Page 8 of What did you do?

“You’re thinking about him,” Eli remarked.

I flinched, immediately wishing I hadn’t said anything out loud.

I shook my head, unsure of what to do other than continue hoping that the memory of Mendax would stop haunting me for five fucking minutes. I ought to be thinking about how I wasfinallygoing to be with my family. It had been years since I had actually seen Eli; I should have been enjoying this.

I smiled, pushing aside everything else and suddenly feeling a swell of elation in my chest. I had gotten good at that. Ignoring things I shouldn’t.

“We should head out tomorrow morning, as soon as the sun is out,” Aurelius said.

I nodded. I was anxious to get to Seelie and feeling a little awkward with Eli in my space. There were still parts of my personality I hid from him, and he wasn’t the same teenage boy I used to play in the stream with. His charming, handsome, comfortable presence was definitely not helping to sort out my whirlwind of emotions.

“I can’t wait to see Saracen,” I said, a little giddy at the thought of seeing the small blonde woman. “I’m going to hug her so tight when I get there. Will I be empowered as an official Seelie tomorrow?”

He moved to lean against the wall, crossing his large arms in front of him. He was muscular and trim, but nothing like Mendax. Malum Mendax’s body had been built for war, muscles coiled and waiting for an attack, wanting it. Eli reminded me of an athlete, still large and muscular, even powerful…but missing something.

“Cal…”

My eyes snapped up. “Aurelius,” I said as I waited for whatever was coming. We hadn’t spent much time together as adults, but I recognized the tone immediately. His face had somehow roughened over the last three seconds. A muscle jumped in his sharp jaw, and he suddenly looked unrecognizable to me. The normal golden-retriever best friend was replaced by a fierce defender I had never met as he stared out my bedroom window, completely frozen.

I rubbed my arm in an effort to soothe the hairs standing on end while I stepped out of the closet to see what it was that had caused the change in him.

A single pale-green luna moth fluttered calmly on the screen of my bedroom’s open window.

For half a second, blinding hope swallowed me whole, before it disintegrated into the dust-speckled air.

“It has to be the bond,” Eli said, still staring out the window. “The smoke, the moths…they must still be following his magic, not realizing he’s dead. They will stop soon.”

Our eyes locked together.

“What if…what if…” I began, feeling my pulse pick up.

“It’s not him, Caly. You’re safe. And it’s not another Unseelie. They were forbidden access to the human realm after King Thanes—” He paused, shaking his head, suddenly looking a little angry. “The Unseelie were allowed access long, long ago and still find it occasionally, I suppose. Those powerful enough to get through the veil sometimes find a way, but it’s rare. The Smoke Slayers have broken through before, but because of you, there is only one remaining who won’t risk leaving the throne.”

My stomach tightened.

“King Thanes?” I asked cautiously.

Getting information out of Eli and Saracen had always been a bit tricky. As much as they trusted me, they were still hesitant to tell my kind anything. There was only so much they would ever share until I was in Seelie, as one of their own.

Eli’s eyes flickered at the mention of the old Unseelie king, Mendax’s father. We both stared, waiting to see what the other would say. The air felt suddenly heavy.

“No, King Thanes wasn’t a Smoke Slayer. He was an Impeller, and they wouldneverlet him cross. He’s the reason they are banned from entry,” he said with a familiar look. A look I had seen frequently as the queen’s personal assassin—one that I only got when they were trying to hide something.

I looked at the red nail polish peeking up through my white socks. I couldn’t look him in the eye.

Mendax had been a Smoke Slayer, like his mother. Only unlike the Smoke Slayers, he had also been blessed with theability to impel your mind, like his father. It never quite occurred to me how dangerous that combination really was until this moment.

Eli was still talking, so I shook away the ever-present thoughts of Mendax.

“I still don’t understand why I couldn’t just sneak into Seelie. You could have told me where it was. I’m the fae killer of the human realm. Did I really need an escort?” I grumbled.

“You wouldn’t have gotten past the sentries, even if you had managed to find the Seelie portal on your own. They would have killed you on entry. The royal guards are nothing to mess with.”

He was right. This was not the time for me to be angry about being kept from Seelie—foggy smoke rose around me, confirming that thought. These powers were weird. I was suddenly grateful for my own abilities.

“What are you going to do with all of this stuff?” he said, waving to the plethora of things I was unable to take with me.

My fingers reached out to touch a framed luna moth painting. Eli watched as I lifted it off the wall and smashed it to the ground with a crackling shatter. My hands grabbed for more.

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