Traitor (23 page)

I looked around, frantically trying to find an exit. A hand found its place on my shoulder and whirled me around. Dalbach’s nose was now bloated and caked with his browning blood. He winced as he spoke. “Do you want to explain why you just punched me in the face?” Dalbach hissed. “I think it was a little unnecessary!”

There wasn’t a lot I could say to that, so I just decided to ignore it. “What is this place?”

Dalbach rubbed his nose morosely and looked around. He seemed surprised and impressed at the same time. “Huh. I don’t know how you managed it, but this is where Ankou resides. Did you mean to make the tunnel come here?”

“I didn’t even know I could make the tunnel go to a specific place.”

He cackled, but stopped abruptly and his hand returned to grip the bridge of his nose. He grimaced in pain once more. “Your magic is more powerful than you think. That, or you’re more Changeling than you’d like to admit.”

His comment made me uneasy, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. I clasped the necklace back in place and placed it gingerly underneath my rags. Dalbach’s eyes never left the hollow of my neck where the necklace rested. I called him on it. “You know too much about all of this.”

He waved the gnarled hand that wasn’t holding onto his nose. “When you’ve been around as much as I have, you can’t help but know things. But I promise you this, human: you’re not safe, so long as you have that necklace. Not that you were to begin with. Plus, if you ever lay another hand on me, I promise you it’ll be the last thing you do.”

I didn’t doubt him. His eyes took on a hungry look once more, but he controlled himself quickly. He began to walk down the hall as though he owned the place. His eyes roved over the closed cherry wood doors as we passed them. “Do you know the way out?”

“Maybe. I’ve been here a few times.”

“Why have you been here?”

He turned to look at me. “Do you trust me, Ashlyn?”

“Not particularly, no. You’ve made it clear I shouldn’t trust faeries.”

The rotten, nearly toothless grin reappeared between his fingers that still gingerly prodded his nose. It looked broken, and I wondered if he could fix it himself or if it would take someone with stronger magic. He sounded like he had a stuffed nose when he whispered to me. “Good. You shouldn’t. So quit asking questions and just appreciate that I haven’t gotten you killed yet.”

He had a point. We continued down the hallway in silence, until I heard someone crying up ahead. Dalbach put a hand out to stop me, but I was already frozen to the spot.

I knew that cry.

That was Jamie.

My heart stuttered. Instinctively, my gut reaction was to go make sure my best friend was okay. That was, until I remembered Jamie was
not
my best friend.

She’d killed my dad, kidnapped my brother, and betrayed me.

That laundry list of offenses sent my insides squirming, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to avenge those wrongs or run in the opposite direction. Still, part of me wondered what could have upset her.

Why did I still have this worry? I shook myself mentally. After thinking about everything she’d done to me, it made it easier to remember not to care about her.

Dalbach looked back at me, apprehension on his face. “Jamie is who I’m supposed to take care of. We have to check on her.”

I looked up and down the hall before rounding on Dalbach with renewed vigor. “Are you serious?”

He shrugged like he didn’t have a care in the world. “You can stand out here and wait to get caught, if you want. I have to honor Miss Jamie.”

Miss Jamie? Good Lord. We were doomed.

***

I tried to stay as inconspicuous as possible when Dalbach rushed through Jamie’s doorway. Even in Changeling form, I felt like Jamie would know it was me hiding behind this façade. After all, we were best friends for the better part of two years, right?

Jamie was sat on her bed with her knees curled up to her chest. Her head was down and her whole body shook from the tears that consumed her. I’d never seen her this upset in the entire time we knew one another. It looked genuine. Dalbach kneeled at the side of the bed, but didn’t touch Jamie. It was obvious he was scared of her. “Miss Jamie, what’s wrong?”

She sniffed and looked over the edge of the bed to examine the Changeling groveling before her. She caught sight of me, where I was scrunched back beside a throne-like chair against the wall. Her eyes narrowed and went back to Dalbach. “Who’s the sprite in the corner?”

Dalbach waved his hand dismissively. “A new recruit I’ve been assigned to watch over. No one of particular interest.”

Jamie was insistent. “A name, if you will?”

“Keelin. Its name is Keelin.”

She nodded and seemed mollified for the moment. She wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and uncurled herself. Jamie smoothed the baby pink satin sheets that covered her bed, but then pulled the corner of her comforter to her mouth and began to chew on it. Her whole body shook with what looked like fear, but I couldn’t fathom what could scare Jamie if she was on Ankou’s side. Dalbach brought the subject back to her. “What’s made you cry, Miss Jamie?”

Jamie looked at me once more, then set her comforter back down and answered Dalbach. “He wasn’t supposed to harm them.”

Dalbach was nonplussed. “Harm who?”

“My family. Ankou swore to leave them alone if I helped him.”

My mind reeled. I forgot that Jamie must have a family somewhere. She seemed so evil in my head. So what if her family was being messed up by Ankou? What did that concern me? Mine was completely broken, thanks to her and Ankou as well. Turnabout was fair play, right?

For some reason, that just didn’t feel right. I hated myself for thinking it, but I felt bad for Jamie. I was curious as to what happened. Dalbach seemed to think along those lines as well, because he prodded for more answers. “What happened? May I be of assistance?”

Jamie’s shoulders slumped. She looked so defeated as she sat there, hiccupping from what had obviously brought her to hysterics before we’d arrived. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and sucked in a quickened breath. “He kidnapped by little brother. He’s only a year old. My mom and dad are freaking out, and obviously they’ve already lost me. That’s two Merrows that Ankou has now. Why does he want another one of us, anyway? Chase is only a baby, and Ankou doesn’t need another Merrow. He has me.”

I couldn’t stop myself from speaking. “Because Ankou takes who he wants, when he wants. You should know that. You’ve helped him do it.”

J
AMIE’S EYES WIDENED
in shock and then retracted to narrow slits. Her hair began to tinge green, and I knew it was only seconds before she’d display her true self: a water nymph with a really bad anger issue.

“You should stay a while,” she said casually, but with enough insinuation to make it evident this would not be a pleasant visit. With a flick of her wrist, a massive sheet of water fell in a continual waterfall to block the exit from her room. Tiny rainbows misted in the castoff water, but it wasn’t a beautiful sight. It made me think of a Venus Flytrap; beautiful, but incredibly dangerous. That was Jamie in a nutshell; of course her brand of magic would be the same. “I think you need an attitude adjustment, young Changeling,” she purred, her voice pure venom as she stalked toward me like a lion who had cornered its prey.

Dalbach put his arms between us to hold us at bay. “I apologize for Keelin’s insolence. If you’d just let me take this one to Ankou, I can fix the issue.”

Jamie shoved his arm away from her and pushed toward me. “No, I don’t think so, Dalbach. Keelin reminds me of someone else I once knew.”

Her skin began to change and she morphed into the psycho pixie I’d met in Ireland over Christmas break. We’d met a few months back when I shifted into a banshee and screamed in her ear, but she didn’t know who I was then. Neither memory was a good one to end on.

There wasn’t time to think, so I did what came to mind in the heat of the moment.

I changed back.

Dalbach hissed his disapproval, but managed to turn it into a hacking cough and make it sound like he was completely shocked. Jamie jumped back three paces and covered her mouth in shock. She whispered in a hurried, angry tone. “Ashlyn? Why are you here? Do you have a death wish?”

She eyed me as she ran her tongue over her teeth. An inherent quiver of fear ran the length of my spine to see her this way. I almost felt bad for her when I thought of her plight, but then again, she’d done it to herself. I lifted my hands in submission to try to make her more at ease. “Look, James,” I said, trying to placate her by using her nickname, “I didn’t come here to start a fight with you.”

“For some reason, I don’t think that’s the truth.”

Dalbach had crept backward and was trying to get out of the room, but the water was still blocking the door. He stood, tapping his foot and sighing when water splashed on him. Jamie looked at him, turned her hand up, and motioned with one finger for him to come back. He flew toward us as though Jamie had him hooked on a fishing line.

He fell face-forward on the ground in front of Jamie. He gasped and rubbed his neck from the whiplash. “You know you didn’t have to do that. I wasn’t going anywhere, Miss Jamie.”

Jamie smiled evilly, her mossy hair falling in her face. “I know I didn’t have to, but it felt good. You also deserved it, considering you brought a traitor into our midst.”

She turned her eyes back to me, a question seemingly on her lips. She opened her mouth, but then closed it, apparently deciding not to voice her inquery. She returned her gaze to Dalbach and flicked her hand toward the door as though she were swatting a fly. Dalbach flew toward the door, and suddenly the water gaped open just enough to let him pass through. He crashed into the wall in the hallway across from the door. The painting that had been on the wall fell and cracked him on the top of the head before tumbling to the floor. Without any further instruction from Jamie, the water went back to a solid sheet as though nothing had happened, still as impenetrable and dangerous as before.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of Dalbach as he lay in a crumpled mess. His figured shimmered and shifted behind the water as it pulsated and rippled. It was the first time I truly felt sorry for him.

Jamie brought me out of my reverie by placing a webbed hand on my shoulder. When I turned to look at her, I was shocked by the desperation in her face. “Ash, you’ve got to help me.”

I glanced back at where Dalbach lay unconscious. His body was gone. My heart began to race in my chest. I was alone with Jamie. This couldn’t be good. Panic bubbled in the pit of my stomach and I fought to keep my breathing regular. Half-concocted ideas began to formulate in the recesses of my mind on how to escape Jamie’s clutches with the least amount of bloodshed possible.

She shook my shoulder again, and her nails bit lightly into my shoulder. “Ash, I’m serious. I need your help.”

It was almost comical that she was asking me for help. I stifled a laugh out of fear that she might try to claw me to death otherwise. Her nails were far too close to my jugular for me to feel comfortable. I sucked in a breath, unsure what to think. I bit my bottom lip, and Jamie could probably see the fear in my face. If she couldn’t, I was sure she was like a feral animal that could smell the fear on its prey. Either way, she knew I was close to panicking.

She played on it. “You don’t understand what it’s like to be forced to do the things I’ve done, Ash.”

I snorted. “No one forced you to do anything, Jamie.”

Jamie waved her hand once more at the doorway, and the water began to crash down and cause a loud roar. It mesmerized me; while the water coursed and bubbled angrily, the floor remained dry. It was actually kind of cool, although in the current situation, it just scared me more. Hard to tell what Jamie could create if I forced her hand. She was far more advanced in magic than I was.

I wasn’t allowed to think about such trivial things as how neat the conjured waterfall was, though. Jamie continued on without taking a breath, just like she always had when we were best friends. If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine us sitting in my room surrounded by CDs and homework, talking about how crazy our Spanish class teacher was and debating over who was the hottest guy in the sophomore class last year.

Then I looked at her again, and was reminded that Jamie was not my best friend. She wasn’t even human.

Her tangled hair was wild and sticking up in every direction like Medusa’s snakes. The green tinge her skin exuded also had a little scaled design that seemed to be below the epidermis like a light tattoo, and a pale iridescent hue shimmered from the design when she moved slightly. Her fingers were webbed together with a thin, pale green membrane that also possessed a hint of iridescence. Although those things were disconcerting and even made her somewhat beautiful, the thing that got to me were her eyes. They were pleading, and even through all the inhuman parts of her, I saw the desperation that also filled Memaw’s eyes when she thought of MaKenna. She wrung her hands, her eyes full of panic. “You know I wouldn’t be asking you for help if I thought there were any other option.”

“That’s supposed to make me want to help you more?”

Jamie sighed in frustration. “You know what I mean. I know you don’t trust me, so why would you help me?”

“That’s a good question.”

Suddenly Jamie’s eyes lit up. “I can give you a good faith payment.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You want to get MaKenna back for your Memaw, right?”

I wasn’t sure whether I should trust her or not, but she was dangling a potentially good piece of information in front of me. That was, if it were trustworthy. I looked at her skeptically. “How do I know you’re not going to lead me into a trap?”

Jamie took my hand and pulled me to two huge wooden doors and turned to me before opening them. “Because I’ll show you first.”

She flung open the doors before I could protest, and we walked into the largest closet I’d ever seen in my life. It went on forever and ever, the cedar chests and closet spaces continued on in an endless stretch. Chandeliers hung every few feet and held thousands of long, slender ivory candles. A black and teal Venetian rug ran the length of the great expanse an covered most of the ivory carpet that blanketed the floor. It smelled of fresh cedar, clean clothes, the ocean and fabric softener. It smelled of the Jamie I’d thought was my best friend.