Slightly Spellbound (37 page)

A gold coin clattered to the floor at our feet and I turned.

Crux’s eyes were fixed on Kismet, who sucked in a startled breath.

With a cool smile, he said, “Coin for a Kis?”

It was exactly what he’d said that first time he’d seen me. He’d told the truth when he’d said he hadn’t come to Duvall for me. He’d been tracking my sister and had mistaken me for her.

Kismet pushed me aside, loaded an iron arrow in her bow, and aimed it at Crux’s heart.

“You will go back and say you couldn’t find me,” Kismet said in a low, very dangerous voice. Her green eyes shone hard as emeralds.

“It’s no use, Kis. Ghislaine knows I’d never stop tracking my quarry until I’d found it. She knows I’m in this town and that you were on your way here.”

“She can’t. No one knows that.”

He cocked a brow and made a sweeping gesture with his hand. “I caught you. You can’t pretend I haven’t.”

“I’m not caught,” Kis said, giving the tip of the arrow a little bob. “If I kill you, she’ll never know where I am.”

“It’s too late. I told her about Tammy.”

She let the arrow fly. It whizzed through the air, barely missing him when he flung himself to the side.

He scowled, standing with the liquid grace of a dancer. “You’ll return to the Never,” he said. “Both of you.”

“We will not!” I snapped. The Unseelie fae lived under Duvall, but the Seelie fae—my kinfolk—lived across the Atlantic, under Ireland and Scotland. “I’m not leaving Texas and my—my sister’s staying here in Duvall with me if that’s what she wants. Nobody’s taking her anywhere she doesn’t want to go.”

Crux folded his arms across his chest. “Caedrin will be sorry to hear that, since if you don’t come back they’ll kill his love.”

“That’s not our problem,” I blurted, too distracted to recognize the name at first.

“His love is named Marlee.”

I froze because that was the one thing he could’ve said to change everything. There was no way in the world I could stay in Texas if somewhere across the ocean, a faery queen planned to kill my momma.

“Oh,” I said. “Well, that changes things.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Kismet said. “She chose to enter. We’ll not risk our lives to save her, mother or not.”

My brows shot up. “Um, that’s not actually how our family works.”

Her cool green gaze didn’t soften.

Oh boy.

“Let me make you something sweet. It’ll make you feel better,” I said.
It’ll make me feel better, too.

“I’d like pie,” Crux said.

“You can starve,” Kismet and I said at the same time. She smiled at me, and I smiled back.

Crux appraised me coolly. I shrugged at him, but in the end, I did serve them each pie and cookies. Even though I didn’t like Crux, if I had to go into the Never, I wanted every faery I knew on my side.

I dumped ice cream and brandy into the blender and turned it on. As it churned, I called Bryn.

“Hey, it’s me. Tammy Jo.”

“I know,” he said with a chuckle. “How’s it going?”

I chewed the corner of my lip. “This day’s been full of surprises. Remember how we talked about going to Ireland?”

There was a pause before he said, “Yes.”

I turned off the blender. “Well, it turns out we might be going sooner rather than later.”

“We are not,” Kismet said.

“Why?” Bryn asked, apparently not having heard Kismet in the background. “When?”

“Well, I might be. You might decide not to.”

“Why is that?” His light tone didn’t cover the wariness in his voice.

I poured Brandy Alexanders into glasses. “My momma’s in trouble. I have to help her.”

“Your mother. Where is she?”

“That’s the tricky part. Underhill, I guess. I’ve got to get some more details about it. Listen, though, you don’t have to go,” I said, licking brandy shake off my finger. “Really. I’ll understand. I know how you feel about the fae, and I don’t know how this trip will affect me. I might not be myself.” I frowned. Maybe it really would be better if he stayed home.

“When you’re at your best, so am I. When you’re Bonnie, I’m Clyde, remember?”

“I thought maybe you just said that to needle Zach. I didn’t know whether you really meant it.”

“I meant it.” He sighed. “I just didn’t expect to have to prove it so soon.”

“I know. First a coma and now this! Luckily we got engaged, or Christmas would’ve been ruined.”

Bryn laughed. “Yes, so lucky. I’m sure we’ll be the envy of all our friends.”

I knew he was being sarcastic, but as I took a swallow of my ice cream drink, excitement bubbled inside me. I had a new fiancé and a new sister, and it was likely that soon I’d be on my way to see Momma, who I’d missed every day for more than a year. I was lucky to be alive.
Really lucky
, I thought, running a finger over my healing wounds.

“Yeah,” I said. “No doubt we will.”