Grave Dance (15 page)

Chapter 15

“W
hat did he mean, ‘her majesty’s bloody hands’?”I asked once we were back in my apartment.

Falin didn’t answer, but stepped around me as he headed for the bathroom. He’d taken the steps slow, his hand moving to his side when he thought I wasn’t looking.

Somewhere along the way, his blazer vanished, and by the time he reached the bathroom door, glamour no longer cloaked his ragged and bloodstained clothing.

I leaned against the wal beside the door. A door he hadn’t closed. “Are you here doing your queen’s bidding?”

Again he didn’t answer. I pushed away from the wal and peeked around the open door. Falin stood with both hands braced on the sink’s counter, his head hanging heavy below his hunched shoulders. He looked up as I slipped inside and gave me a smal , tight smile that didn’t match the wince around his eyes.

“Joining me in the bathroom? This is a new level of intimacy for us.”

I didn’t take his bait. “Let me see it.”

“Mmm, and what is it you want to see?”

I frowned at him. “Stop playing around and let me see your side.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” he said, but it clearly cost him to push away from the counter and stand up straight.

“Let me see, or I’m going to dope you with a knockout charm and drag you to a healer.” It was an empty threat and he knew it, but he stil moved to unbutton his shirt.

“Fine, fine.” He shrugged out of the shirt, the movement

“Fine, fine.” He shrugged out of the shirt, the movement stiff.

While I’d been occupied downstairs he’d done a nice job of dressing the wound. I hated to disturb the careful y taped gauze, but blood had seeped through in several places, so it needed to be changed anyway.

I shuddered once I’d exposed the wound. “Shouldn’t you see a healer?”

“I’ve healed worse. It’s dawn and the magic is weak right now. Give me twenty minutes and I’l be much better,” he said, reaching for the sealed sterile gauze pads on the counter. They must have been from Hol y’s first-aid kit because they had official OMIH stamps on the top and I didn’t own charmed bandages.

I helped him dress his side again, and as I worked I had to admit he was healing. The edges of the wound were pink, and new skin had knitted across the long laceration in several places. If he could avoid reopening the wound, he would probably heal in a matter of days. Once the gauze was taped securely in place, I stood. “How’s the head?”

“Healed,” he said, and smiled at my disbelieving look before tilting his head forward so I could look. “Head wounds bleed a lot, but that one wasn’t deep.”

I scanned the part of his scalp I could see and then laced my fingers in his hair, letting my fingers read the truth of his healed scalp even if my eyes couldn’t see it. Without his glamour, Falin’s hair was closer to white than blond and, like his skin, seemed to give off its own light. I ran my hands through those soft locks, fol owing one that fel over his etched cheekbone and cascaded down his chin to his throat.

His gaze snagged mine. There might have stil been pain somewhere in those blue eyes, but more than anything there was heat. He watched me look at him and his lips parted, his pupils dilating. Only then did I consider the fact that I’d just had my hands on his sculpted abs and chest while examining his wound, then in his hair, and now . . .

while examining his wound, then in his hair, and now . . .

Heat rushed to my face. While I’d been focused on his wounds everything had been so clinical, but now I was acutely aware that we were in my smal bathroom, standing very close, and he was only half dressed.

He was also injured.
And taken.

“I’l just—” I pointed over my shoulder as I backed away.

“Wait.” He flashed me a smile. Dawn had come and gone, and there must have been something to what he’d said because he moved easier as he crouched and opened the cabinets under the sink. “Have you seen my toothbrush?”

I cringed. “I told you to get it out of my bathroom.” “You threw it out?”

God, I wished I had. But I hadn’t. Not that I planned to tel him that. And what was with the hurt eyes? What would it matter if I
had
tossed the toothbrush?

I crossed my arms over my chest and lifted my chin, which earned the exact opposite response from what I’d expected—a lopsided grin claimed his face.

“You’re mad at me again. I told you, I’m on to you, Alexis.

You wouldn’t be mad if you didn’t care.” He waggled a gloved finger at me and returned to rooting around under my sink. “So where did you hide my toothbrush?”

I stepped in front of him, blocking his access to the cabinet with my legs. “You think you’ve got me figured out, huh? Wel , I think you missed a couple of chapters, so let me give you a quick highlight. I’ve got commitment and abandonment issues.” It wasn’t like that was a big secret—

even my favorite bartender knew that. “You disappearing without a word? That doesn’t help. And finding out you’re the Winter Queen’s lover? Yeah, no. I don’t know what was happening between us a month ago. Personal y, I blame it on the adrenaline from tracking Coleman. But whatever it was, it’s over. Now I’m glad you are no longer dying on my front lawn, and I’m glad you were here when the ravens attacked, but I think it’s time for you to go home.”

attacked, but I think it’s time for you to go home.”

He was stil crouched on the floor, staring up at me, and each word out of my mouth attacked his expression like verbal shrapnel. By the time I’d finished, his face had shut down and thrown up shields of apathy. With his lips taut and grim and his gaze cold, he pushed to his feet. Then he looked around as if uncertain why he was there in the first place.

“I’l go, then,” he said, stepping around me and out of the bathroom.

“Wait,” I cal ed after him, my anger dissipated. He paused at my front door, but he didn’t turn to face me.

“Maybe we can meet for drinks or something if situations change,” I said because as much as I hated it, seeing him again more than proved there was a spark. But I couldn’t do it like this. With him injecting himself into my life without warning while I waited for him to disappear again.

He glanced back as he stepped outside. The morning sunlight streaming in through the open door caught in his hair and made it a shimmering halo around his face.

“Watch yourself, Alex Craft. You are attracting the wrong kind of attention. Again. And I meant what I said to Agent Nori. You’ve caught the queen’s interest, so be cautious.”

Then the door slammed behind him, and he was gone.

I ran across the room and jerked the door open.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I cal ed, but the landing was empty, as were the stairs. Falin wasn’t like Death; he couldn’t just vanish.
Glamour
—it had to be.

“I know you’re stil here.” Or at least I was pretty sure.

No answer.

Damn.
I opened my shields, just enough for my psyche to slip through. The decaying land of the dead overlaid the real world like a double exposure as Aetheric energy swirled around me, close enough to touch. I peered through swirled around me, close enough to touch. I peered through it, glancing down the steps, into the yard behind. I ignored the way the wooden steps looked rotted and pitted, the grass brown and decayed. Amid al the decay what I stil didn’t see was Falin.
He can’t have gotten far.
But there was no movement. No one.

How did he—?
I turned and found him directly behind me, leaning in the corner where the porch rail and the side of the house met. After the morning I’d had, my frayed nerves didn’t take wel to another surprise.

I yelped, stumbling backward, and my foot smashed through what my senses perceived as a decaying board.

The wood crumbled around my calf as I lost my footing, and the porch swal owed my leg up to my thigh.

Falin jumped forward, catching my arms. He lips twisted in pain with the movement, the muscles in his jaw twitching.

I slammed my shields closed, and the land of the dead slipped away.

But the damage was already done, my leg caught al the way to my midthigh. In fact, closing my shields might have made things worse because the wood was once again solid around my leg.

“Hold stil ,” Falin said, shifting his grip under my arms. He winced as he lifted me and I motioned him away.

“You’re hurt. I can do this.”

He glared at me, but I met the ice in his eyes with my own scowl. Final y he released me, holding his hands up in surrender and backing up a step. Of course, saying I could do it was easier than actual y freeing myself.

It took me several minutes of repositioning my arms and my free leg before I found an angle where I could wiggle my leg out of the hole. I was breathing hard by the time both my feet were on the top side of the porch again. Blowing a curl out of my face, I wiped my palms on the front of my jeans and turned to face Falin. “So, was that parting quip meant to get me chasing after you for clarification or . . . ?”

“Just watching.”

“Just watching.”

“Me? Or for someone?” I asked, but he didn’t answer.

“Falin, what is going on?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. His glamour once again cloaked his clothing and he leaned against the wal as if he had no intention of going anywhere. I sighed.

Obstinacy was one of his reigning qualities.

“Wel , if you are going to stick around, you might as wel come back inside.” I pushed the door open, holding it wide.

He pursed his lips but didn’t move.

I waited several heartbeats. Then I turned, letting the door swing shut behind me and headed toward the bathroom. It took me only a moment to find what I was looking for. Then gripping it hard enough that my knuckles turned white, I headed back outside.

“Here’s your damn toothbrush.” I shoved it at Falin, and he blinked, his blue eyes wide with surprise. “Now, it’s barely seven o’clock and I’ve already had a hel of a day.

Why don’t we have some breakfast and swap notes.

Maybe we can work together.”

If we didn’t throttle each other first.

“Alex, an oatmeal creme pie doesn’t count as breakfast,”

Falin said, staring at the prepackaged sweet as if it had offended him.

I shrugged. “Don’t knock it,” I said. I perched in the one chair I owned and opened my laptop. I’d put fresh sheets on the bed and I hoped Falin would get a little more rest. He might have some super-fae healing powers, but the glimpses I’d caught of him unglamoured proved he stil needed some recuperation time.

“So, did I draw the queen’s attention with the tear or the castle?”

“Castle?” Falin’s eyebrow lifted, and while he might have been faking ignorance, he sounded genuinely confused.

I shook my head, dismissing the question. “Okay, so I’m I shook my head, dismissing the question. “Okay, so I’m guessing this has something to do with the tear.”

“Something? This has everything to do with the tear.

What were you thinking, merging realities in the middle of a crowded street?”

“Uh, I was thinking Hol y was about to get shredded,” I said as I dug through my purse in search of the charmed disk. “What kind of fal out am I looking at?”

“Wel , you drew the attention of at least two faerie courts.

They are asking questions.”

“I’m guessing their curiosity would be bad for my health?”

Falin set the untouched oatmeal creme pie aside. Then he propped my pil ows against the wal and reclined against them, his hands behind his head. “If not your health, then definitely your freedom. If the courts realize what you can do, you’l likely end up sequestered in Faerie.”

Sequestered?
I was not a fan of that outcome. I retrieved the disk and set my purse aside.

“Fred said, ‘They come.’ Think that’s about the courts?”

Falin opened his eyes, which had drifted closed while we spoke. “Who’s Fred?”

“Oh, uh, the gargoyle?” I shrugged. “I sort of named it.”

He stared at me, and then burst out laughing. “The winged one with the cat face?” At my nod he laughed harder, which made him wince and grasp his injured side.

“You realize that particular gargoyle is female and holds a position among gargoyles similar to that of a high priestess or a grand oracle?”

“Oh.” I guess that explained why she’d seemed so amused when I’d named her. But she’d refused to give me a name to cal her, and it was hard to converse with someone who didn’t have a name—even if that someone happened to be made of stone. “Anyway,” I said, “just before I found you last night, she told me, ‘They come.’”

“That’s a fairly vague warning.”

“Tel me about it.”

But he didn’t because his eyes had drifted closed again. I But he didn’t because his eyes had drifted closed again. I let him rest and turned my attention to the charmed disk.

The spel s in it were inert now that the glamour and soul had been separated from the magic, but somewhere in the tangle of residual magic, there had to be a hint of what spel infected my friends. If I could find the spel , I’d be that much closer to finding the counterspel . And hopeful y to finding the witch behind the spel as wel .

I copied the runes from the disk onto a blank sheet of paper, making sure to leave each one incomplete in case it could be invoked without knowing what it was or did. I had to dig out a magnifying glass to make sure I copied them al correctly—the disk’s design was intricate. And there had been over thirty of those ravens. Someone had way too much time on their hands.

Once I’d copied not only the runes but also the design they made on the disk, I flipped the disk over and broke the seal of wax. The wax covered a thin strip of paper, and I unfolded it, glancing over the heavy block-printed letters.

The paper contained two words. A name. Mine.

Well, now there’s no question as to whether the attacks
are targeted.

I dug through the trunk at the edge of my bed until I found a smal enchanted box that one of my teachers gave me when

I

graduated