City of Fae

“I didn’t come with an instruction manual.” I grinned. “If I had, I’d have thrown it away by now.” In other words, I had very little idea how this was going to play out, but it’d be a wild ride while it did.

With a chuckle, he straightened. “Go get her, Alina. These people”—he glanced around us at the steady stream of pedestrians—“they need you to do this. I know you can.”

“Aye-aye, Detective.” I ducked my head and turned away, toward the steps down into the underground. I would not say good-bye. Because this wasn’t the end. It wasn’t over.

“Danny, call me Danny.”

Glancing back, I branded the image of him standing on the sidewalk into my mind; half awkward, half determined. He tossed me a wave, lips tucked into his cheek in a forced smile, and then he bowed his head, turned, and walked away.

I peered down the steps into the station. The crowd flowed around me. The queen waited. She’d know I was coming. The dagger at the small of my back was all I had to face a monster. I wasn’t ready, and still my feet carried me forward, down the steps, toward whatever fate awaited.





Chapter Twenty-three


What is it they say about rats and sinking ships? Under was empty. Every room I passed, every chamber I entered, every tunnel I strode down, was utterly devoid of fae. They knew, and had gotten the hell out of Dodge before the crap went down. Had I been anyone else, I might have done the same. So, there I was, trainee reporter Alina, striding toward the spider-queen, and with every step she pulled me in. Like the spider plucking a single string of its web, she tapped into my mind, luring me close. Dagger in hand, I kept my feet moving forward and my head full of new memories. Afraid of spiders, Alina? Reign had asked, yanking me free of the Metro offices. I bet he thought himself hilarious. I should have said good-bye. No, I would see him again. It might not be a happy reunion, considering how I’d last seen him, making short work of Warren, but I would get out of Under. I’d walk in the sun again. I’d listen to the heartbeat of London. Live a little, American Girl. Damn him for being so right. He’d been right about the cake too. Chocolate cake really was to die for. And then there was the kiss. The mind-numbing, thought-silencing kiss. Sure, I had memories of intimacy, but they weren’t real. Not like those I recalled of the countless fluttering shivers Reign’s touch had summoned, or the short, rapid breaths as we’d parted. Memories, my own, fresh and new, anchored me in my skin, my mind. She would not get to me. I had a life now, albeit a few days old, it was still damn well mine.

Tap-tap …

The terrible darkness slumbering at the back of my mind stretched its awareness through my limbs, and with it came the dreadful urge to follow her orders.

A rumbling grumbled through the tunnel. Dust rained from the cracked ceiling. Probably a passing train … The strip lights blinked off and buzzed back on.

A skitter of shivers danced up my arms. I brushed it off. “Suck it up, Alina. Prove Warren wrong. I can do this.” The words echoed ahead of me, and as I rounded a tunnel corner, a wall of FA officials lifted their collective tricolored gazes. I jolted to a halt. The general stood at the center of the line, every lean inch of him wrapped in red and black leather, the queen’s colors. Weapons bristled. Holy crap, Andrews was right. They were the queen’s. The general peeled his lips back into a savage grin and plucked twin daggers free from his thigh sheaths. His officers, six in total, followed his lead, daggers singing, metal on metal. Six trained fae killers, blades glinting beneath the flickering light.

I turned on my heel and ran. Head down, legs pumping, lungs burning, I ran hard. Okay, this wasn’t the plan. They weren’t meant to be here, and they certainly weren’t meant to be working against me. I needed a new plan. And fast. Heart pounding, I veered around corners, sliced off into narrow tunnels, stumbled through dark sections and over forgotten tracks before somehow finding my way to the tapestry chamber, where I’d first met Warren.

“Alina!” Shay, draped in angelic white, waved me over. In a rush of words she said, “I can help you. But you must promise to help Reign in return.”

“What? We don’t have time for this.”

She narrowed her eyes on me. “I know what you are. I know you can help him; perhaps cure him of the hound?”

“I …” My thoughts raced. Cure him? I said the only thing I could. “Yes. Okay. They’re coming, we need—”

She peeled back one of the tapestries, revealing a crawl space behind it. “Quickly, inside …” I launched myself into the service tunnel, twisting around to grab Shay’s hand and haul her in behind me. The tapestry fell and we both hunched down.

Panting hard, I struggled to silence my ragged breaths. Boots hammered as the FA spilled into the chamber. Shay’s wide-eyes sparkled in the dark. I clamped a hand over my mouth and held my breath.

“She’s here …” The general growled.