Careless Wishes Page 23

  “Your Majesty and Your Highness,” Stanen Burns said respectfully.

  “Hello, Stanen,” I said as Kill stepped up to the bars. “Just one moment, please.”

  Killian took a deep sniff, then sighed it out. He looked at Avi and said, “Let him out; he's not the one.”

  “Oh, thank Danu,” Stanen murmured. “I couldn't imagine what I'd done wrong. I just wanted to visit some friends and then all of this drama with the human companies happened and—”

  “I'm so sorry for detaining you,” I interrupted him. “You fit the description of a criminal we're hunting, but my husband knows the scent of the man and you're not him. You're free to go home now.”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty.” Stanen bowed again.

  Avi escorted him out.

  “Well, there goes both of our suspects,” Killian noted without any surprise. “It can't be the Seelie because the raths were closed and it's definitely not the Unseelie.”

  I made a pensive sound as we headed back to Avi's living room. “Unless he used the Cintamani to travel between the Realms.”

  “What?” Killian stopped to gape at me. “Fuck, Seren! Why didn't we think of that sooner?”

  “Because we've never had to deal with a wishing pearl before,” I said dryly. “And it's only a theory.”

  “It makes sense to me,” Killian huffed. “If that thing can take him around the Earth, why not to Fairy?”

  “We closed the raths for no reason,” I concluded.

  “Not necessarily,” he argued. “At the very least, it closed off one means of travel for him. And maybe he won't think of using the relic to get into Fairy.”

  “Now that I've considered it, I don't think he wants to go to Fairy.” I stepped past Kill and went into the living room. “Fairy doesn't have problems for him to solve.”

  “Thank Danu for that,” Killian muttered.

  The Rath Lord had just finished making his apologies to Stanen Burns and was sending him on his way with a bag of sweets for his trouble. Stanen accepted the sweets, stuffed them into a leather satchel he had slung across his chest, then nodded to all of us before heading out.

  “Avi, are you certain there were no other blond men that came through the rath?” I asked. “Possibly earlier than the date we originally gave you.”

  Avi considered it, then shook his head. “I don't recall any other men with pale hair arriving around that time.”

  “And the thief had the same appearance when we found him so we can assume he arrived in Delhi looking as he did,” Killian noted.

  “You found him?” Avi asked. “If you found him, why did you bother coming back to see Stanen?”

  “He eluded us,” I said grimly. “We believe he used the Cintamani to teleport away.”

  “Oh.” Avi slumped. “I see.”

  “I don't think he'll be coming back here,” Kill said to Avi. “You should be fine.”

  “Oh, I'm not worried about that,” Avi said with a wave of his hand. “I'm worried about the Earth and the raths and the animals. What will happen if this man continues to upset the balance?”

  “I don't know, Avi,” I said softly. “But I intend to stop him before I find out.”

  “I like your plan,” Avi said with a somber grin.

  “Even though it's unlikely that he'll return, stay alert.” Killian pounded Avi's back. “You never know.”

  “Oh, I'm always alert,” Avi vowed. “It's part of the job. Even when I sleep, I know if someone has stepped onto the property.”

  “Excellent.” Killian nodded to Avi before asking me, “Should we scry our guards and have them meet us in Harare?”

  “No. It will take them too long to get there from San Francisco.”

  Killian grimaced. “You just want some time away from the Star's Guard.”

  “I get time away from them whenever I visit the other kingdoms. You just want Conri with us so the two of you can gang up on Raza.”

  Killian chuckled. “Maybe.”

  “Take care, Avi,” I called out as Kill and I headed toward the front door.

  “Wait!” Avi called after us. “You have to take some of my garlic naan with you. It's still warm.”

  “Don't mind if I do.” Killian grinned and followed Avi into the kitchen.

  I turned to stare out the window at the Indian night. The noise of cars and angry people drifted over the wall that surrounded the rath property but the sound of night animals was distinctly absent. I wondered what a normal evening in Delhi sounded like. Perhaps it wasn't much different than this. Perhaps the humans wouldn't notice that the animals who had lived among them were missing, especially not when their livelihoods had disappeared as well. But I noticed for them. The sudden surge of wealth had come at a steep cost and money hadn't been the only payment demanded. Delhi had lost its wild things and knowing that made my heart break for the Indian people.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  We dismissed the hunters, extinguishers, and the vex since we were fairly certain the thief wouldn't be making wishes in Zimbabwe again. Then my men and I grabbed a bite to eat at the airport before getting comfortable on the jet. It was equipped with a small kitchen, a bathroom with a shower, and a bedroom so it wasn't a horrible place to wait for the thief's next move. Our pilot was hanging out in a pilot's lounge nearby to give us some privacy. Kill and I used that privacy to tell the others about my theory on the thief using the Cintamani to travel to Fairy. They agreed with me that he probably wouldn't go back to Fairy. Judging by what we'd seen so far, we were expecting him to keep his wishing to Earth.

  “He didn't attack us when he had the chance but if he's so peaceful, why did Rowan have a vision of him attacking me?” Killian mused.

  “He probably changes.” Daxon shrugged. “The magic will likely take a toll on him.”

  “But that brings another question to mind.” I lifted my head from Raza's lap (he'd been clingy ever since I'd gotten back from India). “If the stone can't change free will, how can it force people to attack Killian?”

  “It must have compelled them in another way,” Tiernan concluded.

  “Maybe they're his followers.” Killian leaned back in his leather chair and sipped his rum and coke.

  The rest of us went still.

  “Fuck!” Daxon cursed.

  I sat up and rubbed a hand over my face wearily.

  “What I say?” Killian looked around.

  “Once again, you have stumbled across something important without the slightest idea of what it is,” Raza grumbled.

  “Once again?” Killian made a face at Raza.

  “As it was when you first met Seren.”

  “Hardly,” Kill scoffed. “I may not have known who she was or what she was capable of, but I knew she was special. And I knew she was going to be mine.”

  “You did not,” Raza scoffed right back.

  “Uh... yeah, I did. I was laying on the Blair charm from the beginning, creating a foundation for a future relationship.”

  “Just as I thought.” Raza leaned forward to point in Kill's face. “I knew you were a snake, even back then—trying to steal a taken woman.”

  “Hey, you chased after her when she was dating Tiernan,” Kill pointed out. “What's the difference?”

  “Danu was the difference,” Raza said smugly. “She told me that Seren was meant to be mine. The Goddess herself gave me permission—nay, compelled me—to pursue Seren.”

  “She called us together too,” Killian shot back. “So how was I a snake? And what's wrong with snakes, anyway?” Killian growled. Then he blinked and cocked his head. “Did you just say 'nay?'”

  “Don't fight with your beast brother,” I chided both of them.

  Tiernan and Daxon chuckled as the beasts made faces at me.

  “Who says nay anymore?” Killian muttered.

  “Focus, guys.” I snapped my fingers.

  “Sorry, babe,” Killian said. “So, what gem of wisdom did I stumble across?”

  “You're so h
andsome,” I said sympathetically.

  Killian grimaced as the other men laughed. “Not cool, Twilight.”

  “Sorry, honey, I couldn't resist. You're smart too.” I gave his knee a pat.

  Killian rolled his eyes. “Will someone just tell me what I said that was so brilliant?”

  “You said 'followers.' The thief could be doing all of these good deeds merely to set himself up as a miracle worker and gain followers,” Tiernan explained. “Which, at the very least, puts his integrity into question.”

  “A cult leader,” Killian sat forward with the revelation. “You think he's going to gather a bunch of worshipers and order them to commit suicide? Maybe we should keep an eye out for large purchases of Kool-Aid.”

  I fought off a smile, Daxon shook his head, Tiernan grimaced in disgust, and Raza scowled in confusion.

  “You went too far with the Kool-Aid,” I scolded my smirking husband.

  “What's Kool-Aid?” Raza asked warily.

  “It's a powder that people mix with water and sugar to make a sweet drink for children,” I explained. “Awhile back, a crazy human convinced a lot of other humans that they should kill themselves by drinking poisoned Kool-Aid. At least, that's one possibility. He could have tricked them into drinking it, making it a mass murder instead of mass suicide. No one really knows for sure what happened, only that everyone died and they found a vat of cyanide-laced Kool-Aid near the bodies.”

  “What a horrible and humiliating way to die,” Raza exclaimed. “Who would want to kill themselves by drinking a poisoned children's beverage?”

  We all sort of shrugged in agreement.

  “If you're going to take your own life, you should at least do it with panache,” Raza went on. “Perhaps a leap from a great height or into a volcano.” His eyes got a distant look as he pondered the matter. “Or a lake of piranhas; I've heard they can consume an entire cow in minutes.”

  “That's not exactly true,” I interrupted his musing.

  “Of course it is, an American president wrote about it,” Raza protested.

  “Beast Bro, how the hell do you know about a presidential piranha story and not about cyanide Kool-Aid?” Killian asked in bafflement.

  “Think about what you just said and I'm sure the answer will eventually occur to you,” Raza said dryly. #

  “Whatever,” Killian huffed. “Which president said the thing about the piranhas, smartypants?”

  “Theodore Roosevelt,” I answered for Raza. “He wrote a book about his adventures in Brazil and mentioned that he witnessed a school of piranhas eat a cow.”

  Raza waved his hand toward me in an you-just-made-my-point gesture.

  “Yes, but it was later discovered that the Brazilian people wanted to put on a show for the President,” I went on. “They caught a whole bunch of piranhas and starved them, then, when the President arrived, they tossed a cow carcass in with the fish. When they're starving, piranhas go into a feeding frenzy. But under normal circumstances, they don't attack creatures that large and they rarely attack humans. Jumping into a lake with piranhas will not kill you.”

  Raza grimaced. “Fine, no piranhas. But humans have several entertaining ways of destroying things that could be used to kill themselves. At the very least, they could have employed explosives.”

  “What happened to you?” Killian asked Raza in mock concern. “Did you not get enough hugs as a child?”

  “Nearly my entire race and everyone I cared about—including my parents—were exterminated by Unseelie usurpers and I was forced into exile,” Raza said evenly.

  “Do you want a hug?” Killian reached for Raza.

  Raza leaned away with a touch-me-and-die expression.

  My scry phone chimed and we all flinched. I yanked it out of my bag and flipped it open. A quick flick and my father's face appeared in the crystal.

  “Dad?” I asked in surprise. Then I went on alert again. “Are the children—”

  “They just finished their breakfast and they want to talk to their parents,” Keir cut me off.

  “Oh.” I grinned in relief. “Actually, this is the perfect time for that. Go ahead and put them on.”

  Keir nodded and the view shifted. “One at a time now,” I heard him say. “Rowan, you can go first.”

  My daughter's face filled my scry phone as she pressed her lips against my father's crystal ball and gave me a kiss. Then she pulled back to declare, “I love you, Mommy!”

  Oh, sweet Danu, isn't that the best thing ever?

  “I love you too, baby,” I said as I motioned Killian over.

  “There's my girl!” Killian declared as he knelt beside my chair and leaned into view.

  “Daddy!” Rowan's snake eyes widened with joy.

  “How are you enjoying your time with your brothers and sister?” Kill asked.

  “I love it! Can't they stay forever?”

  Killian glanced at me before he said gently, “No, baby, they have their own homes they have to go back to. You know that.”

  “Okay,” Rowan whispered. She chewed at her lip, then said, “I had another vision. I think it's going to happen instead of my last one.”

  “That's good, Row-Row; it means that we're changing the future. Did you see the bad man again?” Killian asked as the other men drew closer.

  Rowan nodded. “He wasn't hurting you this time.” She looked at me, her eyes gone grave.

  “What was he doing to Mommy?” Killian practically growled.

  “I don't know if he did it, but she was burning, Daddy.”

  “Oh, honey,” I said in relief, “you know that fire won't hurt me. I'll be okay.”

  “But, Mommy, you were crying.”

  “Oh?” I blinked and kept smiling by sheer willpower alone. “What else happened? Do you know why I was crying?”

  Rowan shook her head.

  “I'm going to be fine, Row,” I promised. “I've got your father and all of your uncles with me as well as tons of extinguishers, hunters, and witches.”

  “Really?” she asked hopefully.

  “Really,” Killian confirmed with a glance my way. “Mommy will be safe; I will make sure of it.”

  “Okay. I love you, Daddy.” Then she giggled as Cat pushed her way into view and licked her face. “Cat wants to say hi to Mommy too.”

  “Hey, Cat,” I said brightly. “You taking care of our babies?”

  Cat yipped, then eased away for Caelum to step up to the crystal ball. I spent the next few minutes smiling at my children and telling them that everything was going to be fine. Because that's what parents do; we promise our children that everything will be all right even when—and perhaps especially when—things are at their bleakest. We do anything we have to, to protect their happiness and innocence. Then we do everything we have to, to turn our lies into truth.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Killian's cellphone rang shortly after we spoke to the children. It was High Councilman Murdock. Since he knew we were staying in HR, he went traditional and used a telephone. There had been another surge. Within fifteen minutes we were in the air, on our way to Bolivia, but we were rerouted on our way there... multiple times. It happened so often that Murdock finally said he'd call us closer to our arrival in Paraguay and advise us from there. He got a hold of us twenty minutes before we landed and told us to head for Sao Paulo, Brazil instead. But even that had to be amended and we ended up in Rio de Janeiro.

  The trip took us over twenty hours and included a quick stop in Angola to refuel. I did manage to get close to a full night's sleep but being on a plane that long can be exhausting even if it happens to be a luxury jet and you happen to be an immortal fairy. We arrived in Rio de Janeiro around 6 PM local time and were met, once again, by extinguishers, hunters, and vexes who were either stationed there, from the area, or—in the case of the hunters—had been sent in like us. And yes, I said vexes, plural. There were two witches this time, one from Quake and one from Storm. Or, as Killian and I like to call them: Quakers and
Storm Troopers. Oh, and our Royal Guards were there too. We had called them before we left Zimbabwe—and again along the way when we were rerouted—and instructed them to go through the SF rath, then use my father's plane to fly out and meet us.

  We checked in when we landed and got a complete report, this one from Murdock's assistant since the High Councilman had finally taken a break to eat and sleep. The thief was on the move. Surges had been noted in Bolivia, Peru, Columbia, and Paraguay before the thief started bopping around Brazil. The last surge had happened only a few minutes before we landed and it was the third surge in Rio.