My mate.
“No!” I shriek, running back into the pond, gathering up Pisces in my arms. I smooth his hair back from his face, tears raining down on his face from my eyes. I find Evan in the semicircle of bodies that has come to stand there around the fountain. “Fix him!” I yell at Evan. “Heal him! Why are you just standing there?”
Evan’s face is as tear-streaked as mine. He wades into the fountain, coming to a stop next to Pisces’ other side. “I’m so sorry,” he says, to me or to Pisces, I don’t know.
“Heal him,” I whimper. “Please, this can’t… This can’t happen.”
Evan puts a hand to Pisces’ cheek, gently caressing it once. He looks into my eyes. “I can’t bring back the dead.” He almost chokes on the last word.
I’m vaguely aware of Pinkie and Stormy cuffing Jordan. I pick Amelia out among the crowd of our friends. She’s staringat us in the fountain, tears welling up in her eyes, Reese turned around in her arms, hiding her sobs.
Something moves in the water beside me, and before I can register it, Pisces hurls himself upwards, coughing up water and cracking his neck back into place.
“Pisces?” I yelp, grabbing at his shirt and helping him to sit up. “Pisces?!”
He finishes hurling up water and looks wide-eyed at everyone. “What happened? Did I black out?”
I fling myself at him, pushing him back into the water and sobbing into his chest. He just holds me as Evan fills him in. “We thought you died.” Evan turns to Benny. “If we broke your neck, would you die?”
Benny exhales in relief. “No, but let’s not test that theory. Made fae are generally not that fragile, but we’re all different, so I didn’t know… He wasn’t moving…” Benny thought Pisces had died like the rest of us.
“I’m fine,” Pisces murmurs into my hair. “My neck’s a little sore, but I’m fine.”
My sobs subside as the ache in my chest evaporates. My mate. He’s alive and fine.
Taser and Evan help us out of the fountain and over to where Grim and Simon are standing by Jordan.
“So now we have you on three counts of murder, and one attempted. You’re really going for worst fae of the year, aren’t you?” Grim asks.
Simon, however, is just looking at Jordan, expressionless. He cocks his head this way and that and takes a step back. “Simon, it’s okay, we got him,” Shaun says, reaching out a hand to pull Simon away from the psychotic vamp.
But before he can, Simon’s hand wraps around a sword that appears out of nowhere, and in one smooth motion he slides it into Jordan’s heart.
Chaos erupts for a second time. Grim scrambles to get Jordan away from Simon, but Jordan is dead, definitely dead, a pool of blood growing beneath his lifeless body. Taser puts himself between Pisces and me, and Simon. Evan and Benny do the same for Amelia and Reese. Stormy and Bell stand at the ready, watching Simon warily.
“Oh come now,” Simon says, turning in a circle to address us all. “The world will not mourn him.”
“Simon?” Shaun asks. “You sound…”Different.
Simon turns to face our direction and I gasp. His eyes flash red and fade back to Simon’s usual brown. He smiles at me the same way the song wraith did in the alley.
“My dear Bliss, I’m glad you’ve found your mate again.” He dips his head to acknowledge Pisces.
“I don’t understand,” Pisces says. “What’s happened to Simon?”
The wraith waves a hand at his body—at Simon’s body. “He is here. I am just borrowing his vessel for a moment.”
“Why?” Grim asks.
“Fae sometimes don’t pay much attention to humans. You like them well enough, but you rarely keep much attention on them, powerless as they are. Using Simon allowed me access and the ability to get close enough to pull your strings, but also to do what you would not.” He points to Jordan’s body. “Carrying out justice, for example.”
“That’s not justice,” Grim counters. His hands are curled into fists. “What do you want?”
“I have what I want.” The Simon wraith looks at Pisces and I, and back to Grim. Us? He wants us? I don’t understand. Pisces moves to shield me and I have to scoot over to peek around him at the scene unfolding. “Do not worry, I mean none of you any harm.”
“Tell that to Simon,” Shaun growls, pacing back and forth. I wonder if he’s going to shift.
“Careful, wolf. If you attack me, you hurt Simon.”
