Return of the Fae (10 page)

“You read, learn, and make mistakes. Just don’t make big mistakes. It’s like life.” Toki grinned. “They’re waiting for you.”

“I’m going.” Parris sat her glass back down on the table. “Hey, you never told me what Rowena did to break up Zander and Ty?”

Toki leaned over and kissed Parris’ cheek. “She tried to kill Ty.”

Chapter 9

The ability to see the future is a rare gift and a sign the witch was blessed at birth with Fae love. Don’t squander the opportunity. Fortunetellers are rarely allowed in The Council’s good graces. Parents who believe their children are prognosticators are required to bring the child immediately to Council headquarters for testing. –The Academy of Witchcraft Manual, Volume 3, page 823.

Parris clicked the remote that turned on the television. Ty was getting Robert settled, probably catching up on old times, man bonding. Or warlock bonding. The sounds of knives chopping produce, combined with a southern drawl describing how to make an ultimate Mexican buffet for cold winter nights, soothed her. After she’d left Toki and met up with the two men, she’d only been able to think about Zander, Ty’s missing fairy. She didn’t understand this world. Why would Ty be denied his companion when someone else attempted to kill him?

The act of forgiveness included situations like parents raising their kids in a bad environment, or for a spouse who said hurtful things. Some things didn’t get forgiven. Things like adultery, or child abuse, and especially trying to murder someone. When bad things happened, holding a grudge was natural, expected even. Zander couldn’t return until Ty performed the impossible task. According to her training manual, this was basic Fairy companion law meant to keep the fae, and their power, in line.

Parris played with the scarab necklace hanging around her neck. Grans gave it to Parris on the day she turned sixteen. Grans said when Parris wore the necklace, bad things wouldn’t happen. Even her teenage self knew safety was a fairy tale. Bad things happened in the world, lucky necklace or not. People got kidnapped, like when The Council snatched her off the street for testing.

She stopped fidgeting with the necklace. The night she’d been kidnapped, the necklace had been at home on her dresser. She hadn’t taken the time to put it back on after her shower. Finding out her grandmother was a witch took some getting used to. Now, Parris figured maybe Grans had thrown a protection spell on the silver scarab. If she hadn’t left the necklace in the condo, would The Council have snatched her?

She shook her head. “If wishes were horses,” she mumbled. She could play the what-if game all night. She stood and walked over to the open window, looking out on the Ohio River. A tug boat pushed a long covered barge. She could see both bridges that took vehicles back and forth to Kentucky.

As the television host started a batch of cherry empanadas, Parris slipped into a chair to watch the river and review all the things in her life that had never made sense until now. Once Parris put the yellow-tinted lens of witchcraft over the camera, a new world came into view. Her grandmother’s strange behavior at times, her love of herbs and cooking, and the large variety of candles, in every color, Grans kept in the house. How had her grandmother hid her true essence so many years without cracking?

Because you wanted her to
. The voice was spot on. Parris knew magic. She’d locked the door on magic when she lost her parents.

She felt him behind her before her brain registered someone else in the room. She spun around, ready to scream, when she saw Ty.

“Dude, you got to stop sneaking up on me. I’m going to deck you one of these days.” Parris leaned back, willing her heart to slow and stop trying to beat out of her chest.

Ty stepped back, hands in the air in mock surrender. “I thought you heard me come in. I didn’t realize you had zoned out.”

Parris bit her lip, taking her sadness out on Ty might be fun for a while, but really, it wasn’t his fault. Besides, he was her best source of information. She held her necklace to the end of the chain, showing Ty the scarab. “Could Grans have put a spell on this necklace to protect me?”

Ty reached for the scarab, stopping short before touching the metal. He tipped his head, listening to a sound Parris couldn’t hear. He frowned. Slipping into the other wing back chair, he steepled his fingers and tapped them on his lips. Finally, he spoke. “There’s a fading spell on the charm. Nothing strong enough to do anything, unless it was only designed to be an early alert system for Matilda. Maybe she wanted to know you were safe.”

“If I’d been wearing it, could The Council have found me the night they took me to the Academy?” Parris needed to know if this had been partially her fault.

“The Council would have found you that night with or without the necklace.” Ty sat up and put his hand on Parris’ leg. “You didn’t do anything to cause the kidnapping. There isn’t any spell strong enough to hide you once The Council learned of your existence. They are powerful, no matter what you hear, and hold more cards than you realize. Don’t question your actions.”

Relief filled Parris and she sank farther into a slump in her chair. She didn’t mind taking blame for the things she’d done, but hell if she would take the blame for things outside her control. Re-writing history, making things her fault wasn’t going to happen. At least not this time. “Thanks. I guess with everything changing, I don’t know what’s real anymore.”

Ty cradled her face in the palm of his hand. “Stop. You can do this. You can’t question your actions every time something happens that’s not on your to-do list.”

She wanted to believe him. Wanted to make everything normal again. Or at least as normal as life could be after being named a witch. She leaned into his hand, closing her eyes for a second. Finally, she shook herself, opened her eyes and answered him. “Okay, pity party over, I’m fine.” She walked to the mini fridge and grabbed a couple longnecks. “Want one?”

“You read my mind. Getting Robert settled took longer than I’d expected. The hotel’s pretty booked, but I finally got him in a room on this floor. Then he wanted to buy some clothes. I offered to take him to his apartment, but I guess he put everything into storage when he went into hiding.” Ty leaned back in the chair, taking a long swig of the beer. “He’s been on the street for months now. Can you believe it? I don’t think I would have lasted a week.”

“Somehow, I doubt that.” Parris threw him a bag of pretzels she’d gotten out of the vending machine. “I didn’t order dinner, didn’t know what you’d planned. Are we meeting up with Robert to start training?”

“No, we’re staying in. Robert’s already set up with food watching an old war movie on the television. He said he had some things to think about before he talked to you. He called Derek and gave him a research assignment. Something about Prudence, I guess.” Ty shook his head, “I never liked the chick, however, this seems extreme, even for The Council.”

Parris picked at the bottle’s label. “You going to help her with her petition?”

“Yes.” Ty leaned forward. “She did what I asked and helped me. I’ll keep my word. Just not yet.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Seriously? You’re going to make her wait?”

“We have bigger problems, or have you forgotten about the guy Toki says is trying to kill you?”

“Why don’t you have Zander anymore?” Her question blurted out of her like a gun shot. She saw surprise fill his face. He took another drink of beer, pondering the question.

“Toki must have told you.” He pulled open the pretzel bag and grabbed a few before offering her one.

“I’d rather hear it from you.” Parris waved away the pretzel until her stomach growled. “Fine, give me one.”

“Let’s order dinner, then we both can tell our stories. You first.” Ty walked over to the desk where the menu sat and opened the folder.

“Me first what?” Parris joined him at the desk, barely glancing at the menu she’d studied all afternoon. “Shrimp and grits. Add a salad with blue cheese on the side.”

Ty dialed the phone and ordered her dinner along with a sirloin steak, baked potato, and another salad. He added two slices of cheesecake, one plain New York style, one chocolate mousse. After he added a pot of coffee to the order, he returned to his chair, carrying two more longnecks.

“Tell me about the vision in the church.” He held out an opened bottle.

“How do you know I had a vision?” Parris finished off her bottle before she took the one offered.

“You usually scream when the organ starts up? You must be fun at a carnival.” Ty leaned back. “Look, I’m tired. The old man talks in enough riddles, can you be honest with me and tell me what you saw?”

Parris nodded, pausing for a second to review the vision. She thought he would ask again, but he waited her out. “Okay, this is what I saw–when the music came up, all of a sudden, I didn’t see the people in front of me. I mean, the backs of the heads of the people in front of me. Everyone turned, facing me. Their eyes, their stares, were cold, dead, and mean. One man came closer. He reached a hand toward me and I screamed. The vision broke.”

Ty frowned. “Did you recognize anyone?”

“I hate to say this, but the man looked like an older version of my dad. Gray hair and all. I saw so much hatred in this man’s eyes. I’ve never met the man, if he’s even real, but I know one thing. He hates me for every breath I take.” Parris pursed her lips, then asked, “Do you think it could have been my grandfather? My dad’s family?”

“I think it’s a strong possibility. Have you ever had a vision before?”

“Not like this. I mean, I’ll know things before they happen. Like if a baby is a boy or a girl. I’ll see the mom holding the baby and it’s wrapped in a pink or blue blanket. Common things like that. Nothing like this. Ever.”

He grinned at her.

“What?” He made her cross sometimes. Okay, a lot of times.

“Seeing the future isn’t common, for any witch. It’s a rare gift. Some of us can see in the past, or see someone’s present, like I did with Robert today. You’re seeing the future. Your gift got a lot of the witches burned in Salem. The ones left who could predict the future stopped talking about it once the burnings began.” Ty took a long sip of beer. “A prognosticator. Wow, I wouldn’t have ever guessed.”

“Great, another reason for The Council to treat me like a lab rat. That doctor already wants to cut my head open to see how my brain works. I don’t think she cares if I’m dead or alive when she does it.” Parris nodded to the door. “Dinner’s here.”

Ty sat up, eager. “Did you have another vision?”

“No, I heard the elevator and the cart squeaks.” Parris sighed. “See, you’re even making this a big deal.”

“Parris, this is a big deal. A really big deal.”

A knock sounded at the door. She stood and Ty waved her down, like she did training Dragon. In a couple months, she’d become a witch, a prognosticator, and apparently a helpless female, according to Ty and Robert. Maybe even Derek.

You’re being overdramatic.
She sighed, hating her rational voice. Especially when the voice spoke the truth. She waited as the waiter brought in the table, set it up in front of her, and set up the dessert on the desk with the coffee. They could have been in a fine dining restaurant instead of a hotel room. If candle light had graced the small table, the dinner would have been perfectly romantic, except now she’d racked up one more special skill to worry about.

Ty signed the room service bill and waited for the waiter to leave before he spoke again. “If you saw this guy again, would you recognize him?”

Parris pulled the metal cover off a plate, the spicy aroma making her stomach growl. Ty’s steak looked barely seared. She laughed, “Do you ever eat anything except red meat?”

“Sometimes,” he smiled. “Just not tonight.”

Parris blushed, hearing the subtext in the comment. The man knew how to get to her. Even when he frustrated her at every turn.

“You didn’t answer my question.” Ty cut a bite of steak, mixing it with a pile of sautéed mushrooms.

“Give a girl time to think, would ya?” Parris knew she’d recognize him. His face would be frozen in her memory for years, maybe decades. She didn’t know if she wanted Ty to know the depth of her fear, then and now. Sighing, she gave in, knowing he’d keep pushing. “Yes. I’d recognize the man ten feet away, walking with his back to me, in hurricane force rain.”

Ty smiled. “Good, because you may need that recognition someday to keep yourself or me or Derek safe. Trust your visions. They’re there to help, not scare you.”

“Could have fooled me,” Parris groused. She took a bite of her grits, the smell making her mouth water. She could argue with Ty or she could set here and enjoy her dinner. She voted for the latter. The creamy cheese grits filled her mouth, the flavor layering with the shrimp and sausage generously sprinkled over the top of the bowl. Parris could have been convinced she’d died and gone to heaven based on the food the hotel served alone. She could stay at the hotel the rest of her life.