyebrow raised, he waited, and I thought again he must be the best interrogator the department had.
“Fae magic doesn’t work on people. Not like it does on things. It can convince water to boil, but with people you need more than charisma and power. You need an in. You need an obligation.”
“Why does a sense of obligation make a difference?” he asked.
“No, not a sense of obligation. If a fae gives you a gift—something you want, something you’ve given permission for them to give you—then you owe them. You have to give them something equivalent when they ask for it,” I said.
“Have to how?” he asked. “Could you have made me do something worse than hit myself?”
“Not for just a soda,” I said. “The bigger the gift, the bigger the obligation.”
“So, your obligation to the Summer Queen is your life. That’s major. How will you know when you’ve paid it off?”
His eyes narrowed, and he frowned slightly. I hadn’t scared him, he wasn’t thinking over every one of our interactions to figure out if he owed me more than a Coke. He was thinking, trying to work out the limits and boundaries of a fresh problem.
“You’re not understanding,” I said. “I’m dangerous to be around. My magic is dangerous.”
“So is carrying a gun,” Nick said. “How about you let me worry about my danger tolerance, okay?”
Shaking my head, I threw myself on the couch next to him. I covered my face with my hands and huffed out a sigh.
“You should run.” My voice was muffled by my palms.
“Because you picked up some mean party tricks with the fae?” he asked. “I should run because you don’t keep any food in your house and I’m going to starve. And if your bathroom is any sign of how often you clean, then we’re going to have issues.”
“I’m trouble,” I said. “Why are you still here?”
For a long beat, Nick was silent. Finally, I lowered my hands and saw he was looking at me, a small smile on his face.
“I told you. I like you.”
“That simple?” I wanted it to be. Deep in my bones, I wanted it to be easy for us to just fit together like two puzzle pieces.
“Does it have to be complicated right now?”
“My life is always complicated.”
Nick leaned over and pinned me against the couch, his hands pressing my shoulders back into the cushion. “Let’s make it easy. I want to stay the night. Maybe have sex again. Do you want that?”
I should say no. Everything in me said I should send him on his way, back to his square little life where he cleaned his bathroom regularly and had more than ketchup in his fridge. Unfortunately, I liked him as much as he claimed to like me.
Somehow I’d have to figure out how to protect him from the chaos I seemed to attract. The fae, the SoPa pack, my landlord, and whoever else wanted a piece of me this week would all have to get in line because I had someone I wanted to keep safe.
“Yes,” I finally said. I stretched up, and he leaned down and our mouths fit together.
Parker Ferro, you live.
I woke up, my heart racing. The voice in my head was familiar. Deep and cold, like water underground. My heart pounded in my ears.
Who are you?
You know who I am. I am the one who you now owe. I see I am not alone.
Something tugged on the web of debts and promises I owed or was owed. I shuddered. Next to me in bed, Nick snuffled and nestled closer to me. His muscular arm wrapped around my chest and pulled me close.
Carefully, I pulled loose, sitting up on the edge of the bed. My hands tightened on the bedsheet. Breathing deeply, I tried to gain control again.
What do you want?
Survive this trial ahead and I will call in your debt. I have doubts that you can fulfill my requirements if you cannot live through what comes.
The voice faded as swiftly as it had appeared. My arms trembled where I’d propped myself on the edge of the bed. Standing, I padded out to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
Thistle sat at my desk, his face narrow, eyes squinted as he read over a sheath of papers. It was the envelope with the eviction paperwork. Silently, I drew the bedroom door closed, holding my finger up in warning when he looked at me with a malicious grin.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, my voice quiet.
“These are poorly phrased,” Thistle said. “If you took this to Court, they would tear through it with a few choice words.”
He wasn’t talking about San Amaro’s court. I headed to the kitchen and grabbed a glass out of the cabinet. The tap water was icy when I drank it down, and I refilled my glass as Thistle stared at me.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“The Queen requires an update,” he said, placing the paperwork down. In the moonlight coming in through the windows, he looked nearly pearl, his hair made of spun silver.
“It’s only been a couple of days,” I said. “And, believe it or not, it’s hard to find someone based on a basic description and no photo. What does she even do? What’s her full name? Where does she live?”
Thistle chittered, his teeth growing long. He stood and pulled out a small rectangle from his jacket pocket. Sweeping across the room with a liquid grace, he stopped in front of me where I was leaning against the counter.
He held out a picture pinched between his forefinger and middle finger. Raising an eyebrow, I took it from him. When I flipped it over, it was the same girl the Summer Queen had shown me, this time her braided pulled back into a rough ponytail.
She was grinning at the camera, her smile open and wide. It was taken close up; she must have known whoever was photographing her. On the back, someone had scrawled an address.
“That is where she lives,” Thistle said as I took it in.
When I looked up, he was staring at the picture, not at me, his expression gone blank. I looked between him and the girl. Then, casually, I tossed the picture onto the countertop.
“Thanks, I’ll get to it before the solstice.”
His eyes caught mine, and everything about his face sharpened like a knife. I watched him turn feral as he snapped, “You will get to it now.”
“Why do you care?” I asked. “She’s just some human the Queen wants, isn’t she?”
Thistle’s hands twitched, and he brought them up to grip my cheeks. His nails had gone long and sharp, although he kept his claws from cutting my face. He brought his face close to mine.
“Acacia is not just some girl,” he hissed. After a long beat, he released me, my jaw aching from where he’d held my face tight. “She is the one the Summer Queen wants. That should be enough for you to hasten to find her.”
Rubbing at my cheeks, I picked up the picture again. “Does the Summer Queen know you have a crush on her newest toy?”
Instantly, Thistle had snatched the picture from me. “How dare you?”
“Oh.” I grinned. “More than a crush. You love her. That’s dangerous, isn’t it? A fae loving a human?”
“She’s no more human than you,” Thistle snapped, the picture cradled in his hands.
My stomach dropped and the glass of water trembled in my fingers. I had to gasp a breath of air before I could speak. “What?”
I was the only one. That was something I’d known my entire life.
I was a changeling, a fae left behind in the human world, who had never been brought back home.
After so long in the human realm, I didn’t even resemble a fae to the rest of my kind.
That was why I’d remained unclaimed by any family when I went to the Far Realm.
I was the only fae living in the human realm.
“You thought yourself unique?” Thistle hissed. “You are not unique, merely unwanted. Abandoned. Cast out by your parents. Unlike Acacia. She is precious.”
“Are there others?” I asked. “Others like me?”
“Not like you,” Thistle said. “The others of our kind who reside here have lived in both realms.”
“What do you mean?” I set the glass of water on the counter with a heavy thunk. “Explain.”
“You forget yourself. I answer to her majesty, not you.”
Narrowing my eyes, I watched as his sharp teeth grew long and then he pulled back, placing the picture tenderly on the counter.
Thistle had been one of the old Summer Queen’s most loyal courtiers.
At one time, I’d thought he was a friend, as he was the one who taught me enough to move onto higher level magic.
The next time I saw him after I returned to the human realm, he was firmly in the new Queen’s good graces. Just as obsequious, just as loyal to his new mistress. His hatred of me was the only change.
“Because if you fall out of grace, she might not let you court her daughter,” I said. “Acacia.”
Thistle hissed, his claws grabbing me around the throat and lifting until my toes dragged on the floor. I grinned, even as my breath became labored. Wrapping my hand around Thistle’s wrist, I choked out, “Let me down.”
He dropped me and I landed heavily on the floor, my bare feet unsteady until I gripped the countertop tight. I smirked.
“That’s why you betrayed the old Queen. Lilacina has you over a barrel,” I said. “You love her daughter and now she’s the only one who can give you permission to... what? Marry her? Court her?”
The glare he threw me would have made anyone else in San Amaro cower. It was the sort of look that started a good number of fairy tales. A kind of I’m going to mess you up look.
“The Queen isn’t here,” I said. “Tell it to me straight and maybe I’ll work on getting Acacia back before the solstice.”
“I owe you nothing,” he hissed.
Raising an eyebrow, I waited, confident he’d give in. I finally had something he wanted, or at least I would as soon as I found Acacia.
“Acacia is the Queen’s daughter by a human.
A half-blood. She grew up in the human realm, but trained with her mother.
When she was merely a member of the court, Lilacina sent her here to live and to act as her mother’s agent.
After you betrayed the previous Queen, I was sent to help Acacia adapt to her new position.
A Queen requires more from her people than a courtier.
” Thistle’s words were a hiss in the darkness, his gaze fixed on mine.
“She is better than you in all aspects. More capable, more intelligent, more loyal. Her grasp on our magic is not your rudimentary wielding.”
“Great, so she’s practically perfect in every way,” I said. “Get to the important part.”
“Acacia has regular meetings with the Queen, and missed the last two,” Thistle said. “The Queen sent me to find her.”
“And?” I asked.
“Nothing. No sign of her.” Thistle twisted my shirt in his hand, threatening to lift me again. “Do not fail me as you failed the late Queen Aster.”
“I didn’t fail her. I was offered an out.
I didn’t know Lilacina was going to use that as an opportunity to commit regicide,” I said.
But in my stomach, the words felt like glass, slicing at all my newly healed organs.
Because it wouldn’t have mattered if I had known.
Malik was right. I only looked out for myself.
Thistle huffed a harsh laugh that twisted his lips. “You lived with us for years and you claim ignorance of even the most basic of fae politics. I hope you are more effective as a hound sniffing Acacia’s trail than you are as a fae.”
“Hey. ” I wrapped my hand around his wrist. “I have to find her. Lilacina made sure of that. I’ll take care of it.”
I wanted to promise him Acacia was fine, she was just blowing off steam or running away from her regicidal mother, but that would have been a lie. Fae were the most frightening thing in San Amaro, but there were plenty of other things that could get you killed.
“Why didn’t the Summer Queen just tell me it was her daughter?” I asked. “I thought she was planning to kidnap some poor kid.”
“The court knows Acacia is a fae agent in the human world, but her origin is unknown. The Queen has let the assumption she is the bastard of some other court flourish.” Thistle released me, but continued to stand too close for comfort. The rage seeped out of his pores.
“Does she love you?”
“It’s irrelevant,” Thistle snapped. “My feelings are my own until her mother consents.”
I shook my head. “You know she won’t, Thistle. She’s got a hook in you and she’s going to keep you on the line until you don’t have anything more to give her.”
“What would you know of it?” Thistle asked. “You have so little loyalty that you betrayed the Queen who gave you everything.”
Bile ate at the back of my throat and I clenched my teeth.
He was not going to make me feel guilty for leaving, even if it had resulted in the Queen’s death.
Sure, she’d given me a lot of nice things, magical curios most alchemists and witches would sell their firstborn for, but all of it was at the cost of my freedom.
I held up my hand. “Let’s focus on what we have in common, okay? You want Acacia, I have to find her. Do you have any other ideas where she might be?”
“No.” Thistle's teeth chattered, the sound like two forks scraping together.
“I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything,” I said. “Try not to break into my apartment again. I have a doorbell.”
Hissing, Thistle disappeared, his body snapping out of existence in a moment. I blinked. That was new magic. I’d never seen a fae do that before.
After I found Acacia, I’d have to ask him about it, and hope he was in a good enough mood to be honest with me. Putting my glass into the sink, I picked up the photo and examined it again.
She was pretty and had an openness you didn’t see on fae often. I wondered how much of her loyalty to her mother was earned and how much was manipulation on the Summer Queen’s part. Walking to my desk, I put the picture in the center and then headed back to bed.