Chapter 6
Hoping that Mitch wouldn’t notice that she was leaving the apartment, Callie grabbed her coat from the back of the chair in the kitchen, shrugged it on, then zipped it all the way up to her chin.
Just because Ash had dropped the “p” word like that, it didn’t mean she needed to give him visible confirmation of her growing belly.
Her hand was shaking as she reached for the first of the three iron sliding locks she’d installed shortly before Mitch moved back just in case.
If her roommate thought her newfound obsession with keeping the apartment’s front doors and windows secured was strange, she had spun him a story about a spate of break-ins while he was back in the suburbs and he quickly changed the subject without ever mentioning it again.
What else could she say? That she was worried about faerie creatures breaking into her home?
That she was afraid they would be coming for her baby?
Mitch might be willing to stand by her as a single mother, but if she ever gave him any clue what was really going on, she had no doubt that he’d be wrangling an intervention with Ariadne, Hope, and her parents before she could blink.
Speaking of blinking—
As she hesitantly pulled her door open, Callie dropped her gaze.
The hallway outside of her apartment was much warmer than it had any right to be considering it was February and her landlords didn’t believe in heating the communal areas.
Even before she saw his pristine white leather boots, the bottom of the uniform he habitually wore, she knew that the heat pouring off of him would only belong to one male.
Don’t look at him.
Don’t look at him.
Don’t look—
She looked.
Damn it. Why couldn’t Ash have grown a third eye or developed a case of warts or something?
Of all the faerie folk she’d seen since she was small, Ash was the most dazzling and that was without any glamour at all.
The fae usually wore their glamour like a second skin, making them irresistible to their human prey, but Ash hadn’t need to for Callie.
She’d been snared from that first moment their eyes locked that summer afternoon in the park.
Thanks to her sight, he never would’ve been able to charm her that way, but his appearance always stunned her anyway.
Over the last few months, she almost believed that she exaggerated his beauty. All it took was one unfortunate glimpse up at him to prove that, if anything, she’d undersold it.
She choked on a breath, forcing herself to look past the heat in his blazing, sun-colored gaze, his luxurious tawny hair, his perfect features. Only when she was sure she could speak without squeaking did she ask, “How did you know?”
So help him if figuring out he knocked a human woman up was one of his fae abilities, like glamour and compulsion… Ash was immortal, but if he knew and left her alone these last six months anyway, she’d find a way to kill him.
“I can’t say that I knew, but I had reason to believe it was so. And now I do.”
If it wasn’t for the fact that they were out on the street, in full view of countless strangers, Callie would’ve screamed. How had she forgotten how annoyingly frustrating it was to have Ash answer one of her questions with a twisty, fae sort of answer.
Welp. He wasn’t wrong, was he? Her demand had basically confirmed that, whether he was fishing or not, he’d caught a nibble when his retort had Callie rushing out of the apartment to face him. So now he knew her secret because she was the idiot who wasn’t quick enough to deny it.
Would she have, though? Callie had to admit that she probably wouldn’t. The way Ash said that… reason to believe… she couldn’t let it go. As careful as she’d been to hide her pregnancy, unless Mitch or Buster went blabbing, no one should know.
Especially not someone from Faerie.
“Screw that,” she said sharply. “Someone told you.”
Did she expect him to change the subject? Because he couldn’t lie, Ash evading a topic was a clear sign that he didn’t want to answer her. But he didn’t do that. Neither did he continue with twisting his words.
To Callie’s surprise, he actually answered her.
“Yes.”
She blinked. “Who?”
“It wasn’t just one person. The whole of the queen’s Court has been whispering that, in the Iron, there was a human female carrying a child with faerie blood. Fae blood.”
Ash’s blood.
She gulped, too stunned to be worried. That, she was sure, would come later. “What? How did they know?”
“I can’t say.” Before Callie could ask why, he said, “I can’t say because I don’t know. I didn’t want to give any credence to the rumors by acting as if they could be true.”
Which, of course, they very well could be. It didn’t matter that Ash decided to end what they had when it was just beginning. By the time he changed his mind, the damage had been done.
And news of her pregnancy had somehow made its way across the veil.
“Know what? Forget that.” As if she could.
The last thing she wanted to hear was that her baby was the talk of the Fae Queen’s Court.
“What’s going on? You heard some poor human got herself in trouble with one of your kind and figured it might be me.
So? That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here, Ash. ”
Deep down, Callie hoped that he’d tell her that the rumors made him realize that he still loved her, still wanted her. That he heard about the baby and he was overjoyed at the news.
The way his bright eyes darkened, turning from molten gold to a burnished orange color, was the first clue that she might be standing in the Iron with Ash, but she was living in a fantasy world.
“I’m here because someone had to warn you. You’re in danger, Callie. You and the child.”
Turned out she was wrong. Because that? That was the last thing she wanted to hear.
She swallowed roughly.
“Explain,” she said, pleased she could at least get the one word out. Screaming was still very much on the table just then, but she forced the word out through gritted teeth.
Ash raised his eyebrows but, rather than refuse to do as she said, he conceded.
Explain? That’s exactly what the Light Fae did.
As she hugged herself, trying like hell to ignore the February chill seeping through even her winter court, Callie listened as Ash told her about the Shadow Prophecy, an ancient Faerie prophecy that foretold the end of Melisandre’s reign as queen.
He rattled off the lines he’d obviously memorized, but she understood why he came to warn her once she realized what the prophecy was about.
It seemed as if it was foretold that a halfling female—a girl child that’s part human, part fae—would overthrow the Fae Queen.
And since the only way Melisandre would ever give up the throne was over her dead body, it didn’t take a genius to realize why Ash thought she was in danger.
Didn’t matter if Callie’s baby was the prophesied child or not. A halfling was a very real threat to the cruel queen, and from everything she learned about Melisandre, she wasn’t the type to sit back and wait to see if Callie gave birth to a girl.
Nope. Her M.O. seemed more like kill the pregnant lady so that the problem of the halfling went away on its own—and Ash went ahead and told her as much.
Was she scared? She probably should be. When Ash left again, and she got over the heartache of seeing him, she was sure she would be.
For the moment, though, she appreciated the heads up, even if it did come from him. Now she knew to be on her guard, so even though it was rough being so close to Ash again after so long, she didn’t lash out at him like she wanted to.
He was still so cold. So emotionless. She wasn’t sure if he was acting more like the fae who sicced a kobold on her as an experiment, or the disinterested bastard who sent her out of his sight. Either way, the male standing with her now wasn’t the devoted, caring lover she’d fallen for.
These days, she wondered if he ever had really been. Or was it just another type of glamour? Not the type of spell she could see through because of her impressive sight, but one that tricked her all the same.
Glamour lies, huh?
He was watching her closely, unblinkingly. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ears, she purposely looked away from him, avoiding his gaze.
How long had they been outside? Long enough that she was pushing her luck.
At any minute, Mitch might poke his head out of his room and realize that she was gone.
And while he didn’t know a single thing about Ash, what were the odds that he wouldn’t take one look at the tension between the two of them and immediately figure out who Ash really was.
And she sure as hell didn’t mean one of the fae.
She glanced at the sun as it hung low in the dreary sky. One good thing about it being winter: the days were shorter, the nights longer, and she could finally end this charade. Whatever his reasons for crossing back into the human world, with the sun getting ready to set, he couldn’t stay.
Might as well get this over with then.
“I… I really don’t know what to say except I appreciate you coming to tell me. I honestly didn’t think you’d care that much, even if I am in danger.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ash’s jaw tighten, making the edge as sharp as a knife. “I care a very great deal, Callie.”
He couldn’t lie, but she struggled to believe that.
I told you what you needed to hear...
“Right. I forgot.” The slight sneer was out before she could help herself. “You’re just trying to protect me from that bitch— oops, sorry. Your queen.”
You think she would’ve remembered just how quick he was. Before she knew it, he was right there.
Ash reached out toward her, slender fingers coming within centimeters of the side of her neck. A moment’s hesitation, his hand hovering, then he slowly withdrew it before he could actually touch her skin.