“But it was their spell she was under,” Livy protested. “Their magic that—that spread to him, or whatever.”
“Uh-huh. That’s what I told them, that they were full of cheating shit.” Kit examined the now faint streaks of blood on the paper towel. A bruise was forming on the bridge of his nose. “They laughed. I grabbed Redring and tried to strangle her.”
Livy was trembling with anger. “Okay. No. This is—they can’t do this!”
“So you would think. Yet they have been, for years and years. Probably centuries; it’s just my records only go back as far as our great-grandma, when our bloodline got involved.” Kit stuffed the paper towel into the trash, and limped over to pick up a plate.
Livy watched him spoon out pasta and salad, then looked in dismay at Grady and Skye. They leaned against the island counter, Skye’s arms around his waist, her head on his collarbone. Grady rested his cheek on her hair, while his tired blue eyes followed his cousin. So Skye had kissed Grady at some point in the past month, and infected him with the spell? Livy still didn’t get it, couldn’t make sense of these weird magical procedures, then decided it didn’t really matter how it had happened.
“I just have to get you both out of it, then,” she said.
Skye and Grady glanced at her, but didn’t speak. It was unnerving how they both clammed up when this topic arose. She wanted to shake them, shout at them to say something. But she could see in their eyes that they longed to speak, probably had a hundred things to say; it was just that their voices were shackled. The silence wasn’t their choice.
Kit turned with his plate, and forked up a pasta shell. “These local fae better have meaner moves than I do. Otherwise I am not liking the idea of you taking them on, Liv.”
“I don’t like it either!” She shouted it at Kit, since shouting at Grady and Skye wasn’t going to accomplish anything. “I don’t like any of this! I don’t like finding out that there are Teeny-tinies in the woods only to learn that they’re fucking stealing people. But, fine. The locals tell me this is how we get out of it and there is no other way. You’re the goblin liaison and therefore the locals can’t come to you. These two are…magically compromised.” She flung a hand toward Skye and Grady. “So it’s down to me. Do I want it like this? No. But that’s how it is.”
They all stared at her. She expected Kit to tell her she was crazy, argue with her, maybe tell her she was being a bitch. But in Grady’s face she found gratitude; in Kit’s, admiration; and in Skye’s, a fierce, loving approval.
“In that case,” Kit said soberly, “I’m glad we’ve got a knight in shining armor, because it looks like there’s three of us in this tower to rescue.”
Livy and Kit stood by the VW in the sodden, cold night, trying not to watch while Grady and Skye kissed goodnight for two or three minutes among the sculptures outside Kit’s cabin.
“I can’t believe I didn’t know they were together,” Kit said. “Or that I didn’t realize he was under a spell. Or that I tried to attack the goblins, again. God, how am I so clueless?”
“I didn’t know any of that stuff till tonight either.” She glanced at her sister, who was still drinking in Grady’s kiss like they couldn’t breathe unless they were connected at the mouth. “Guess that explains how they’ve been spending the past couple weeks.”
“Yeah, I wondered, but…” Kit shook his head. “This is awful. I mean, we have to wait? Till they give in, and walk into the woods alone some night? We just stand by and watch, then act?” He sounded anguished.
“I hate it. But that’s what the locals said.”
“They better give you one hell of a magic sword to take with you, that’s all.”
“I’m hoping it’s more like a magic shovel. I don’t know how to use a sword.”
Kit snorted.
She met his gaze. “I’m sorry,” she said after a moment. “For not believing you. For all the things I said.”
“Hey, it’s a sign of your intelligence that you didn’t believe me.”
“Living with this, all these years…” She exhaled, puffing out her cheeks. “I can’t even imagine what it’s been like for you.”
He scraped a mud fleck off her side mirror with his fingernail. “I hate that it’s involved all of you. But at the same time, I’ve got to admit, it feels really good to tell someone.”
“I bet. I’m going to have more questions for you tomorrow.” She nodded toward her sister, who was finally disentangling from Grady. “But we should call it a night.”
“Yeah.” Kit turned to Skye as she approached the car. “I’m sorry,” he told her gravely.
She nodded, and squeezed his upper arm through his jacket, a gesture of solidarity, or forgiveness. Probably both.
Kit opened the car door for Skye, and she slid in.
Grady shambled up too, hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets, and when Livy looked at him, he said, “I’ll still come tomorrow, but don’t pay me anymore. Please. You shouldn’t.”
“I should. I insist.”
“I’m barely even cooking lately.” He sounded wretched.
“You’re still better at it than me,” Livy said. “Besides, you’re bringing us groceries. I at least owe you for that.”
Unconvinced, he bowed his head and looked away, his sigh becoming a cloud of fog.
Kit shut Skye’s door, and he and Livy locked eyes again. “Well. Goodnight,” she said.
“We’ll talk soon.”
“Yeah.” She hovered, tempted to kiss him, thinking it was the least she could do. In the end she turned away instead, and slogged around to the other side of the car, alone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
WHEN SKYE AND LIVY HAD DRIVEN AWAY, GRADY STAYED IN THE YARD BEHIND THE CABIN, HUGGING HIMSELF, GAZING up at the treetops.
Kit’s step crunched the gravel off to his left. “They live up there,” he said. “Up in the trees. Not here on the island really, but in the national forest on the mainland. I guess you know that, though.”
Grady had begun to guess as much, but he couldn’t nod or otherwise answer. He looked at Kit a second to show he was listening, then let his glance get pulled back up into the woods.
“They have these weird houses up there, like a treehouse village, like Skye drew. You can’t see it unless they invite you in and you take their path. Which you’ve never done, I guess. That’s what I made them promise they wouldn’t do to you. Lot of good it did.”
Right. Instead Skye had invited him—Help me—and he’d taken her path, stepping off the main trail and through the underbrush to reach her, to taste the enchanted fruit of her mouth. Grady forced his gaze down instead, to the solidity of the ground.
“They’re getting too damn bold.” Kit sounded bitter. “There’s no precedent for this, for them taking someone close to the liaison. Not that I’ve found in the records, anyhow. They usually just pick on random people.” Kit sighed. “Not that that’s any better. And I guess liaisons before me were better at protecting the people they ought to protect.”