CHAPTER THREE
Myra
I was a block away before the irritation thrumming through my body slowly abated.
Yael had always had that effect on me. Even when he’d been cast out by the fae after the king was usurped, forced to grunt it out in the Devil’s Playground with the rest of the rejects, he’d oozed privilege.
It didn’t help that he was always so polished and perfect, even while working in the kitchen at The Riff Raff.
Nothing seemed to faze him. Ever. While the rest of us struggled to get by, he’d managed with ease—and I’d hated him for it.
Then the fae king had resumed his seat on the throne, and Yael had disappeared without so much as a fuck you.
The realization that I was about to do the same to Ravi and the others at the bar tugged at something deep in my chest as I navigated the shadowy streets, headed to my apartment for the last time. “It’s not the same thing,” I muttered under my breath as I rounded the corner.
A sole streetlamp shone down in front of a dilapidated warehouse in the distance. Beneath it were three young, scantily clad witches, huddled together to ward off the cold. As I approached them, I reached into my tote and pulled out two takeout bags.
“Early night?” Vivian, a petite brunette, called out to me. I noticed the dark shading around her left eye and tried not to stare.
“Something like that.” I stopped shy of the group and held out the bags. “I stuffed them with extras that should last a few days.”
“Planning on going somewhere?” Fiona asked as a curtain of her long blonde hair blew into her face.
“When you run out, stop by the bar early and ask for Ravi,” I continued, ignoring her question. “Tell him I sent you. He’ll understand.” I passed off the bags and headed past them without further explanation.
“Myra?” Tamara called after me. “What’s going on?”
“Just remember to ask for Ravi, okay? Only Ravi.”
Muttering followed me down the road as I picked up the pace, but I blocked it out.
I didn’t have time for any further distractions that might deter me from my mission.
I’d been working my ass off for years to earn the chance to return to my home, and nothing—not Ravi’s suspicion, Yael’s bullshit, or the entreaties of freelance sex workers—would stop me.
I reached the five-story corner storefront I called home, realizing that I’d run the last few blocks.
The anticipation of returning to the sea grew with every passing moment, and I yearned to feel the salt water on my skin again—to have my iridescent scales erupt all over my body.
But mostly, I ached for the appendage that had been taken from me the night I’d been betrayed.
The queen may have cursed me, but she wasn’t my enemy. Her lover was. And he would be my biggest obstacle when I returned home.
I pushed that thought aside as I hooked one final delivery bag on the door of the storefront adjacent to my entrance, as Ravi had asked me to do regularly for the past few months without explanation; I hoped that the recipient would go to him when his weekly delivery no longer appeared.
I unlocked the exterior door and climbed the rickety wooden stairs of the otherwise abandoned tenement until I reached the top floor.
It was less of an apartment and more of a wide-open space with dubious structural integrity that I’d claimed when I first found myself in the Playground.
Ravi had tried to get me to move into a proper place above the bar, but I’d refused for one simple reason.
When I pushed the door open, that reason availed itself one final time.
The wall of dusty and cracked windows along the western side of the building looked over all the other rooftops until all that was left in view on the horizon was an expanse of water that led to an endless sea.
I crossed the room and lifted the only functional pane, and a gust of wind blew through, carrying the heavy scent of brine and kelp along with it.
I closed my eyes reflexively and inhaled deeply.
I’d be there soon.
And whether or not the queen pardoned me after I got my revenge didn’t even matter.
I knew the risk I was taking in going back—in defying her punishment and making Finn pay—but death would come for us all eventually; likely sooner than later in the Playground.
When my time came, I wanted to be bathed in the salty depths as I took my final breath.
A shift in the wind carried the sour stench of rotting garbage inside and pulled me from my thoughts. I glanced at my watch to find that it was nearly midnight, and I only had until one a.m. to collect my potion.
Hurrying around the bed in the center of my somewhat barren room, I shoved it aside and pulled up the floorboard nearest the wall.
Underneath it was a dusty green tin box with a flimsy lock on it, one I never bothered with.
When you lived in a neighborhood filled with witches and shifters with magical abilities and super strength, respectively, it seemed moot.
If anyone ever found it, its contents were as good as theirs.
I hoisted the box out and opened it up to add my tips from the night to the rest of the money and treasures the druid had demanded as payment.
It was a bizarre assortment of items, some of which were rare, powerful, and highly coveted—i.e.
, others would kill to get them—ranging from a petrified warlock’s nose to the claws of a newly-shifted wolf.
There were jewels I’d stolen, precious metals I’d traded for, and cold, hard cash I’d worked endless hours at The Riff Raff to earn.
And as I tossed the tips I’d made that night on top of the pile, I knew I finally had enough to buy my way home.
Despite Yael’s take on the matter, I knew for a fact there was a spell that could let me enter the sea again and return to the Deep.
And I was on my way to collect it.
Though all of the Devil’s Playground held a certain level of seediness, compared to Serpent’s Tongue, where Ravi ruled, the Demon’s Horn section was where the real degenerates of the neighborhood did business—and where I was headed.
There was nothing grey about the collective moral character of those lurking there, and I knew damn well I was playing with fire even going, but unfortunately for me, that was where I’d find the druid willing to prepare the spell I needed to attempt my return.
They, too, might have been sketchy, but reputation in the Playground was everything, and theirs was pristine.
So I clutched my bag of payment tighter into my side and continued deeper into the heart of the devil.
Darkened stares fell upon me as I strode down the center of the street, and I knew the only things keeping me safe until I crossed the trolley tracks were my notorious temper and my connection to Ravi.
There were many willing to try the former, but few who’d dare test the latter.
And there was that guilt washing over me again.
As I brushed it aside, I arrived at the tattoo parlor on the corner that appeared to be abandoned. The windows were shuttered, old newspapers covered the glass door from the inside, and there wasn't a sound to be heard.
I glanced over my shoulder to make sure nobody was too close, then dove into my bag to find the token necessary to gain entry.
My fingers grazed a sharp edge, then carefully wrapped around the mermaid scale.
I pulled it out and held it in my hand for a moment, admiring the opalescent sheen before I found the unobtrusive slice in the mortar between the crumbling bricks.
With a deep breath, I slipped it into the slot and took a step back.
One…two…three…
A series of locks turning echoed from behind the papered door just before it flew open, revealing a young female with rainbow-colored hair and a plain white porcelain mask covering her face.
“You’re late,” she barked at me as she yanked me inside the dark abyss, and I stumbled past her, arms flailing to make sure I didn’t slam into something or someone.
The second she closed the door behind us, the room illuminated.
I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but an actual tattoo parlor wasn’t it.
“You have your full payment in there?” she asked, gesturing to the pack slung across my body.
“That depends on whether or not you have my potion ready.”
“Follow me,” she said after a moment’s pause. Walking past me, she led the way to a black door that read EMPLOYEES ONLY and pushed it open. I stopped short, expecting her to go back and get it, but when she looked over her shoulder and asked, “is there a fucking problem?” I followed her.
The instant I stepped into the space, a sense of unease washed over me.
This was more like what I’d expected—a workroom stocked from floor to ceiling with jars of powders, tanks filled with living creatures (and parts of them far less alive), and locked metal boxes that seemed to shift a little closer on the shelves as I walked past.
“I’d take a step away from those if I were you,” a voice called from a shadowy corner. “They seem to like you.”
“Lucky me.”
“I need to see your payment,” the masked female said as she stepped behind the counter on the far side of the room and slapped the dried-out wood.
“Where’s the potion?” I asked. “I want to see it first.”
With a heavy exhale, she pulled it from her back pocket and slammed the tiny glass vial down on the counter. “The payment. Now.”
“Maybe she’s having second thoughts,” the disembodied voice in the corner called out before I heard a light shuffling of soft soles on hardwood.
I turned to find a woman bent over so badly she looked like a folded lawn chair with legs heading my way.
She craned her neck to see me, piercing me in place with rheumy white eyes that shone like mother-of-pearl.
“Maybe she realizes this is a fool’s errand. ”
“And maybe you don’t know what you’re talking about,” I muttered in response before dumping the contents of my bag onto the counter for the druid. “It’s all there.”
Rainbow girl gave me a strange look before turning her attention to my payment.
A quick scan of it seemed to satisfy her, and she scooped the pile to the edge of the counter and dumped it, cash and all, into a cardboard box, then taped the top shut.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” she said as she handed me the vial.
“Remember the deal: say nothing about this to anyone.”
“That won’t be a problem,” I said, snatching the potion before turning to leave. “I won’t be around to tell anyone anyway.”
“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” the old lady asked, stepping into my path. “Perhaps you should stay instead.”
“There’s nothing for me here.”
I moved to sidestep her, but she mirrored my movement with impressive speed and grace.
“And maybe there is nothing but danger and death for you on the other side of that potion.” With lightning-fast reflexes, she snatched my chin and pulled me down to face her.
“What’s done is done and cannot be undone, girl.
If you do this, there will be no turning back. ”
I wrenched my face from her sharp grasp to stare down at her.
“I guess we’ll see about that.” Without another word, I pushed past her into the empty tattoo parlor and out into the street beyond.
Vial clasped tightly in my hand, I ran through the night, headed west for the ocean, the crone’s warning chasing me the whole way.
Because she was right. Danger and potential death did await me on the other side of that potion, but that changed nothing.
And as I neared the salty waves of my homeland, the memory of it washed away those fears and her haunting words, leaving only the hope that I would be able to right the wrongs done to me.
And claim vengeance against the one responsible for them.
I rounded the corner to the one place where I’d found both torture and solace since I arrived in this neutral part of Seattle: the short stretch of shore between the abandoned piers.
I had spent countless hours sitting there, staring at the forbidden waters beyond with my legs tucked in tight against me, well out of the ocean’s reach, planning the death of the one who’d secured my relegation to the land.
The elation I felt at the chance to face and slay him welled inside me, blinding me to any other outcome.
I’d dreamed of all the ways I could make him meet his end, each one more elaborate than the previous.
Anticipation burned deep inside of me as I stepped onto the rocks, heading toward the future I was desperate to claim.
But once again, I found something standing between me and that future.
A tall, infuriating figure stepped out of the dark horizon as though he himself were made of shadow. Yael’s mocking smile shone in the moonlight as he walked toward me, hands clasped behind his back. “I told you I’d see you soon.”