Resistance (42 page)

Chapter 27—Flint

August 2102

"So I saw you gave Fi a new hairstyle this morning,"
Lumi says with a totally straight face while reading the cards I
just dealt her.

I feel my face heat as I remember Fi in bed earlier
today—driving me crazy with her hands and mouth without even
realizing the effect she has on me, and have to clear my throat in
order to speak. I fix a smirk on my face. “I have no idea what
you’re talking about, Princess.”

"No? Huh. Because I saw her talking to Aodhan this
morning and she had a serious case of bed head. And because Fi's
hair always looks so nice, I can't imagine she would have done that
to herself."

"Hmm….yes, she does have very nice hair," I say, not
rising to the bait.

"Yes, that's a given, and it's also not my point,
Hellboy," she says with a roll of her eyes.

I huff and say, "Well, what is your point, Lu?"

She does what I believe is her imitation of my smirk
and says, "I think you know," sounding exasperated.

"Well I think we both know I’m not going to discuss
this with you."

"What made you think I wanted details from you?" she
scoffs. "Fi will fill me in about all of that later, I'm sure." I
try and turn a choking fit into a regular cough as she looks at me
and grins. I don’t need to know about the girl talk that will
happen at a later date.

“Okay, Princess,” I say, in a desperate attempt to
change the subject. “Enough stalling — are we playing a game here
or not?”

“Yeah, yeah,” she says, waving her hand at me. “Spoil
sport.”

I roll my eyes and snort at her insanity. We’ve been
playing poker for the past hour or so, and even though she claims
she’s never played this before she is kicking my ass at it. I
wonder if the cards are plotting against me in some form or another
as I stare at my pathetic pair of threes, and Lu speaks again.

“Boom!” she says when we get to the final bet;
throwing her cards on the floor between us to show me her hand
(which happens to be her third full house) and promptly sweeping
the hair clips we are using as currency closer to her.

“Alright,” I say, pointing a figure at her. “You’ve
done this before. I don’t believe you.”

“Just because you suck doesn’t mean I’m wording you,
Twinks,” she replies, and I have to hold back a snort.

I shake my head at her. I’m not sure I believe she
isn’t lying to me about this but I don’t accuse her of it, either.
That’s a fight I don’t want to have. “I do not suck at this
game.”

“Really?” She looks over at my measly stack of hair
clips and furrows her brow. “So you’re supposed to have no money at
the end?”

“Oh, shut up, Princess.” I snatch her cards back and
shuffle the deck. She throws her head back and laughs as I huff in
frustration. “I thought we settled on Hellboy?”

“Well, yes,” she says with a nod. “But not when
you’re being a sore loser. Then we’re back to Twinkly Bottom. Which
is my personal favorite.”

“Shut up,” I tell her again, but this time I can’t
help but laugh. “Come on. One more time, all or nothing.”

Lumi is still giggling when loud footfalls on the
stairs interrupt her reply. If I didn’t know better, I’d think we
were in the middle of an earthquake.

“The hell is that?” Lu says. I shrug at her and shift
to stand up, and I’ve just pulled her to her feet when the door is
thrown open. Eirnin stands in the doorway and his face floods with
relief as soon as his gaze locks on Lumi. He’s winded and his hair
has fallen in front of his wide eyes. He looks a mess.

“Eir?” Lu asks concernedly. She opens her mouth to
add to that statement but is abruptly cut off when Eir leaps
forward and scoops her up in a hug; lifting her off the ground in
the process. She makes a sort of half-squeak, half-grunt sound and
hooks her arms around his neck, even though it’s fairly obvious
he’s not going to put her down.

I clear my throat. “Should I leave you two
alone?”

Lulu flushes and shakes her head at me — not
answering my question, just out of pure confusion. Eir settles her
on the ground suddenly and looks her over; tilting her face up so
he can look at her. “Are you okay?”

“Um, yeah,” Lu says. “Flint and I were playing
cards—”

“Oh crap, Flint—” Eir turns, his hand still secure on
Lu’s waist, and stares at me. I do a two finger wave and he lets
out a breath. “Oh good, you’re here, too. Good. That’s good.”

“You’re shaking,” Lumi notes; taking Eir’s hand off
her waist and looking down at it. “Eir, what happened?”

Fianna steps in the doorway then. She looks at me,
but when I try to meet her eyes she immediately looks away towards
her brother as he fusses over the princess. She refuses to look me
in the eye and I feel a bit uneasy. “Is everything okay, love?”

She doesn’t answer me right away, and when Lu tells
Eir he needs to sit down Fi finally clears her throat and looks in
my general direction. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Although I nod, I’m utterly confused. She looks
nervous as hell, and the way her brother is behaving doesn’t make
me very comfortable. Still, I close Lu’s door and follow Fi down
the stairs to her bedroom. She gestures for me to go inside first
and closes her door gently behind us.

“What’s going on?” I ask; trying not to be obvious
about how anxious she’s got me right now.

“I have to tell you something,” she says. She can’t
seem to figure out where to put her hands; they keep moving from
her hips to her mouth, and she’s wringing them when she finally
seems to notice and promptly settles them at her sides in loose
fists. “I made a mistake.”

I am still standing right in front of her, but she
has yet to meet my eyes. Worry grips at my stomach and I want to
beg her to spit it out. “Go ahead, love.”

She takes in a big gulp of air but doesn’t release
it. Her hands come back up in front of her body and she starts
snapping one of the elastic bands on her wrist against her skin.
Finally she exhales and lifts her head. She looks like she’s scared
of me. “I—I wasn’t completely honest with you earlier.” Her eyes
shift and she stares at her hands again. “Eir and Sea found a trap
set for you near the path where I run. I thought it would be better
if you stayed here. I—I didn’t want anything to happen to you,
and…well, it was Sean. Sean set it up and we had a plan to execute
him.” She closes her eyes tightly, as if expecting to be slapped.
“I screwed up, though, and he got away.”

For a minute I don’t know how I feel about this. It’s
like my brain has been disconnected from my body and I’m not able
to compute anything she’s said. All the information seems to be
floating in space when I ask, “So…the short version is that you
lied to me, and Sean — who is out to kill me — is God knows
where?”

She nods slowly, pulls in another breath and looks
up, but not at my face. She extends a hand like she wants to touch
my arm, but ends up snapping it away and taking a step backwards.
“I’m so sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing, Flint, I
really did—”

I feel like I’ve been hit in the back of the head as
everything starts to sink in. Sean made it blatantly obvious that
he has no problem killing someone, and yet she decided she could
handle him alone. I don’t care what she says, there’s no way she’d
actually let Eirnin help her. I feel my hands getting hot and I
throw them up. “You could have gotten yourself killed!”

She flinches and I shake my hands out — accidentally
lighting her house on fire is not going to get me anywhere. I open
my mouth to say something else, but then I get sick of her staring
at the floor. “Look at me, Fi.”

When she does, her eyes are wet with tears. She looks
like she could break down at any second. “I’m sorry, I know—”

“Stop apologizing,” I cut her off and she snaps her
mouth closed. She starts wringing her hands and I force myself to
take a deep breath. I really can’t tell if I’m pissed because she
lied or because she was too stubborn to ask me for help, but she
really doesn’t deserve to be screamed at. “Just tell me why you
felt the need to lie to me.”

She grinds her teeth together and shakes her head.
For a minute she’s not breathing, and I know she’s trying not to
burst out in sobs. As frazzled as I am, I still have to wonder why
she is reacting this badly. “I wanted to keep you out of it,” she
says. “I know how you and Sean are with each other, and the plan
was to stage a family picnic with Sea and Eir as backup and—” She
sighs shakily, deciding her failed plan is not worth explaining. “I
wanted to keep you safe.”

Doesn’t she realize she’s not God? Is it really so
hard for her to accept that the people she loves can help? I press
my fingers to my temples and growl to myself a bit. I need to get a
grip on my emotions before I go off and make her feel even worse.
She makes a small whimpering sound and I look up in automatic
worry. She presses her hands to her eyes as if that will hide the
fact she’s about to cry. “Love, don’t cry,” I say slowly. “It’s…I
understand.”

“I’m so sorry I lied to you,” she says, sniffling.
“I’m so sorry, Flint.”

I really cannot stand the sound of her crying. It
makes my chest hurt and I reach for her; touching her upper arm
right above where Sean grabbed her the other day. The bruise has
started to change colors now, and seeing the reminder that he has
already hurt her makes me feel sick. “I’m not mad at you, just…” I
huff. “Just let me help you, okay?”

She doesn’t respond. She is still for a minute and
then she lunges at me; wrapping her arms around my neck and burying
her face in my shoulder. I put my arms around her waist and hold
her to me. I’m relieved she didn’t get hurt. Sean obviously is a
sociopath and probably would have killed all three of them if he
were able. And considering he has friends in high places, I’m sure
someone would have come to his rescue—

Oh.

Shit.

I still haven’t passed on that information.

Sure, Seamus knows an outsider was hanging out when
Sean’s hand almost got melted off, but he probably assumed Fi
already had that vital piece of data when she came up with the plan
to execute him. Damn it.

“I have to tell you something, too,” I say suddenly,
feeling slightly ill. She could have gotten killed because I almost
forgot about the icy-eyed man with Sean, and now I really don’t
want to let go of her. But she seems to register the dread in my
tone and pulls back just enough to look up at me. “What is it?”

“About Sean,” I say. “When he grabbed you by the
border, he was talking with someone.”

Confusion clouds her features and she tilts her head
at me. “With someone? Someone from here?” She blinks and horror
settles in her eyes. “Or someone you’ve never seen around
here?”

I shake my head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him.”
I sigh. “I didn’t tell you because you were already shaken up over
him grabbing you, and the little, er, shall we say, incident
afterwards, and I just…” I trail off.

She’s scowling. “So you were trying to protect
me.”

“Yes,” I admit. It wasn’t a question, but I feel she
wanted an answer anyway. “I’m sorry, I really am, but…you were
already having a bad day, and you radiate stress sometimes, and I…I
didn’t want to ruin your evening.”

She sighs and pulls her bottom lip between her teeth.
She shakes her head and relaxes against me a bit; her hands
kneading at my shoulders. “Don’t apologize. I’m just not used to
someone trying to protect me.”

I feel myself frowning and kiss her forehead. I don’t
like the idea that she’s felt alone any longer than I’ve known her.
“Yeah, well. You’re kind of stuck with me so get used to it.”

Her eyes snap up to my face and she stares at me. I
keep eye contact, completely sure of what I said, and offer her a
smirk. “I don’t mind being stuck with you,” she says
breathlessly.

I press a kiss to her mouth slowly and smile.
“Good.”

She seems dazed, like I’ve hit her with a brick, and
I wrap my arms more securely around her. Her face turns a deep red
color once she’s fitted up against me completely and I bite the
inside of my cheek so I don’t smile at her. She shakes her head and
blinks a few times as if waking up from a deep sleep. “What, um…?
What did this person look like?”

I am tempted not to answer. Her voice is still
breathy and almost labored, and I’d really like to kiss her again
and make her forget this whole conversation, but I make my mouth
work anyway. “Uh, he was tall…about Sean’s height. Hasn’t shaved in
a while. Dirty blond hair, and this kind of…dead, icy look in his
eyes.” I remember the look he put on Fi and feel myself scowl.
“When he saw you he looked like he could’ve strangled you, but when
he noticed you weren’t alone he took off running.”

All the color drains from her face and her grip on my
shoulders gets impossibly tighter. She shakes her head as if she
can’t believe what I’ve said. “That sounds like Hugh.”

“Hugh?” I don’t know this guy, but I can tell by the
look on her face I won’t like him much at all. “Who’s Hugh?”

“He—” She stops and shakes her head. “He was a market
person who decided to stick around a while back. It was his tip
that my parents followed when they left.” She takes in a small
breath and hides her face under my chin again. “He, um, well, he…he
pretended to like me to get close to Eirnin.”

I clear my throat so I don’t growl at that statement
and shake my head. There are many unkind things I could say about
this jerk, but instead I try and project calmness for her sake.
“So, asshat, then.”

A smile creeps over her face and she lets out a small
laugh. She lifts her hand from my shoulder and brushes my hair back
away from my face. “It sounds like Hugh, but he was executed when
he confessed his plan to me. Sean—” The smile goes away suddenly
and she looks worried, “—took care of it.”