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CHAPTER TWELVE

N os did not enjoy tricking the human.

It did not bring him joy to sell her to Rig. Not simply because of how badly it upset Ibin, either. But the young woman was going to bring disaster down upon their heads.

It simply had to be done.

And he was only glad that Ibin had seen sense in delivering her to Rig. The Unseelie son of Lord Bayodan had a unique and truly horrifying gift—one that allowed him to rewrite the intentions of others to match his needs and desires.

Ava would be happy at his side.

Because Rig would ensure that it would be so.

Ibin was pacing back and forth in front of him, wringing her hands. “It feels wrong, Nos. It just feels wrong.”

“She will be fine. More than fine. Better than if we traded her to Aerin or back to Braega or any of the others. What if Ursur or Vesnir took her? Would you wish that fate on her instead?” He hated rehashing the same arguments. But Ibin’s good heart was always wont to pull her in the direction of her moral compass.

It was why he loved her.

And why he would always walk in the shadows of her light, even if she never loved him in return.

The noise from within Rig’s home set Nos’s teeth on edge.

It was unlike anything he had ever heard before.

A great and horrendous rending sound.

Ibin stopped in her tracks. “What in the blue blazing hell ? — ”

Whatever had happened, it had gone terribly, terribly wrong.

The only thing Nos could think of was a question he knew he was going to ask himself many times over before all was said and done.

What have you done, human?

Ava had fetched the bottle of wine from the table and brought it over to a tree opposite the train in the clearing. She sat with her back up against it, Book beside her, and drank straight from the neck.

She didn’t enjoy getting drunk. Fluffy, sure. But not drunk.

But as she sat there, staring at the crumpled remains of an abandoned turn of the century steam train she’d pulled from thin air—to kill someone—she decided she’d earned it.

She didn’t know if whatever was left in the bottle was going to do it, but luckily, she hadn’t eaten much in the past day and change.

So, she sat. And drank from the bottle. And stared at the train in silence. Part of her hoped that Rig would come crawling out from underneath it, laughing and vowing unholy vengeance on her for hurting him. Or that he’d simply blinked out of the way or done some sort of Unseelie trickery to survive.

Because that part of her wasn’t sure how to handle the fact that she’d just killed him.

But the other part of her? The other part of her was staring at a multi-ton train that she’d summoned out of thin air. It was insane. Absolutely insane. All of it.

So, she sat. And drank from the bottle. And stared at the train in silence.

Ava didn’t know how long she was there before the fae found her. It seemed dropping a multi-ton train on somebody was pretty effective at garnering attention in the Web. And it was dangerous to stay as she was, exposed to whoever could come up and do whatever they wanted.

She honestly didn’t care.

Let ’em.

She’d just killed somebody.

So she sat. And stared. It could have been minutes, or it could have been an hour. It didn’t matter. She heard voices before anyone approached her. It appeared that nobody wanted to come close to her at first.

Good.

She wasn’t in the mood.

“Ava!” It was Ibin. A stork, all white and black feathers, came flying at her at breakneck speed. As it landed, she changed her shape, standing in front of her with her back to the train. “Are you okay? Oh, by the Morrigan, I was so worried, and—and where’s Rig, and how?—”

“You’re a bird?” She blinked.

“I—oh. Yes. I am. Focus on that later. Where’s Rig? What was?—”

“Huh. You’re a bird.” She wondered if that was what shock felt like. Very likely.

“Ava. Rig. Focus.” Ibin frowned down at her. “Where?”

Ava pointed behind Ibin.

Ibin turned. Paused. “Fuck.”

“Yeah.” Ava took another drink from the bottle. How was it still half empty? Weird. She didn’t care.

Ibin was now staring at her with wide eyes. “Wait. You… you did that?”

“Mmhm.” It was the best Ava could muster. Nos was now walking into the clearing, but more warily than Ibin. He had some other tiny little fae woman walking next to him that Ava didn’t recognize. She could also see other figures in the shadows of the trees, keeping their distance and watching.

Ibin let out a rush of air, before moving to sit down next to Ava. She reached for the bottle. Ava passed it to her. Ibin took a heavy swig and passed it back. “He’s dead?”

Ava took a swig. “I’m going to bet a whole bunch of that steam train is made out of iron.”

Ibin took in a breath, held it, and let out the swear in another long exhale. “Fuck.”

She passed the bottle to Ibin. “Pretty sure the bottle’s enchanted.”

“Why, are you planning on getting smashed?” She took a swig and held it out to Ava.

“Yep.” She took the bottle back.

Nos turned from the crumpled train to face Ava. “How have you managed this?”

“No. Fuck you.” She glared up at Nos. “You don’t get to ask me questions. You said I would have a choice with Rig. That I could choose whether or not I made a contract with him. You lied.”

“I did not lie.” Nos folded his arms across his chest. His hands were mismatched. One, pale blue. The other, pale purple. “You would have entered a contract of your choice. The fact that he would have used his power to guide you into desiring that choice makes it, perhaps, a half-truth.”

“Oh, fuck off ,” she swore through the laugh. “That’s a lie of omission.”

“And what of your lie of omission? ” He pointed at the grimoire, which was sitting in the grass next to her. “There is only one means by which you can access the power in that tome. And that is if you now wield his gifts, as you have none of your own. And the only way to do that, is if you have entered an accord with him.”

Ibin was now staring at Ava in silence.

“You told me this morning you had not signed a contract.” Nos was once more playing the angry principal.

Ava sneered. “I didn’t sign a contract. He made me swallow a fucking spider whole. So you and I are guilty of the same stupid bullshit game. With one key difference between us, Nos. You want to know what it is?”

Oh, she was getting to him. He looked angry. “Do tell.”

“I’m the one here scared for my fucking life! ”

With a snarl, his expression a twisted mask of rage, Nos took a stilted step toward her as though he were going to throttle her. At the last second, his gaze flicked to Ibin, and he visibly leashed his fury, yanking it back like a rabid dog. Grimacing, he spoke the words through his teeth in a hiss. “I can assure you…you are not .”

Whirling, his long, dark coat billowing out from him with the movement, he stormed away from her and toward the train.

She felt like she’d just been slapped in the face.

And she’d deserved it.

Holy fuck, she’d deserved it.

Ibin let out a long, heavy breath from beside her.

“I’m so sorry,” Ava muttered. “I didn’t know what else to do…”

“I know, honey. I know.” Ibin watched Nos and the little fae study the train. “And now, we don’t, either.”

Ava took a hard swig of the bottle and passed it to Ibin.

Ibin promptly did the same.

After another long stretch of silence, someone finally had to speak up.

And it wasn’t either of them.

“Can—can I ask a question?” It was the tiny, mouse-like fae creature who had arrived with Nos. She had metallic hair that glinted in the moonlight and a pair of gossamer, beetle-like wings folded at her back. “Where did this come from?”

Ava smirked halfheartedly. “My father loves trains. There’s this train museum…somewhere up in Maine. And one summer, he took us there. The only time he was ever excited to show me anything, was when he was talking to me about trains. He’d tell me all about the different kinds—oh, this is a saddle car, this is a coil car, whatever. This one was one of my favorites from the museum. It dated from, well—” She motioned at Ibin. “Her time.”

“But…” The little fae blinked her large eyes in confusion. “What’s it doing here? ”

“I guess my mind went ‘big, iron object’ and…poof. Train.” She shrugged. She wouldn’t explain whether or not it was the same train—which she suspected it was, pulled into the Web from Earth—or if it was a duplicate train. She didn’t honestly know for certain. “I don’t know how, otherwise. I didn’t even think about a train. I just needed help, the book opened, and I slapped my hand down. I don’t even know how I knew what to do.”

Serrik was going to have to do a lot of filling in the blanks.

If he was even going to be willing to talk to her after the day’s shenanigans. She didn’t know why, but she felt like she was in a lot of trouble. And he didn’t even know about her maybe-probably-somehow-eventually-trying-to-kill-him plot.

“Usually it’s witches who get house-sized things dropped on them, not witches doing the house-sized dropping of things,” Ava muttered into the neck of the wine bottle as she took a swig from it. That thought got her laughing, and the laugh dissolved into something that was a mix between a groan and a sob.

She wasn’t okay.

She really, really wasn’t okay.

Ibin took the bottle away from her and set it down on the grass. That was probably for the best. She slung an arm around Ava’s shoulders and pulled her into a hug. “I took twelve lives before I ever killed a man. Not really. Not up close.”

Ibin and Nos had betrayed her. But she’d also kind of betrayed them. The messiness of the situation, and the desperate need for someone, anyone, to lean on, balanced everything out into one big stupid mess. She took the comfort where she could.

And just stared at the train.

And remembered the look on Rig’s face as it had come down on top of him.

“It’s different when you can’t see them. When they’re just another aeroplane in the sky, and you’re just shooting them down. When they’re just a painted check on the side of your fuselage, a mark of pride.” Ibin winced. “It’s another thing when they catch you off guard when you’re hunkering down in a house, and you…you have to take out a knife and…when you can see their face, when it’s either you or them. When it comes down to survival .”

Ava leaned her head on Ibin. She had no words.

“No one will hold it against you. You were defending yourself, even by our laws.” Ibin kissed the top of her head. “And by the looks of things”—Ibin snickered—“at least it was damnably quick.”

“What happens now?”

“I don’t know, Ava.” Ibin squeezed her gently in a tighter hug. “I really don’t know. But it will change things.”

After the moment had passed, Ava climbed to her feet, a little wavering but still sober enough to move. She let out a breath. “Ibin? I’d like to go lie down now, please. Then I’ll leave in the morning to appease Nos.”

Ibin looked between Nos and Ava. “I…think that sounds fair…yes? Nos?”

Nos looked about as put out and exhausted as she did. “I am eager to retire and have no desire to argue any more this evening. Very well.”

The walk back to their rooms was silent. She was absolutely fine with that. The moment the door shut behind them, Nos glared at her. “In the morning, you make good on your words. You leave.”

“Yeah.” She didn’t know where she’d go. She didn’t know what would happen to her. But she’d do as she said. “I’ll go.”

“Nos, no. Ava, it’s not safe—” Ibin looked beside herself.

“It’s all right, Ibin.” She smiled, though she didn’t feel like it. “At least I have—” Yeah, she was carrying it, all right. She held up the book. “This.”

“That is very much the problem. And if you’re working with him , then—no, Nos. This is playing right into his hands.” Ibin ran her hands into her hair and fisted the strands. “How could you agree to try to free him, Ava? How? All the people you condemned to die…”

“I—” She didn’t know what to say. A rock stuck in her throat.

“She didn’t think about them, or you, Ibin. Only herself.” Nos sighed. “It does not matter, she will not succeed. She will suffer, and die, like all those before her.” He disappeared down the hallway.

She couldn’t take anymore. She just couldn’t. She couldn’t take the look on Ibin’s face. She couldn’t take the sound of disgust in Nos’s voice. She kinda hated him. But she didn’t disagree with him, either.

Heading to the room she was using, she shut the door behind her, threw the bolt, and tried to bite back tears. Fine. Yes, fine. She’d made a mistake. Serrik’s logic had made sense in the moment. And she’d felt locked into a corner. Hell, his logic still kind of made sense.

But she had a way out.

She just had to pretend to be on his side. Learn enough of his magic. Get close enough…?

And then rip out his heart.

She could do this.

Yeah. She could. She needed magic. And tattoos. She had no idea how to get…any of that, really. But fine. Fine. Tomorrow, she’d strike out on her own. She’d pretend to be the baddie—working in league with Serrik, while secretly waiting to betray him.

It sounded like a great plan. Which meant it was going to go terribly, of course.

Changing into the chemise to sleep in, she put the book down on the nest of blankets and miscellaneous things and watched the fire burn.

It felt wrong to be up for such a short period of time, but she was emotionally drained. And physically, for that matter. She wondered if that was the fault of the magic. She had no problem letting her eyes drift shut.

She didn’t bother saying his name out loud. She knew he was coming for her anyway.

Serrik.