Fire in the Darkness (5 page)

“By the way, the bathroom window is secured from the outside now. Fixed it just for you.” Eli’s amused tone rubbed at my nerves. Grinding my teeth, I slammed the bathroom door and placed the clothes on the counter: sports bra, white tank, black yoga pants, and a form-fitting hoodie. Sam’s style was simple and classic. I couldn’t fault her on it, but her smell, mixed with the detergent, made me agitated.
You have bigger issues to worry about,
I reminded myself
.

Looking at my hideous reflection in the mirror, my mouth fell open.
Holy crap! How have people not screamed in horror at seeing me?
I looked worse than I felt. I turned away from my double and got into the shower. Dirty water swirled around the drain.

FOUR

Fifteen minutes later I was clean, dressed, and back with Eli and Cole. I stomped into the room turning Cole’s and Eli’s attention onto me. “All right, now what?”

“Could you narrow your field of inquiry?” Eli leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms.

Frustration blazed through me. “You have me. Isn’t that what you wanted from the beginning? Now you can get back into the Otherworld. Good for you.” Neither Cole nor Eli reacted to my statement. Hysteria cracked my voice. “You used me. You've lied to me about everything.”

“We did not lie to you, Ember,” Cole declared.

“Kept from me. Same difference.” My entire life had been a complete lie. Learning this had been a harsh reality, and the only person who could really tell me everything I needed to know was dead. Whether it made sense or not, I was angry with my mother for not telling me the truth. Her betrayal ran deep in my bones. But, it didn’t even come close to the pain of missing her. Her death had torn a hole in my heart. Now that I knew what I was, it made me miss her even more. My fear and loneliness had only been amplified by living on the streets. I would have given anything for her assurance that everything was going to be okay.

“You kept the fact from me that I'm part Demon—that I am a Dae—detested and hunted by the Otherworld. And how about the little tidbit of you wanting to give me to the Unseelie King as a goodwill token? I was only a way for you to get out of here. A pawn.” For weeks I had been blocking the hurt I felt—the depths of pain my heart held in. Eli had ripped another hole in my heart.

“I did what I thought was best at the time.” Cole sighed. “You had just found out the Otherworld existed. I didn’t think telling you that you were one of the most feared and most despised species in the Otherworld would help your mental state at that particular time. Telling someone they are part Demon? How do you think you would have reacted?”

I was still trying to comprehend it all. The word Demon had so many definitions and there was so much folklore about them—none of it good. Demons weren’t sweet, fluffy creatures, but now I understood they weren’t actually spawns of the devil or totally evil either. Nor did they have anything to do with religion or manifesting and possessing people. I was half Demon but I had yet to possess or torment any souls. Maybe I just needed to give it time. Spending more time with Eli might do it.

I turned to Cole. “It had nothing to do with my mental state but what was convenient for you. Don’t pretend you did any of this for me. Feigning to care about me? That's even more revolting than if you had been brutally honest with me from the start.”

“I will not apologize. I did what I did for my family,” Eli growled.

“Funny, Lorcan said the same thing.”

“Yeah, but he obviously wasn’t willing to go to the lengths I did.”

The need to lunge across the room and smack him was almost too much to endure. Eli and I, jaws set, guns loaded, glared at each other.

“You two being at each other's throats is not going to solve anything.” Cole stepped between us, blocking me from Eli. “Eli, if you cannot play nice, I will require you to leave.” Eli only looked away. He didn't commit either way, but he wisely stayed quiet. Cole turned to me, his face looking serious. “I am impressed you lasted on your own as long as you did. Even though we were there helping, you took on a lot of professionally trained hunters. You’re smart, but you know you never would have made it without us. You are safest here.”

“Am I?” I crossed my arms. “With a bunch of Dark Dwellers who cause even the most dangerous Fae to wet themselves?”

Cole ambled over to a bed and leaned against one of the metal bedframes. “Exactly. No one will even attempt to come after you here. It is in our best interest to keep you alive.”

“Oh, I feel so much better,” I replied dryly. I knew Cole was right. I was safer with them, but I didn’t have to be happy about it.

“Aneira wants to use you to destroy humans and take back Earth, but she will kill you after she is done. The Unseelie King does not want to harm Earth or the humans—humans like your friends and father. The King's fight is only with Aneira.”

It was the first time they had called the Queen by her given name. Hearing it suddenly gave her more of a presence. It made her more than some evil bitch who you’d find in a bedtime story. She had a name, a family, a story. Fairytales always showed the Seelie/Fairy Queen as this good, pure, angelic, beautiful creature. She certainly had an ethereal and untouchable beauty. But, she was not good. She was cruel and power hungry. But then no story I’d ever read portrayed the Unseelie King as the better choice. Leave it to me to live in a screwed-up, twisted fairytale.

“Aneira,” I repeated her name out loud, needing to say it, to feel the name roll off my tongue.

“Humans and Fae used to share Earth, and legends and stories were close to the truth then. Later it became too dangerous for the Fae to stay because of human discovery and their prosecution of us. The Fae had to disappear to the Otherworld.” He rubbed his chin. “Much of the English monarchy is actually based on the structure of the Seelie kingdom. But we don’t run around in period costumes like most think we do. Humans have this idea the Fae are stuck in the King Arthur days and have not progressed with the times. I’m not saying there aren’t castles, horses, and moats, but Fae are actually forward thinkers. We do have technology, but we treat our realm with respect, working with it instead of destroying it.”

Even if they no longer lived there, it was obvious the guys still considered it home. I could feel the overwhelming desire coming off both men to get back there. Sacrificing me would be simple. “So does Aneira govern all of the Otherworld?”

“The Unseelie only have a small portion left in the north. The Queen has control over most of the kingdom. Some noble Seelie lords and ladies oversee the various towns and areas in the Queen’s domain. Like I said, it’s similar to the old English monarchy, but unlike today's sovereign, the Queen isn’t purely a figure head. She has ultimate authority, and she’s not one for democracy.”

“Yeah, kinda got that.” Frowning, I pulled my long damp hair up into a ponytail. “Where do you guys fit into the Fae society?”

Eli ran his hand over his face and through his hair, a habit he had when he got irritated or frustrated. “We don’t.”

Tilting my head to the side, I stared at him.

He sighed. “We would be considered dark Fae, but we were one of the few Fae who didn’t follow anybody’s rule. Unseelie or Seelie. The Queen banished us from the Otherworld a while back.” Lorcan had confessed this to me when he held me prisoner. I just didn’t know why. “We may not have followed her rule, but she had the ability to banish us. There was a misunderstanding and something occurred that shouldn’t have. We were forced from our homes and exiled. We settled here.”

“So, you’ve been looking for some way to get back and ‘ta-da’ here it is.” I motioned to myself.

“I am sorry, Ember,” Cole said.

“No, you’re not.”

“Actually, I am. You are not at all what I imagined a Dae to be. In fact I find myself liking you—you're tough and can hold your own. I wish things could be different.”

There was sincerity in his words. It didn’t help my outcome though.

“How many others followed Lorcan?”

“There were four others.” A flash of anger and pain flashed through Cole’s eyes. “Besides Lorcan there was Sam, West, Dax, and Dominic.”

I had heard of everyone except Dominic. West’s desertion had hurt. I liked him when we had met at Mike’s Bar months ago. His going with Lorcan had felt wrong to me.

“Did they all feel you weren’t ‘getting the job done’?”

“Yeah.” Eli’s gaze leveled, his resentment lurching into me. “For some reason they all thought I got a little distracted—that I had lost focus.”

“Did you?” I asked.

Eli stood motionless. An uncomfortable silence hung between us. I could feel Cole’s gaze taking in every nuance between Eli and me. The implications of his silence twisted everything inside of me. Emotion flooded through me as we stared at each other; so many feelings I had kept guarded floated to the surface. Light bulbs above our heads began to flicker. Soft pops of energy surged through them, dimming and lighting the room in pulses. Bulbs started to crack and splitter. An endless amount of power hummed through my skin.

“Eli, grab the bracelet,” Cole ordered, snapping Eli’s attention from me.

Suddenly, sensing a threat, my defenses mounted. Warning bells went off in my head, but I hesitated a second too long. Eli grabbed me. He pulled an object out of his pocket and mumbled something I couldn’t hear. A prickle slinked over my skin. I was ready to throw him off, but his hand only went for my wrist, snapping something into place. The reaction was instantaneous. Energy ripped from my body as if someone cut an artery, my powers pouring from me like blood. I let out a strangled cry and looked down to see a metal bracelet wrapped around my wrist. Eli had slipped it on, yet now looking at it I couldn’t see a clip or latch. It hugged my wrist like it was a part of my skin, and there seemed to be no way of getting it off. It took a moment for my body to take in the shock and start to balance out.

“What is this?” I looked up at Eli in confusion, feeling weak and helpless.

“The bracelet is made of iron,” he replied.

“I know that.” I shakily gripped onto the bedframe for balance. “I meant what is it?” I pointed at the delicate looking object wrapped around my wrist.

“We have to be able to control you. We can’t have you using your abilities on us,” Cole stated matter-of-factly.

“So this bracelet is basically my dog collar?” I looked down at the harmless looking band. It was actually beautiful if it wasn’t for its evil effect on me. Small Celtic symbols were etched around the band, weaving in beautiful looping designs.

“Basically.” Ah, Eli. He never sugarcoated anything for me. “Or, if you’d prefer, I can chain you in the basement. Could be fun.”

My eyes constricted into a glare. Air pumped in and out of my lungs, the initial shock of iron beginning to wear off, slowly becoming more manageable. “The goblins made it, and you will not be able to break it or slip it off as it is magically bound to your wrist. But I know you will try anyway so have fun with that.” A slight knowing smile appeared on Eli’s mouth.

“Magically bound? It will never come off? EVER?” Panic filled my chest.

“Only if you know the magic word,” Cole replied.

“So, say pretty please.” Eli smirked. “With sugar on top.”

“I’ll tell you where you can shove—”

“Shut up the both of you. The two of you are driving me insane.” Cole rubbed his forehead. “What I meant was it can only be released from your wrist by a word spoken in Goblin tongue, and only three of us know this word. It’s like a combination to a lock.”

“Let me guess. He's one of those people?” I nodded my head toward Eli, which only made him grin, confirming I was right. “Oh yeah, this is going to be fun.”

“But now with your collar on, I can take you for walks.”

I automatically took a step towards Eli. Fury burned through me, but my powers stayed quiet and coiled deep inside me.

Cole grabbed my arm, turning to Eli. “Out.” He pointed towards the door.

Eli’s eyes narrowed on me like it was my fault he was being cast out. He stomped out of the room. Cole stared after Eli, a contemplative expression on his face. He shook his head and faced me.

“Seriously, the two of you are going to cause me to lose my mind.”

“But it’s his fau—.”

“Ember,” he warned, shutting me up. We stood there for a time in silence.

“What’s going to happen?” I asked, feeling the weight of the world coming down on me all at once.

“I wish I could tell you something good.” Cole clasped his hands together and gave a little shrug. “You are safe here as long as you stay on our property. You are free to walk around. Merely stay within our borders . . . I don’t believe you are rash enough to try and escape now. Your freedom and life will never be what it once was. You do understand that?” My shoulders sagged further under the reality of his words. “Ember, tell me you comprehend that? You cannot contact your friends or go back to your old life again?”

I nodded, my throat closing up on itself. My friends were vulnerable simply knowing me, but they couldn't be privy to where I was or have contact with me. I understood early on, when I was being chased by different Fae, that it was better if they thought I was dead or gone. Knowledge would only get them killed.