Atone: A Fairytale (Fairytale Trilogy) (24 page)

~

Becca opened the door to the bottom part of the house and made her way down the stairs. The room at the bottom was shrouded in shadows even though it was midday. She didn’t bother to turn on a light.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” The tears, which Becca had thought were all cried out, began slipping down her cheeks again.

He was by her side in a moment. “Don’t cry.”

“Sorry, I just—” she broke off for a moment, wiping at her tears with the sleeve of her hoodie.

“You don’t have to be sorry. It kills me to see you cry, and for me of all people.” He gave a rueful shrug. “Or I guess I shouldn’t refer to myself as a person.”

“Stop it.” But she managed to smile at him. She knew he was trying to get a rise out of her.

“Are Alexandra and Lilia still here?”

“Yeah,” Becca sat down on the recliner. She suddenly felt too tired to stand up. The roiling in her stomach had gotten a little better while she was with her friends; just the presence of their magic seemed to give her strength. “We were able to talk to Lilia’s aunts. Well, I guess in a way they’re kind of my aunts too, but with like a hundred greats in front. Did I tell you that Alex and I are descended from Lilia’s sisters?” Nicholas shook his head. “That’s why we have magic; the fae blood is strong in us or something.”

“So you three are more than friends, you’re family.”

“Yeah. I guess we kind of think of each other like sisters. I’m closer to them than my own sister. We can combine our magic, like braid it together. I guess Lilia’s mom and aunts were able to do that too. Not that it’s doing me any good right now.” Becca closed her eyes against the bitterness in her own voice.

“What did they say?”

“We can’t close the portal. It’s all my fault. I should never have tried to change the spell on my own. I’ve altered it enough that it can’t be closed with the stone.”

He was quiet, and she finally opened her eyes to look at him. She couldn’t tell from his face what he was thinking. She’d become pretty adept at reading his expressions, but now he looked more like the animal she remembered from her first meeting with him. Foreign. Different. Unknowable.

“Does that mean that the fera can still come through the portal?” It was the same flat, emotionless tone she’d heard from him the day before in the media room. She raised an eyebrow because it hadn’t been the question she’d expected from him.

“The portal is still open from both sides.”

He seemed to withdraw into himself even more. His back was straight, his tail curled around him as he sat on his haunches. He looked like a statue.

“Nicholas?” she hated how small her voice sounded.

“You need to leave.” He wasn’t looking at her, his eyes focused on something above her head.

“What?!”

“As soon as is convenient for you.”

Becca winced at the casual dismissal in his voice. He sounded…well, he sounded just like he used to.

“Actually, it’s not convenient for me to leave at all,” she snapped.

“I—” he broke off for a second, still staring intently at the wall behind her head. “I don’t want you here.”

Hurt bloomed inside her chest. Hurt and something she couldn’t identify. She fought against the reaction. Her magic seethed—a heavy, bright gold, threatening to spill out of control.
God, I’m going to be sick.
“Don’t lie to me, Nicholas.”

“I’m not lying. I don’t want you here.” His voice was stronger this time, more firm.

Becca was glad she was sitting down. Between the magic inside her feeling like it was about to split her chest apart and the rebellion of her stomach, she was sure she wouldn’t have been able to stand. She had no idea what was going on with her body. Thankfully, she did know how to tell when Nicholas wasn’t telling the whole truth. Even in a different body, changed as he was, she could read his voice like a book. “Why?”

“I won’t have you hurt because of me.”

“I think we’ve established I can handle the danger.”

“We’ve established that you can handle two fera and then become so sick you can’t even stand up. What if they send more than two?” he responded angrily.

Becca shrugged. She was sure the relief that she felt at hearing that Nicholas wanted her to leave because he was concerned about her safety must be plainly written on her face. But she wasn’t about to lose this argument by getting all gushy on him. “If there’s more than two I’ll find a way to deal with it.”

“No.”

“I’m sorry, did you just tell me no? That is not the way to win an argument with me.”

Nicholas let out a frustrated growl. “This isn’t about winning—there’s no argument—I’m not letting you put yourself in between me and danger again.”

“I really don’t see how you’re going to stop me.”

“Stop.” Anger whipped through his voice, and Becca felt it almost like a physical slap. “Stop being so blasé about the whole thing. I won’t let you put yourself in between me and them again, do you understand? I will surrender and let them kill me if you even try.”

Becca sat up away from the back of the chair; the movement caused her a moment of dizziness, but she was so angry she didn’t waste any time on it. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Why not? I swear to you I will.” He was shouting now. “If you refuse to leave…you know what? I’ll save them the trouble, I’ll go through the mirror myself and let them have me.”

Becca flew up from the chair in a rage. Her stomach seemed to drop to her feet, but she ignored the sensation as she launched herself at Nicholas, beating her fists against his chest. He didn’t even flinch. “Are you insane? Do you want to die?” she screamed.

“No. But I can’t…I can’t lose you.” The tremor in his voice broke her heart. Her hands stilled. She opened her hands and pressed them to his wide, hairy chest, letting the heat seep through her, feeling his heart beat through her palms. He remained motionless as if carved in marble, but she could feel his ragged breath. Even sitting like this he was taller than she; the top of her head nearly touched his jaw. She reached up and put a hand on either side of his face.

“If you were to be hurt or…worse, it would break me. I wouldn’t be able to survive it.” She pulled gently until he tilted his head down and he looked at her. The pain and fear—she knew it was fear for her—in his deep blue eyes took her breath away. “Do you understand?”

“I need to keep you safe. I can’t watch you be actually broken. When I think of what they could do to you…”

“Stop,” she whispered, leaning her head forward and resting it against his forehead. “I’ll figure out a way to break the curse, and in the meantime—” she broke off, lifting her head and staring at him. “I’ll be back.”

“Becca, wait! What are you planning to do?”

She jogged toward the staircase. “I’m going to see if I can buy us some time.”

~ Chapter Seventeen ~

“
I
NEED TO
go back through the mirror.”

Alex and Lilia both looked up in shock at Becca’s announcement. They were in her room—Lilia on the floor with a sketch book and Alex sprawled out on the bed phone in hand, probably texting Luke. Becca felt a brief stab of guilt for keeping her friend from the boyfriend she didn’t get to see all that often.

“Bryony said that they’d advocate for us,” Alex pointed out, guessing at Becca’s intent.

“For
us
. She didn’t say anything about Nicholas.”

Alex looked at her sympathetically. “I know that’s what she meant.”

“But what if it’s not enough. They could still come through the mirror and try to kill him. Maybe we can convince them somehow that he wouldn’t be a threat, that if they leave us alone long enough I could maybe figure out if there’s anything I can do to…fix this whole thing.”

“Convince them how? Are you saying we should go through the portal and demand to talk to whoever is in charge?” Lilia asked.

“Yeah, I guess that’s what I’m saying. I mean, I could go through and talk to Talon again. He seemed pretty reasonable.”

Lilia snorted. “Except for the part where he sent two fera into Los Angeles to kill Nicholas.”

“I don’t think he sent them; he didn’t seem like he would. He did say that some of the other fera were impatient, which is basically what Bryony said.”

“Then how do we know talking to him will even accomplish anything?” Lilia asked. “If he is guarding the portal, he did not do a very good job guarding it from that side.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Becca admitted. The thought of sitting and waiting for more fera to come through the portal and take Nicholas away from her made desperate fingers of panic claw at her throat. “But if we can convince him, maybe he could keep more fera from coming through, or convince whoever is in charge…”

“Becca, I know you’re worried, but I don’t know that getting involved with whatever brand of fae politics is going on behind the scenes is the best choice. What if it causes more problems, turns more fae against us?”

Becca knew that Alex had a reasonable point, but she was beyond being reasonable. “I’m going through to talk to Talon.”

“We can take turns watching the portal—” Alex tried again.

“For how long? I’ve no idea how long it will take me to learn how to break the spell, or if I ever will? Are we going to watch the mirror for the rest of our lives?”

She saw the indecision on Alex’s face and then it cleared. “You didn’t try to stop me,” Alex said softly. “When I kissed Luke.”

“Yes, I did. And I thought you were crazy.” Becca admittedly ruefully.

“Well, I was. But once I’d made the decision, you let me do it. You supported me. If you go through, I’ll go with you. The sisters are right, we shouldn’t let anything break our bond.”

“For what it is worth, I think you’re both insane. We have no idea what kind of reception we’ll get. The two fera Nicholas tossed back through the mirror might very well be waiting for us on the other side.” Lilia pulled a strand of her long blonde hair through her fingers, fiddling with it in an unusual display of nerves. “And while Alex is much more powerful in the Fae Realm, I have no idea if I am. What if we cannot defend ourselves?”

“I understand if you can’t go with us,” Becca assured her.

Lilia sighed and dropped the piece of hair she was twisting. “I’m going with you. I’m just trying to make sure we’re all prepared for the worst.”

“Thank you,” Becca said softly. “I really don’t deserve friends like you guys.”

Lilia arched an eyebrow. “Well, that is just untrue.”

They filed into the room and stood facing the mirror. Their reflections, surrounded by the hazy auras of their power, stared back at them. Becca tried to ignore how much her aura reminded her of the mirror’s power. She reached over and grabbed Lilia’s hand. “I can go first.”

“Don’t let go of her hand,” Alex said, grabbing Lilia’s other hand so that they formed a chain. Becca took a deep breath and half-jumped, half-fell through the mirror. The surface of the mirror gave way. There was the cold, pulling feeling that she had experienced before. Then she was out in the small field in the bright sunshine, only this time she could still feel the air conditioning from Nicholas’s house against her left arm and Lilia’s fingers twined around hers. She stepped away from the Fae Realm image of the mirror, gently tugging on Lilia’s hand, and a moment later her friend stepped through, followed by Alex.

“Wow,” Lilia breathed.

Alex grinned at her. “It’s a trip, right? All that power just sitting here.”

Lilia nodded, still awestruck. “You’re both in dresses!”

Becca grinned. “So are you, but that’s less unusual.”

Alex looked around. “I don’t see the fera that Becca beat up; that’s good at least.”

“There does not seem to be anyone here at all,” Lilia added.

Becca smiled grimly. Oh, he was here. She could feel his magic even more strongly than she had before. “Talon!” she called out to the trees that edged the clearing. “I need to talk to you.”

He stepped out from one of the caves, moving so silently and quickly that he was halfway into the clearing before she’d finished her sentence.

“Holy crap,” Alex muttered. “I’m surprised there weren’t more demi-fae babies running around Arraine.”

Talon didn’t respond, but his slight smirk was proof that he’d heard her.

“Why are you here?” he asked as he got within a few feet of them.

“I want to ask that you not send any more fera through the portal. I’ll figure out how to close it. I just need time.” Becca infused more confidence into her voice than she actually felt.

Talon crossed his bare arms and regarded her with a bemused expression. “I did not send any fera through the portal.”

“You didn’t stop them either.”

“It is not my job to protect you or the human who has fallen prey to the protection spell.”

“And your job is to just watch while fera enter the human world to create havoc?” Lilia’s voice was ice cold. Becca flicked a glance over to her friend. She was standing with her arms crossed as well, mirroring Talon’s pose. She looked ethereally beautiful and powerful; the Fae Realm obviously suited her. She also looked annoyed as hell.