Bewitched, Blooded and Bewildered (15 page)

“He hasn’t seemed interested in changing the status quo,” I said. “And he’s…how should I put this? Spoiled. Entitled. Stubborn. Manipulative. Controlling…” I ticked off the reasons one by one on my fingers until Faust held up a hand.

“Enough, I see your point.”

“So you’ll help us?” I asked.

“In exchange for a favor, yes.”

I sighed, rubbing my eyes. I suppose it was too much to hope that Simon’s nice gift could have inspired more charity in my supernatural dealings. Favors to Patience, favors to Faust. What next? A pound of flesh?

“What kind of favor?” I asked, weary.

“I would like to speak with Cecelia of the Silver Crescent.”

Everyone in the room blinked at him in shared shock. “How? I’m not a miracle worker. I don’t think that’s even possible. You’re outcast.”

“As are you, yet you continue to function within magician society,” Faust countered.

“That’s debatable. Half of said society doesn’t want anything to do with me. And I don’t function at all within witch society, because those frigid bitches can’t stand to be in the same room with me, much less try to have a civilized conversation with me.”

“But you
are
the Titania. I have faith that you would be able to arrange a meeting, even with my…difficulties.”

“Why do you want to talk to her?” I asked.

“My business is not your concern,” he said haughtily, and it reminded me of Zach.
Guess it runs in the family.

“Yeah it is. I can’t let you talk to her if you’re going to insult her or attack her,” I argued.

“I wouldn’t attack Cecelia. I have no quarrel with her, and attacking a member of the council would not further my agenda.”

“What agenda?” Lex asked, folding his arms across his chest.

“The restoration of the faerie race through the dissolution of Faerie itself,” he replied.

I turned and stared hard at Portia, who continued to remain silent. “Is that why you’ve been talking to him? He’s been trying to sell you on his plan?” Her chin rose a bit, but she didn’t answer. Great, another thing I didn’t need on my conscience. Portia wouldn’t have heard his wacky idea if I hadn’t gotten snatched up by Harrison. “You know this isn’t the best time for a faerie mass migration. We have a serious hunter problem, and they’ll come after you too.”

“I am aware of the hunter problem. I believe we could aid you in fighting the hunters,” Faust said.

“I don’t doubt that, but you’d be putting yourself in serious danger. Humanity wiped out the elves with ancient weaponry. Slings and arrows, and now they’ve got rocket launchers and Teflon bullets,” I argued. “They have mass genocide down to a science. Don’t give them a new target.”

“We can handle ourselves.” Faust seemed to believe it. I didn’t share his confidence.

“I’ll see what I can do. She might not go for it,” I warned.

Faust nodded. “I understand. If you make a concerted effort, I will consider your half of the agreement complete.”

“Right. Are you coming with me?” I asked Portia, and she nodded.

“There’s no need to act immediately on my behalf,” Faust said. He almost sounded surprised.

“Yeah, there really is. We need to get this ritual done as soon as possible,” I replied.

“Ah. You wish to avoid a repeat of the fight against Rousseau.”

“You have no idea,” I muttered. “Wait here, we’ll be right back.”

“I’m coming with you,” Lex said, standing.

“You don’t need to, this should be quick,” I said as I watched him fetch his coat.

“I’m not letting you go anywhere alone.” There was a no-nonsense scowl on his face, and I decided not to argue.

“Can you keep an eye on him?” I asked Marie as I motioned to Faust.

“Sure. I’ll break out the playing cards.”

“I don’t believe you and I have been properly introduced, Miss Duquesne,” Faust said. He bowed politely, and then held his hand out as though to shake hers. I hadn’t realized that Faust and Marie’s paths hadn’t crossed yet, but I wasn’t surprised. They both popped in and out at odd hours.

“You can call me Marie.” She put her hand out, and instead of shaking it, he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it.

“A pleasure to meet you, my lady.”

No good could come of that. Marie was a guardian. She could handle herself. Right?

Lord and Lady…

Ignoring them, I headed for the mirror in our bedroom. Portia could probably pop us to where we needed to go, but as Titania I really needed to be able to do this kind of thing myself. I looked for something to cut my palm with as I stood in front of the mirror, and Lex gently nudged me aside.

“Let me handle it,” he said.

“Sure,” I said, not wanting to argue. I had a feeling it was going to be a long nine months of “let me get that for you”, but as Titania I’d cut myself more in the past few months than an emo teenager with an epic sad, so he was welcome to take a turn.

Lex drew a short knife from within his coat and nicked his thumb. He spoke the words of an opening spell and pressed his hand against the glass. The glass shimmered and glowed until an image formed. It was a throne room made of ice, and I swallowed hard. This was stupid. Why was I bothering Lady Cecelia on behalf of a shadowspawn faerie? I’d be lucky if she didn’t smite me for the impertinence of the suggestion.

We stepped through the mirror, and the temperature dropped. I exhaled a misty cloud of breath, and just as I wished for a jacket, Lex draped his around my shoulders. I loved that man.

The entire room was made of ice—walls, floors, ceiling, the whole shebang. I knew she was some sort of frost faerie like my cousins, so it made sense. I’d never asked what Cecelia’s clan was, because I assumed she’d tell me if I needed to know.

“To what do I owe this visit?” Cecelia asked. We turned and spotted her standing in an arched doorway. Her wings almost took up the entire space, but then she waltzed forward and perched atop her icy throne.

“I know this is short notice, and I apologize for that. I’m also really sorry that this is an…odd request,” I stammered. I stepped forward, and though I expected to slip and slide like trying to cross a rink without skates, the floor felt normal beneath me.

“Is this concerning the challenge to your position as Titania and Oberon?” she asked.

“No…” I looked to Lex for support and then took a deep breath. “You know about my unfortunate connection to Zachary Harrison. Well, we’ve been looking for a way to undo it, and we located a ritual that will break the bond. And that’s great, right? But the ritual requires some of Harrison’s blood, willingly given, and we know he’s not going to volunteer to do that. So we hired a minion of his to get the blood for us, but it comes with a condition.” I stopped, my mental gears grinding to a halt as I tried to compose a logical way to ask her.

“And this condition would be?” she prompted gently.

“It’s very unconventional. And I completely understand if you say no.”

“It would help if you told me what it was.” The corners of Cecelia’s mouth twitched, and I hoped she kept her good humor.

“Right. I asked Faust for his help, because apparently he’s Harrison’s uncle, but he doesn’t approve of what Harrison’s been up to. And Faust said that he would do it, but only if I asked you if you would speak with him. So will you speak with him? Please?”

She blinked, and then she sighed. “I was afraid that allowing him to sponsor Dorian’s candidacy to become Oberon would open the door to further contact. It appears that I was correct.”

“He doesn’t want to pester you about letting him back in or anything,” I said, not sure if that would help or not. “He wants to talk to you about this crazy idea he has. It would only be for a few minutes. And it doesn’t have to be right this minute. Well, sooner would be better than later, because of the baby and all—”

“Baby?” Cecelia interrupted.

“Yes. I’m pregnant. And I know I’m probably not allowed to ask for special treatment or anything as far as the final challenge goes, but if you could try to keep impaling things out of it I’d really appreciate it.” I winced, because that sounded whiny. “But that’s why I need to get unstuck from Harrison as soon as possible. I can’t let his ambition put my child at risk.” There, that sounded much more mature and professional.

“I understand. Congratulations on your impending motherhood,” she said regally.

“Oh. Thank you.” I grinned like an idiot, and then took a deep breath as I waited for her decision. Her pale brow creased as she considered her reply, and then she nodded.

“I will allow it. This conversation was bound to happen at some point. As I understand it, Faust has been attempting to speak with several members of Faerie about this subject.” Cecelia shot a meaningful glance at Portia, and I knew her clandestine meetings were not as clandestine as my cousin thought. At least she wasn’t being openly accused or punished for it.

“Thank you,” I said again.

“Give Faust this missive. It will instruct him where and when I will meet with him.”

The faerie held a small envelope, the size of an RSVP card, out to me. The thing appeared out of thin air, like she was a sleight-of-hand artist. I took it from her and held on to it for dear life.

“Thanks, we’ll get out of your hair now,” I said. “Can you take us back please?” I asked Portia. She nodded, her ivory curls bouncing with the force of it, and we were blinked out of the cold and back into our living room. I sighed in relief—was I sighing too much? Much more and I’d need an inhaler. I slipped Lex’s coat off and handed it to him, and I spotted Faust and Marie on the couch, sipping glasses of red wine.

“Here,” I said, holding the envelope out to him.

“What is this?” he asked.

“It’s your meeting time with Cecelia. Try not to embarrass me when you talk with her,” I replied.

“Thank you. I am impressed.”

“Uh huh. Just stick to your end of the agreement. I need to be rid of Zach before he gets me stabbed again.”

“I understand not wanting to fight his battles, but is there a specific reason for your haste?” Faust asked.

I looked at Lex for guidance. I didn’t want Faust to know, but if he felt it was necessary…

“Yes,” Lex said, “and it’s not your concern.”

“Very well. I will return as soon as I am able. It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Duquesne. Good evening.” Faust smiled and then vanished, reminding me a bit of the Cheshire cat.

Chapter Eleven

Three days. Three stress-filled days of waiting to hear back from Faust about our important spell ingredient. I tried to keep busy in the meantime. I met with my gynecologist and confirmed what every demon in the shadow realm already knew—I was officially pregnant and due in June. I left the appointment armed with pamphlets, lists, recommended baby books, and a new worry—miscarriage. I’d been under the impression that miscarriages only happened in soap operas and chick flicks, and apparently I was very mistaken. Despite all my efforts to protect myself against vampire duels, hunter attacks, and faerie throwdowns, a miscarriage could happen at any time, for no apparent reason, like someone hit Control + Alt + Delete on my uterus. One more fear to keep me up at night. There were serious issues we’d have to deal with, all of which buzzed through my head the moment it touched my pillow. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t sleep.

When I called Mac and told him the news, he was concerned at first, and I had to give him props for being more level-headed than Portia and Marie. But Mac was happy for me and offered to help me paint the nursery when we bought our new house. Which reminded me that we seriously needed to get started with the new-house-hunting. I put it at first thing on my list, after breaking up with Zachary Harrison.

Well, maybe not the first thing. With each passing day, more and more magicians went missing. Lex and Marie taped a map of the Chicagoland area to the wall of our study, and began using pushpins to mark where people had been taken. A different color for each type of magician. The largest scattering of pushpins was brown, for shapeshifters, and the color covered the length and breadth of the map. Everyone was represented—witches, sorcerers, necromancers, summoners, librarians, alchemists—with the exception of guardians and seers. There weren’t any seers that I knew of in the area, aside from Emily Black, and the guardians could pretty much take care of themselves.

When we finished the map I stood back and hugged my arms to my chest. It was a lot of pushpins. We’d had to send Marie out to buy more. All those people, missing and presumed dead. Parents, children, somebody’s brother, somebody’s grandma…and not a squeak about it on the news. How terrifying was that? All those people snatched from their homes and no one had noticed. Part of that was our fault, because magicians have always lived at arm’s length, away from our straight neighbors. But there had to be some sort of mysterious cover-up going on as well. That, or in the digital age we really didn’t know or care who our next-door neighbors were, unless they were on Facebook or on a sex-offender registry.

“You know what’s wrong with this picture?” I asked.

“There’s a lot wrong with this picture,” Lex said.

“Right. And we’re the only ones looking at it as a whole, like this. Except for maybe Zach…but you know what I mean, right?” I asked.