Page 41 of Brought to Light
Jesse had already been safe. I’d made sure of that when I shoved that flashlight into Evalt’s brain. He’d never have known what happened to me, but would he have cared that much, really? He’d have cared. I knew that. But he’d have moved on, like men in our line of work had to do often enough when colleagues and friends got themselves killed or vanished without a trace. I had more than a few ghosts like that in my past. Guys I’d fought with, guys I would’ve killed or died for—for a while. Until they faded away, and I moved on.
I hadn’t even asked Lady Lisandra about what it’d take to go back. I’d been so fixated on getting home, getting back to normality, that I hadn’t stopped to consider thatI didn’t have to. My whole adult life I’d never seen it, the possibility of another option than focusing on the immediate goal, and then resting up just enough to tackle the next.
What the fuck was normality to me? And why the fuck would I want to rush back to it? Another motel room, another file, another bullet in someone’s head? It had its moments. And it paid a lot better than washing dishes in the back of a diner, the only other job I actually qualified for, but I never bothered to spend the money on anything. Yeah. I could retire right now, at thirty-four. Fucking great. And do what?
My fists clenched as Linden’s face, his smile, popped back into my mind, like it’d been doing all fucking day.
It seemed simple now, lying on a musty-smelling couch in the ass-end of Idaho, of all fucking places. I’d had a choice, but I hadn’t realized it. And now the only choice that mattered to me didn’t exist anymore.
Maybe I should try to pretend ithadall been a drug-induced hallucination. That way I wouldn’t have to look my own stupidity and blindness in the face. Linden’s throat under my hand, and the light in his eyes when I kissed him, and the warmth of his slender body pressed up against me, all trusting and sleepy…all a hallucination.
I slept that night because my body had hit a point where it wouldn’t do anything else, but I woke often, on that tipping point where the worst thoughts in my head bled into even worse dreams.
When the sun came up and filtered its way through the old, mildewy curtains at the front of the cabin, it found me staring at the dusty ceiling, trying to figure out if any of the spiderwebs were less than twenty years old.
Jesse hadn’t stirred. Outside the cabin, some birds chirped. The wind rustled and bumped a tree branch against the eaves of the roof over the kitchen.
Muted male voices rose over it, just for a second.
I had my reloaded Beretta in hand by the time I rolled silently onto the floor another half-second later. Maybe we weren’t as in the clear as Jesse’s contacts had thought. Or maybe some hikers had wandered through, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
“Jesse,” I hissed through the cracked bedroom door. “Company.”
His blankets rustled, and I knew he’d be right behind me and armed. I crab-walked across the room and carefully lined up an eye with the tiny gap in the curtains over the front window.
Two men stood in front of the cabin. One had his back to me, tall and broad enough to double as a brick wall, with long black hair waving down over his leather armor. He’d left the sword at home, and even from behind I could tell from the stiffness in his shoulders that he regretted it.
The other had dark hair, and that was all I could see…but I didn’t need to see any more than that.
My forehead thunked against the windowsill as I slumped there, breathing heavily, my eyes squeezed shut. I’d never thought I’d see Oskar or Kaspar again. A few days before, meeting them in the labyrinth, I’d have assumed I’d never want to.
Jesse’s whisper of my name brought me out of it. I turned my head to find him crouched behind me, his gun at the ready. “Are you all right?”
“Yep,” I said, not bothering to keep my voice down. “And there’s someone outside I need you to meet.”
When I flung the door open, they stood looking up at me from just in front of the porch steps. “The location spell worked,” Oskar said, with a note of surprise—and in English. Apparently they’d taken the time to have Lady Lisandra help them with a spell-cake.
“I told you it would.” Kaspar sounded smug. “Evalt’s magical residue is extremely distinctive.”
Jesse crowded into the doorway next to me, peering over my shoulder. “Whose fuckingwhat?”
Oskar and Kaspar might’ve left their swords and light-staffs in their own realm, but they weren’t blending in, not even a little bit. Oskar’s leather armor, Kaspar’s dress-thing and giant boots…yeah, they looked like they’d escaped from a Renaissance Faire. Or maybe a psych ward.
“I wasn’t drugged,” I said, turning enough to see and savor the look of total confusion on Jesse’s face. “Oskar, Kaspar, this is my partner Jesse. Jesse, Oskar and Kaspar. They’re fairies.”
And then I lost it and leaned against the door frame shaking with laughter, relief welling up so strongly I almost couldn’t take it, while they all stared at me with matching offended looks on their faces.
“I can’t believe you!” Oskar shouted. “Laughing? After the way you left?” He charged at me, only to come up short as Jesse pointed his cocked pistol right at Oskar’s chest. Oskar went red, murder on his face. “You’ll hide behind him? You fucking coward.”
“No, not hiding,” I said. I pushed down on Jesse’s arm. “Gun away. We’re all friends here. Oskar’s probably going to punch me, but I have it coming.”
“We’re both going to punch you,” Kaspar put in. He’d crossed his arms so that he could glare at me more effectively, and the mannerism reminded me so strongly of Linden that my chest clenched.
Linden. “Does he know you’re here?” I didn’t even need to say his name. They’d both know exactly who I meant.
“No,” Oskar growled. “We didn’t want to upset him.”
“Upset him more,” Kaspar added pointedly.
