Chapter 35

35

I nvisible chains wrapped around me as she tried again.

The same jolt of power was whispered on the wind, a promise all but forgotten, but again nothing happened.

Livvy scrambled to check the herbs and make sure she’d gotten the right items. When she turned back to me, her shoulders slumped forward.

Face to face with her failure, we were both just as lost, and neither of us had the energy to argue. To figure out what had gone wrong.

Livvy sniffed, blew out a harsh breath, then rose with her hands on her hips. “I’m, ah, going to make a fire. A fire will help.”

She went through the motions of gathering stones and wood even though none of it was necessary. I sat and watched her. I should help .

Why couldn’t I move?

Noren returned moments after Livvy snapped her fingers and the flames burst to life.

He approached the fire and dropped his prey at my feet, staring at me with his head tilted to the side.

“You’re so resourceful,” I said to him in an undertone. I smiled. “Thank you for this. I appreciate it.”

He’d caught enough food for us to cook over a makeshift spit, the flames crackling merrily beneath the roasting rabbit. Soon the air filled with the scent and moonlight glinted off the still surface of the lake.

Noren sat on his haunches beside me and leaned until I automatically ran my hand through the fur at the scuff of his neck.

“Someone will return for us soon.” Livvy paced on the other side of the fire with her focus a million miles away. Her hand remained at her mouth, her teeth worrying at the skin of her thumb’s cuticle. “Until then, the best course of action is to stay here and wait. Then everyone will be back together.”

I understood her reasoning even when my instincts screamed at me to go, to run, to keep moving ahead of the people who hunted us. Mike would not be able to track us if we left the lake and the ruins of the Abyss.

Bronwen would, but why make more trouble for her?

After a while, it hurt too much to watch Livvy pace, to wonder at the way her mind worked.

Neither of us had any idea why the spell failed. She knew of no way to contact Faerie to find out. At this point, we’d reached a dead end.

Another one in a long line of them.

I poked at the rabbit with a stick to judge doneness. It needed another little bit of time before being completely cooked but I wasn't willing to wait. My stomach growled and I busied myself with removing the steaming rabbit from the spit.

“Your pacing isn’t going to help,” I told her. “Why don't you come sit and we’ll have something to eat.” The heat burned my fingers and quickly dissipated.

“There’s nothing else to do besides sleep,” she groused.

A sense of the surreal permeated the moment when she settled herself cross-legged and accepted a bit of meat. It almost seemed as though I'd become the more responsible person here. Her nerves refused to settle.

I had them too. I’d have to be out of my damn mind not to be nervous right now but I had to channel them into something else besides movement. Or maybe my body was still reeling from everything that had happened over the last few days. Maybe it would take me the rest of my life to feel like my old self again.

I’d feel much better if Onyx were here.

At least then I’d have someone familiar, a peer, to speak to. Having my mom back was a miracle but I found it more difficult than I’d ever imagined to talk to her.

“This is good.” Livvy gestured toward the rabbit. “Your wolf is an asset to you, Tavi. I hope you understand how lucky you are to have him.”

“He is,” I agreed. “And I literally did nothing to the rabbit except coo it. I can't take any credit.”

“You sell yourself short.”

I scoffed lightly. “What else is new? Fighting against a tide tends to make you think of yourself as small but compact.” I tried to grin at her and found my lips failing me. I took a bite of rabbit and chewed thoughtfully, letting the heat seep into me. Warmth trailed down my throat and into my stomach, settling there.

“I don’t like to hear you talk about yourself this way. You’ve had some incredible experiences, yes, but they have all made you strong,” she said, licking the grease off her fingers.

“What if I’m tired of being strong?” I finally asked. “What if there are stronger people out there? Better choices.”

“There will always be stronger people out there. Who is on your mind right now?”

She knew. She had to know. “I…just feel like it might be a better situation if Onyx were with me.”

“Well, we have some time.” Livvy rose and wiped her hands on the front of her pants. “Why don’t we scry for him? The lake is placid and the night fresh and full of possibilities. It will give you peace of mind to know he’s crossed over. Wouldn’t it?”

I arched a brow at her. “I thought you were all about going to sleep.”

“We need to pass the time somehow, do we not? It seems the best use of time before we sleep is helping my daughter.”

“It’s fine, you don’t have to.” My mind immediately shifted toward the question I’d been pointedly avoiding for much too long.

Who had been controlling Onyx and forcing him to attack those fae? He hadn’t known.

“Come on.” Livvy gestured for me to follow her. “It will help put you at ease. It’s something I can do. I told you I would teach you everything I know.”

“You think…you think we can figure out who was controlling him? He’s gone.”

Her lips set in a thin line. “I think it’s worth a try. And besides, it will be a good test to see if my magic is failing. My spell failed. I want to see if this will fail.”

I shivered, the drop in temperature having nothing to do with the beautiful evening and everything to do with my own reservations.

There was no one around to see us work this magic. No one except the night creatures. And once Livvy settled us near the water, once her own magic rose and crackled in the open air, even the crickets fell silent. Bats swung around us in a circle of clear air overhead.

She closed her eyes and when she spoke again, her voice had dropped. “Sit across from me again, Tavi, and open up your energy to me. I’ll need to use your connection to your friend to be able to access him. We should see where his spirit has traveled. If he is free, he’ll have his answers. And so will we.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about this.

We had to do something. I had to do something. I couldn’t sit and hate myself much longer.

But rather than voicing my reservations, I settled across from her, in awe when a perfectly still pool of water lifted off of the lake itself.

The pool shivered in the air before it shifted between Livvy and I, straightening out into a hammered sheet of pure darkness.

She lifted her hand to me again, inches below the floating water, and I placed my palm in hers. Magic passed between us and my own power lifted and reached for her.

I forced myself to still and focus on Onyx. On the training sessions where he’d taught me more about my shapeshifting. The way he’d looked in the hospital, how he’d stared at me from the executioner's block, everything that happened thereafter.

“Look.”

Livvy whispered the word and I peeled open an eye to see the surface of the water rippling.

“Concentrate on the answers you seek. Tune in to his energy. His earthly body may be gone but pack bonds do not disappear with death. I’ll be able to scry the rest, and the face of the person in control should become clear.”

It was up to me now.

And impossible for me to focus entirely on the things I wanted to know, not when there were a thousand other questions. Why not look to see a way to defeat Dorian Jade? Why not look for a way to reunite the two courts?

Onyx .

The son of my fated mate, who was more than a friend and mentor. A lover who would never be. A solid connection, and someone I cared about. Gone, too far for me to reach, but he needed me to get to the bottom of this.

The surface of the water shifted again and slowly a face filled the confines of the pool. I stifled a gasp as the features became clearer.

“You’re sure?” The words burst out of me and dread crawled under my skin. “You’re sure this is the person?”

“Who do you see?” Livvy asked.

Black hair, cut in a sharp shag. Pointed ears, dusky skin, a snake’s smile.

I saw Selene in the reflection.

Her eyes seemed to penetrate through me.

And I wanted to rip her from navel to neck with my claws and watch her bleed. For the pain she’d caused Onyx while he was alive, the pain he’d live with for the rest of his life, for the shit that happened in her wake.

“How?” The word erupted out of me before I was aware of even asking the question.

“So you know the person you see in the reflection,” Livvy said out loud. “Her face is unfamiliar to me. Tavi, who is that?”

My hands had curved into fists and I realized my claws were literally out at the pinprick of pain. When I uncurled my fingers, a half-moon of bloody indentations greeted me.

“She’s a friend. Or she was a friend,” I corrected. “I thought she was there to help me and guide me. Instead she’s a monster.”

“Sometimes the people who mean the greatest harm to us are often right in front of our face.” Livvy stared at me and watched for any changes in me. I was aware of her perusal but felt so little outside of the cold desire for revenge.

I’d pay Selene back for every single misfortune. I made the vow then and there, silently, and added it to my promise of ending Kendrick Grimaldi.

“Thank you.” I forced myself to break away from staring at the reflection and meet Livvy’s eyes. “For doing that.”

She waved her hand and the water dropped back down to the lake, absorbed once again. “Are you okay?”

What could I possibly say? Betrayal cut deep, to the point where my chest tightened as though someone strapped me down with metal bands. Selene had done terrible things…and I needed to figure out why, to what purpose.

I had to get close to her, no matter what happened.

Sleep came eventually but when it did, it refused to stay for long. I tossed and turned on the rocky lakeshore, fitful and uncomfortable.

Bronwen finally returned to us with the daylight. The crow touched down on the boulder next to the dying embers of our fire and I watched through bleary eyes as the bird shifted into my friend’s familiar shape. She hunched over, her legs dangling off one side of the rock and her elbows on her knees, her head falling anchor-heavy.

She looked exhausted. More so than I’d ever seen her. Bronwen always appeared perpetually perky, so to see her like this…it was a lot.

She glanced up and her eyes widened. “Tavi. Oh my god. You’re back.”

I stretched my arms overhead. “Why do you sound surprised to see me?”

“You were gone for seven days.”

My jaw fell open. “What do you mean, seven days? It was only hours!”

“I’ve been checking back for three days and this is the first time you’ve actually been here,” she said, shaking her head. “A couple times a day, actually. I’m ready to drop. It takes a lot out of me to travel.”

“Do you want to come sit down here?” I patted the spot beside me. “Might be a little softer than your boulder.”

She managed to get herself to my side before she went down. I wrapped my arm automatically around her shoulder, astonished to feel her shaking.

“Queen Laina is still in the hospital,” she began, her tone dulled by exhaustion. “Mike is with her. He would have been here to see you otherwise.”

“Thank you for the update.” My stomach churned. Every part of my body hurt and it seemed like no matter how I moved, nothing helped the aches. Bronwen leaned heavily against me with her head lolling on her neck.

“There’s more.”

“Tell me,” I demanded.

“There’s a Faerie-wide manhunt in place,” she hissed out.

“Sounds like a normal day, doesn’t it?” I tried to smile but my face refused to move. Tendrils of ice constricted my heart at her words. Had Dorian Jade done something? Or the premier?

“It’s not what you think, Tavi.” Bronwen struggled to push up to see my expression and the ice squeezed, freezing my insides, making my chest tighter yet until I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

Nothing was what I thought. Not one single thing.

“Someone in the human realm has infiltrated the Fae Academy for Halflings. He’s taken the students captive and that’s why…” She trailed off and tears turned her eyes glassy. “I’m so sorry.”

“Spit it out, Bronwen.” Every word turned to dust on my tongue.

“He’s demanding that you be turned over to him if we want any of the students returned to their families alive.”

My heart skipped a beat. I knew it could only mean one person, but I needed her to say it.

“Who? Who’s doing this?”

Bronwen took a deep breath. “Someone named Kendrick Grimaldi.”

THE END

Continue the adventure with Tavi and the others in book 7, Faerie Fate .