Shadowborn (6 page)

Gallagher gave a subtle nod. “May we have a moment alone, James?”

“No!” Bethany stared razors at me.

“Outside, Lieutenant.” James ushered her to the door, leaned close and whispered. “These people are trying to help us.”

“So they say,” she muttered.

“What’s her problem?” I jammed my thumb in the direction they’d gone.

Rubbing his finger under his eye, Gallagher said, “She’s threatened by you.”

“Pfft. Why would I hurt her? We’re on the same side, aren’t we?”

“Never mind.” Shaking his head as if I were being thick again, Gallagher went toward the little girl. We sat on either side of her bed.

I searched the minds in the room, and other than Gallagher’s, I found only one other. Hers.

“My name’s Lila, and this is my friend, Gallagher. The others are gone now.”

Her eyelid parted but closed again. The acrid scent of fear rolled off her in waves. Her tiny fingers trembled.

“She’s been waiting for someone to come.” Gallagher turned to me, the lines around his eyes pronounced under his frown. “She has a message from someone named Alastair.”

5

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” I covered the girl’s hand with my own. “Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

Gallagher leaned toward me, his brow arched as high as it could go without sliding right off his head.

I recoiled a bit, my cheeks heating. “What?”

“I’ve just never seen any sort of maternal instinct from you before.” His lips twitched into a grin. “I find it rather … refreshing.”

“Whatever.” I went back to the girl whose eyes had cracked open again. “Did you see what happened to any of these people?”

She darted a glance to Gallagher and squeezed my hand. Her audible swallows and eyes tinted with fear stuck a skewer through me.

I bent close and offered a genuine smile. “He’s my friend.”
Even though he can be a pain in the ass.
“He won’t hurt you.”

The girl shook her head, sat up and clung to me like a drowning swimmer.

“Wait for me in the hall, Gallagher.” I stroked my hand over her matted hair, hating the utter sense of helplessness filling me with a need to save her from the monsters of the world.

My aide stared at me as if I’d conjured a dragon out of my ass, mouth agape, a flare behind his eyes that might have been anger, but in my peripheral vision, I couldn’t tell. “No. I should—”

“She’s afraid of you.” I nodded toward the exit. “I’ve got this.”

He stood but continued to hover. His murky eyes passed between the girl and me. A huff burst out of him. “Very well.” Shoes whispering across the tile, he exited, and the door clicked shut.

“He’s gone.” I pried the girl’s arms off my waist. “Can you tell me your name?”

“J-Juliet.” She sniffled and scanned the room as if she expected a predator to crawl out from under her bed.

Although my instincts wanted to drill her for the information I needed, her fragile state suggested I needed to tread lightly—which was not my strong suit. I took a deep breath and summoned the few shreds of patience I owned.

“Why have you been pretending to be asleep?” They mustn’t have scanned her brain activity, only assumed she was like the others.

“He told me I needed to wait for someone special to come, that if I shut my eyes, nobody would ask me questions.”

I rubbed her spindly arm. “Who told you, Juliet?”

“Alastair. He was in the dark.”

“Like in a shadow?”

“Yeah. A shadow but also a man. Sort of.”

“Did you actually see his shape, like a man standing in a shadow, or the shadow spoke like a man?”

“I saw …” Her gaze sprang to the door, and she gasped. She gripped my arm tight. “I can’t.”

I found nothing in the room but five comatose bodies and stark white paint.

“I won’t let anything happen to you, Juliet.” I gave her a moment to calm herself and continued, “You said someone special would come. Do you know who he meant?”

A shake of her head sent night-black tresses across her oval face. “Not at first. But I think it’s you.”

Me?
“Why?”

Her fingers curled into the white sheet. “I just knew when you came in. My skin got all prickly, and my neck hairs stood up. And your skin glows like gold. I’ve never seen anybody’s skin glow before.”

O—kay.
Had she sensed my power and seen through my glamour?
Didn’t she see the same from Gallagher? I’d have to mention that one to him, unsure if that was a good or a bad thing.
“What’s the message?”

Juliet turned inward as if reading a script from her thoughts. “He said the Shadowborn have been given a new prize. Try to stop me if you dare or something like that.”

“Dammit!”

A squeal burst from Juliet as she recoiled from me.

I held out my hand. “Sorry, it’s just—that doesn’t tell me anything.” At least we had confirmation the Shadowborn were involved.

“Please, say you won’t look for him. They’ll kill you.” Her eyes glossed over, and a tear dripped from the end of her nose. “Please, stay away. They’re bad and not like us bad. Like in the movies bad.”

“Don’t worry about me. I need to go now. I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake, and hopefully, he’ll call your parents to take you home.”

She clung to my hand when I stood.

The absolute trust in her eyes and utter fear in her posture sank claws into my chest. “It’ll be okay, Juliet. I promise. I’ll … I’ll make this right somehow.” I winced, knowing I might have given a promise I couldn’t keep.

After glancing at the woman in the bed next to the door, Juliet turned back to me, hope radiating from her. “She’s my mom. Can you make her better?”

Oh, hell.
My heart ached to tell her anything that would remove the agony from her eyes, but I wouldn’t lie to her. “I don’t know if it’s possible, but I promise, I’ll try.”

A shadow of a smile eased onto her face. She let my fingers slide out of her grip. “Okay.”

It took a concentrated effort to walk away from her, but I managed to get into the hallway without losing my composure. I wanted to tuck her under my arm and take her somewhere secure. Not that there were many safe places left in the world. I couldn’t, though. I had enough problems without adding Juliet to my list.

Gallagher pounced the instant I walked through the door. “What did she tell you?”

“Geez, man. Give me a second.” I cocked my head as I stared at him. “Why didn’t you just read it out of her head?” I almost went on to say “or out of mine” but I didn’t want to invite his kind of trouble if he hadn’t already thought of it himself, especially when I wept on the inside for that girl.

He expelled an exasperated breath and waved his arms around his head. “She’s a mental tornado. You try snatching something specific out of that.”

Nix and Cas arrived and stood beside my aide. Nix grinned at me, but I didn’t have the strength to figure out why. James and Bethany hovered behind them, their eyes intent on me.

“It’s definitely the Shadowborn.” I reiterated the whole message to them.

“That can’t be all.” Gallagher stepped closer until mint on his breath invaded my nose. “That’s all she said? They’ve chosen a prize but not who?”

I shoved my hand against his chest and forced him back a few steps. “Yeah, that’s all she said, and yeah, I flipped out when I realized that, too.” I folded my arms together and leaned a hip against a medical cart beside me. “We should all know that nothing ever comes easy.”

Gallagher pressed a palm against the wall and muttered to himself, gesturing with his hands as if he didn’t like his own answers.

“So what do we do now?” James took a tentative step around Nix, his suit jacket laying over his arm. The sweat marks under his arms had spread.

“If by
we,
you mean
you,
then nothing. Hopefully the Unseelie king has arranged our meeting with the elves, and Gallagher, Donovan and I will talk to the selkies. If all of the otherworldies are talking, we should know pretty soon who the target is.”
I hope.

Bethany jammed her fists against her hips and strutted around Cas. “You don’t really expect us to sit on our duffs while our citizens are having their souls ripped out, do you? Because that’s what it sounds like to me.”

I flashed her my favorite ‘come-closer-so-I-can-eat-you’ smile. “I don’t really give a flying fish freckle what you do as long as you keep your scrawny ass out of our way.” Without waiting for the steam to explode from Bethany’s ears, I started down the hall with a snickering Nix on my heels. “I’m going back to Dun Bray. I’m tired.”

Tired of the lies. Tired of the world going to shit without a damn clue how to stop it. Tired of pining after a fae I could never have without leaving both nations in an uproar. Tired of a heart that would continue to ache for Liam until the day death took me under its wing.

6

Nix and I crested the hill in Dun Bray and stopped at the castle steps. Gallagher had stayed behind at the hospital with James and Bethany to ‘smooth things out’ so he said. I had no problem leaving Bethany screeching like a tormented banshee. Clearly, Gallagher did. At least he’d confirmed Alastair wouldn’t be able to pass the protective wards around Dun Bray.
One fewer crisis to worry about.

Before I mounted the first stair, Nix sped in front of me, walking backwards so he faced me. Groaning, I stared into the golden sky, the swirling colors of cream and yellow marking the movement of the spirits, my mother and Garret among them.
Goddess, help me through this day.
“What do you want?”

“You were jealous of me talking to that nurse.” His eyes twinkled. “That’s why you were angry at me earlier.”

“You’re delusional.”
Arrogant much?
Despite the sudden urge to crawl under the stone, I held his gaze. “Why would you think that?”

His shoulders lifted, his lips jerking—an action that tried and failed to contain his grin. “Cas might have mentioned it.”

Well, wasn’t that just craptacular?
That boy and I were going to have to come to an understanding of what holding my confidence meant.

I bumped into Nix when he stopped. “I don’t have the brain cells for this right now.”

“My offer still stands if you want company tonight.” Snickering, he launched up the steps, taking two at a time. “You know where to find me if you change your mind.”

I stared after him for a long time until his infuriating laughter disappeared with the slam of the door
.

My unwilling feet carried me the rest of the way to the top. I jerked the door open and trudged into the grand hall. The sight of Neasa waiting for me tore a groan from my lips.

“You have got to be kidding me. Someone better have effing died,” I said. She still hadn’t forgiven me for making her scrub the Court floor by hand as punishment for attacking me the previous year and annoyed me every chance she got.

“Your seamstress is waiting for you.” Neasa’s silver tinsel hair had grown since I’d first met her, the tips hovering an inch above the floor.

“I have enough clothes.” I stomped past her toward the white doors that held the transport.

“You will need a proper gown, my queen.”

Gritting my teeth at my title and her steely tone, I stopped. “What for? I told you, I’m not wearing a ball gown at Court no matter how many times you stick your forked tongue in my ear about it.”

“What are you doing, Neasa?” Nix stepped out of the Court and strode over to my supposed aide, though all she seemed to aid was the size of my headache.

“We need to be ready for the celebration.” She raised her straight nose in the air and flashed a grin that knotted my stomach. “I hear it will be quite an event.”

“Celebration?” I took a step forward but stopped when Nix’s Light flared dark amber.

“I’ve been trying to prepare you—to soften the blow.” His glare could have melted glass, and I was glad he pointed it at Neasa and not me. “That useless shit should have told you himself.”

“In my room, Nix.” I bristled at Neasa, who continued to flash her white teeth. “Now.”

When I made it to the transport door, I placed my hand on the eye emblem to activate it without waiting for him. I didn’t trust my darkness not to erupt, and if it did, I didn’t want it to happen in the confines of the transport with Nix beside me.

The panel slid back, and I stepped inside the void, stark white, bright and resembling a large coffin set on its end. Pulses of light let me know my ascent had begun. The dark well in my head rattled. I ached to give into the rage again. Away from Neasa, I’d regain control.

In my room, I scarfed down some crackers and cheese as I waited for Nix, thankful he must have figured out I needed time to cool down before his arrival. Five minutes passed like an eternity as my thoughts conjured all sorts of terrible things he might tell me. Nix had been trying to prepare me for something, but what? Whatever it was injected dread into my bones.

When he knocked, I jumped. “Come in.”

“Please, don’t ask me,” he said before he’d crossed the threshold. “I will never lie to you, and I’ll tell you if you order me to, but I’m asking you, for your own sake, please, just ask Liam.” Looking everywhere but at me, Nix straightened one of the pictures on my wall.

“I think you want to tell me. You made it clear the instant I got here that you didn’t like Liam. You’ve been hinting around something since this morning. If you didn’t want me to know, you would have kept your mouth shut.”

Face tilted forward, he turned to me. “You’re right, I think he’s a dick, but that’s not why—I just want you to be prepared. I don’t want you to be hurt.”

“I can’t concentrate on keeping control of my darkness and fighting these Shadowborn things if I’m wondering what’s happening in the Unseelie Court.”
And with my lover.

“As you wish.” Nix squared his shoulders as he strode past me. “Sit down with me.” He climbed the steps to the side of the lofty bed and held out his hand to me. I followed him but crossed my arms over my chest as I sat beside him.

“I’m sitting. Now, spill it.”