Chapter Fifteen
PISCES
“Do you have any more of that jet lag tonic?” I ask Benny, looking at him hopefully. I’m still a bit tired. We left London at ten pm, and even though we traveled through a fae portal to get here, the eight-hour time difference is still killer.
I’m laid on the couch in the living room of our townhome rental, gazing up at the crystalline light fixture. The rest of my band—including Simon—are all in the room. Most of the crew we traveled with, though, have gone out in search of food and to meet up with friends from other bands.
“Give it another few minutes to kick in, mate. That’s definitely not something you want to overdose on,” Benny says with a grin. He and Evan exchange looks.
Shaun clucks his tongue at all of us. “I’m not dealing with any of you if you get high on that shit.”
I sit up straight. “You can get high from it?” Not going to lie, it sounds kind of fun.
“It’s a trip,” Evan responds. “Take too much and time becomes completely meaningless to you. I felt like a I was just a floating ball of nothing. It was amazing.”
“Yeah, and then you vomited your guts out for hours after you came down,” Shaun reminds him.
“Bet time wasn’t so meaningless then, was it?” Benny claps Evan on the shoulder.
I let out a chuckle as Evan glares at the other two. He shrugs. “Worth it.”
Benny brings out the tonic from the kitchen. “So Sces, what’ll it be? You want another dose, mate?”
“I think I’ll pass,” I deadpan with a glance at Evan.
Besides, I need to be at my best for this festival. We’ve been riding a boost in our streaming numbers ever since going viral on social media. I want these performances at the festival to be amazing. In fact, I need them to be.
“Shall we go find a pub and get some beers instead?” Evan suggests, bouncing a leg up and down as he sits on the couch. “We can see if anyone else has arrived yet.”
“Like who?” I reluctantly push myself off the very comfortable couch, standing up and stretching my arms up over my head.
“The Phantoms are here, and Locust—what’s their lead’s name? Francis? We could see what they’re up to.”
“Did you see the recent addition to the line-up?” Benny asks, handing me a flyer that was included with a little gift basket from the festival organizers.
My eyes gloss over the names, my irritation pricking as I see Dead Hearts towards the bottom. I look back up at Benny. “What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“They changed our opener, mate.” Evan leans over, tapping the flyer just underneath our band name. And there it is, so obvious I’m surprised I didn’t see it before.
Goddess’ Trance.
“That’s pretty cool,” I say. They’re a solid band with lots of talent and seem like pretty decent fae, even if they are all Born fae—well, except their bassist, if I recall correctly. She’s kindred.
Simon hangs over the back of the couch, trying to get a glimpse of the piece of paper. “What are we looking at?”
I hand him the flyer. “Goddess’ Trance. They filled in for our opener the last time we played in Seattle.
” We didn’t have the funds at that point to hire any crew members, not even Simon.
“I think I played you some of their music a couple months ago, actually.” I think back to when I saw they’d dropped a new EP.
It was amazing, and I had noticed a huge improvement in the guitar since they’d replaced Jordan Yarrow.
“I hope to the stars we don’t run into Dead Hearts,” I mutter. The last time we were at a festival with them it didn’t go well.
“They know not to mess with us now,” Evan says darkly.
“Something tells me they’re dumb enough to not know that,” Shaun replies.
Simon leaves the living room and goes over to the kitchen table, where the jet lag tonic is sitting. He unscrews the lid, giving it a sniff and pouring some into a glass. He brings it to his lips.
“Stop!” Shaun yells, the word so forceful in my mind that I still for a second.
Simon, however, is frozen, the glass looking almost stuck to his lips. He doesn’t move a muscle but his eyes are wide, and they dart from Shaun to me and back.
Shaun rushes forward, plucking the glass out of Simon’s hands. “Sorry, um, you can move again.”
Simon all of a sudden stumbles forward, as if some invisible force was holding him upright. “Fuck, what was that?”
I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen Shaun’s command in action.
Wolf shifters can sometimes command other fae, but usually only for small periods of time.
Shaun told me his only works when he’s feeling intense emotions—fear, for example.
According to Simon’s bewildered look, he’s never seen it in action either.
Shaun glances over his shoulder at Evan, an exasperated look on his face. “Have you not explained to Simon the difference between fae doses and human doses? If he had drunk that, he would have been higher than a fucking kite.”
Evan is on his feet in less than a second. “Me?” he asks, genuinely confused. “What are you on about?”
“You’re his sponsor, or did you forget? You haven’t taught him about these types of potions?”
I make my way over to Simon, reaching out for the tonic, inspecting the label. “Is it not safe for humans?” I would never have guessed, though that’s probably pretty stupid of me to assume humans wouldn’t react differently to fae potions.
“I didn’t realize he was even drinking it. I’m not his fucking babysitter,” Evan says to Shaun, his voice getting a little louder and more irritated with each word.
“But you are his sponsor,” Shaun replies. “This is exactly the type of thing you’re supposed to be teaching him.”
Evan rolls his eyes. “Maybe this is my teaching style—you know, learning by making mistakes.”
Shaun shakes his head, muttering something, before saying, “You need to be more careful.”
Evan shrugs. “Fine.” He turns to Simon. “Don’t drink tonics without looking up what the human dosage is, mate.”
“Great, thanks.” Simon rolls his eyes, but a soft twitch at the corners of his mouth shows he’s not really all that mad.
I might be, though. Waves of anger have started undulating through me at how cavalier Evan is being about Simon’s sponsorship. Simon’s safety is, as far as I’m concerned, all of our responsibilities. If Evan isn’t going to take this seriously, then I’ll see if Shaun will mentor Simon.
But I’ll bring it up later.
With the mention of Dead Hearts earlier and Evan shirking his responsibilities, I need to cool off. I need to get out, stretch my legs, and take my mind off things, hopefully with some really good food. “Let’s go find something to eat.”
“And a pint or two,” Benny adds.