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“A member of the court of the fairy king. ”
I knew enough about the high fae to know this was no laughing matter. If werewolf royalty was archaic and a pain in the ass, fae royalty was on a whole other planet of absurdity.
A literal other realm.
“She made a promise to a fae?”
Holden cursed behind me, and Desmond said nothing. It was possible Desmond didn’t understand how bad it was to owe something to a fae. You couldn’t even thank a fairy without them thinking it meant you were in the red with them. Kellen couldn’t have known the implications of her actions.
“She didn’t know,” I told Gia. “There was no way she would promise herself to a fairy if she really understood. ”
“The girl came to our club, and she came often. ” Gia tapped the ledger as if I was supposed to understand the story the Chinese scrawl was telling me. “She made her bed. And now she will lie in it. Perhaps it will not be so bad for her. He does specialize in happiness after all. Maybe you should let her be. ”
“Where is she?” I demanded, rising to my feet and slamming the ledger down on Gia’s desk.
The small woman raised her wrinkled face to me, and the smile was gone. “She is beyond the gate. Your friend has been taken by the fairies, child. You will never see her again. ”
Outside the air had a chill to it, reminding me spring was not always willing to easily yield to summer. I beat both men to the car and was pacing in front of it while I waited for them to show up. Leave it to Kellen to fall into debt with the fae and be spirited away by the fucking fairies.
“What does she mean taken by the fairies?” Desmond asked when he reached me. “Is that a code for something?”
I shook my head. “Remember when I took you to the Oracle?”
He nodded.
“We were beyond the gate then. ”
“Technically,” Holden interrupted as he came to the driver’s door, “you were inside the gate. Calliope’s mansion is the gatehouse. It’s a way to get to and from the realms. Your friend’s sister is on the other side of the Oracle. ”
Desmond didn’t say anything, though Holden had dropped a lot of knowledge with one little speech. “If we want to find her,” the vampire continued, “the Oracle is our only hope. ”
I stiffened. Normally I’d be the first one to say, We’re off to see the Oracle, but right now I was pretty sure Calliope was killing humans. Not a hundred percent sure, but not convinced of her innocence either. I couldn’t exactly waltz into her home and ask for a favor when I was half certain she was a murderer.
She’d know.
But Holden was right. If we were going to find Kellen, and Kellen was with the fairies, Calliope was our one slim shot in hell of getting to her. I cursed loudly and kicked the car tire. “I don’t like this,” I hissed. “How the hell did she get herself in this kind of trouble? Goddammit. ”
Holden frowned at me. “Honestly, love, there’s no need to take it out on the car. ”
Bracing my hands on the roof of the car, I glared at him. “Would you prefer I take it out on you?”
The vampire clucked his tongue at me and started to say something else, but Desmond interrupted. “Maybe, before we let this tension get too far, we should go see the Oracle. Okay?”
I didn’t like it, but what was to like?
If I wanted to bring Kellen home, I needed Calliope’s help.
After a brief stop at home to collect my katana, some spare bullet clips and a few assorted weapons, we made our way to Calliope’s. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the fae world, but I didn’t think I wanted to go in without protection.
Not so long ago the sight of the Starbucks down the block from my house came as a relief to me. It was my safe place, a refuge from the insanity of the world around me. I used to come for advice, for blood, or to see someone I thought was my friend.
But if my friend was a murderer…
I didn’t know how to finish that sentence. For the first time since mentally accusing Calliope of Petey the Pizza Boy’s death, I had to ask myself why it mattered that Calliope might have killed him.
I worked daily with vampires, people who had been alive long before they started to obey the rules of the council. Sig and Juan Carlos had been killers in their human lives. I was kidding myself if I didn’t think Holden had killed anyone. Even Keaty was a killer for a living.
And what about me?
