CHAPTER NINE #2
I let out a long, tense breath. My meeting with Lucifer had accomplished nothing—I still didn’t know why he was here or how to kill Oliver.
But I had to talk to Collith about it, no matter how much I didn’t want to.
There could be consequences for what I’d just done, and we needed to be prepared.
With slow reluctance, I started toward Emma’s car.
My movement startled a pair of crows, and one of them took flight, letting out an angry cry.
There were others nearby fighting over a scrap of bread, but I noticed the crow that remained was eerily still.
It watched me with its head cocked, as if it had asked a question.
I frowned and shook myself, reaching for the door handle.
I got in and started the engine, then headed for home.
I swore I felt the crow’s eyes on me all the way until I turned the corner and disappeared from sight.
That night, I tried to summon Oliver again.
I lay in bed and waited for sleep to come, but every time the darkness crept near, my thoughts drove it away again.
Collith was furious with me. He hadn’t shouted or even said much since I’d told him about my meeting with Lucifer, but it was obvious.
After our conversation, he had started working on a project downstairs and I’d gone for a long run.
When I got back, he was still at it, sawdust flying through the air. He hadn’t even come up for dinner.
Around 2:00 a.m., I finally gave up and slipped out of bed.
I didn’t know what I’d say to Collith, but I couldn’t leave it like this for another second.
I crept from my room and circled the couch expecting to see him sleeping in his usual place.
I faltered when I discovered it was empty.
All the blankets were folded and neatly stacked.
A whisper of anxiety went through me. Had he gone to stay somewhere else for the night? Was he coming back?
Tomorrow, I promised myself. I’d talk to him tomorrow. Everything would be fine. Collith and I had survived far worse than this, and it was normal for him to take some space.
Once again, I removed a blanket from the pile and stretched out in Collith’s spot, surrounding myself with his scent. Sleep claimed me within minutes. I tried to think of Oliver, as I had last time.
Instead, I dreamed of Laurie.
The vantage point of this dream was strange.
Instead of seeing the world through his eyes, or as if I were standing next to him, I was peering down at the Seelie King like I was a bird tucked amongst the treetops.
His bright hair shone like a star. He stood in a dense forest, the leaves all around him a dark, deep green, the tree trunks thick with moss, massive roots winding through the soil.
It must’ve rained recently in this dream, because mist hovered over the ground and dampness clung to the air like invisible skin.
Laurie’s clothes were simple, for once—he wore a thin, dark shirt with long sleeves and jeans.
He was standing differently than he usually did, too.
There was none of the languid nonchalance or casual, devil-may-care arrogance Laurie typically used to piss off everyone around him.
Tonight he was preternaturally still, his arms crossed as his silver eyes roamed the darkness.
It was obvious the Seelie King was waiting for someone.
Moments after I’d had the thought, I felt a shift in the air. Laurie spoke without turning his head. “I was beginning to think you’d stood me up. So Fortuna arranged a meeting with good ol’ Luci, eh?”
“Yes,” the reply came. “But their conversation didn’t go well.”
A moment later, Collith appeared through the trees.
He rested his palm against a low branch as he ducked beneath it, entering the small clearing.
It was almost like he’d dressed for a battle.
He wore a black T-shirt and dark tactical pants, and I would have put money on the fact that he’d hidden knives beneath those clothes.
Laurie watched Collith approach with an unreadable expression. “I figured. She has about as much tact as a lumberjack swinging an ax in a china shop,” he remarked.
Collith smiled. It was a look he often got when he was looking at me. “A very endearing lumberjack.”
Laurie just kept studying him, and he made no effort to hide the admiration in his eyes.
Collith didn’t acknowledge it, but he didn’t move when Laurie lifted his hand and brushed that stubborn lock of hair out of Collith’s eyes.
They stared at each other silently, their faces a breath apart.
Then Laurie turned away, saying over his shoulder, “You had to pick this place, didn’t you? ”
“I was feeling nostalgic,” Collith answered. He stayed where he was, but from this strange vantage point, Laurie was out of sight.
The Seelie King’s voice floated through the night. “And where is our lady right now?”
“I just checked on her. She’s sleeping.”
Laurie reappeared, returning to the spot he’d been standing in before. “You’re not going to ask why I summoned you here?”
“I already know why,” Collith said.
Laurie’s gaze ran over him slowly. “Yes, I suppose you do. You came prepared. I’m surprised—no objections? No tedious arguments or speeches about morality?”
Collith looked back at Laurie with an expression that sent a chill through me. It was the face of the Unseelie King. Cold. Calculating. “Not tonight,” he said.
What’s so significant about tonight? I wondered.
“Do you trust me?” Laurie asked.
“Not really.”
“Good. One of us needs to be the voice of reason here.” Laurie took his phone out.
The glow of the screen lit up his hard expression, and when I saw that, another whisper of apprehension went through me.
Laurie held the phone out to Collith. “An hour ago, one of my people found something. I know where the Beast is.”
Silence swelled between them. After a few seconds, Collith handed the phone back. His eyes looked black in the night-darkened forest. “She’ll never forgive us,” was all he said.
“Oh, sure she will. She just might stab us a few times before she does. Shall we?” As Laurie pocketed his phone again, raising his brows expectantly, Collith didn’t move.
Some of the lightness left Laurie’s expression, and his voice was lower when he said, “She will never kill him, Coll. That’s not who Fortuna is.
She may be angry—some of her hatred might be real, even—but she protects the people she loves.
Even when they don’t deserve it. Especially when they don’t deserve it. ”
She will never kill him. After those words came out of Laurie’s mouth, I barely heard the rest. I could only focus on the realization searing through me. This was no dream, and Collith and Laurie planned to go after Oliver. Tonight.
And just as Collith had feared, I was furious with them. Furious they hadn’t told me, that they’d taken this choice from me. They were also going to get themselves killed!
Completely oblivious to my silent fuming, Laurie began to move out of view. His voice floated back. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Wait.” Collith stayed where he was. His brow furrowed, and the corners of his mouth deepened. “We can’t do this.”
Laurie groaned. “I knew it. I knew you’d lose your nerve.”
“I love her, Laurelis. Don’t you?”
Laurie opened his mouth to respond, but something made him pause. His jaw clenched and he stared toward the trees. “Yes,” he said.
The admission sent a blend of strange emotions through my veins.
Resentment. Jealousy. I felt myself begin to frown in bewilderment, but then, in a burst of horror, I realized the reaction wasn’t mine.
Those feelings didn’t belong to me. Once I figured that out, I understood what was actually happening.
This wasn’t a dream, or some bond to Collith and Laurie allowing me to see their conversation.
It was my connection to Oliver.
The bizarre angle. The odd vantage point.
I had summoned Oliver. I was seeing everything through his eyes, which meant this was real …
and he was hiding right above the spot where Collith and Laurie stood.
I had to warn them! A soundless scream tore through me and I imagined myself beating at a wall between us. Look up!
Neither of them reacted.
My panic made it difficult to hear what Collith was saying, but as I mentally writhed, he continued his conversation with Laurie as if there weren’t a massive, deadly creature lurking over their heads.
“… haven’t mentioned how you plan to put this thing down.
All we know is that it isn’t susceptible to holy blades or bullets,” he said.
Collith, move! I screamed at him.
Once again, the faeries didn’t hear me … but Oliver did. He must’ve made a noise, because both faeries went still. In that moment, I swore even the stars held their breath. Slowly, Laurie tipped his head back.
As his cold, metallic eyes met Oliver’s, the faerie king’s expression didn’t change. His voice was calm as ever as he said, “I thought we’d try cutting off its head first. And if that doesn’t work, then we’ll just burn the fucker.”
He means with heavenly fire, I thought at the same instant everything exploded.
They moved with the speed of Fallen. Oliver dropped from the tree and it felt like I was doing it, like it was my heart pumping with adrenaline and my threatening growl that rent the air.
Laurie’s hand was a pale blur as he reached back.
A moment later, his sword flashed. Collith’s arms flew out, his hands, wrists, and arms beginning to crackle and glow.
He gathered his power while Laurie and I fought.
Stop! I screamed at them. I’m here!
They moved so fast that even inside Oliver’s head, it was hard to track.
It was dark, too, and all I saw was the glint of a blade or the flash of a claw in the moonlight.
I tried to slice Laurie open while the silver-haired faerie swung at my neck, my wings, my arms, anything to gain the advantage.
Again and again, we just barely missed each other.
Laurie had a cut on his cheek and his bicep.
My thigh burned from a slice courtesy of Laurie’s sword.
The Seelie King was the best fighter I knew, other than Lucifer, and Oliver wasn’t just holding his own—he was winning. But there was one thing Laurie had that Oliver didn’t.
Collith.
His heavenly fire crackled in our direction, and Laurie sifted just in time to avoid it. I reacted quickly, as well, but Collith must’ve anticipated that the Beast would evade his first assault, because his other arm shot out a split second after I moved, separating the inferno into two.
The second blaze hit me square in the chest and I soared backward.
Oliver roared in pain, and I screamed with him.
My spine slammed into a tree trunk just before I crumpled.
Then I rolled, again and again, and Collith’s fire followed me the entire way.
The smell of burned flesh filled the air.
At the exact moment the lightning finally abated, Laurie was there, swinging his sword toward my neck.
At the last possible moment, my wing shot up and slammed into Laurie, throwing him off balance. The tip of his sword entered my shoulder instead. But I barely reacted, and my palm slammed into Laurie’s chest.
Time seemed to slow. Laurie’s body folded, his feet lifting off the ground as he flew backward.
I swung away, holding one hand against the spot where the lightning had struck me while my shoulder bled freely.
I took a running leap, but my movements were weak and clumsy.
No, Oliver’s movements were weak and slow.
Still trapped inside his head, I frantically tried to figure out how badly he’d been wounded.
Everything hurt. Oliver beat his wings, and the force of the gust knocked Laurie and Collith back again.
It bought Oliver precious time to reach the treetops, where he plunged into the shadows.
Silence descended upon the night.
Oliver breathed heavily, but he fought to control it. Collith and Laurie didn’t make a sound, which couldn’t mean anything good. I knew as well as Oliver did that he probably had seconds before Collith lit this place up, and him with it.
Oliver bit back a groan and pushed himself off the tree.
His wings snapped open, and at the same instant Collith blasted his fire, Oliver flapped.
He shot into the air, just above the stream of deadly blue heat, then flapped again.
Oliver gritted his teeth and kept doing it, until he was back in the night sky, safe from my protective lovers.
Oliver, I sobbed. Ollie, are you all right?
He didn’t answer, but I felt his pain. It was nearly as bad as the handful of seconds he’d been consumed by the heavenly fire.
Every movement sent a rush of agony through his entire body.
But Oliver didn’t make a sound. He focused on flapping his wings, and getting as far away from Collith and Laurie as he could before his injuries won out.
I’m coming, I told him. You’re not alone. Just get somewhere safe, and I’ll find you. I promise.
Oliver lifted his head and spotted something in the distance—another barn, strangely similar to the first one we’d found him at.
He gritted his teeth and kept going. I felt the cost of every wingbeat, every second he stayed in the air.
But Oliver knew just as well as I did that stopping wasn’t an option, not until he’d reached some kind of shelter and put distance between himself and the faerie kings. His vision started to blur.
Then he fell from the sky like a piece of lead.
Ollie! I screamed. He spun and tumbled, wings and feathers streaming. Within seconds, the ground hurtled up to meet him.
At the same moment Oliver plummeted through the roof of the barn, my eyes snapped open.