The Glass Man (9 page)

11

“Where are we going?” I couldn’t stand the silence in the car any more.

“Seven Gates,” Liam said.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

He gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened. “It’s the gateway to Dun Bray, the city of the Seelie Sidhe and their Court.”

I leaned forward as if that could help me make more sense out of what I’d heard. “English, Liam. I don’t understand what you just said.”

“I know you’ve been wondering what we are.” He fidgeted in his seat. “We’re fae—Sidhe as we’re originally known.”

“What? Fae, as in faerie? You have to be joking.” I laughed, but it faltered. “I’ve read every fairytale and legend from old Celtic, to Greek, to Norse to see if anything fit what Parthalan is, but nothing ever did. And the fae are supposed to be small and winged. You’re not small and winged.”

“Legends rarely get anything right. Your mother was the queen of the Seelie Court, and now that everyone in the royal family is dead … but you …” He sighed. “You’re the queen of the Seelie Sidhe.”

I ignored the sickness in my stomach. “Are you telling me you’re not human?”

“I’m telling you we’re not human. You and me, and all of the men you met in the last two days. We’re fae.”

“I don’t understand what that means!” The words flew out in a shrieking panic. My mind ached under the weight of the truth. “Are you saying I’m like Parthalan?”

“You will never be like him. He’s the most sadistic—God, you know what he’s like. He’s the King of the Unseelie Court. Before the humans started destroying the planet, we were one people. We serve the spirit of the earth, the Goddess. It’s her heartbeat that filled you before you healed me.

“We were the guardians of her creatures, but we disagreed on what to do about the humans. We split centuries ago after our civil war. Half of our people believed that no life should be destroyed. The other half wanted to wipe out the human race. Your mother led half to Dun Bray, a hidden city created for her by the ancestors after the fae war. The queen of the Unseelie led the rest and took the Black City. Parthalan killed her six months ago.”

We both tensed when headlights came over the hill in front of us and huffed out breaths when they passed us by. In the light, fresh tears glistened on Liam’s cheeks.

“The queen,” I said, “was she your wife?”

He laughed, but it held barely contained sorrow. “My mother.”

“Shit.” I didn’t want to feel sorry for him. I wanted to hate him, to humiliate and hurt him, but the knot in my stomach wouldn’t listen to reason.

I chewed on my finger while I thought. “But your eyes are more like mine, and the rest of those men—fae, whatever—have eyes similar to Parthalan. If your mother was the queen of the Unseelie, then …”

“After the war, my father followed your mother, and my mother stayed as queen of the Unseelie.” He took a jagged breath. “I look like he did. Both Courts consider me a half breed now, but the Unseelie accept me because I’m the former queen’s son. To some, that still means something.”

“A half breed? But you said they were one people once.”

“We were one people, Lila. You included.”

I let out a groan. “Whatever. Just go on.”

“The Seelie are vain, but generally kind. They cherish life, but they hold a gigantic grudge against the Unseelie. The Unseelie are more accepting, but they’re purists when it comes to protecting the sanctity of the wild lands. They hate anything that carries Seelie blood, anything that would preserve human life. I don’t know the reason for the differences in eye color, but anyone who lives primarily in Dun Bray beneath the faerie mounds has developed deep blue eyes, and the ones from the Black City have the ice blues. You and I are the only exception to that rule—and no, I don’t know why.”

My fingers wove together. “Why do I want to touch you and Parthalan so badly, like the need to breathe? It makes me sick.”

“It’s a fae thing. We touch for a lot of reasons. Comfort, to feel connected to one another, as a form of communication. We’re insatiable sexual beings, and we’re drawn to some more than others, like you and I are. It can be intoxicating and sometimes even addicting.”

“Great. Just fucking great.” I stewed over that for a minute. “Why do the insects have a fit when he’s around?”

“They only react when he’s near you, so I think it’s the Goddess’s way of warning you.”

“Does your mind feel—heavy when he’s near you?”

He looked at me in the rear view mirror. “Heavy?”

Great, so I’m the only weird one.
“It’s like his presence pushes me away.”

“Hmm. Maybe it’s because he’s your polar opposite, the night to your day. The two of you can’t exist naturally with the other, but you still have a profound connection to him, two halves of a complete cycle.”

I shrugged. That actually made a lot of sense. “You told me you believe the humans need to die before the world will recover. Did you mean it? Would you really help him destroy the human race?”

“Yes. No. Hell, I don’t know. Until I met you, the answer was yes, but now …”

“Now, what?”

“Nothing. Just drop it. I can’t think.”

“Fine. It all sounds ridiculous, anyway.” There were so many questions floating around my head I didn’t know which to ask first. “Is your father still alive?”

Liam turned the radio on and cranked it up. A twangy country song boomed out.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since your mother left Dun Bray twenty years ago. Seven Gates has been impassable since then.”

“Wait, how old are you?”

“Six hundred, give or take a decade or two.”

I groaned, wishing I’d wake up and find the whole conversation a bad dream. “Why did my mother leave?”

“To hide you, I think.”

“But why?” Was she ashamed of me?

“God, I don’t know, all right? All I know is that some believe you have the potential to become the most powerful of the Sidhe. Most of us receive some form of
cumhacht
, power, once we come of age—yours is the Force of Will—and once a mating has been granted by the Goddess, we receive another
cumhacht
. The common belief is that you’ll be blessed with more gifts than the standard two, and so will your mate.”

A thought niggled me, coated my veins with frost. “What do you mean by a mating?”

He met my eyes in the mirror. “A marriage, a bonded pair.”

I coughed, numbness sweeping through me. “You used the word mating for a reason. How do two fae become a mated pair?”
Don’t tell me. Please, don’t tell me.

When he did nothing but hunch closer to the steering wheel, I pounded on his seat with the heel of my hand. “You’ve got to be shitting me! It’s true isn’t it? That’s what happened back there with the voices and the light. You said something about a blessing.” I waited for him to respond, but he still said nothing. “Tell me!”

“All right!” He turned enough I could see the tight lines around his mouth and his crinkled brow in the lights from the dash. “Sex isn’t always required, but yes, we’re mated before the Goddess, it’s true. God, why do you have to be so fucking observant all the time? If Parthalan finds out—Jesus, I am so fucking screwed.”

“How could you do that to me?” I grabbed on to the seat when my internal world spun.

“Don’t go at me like I had a choice. Do you really think I’d cross Parthalan on purpose?”

My head swam with confusion. The memories of what we did played in my head. Echoes of pleasure rippled through me, and I fought to keep the effect off my face. I remembered the look of fear in Liam’s eyes, the way he stumbled over his words. I sighed. “No, I guess you wouldn’t.” I paused for a while with a strange twinge in my stomach. “Do you regret it?” The instant the words left my mouth, I wanted to take them back.
Why the hell did I have to ask that?

Some of the rigidity went out of Liam’s posture, and he sat back in his seat. “No, I don’t. What I felt with you—your scent, your skin, the look in your eyes, the feeling of your spirit slipping through me—was the most incredible experience I’ve ever had. Even if I die tonight, I won’t regret what we did together. Even though I didn’t choose this, I wouldn’t undo it even if I could.”

“We have to undo it. Yes, it was—” I shook my head, unable to find a word that would end that sentence in a way that didn’t make me sound like the sex-starved lunatic I’d become under his touch. “I will not be tied to you. Once we get to Dun Bray, I don’t want anything more to do with you.” My hands strained to reach for him again before I pinned them between the seat and my legs. A fist tightened around my lungs. Part of me wanted his comfort, to become lost in his gaze again. Never had anything felt so right. Never had I found a peaceful corner to curl up in, a place where the horrors of my life couldn’t reach me.

My teeth clicked together.
No! He betrayed me. He’s one of them. It was all a lie.

“If there’s a way to undo it, I don’t know it. You felt the power we created together, and I know you enjoyed my touch as much as I enjoyed yours, so stop being so stubborn and accept it. It’s the will of the Goddess.”

I cracked up at the sheer absurdity of his words. “Fine. That’s just great. I’ll find a way to undo it on my own.”

“You won’t be angry at me forever. You’ll realize soon enough that you can’t stand to be away from me for very long.”

I made a disgusted groan. “You arrogant, pompous shit. I’ve never needed anyone, and I certainly don’t need you.”

He shrugged, settled more comfortably into his seat and draped one hand over the steering wheel. The corner of his mouth twitched with a grin. “We’ll see.”

Scowling, I slouched against the seat and crossed my arms over my chest. “What’s your
cumhacht?
” I needed a change of subject.

“I can suppress power that comes from the mind. I can’t touch power like Rourke’s because it’s a force that comes from the cellular level. His power requires touch, so it’s limited, at least.”

“And what about that fireworks show in the cellar.”

His muscles flexed, but he didn’t say anything.

“Fine, keep your damn secrets. Tell me what Parthalan wants from me.”

“I told you, I don’t know.”

“I don’t believe you. Regardless, what do I do now?”

“Sit back and let me get you to Seven Gates, that’s what. If you can get inside, I’m sure you can find one of your people who can answer the rest.”

Numbness swept through my body as his words sunk in.
My people.
I slumped against the window as if someone had let the air out of me. “Just for the record, I think you’ve completely lost your marbles. But let’s pretend what you’re saying is true, and my mother wanted me to become the leader of these—fae you talked about. I don’t know the people of Dun Bray, the Sidhe-whatever. I mean, where have they been all this time? Why didn’t one of them come to get me, or at least tell me what the hell I am?” My voice had fallen into a squeak. I clutched at the worsening tightness in my chest.

“Why are you crying?”

“I’m not crying! Why didn’t my mother tell me? Why did she let me wander through life thinking I was a mutant, or a freak? How could I not be human?”

“It’s not so bad,” Liam said.

“Let me recap. I’m supposed to be some faerie queen of a people I’ve never heard of, and I guess that means Parthalan killed my family to further some political agenda. I’m expected to single-handedly defeat a raging lunatic, and now I’ve ended up in an arranged marriage to a lying dirt bag. Does that about cover it?”

Liam sighed. “Just try to get a bit of sleep. You’re overwhelmed, I get it. It’s a long drive, so take some time to think it through, and I’ll get you home.”

Home?
Dun Bray wasn’t my home, and there was no way Liam could be the person my mother meant to take me there. She had no more use for liars and cheats than I did. I wanted to scream as my emotions boiled over, years of not knowing, of loneliness. Sorrow and anger crashed in on me all at once with the weight of an entire ocean. I put my hands over my face and turned to the window, pulled up my knees and clenched my teeth until it dissipated. The car grumbled down the road as country music filled the silence with pathetic songs of heartbreak, to the beat of drums and the whining of a steel guitar.

The screaming of tires called back my wandering thoughts. Liam grunted as he hammered the brakes, and the car lurched to a stop so fast I slammed into the back of the front seat.

12

“What’s happening?” I swallowed to get my heart out of my throat and peered through the seats, rubbing my chest. Dust filled the wedge of headlights in front of us. When it cleared, a gasp burst out of me. More wolves than I’d ever seen stood in rows, like ranks in an army—at least ten wide, maybe twenty or more deep.

“Fucking wolves.” Liam jammed the car in reverse, but when he threw his arm across the other seat and twisted to look out the back, he shook his head and turned forward again. “Behind us, too.”

When he threw the car into gear again, I pressed myself between the bucket seats and grabbed his shoulder. The jolt of energy that raced up my arm threw me for a second, preventing speech. “What are you doing? You can’t just run them over.” I looked out at the golden eyes and bared teeth, my chest heaving above my frantic lungs.

“Those wolves have chosen a side, Lila. You need to choose yours.”

“Shit.” He was right, but we couldn’t just kill them. Could we?

“I’ll huff, and I’ll puff,” Liam said as the tires squealed against the pavement. The car lurched forward on a collision course with teeth and fur.

I only had time to fasten the seatbelt around me before the vehicle reared up as though a giant had picked it off the pavement by the front bumper.

Both of us screamed. The car fell backwards onto the roof—a terrible sound of crunching metal and the tinkling of broken glass coming as it hit. Liam, who hadn’t fastened his seat belt, crashed down onto the roof. He looked up at me, where I dangled upside down in my restraint, defeat clear in his eyes. They widened, and he clutched at the seat. His scream pierced the eerie silence.

“Liam!” I couldn’t see the reason for his pained cries, but I reached out my hand to him as I struggled with my seat belt. Before I unbuckled the latch, he disappeared out the broken window.

I hardly saw him go.

When I freed myself and fell, I scanned the road through the shattered window, looking for Liam. He sat on the pavement outside. His bare skin bore long jagged cuts from the glass. A white wolf had its jaws around the back of his neck, growling and tugging at him. Liam’s hands pried against its teeth but only managed to slice his fingers.

“Stop it!” I scrabbled through the glass to get outside. “Let him go!”

“Oh, Lila,” Parthalan said through a deep sigh as he leaned against the front of the car. He crossed his legs at the ankle, and his arms over the breast of his thousand dollar grey suit. “This soft spot you have for Neanderthals and traitors is your greatest failing. I will cure you of it in time.”

“Here I am, dickhead.” I pulled myself to my feet using the car door for leverage. “Now call off your dogs, and let Liam go.”

“Let him go?” Parthalan belted out his twittering bird laugh again. “Oh, you are amusing, princess. He’ll most certainly be coming with us to the Black City.” Those arctic eyes swept from me to Liam, turning from amused to rage filled. “Whether he comes whole or in pieces will be his choice.”

My stomach churned, and my head throbbed.

Parthalan sauntered over to Liam, crouched down beside him and angled toward me. “I suppose you told her about us?”

Liam grunted as the wolf shook him again. “She deserved to know.”

Parthalan rolled his eyes, but his attempt at nonchalance didn’t cover his annoyance. “Tell me Liam, what are you keeping from me?”

“Nothing!”

With his lips stretching into a malignant grin, Parthalan grabbed Liam’s jaw and squeezed. Whining, the wolf let go of him, bowed its head and backed away. Parthalan whispered into Liam’s ear. He struggled at first, kicked his feet and growled, but as the seconds passed, the color drained out of his complexion, and he fell silent. The light faded from his eyes, leaving haunted shadows behind. He swallowed hard.

“Stop it!” I ran forward a few steps before a ruddy wolf blocked my path. “Whatever you’re saying, stop it! What difference does it make? You’ve got me, so enough with the fucking king of the hill routine.”

With his lips pressed against Liam’s ear, Parthalan laughed and threw Liam back. His head smacked against the pavement. Parthalan drew his foot back and launched it into the fallen man’s ribs—or fae, or whatever the hell he was. The wet, cracking sound of breaking bones sent a jolt through me. I flinched and clutched my chest as if I had been kicked.
Why did I hurt so much?
I’d heard of sympathy pain, but the ache in my ribs went beyond that. My anger still chewed at thoughts of him, but something else had snuck in there, too—something I didn’t understand. A tightness set into my heart that had nothing to do with physical pain. I didn’t want Liam to die, but why did I care if Parthalan kicked him around a little? Hell, an hour before, I wanted to do it myself.

“Because you are not of darkness, Lilabear,”
the ghost of my mother’s voice echoed in my head.
“You care even when it’s hard, even when you have been wronged, because that is our way. Open your heart and trust what it tells you. Come home, my love.”

“I won’t fail you,” I whispered to my mother’s spirit as Parthalan continued to beat Liam. The copper taste of his blood filled my mouth. My flesh ached in the places where bruises appeared on his skin. The wolf in front of me planted its feet and barked as I moved forward. “I will never be you, Mother. I will never fill your shoes, but as long as I live, I—won’t—fail—you.”

The wolf snapped at me, backed up a step.

Then another.

And another.

Parthalan paused to wipe splatters of blood from his face and looked up. I didn’t know what he saw in my face, but he turned toward me, his body rigid, fists held tight.

My focus shifted to Liam, cold worry spreading out from my soul. He didn’t move at first, but after a few seconds, he moaned and wrapped his arms around his stomach.

I let out a breath I’d been holding and took another step, and another. Fury replaced the cold with scalding heat, and I hoped it shone from my eyes as I fixed them back on the wolf who guarded me. “I don’t want to hurt you, wolf, but don’t test my patience.” My voice had degraded into that even, unemotional tone again.

Step.

Step.

Step.

The wolf tried to hold my gaze but ended up dropping its amber eyes, shook its head and turned to Parthalan as if looking for guidance or permission. He gave a flick of his narrow fingers, and the wolf turned back to me, hunched in on itself and slinked away, whining.

“Who did you say your father was?” Parthalan pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his blood-speckled hands with it.

I gave him my ‘fuck-you’ smile.

For the first time since I’d met him, he appeared on edge, his face held so tightly, little lines appeared at the corners of his pursed lips. “Only the Unseelie have power over the Goddess’s beasts. I’ve suspected for some time you were spawned by one of mine, even though you look pure Seelie. I’ve had my doubts about your potential, but perhaps the ancestors were right after all.” He grinned, erasing the uncertain mask and unveiling the evil clown again. “We will see tonight if you live up to the prophecy.”

Prophecy? What the hell did he mean by that?

I took another step. “Your wolves are a bunch of pussies.” I laughed, a stumbling, drunken sound. “I’m surprised at you, Glass Man.”

Step.

Step.

“Haven’t you learned by now that all it takes to shake a pack of weak dogs is a dominant who won’t stand for their shit?” My voice boomed by the time I’d finished.

“Rourke,” Parthalan called, amusement glinting in his eyes.

“God, can’t you do anything yourself?” I edged closer still.

“Would you please escort my future queen to the car?”

“What?” I squinted at him as if that could help me make sense out of what I’d heard.

Liam echoed me a moment later, groaning as he rolled over to look up at the gloating fae with wide, horrified eyes. “You can’t.” Liam coughed out the words. “The Unseelie would never accept her for their queen.”

“You would be surprised, my little traitor, what I can and cannot do, and what my people will accept given the right … motivation.”

Still shirtless, Rourke appeared like a good little doggie. His eyes begged to give him a reason to hurt me.

I maneuvered to the left to place a wolf between us and played eye ping pong with him and Parthalan, who, in the moment I’d looked away, had moved closer. My lungs seemed to think I’d been running an iron man race, huffing and straining for air that wouldn’t come fast enough.

“I’m not sure what fantasy world you live in, Parthalan,” I said. “But I won’t be your anything, and certainly not your queen.”

As if a door had opened between us, Liam’s spirit slipped inside me, filled me like whiskey to the brim of my crystal glass. My knees buckled, and I flailed my arms but found nothing to steady myself with. Something unfamiliar gurgled in my throat before a drunken giggle burst from my lips. I clapped a hand over it.

“Jesus,”
Liam’s voice whispered through my mind.
“Yes, it feels good, but could you be a little more subtle about it?”

Why could I hear Liam in my head?

Rourke cocked his head and furrowed his brow at me. He looked across at Parthalan, who gave that meaningless shrug he usually reserved for me. A subtle nod followed.

I didn’t know what to do. It must have been part of the mating process the Goddess did to us. I dropped my eyes to Liam briefly.

He urged me with his eyes to do something. 
“Just think at me, and I’ll hear you,”
he said.

“But—”

“We don’t have time for questions! Now shut up and listen. And stop looking at me.”
Liam broke off when Rourke circled me. I twisted my body to keep both the creepy ones in my sight.

Parthalan made that difficult, moving closer, walking an opposite arc to Rourke. The wolves fled back to stand in a line at the side of the pavement.

Cowards.

“If you’ve got something to say, Liam, hurry up and say it, already!”

“What’s the matter?” Parthalan asked in his singsong voice, his eyes wandering up and down my underwear-clad body. He licked his lips. “You’re looking a little unsettled. Come to me, princess. Let me sooth your aches.”

“Fuck you.”

Rourke sniggered. Parthalan didn’t. His lips pursed together.

“Why the drama, boys?” My voice came out strained and not as steady as I would have liked.

“Even a kitten without her claws may have … concealed weapons hidden in her delicious fur,” Parthalan said. “Other skills we haven’t yet seen.”

Sweet.
I’d go with that. I flashed a wry grin.

“Don’t fight them,”
Liam whispered in my head.
“Go with them, and I’ll come and get you. Tone it down, or what Rourke did to you in the cellar will seem like a little slap and tickle.”

“Are you out of your damn mind? Why would I do anything you say?”

“Clancy,” Parthalan called. Something in his voice made everything in my body tense. When I tore my eyes from Rourke—edging ever closer—I found the Glass Man’s glare cast toward Liam. It was not a happy look, but a suspicious, considering one. Had he figured out we could talk?

Clancy, with his round, pudgy face, emerged from the shadows, lumbering the way a much larger man would. His lip swelled and bled. Maybe someone had kicked the crap out of him more recently than I had. That’d be a shame.

“If it isn’t good doggie number two,” I said. Everyone cracked up, except Clancy and Liam.

“What are you doing?”
Liam snapped.
“Do not antagonize them, or this is going to get a whole lot worse.”

“How could this possibly get worse?”
I paused.
“Wait, don’t answer that.”

“I’ll show you how doggies do it, bitch!” Clancy cupped his crotch and withdrew a silver handgun from beneath the lapel of his black suit. “Not so fucking tough without your little Force of Will, now are you?”

“Not her, you idiot.” Parthalan spoke to Clancy as though he had trouble hearing or his I.Q. equaled that of a sack of hammers. “Stay here. Question Liam about what he’s hiding and how he was communicating with my little princess, here. Each time he doesn’t answer, shoot him.”

“No!” I lurched forward a step. “I didn’t know we—”

“Don’t say it!”
Liam warned through our mental link.

In the moment Liam distracted me, Rourke wrapped his sinewy arms around me from behind and lifted me off the ground. I grunted and kicked at him, but all I could reach was his ankles. He walked backwards past Liam’s overturned car. I wondered why he’d do that, but of course, Parthalan would want an audience. Stupid me.

“So, you are just a harmless kitten after all.” Rourke licked the side of my face.

“God, you are such a freak, Rourke,” I blurted between grunts. “Did your mother drop you on your head once too often, because you are one grade ‘A’ psycho.”

After a brief, crooked smile of satisfaction, Parthalan turned back to Clancy. “If that doesn’t work, start cutting things off.” He walked up to Liam, who clutched at his ribs with one arm while trying to scramble away, and hoofed him between the legs. “Starting with that.”

Screaming, Liam writhed on the ground, clutching his crotch. A painful echo hit me a moment later. I resisted the urge to cover the same spot.

“Stop it!” I shouted, but Rourke took that moment to squeeze the rest of my air out. I coughed and sputtered before his arms eased back.

“I’ll be fine,”
Liam’s breathy voice whispered through my head again.

“Look, I might be pissed at you, but I will not leave you here to die like this. Please! Just tell them.”

“We’d all die where we stand. There are things I can’t explain to you right now, but I give you my word I’ll be fine. Stall the ceremony until I can get there.”

“Your word doesn’t mean shit to me.”

“Would you get over yourself!”
He groaned.
“You don’t have a choice. Do what I say for once.”