Chapter 11
Nibbling on her thumbnail, Callie sat on the bench just outside of Buster’s. Her sandwich was nestled in her lap, still wrapped up. She had no appetite for the ham and cheese on rye, instead anxiously biting her nail as she tried like hell not to think about Ash.
She never thought he’d be the type to hit it and quit it, but that was exactly what happened.
Knowing that days could pass in the human world while it was only a few minutes in Faerie, Callie didn’t start to think that something was wrong until two weeks had gone by.
The longest stretch of time between Ash’s visits had only been about a week and a half, so two weeks wasn’t so bad—except she couldn’t shake the sensation that maybe he wasn’t coming back.
This wouldn’t be the first time that a guy stopped paying her any attention after sex.
Her high school boyfriend Austin had turned out to be that much of a prick.
They dated all throughout freshman and sophomore year, and as soon as Callie let him take her virginity, he dumped her barely a month later.
He was already moving onto his next conquest, and Callie learned how to guard her reputation around her judgmental peers.
Since then, she’d been more careful with who she invited into her bed.
Ash had three things working against him: he was from Faerie, he was an arrogant bastard, and she knew better than to get involved with a male who had centuries of lovers under his belt.
She didn’t want to be another notch in his bedpost, and while he told her that he wanted her, that she was meant to be his, it took her much longer to admit that she felt the same.
Whether she should or not was a totally different discussion.
The fact of that matter was that she did and she wanted so desperately to believe that he was telling her the truth.
Sure, he confessed to her that his type of faerie couldn’t lie, but a lifetime of dealing with the faerie folk had taught Callie to be cautious.
Telling her he couldn’t lie… if he could, then that was exactly what he would say, huh?
Callie sighed, dropping her hand against her thigh.
She glanced at her untouched sandwich and realized that she had no stomach for it.
Wrapping it up, she stowed it in her purse for later, then stood.
She wiped her forehead. It was the dog days of summer, early August, and too hot for her to stay outside much longer.
Pity she didn’t want to return to her apartment, either. At first, it was because she missed Mitch. Now? She sensed Ash in every corner of the place, remembering the last afternoon they spent together before he, like Mitch, seemed to up and disappear.
But Mitch had at least left her a note. An explanation.
Ash?
He was just gone.
Not for the first time, Callie thought about taking a vacation out of the city.
If Ash did return to the Iron, his strange ability to find her wherever she was would lead him to the suburbs where her parents and her sisters and their families lived.
And if she did go? She might be able to shake off some of her loneliness while distracting her from his continued absence.
Buster told her she was owed some vacation time.
So long as she gave him a couple days’ notice, her boss wouldn’t mind if she took off a week or so.
This time of year business was slow, but it would pick up again come September when there was a rush of clients looking to get all of their summer vacation photographs processed and printed.
She was really thinking that she might. For now, though, she gave up on sweating outside, reluctantly heading back to her empty apartment.
Considering her latest ice cream binge, she still had a couple of pints she could tuck into.
Might as well grab a container, grab a spoon, and watch a mindless rental video.
Come to think of it, she never had gotten the chance to watch Bring It On.
Just her luck, Blockbuster was out of the cheerleader flick when she stopped on her way home.
She didn’t have the heart to grab anything too heavy on the romance, and it wasn’t worth picking out a scary movie since that would only remind her of Mitch and Ash.
Settling on renting 10 Things I Hate About You based on its title, she thanked the clerk and started the rest of the walk back to her apartment.
By the time she made it home, she was sticky with sweat and feeling a little drained. Tossing her purse and the Blockbuster bag on the back of the couch, she kicked off her sneakers and padded toward her bedroom.
Callie grabbed a change of clothes, then took a quick shower. She brushed her freshly washed hair after she’d scrubbed up, leaving it to air dry instead of bothering with her blow dryer. After shrugging on the fresh tank, panties, and shorts, she went back to the bedroom in search of her slippers.
Surprisingly, the heat was the first thing she noticed. Probably because it was so scorching, it spilled out of her bedroom and into her hall. Her heart kicked up a notch in excitement, hoping that the heat meant what she thought it did and not that her AC had blown another fuse—again.
Callie burst into the room, unable to contain her smiling when she saw the fiery Light Fae portal hovering a few feet away from her bed. And next to the portal, there was—
She stopped short, her heart racing even faster as her stomach sank all the way down to her bare feet.
Because the Light Fae male standing, legs braced, hands folded primly behind his back, an unimpressed expression on his blandly handsome face was definitely not Ash.
There was something off about him, too. His dark golden eyes seemed spaced a little too much apart, his face pinched, his arms longer than they should be. Callie couldn’t see his fingers, but she bet they would be unnaturally long and slender, too.
He was wearing the same uniform as Ash, only his was kind of different. More elaborate, maybe? It had golden thread and an extra row of buttons, she noticed. Did that make him more important?
He was definitely more of a threat.
“Who are you?”
“You may call me Captain Helix,” he said, his voice so cold that it was a sharp contrast to the heat causing Callie’s damp hair to sizzle. The way he said that made it seem like he was giving her a grand honor to even address him at all.
She didn’t know him, but she didn’t like him.
“Okay. What the hell are you doing here?” She didn’t ask him how he got in—because, duh, portal—but there was no reason he should be in her bedroom. Unless— “Where’s Ash?”
“That’s precisely why I am here. I’ve come to take you to see Aislinn.”
He had his name. This Light Fae who looked so much like her Ash knew his true name.
Did that mean she could trust him? Callie wasn’t sure.
“Is something wrong with him? Is he hurt?”
“You’ll see when we get to where we’re going.”
“Yeah? And where is that?”
“My apologies, human,” Helix intoned, his cold voice hardening like ice, “if you thought that I would continue to waste my time answering your questions. I’ve been sent to perform a task. I’ve been sent by the queen to bring you to Aislinn. You will come with me.”
“Oh, yeah. I—”
He drew his sword.
Callie stopped breathing. Just stopped. It only lasted a few seconds before she started to feel a touch light-headed, but even as she stared in ill-disguised terror at the diamond edge of Helix’s long sword, any hope that this was a good fae like her Ash flew out the damn window.
Swallowing roughly, she nodded. “Got it. No more questions.”
“That’s right.” He used the point of his sword to gesture to the portal. “Now go before I have cause to push you through myself.”
Some part of her had guessed that the portal was meant for her. Up until the moment he waved at it with his sword, she’d hoped that she’d avoid having to take it, that Ash was lost in the human world somewhere and that was why this Helix was there.
Of course not. He never would’ve stayed in her world without telling her which meant that he was in Faerie—which was exactly where the Light Fae portal would bring her.
During their talks, Ash might not have pushed her to join him in Faerie after her initial refusals, but he made it sound as enticing as he could.
She knew that she would be able to enter his fantastical world and, wearing his touch on her skin, be safe from most of its predators.
So long as she didn’t eat faerie food, she’d also be free to return to her world again, and the worst thing that could happen would be she lost some time.
It could be seconds. Could be minutes. Days. Probably not that much longer unless she spent countless sunrises in Faerie, and even then there was no way to know if she’d lose a year or cross over directly after she would’ve left.
Trading her focus from the point of his sword to the wall of flames, Callie realized that she would cross over even without the captain’s added pressure. Because it had been two weeks of her time since she saw Ash last, and if this fae male was bringing her to him, then he must be in trouble.
Especially since she hadn’t missed the subtle way Helix had mentioned the Fae Queen like that.
It’s safe, she told herself. Ash promised that he’d seen plenty of humans take a fae portal and they were no worse for the wear. Sure, it was intimidating, but the level of heat she was feeling now was as bad as it got. She wouldn’t burn.
Still, as Callie trudged forward, only pausing to slip her bare feet into her ballet slipper-style shoes, she found it difficult to keep her eyes open as she knowingly walked into the wall of flame.
She closed them, and swallowed her scream when the sensation was like warm water—similar to her shower—spilling over her, just leaving her dry instead of getting her wet.
It was the promise of seeing Ash on the other side of the fire that kept her walking forward; that, and the memory of the pointed sword that must be at her back.