While eating, I studied my surroundings. The pair had been here a while. But why? If Talen was free to leave, why hadn’t he? And why would Kellee hang out here when he had that glorious apartment all to himself? What was keeping the sworn enemies together?
I scraped the dregs from the bottom of the bowl and fell back into the couch cushions, feeling more normal for the first time since I’d come back around to myself.
The quiet was thick but not uncomfortable. Occasionally, Talen would turn the book’s pages, and curiously, I found that papery scrape comforting. Only a fae would read old physical books.
“You said some things while I was… not all here.”
He looked up.
“You said, ‘He always breaks them.’”
“Yes.” Talen nodded.
“You know him?”
He hesitated, sensing he was on dangerous ground. “I know of Eledan. Kellee refused to believe me when I told him the prince wasn’t dead.”
“Wait.” I shook my head. “That’s not what happened. I told Kellee, and he came to you with questions.”
Talen blinked. “You remember incorrectly.”
“No, I remember perfectly. I saw the extent of Eledan’s warfae markings first and warned Kellee about him. I thought Kellee might decide not to visit if I told him. The fool came anyway and then… Well, I guess you know what happened next.”
He rolled his lips together, carefully placed a bookmark between the pages of his book and set it down beside his bed, next to a neat stack of paperbacks. The movements were slow, deliberate, buying him time to think.
“Talen’s right.” Kellee emerged from another doorway, carrying a bag of what I assumed were supplies. “He told me who the fae was right after we found you and got you away from Arcon. You and I didn’t speak, Kesh, not until that meeting.”
I laughed because how could he have forgotten our many conversations over the comms? Had they meant so little to him? His voice had been my lifeline then and during… the dreams. Always his voice. “The comms.”
The marshal emptied out his bag, avoiding my glare.
“Remember, we talked over the comms I made at your apartment. You told me about your job, told me a lot of things, and I…” I stopped and snapped my mouth shut. They were both looking at me, gazes filled with pity. “Don’t…” I heaved my withered body to standing. “I don’t… I can’t hear this. I don’t want to hear it…”
“The comms didn’t work, Kesh. The last time I spoke to you on the comms was when you went through Arcon’s scanners without me. I lost the signal right after. I didn’t see or hear from you again until the meeting with Larsen.”
“But we…”
The nights I’d fallen asleep listening to his voice, needing to hear him, to know I wasn’t alone.
I had been alone all along.
It had been an illusion.
Something inside me broke open, and a long, drawn-out wail left my lips. I crumpled to my knees and no longer cared about anything. Kellee had been my lifeline during those days and nights, my one hope, and it had all been a lie.
A hand touched my back. I shook it off. “DON’T TOUCH ME. DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME.” I scrambled to my feet. The two men watched me warily. Kellee was closest, but Talen stood behind him, ready, waiting—waiting for me to snap. “Don’t. Please don’t.” I blinked at Kellee. I didn’t even know him, did I? “We talked. For hours, we talked.”
He swallowed. “It didn’t happen.”
“You said—you said you needed to know I was real. That’s why you came to the meeting. I told you not to come and you came anyway.”
“I came because of an assault report—”
“You were never at the party, were you?” I already knew the answer.
He looked alarmed and then just sad. “I don’t know about any party.”
Then, the last time we had really spoken, he had learned I was the Wraithmaker. The entertainer gladiator. The fae’s pet killer. And to someone like Kellee, I was abhorrent. “You left me with him because I’m the Wraithmaker, didn’t you?”
He shifted back a step and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
“Then why come at all?” I asked. “Why come to the meeting?”
“Because I suspected he was fae and I knew, if he saw me, saw that I’m vakaru, he would reveal himself. I didn’t expect him to be so… powerful.”
I twitched, words breaking on my tongue. How could I know for sure what was real? “I think I want to go home now.” My container was a mess, but I could go to The Boot. I’d have a drink and see Hulia. It was something, anything. I wanted to go back to that life, not this one I now found myself in.
Talen turned away and stalked back to his book.
Kellee watched him go, a muscle twitching in his cheek. When he next met my gaze, he sighed. “You can’t. I had hoped to tell you when you’d had time to adjust…”
“Tell me what?” A thudding started in my head, burying Kellee’s voice.
“The fae came.” His voice cracked. “There’s nothing left.” He tried to say more, but words failed him. Turning back to his bag, he continued emptying it out. “We don’t have homes to go to.”
Eledan had opened the door. He had let his kind in.
“The people?” I whispered, thinking about The Boot, and Hulia, and the sinks. And all those people on Calicto. So many lives.
Kellee shook his head.
The darkness rushed in, and I heard the Dreamweaver’s intoxicating laugh. This time, I laughed with him.
Chapter 21
A sting dragged my consciousness back from oblivion. For a long time, I didn’t move from the couch the males had lowered me into and stared at the empty glass cage in the middle of the cavern.
Hours or days may have passed in silence, when I finally said, “Show me.”
Kellee wordlessly escorted me toward the prison’s dock. We passed through empty chambers, past abandoned guard posts and static scanners. When we boarded his little stolen shuttle and backed away from the prison, I watched through the screen as the dock grew smaller and disappeared into the cliff-like rock face.
“Anything larger than a four-seater and the fae ships will notice,” I heard Kellee say. He may have said more, but my thoughts had gotten lost in the stretch of black before us.
“Their tactics have changed since my people fought them,” he added.
I half listened and let the pleasant drone of his voice smooth my frayed nerves.
“I guess you already know their ships are organic?” he asked but clearly didn’t expect an answer as he continued. “They’ve evolved.”
I nodded. It was hardly surprising. If they could grow it, the fae could manipulate it. Kellee and I were both products of the fae’s genetic engineering, and Faerie was full of weird and wonderful creations—all built to serve the fae.
He talked more about how the ships had avoided Halow’s deep-space early warning systems. How much of it was Arcon’s doing, nobody outside the fae knew for sure, but when the fae came, the people in Halow had been defenseless.
Kellee slowed the small vessel as we approached an area of sparkling debris. When he pulled the shuttle to a stop, I checked the location screens, but something didn’t add up. Where was Juno? Flotsam drifted, glinting against the endless black of space. I pushed to my feet and leaned closer. What was I seeing? And then, the vast mass of the wreckage caught the light from a distant star. The devastation glowed, light flaring off countless shiny surfaces. Juno was gone. Nothing larger than our shuttle remained. The wreckage of the once beautiful station spun and turned, twisted and broken. Steel clawed at the dark. Glass shone like a dusting of stars.
That’s not glass.
I gasped, pulled back, and covered my mouth.
“It’s not your fault,” Kellee said. Somehow, his voice penetrated the noisy denials.
Tears skipped down my cheeks.
I couldn’t look but couldn’t look away.
The dust was… bodies. Thousands. Scattered among the wreckage, frozen and twisted. Adults. Children. So, so many.
If I had stopped Eledan, if I hadn’t wavered, if I hadn’t let his fae charm undermine everything I knew about them. I should have killed him the first chance I had. My stupid demands—to save Sota—were ridiculous. I knew what he was. I knew what he was capable of.
This was completely on me.
“How many?” I whispered.
“Does it matter?”