Tiddly Jinx (4 page)

“Do you think this is a good idea?”

“I think that if people don’t push the boundaries then the boundaries only get smaller. Right now, the elves are so narrow-minded they can reach out and touch both walls without leaning.” She stopped and turned to me. “Look, I’m not revolutionary minded at all. For the most part I stay out of fae politics. I work with outsiders and I’ve built my own life that has nothing to do with these people—unless they’re feeling lucky. In that case, I’m happy to take their money. I’m not looking for trouble, but I’m not ashamed of what I am, either.” She patted my shoulder. “You don’t have to come along. I totally get it.”

I squared my shoulders. “I’d be honored to walk with you,” I said. I opened the gate and we headed down the narrow path the guards made. Both sides went silent. No one so much as breathed as we moved forward, side by side. Anticipation filled the air—the slightest spark and the whole place could erupt into chaos. “Just keep walking,” I said to Lily under my breath before I stopped.

I stood between the two groups, emotions popping and crackling around me. I understood what both sides were saying, but fighting was the last thing any of us needed. It took a few minutes, but a hush spread through the people.

“Go home,” I said, trying to sound as firm and earnest as possible. “You’ve been heard. Change comes to all of us, whether or not we’re ready for it. I’m going to marry the half-elf, Selene. Nothing you do will prevent it. You can embrace us as your leaders or we will step aside. Either way, change is before you. Go home, be with your families, and listen to your heart.”

I turned and saw Lily, who had ignored my orders and was waiting a few feet away. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she nodded at me. Our footsteps were the only sound as we walked through the town. When we were out of hearing range she glanced over at me.

“Do you mean it? Will you really walk away from the crown?”

“If they cannot accept Selene, then they cannot accept me. I’ll make a more formal announcement later.”

A smile lit her face and she shook her head. “So you get them all riled up then you pass the buck on to someone else. Yeah, we are definitely related.”

I laughed. “That was actually my plan. Selene had a better idea though.”

“What’s that?”

“We’re going to have an election. The people can choose the direction the fae move in.”

She looked like she was mulling it over for a few moments, then she nodded. “That might actually work.”

“That’s the hope.”

Lily’s club, Thistle, was obliterated. Chairs, tables, glass, everything was smashed to bits.

“Have you considered this could be a good time to switch careers?”

Her eyes narrowed. “All of this is your fault, not mine.” She wrinkled her nose. “Well, technically, I guess it is Dad’s fault.”

A sigh filled my chest. It had been easy not to think about my father or what had happened the night before. Selene was back and we had plenty of other issues to handle. Lily pushed up her sleeves and started tossing stuff to one side as she sifted through the destruction. All fae had long lives, but elves lived the longest. Elves typically lived thousands of years. We weren’t actually considered adults until we were over a hundred years old. Fortuna fae probably lived about the same length as a half-elf, around five hundred years, but Lily was only twenty and she already ran her own business and was completely self-sufficient. She was a tough kid.

She didn’t bother looking back at me. “Feel free to pitch in. If you’re here, you’re helping. Don’t think being Erlking exempts you from manual labor.”

I laughed and dug in, adding broken chairs and tables to the pile she started. “What are we looking for?”

“Money, of course. Any money or chips should be saved.”

I unearthed a body with a Pole sticking through its chest. “And the bodies?” I asked.

She came over to look. “Oh.” She reached down and yanked out the splintered piece of wood. “It’s a jinni. He’ll heal. Move him to the side.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“What? I mainly work with jinn. I like them. There’s no bullshit. I always know where we stand.”

“And where’s that?”

She shrugged. “So long as I’m useful to them, they have my back.”

Sure enough, the man’s wound began to close and within fifteen minutes he was awake and Lily introduced him as Presley before putting him to work. Apparently being impaled was not a reason to take the day off. She didn’t chat like Selene would have, but she also wasn’t completely serious either. Lily worked hard, but still had a good time.

“Look at this.” Lily displayed a lime-green and zebra-print purse with a splayed hand. “I think it’s your style, Pres.” She tossed it to him.

He caught it and opened it then threw it to the side. “No cash.”

“I thought jinn only dealt with humans,” I said.

He gave me a cold stare. “I thought elves only married their own.”

“You know about elf politics?”

He shrugged. “The world is changing, Erlking. There are wheels in motion. The jinn won’t always be pawns for demons to move around.”

“Is that so?”

He turned back to work.

“I know a jinni who’s free,” I said. His spine stiffened. “Holden Smith.”

He looked over his shoulder. “You know Holden?”

I nodded. “He’s a friend.” Friend might have been a stretch, but I was willing to bet this guy wouldn’t know any better. The coldness vanished from his eyes and he nodded at me like we were suddenly on the same side.

Whatever Holden and Olivia had going on, it could change the whole dynamic of the Abyss. I shook my head. It was well beyond my depth to get involved. The jinn being free was something I doubted the world was prepared for, but as I’d told my people earlier today, change comes whether or not we are ready for it.

I PICKED UP GRAM’S paper as I went up her steps. We’d tried to talk her into staying at the castle the night before, but she had refused. Everything in my life was changing and happening so fast, I didn’t know how I felt anymore. On one hand Grandma had betrayed me horribly, but on the other, she had been tricked and was trying to make up for the betrayal now. I mean, was it really any different than what I did to Cheney? And he managed to keep forgiving me. Life very rarely ever works out perfectly. We have to accept the people we love, flaws and all, and be thankful we got them in the first place. Despite everything, Gram was my family. She was my blood and nothing was ever going to change that. Then again, so was my dad, but that didn’t mean I was ready to hug it out with him. While “forgive and forget” was a good philosophy, sometimes the practice of it sucked.

I knocked on the door. She answered a few moments later, still in her robe and slippers and sipping coffee that was black and pungent. “Good morning,” I said.

She ushered me inside, shutting and locking the door behind her. “I’m just making breakfast. Care to join me?”

I shook my head. “I already ate. Thank you though.” I followed her into the kitchen and helped myself to a glass of orange juice before I leaned against the counter by the refrigerator and watched her cook for a few minutes. It was so familiar. I could have been sixteen again and telling her about school while she made me breakfast, but I wasn’t. In fact, as clear as that memory was about being sixteen ten years ago, so were my memories from a hundred years ago. They were all part of me now. I had lived two lives up to this point and now they were one.

Grandma didn’t ask me why I was here or say anything while she cooked. She hummed to herself as she fried eggs and a piece of ham. “Thank you for helping yesterday,” I said.

She kept her back facing me. “That’s my job. One that I had been far too neglectful of.”

I took a deep breath. “I could use your help again.”

She scraped the eggs and ham onto her plate then sat the skillet in the sink before she faced me. “Come. Sit.”

She sat down at the table and I took the chair across from her, folding my hands in front of me. She looked like she had aged twenty years in the past few weeks. “I did what the priestess asked and brought back the Pole of Charon.” She nodded. “But I didn’t know what it did and Cheney didn’t get to me in time to stop what happened. Gram, the Pole can tear holes between worlds. Obviously it doesn’t belong in the Abyss. I said I’d deliver it to them and I did, but now I need to take it back.”

She nodded again, her mouth pursed, making her wrinkles more pronounced. “I cannot help you with that. It is beyond my power.”

I smiled a little. “That isn’t what I need help with. The necromancer, Frost—you met her, right?—went with me because she felt the dark magic in the Pole and thought I shouldn’t touch it. The priestess told us to take it into the crypt, but Cheney showed up, so I didn’t go in. Frost did, though, and then they all vanished: Frost, the Pole, the priestess, and the crypt. I need to find them before the boundaries between worlds start to crumble.”

She set down her fork and took another sip of coffee. “How do you propose we find where they went? They could be anywhere, this world or the next.”

I nodded. “That’s the problem. We have used every method available to us to track them here, and there’s nothing. I don’t think they’re here at all.” I pressed my lips together, trying to organize my thoughts. “The spirits wanted the Pole for a reason. It seems fairly obvious that they must want to come back from wherever they are. I don’t think they’re in the underworld or they could have gotten it themselves, but they must be somewhere that isn’t here. If they’re trying to tear a hole between worlds then that Pole should be putting off tons of dark magic. We should be able to find it, right?”

“Ghosts are not in this realm or the underworld. They are in an in between,” Gram said. She traced her old wrinkled finger along the rim of her mug. “You cannot find the dark with light. Dark magic is what you came to get help with.”

“I don’t see another way. I’m only doing it to save people.”

She gave me a sad smile. “Some of the best witches who have turned dark started down the path with good intentions. They won’t save you. The dark will seek out the gateways in you and feed from them until you do not resemble your former self. It won’t come at you in a single attack. It will be an ongoing struggle for the rest of your life. And you, my child, will live a very long time.”

My stomach knotted. “I don’t have a choice. I brought the Pole back. It’s my responsibility. If you have other ideas, I’m open to them. Honestly, I don’t want to do this.”

She sighed. “I wish I wouldn’t have been such an ignorant old woman. There was much I could have taught you over the years.”

I squeezed her hand. “There’s still time.”

She nodded. “Come.”

I followed her up to her secret room in the attic. She slowly lowered herself to the ground, not moving around nearly as easily as she had just a year ago. She pried a couple boards up from the floor and stuck her arm in all the way to her shoulder. She pulled out a white velvet sack with a pentagram and glistening rune burned into the material. It was bound with rope wrapped three times in each direction, forming a cross around it. She held the sack on her lap with both hands resting on the top. As she looked down at it, the wrinkles on her weathered face seemed deeper and more pronounced.

“Dark magic is addictive. Once you cast, it becomes part of you. You will never be able to rid yourself of it, but if you are lucky, you can push it down and bury it within. Each time you cast it grows and spreads through you. I don’t know where that threshold is when it is too late to go back. For some, it may be only once, while others might be able to cast twenty spells without blackening their soul.” She handed me the book with shaking hands. “I cannot touch this book without its protective covering ever again. It calls to me, and has been calling for many years.”

“When you cursed me, was that the first time you used it?”

“The first and only. Its power has beckoned to me ever since.” I started unwrapping it, but she stopped me. “One last thing—only read the spell you use.”

“Why?”

“Even reading the words silently without the ritual will feed the magic and help it grow. Use extreme caution, dear. Treat this as you would a ticking bomb.”