Dark Promise by Annika West

16

“This is a stupid plan,” I complained to him.

“What plan?” Willow interrupted, striding into the room with all the confidence of a lioness who just ate an entire herd of antelope.

Adair checked behind her. “Where is Oz?”

She examined her nails. “Not sure. Did you agree to something before speaking with me, Cut?”

Her feral, threatening smile set me on edge.

“Uh…” I said through the bite of cream puff. “Sort of?”

She dragged me away from my dinner and into the gardens and forced me to spill everything Adair claimed.

By the end of my summary, she was fuming. “You are so stupid, it hurts. What gives you any indication that he’s telling the truth? Huh?”

“Oh!” I realized. “That’s so silly of me. I’ll do that vow thingy with him and force him to swear that everything he’s said is true and he isn’t hiding a single thing.”

“He’d do that?”

“What?” I defended. “As if that walking Easter egg could deny his villain hero her wishes.”

I stalked back into the room and, as I expected, Adair performed the binding spell with me.

He confirmed everything he told me. He said that there may be details that he’d left out, but they weren’t the concern of Earth’s and would not harm any people in any way.

The magic accepted that explanation, and thankfully, so did Willow.

“I don’t know much about Faery,” I told her. “But apparently, people live here. That’s important to me. If I can help them not be devoured by wraiths, I’d like to.”

“You’re getting off on this, aren’t you?”

“Save the bedroom talk for tonight, Willow,” I teased.

Her skin went a little green. “At first, you were all concerned about being a detective. Then, you totally dropped that goal and settled for being Cayne’s little fuck buddy mate. Now that you’re pissed at him, you’re taking up with a brand new boss and a brand new mission. You are literally just following the sugar and the dopamine.”

“I mean… aren’t we all?”

“No, Aster, we are all not.”

Adair was watching us while we bickered like the old married couple we were. “I’d love to discuss more details with you, but I must locate Oz. He will be assisting, after all, but I have not seen him for a while.”

The back door slammed open.

A grinning Oz waltzed in, completely drenched. His boots squelched on the expensive rug, but he didn’t seem to mind. “What did I miss?”

Adair blinked. “Ozais. Why are you puddling in my dining room?”

He shrugged, gaze flicking to Willow for only a flash. “No reason.”

What did the vampire do to him? Holy shit.

I wanted to catch her eye, but she was stubbornly staring everywhere but at me and Oz. As if we didn’t even exist to her.

Rude.

Oz didn’t seem angry, though. He strode over to me and yanked me to his side. “Seems very cozy in here. Does that mean we’ll get to be partners?”

“You’re soaking my potato sack!” I protested, pushing at his rock-hard body.

He proceeded to remove his dripping black shirt, revealing the muscled torso beneath.

He didn’t have any tattoos, unlike Hux. But I caught the sight of his little fae mark on his hipbone. It was lighter than mine, but it looked exactly like the one on Hux’s arm.

I was so busy staring to notice he’d poised his twisted-up shirt over my head, and wrung it. I didn’t have time to escape the stream of water that splashed down.

I shrieked, lunging out of the way. There was a plate of grapes on the table that I snatched and hurled at him.

His blue eyes were bright as he easily plucked the plate out of the air and smashed it at my feet.

But I’d already gone invisible, avoiding the glass.

I popped back into existence to hoist a chair over my head and launch it at the dragon.

“Enough!” Adair ordered.

The chair disappeared and then popped into existence at its usual place at the table, Adair at its side.

Oz was chuckling.

Willow was vampire-frozen, probably wondering how in the world she got roped into getting her neck snapped and jumping into a portal with me toward Faery, where she encountered perhaps the only person alive who was more immature than I.

This is not your week, is it, Willow?

Adair primly adjusted his waistcoat again. “Are you finished playing, children?”

Oz was looking like a self-satisfied jock as he leaned against the table, winked at Willow, and said, “Nearly.”

It was so weird seeing him be… well, looking exactly like Hux while acting like a tricky little demon who did things like laugh and wink.

What dimension was I in again?

“You are going to explain your alive-ness one of these days. I’ll make sure of it,” I promised.

He lifted a brow. “Keep talking. I’ll wring my pants over you next.”

Yes, I did feel myself actively pale. “Please don’t.”

“Well, now it feels like I have to.”

“You’ll die,” I informed him. “Painfully. It’ll be instant. Hux will sense it and somehow rip a hole into reality, enter this lovely room with food, and crisp you. You won’t have any chairs left to save,” I added, speaking to Adair.

Oz chuckled and waved his hand. “My brother couldn’t even touch me.”

I straightened with interest. “You think you could beat him?”

Something shadowy crossed over his eyes. The smile, the posture stayed loose and uncaring when he answered, “Definitely.”

Don’t think about Hux. Stop thinking about him. You’re currently banishing him from your life until you figure shit out.

Don’t. Think. About. Hux.

Adair said, “My associate has already placed the portal crystal you returned to its intended place on the Mt. Shasta ley line. I’d like you to place the next one tonight, if you can manage it. It’s not possible for me to send my own people.”

“Where does it need to be? And why do we need to —” I shook my head. “Wait a second, are the crystals part of the plan to open the gates between Earth and Faery?”

“They are, Daughter.”

“And you happened to have all of them?”

Willow chimed in, “I was about to ask the same thing.”

Adair, casual as a burlap table runner, said, “Our family has been tasked as the Keepers of the Portals for millennia. It was I who removed the crystals when we signed the Accords and shut ourselves from Earth.”

You could hear a pin drop in the room.

Even Oz looked surprised.

He asked, “Can anyone take the crystals out?”

“Right now, yes. Until the last crystal is placed, the others can be removed as easily as if they were useless chunks of stone. That is the danger of this venture. However, once all of them are settled in their places, only the Keeper can remove them.”

He grimaced. “That was the issue Los Angeles. Someone must have come across the Shasta gate and stolen the crystal we’d placed there. My associate had only just retrieved it when you and your lovely team took it from her.”

I’d realized that the crystal had been gone. Last I checked, it was in the pocket of my catsuit. Adair must have snagged it after he spell-drugged me.

I snorted. “Whoops. So, gramps, what’s the next step?”

“Currently, there are several key ley line points on Earth. In order to break through the barrier between your world and ours, we must place a portal crystal on the six accessible ley points. Currently, there are four in place, including the one on Shasta. Once the sixth is in position, we will have enough power to shatter the wall blocking Earth from Faery. Magic will flow once more.”

“Where does the next one go?” I asked.

“Azores,” he answered. “Are you up for a vacation?”