Tempest in Disguise (Darkest Faerie Tale Series Book 1) (10 page)

Janice pressed her shoulders back proudly. “You were all gathered here to discuss the issue with one of our own. Mya Johnson’s house burned down this morning. Coincidentally, the morning after one of our much esteemed generals was found dead.”

Hushed murmurs broke out throughout the room.

Shushing the crowd, Janice held her palms up. “I know. It is with a very troubled heart I formally announce the passing of Brad Davis. As you are all aware, the Unseelies have begun targeting us and I’m convinced his death was at their hands as the other untimely Seelie deaths before him. Now, we face another problem. We have a photo and evidence to support our claims. The Elders of the court have held a secret for decades and I fear by doing so, we have placed the Seelies in grave danger and now we must act.” Janice dropped her head and shook it side to side with a dramatic flair. “One of our own is a traitor.” When she raised her head, her face feigned sadness.

Gavin knew better. According to a conversation he overheard, Sitnalta, the ancient island the Fae gods and goddesses lived on five thousand years ago, was slowly rising from the depths of the ocean. Though he didn’t know the island’s location, he paid attention to the secret whispers of the rumor mills and the Elders were waiting to out Mya. It’s why Gavin wanted to protect her. During his research over the last year, he learned Mya harnessed a dark and strong magick. In the wrong hands, who knew what would happen to her. The Elders wanted her destroyed.

Janice raised her chin to the audience. “Mya Johnson is an Aos sí hybrid. She is the first ever born of an Unseelie and a Seelie.”

Gasps, shouts, anger and betrayal rang out through the room.

Gavin watched Janice soak it up. She’d been waiting for this moment—the moment to bury Mya. Just like her daughter, Janice craved drama, gossip and destruction. All of them were jealous of Mya. Fear of something greater than them had become their driving force.

Hell, maybe Gavin was even a little jealous of what Mya could really be capable of. If she was as powerful as he assumed.

“Twenty four years ago, the Seelies and Unseelies factions erupted in war,” Janice spoke out louder to hush the voices, “No longer could the Elders let the two races commingle in any fashion. I know many of you remember this time and wondered what happened to cause such an issue. The day Mya Johnson was born is the day she sealed that fate for all of us.”

Fear, anger, confusion shot through Gavin and he ground his jaw. He remembered the forced division all too well. He’d been only ten years old. His best friend was an Unseelie. They’d known each other since they were babies, raised side by side, like brothers. When the decree had been made, it tore him apart, but like the good Seelie he was, he stuck by the rules.

His Unseelie brother had not however, constantly breaking the rules to sneak over and visit—or to catch Gavin at the park and try to play. Gavin was beaten by his father for every single indiscretion. He had to make a choice, obey the Seelie law and cut his friend out of his life for good, or deal with the consequences of severe punishment.

Janice lifted her arms, a large picture in her hand. “Now, the Unseelies have basically declared war with us. We have a photo taken last night of an Unseelie Elder leaving Mya’s house, before it burned to the ground.” She lowered the picture to the table and picked up a remote control. The lights dimmed in the court and an overhead projector clicked on. “We also have video footage of the same Unseelie Elder coming into our court this very day and taking Mya with him before her trial. We have every reason to believe she is working with them and is tied to the Seelie deaths, most namely Brad Davis’s untimely passing.”

Voices rose in the room.

Gavin watched the video in a fascinating horror as Cole slipped out a back door of the courts with Mya following him.
Son of a bitch
. His eyesight turned red. Seeing her hand in Cole’s, made Gavin rage, wanting to kill anything in the room with a fucking heartbeat. He knew the asshole had something to do with Mya. Blood boiled in his veins and his heart thundered in his chest as he remembered the Unseelie scent in Mya’s house. Now, there was only one thing left to do—find Mya first and kill the prick once and for all. Nobody would take Mya from Gavin and live to see another day—particularly Cole.

The gavel echoed through the room, quieting the outbursts of the Seelies throughout the nave. “Mya Johnson is our enemy and by order of the Seelie court she is sentenced to death. The Elders are placing a five hundred thousand dollar bounty on her head. Seek and destroy with any means necessary, be it by magick or human weapons.” Janice narrowed her eyes on the crowd. “But if you do kill her—you must bring her head in to collect the reward.”

Fuck. Half a million dollars?
That’s a lot of money to put up for one girl who really was harmless. Gavin knew Mya didn’t commit any murders, he knew without a shadow of a doubt she hadn’t started the fire in her house. Mya was innocent in all of this, but he would save her.

Janice banged the damned gavel on the table again. “War has been declared between the Seelies and Unseelies.”

~* * * *~

Cole settled in at his desk in the office. It was late and nobody else seemed to be around, but he needed to stay occupied to keep his thoughts from Mya, so he tried working on her case. In addition to finding a link to the arsonist on her house, he needed to figure out who in the Seelie court was killing their own members while pinning it on the Unseelies.

No doubt, the Seelie court knew Cole took her by now and it was only the beginning of his problems—the biggest being the way his body and mind as well as his cock responded to Mya.

Then…the cherry on top of his fucked up sundae? Mya tried to fucking choke him. Cole rubbed his throat. One day, she would trust him—and hopefully not too late. He needed to find a way to get her to break. With her tremendous magick, she was the only one who could restore power back to the Aos sí.

Tom, the other investigator, came strolling through the door. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Cole kicked back in his chair and rested his feet on his desk. “Me either, but I got your text about the lab report coming back on the fire this morning. I wanted to see the results for myself.”

Tom handed him a manila folder. “The chemical sprayed in between the walls was a mixture of an oxidizer and fuel—a combustion modified foam—used as a decelerator like in pyrotechnics.”

Cole snapped his feet off the desk and sat up. “What? To keep the fire from spreading faster?”

“Yep. That’s why the house went down in one swift heap after the insides incinerated.”

“Makes no sense. If you’re going to set a house on fire, why burn it slowly?” Cole rubbed at the stubble on his chin.

“I don’t know, a form of torture—to suffocate the victim in smoke, but the strange results are from the piece of wall we took as evidence.”

“Did something come back in the paint?”

Tom nodded. “Yeah. It’s saturated with a salt water mixture.”

Salt water? This intrigued Cole. Per the Texas fire code, teachers were required to spray their walls with the mixture when they hung up artwork or papers to decelerate everything from going up in flames should a fire happen. “The whole house had to be coated in it from the inside.”

“Which means, someone had to have an ample amount of time to get in there to get the job done.”

Cole wrapped his knuckles on his desk. “And they’d have to have an exorbitant amount of saltwater to coat the walls.”

“The mixture is sold at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. We can run a check and see if someone bought the supplies in large amounts,” Tom offered.

“No. Whoever did this is cunning. They could’ve learned how to mix it on their own through internet tutorials. How accessible are the chemicals that were used in the combustive modified foam? Can we run a trace to see who manufactures them and get a list of buyers?” One name in particular Cole would be looking for, one belonging to the Seelie court.

Tom pulled out a sheet of paper and showed it to him. “Two of the ingredients on the foam require Q security clearance, but I should be able to send out search warrants tonight for their records. We need to run a thorough background check on Mya Johnson, see if there might be someone after her.”

No need to dig further into her history. Cole knew everything about her. The interesting fact lie with the Q security clearance. As a TSA employee, Gavin would be required to be cleared. “I think our best bet is starting with the chemicals and who is on those lists.” His cell rang and he pulled it out of his jeans, looking at the caller ID—Liam.
Damn, his timing seemed impeccable.
“Give me a second.” Cole hit send while slipping out of the room. “What’s up?”

“Did you kidnap Mya from the Seelie Court?” Liam’s tone seethed with anger.

“I have her in possession, yes.”

“When I spoke to you this morning, you said she was yours.”

Cole rubbed the back of his neck. “She—is.”

“Then how in the hell am I hearing reports of you breaking into the Seelie Court this afternoon and running off with Mya who was on trial at the time? What happened?” Liam asked.

He wasn’t quite sure himself. In all honesty, he should’ve taken Mya this morning rather than let her drive off with Gavin. But, Cole had played it cool in front of the asshole Seelie who came to Mya’s rescue—so much for being discreet. He should’ve thrown her over his shoulder caveman style and hauled her off, then beat the shit out of Gavin. “Look. I have the girl. That’s all you need to know.”

“The Seelies have declared an official war with us. They are offering a five hundred thousand dollar bounty for Mya—dead or alive.”

Shiiit.
“Nobody will be able to find her, even if they know I took her. I’ve covered my ass. Now, let me deal with her and do my fucking job and you do yours.” Cole’s anger rose and by damn, if he would get in a pissing contest with Liam. “Do not call me again.” He hung up and stuffed his phone in his pocket.

A war
. With how he handled the situation, he’d started a war. Had his cock not gotten in the way, Cole would’ve taken Mya the night before, right from her damned house—but no, he let her sleep and planned to come back the next day.

Sensible thoughts fled from him in Mya’s presence, but he refused to let another Elder train her. Nobody, only Cole would have the pleasure of touching her. He’d been picked for Mya’s first phase of training and by damn, if he let the Elders take her from him. Now, with such a large bounty on her head, she carried a target on her back from the Seelies.

Maybe he could atone for his mistakes and post a reward for each Seelie who didn’t harm Mya. No the Seelies would see it as a ploy and they wouldn’t truly accept her then.

The separation between the two factions was still too fresh, still too raw on those who remembered the consequences of the two races mixed together as one. Trying to think both sides could live in harmony, above humans, had been a joke to them. Their superficiality claimed the Seelies long ago.

Cole subconsciously rubbed the scar on his chin and once he caught his motions, the flawed abrasion comforted him. He’d let his guard down once and it bit him in the ass. If he kept this game up with Mya, she would turn on him too, literally choking the life out of him when he turned his back for a split second.

Just like when his best friend sliced into Cole, trying to cut off his head with a short sword tipped with acid. Instead, he missed Cole’s neck and sliced into his jaw—a forever, bitter reminder how love can easily turn to hate in the blink of a fucking eye.

With as much as he craved Mya, and as much as he wanted to own Mya, Cole saw the truth. He needed to cut his feelings loose, secretly lock away any moment they shared as faded memories. Absently, he rubbed the ache forming in his chest.

No longer would he give into his dark hunger for her. She already tried to choke him and he couldn’t afford the consequences of being stabbed in the back—ever again.

CHAPTER SEVEN

M
ya’s shoulders ached as she dozed off and on, through the torturous time of her hanging in chains. Her magick dried up, trying to get out of the chains. Trying to move inanimate objects to free herself sucked all her energy out. She didn’t know which situation she preferred more—be at the mercy of Cole and strung up in a cabin, probably in the middle of nowhere, or be at the mercy of the Seelie Court about to lose her head. The lesser of two evils?
Cole.

She lost the feeling in her hands a while back—not really knowing how much time passed since she’d been strung up in the middle of the living room. Pain radiated down her stretched arms through her back. Tiredness and hunger pushed her boundaries to the limit. The quiet and stillness in the room maddened her even further. Plus, she had to pee so badly her bladder might explode.

Cole still hadn’t returned since he stormed out of the cabin after their little interlude, but she had no other choice but to fight back. Right? Did he really plan to beat her into surrender? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, it wasn’t an option for her, even if she got to experience pleasure by him again—no matter how much she truly wanted him—she would not be beat.