I went for the dagger I kept sheathed at my thigh, ready to stab her out of sheer frustration. But when I reached for it, I found it was gone. I looked around the room, confused. Again my mind felt shrouded in fog, and my memory became hazy. Where was the dagger? I reached for my back. The katana was also gone, but I couldn’t remember for the life of me where it could be. Had I left it in the car? Put it in the closet? I shook my head to clear my thoughts, and Delilah’s face blurred in and out of focus. Damn Fallon and his magic Fae fingers. What had he done to me?
“Where is she, Delilah?” My legs wobbled, threatening to give at any moment, and my arms felt too heavy to lift. “Spit it out already. Where is Brakae? I need to find her.”
“Darian.” Delilah sat up straight in her chair, her voice laced with bravado. “Darian, Darian, Darian. You broke me out of that prison, abandoned Tyler, and the gods know what else, when what you should have been doing was watching your back.”
Well, she’d snapped back into her old snarky self pretty damned fast. What happened to the bat-shit-crazy girl I’d dropped off at the PNT weeks ago? I should have known she wasn’t going to be grateful and spill her secrets as if we were the best of friends. Nope. I’d have to beat it out of her. Fine by me. Though I’d probably need a solid night of rest before I could do it properly. Jesus Christ, I was tired. When was the last time I’d slept?
“I warned you,” she said. “But you never listen, do you? You’re just so very tough. What did Tyler say when you left him? Was he understanding of your running off with another man?”
I answered her with silence. I hadn’t told Tyler I was leaving, or had I? God, I couldn’t form a coherent thought to save my life.
“You didn’t tell him!” Delilah squealed like a girl at a pajama party. “Oh wow. He is going to be pissed. You’ve never seen his nasty side, but I can tell you from experience…Tyler has an ugly temper when he has cause to show it.”
“Shut. Up!” I yelled, clarity singeing a path through my brain. I brought my face nose to nose with hers. “You are not allowed to talk about him. Ever. You used him to get to me. You would have let me die thinking he’d betrayed me.”
“Had to get you on board somehow. You were chosen. And the Enphigmalé needed a Guardian’s blood to be awakened. A Guardian…in love, no less.”
Guardian. Again. Fate laughed at my predicament, the separate events of my recent life twining once again into a long, complicated braid. The black-haired Shaede had called me a Guardian. So had Reaver. What the fuck was going on? And why was I always the last to find out? “Your plan didn’t go too well,” I said, backing away from Delilah’s stinking face. “I killed your gargoyles. Every last one.”
“Are you sure about that?” Delilah asked, her head cocking toward Fallon.
He stood in a flash of movement and brought his fist down hard against Delilah’s tiny skull. He knocked her right off her chair, actually. She fell to the floor with a thud, out like a light. My knees finally gave up the fight to support my body, and I crumpled to the floor beside her, staring without emotion at her still and fortunately silent form. Fallon stood above me, stroking my hair as if I’d become some sort of pet, and I fought a wave of nausea so strong, I thought I’d empty my stomach right there on the hotel carpeting.
“Shhh,” he soothed as he petted me. “Sleep, Darian.”
Magic twined around me, holding me warm and secure. I fell back against him as his arms gathered me close. Finally, I thought, I’m going to get some rest.
Chapter 21
I awoke to a pulsing warmth at my throat. The sensation didn’t disturb me; in fact, it calmed me and turned my bones into Jell-O. A body hovered above me, and warm breath fell on my bare neck as a finger caressed something hard and unyielding that lay against my skin. I felt rested, despite the crazy dream I’d had, as if I’d been sleeping for hours. I snuggled deeper against my pillow, my eyelids still too heavy with sleep for me to open. I recalled the details of my dream as I floated in the hazy realm between sleep and wakefulness. I’d become a thief, a kidnapper, and I’d left Tyler. I groaned as I struggled to fight the lethargy that clung to my mind. Surely my dream was more nightmare than anything. No way in hell would I ever leave Ty.
“Tyler.”
The warmth at my throat diminished as fingers lifted the heavy weight from my skin. I felt the rasp of a chain as it slid against my neck, but my brain was still too fuzzy to command my eyes to open. It had to be Tyler sitting next to me. I wanted to open my eyes, to look at him, but holy hell, I was so, so tired.
“I dreamt I’d left you without even saying good-bye. It was horrible.” My voice was thick with sleep. My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. I tried to lick my lips, but the effort exhausted me.
The warm weight returned to rest against my throat, and what I’d once perceived as a pleasant touch became forceful as a hand wound around my neck, forcing my face upward. “It’s time you forgot about the Jinn,” Fallon snarled. I came fully awake as if plunged into a freezing lake, and I stared into his angry gray eyes. “Do you understand me?”
My blood turned to ice as my mind regained coherency. This nightmare wasn’t something I could merely wake up from. It had become my reality, and my heart pounded against my rib cage like it wanted out as yesterday’s details flashed fresh in my mind. I pulled away and sat up, facing the bastard who’d managed to make me his prisoner. He leaned on an elbow and lifted the emerald pendulum, the thing he’d caressed so lovingly, the chain now fastened around my neck.
“I found it in your pocket. There’s no need to keep it hidden. Not now. You should wear it. It’s your right.”
I took a cleansing breath, wanting like hell to wish for Tyler’s help. I needed him so badly, and not just for protection. Only Tyler could fill the black hole that Fallon had managed to tear open in my soul. But something prevented me from speaking the words. The wish sat at the tip of my tongue but refused to go any farther. I sat bolt upright and looked down at the deep green gem, glowing softly against my skin. “Do you know what this is?”
Liquid silver flashed in his eyes. “Iskosia,” he said. “The Key. And you’re the only living thing this side of O Anel to possess one.”
“What is O Anel?”
Fallon laughed, launching himself from the bed with a jaunty bounce. “I’m starving! Aren’t you? There’s no room service in this dump, and even if there were, I wouldn’t eat anything prepared by a human. Stay here. I’ll bring you back a delicious breakfast, and you’ll see what you’ve been missing.”
Good God, but he was a daffy fucker. He needed a Prozac the size of a golf ball to deal with his personality issues. But if he wanted a contamination-free breakfast, then the better for me that he go in search of one. “I doubt you’ll find a meal within a hundred-mile radius not prepared by human hands.”
Fallon tapped his temple with his forefinger and headed toward the door, the same businessman guise sliding over his skin. He crossed the room to the bedside table, grabbed the phone, and jerked the cord from the wall, tucking it under his arm. “We have a long day ahead of us. I’ll be back soon.”
I sat on the bed with a silly grin plastered on my face. When I heard the door latch, I ran to the window, peeking through the curtain, and watched as the VW pulled out of the parking lot. I crossed the room with only one thought: Get the fuck out of here. I turned the knob and pulled the door, only to find it refused to open. Using the wall for leverage, I propped a foot against it, pulling with every ounce of my preternatural strength. The door would not budge.