“The reason I came home absolutely filthy yesterday was not because of Nash. I happened upon a group of scoundrels outside your job site at the armoury and had a rather aggressive discussion with them.” He clears his throat and continues, “They were writing something vile on the hoarding around the side that I knew would upset you, so I intervened. What I was able to gather from before things got out of hand-”
“I know about the graffiti,” I interrupt Augustine and his delicate explanation. He freezes underneath me, and I feel an inkling of some bad feeling just behind my ear again, but I press on even as my stomach twists. I will tell him everything that happened today, and I am going to make him tell me everything those people said. Although first, we need to go all the way back to the beginning. We need to step back and review every dot to make the connection we need to finish this picture.
“What do you know about Fae magic?”
21
Joanna
Déjà vu is weird and fucked up.
Augustine’s warm hand in mine grounds me as the elevator opens to the basement of the armoury. The fluorescent lights are the same, the damp smell still floating around the air. Nothing seems weird or different besides the fact that I am breaking into a job site on Saturday night instead of letting Augustine lull me to sleep and chase me through my dreams. My fingers flex against his as we stand in front of the door and wait.
Wednesday’s conversation repeats in my head over and over again. Lines are being drawn towards dots, and a vague shape is taking form. Like the scaffolding surrounding the building, the structure is there, but I can’t see what’s inside. I can’t figure out why I am being targeted or who is going through all this trouble for what feels like nothing.
My stomach twists with nerves and I jump when a low feminine voice suddenly calls out to us.
Heading towards us from the opposite end of the hallway is a tall, beefy woman who looks about forty years old. Her dark hair is flecked with greys and piled up on top of her head and she is wearing a uniform from the Wild Woodlands Trust. I’m not sure how to feel about letting another stranger into the site office to begin with, but Augustine convinced me that if I wanted to make sure there was no magic left in the basement, the fucking fae queen would be the person to check. That is a whole different world that I am struggling to wrap my head around.
Monsters being a part of my world? Fine, apparently. I had seen proof of it, and facts are facts for a reason.
Other realms existing next to ours? That is just a step too far for me right now.
“Breathe,mon abeille,” Augustine whispers against my cheek, and the knots in my stomach loosen with the heat rising in my cheeks. A tingling sensation behind my ear makes my blush stronger when I meet his gaze. One problem at a time, I remind myself. I can add Fae Realm to my list of topics to discuss with him later, after a game of hide and seek.
“Auggie.” She smiles big and broad when she reaches us, flashing thin, razor-sharp teeth. Up close, I can see the high points of her ears and how her dark skin actually glitters under the fluorescent lights. “And you, what is your name?”
I gulp when her full attention is directed at me. “You may call me Jo,” I say the practised phrase Augustine gave me.
She makes a friendly ‘pft’ noise and punches Augustine’s shoulder. Sands from under the collar of his jacket slip out before she can make contact with him. Her gaze returns to me, and I see a twinkle in her eyes. “You may call me Nora, or my queen.”
Augustine growls at Nora’s flirting and my nerves crack with a big smile on my face. The fingers wrapped around mine become tipped with talons and the feeling behind my ear shifts. I knock my hip against his, and the urge to remind him to be nice is almost overwhelming. We want Nora’s help. He can swallow his feelings for a bit so we can get this done with. I am his, and he knows it. He just wants to put on a show.
I put in my new PIN for the door lock and flick on the switch quickly. Just like the first night I was here, the switch from dark to light makes me flinch a little, but everything else is clear. No mess or masked men hiding in dark corners.
And Augustine is here, in this room. I am awake and his sands are covering my whole hand like a protective blanket. I take a deep breath and turn around to look at Nora. Her lips are pursed as she looks around. She drops the backpack she’s carrying onto the floor and crouches down. She pulls something from her cargo trousers and then whispers to it. When it starts to glow, I see it’s a little crystal and I have to contain my questions. I want to ask Nora a lot of stuff, but I hold my tongue. I don’t know what’s an appropriate question and I don’t want to interrupt her work.
“This place will always fill me with shame.”
I blink and look up at Augustine. His expression is pinched as he looks down at the floor. While I have vivid memories of what happened that night to a certain point, the whole after is black and Augustine gave me a scrubbed version of what happened with Deg’Doriel and Nash. I don’t know how bad it was when they opened the door and Augustine saw everything.
“You did everything you could,” I say, wishing I could make him feel how grateful I am that he was able to do what he did. If I hadn’t been at the library that night, if he hadn’t followed me, I probably would have died. Those guys would have delivered their message and then gone on their merry way while I laid in the dark, alone and forgotten. My regret about that stems only from my desperation to do well at my job, to prove I could do it.
Augustine saved my life, and has given me a new one, an eternal one that I will get to spend with him until the world ends. He is my hero, my saviour. I don’t want him to feel anything but my love for him. I want him to know that buzzing, sweet warmth that takes over me is because of him and only him. That he makes me feel alive and like a person who is allowed to take up all the space I need.
“I should have sensed them.” His jaw clenches and I see his lips stretch. “There was no reason for it to have happened that way. I was not focused on you the way I should have been.”
“Stop.” I pull him down and kiss the corner of his mouth. The tickle behind my ears flutters for a moment and Augustine’s shoulders slump slightly. “There was no reason to think there was anything wrong. I am alive because of you.”
“Joanna,” he whispers, something in his voice shaking, but I give him another kiss to distract him from what he is going to say. There is no point rehashing the events of that night. It won’t do us any good at this point. Those guys are dead.
There is a loaded sigh from the far corner of the room.
“Goddess, you are cute. You sure you only want one mate?” Nora looks wistfully at us as she asks. Augustine sneers again and she snorts. “There is definitely still something here, but I’d have to take apart this whole room and probably even the wall to find it.”
“You can’t do that. Your majesty.” I add quickly. Nora winks at me again and the blush rises in my cheeks. I run my hand over my face and blow out a heavy breath. “Okay, so what do we do now?”
“I mean, from my end, the magic still here won’t cause side effects. Any non-humans you have working for you will probably be able to sense it, but it’s not like it will hurt them. The magic here isold,old,but harmless.”
