Chapter 25

“Alex, wake up.”

I groaned, willing the voice away.

“Alex.”

Grabbing my pillow, I pulled it over my head and rolled over. Which hurt like hell.

“Alex,” Rianna said again.

“Go away.” I didn’t want to be awake. I felt like I’d been used as a giant’s punching bag. I needed more sleep, and a pain charm. Or six.

“Alex, the equinox starts soon.”

“Good for it.”

“You promised you’d go to the revelry.”

Why the hell would I do that? Waking up at o’dark thirty to go to Faerie was definitely a stupid idea. I pulled the pillow tighter around my head, but she was right, after weeks of Caleb and Rianna bugging me, I had promised.

But yesterday I’d spent hours at the police station, first answering to the ABMU and then to the OMIH, who were a hell of a lot more interested in Larid and the rider than Briar had implied. I’d also fended off a psychic attack, had my soul ripped at, been arrested, shot at, and saved by Death collecting a soul early. I seriously thought I deserved an out on that particular promise. Unfortunately it didn’t work that way, and I felt the tug of magic below my sternum. I was fae enough that a promise was as binding as any magic-laced oath.

I spouted a few creative curses and pried open my eyes. I’d been blind when I finally closed my shields yesterday, and I wasn’t surprised to discover that my vision was still dim, washed out. Rianna stood at the side of my bed looking like a grayscale image with a light wash of watercolors on top. Desmond, being black to start with, had no definition.

I glanced toward the windows but couldn’t see any light. “Is it still dark?”

Rianna rolled her eyes. “Of course. The equinox starts at dawn.”

And she couldn’t be out of Faerie then. Right.

“She awake yet?” Caleb yelled from somewhere downstairs.

Rianna looked at me.

“I’m up, I’m up.” And I needed coffee. Lots of coffee. “Remind me why I’m going to this equinox thing again?” I asked as I hit the BREW button. PC pressed against my legs, peering at Desmond from around my calves.

“You’re going because revelries like this only occur four times a year.”

“I’m really not up for a party,” I said staring at my coffeepot and willing it to brew faster. It didn’t work. I could screw with reality, but coffee still took forever to brew, or at least it seemed that way before my first cup.

Rianna pulled a mug out of the cupboard for me, which I accepted with all the grace of a hibernating bear woken far too early.

“It’s not just a party. It’s…” She paused, as if looking for the right words. Ones that would convince me—not that she needed to bother. I couldn’t break my promise. “It’s a neutral time, so it will be a safe time for you to experience more of Faerie. To interact with the fae and the courts. You’re going to have to make your choice and pick a court soon.” Quieter she added. “Or declare yourself independent and take their oaths.”

Rianna might be spending an ever-increasing amount of time in the mortal realm, but she belonged and lived in Faerie. Me declaring myself independent would have potentially disastrous consequences for her. She wanted me to pick a court, any court. Caleb also wanted me to make my choice, if only to stop the Winter Queen’s harassment, but he wanted me to declare independent so I didn’t have to leave Nekros. I stared at the slowly dripping black gold filling my coffeepot. It was way too early for Faerie politics.

Forty-seven minutes later—and I’d felt every single one of them—I was begrudgingly awake, caffeinated, and walking toward the Eternal Bloom. Rianna had her arm hooked in mine, Holly doing the same on my other side. I’d like to say it was all cheerful camaraderie, but the truth was I couldn’t see a thing in the predawn darkness and their scorching heat was better than falling on my face.

“So what will it be like?” Holly asked, practically skipping as we walked. She was way too much of a morning person.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” was Caleb’s answer, and I could hear the smile in his voice. He always went to the revelries, disappearing for a day every few months, but this was the first time we’d accompanied him.

“And what is it I’m supposed to do?” I asked, and heard a petulant whine in my voice. I cleared my throat. I was so not that person. “You guys don’t actually expect me to join a court today, do you?”

“Of course not.” The smile wasn’t in his voice this time. “You just need to enjoy yourself and stop seeing Faerie as terrifying. Go, interact with other fae, and have fun.”

Yeah, I don’t see that happening.

I took the Bloom’s front steps carefully, and too slowly for my friends, both of whom were far more eager than I. Which wasn’t hard. All I wanted to do was go back to bed.

“Oh,” Holly said, stopping short as we reached the top. “It says they’re closed for the equinox. How are we—” She cut off abruptly. “Do you hear that?”

I listened, but all I heard was an old car chugging down a nearby road. “No.”

“It’s music.” She dropped my arm, and took another step toward the door. “The sweetest music I’ve ever heard.”

Her voice sounded dreamily far away, and I grabbed her, pulling her back. “Caleb, are you sure this is safe?”

“She’s already addicted to Faerie food. There are few other dangers to mortals at revelries. I’ll be with her the whole time.” Something soft touched his voice as he said the last, but my thoughts were imagining endless dances, soul chains, slavers, beautiful things that liked to feast on mortal flesh, and somewhere in the back of my head, I heard the echo of words from when a fae had called Holly a lovely doll, saying that all changelings were dolls.

Of course, Holly wasn’t a changeling yet, but she was a step away.

“Al, relax,” Rianna whispered, her voice low enough that only I could hear. “I told you, the revelries are neutral. This is one of the safest times to enter Faerie.”

Right. Then why was my gut twisting at the idea?

Because Faerie scares the hell out of me.

Caleb ignored the closed sign and ushered us into the small receiving room. Normally a bouncer sat in this room, making sure that humans went to the public side of the Bloom and fae were given access to the VIP room.

“Does someone want to sign us in?” I asked as I pulled my gloves out of my back pocket—I didn’t want to see the blood on my hands as soon as I stepped through that door. Not that I could see much of anything. The overhead light was far too dim, or my eyes were just that bad right now.

“No need today,” Caleb said marching up to the door to the VIP room. A door the bouncer normally kept hidden. “I need to use a couple glyphs to reveal the door. You’ll have to give me a moment. My ability to weave the Aetheric makes my relationship with my fae magic…unusual.” He sounded almost embarrassed, which was odd for Caleb—he always sounded so sure of everything.

I frowned at him. “We can’t just walk through the door?”

“We could if we could see it.” He stopped. “You can see it, can’t you?”

I nodded. I could barely see the room around us, but I could see the damn door. It glimmered, as if a small sun blazed behind it, the light seeping out of every crevice.

Caleb stepped back and motioned to me with his hand. “Then by all means, after you.”

The irritated note in his voice caught me off guard. It wasn’t like I was trying to see the door. The queasy feeling in my stomach intensified, but I stepped forward and grabbed the door handle. It felt pleasantly warm under my gloved hands, as if it were alive, which was rather creepy. It had never been warm before.

Better get used to the unknown, Alex. The next few hours would be full of it.

Starting with the fact that what was on the other side of the door wasn’t the VIP room, but a dense deciduous forest. I stood in the doorway, staring—and blocking everyone else. “Uh, where did the rest of the Bloom go?”

Caleb gave me a small shove in the base of my back, pushing me through the door. “It’s the fall equinox. All doors lead to the fall court throughout the celebration.”

“Guess that makes this their party then?” It wasn’t really a question, just my mouth still moving as I stared at the scene around me. The trees in Nekros hadn’t figured out fall was upon them and they should change colors, which wasn’t their fault as it was still warm. Here a crispness in the air spoke of the changing seasons and leaves in shades of yellow, gold, orange, and red filled the trees. I held off blinking as long as I could, sure that when I opened my eyes again, the trees would be gone or draped in shadow. But no, I could see them. Could see the full glory of colors, bright and brilliant, despite no clear source of light. I forgot that the damage to my eyes didn’t affect me in Faerie.

“We’ve talked about this before,” Rianna said, sounding every bit as cross as one of our academy instructors when a student failed to retain a lesson. “On the equinox and the solstice, all doors to Faerie open to that season’s court.”

My mouth formed an “O” but I wasn’t paying attention. I was soaking in the scene around me. Okay, so that scene was a bunch of trees, but I could see them. Really see them, in full vivid color. I hadn’t seen this clearly since, well, since I visited Faerie a month ago. Maybe colors were just that much more vibrant in Faerie. I blinked back tears.

Crap, if I break down over a couple trees, what will happen when I reach the revelry?

It looked like I’d find out soon. A colorful trail of fallen leaves led between the canopy of trees and Caleb headed for it, Holly at his side, and Rianna and Desmond following. I hurried to catch up.

We emerged in a clearing filled with lively music and fae of every shape, size, and color. I’d never seen so many fae in one place before. Even when I’d unintentionally been the guest of honor in the Winter Queen’s court, there hadn’t been so many fae present. And more were arriving. As I stood, gaping at the sight from the opening of the tree line, a fae with flames for hair and eyes of ever-swirling smoke stepped around me. She took only a moment to look around before bounding toward a group of fae not far away, a smile on her face and a blaze of heat in her wake.

“Do all the independents come to the revelries?” I asked, looking at Caleb.

He was watching Holly’s reaction to the scene. Her eyes were slightly glazed as they took in the clearing, but Caleb didn’t seem worried. He also didn’t look away as he shrugged and said, “Most. Not all.” Maybe he wasn’t quite as unconcerned as he appeared.

I wondered once again how safe it was for Holly to be here. Hell, for me to be here. “Maybe this has been enough for one visit and I should take Holly home?”

Her head snapped up at that. “No. I don’t want to leave.”

Okay, so not as entranced as I thought. At least, not magically induced entrancement.

“You can’t leave, Al,” Rianna said, then at my alarmed look, went on, “Well, you can leave, but you’ll lose the entire equinox.”

The unease clawing at my stomach reached deeper, hitting my spine as a wave of shock tore over me. “You mean, no matter what time I leave, I’ll emerge tomorrow?”

She nodded.

Great. Just great. That sure as hell hadn’t been mentioned—I’d have remembered that little nugget of information. I hated losing time to Faerie. And what about the twenty-four hours we were gone?

“Al, geez, you look like you’re about to have an aneurism. It’s going to be okay. I put a note on the door at Tongues for the Dead and Holly gave Tamara a key so she can walk and feed PC.”

Was I the only one who hadn’t realized stepping inside would cost me a day? Apparently so.

Several more fae had passed us while we dawdled in the clearing’s opening. I didn’t pay much attention, until a figure I recognized started past me.

“Jenson?”

The detective turned slowly, like if he took his time, maybe I wouldn’t be there by the time he made it all the way around. “Craft,” he said, and his frown made the calluses under his tusks stretch. “It’s customary to drop your glamour for a revelry.”

I blinked at him. What was he talking about? I didn’t have any glamour.

Whatever Jenson saw in my expression made him growl—literally. It was a sound that shouldn’t have come out of a human throat. He shook his head, collecting himself.

“Be merry, Craft,” he said, the words oddly formal. Then he turned his back to me and scanned the clearing. A large conglomeration of trolls laughed and tussled in one area of the clearing. Jenson stared at the group but he didn’t join them. After a few moments, he rolled his shoulders, straightened his back, and marched in the opposite direction.

I watched him go. What’s his story? And what was his problem with me?

Desmond nudged Rianna’s leg, and she knelt to his level, rubbing behind his ears. “You go on. I’ll be fine.”

Those eyes, too intelligent to belong in a dog-shaped body, studied her for a long moment. Then his huge head bobbed in a nod and he ran into the clearing, vanishing among the growing throng of revelers.

“We need to move,” Caleb said as still more fae passed us.

Rianna nodded and wrapped her arm in mine when I would have stalled. I was already in Faerie, already committed to attending the revelry, but I felt safer among the trees than in a clearing full of fae. A clearing, I’d noticed, that grew to accommodate the ever-increasing number of fae. Rianna denied me any more time to linger, it was follow or be dragged, and as I still hurt all over—and she’d grabbed the arm with the bullet wound—I was disinclined to be dragged.

Caleb led our small group around several clumps of fae, some greeted him by name, others simply bid our group to “be merry.”

“What’s up with that?” I asked Rianna after a thorn fae pranced around us, the tangled briars of her hair rustling. She paused long enough to give me a brilliant smile, her barklike lips spreading wide to show her wooden teeth and then, like everyone else, she bid us to be merry before dancing off to mingle elsewhere. “Is it some sort of ritual greeting?”

Rianna shrugged. “It’s just what it sounds like, a wish for us to have a good time. It’s a revelry.”

The farther we walked, the more aware I became of the hum of anticipation filling the air. It was like all the fae’s combined emotions had become a tangible thing, or maybe it was Faerie itself that was anxiously waiting. But for what?

“Dawn,” Rianna whispered, glancing at the sky. Far off in the east, the slightest hint of light glowed over the tree line.

The near steady stream of fae trickling into the clearing had stopped, and every face turned upward, watching the brightening glow in the distance. Even the music, which had filled the clearing, stopped, the musicians’ instruments silent as the fae playing them turned their attention upward.

“Get ready, Al,” Rianna whispered, squeezing my hand.

The first ray of light sliced through the clearing, and a masculine, bellowing voice announced, “It begins.”