Page 8 of Deadly Little Games (Four Ways to Fate #2)

8

We didn’t see the king or his grouchy friend on our way to Crispin’s tower. No one in the square had questioned Sebastian’s presence, and soon the three of us stood outside the door I had gone through the day before.

Elena stepped close to me before opening it. “What you’re about to see stays between us. Agreed?”

Sebastian lifted a brow, but nodded.

I had never seen him so accommodating, but I also knew him well enough by now to guess that his curiosity was keeping him civil. Not only was he being allowed within elven lands, perhaps for the first time ever, but he was also about to meet someone who had realm traveled relatively recently.

Elena opened the door, then gestured for us both to walk in ahead of her.

I stepped into the room first, glancing around for just a moment before my jaw fell open. Crispin stood near one of his many bookshelves—well, he kind of stood near it. I could see him, but he was looking a little… see-through.

Sebastian waited beside me while Elena shut the door behind us, then he approached Crispin, who was looking utterly miserable. It was clear that he could see us, but he didn’t speak. For all intents and purposes, he seemed like a ghost. His mouth moved, but we couldn’t hear the words coming out.

Sebastian crossed his arms, bracing one hand beneath his chin. “What was he trying to do?”

Elena gave me a wary glance before answering, “I think he was trying to realm jump. Or at least maybe open up a pathway? I don’t really understand any of it, and he’s not exactly able to tell me anything. He can’t touch a pen to write out what happened.”

Sebastian looked back at me.

I held my hands up, palms out. “Hey, my knowledge on all this is way less than either of you. Why do you think I’m here?”

He watched me for a moment longer, then lowered his eyes to the floor beside him, making it clear he wished me to approach.

Reluctantly, I moved to his side, wary of stepping too close to Crispin. The elf’s blue eyes were now filled with hope— entirely unfounded hope. He mouthed something at me. Portal , maybe.

“Is he saying he made a portal?”

“I think so,” Elena said behind us. “I managed to read his lips a bit. Portal , and Eva , I think. The devil was my idea. I had hoped he would be with you, or that you could at least summon him.”

I turned to find Sebastian watching me.

“What do you think?” he asked.

Frowning, I looked at Crispin, daring to reach a hand out toward him. When nothing bad happened, I stepped closer and tried to touch his chest, but my hand went right through him.

He winced, and I quickly withdrew my hand. “I think he’s stuck between realms. Wherever he was trying to go, he didn’t fully make it. It’s kind of like what I can do to step over boundaries, but he went a little further. Shifting isn’t exclusive to celestials. We’re just better at it.” I looked at Sebastian, thinking of how he could simply disappear in a flash of darkness. But he couldn’t reach the far realms, else he’d have no interest in me. He could probably still travel to the hells, the closest parallel realms to earth, and that was it. “In some ways,” I added for his benefit.

“How do we bring him back?” Elena asked.

I stepped back by Sebastian. “Oh, I have no idea. I’ve never gotten stuck before. If he can’t find the pathway back, it would take someone else who can actually travel between realms to reach him.” I glanced at the various vials and instruments scattered across Crispin’s worktable, then at the elf in question. “It would help to know how he traveled in the first place, I think.”

Miserable, Crispin pointed at an open journal at one end of the table.

“It’s gibberish,” Elena explained.

I walked a wide path around Crispin to observe the journal. I skimmed a few lines, seeing just what Elena was talking about. It was all symbols and charts I didn’t recognize. Realizing Sebastian was reading over my shoulder, I looked back at him.

“Alchemy,” he said. “Unfortunately, not one of my many considerable talents.”

I side-stepped away from Sebastian, careful not to touch him as I turned back toward Elena. “Aren’t there any other elves here who can read it? I imagine Crispin isn’t the only one.”

Elena’s cheeks reddened and she wasn’t quite meeting my eyes.

Sebastian chuckled. “Her father has ordered her not to tell anyone. I imagine experiments regarding realm travel are forbidden?”

I looked back and forth between him and Elena. “What? Why?”

Elena’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, besides the three of us, only my father knows what has happened. I had to tell him so he would allow Sebastian in, but no one else must know.”

Thoroughly confused, I waited for further explanation, but Elena simply hung her head.

“But why?” I pressed. “What’s the big issue?”

Sebastian stepped close to my side again. “Realm travel is obviously a touchy subject with the elves. On one hand, they do not want to give their people false hope. On the other, they do not want to anger them for repeating the mistakes of the past.” He leaned in even closer, close enough that his dark magic slithered up my skin. “They fear ending up somewhere far, far worse.”

I furrowed my brow, still not entirely understanding the secrecy. “But don’t you think it would be worth letting in a few more people if they can help him?” I asked Elena.

“Perhaps,” she sighed. “But I believe the two of you are his best chance, and so does my father. So why not ask you first?”

“You did save Braxton the other night,” Sebastian said vaguely.

I whipped my eyes toward him. He was hinting at me fully shifting, which maybe I could do if I understood where Crispin had actually gone, but I had no idea. And I didn’t know how he had gotten there.

Sebastian stepped toward Elena before I could say anything else. “You will need to sign a contract. Nothing that happens in this room reaches any other ears or eyes.” He lowered his voice. “For dear Eva’s safety, of course.”

“ For my safety , my ass.” I stormed up behind him. “And if it’s my ass getting risked, you don’t get any new contracts out of it.”

He looked over his shoulder at me with one brow lifted. “Oh? So you would like the information you are about to reveal in helping this poor pathetic elf to be available for any pointed ears that will listen?”

I crossed my arms. “I don’t even know if I can do anything.”

“But you will try. Or am I mistaken?”

I glowered. “Yeah, I’ll try.”

He humored me with a pleasant smile. “Then allow me to ensure your secrets are kept. Unless you have the power to create entirely binding contracts yourself?”

I huffed. “Okay, fine. But the contract is just to keep that one secret. Nothing else.”

“Of course.”

Elena was looking back and forth between the two of us. “What am I missing?”

“Eva may be able to help you,” Sebastian explained. “But you will need to sign a contract. What you will see may prove dangerous for her should the wrong people learn of it.”

Elena looked at me. “Is he trying to trick me?”

I shrugged. “Probably. But whatever is in the contract, he has to follow as much as you do.”

She straightened, lifting her nose in the air and tossing her red hair behind her shoulders. “Very well. Whatever happens in this room today, we will speak of it to no one. All of us.”

“And you may not tell your father,” Sebastian added.

Elena’s eyes flared. “He’s going to give me hell, but fine. But this only applies to anything learned here today. Crispin and Eva’s work in the future is fair game.”

Sebastian extended his hand and Elena took it, sealing the contract.

I glanced at Crispin, who still looked miserable as he watched the entire scene. It didn’t seem he had much faith in us, and he was probably right to feel that way.

Sebastian released Elena’s hand and turned to me with a wicked smile. “Now, dear Eva, do fetch this poor elf so we can get on with our day.”

I stood facing Crispin with my palms extended toward him. He mirrored me with a look of cautious optimism in his eyes.

Sebastian stood far too close to my back, whispering in my ear. “What happened with Braxton, Eva?”

I shook my head. I knew he was trying to help, but I had no idea how I’d shifted to save Braxton. “I don’t know. I was desperate to save him.”

Sebastian’s warm breath caressed my earlobe, summoning forth a trickle of magic. “Then feel desperate now.” He was like a dark force behind me. A literal devil on my shoulder whispering in my ear.

I looked at Crispin, trying to summon the same desperation to save him, but I didn’t even know him. And it didn’t help having Elena leaning against the nearest windowsill, silently watching us.

Sebastian lightly gripped my arms from behind, just the thin fabric of my shirt between our skin. “There are many realms that are simply pockets of space. If it helps, one such realm is likely where the elf is trapped. If he cannot escape, he’s going to starve to death. Or at the very least, go mad in his solitude.”

I stiffened in his grip. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but, “I still can’t feel anything. I sense the part of him that is here, but nothing else. I don’t know how to find a path.”

“Then think of your time with the goblin prince,” he whispered.

I inhaled sharply, caught off guard by his words. “You know,” I said through gritted teeth, “you’re really not helping.” I glanced toward Elena, but she showed no sign of hearing his words.

Sebastian stepped closer so that my back grazed his chest. He lowered his cheek against mine, making my breath hitch. “Would you rather think of me instead?”

My cheeks burned. “In your dreams, asshole.”

“In my dreams, or in yours ?”

My neck heated along with my cheeks because he was right on the money with that one. “You’re not helping.”

“And you’re not getting anything done. I can feel your fear. You’re running scared, like usual.”

Anger flared through me, and along with it a spark of magic. “Listen you son of a—”

I started to turn, but he gripped my arms hard enough to bruise. “Focus on the elf, Eva.”

I glared at Crispin, even though my glare was meant for Sebastian. “You don’t understand. You were probably raised in the hells with lots of other little devils. You probably wielded your magic before you could even talk.”

“Poor Eva,” he taunted. “So pathetic. So alone. I learned my magic because I wanted it. You’re just too scared to try.”

I wanted nothing more than to turn around and slap him, but I kept my attention on Crispin. I could feel my magic just below the surface, summoned by my anger. Not just anger at Sebastian’s harsh words, but anger that despite them, it felt good to have him pressed against my back. Far too good.

Crispin’s eyes had gone a little wide at our exchange, though I didn’t think he could actually hear us. Maybe he was a better lip reader than Elena.

“I’m not scared,” I muttered under my breath. But I was humiliated.

Wanting nothing more than to just end the situation, I pulled away from Sebastian, reaching for my magic in the only way I knew how—to shift across a barrier. With heat and anger and magic pulsing through me, I shifted as much as I could, then walked right into Crispin.

“Don’t!”

But Crispin’s words came too late, mostly because I could only hear them once I crossed whatever boundary stood between us.

We were in a small stone room. I could distantly hear the ocean, but there were no doors and no windows. The only light came from the crumbling ceiling far overhead.

Panicked, I looked around for Sebastian and Elena, but I couldn’t see them at all. I had shifted fully.

I looked at the dejected elf in front of me as he hung his head, shaking it back and forth.

I had shifted fully.

And now I was trapped.