A knocking came, interrupting our little standoff. Softly at first, tugging on the senses. A whisper that grew into a roar.
"What is that?" I murmured.
A focused look entered Arlan's eyes. A grin slowly spread across his face. "A late arrival. How timely. I have a feeling you're going to come to regret your stance, Aileen."
THIRTEEN
POWER CRACKLED, ELECTRICTY and magic crashing together. A storm was building, bringing with it a pressure that was impossible to escape.
Arlan's gaze lifted as magic cracked across the ceiling. "They're almost here."
"Who?"
He didn't answer, his magic barrier dropping as he stepped forward.
The sound of a bell tolled through the gathering, silencing the conversation.
The fairy lights dimmed as if a veil had been drawn over them. Magic shivered, flexing and coiling as though a great fist slammed against it.
"She comes," Arlan breathed.
The world parted and a woman wearing a long, slinky red dress stepped into the middle of the hall. Gold bangles wrapped around her wrists and biceps. The slit in the dress exposed lean legs and a gold belt showcased her thin waist.
Her face would have made artists fall at her feet begging to use her as their muse. Blood red lips parted in a smile as she noticed all of our attention on her. "My, my, it seems I'm late to the party. I do apologize. It's so hard keeping track of the passage of time in the different realms."
A snake slithered over her shoulder, tasting the air and drawing notice to her hair. What I'd thought was oddly streaked hair, bound in gold bangles, was actually snakes. Many of them.
A medusa. A creature from myth and legend.
Only she was very, very real.
Her gaze caught mine as one of her snakes trailed down her bare arm. Her smile deepened.
Was that a wink? Yes, yes it was. A medusa was winking at me. Not good. Not good at all.
"Callie," Arlan said approaching her. "So good of you to come."
Callie's hips rolled as she stalked toward him. "Did you think I wouldn't?"
"One never likes to make assumptions," Arlan demurred.
"You looked like you were having an interesting conversation," Nathan said in a low voice next to me. "Problems?"
"Nothing I couldn't handle."
Nathan hummed as he watched Arlan with the medusa. Hostility emanated from him, much more than the situation warranted. He was on edge. Tense and brittle. Very un-Nathan-like.
Nathan was always the one who never lost his cool. The situation could have descended into a clusterfuck of epic proportions and he'd greet it with a smile and sarcastic retort.
That was before. Of late, his trigger was a lot closer to the surface.
It would take little to push him over the edge right now and tip the situation to violence. Something I knew he'd regret later.
I waited, seeing what he would do.
He inhaled before pulling his attention from Arlan. His gaze flicked to me. "Consider this a rescue then."
The carefree grin broke through his stoic expression. It might have fooled me that this was the old Nathan if I hadn't seen the tightness he couldn't hide around the corners of his lips and eyes. That strain told me how difficult it was for him to be here, so close to a Fae, much like the one who had nearly ruined him.
