“Go forward,” Paddy urged from next to me. There was something in his manner that made my senses prick. Why did he care? Wasn’t he on equal footing with these three? What was his stake in me placating her?
“What’s going on here?” the one called Fia demanded, as if something was very wrong and she’d just discovered it.
The laughing man suddenly stopped. Fia looked enraged, and the other woman wasn’t speaking or portraying any emotion.
“Paddy, what did you do?” Fia barked across the room.
“I did what had to be done. I did what was necessary while the rest of you would’ve sat back and debated for another century.” He slammed down the cane he was carrying again.
“You did not have our consent. Fix this! Take it back,” Fia screamed.
Take it back? Things were making a little more sense now. I guessed they didn’t appreciate me having some of their glory stuff in me.
“It’s done,” Paddy shot back.
“Now I see,” the silent woman finally said, but no one seemed to be listening to her. Paddy and the woman called Fia had broken into fully-fledged argument. The man was mediating, or trying to.
The silent woman waved me over. She didn’t try any funny tricks to lure me closer, just requested my presence. Her I obliged.
“I’m Farrah,” she said when I got close enough to hear her speak over the yelling. When Farrah smiled, it felt like the sun coming out after a week-long snowstorm.
“Nice to meet you.” And it was. I didn’t know if it was some sort of magic universe voodoo that made me like her instantly but I did.
“May I touch you?” she asked, holding out a palm to me.
I laid my own on hers.
She smiled again before speaking, “Yes, it was you.”
“What was?”
“A short time ago, maybe a few centuries back, I started feeling the presence of another energy. It was you I felt. I thought I recognized it the moment you stepped into our home but I wanted to be sure.”
“Sorry?”
“No, don’t be. You see, I’m the most sensitive of us all to fluctuations. The other two here didn’t think anything of it but I felt you. I just don’t understand how you came to be like this. Do you know?” She leaned in closer like I could offer her answers.
“You mean how Paddy did his thing to me? I was there but I’m not sure exactly how it went down, but it wasn’t that long ago.”
“But how did you come to be this way?” Her eyes searched my face as if I were being obtuse.
“Because of what’s happening?” I had no idea what Farrah was saying, and I started to wonder if she were even sane in the sense of how I’d think of it. Maybe there was a reason she stayed quiet.
“You lied!” Paddy’s voice boomed from where he was standing across the expanse, bringing everyone to silence. “You never had any intention!”
He and Fia were staring at each other in a way that made me want to back up and make a hasty exit. I had enough problems. I didn’t want to get involved in their domestic dispute. Unfortunately, the old guy that looked like he was going to go nuclear was my only exit.
“This needs to end and right now!” Fia screamed at an inhuman pitch and thunder rang out like I was standing right beside a bolt of lightning.
“You can’t! I’m not sure I can anymore,” Paddy lashed out, no longer sounding like Paddy at all; the voice was of a younger form that I was certain lay beneath.
Yeah, definitely time for my exit. This was the last time I was accepting one of his invites.
I looked over at Farrah. “Is there any way you could give me a lift?”
“Certainly.”
Chapter Eighteen
Farrah popped me into Fate’s garage alone. I didn’t want to broadcast where I’d been to the occupants of the house and doubted I’d be so lucky as to find the living room empty again.
I cracked the door open as quietly as possible, hoping to situate myself out on the deck like I’d been reading all morning. I tiptoed into the hall and the first thing I noticed was it was dark out. How long had I been gone?
There was still hope. The house sounded quiet, the only noise was the AC kicking on.
I took another step in and saw why. Everyone in the house was sitting either on the dining room chairs or the couch. No one was speaking or so much as moving in their seat. Alarm bells rang. They all were transfixed on a spot I couldn’t see. Was Malokin there? Had he breached the wards? My adrenaline cranked into full output. I needed a gun.
I turned, planning on going back to the makeshift armory in the garage, when I heard Fate’s voice, “And no one saw anything?” Indignation, impatience, agitation and anger were all neatly packed into his tone. It wasn’t Malokin; it was even worse. It was a furious Fate and I knew what had pissed him off. I’d been gone way longer than a few minutes this time and hadn’t left word with anyone, which were the house rules.
One by one, their heads turned towards me as I entered the room. I saw eyes widen as their gaze split between the two of us.
“What’s going on?” I asked in a light, hey, everything’s good here voice.
I could see Fate’s chest rise and fall as he looked at me. Oh boy, this was definitely about me going missing. “Murphy? You turn the AC up again? It’s freezing in here. Going to go grab a sweater,” I said, looking for any excuse to move the brawl, which was sure to come, out of the gladiator arena and away from the spectators.
No one said anything as I walked past, not even a stutter of a reply from Murphy. But I had everyone’s rapt attention as I moved toward the hallway that led to the bedroom.
I hadn’t taken more than two steps down the hall before I felt Fate breathing down my neck behind me. His hand landed on my back, hurrying my step as I walked into the bedroom. He shut the door firmly but I didn’t care how upset he was. I had my own issues.
“Where have you been?” He crossed the room and was in my personal space, hands on my arms, pulling me to my toes.
I looked directly into his eyes, wanting to make sure I didn’t miss even the tiniest part of his reaction. “I’ve been visiting with your relatives. Who, by the way, seem to live a few miles short of Sanityville.”
“You went to see them without me?” he asked. His words were softly quiet but not what I’d describe as a gentle whisper. It was more along the lines of let me get this straight before I really lose my shit.
“Yes. You don’t deny that you’re somehow related? Were you ever going to let me in on that?” Looking at him now, I was positive I was right. There was a connection, whether he admitted it or not. Maybe not enough to make him a glow stick on the inside, but it was there.
“Do you realize what could’ve happened?”
I didn’t think he realized but his fingers dug into me as he said it.
“I had Paddy’s word.” I pushed off of him with my palms on his chest and he released me, both of us going to opposite corners, not sure who’d won the first round.
“Because he’s been so reliable in the past?” he threw back at me, gearing up for round two as he stood beside the dresser.
I swallowed as he threw my own fear back at me but decided that I wasn’t going to let that divert me from the subject of his deception so easily. “What about the fact that you never told me you’re somehow like them?”
I was across the room, arms folded over my chest as I stared him down.
His jaw tensed; one hand was on his hip and the other lay fisted on the top of the dresser. The air in the room seemed to be filling with his anger.
He finally looked at me again, and I saw in his eyes the same thing I’d seen at the convenience store, the same thing that had probably made Gun Guy call him a scary fuck. Knowing with surety that he wouldn’t hurt me was the only thing that kept me in place when that stare was leveled at me.
He finally spoke. “Do you know that just going there could’ve killed you?”
“And you know that because you’ve been there how many times?” I pointed my finger in the biggest aha movement ever, refusing to bow down to him.
He scowled and shook his head. “You know nothing.”
“Then you’re denying it?” I asked as we officially entered round two.
“No, I’m not. It doesn’t matter. What matters is you could’ve died.”