Skeiron zipped me back to his subterranean palace, straight into the room where he was holding Ash. The instant we materialized, my brother flew off the bed where he'd been sitting cross-legged and tackled me. I staggered backward but clung to him as fiercely as he clung to me.
"Zee!" Ash clinched me hard enough to make me gasp. "I knew you'd come back. Can we go home?"
"Soon, I promise."
His saucer eyes latched onto my gaze. "I don't like it here."
"I know." With a pointed look at Skeiron, I told Ash, "I have to talk to our host first, but then we are going home."
Possibly to die.
I pulled Ash tighter to me and kissed the top of his head. Then I said something I'd never said before to my brother. "I love you, Ash."
His head popped up again, his eyes no longer wide but squinted with befuddlement. I tried to clap the old lid on my emotions, but my hazmat-level containment had fractured. My face must've revealed everything — my guilt at failing to protect my family, uncertainty about what was to come, and so much more — but my brother noted only the fact of what I'd said.
A grin broke out on Ash's face. "I love you too, Zee."
I mustered a smile, weak but genuine. "I need you to trust me, sweetie. I will get you home, but first, I have go outside for a few minutes."
His eyes widened again as he bit down on his lower lip.
"I'll be back," I said. "Just a few minutes."
Ash nodded, eyes glistening with unshed tears. He scampered over to the bed, hopped onto it, and dangled his feet over the edge. The heels of his sneakers bumped the wooden bed frame with each swing of his feet.
A shadow shifted in the far corner, and I abruptly noticed the obsidian-armored sylph posted there.
I led Skeiron out into the corridor.
He shut the door. His expression revealed nothing, but he watched me as if waiting for me to initiate our discussion.
Trying for nonchalance, I let my arms hang slack, my shoulders relaxed and rolled back, resting my weight on one hip. The mistake I'd made before was allowing Skeiron to witness my fear and anger. Time to rein it in again, Lindsey.
This part of my plan required cool detachment and clear thinking. I hadn't shared the details about this phase with Nevan, because he would never have agreed to my surrendering to the king if he knew. I needed him far away, gathering our allies in the relative safety of the mortal world. Of course, he couldn't breach the boundary on his own, which left him vulnerable.
To Brennus. To whoever framed me for murder. To Skeiron and his freaking army of sylph warriors, all armed with magic while Nevan had none.
Focus, Lindsey. You've got the power here, remember?
I deliberately met Skeiron's gaze, ignoring the cold that slithered through me at the eye contact. "I want to make a bargain with you."
No reaction. "What sort of bargain?"
"You want me to help you cross the boundary." My fingers had started to twitch. I closed them into loose fists. "I want a few things in return."
"Bargains are formal agreements with magical power."
"That goes both ways, you know."
He crept closer, bending forward to loom over me.
I squelched the impulse to back away. This was it.
His eyes glinted with pure white and seethed with putrid green. "Speak your demands."
"You release my brother and agree to never kidnap, harass, injure, or kill any member of my family ever again. They are safe from you and everyone who is, was, or will be associated with you."
He slanted lower, descending over me. His odor, sharp and sulfurous, suffocated me. I fought back a retch as he plunged his head down to sear his gaze into mine. "In return, you will share the power of the Janusite with me and only me. You serve my will, without question."
"As long as you're king."
He blew a breath out his nose. "As long as I am king. You will also remain with me, physically present at my side, for the remainder of your life."
"Or the remainder of yours, whichever ends first."
"Agreed." He smirked, clearly certain he'd outlive me.
"One more thing." I resisted the urge to scuffle backward, to escape his vile presence. "You will call off Brennus. No harm will come to Nevan for the rest of his existence and you'll return him to his full power, releasing him from any and all bargains he made with you, as well as from the curse on his heart."
I didn't believe Skeiron had really cursed Nevan, and Nevan believed I'd broken the curse anyway, but I wanted nothing omitted from this bargain.
Skeiron's tongue snaked out to moisten his lips. "Nevan has no value to me anymore, so I accept your conditions. In return, you will have no contact with Nevan for the duration of your bargain with me." He snatched up a lock of my hair, coiling it around his index finger, and pulled it taut. "Our bargain will last forever, you realize, as I am immortal."
But not invincible. The king had no idea Nevan apprised me of that fact.
I squared my shoulders, clearing my throat. "Do we have a deal? Based on the parameters we've outlined since the moment I initiated the process by stating my clear intention to strike a bargain."
He brought his finger to his lips, my hair wrapped around it, and inserted his long finger into his mouth, lips puckering around it as he sucked. His face contorted in disgust. He spit out my hair. "You taste of him."
"Do we have a deal, Skeiron?"
He straightened, a tower of muscle and menace. "Yes. A bargain is struck."
Magic shot through me, fire lashed with ice, electricity sparked by rain. The ground trembled, or maybe my legs quivered. I struggled to keep my footing as the power of the bargain coursed through me.
The energy faded into a simmering discomfort and I regained my equilibrium.
Brennus appeared beside Skeiron. "I was a feather's breadth from capturing the guardian. Why have you commanded me to return?"
"I have struck a bargain with the Janusite."
Though I supposed Janusite was an improvement over wench, I still fumed at the moniker. "I have a name."
Skeiron sniffed. "I've no use for mortal names. You are a tool, not a comrade."
A tool. Fabulous. I prayed I'd done the right thing, instead of just royally screwing myself and everyone who mattered to me. The one thing I'd most wanted to ask for had been the one thing I could not request.
That he leave the mortal world alone.
Skeiron would never have made such a vast concession, what with multi-world domination tops on his to-do list. Saving my family and Nevan was the most I could ask for and I was banking on my ability to craft a solid bargain — and on the hope Skeiron wouldn't finagle a way around my terms. I bore sole responsibility for saving the world.
Not entirely accurate. I had my allies. My well-armed family, a tough sheriff, and one testy fae. My best hope for rallying those allies lay with a singular sylph clad in armor, who wielded a magnificent sword.
Nevan believed his current lack of power made him useless. I would've bet on him in any fight — unpowered, unarmed, with both hands tied behind his back. But my deal with Skeiron, sealed by our mutual agreement, ensured Nevan would regain his full power.
I pointed toward the doorway. "My brother."
"Will accompany us to the portal, which you will open. Once we are through, your brother may return to your family."
"And Nevan?"
"He has been restored."
I'd have to trust him on that point, since I'd agreed to stay away from Nevan for the duration of our bargain. An ache throbbed in my chest, squeezing my heart. I'd couldn't see Nevan again, much less touch him. And God, how I yearned for the comfort of his arms around me. Out of reach forever.
Unless I succeeded. Unless I liberated two worlds from a tyrant.
Me. The one-time man-killer who'd hidden out in a rock shop for three years, too afraid to deal with the past.
Nevan's voice echoed in my mind. You are a goddess, in every way. Time to act like one.
I was more than the frigging Janusite. I was Lindsey Astrid Porter, daughter of gun-toting hippies, girlfriend of an immortal elemental warrior from the Bronze Age, and the tough chick who'd blasted .357 rounds at a sylph king and bridged two worlds to resurrect my lover. Plus, I'd talked a powerful being into agreeing to every one of my demands.
No time for basking in my accomplishments. The greatest risk of all was ahead of me.
The door pivoted inward and Ash trotted out, escorted by his sylph guard.
"Let's get moving," I said. "We've got a boundary to cross."
*****
I punched through the falls and sidestepped onto the ledge, my hair glued to my face and my clothes dripping. Goose bumps pebbled my skin, chilled by frigid water. I threw a hand up to shield them from the brilliant sunlight, as my eyes slowly adjusted. Humid summer heat blanketed me, turning my drenched self into a clammy mess.
Ash tumbled out of the falls. I snagged his hand and urged him onto the ledge beside me, scooting sideways to make room.
Skeiron leaped out next, lithe as a cougar, far more agile than either of us mortals. With one smooth stride he penetrated the cascade and pivoted to march onto the ledge, pushing past me and Ash. We crushed ourselves to the cliff to avoid getting shoved off into the deep pool below us.
When Nevan had taken me through the waterfall, he whisked me onto and off of the ledge. Skeiron made no effort to aid us. He leaped across the wide gap between the ledge and the wooden railing, vaulting over the barrier onto the dirt path where I'd first seen Nevan. Hand in hand, Ash and I inched along the shelf.
Brennus hurtled through the cascade in raven form, wings spread wide, water spraying out. His wings whooshed as he soared past us, high into the sky and out of sight behind the trees.
Ash and I reached the ledge's limit. A good fifteen feet out and six feet down separated us from solid ground, with the railing in the way. Skeiron waited on the path, gaze fixated on me.
"Need a hand?"
I yelped at the familiar voice. Ash jumped, reeling into me, and the momentum thrust us forward, our feet skidding on the wet stone.
A rangy body swung out in front of us, halting our fall.
Tris frowned at me. "So ya do need a hand. Eh, lady?"
"You scared the hell out of us." I slapped his arm. He moved past me to hover in the air just beyond the ledge's end.
He was floating. Actually floating.
"Whoa," Ash said, staring wide-eyed at Tris. "Who's he?"
"A leprechaun," I told him. "Tris, about my brother… "
"Got a safe place to hide him." Tris rubbed his neck and grumbled. "Nevan wanted to come get you, but he couldn't. Something about bleeping foolish mortal women. I'm paraphrasing. Nevan's powers are back, but cripes, that dude still has issues — and he knows about your new bargain."
The deal with Skeiron prevented me having any contact with Nevan. He must've sensed the prohibition, much the way he sensed when I was in trouble back in the palace. "Nevan sent you?"
"Yep." Tris offered me his hand. I took it, and since I was holding Ash's hand, the three of us winked out of and back into the real world, our feet now on the path about twenty feet from Skeiron. Tris cast a wary glance at the king and hunched his shoulders, jamming his hands in his jeans pockets. "Nevan don't know the details of your bargain, but he ain't a happy camper."
"Tell him to trust me, stop bitching, and do what I told him."
The leprechaun grinned. "Sure. Love to."
Without so much as a wave goodbye, Tris grabbed my brother's arm and they vanished.
The sylph king watched with arrogant satisfaction as I approached him. "Your fae friend will not save you. Nevan cannot save you. The bargain you entered into binds you to me forever."
Our deal stated it remained in effect until one of us died. He assumed I'd die first and my enslavement would last essentially forever, in mortal terms. Good. My plan relied on his misconceptions.
Skeiron herded me down the path, past the vortex, and through the rock garden into the parking lot. The Porter family motor home hunkered there, parked near the exit onto the highway, but the shop seemed oddly deserted. I wondered why he hadn't poofed us straight to the boundary. This death march of ours made worms wriggle in my gut.
But it was more than the walk. Everything seemed off. I struggled to figure out why, when the truth hit me.
Silence. No birds twittered. No cars hummed on the highway. Even the rumble of the fans inside the shop had gone quiet.
The door of the motor home burst open. My parents rushed out, their arms loaded with — well, arms. My father had slung a rifle over his shoulder and wore a gun belt with a holstered semiautomatic pistol on his hip and extra ammo clips attached to the belt. Mom gripped a shotgun, with her favorite .357 revolver and its speed loaders clipped to her belt, ready to reload on the fly. She had another handgun berthed in a shoulder holster, while Dad carried a second rifle in a sheath strapped to his back.
I'd never loved them more than in that moment.
My parents stopped halfway across the parking lot, their stances wide, their gazes and expressions hardened into steel.
Skeiron tipped his chin up, sweeping his haughty gaze over them. "If you wish no harm to come to your daughter, lay down your weapons."
Mom targeted her 12-gauge shotgun at Skeiron. "Touch my daughter and I'll blow enough holes in you to make your head spin for a good long while."
"He won't hurt her," Dad said, resting his hand on his holstered pistol. "He needs her alive. We're just here to make a point."
"And what point is that, puny mortal?" Skeiron asked.
Nevan materialized in front of my parents. His impressive armor glittered in the sunshine. He set his mouth in a determined line, his eyes twin supernovas, his body a vision of sinuous muscle and contained fury.
"The point," Nevan said coolly, "is to show you Lindsey will never be alone."
How the hell was he here? The bargain —
Nevan winked at me, his eyes glittering.
And that's when I understood. He held a trump card nothing could outplay. He owed me his life. Though I remained bound to Skeiron, the part of our deal forbidding me from seeing Nevan could not override the life debt. I'd granted him permission to come to me whenever he deemed it necessary.
A flash of movement drew my attention to the shop's entrance.
Travis sauntered down the walkway, his strides long and purposeful, one hand firmly on the gun on holstered on his hip, the other gripped around the barrel of a rifle. He wore his sheriff's uniform and his eyes were clear, his face molded into a stern expression.
Stan marched out of the shop behind Travis. His tie-dyed shirt and rumpled khakis clashed with the M-16 rifle he held in both hands.
My allies. My army. Pride swelled in my chest for this ragtag group of family, friends… and Nevan.
Without thinking, I took a step toward him.
An invisible force yanked me back. I grunted in surprise, stumbled, caught myself.
Skeiron sniggered. "You belong to me, wench."
Wench again? Oh, he'd suffer for that. "Let's go to the fucking boundary already."
"Not yet." His arctic smile frosted my blood. "It's time to teach you a lesson about bargains."
I recoiled a step, gravel crunching under my boots.
"Did you believe," he snarled, "you could outwit me, the king of the sylphs? I have negotiated bargains since before your kind learned to paint outlines of their hands on cave walls."
My gaze shot to my parents and then to Nevan, who'd switched into warrior mode, stoic and rock-still.
"Your family is safe from me and my associates," Skeiron said. He pointed a finger straight up, indicating the sky. "But not from the elements."
I stared up at the heavens, a ceiling of deep azure arching over our heads. A gray blob appeared, swelling and churning, transmuting into a writhing mass of purple and black. The air thickened, charged with a faint current that crackled over my skin. The humidity choked my lungs.
The storm cloud swallowed the sky, plunging us into a false twilight. Lightning slashed the air. Thunder detonated, the ground shook, and balls of sizzling, white plasma disgorged from the clouds. They bounced along the gravel to fizzle out at our feet.
I waved my arms above my head. "Get inside!"
My parents retreated into the RV. Travis and Stan bolted for the store.
Nevan remained steadfast in his position twenty feet from me and Skeiron, the sword in his hand, its tip directed at the ground.
The storm unleashed a torrent of rain. It inundated us and clogged my vision, but bound to Skeiron, I couldn't move unless he bid it. Tiny hailstones pecked my face, arms, chest, stinging my skin.
The sky mutated to grayish green, washing the world in an eerie light, and a clattering, rumbling racket erupted overhead.
Skeiron seized me, and in the instant he teleported us away, I glimpsed the source of the tumult.
A tornado was descending on the heads of everyone I loved.