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“‘So long… Thanks for kidnapping me. ’”
“You underestimate so many things, my dear. But you’ll learn a thing or two about human attachment yet in your life. ”
“I think I know more about human attachment than you ever will. ”
“We’ll see,” he said, and I didn’t like the implication of his words one bit.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Fairies must love consumerism, because the gate we exited took us through the front door of a Bath & Body Works south of Harlem.
I did a quick headcount and was relieved to see I had one vampire, one werewolf—still in wolf form—and one human heiress. Add one exhausted half-vampire/half-werewolf Tribunal head and we could do our own fucked-up version of the YMCA.
Once I’d accounted for everyone and breathed an internal sigh of relief, I took stock of myself. Gun? Check. All essential body parts? Check. Pulse? Well, I was able to stand around and think and breathe, so chances were good my pulse was a big old check. Magic fairy sword? Huh. Check.
“Is anyone missing anything?” I asked, looking over the group to see if there were any obvious omissions—legs, arms, heads. Aside from Kellen sobbing like a preteen passed over for a dance at the sock hop, everything seemed right.
“Anything being…?” Holden replied.
“I don’t know. I…don’t know what’s happened. ”
The night was cool, still clinging to the chilly dregs of spring. I felt the cold with a shocking clarity, and not how I normally would—acknowledging the temperature but not feeling it. But the moment I stopped worrying about the members of my party, or the digits on my body, I was acutely aware of how uncomfortable I was.
“It’s cold,” I said absently. “Isn’t it? It’s cold. ”
“Secret?”
Something felt wrong. I could smell the garbage piled on the street, but I couldn’t smell the woodsy moss of Desmond’s fur or the scent of Holden’s skin. I could hear the thrum of traffic a block away, but I couldn’t hear the snatches of conversation from buildings around us or the throb of Kellen’s pulse.
Desmond paced nervously in front of me, whining and rubbing his muzzle against my thigh. He sat, staring up at me, and the concern in his violet-gray eyes made me queasy. I felt dizzy, my chest tight and sweat beading on my temples.
“Holden?” I looked at the vampire and saw five of him. “I don’t feel so good. ”
He caught me right as I collapsed.
I woke up in my own bed, or at least it felt like my bed. I couldn’t see a damned thing in the murky darkness surrounding me, but the comforter and mattress felt familiar. My alarm clock glowed on the opposite nightstand, telling me it was after eight thirty. How had I slept so late? I must have done a real number on myself coming through the gate if I’d been out for such a long time.
Come to think of it, I didn’t know when we’d passed back into our own reality. The time, hell even the date. I had no idea how long we’d been gone or if time was different here than it had been there. In Calliope’s realm nothing was different, but it was a halfway point. We’d gone all the way to the other side, and I had no idea if it we’d come back to the same time or not.
I climbed out of bed, tripped over a tangle of pants on the floor and landed on my knees.
“Fuck. ”
Okay, awesome. My messy bedroom had finally claimed me as a victim. How had I gone this long without face planting, and now on my first day home I stumbled on the only piece of clothing on the floor?
How had I not seen them?
Climbing to my feet and rubbing my raw knees, I tiptoed to the door, knocking my shin hard against the armchair and letting out another cuss before getting hold of the handle. Something had happened to throw me off my equilibrium. I was hoping it was just a bad case of interdimensional jet lag.
I staggered into the hallway, rubbing sleep from my eyes, and angled myself towards the kitchen. Pausing in the doorway, I felt a strange warmth on my back and dropped my hands. My yellow kitchen was bright. Too bright.
I turned to face my living room, my heart leapt into my throat, and I ducked into the kitchen, hiding behind the wall and keeping my legs out of the path of the light cutting an angry swath through the tiny space.
Sunlight poured into my apartment, turning my usually shadowy corners into blistering, white-hot light reflectors. I’d escaped it in my bedroom because of the bricked window intended to keep me safe from the very light now surrounding me.
I held my hands out in front of me, inspecting them for blisters or burns, but my skin was unblemished. I’d been standing in the hall long enough to feel the warmth. It should have been long enough for me to start showing signs of damage.
My heart pounded harder.
