Author: Kalayna Price

I nodded and began drawing the magic back, preparing to lay the shade to rest. Then the morgue door banged open. I jumped at the sound and a familiar silver-souled fae stormed into the room.

“Alex,” Falin said, coming to a stop inches from my circle, “we have to go. Now.”

Chapter 23

John rounded on the FIB agent. “We’re conducting an investigation here,” he said, the shiny bald spot on the top of his head flushing to red.

“And it’s over. Alex, let’s go.” Falin rapped on the edge of the barrier as if he were knocking at a door.

Sparks of light flashed through the circle around his knuckles, and my knees locked as spikes of magical backlash tore through me. Reminds me of the first time we met. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one affected.

Rianna swayed, her eyes rolling back to show too much white. I grabbed her wrists before her hands fell away from mine. We were still sharing magic. If we broke contact at this point, the results could be disastrous. Possibly deadly.

“Unless you want to drag me out of here unconscious, get the hell away from my circle,” I said, glaring at Falin as I tried to keep Rianna standing.

Falin glanced at his fist, as if only now considering the result of his action. Then he dropped his hand and stepped back a foot. The urgency in his face didn’t change, though, and I didn’t ignore it. Something must have happened. Regardless, certain magics couldn’t be rushed, and I was in the middle of one.

I drew back the power that gave the ghastly foot form, and it vanished, the sound of its clomping dance fading. Rianna let out a breath, swaying as she did so, and I squeezed her fingers. I hastily pulled my heat from the corpse, the bit of living warmth accenting just how cold I’d grown while immersed in the grave. I shivered, but I wasn’t done yet. I still had to break the ritual with Rianna.

“What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours.” As the power-laced words left my mouth, Rianna’s magic washed out of me.

She dropped my hands and sagged into herself, then sank to her knees. Her already pale skin blanched to the gray of a corpse, and she gasped, as if she couldn’t quite catch her breath. She was the better witch, hands down. I’d seen her cast spells I could never dream of attempting. Hell, she’d healed me from being half dead after my fight with Coleman. But the gap between our grave abilities? It had clearly widened in the years we’d been apart.

“You okay?” I asked. I was exhausted, but I was still standing, and I’d raised way more shades today than I should have—I would probably pay for that one soon. And hard. I was already trembling, and I hadn’t released my hold on the grave yet, which was never a good sign.

Rianna hugged her knees to her chest, and I watched her blink furiously. Finally she looked up, her eyes unfocused.

“Al, I can’t see.” Her voice was thin, frightened.

Crap.

I knelt beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. She’d just shared my magic and looked through several planes of realities for the first time. And now she was paying the price.

“It’ll come back. Give it time.”

A tear leaked from the corner of her blind eye. Okay, I’m officially the worst friend ever.

“Alex. We have to go,” Falin said again.

Damn. I couldn’t abandon Rianna blind and in the middle of the mortal realm. It would be dusk in a few hours, and if her magical backlashes were anything like mine tended to be, it would be a while before her sight recovered.

“We’ll have to take Rianna . . . home,” I said to Falin as I climbed to my feet, pulling Rianna up with me.

“We don’t have time.”

I frowned and Rianna’s nails dug into my bare arm as if she was afraid I’d walk away and leave her. I patted her hand, partially to reassure her and partially in hopes that she’d let go before she drew blood.

“I can take her,” Tamara said. “I was supposed to clock out eight minutes ago.”

I gave her a feeble smile. “That’s okay. It’s on our way.” Okay, so I didn’t actually know where Falin was dragging me out of here to go, but Rianna had to make it into the VIP section of the Bloom and then beyond to Faerie and finally to Stasis. It wasn’t exactly a mortal-friendly trip.

“Fine,” was all Falin said, but I could hear the irritation as well as the unspoken “Just hurry up.”

I turned to John. “I have to go. I—”

He cut me off. “Yeah. I see that. I’ll wrap things up here.” But he didn’t sound happy about the situation and I had the feeling I’d be getting a lot fewer calls for cases in the future.

Oh, good, now Rianna’s blind, Tamara thinks I’m brushing her off, and John is upset with me. I was doing absolutely splendid things to my friendships today.

Falin crossed his arms and drummed his fingers on his elbow, and I released my connection to the grave. The icy wind that had been ripping through me died as the vines surrounding my psyche closed and darkness fell over my eyes like a heavy blindfold.

Well, not like that was unexpected. Or something I wasn’t getting used to navigating through.

I dispelled my circle and then knelt, fumbling for my purse. Someone pressed the leather strap into my hand.

“You can’t see, can you?” Falin asked, his voice low and close by.

Rianna, who still gripped my arm, was probably the only person close enough to hear. Her fingers tightened. “Al?”

I shrugged. “The blind leading the blind, and all that.”

I couldn’t see Falin’s expression, but I swear the sound he made was some sort of growl. His warm fingers lifted Rianna’s clammy ones from where they gripped my arm, and his arm slid around my waist.

“Come on. We have to go.” He set a quick pace, nearly dragging me as I stumbled along beside him.

“Wait. Rianna—?”

“I’m with you,” she said, her voice broken by her gasps but sounding like it came from the other side of Falin.

I knew we’d reached the morgue doors only when I heard him press the panel for the automatic doors—a feature that no one typically used. I twisted back around, almost grateful I couldn’t see John or Tamara’s expressions as Rianna and I were hustled out.

“Bye!” I yelled and received halfhearted replies. Then we were out of the morgue, our shuffling steps squeaking and echoing in the long hallway.

“What’s going on?” I asked once I felt us turn the first corner.

Falin was quiet for so long that I thought he might not answer. Then he said, “The Winter Queen sent down an order. The FIB is coming to drag you to Faerie.”

“Stay inside. Don’t even answer the door,” Falin said as he ushered me into his apartment.

Rianna was still downstairs in the car. Falin didn’t want to risk taking me all the way to the Magic Quarter, and his apartment wasn’t far from Central Precinct and the morgue. The hope was that no one would think to look for me at another FIB agent’s home. He would drop Rianna off at the Bloom, and then—well, I hoped he had a plan because I didn’t.

“I’ll be back in half an hour,” he said, but then hesitated.

“Go. I’m fine.” Okay, so I couldn’t see and I was being sought by the FIB, but other than that . . . All right, maybe fine is a gross exaggeration. “Go,” I said again.

“Alexis.” My name, just my name. His heat filled the air around me, like he’d moved closer or leaned in toward me.

My lips parted as his breath tumbled against my skin, but the touch was just air. He’d said orders had reached the FIB that the queen wanted me taken to Faerie. So why was he helping me escape? I reached toward him, or toward the heat that filled the space between us, and that heat withdrew.

“Stay inside,” he said again. The door clicked shut.

I stood in the spot where he’d left me, listening to the sounds of his neighbors drifting through the walls. Damn, this is really happening. I was on the run from Faerie.

I felt the need to do something, to prepare or retaliate. But there was nothing I could do but wait.

Well, I can at least tell my housemates what’s going on. Not that I’d tell them not to worry about me because I was definitely worried about me, but maybe they’d have some suggestions of how to get out of this. Caleb, at least, might have some idea.

I dug through my purse, searching by feel for the cool plastic case of my phone. Finally I found it. There would be no dialing blind, but my eyes had been an issue often enough that I’d purchased the phone knowing this could happen. I traced my fingers along the edge until I found one of the few non–touch screen buttons on the phone.

“Call Caleb,” I said, speaking as clearly as I could for the voice-recognition software. A moment later the phone beeped as it dialed.

The phone rang seven times, and just as I was sure it would switch to voice mail, Caleb’s voice answered on the other end.

“Thank goodness. The FIB are after me. They plan to drag me to Faerie and—”

“No, I’m sorry, Holly isn’t here right now,” Caleb said, cutting me off.

What? Oh, no. “Are they there? At the house?” “Yeah. She said something about a headache and went to lie down, but she must have felt better because she left shortly after. I haven’t seen her since.”

My heart, already hammering in my chest, dropped. “Caleb, is Holly missing?”

“Yeah, a letter? I found it. Her bed, sure.”

A letter? It must have been important or he wouldn’t have mentioned it.

I stopped talking, my throat too tight to pass words, but my part of the conversation wasn’t important anyway. Caleb paused for a moment, as if listening to someone on my end of the line; then he said, “I don’t know if I’ll be here when she gets back, but if I see her, I’ll tell her.”

Didn’t know if he’d be there? Oh, fuck, they were going to haul Caleb to Faerie. Agent Nori had threatened that acquaintances with independent fae were dangerous, but I’d thought she meant dangerous to me, not to my friends.