Page 2 of Magic Betrayed (The Shifter of Sheridan Avenue #2)

TWO

I took the stairs two at a time and burst into the main room of the club, but not because I thought they needed me to defend it. There was enough friendly firepower in The Portal to destroy most of Oklahoma City, and Faris had sufficient faith in his staff that he hadn’t even bothered to follow me downstairs. But I did have one weird little magical quirk that might come in handy at a time like this, even if I didn’t know quite how I felt about it.

I’d always called it my hunch magic, though I now knew it was actually power stolen from a siren. On occasion, it would deign to be helpful during potentially violent confrontations, letting me know how best to defuse or redirect anger, or even how to persuade someone to leave without starting a fight. And anytime I could stop a fight meant less chance of damages to the bar—also less chance of anyone getting hurt.

When I burst in this time, however, it appeared the fight was already over. One of the round tables lay on its side, surrounded by spilled liquid and shattered glass. A pair of goblins lay on the floor in front of the bar, one whimpering and the other unconscious, as if they’d been bodily picked up and thrown into it.

And halfway across the room, his arms folded across his chest…

My eyes widened, and my heart began to pound as memories came rushing back. Of all the people I hadn’t expected to find here…

“Hello, Kendrick.” The voice was deep and velvety-smooth, with a hint of a British accent. And unlike the last time I’d seen him, the owner wasn’t wearing glamour.

“Shane.” That was Kira’s voice, but it was oddly unsteady. As if she’d seen a ghost. Or possibly an enemy?

But Draven, Rath, and Ryker had not moved to defend her, so I doubted they perceived him as a threat, no matter how much he might look like one.

Shane Isaacson was half-fae, half-goblin, and appeared to be in his mid-thirties. He was also undeniably attractive, with a muscular six-and-a-half-foot frame, dark brown skin, and glittering dark eyes. His long hair fell past his shoulders in beaded braids, half of which were knotted at the back of his head to reveal elegantly pointed ears. Compressed lips and a stoic expression concealed wickedly sharp fangs, which I knew were fully capable of ripping a few throats out.

Not that I thought he would. Shane was no idiot, unlike the goblins currently groaning on the floor. And as far as I was concerned, he was one of the good ones.

A very long time ago, we’d met in the depths of the fae queen’s prison. And earlier last year, he’d helped us after we escaped. Given us the knowledge we needed to survive, and even sent us here—to Faris and the Shadow Court.

“It’s good to see you.” I stepped towards him, feeling the tension around us remain steady instead of falling as it normally would after a confrontation.

What exactly was I walking into? And why had he not acknowledged Kira’s greeting?

“Are you here for these two, or did they pick a fight?”

A silent snarl revealed his fangs, and a hint of his frustration. “Both. Must be my lucky day.” A glimmer of golden light flickered in his dark eyes. “How have you been?”

“Good.” I tried to let him hear that it wasn’t just the polite answer. “We’re all doing well, thanks to you.”

He nodded minutely in acknowledgment. “Pardon me for a moment.” Without a single glance at Kira, Draven or any of the other spectators, he strode towards the groaning goblin on the floor just in front of the bar, picked him up by the collar, and hauled him up far enough to look him in the eye.

“I suggest you find yourself a climate more suitable for your disgusting lack of morals or restraint,” he said softly. “And if you ever attempt to collect on that bounty again, it will be the last day you draw breath.”

He didn’t wait for a response, simply dropped the hapless bounty hunter back to the floor, wiped his hands on his pants, and turned to look at me. “May I have a moment of your time, Miss Kendrick?”

I blinked at him, then looked at the clock behind the bar. Five minutes to go until my shift started. Kira was still staring at Shane, so I turned my gaze to Seamus, the deceptively casual-looking wolf shifter who ran the bar.

His eyes glowed amber with warning, but he nodded. “Card room is free. Don’t take too long.”

So he trusted Shane enough to give us room for a chat, but not enough to let his guard down entirely. Noted.

I led the way to the small room off the left end of the bar and shut the door behind us. Through the door, I could hear the hum of conversation resuming, and the sound of something heavy being dragged across the floor. If they were lucky, the goblins would wake up in Faris’s basement tomorrow morning. If they weren’t? To be honest, I had no idea what happened to offenders who were out of second chances.

“I heard about Blake.” Shane clearly wasn’t much of one for small talk. “Pity he got away.”

Blake had been another of our fellow prisoners—a human who had escaped sometime after I did. Unlike me, he’d failed to absorb any powers of his own, but had instead learned to use objects filled with stolen Idrian magic. After his escape, instead of rebuilding his former life, he’d used those same magical artifacts in his quest to build power and sow chaos between humans and Idrians. His attempts to derail the Symposium had nearly started a war, and the Idrian courts were still squabbling over the best way to deal with the aftermath.

I shrugged. “We were lucky to survive. At least next time, he won’t be able to catch us off guard so easily.” A thought hit me. “Did you help him escape, too?”

Shane shook his head. “I don’t think so. I don’t remember him, and I’d have killed anyone who tried to leave with her stockpiles.”

Her . Elayara Elduvar. Former queen of the fae, now dead, but once the engineer of my torment and that of so many others. Her experiments were the real reason why I—and Logan and Ari—needed the Shadow Court’s protection in order to survive.

Which made me wonder… Shane was in the business of freeing Elayara’s prisoners, and the Shadow Court had helped end her reign. By my estimation, that should have made them allies, but his response to Kira suggested they were anything but.

“How do you know Kira?”

His glance was as sharp as Irene’s chef knives. “Leave it, Kendrick.”

Okay then.

“Why’d you want to talk to me?”

His expression shifted to something softer. On anyone but Shane, I would have called it concern.

“There’s a new bounty up.”

I grimaced. “The one those goblins were after?”

He nodded. “They were the first and the dumbest. Most know better than to hunt openly on Shadow Court territory, so whoever tries next will be smarter. Faster. Quieter. Willing to accept the risk in exchange for the payout.”

I’d known it was only a matter of time before one of the courts sought retribution for what they saw as my crimes. Never mind that the magic I possessed had been given to me against my will, and there was nothing I or anyone else could do to change it.

“Which court?”

“Not a court.”

Oh.

“And it’s not for you.”

That was a surprise. I’d made myself the most visible of my little family for a reason.

“Are they after the kids?” I was going to have to have another talk with them about safety.

“No. The only one mentioned is Ke… your fae friend.”

Kes. Well, crap. I’d known this was coming, but it still left me with a sick feeling of dread in my chest. “It’s Blake, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know for sure, but it’s possible. The request specifies she’s wanted alive, and it’s popped up in some unsavory circles. Ones that I don’t normally swim in. You might ask the assassin, but if he’d heard something, he’d probably have told you.”

By assassin, he meant Draven—Kira’s fiancé. Their past association must be darker than I thought if he wasn’t even willing to use Draven’s name.

But whatever his reasons, I owed him—more now than ever.

“Thanks, Shane. I appreciate the warning.”

And I did, even if I could never tell anyone else he’d issued it. If I asked any questions about this bounty, they would want to know why someone wanted Kes—a quiet, easily frightened, seemingly harmless half-fae woman with no known magic. And that was an answer I could not, would not give.

I half expected Shane to just walk off without another word, but he stayed put. Eyed me with a complicated expression I couldn’t quite read. My hunches didn’t seem to be offering me any help, so I just waited for him to decide what he wanted to say.

“Are you staying somewhere safe?” He didn’t quite meet my eyes after asking the question.

“It’s an apartment building.” My eyes narrowed a little as I watched him. “Faris owns it, so it’s definitely more secure than average.” We had to scan in through the outer doors, then there was an elevator code and a door code for our apartment. The windows and doors were alarmed, and the balcony door had metal bars between the glass panes. “And I think he keeps eyes on the place.”

While I hadn’t seen any physical guards, that didn’t mean they weren’t there, and I knew for sure there were security cameras in place.

Shane did not look comforted. “Whoever wants her doesn’t know exactly where she is yet, but they know she has links to the Shadow Court. They also have access to power and large amounts of money, and they know how to avoid being caught by the courts. You’ll both need to be careful,” he added, “until I figure out who’s behind it.”

I somehow managed not to gape at him in shock.

Even when he’d helped us escape, Shane Isaacson had made it clear that he was doing it for his own reasons, and not because he cared about any of us. He wanted revenge on the fae, and we were a part of that revenge.

So why was he here? Why warn us, and why go to the trouble of hunting down whoever had set that bounty?

His shadowed gaze warned me against personal questions, but I was more confident now than I had been the last time I saw him. I was also far more willing to risk making people angry if it meant protecting those closest to me.

“What are you doing here, Shane?”

He didn’t answer.

“We both know you could have gotten me this information another way. A phone call, an anonymous note… heck, you probably could have kidnapped me on my way to work.”

He didn’t deny it.

“So what point is it you’re trying to make, and with whom?”

His glower intensified. “I don’t owe you any answers.”

“You’re right, you don’t. But quite frankly, I’ve earned my suspicions.”

Thanks to Blake, I no longer cherished any illusions about the safety of past associations. “Maybe you didn’t hear this part, but Blake tried to recruit me, right before he nearly killed fifty innocent people. And he did it by appealing to our shared history. Claiming that people like us should help each other because no one else would. And for a little while, I almost believed him. So let me ask again, Shane—why are you here? Why are you helping us?”

He smiled suddenly—a vicious, toothy expression. “You’ve grown up. Taken ownership of your power. Good for you.”

But I wasn’t going to let him distract me. “Not an answer.”

If anything, his posture stiffened even further, but at least he didn’t clam up completely.

“Those kids deserve better than to be locked up again.” Something uncomfortable entered his expression. “And your fae friend was just a pawn. She shouldn’t have to go back to that life if she doesn’t want to.”

I raised an eyebrow at him with skepticism. “Seems like I remember you saying you didn’t care, but this sounds an awful lot like you caring.”

To my surprise, he didn’t snap at me for suggesting it.

“One of the perks of working alone. I get to choose what I care about.”

So the bounty hunter wasn’t all bite. In fact, if I wasn’t much mistaken, there was probably a heart buried somewhere underneath all that leather and snarling.

“I appreciate it,” I told him honestly. “And if you find out anything else, I hope you’ll tell me. But there is clearly some kind of history between you and Kira, which makes me think you may not be precisely welcome here. I don’t want you putting yourself in danger for our sake.”

Something flashed across his face—a look of grief as deep and cold as the ocean—and it turned him into a man both haunted and broken. Somehow, I suspected that his reason for hating the fae was tied to his antipathy for Kira. But he wasn’t going to tell me, and if I kept asking, he would likely stop talking altogether.

Thanks, stupid hunch magic.

“Well, if that’s all then…”

The door behind me opened with possibly a bit more force than necessary, and I knew without looking that it wasn’t Seamus.

Nobody entered a room quite like Faris.

“Isaacson.”

I backed carefully out of the way, hoping the two of them weren’t about to start something with me in the middle.

“Lansgrave.” Shane didn’t look worried or threatened, but he did nod politely. Respectfully even. Seemed every Idrian with even a moderate amount of common sense knew better than to annoy my boss.

Faris didn’t appear upset, but his tone held a mild warning. “My employee is due to clock in. If you have anything more to say, perhaps we could discuss it in my office?”

Shane went silent.

“And if you’re considering coming back, the offer is always open.” Faris’s voice remained a low rumble that I knew couldn’t be heard from outside.

“Coming back?” Shane’s response was quick and bitter. “To what? Your precious Shadow Court? After you let her die ?” He shook his head. “No. I’m only here because, despite all your posturing, you aren’t actually all that interested in protecting those who don’t work for you directly. So I don’t trust that you’ll protect them either, and I’d rather not see my efforts wasted.”

Her? Who was her ? Who had Faris failed to protect? And why did Shane care what happened to us? I had so many questions, but Faris was holding the door open and jerking his head at me in a clear sign of dismissal, so I had no choice but to squash my curiosity for now.

I turned on my heel and left, emerging from the card room to find no evidence of the violent altercation that had so recently taken place. The table and chairs were already back in their usual positions, all broken glass had been removed, and the spilled drinks had been mopped up. The music was louder, and the bar was even slightly more crowded than before.

Like nothing had happened. A clear message to anyone hoping to cause trouble at The Portal—in the end, their efforts would be meaningless.

The only exception was Kira. My normally effervescent friend was at the bar, hunched over her usual ginger ale, with Draven at her side and suspiciously red blotches on her cheeks.

Something was very wrong.

But before I could approach her, Seamus caught my eye and shook his head in warning. Not the time.

And after all, why would she need me? She was surrounded by family and friends—by countless people who loved her and knew her story. All I could do was make her feel the need to recount something obviously painful.

No matter how thankful I was for the family of misfits around us, Kes, Logan, Ari, and I were still outsiders, and probably always would be to some extent. Our new friends were kind, but they could not change the reality of who I was and where I’d come from.

They were Idrian, and I never would be. I was human, burdened with a hodgepodge of magic that had been stolen from Idrians just like them—magic I could neither deny nor fully control. There were so many things they took for granted that I would never understand. Secrets that I might never be able to share.

All of these served as a barrier between us, and reminded me that, in some ways, I was still very much alone. My parents were long gone. I’d never known any other family, and I could never return to any kind of mundane human existence. I had Kes and the kids, but there were many things I dared not confide in them. Questions they could not answer. Burdens I would never ask them to bear…

But that was enough wallowing. I was past due in the kitchen, so I hurried around the bar and through the swinging door, bracing myself for Irene’s opening tirade as I washed my hands and prepared for the evening rush.

Maybe I would have an opportunity to chat with Kira later. At the very least, I needed to know whether there was anything about Shane that I should be wary of. And after that, if she chose to share more about their past? I would be more than willing to listen.

* * *

Unfortunately, the night turned busy, and I had no chance to catch my breath. About two hours after the goblin incident—with no further sightings of either Faris or Shane—Kira caught me on my way through the crowd, bringing me to a stop with a hand on my arm.

“Raine, we’re headed out.” Her eyes were still a bit red, but otherwise, she seemed to have recovered. “Just wanted you to know that Kes texted me.”

I felt the quick surge of panic that always accompanied any unexpected messages. We’d never really let our guard down after all those months of being hunted, and I doubted we ever fully would. “Is everything okay?”

Kira nodded. “They’re fine, but she said the power is out. There was some construction work on the building next door today, so it’s possible they messed something up. But she said not to worry, they’ll be fine till after your shift.”

Ugh. A power outage in January. It wasn’t as cold as it could have been, but cold enough that I hoped the blackout didn’t last long. Also, it would be no picnic to be trapped inside with two energetic kids and nothing for them to do. Maybe they could play flashlight tag. Make shadow puppets. Kes could be endlessly inventive when it came to keeping Ari occupied.

“Thanks.” I met her eyes. “You okay?”

“No,” she said, with a wan smile. “But it’s an old pain. And thankfully, I’m not alone.” She glanced at Draven, who hovered by her elbow in a protective stance, his gray eyes warm as they lingered on her face.

“I’m glad,” I said, and I meant it. No one should be alone, especially not with the kind of grief I could see lurking behind her forced smile. “Are you off to plan wedding stuff?”

“We are,” she confirmed. “Wedding committee at Faris’s place.”

“Have fun?”

She rewarded me with a far more genuine look of amusement. “What could be more fun than torturing Faris by threatening to bedeck his precious bar with glitter and tulle?”

A snort of mirth managed to escape me. “Just let me know how I can help.”

“Done.” With a final grin, she headed out the door. Ryker and Rath had already disappeared, and even Seamus was packing up, leaving his bar in the hands of a slightly cocky but good-hearted air elemental named Kyle.

By eleven, the bar was nearly empty, so closing up was relatively quick and easy. I helped Irene with the last of the kitchen cleanup before emerging into the dimly lit bar and ensuring that all the tables had been wiped and the floor was thoroughly mopped.

Then I waved goodbye to Emberly—Faris’s fire elemental office manager—and started my lonely trek home, to an apartment that promised to be almost as dark and cold as the January night.

Thankfully, it was a shorter trip than it had been three months ago. Our new apartment was still on Sheridan, but considerably closer to The Portal, and I spent every bit of my fifteen-minute walk thinking through changes I could make to keep Kes and the kids more secure without returning to the days when all of us lived in constant fear. Wondering how I could alert Faris to the danger without him finding out the truth about its origin.

Our apartment’s greatest vulnerability was probably the balcony with its glass door. It remained locked, barred, and alarmed, of course, and we were on the fourth floor, but I wasn’t sure what sort of enemies to expect, or what their magic might be. And alarms did little good unless help was close enough at hand.

Maybe I could find a way to ask Faris whether he had people watching the building. While sounding entirely innocent and without revealing too much about why I was asking…

As I approached our new home, it appeared that the power outage was confined to our building, a suspicion that was quickly confirmed by the electrician’s van parked on the curb outside. Hopefully that meant it would be fixed sooner rather than later.

It also meant the elevator was out, but I usually took the stairs anyway, as elevators made me feel trapped.

It was almost eerie, climbing the stairs in the dim blue glow of the emergency lights, and making my way down the silent hallway until I reached our door.

It didn’t occur to me until I arrived that a power outage meant the door lock wouldn’t be working properly either.

When it didn’t respond to me keying in the code, I knocked. Gently. I didn’t want to disturb the kids or the neighbors, but I knew Kes would still be awake.

No answer. And I couldn’t call her, for the same reason she’d texted Kira instead of me—we only had the one phone between us.

There was no way we could afford phones yet, and the one Kes used was a gift from Faris. More of a demand, actually. He’d wanted to give us two, but I was enough in his debt as it was, and had stubbornly insisted on waiting until I could pay for the second one on my own—an action I was beginning to regret.

But it had never seemed like a problem before. Thanks to my unconventional childhood—followed by ten years of captivity—I’d never owned a phone, so I didn’t feel the lack. And typically, I spent all my time with other people who had phones, like Kira, Seamus, or Faris. I left ours with Kes for emergencies, and she would text them if she needed me. But tonight, all of them were at Faris’s condo for the wedding committee, so there was no way to know if she’d tried to contact them.

Frustrated by my lack of options, I jiggled the door handle and felt my stomach drop as the door simply swung open… into a dark and silent apartment.