Chapter 33 #2
Elijah nods grimly. “I’ll go into hiding, then. The Archwielder owes me a favor and can make sure I’m somewhere I can’t be found.”
Given the considerable skill of the hunters who are after the bounty and the bloodthirstiness of the creatures we’ve already encountered, I highly doubt that.
“But before I do…” Elijah says haltingly. “I wonder if there’s something you could do for me…”
He opens a desk drawer, pulls out a sheet of paper and a pen.
“I don’t expect you’ll ever want to return to Faerie, but if you do, I wonder if you could take a letter to the queen.”
Callum inclines his head. “You’re right. We can’t promise we’ll ever be back to her court, but you’re free to send it with us in case that changes.”
I bite back a noise of protest.
Oh, so now we’re not going back?
I mean, somewhere during this conversation, I think Callum and I both realized we wouldn’t be kidnapping the heart and taking him to the queen trussed up like a prize turkey, but…
Hell, I don’t know.
It doesn’t seem like his choice to make.
“We’ll give you some privacy to write it.” Callum stands, and I follow, the two of us retreating from the office and closing the door.
“So,” I say quietly.
“So,” he echoes.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot more to say.
At least not while we’re still here, while Elijah can probably hear us from the other side of the door.
After a few minutes of weighted silence, Elijah steps out of the office with paper in hand.
Before he folds it, I catch the very top line of text. A greeting that reads To my dear heart.
“Maybe this will stop her,” Elijah says, handing it over. “Maybe it won’t. Will you try to let me know, either way? If you do return or hear anything, I mean.”
I nod. “Yeah, we’ll let you know.”
Beside me, Callum lets out a low, almost inaudible grunt of protest.
But again, not the place. Not the time. We need to talk about this, but we absolutely don’t need to talk about it here.
“There’s one more thing.” Elijah reaches into his pocket.
He draws out a small leather box and cracks it open. Inside is the most exquisite ring I’ve ever seen.
Cast in a metal with a hue somewhere between gold and silver, and an otherworldly luster that seems to almost glow in the low light of the hallway, it features a large, perfectly formed ruby at its heart.
Or, at least what I think is a ruby.
The color is almost too rich, too vibrant, the very deepest shade of crimson, almost like…
“Heart’s blood,” Elijah says quietly. “She gave it to me on the first summer solstice we spent together, told me it meant she’d always be true.”
He shakes his head and closes the box. When he holds it out to me, I almost don’t take it.
Elijah sees my hesitation and smiles kindly. “It’s okay. It’s been a long, long time since I believed in any of the promises this ring represents.”
With a small, jerky nod, I take the ring box and tuck it away in one of my satchel’s secure pockets.
“I’ll show you out,” he says quietly, politely, but I imagine he’s just as ready to be done with this conversation as we are.
Back outside, Gavin has pulled into the driveway and stepped out of his car, leaning casually against the hood and watching us from behind dark shades.
“Got what you needed?” he asks.
I shrug. “Kind of.”
He frowns, but doesn’t ask any follow-up questions. Instead, he nods toward the house.
“We’ll be moving him, in case you decide you need to come back and talk to him again.”
“We won’t,” Callum says flatly.
Arms crossed over his chest, Gavin sizes Callum up for a few tense moments before he turns to me. “You’ll alert me if we have any more… visitors, coming through the Veil?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
Truthfully, I have no idea if I’ll even be here in this realm to know if there are any hunters coming through the Veil we have to worry about.
Gavin isn’t satisfied with that answer. “Look, if we’re about to have a bunch of murderous fae coming here to—”
“Watch your tone.” Callum’s low growl stops Gavin short, and I place a hand on my demon’s shoulder before the pissing match between these two can escalate any further.
“I’ve still got some friends in the coven,” I say, ad-libbing, but with the bare bones of a plan forming. “I can give them a heads-up and let them know the wielders are involved.”
How exactly it’ll all shake out given the rocky relationship between the wielders and the coven, I don’t know.
But the last few days must be catching up to me, because suddenly I just don’t care. I’m tired. My mind is fried. Veil security and inter-magick-user politics are way beyond my capacity right now.
Gavin nods reluctantly. “I’ll talk to the Archwielder as well. Maybe it’s time he and Esme got over themselves, considering the threat.”
With no need for parting pleasantries, Callum and I head back to the car, and Gavin heads inside to talk to Elijah. We pull away from the curb, through the neighborhood, back to the highway with the unspoken question hanging between us.
What the hell are we going to do now?