Ann Aguirre: Mortal Danger

Wedderburn inclined his head with an icy crackle. Kian held his silence, imperturbable in the face of death. In fact, a faint smile curved his mouth, as if he were glad to do this for me. Only this wouldn’t solve anything, and I wanted him with me, not as a martyr whose picture I could clutch and weep over.

“Wait,” I blurted.

“You have no cards to play,” Wedderburn said.

Inspiration struck; epiphany finally clarified into certainty. “That’s not true.”

Kian’s eyes widened and he shook his head, frantic. He tried to intercept me, but the clown wouldn’t let him.

You know me so well. But you’re not stopping me.

“I’m ready to ask for my final favor. Since Kian isn’t allowed to fulfill it, as you’ve disavowed him, then that falls to you, right?”

Wedderburn fixed on me an enigmatic look, steepling his fingers. “Correct.”

I hesitated, thinking about my dad and Davina, who might need protection down the line. But those were maybes. This was Kian’s definite death, here and now. I could not watch him die when I had the power to save him.

For someone like me, there could only be one choice.

“Edie, don’t. Let me go. It’s better this way. If you’re with me, you’ll never achieve what you’re meant to, and you’ll end up indentured. I told you in the note—”

“Then I want Kian set free, now and forever, truly free, untouchable by any immortal in the game. No tricks, no shadows on his timeline. Free .”

As I spoke, Wedderburn nodded, and a final line appeared at the bottom of my infinity symbol. Just like the first two, it burned as if someone held a soldering iron to my skin. I hissed as the sting faded. Asked and answered, now Kian and I have matching ink. Curling my left hand into a fist, I reached for Kian with my right. He looked as if I’d died for him, and I just didn’t know it. Yet he stepped to my side and laced his fingers through mine.

“Your services won’t be required,” I told the clown-thing.

“Today,” it corrected. “Ultimately, my services are always in demand.”

“You may go.” Wedderburn didn’t watch as his executioner strolled out. Instead, he was focused on me. Incredibly, he was smiling. “You’ve just won me a great deal of money, Miss Kramer, along with a fair amount of prestige.”

I froze. “What are you talking about?”

“From start to finish, you’ve behaved exactly as I predicted you would. A handsome boy, a forbidden romance … well. This outcome was inevitable. For a clever girl, you’ve been a bit of a disappointment in some respects. In others? You performed beautifully.”

“Because you wanted me to burn my favors. And I have.” Realization swept over me, along with a steaming hot burst of chagrin, but I couldn’t let Kian die.

“That’s been my goal from the start. If you think I care how you used them, then you don’t understand my strategy at all. Now, darling girl, you are precisely where I want you.”

He turned to Kian. “This doesn’t solve your problem with the Harbinger, though, does it? Since he’s not part of the game. But … that’s not my concern. I’ll have your watch back now, if you please.” The cold one touched a metal wand to the wristband and the thing fell off like a dead insect. I shivered. “The two of you may go.”

“Wait,” Kian protested.

Wedderburn leveled an awful smile on him. “Enjoy your freedom. I’ll ensure the others know you’re no longer in play and may not be used for ancillary maneuvers, either. Go. Be human.” He packed a world of scorn in the last word.

I tugged on Kian’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

This might not be a victory, only a reprieve, but I practically ran out of the office and I didn’t stop shaking until we reached the lobby. Iris came around the desk to block our path; she wasn’t smiling. The receptionist held out a hand expectantly.

“I’ve been informed that your employment has been terminated, Mr. Riley. I need your passcard back. Your security codes and clearances will be revoked immediately. I have also been instructed to inform you that if you appear on this property without a written invitation from any of the partners, I’m to have you arrested.”

“I understand,” Kian said, digging into his wallet and turning in his badge.

He seemed dazed as we stepped out into the wan winter light. People hurried about their business-coat collars pulled up and scarves wrapped about the lower half of their faces. I had never noticed how much the same everyone looked in their black coats, like a flock of ravens fluttering in the same direction. Some of them tapped at their phones as they moved and the motion put me even more in mind of pecking birds.

I pulled him toward the T station since he didn’t mention his car being parked anywhere nearby. If I guessed right, he hadn’t brought it, not expecting to need a ride home. “Let’s go to your place.”

That roused him and he fixed furious green eyes on me. “What the hell did you do?”

“The best I could. There was no other way to save you.”

“Now you’re at Wedderburn’s mercy. Trust me, that’s not where you want to be. Edie, you could end up—”

“Indentured. I know. But maybe I won’t. I refuse to believe who I date has that big an impact on my future. Anyway, I don’t care. The most important thing is that they can’t hurt or control you anymore.”

“That’s completely beside the point.”

“Not to me.”

“Damn you,” he whispered.

Then with the people swirling past us, he drew me into his arms and rubbed his cheek against the top of my head. “Don’t you get how this works? I was supposed to save you.”

“Says who? The favors were mine to use on whatever I want most. And, Kian … I need you with me.”

“Just when I think I can’t love you more—”

“You … love me?”

“God, yes. I’m in so deep … and now, you have no use for me. You’re still in the game, what do you need with an awkward, human boyfriend?”

“I’m human, too,” I reminded him. “And … I’d do anything for you. I just did, in fact. In case you haven’t figured it out … I love you, too.”

“But I’m a liability, Edie. The ones in the game can’t touch me, but immortals are devious. They could contract with noncombatants like the Harbinger, and now that they know I’m your Achilles’ heel—”

“So I’ll buckle on some ass-kicking boots—”

Kian cupped the nape of my neck and leaned in. His lips brushed mine, once, twice, then he nuzzled a path over my jaw to my ear. Rush of warm breath, and he kissed the side of my throat. Not what I expected, better, because it was tender as a rosebud yet not too much for the people surging around us. Gazing up at him, I swallowed hard.

“Wow.”

“You said something about my place?”

“Yeah.”

He slid his hands down my arms and turned our wrists to look at the matched set of marks. “I don’t know what’s coming, but I’ll be there with you.”

“That’s all I could ask.”

“You’re a miracle,” he said softly.

“Einstein said something like there are two ways to live: as if nothing is a miracle or as if everything is. And the fact that I’m alive? That’s the miracle. If I’ve helped you at all, it’s only because you saved me first.”

Kian cradled my face in his hands. “Whenever I’m ready to give up, there you are, hauling me to my feet.” I opened my mouth but he said it for me. “I know. We’ll be okay. As long as we’re still breathing, there’s hope.”

I didn’t kid myself it was over. Dwyer & Fell would challenge my place in the timeline—try to derail me while Wedderburn plotted, schemed, and protected his queen. At the end of next semester, I could end up indentured … or worse. The thin man was still out there, along with the old man with the sack, the black-eyed children, the clown executioner, and doubtless other monsters that I hadn’t encountered yet. Like Kian, I’d burned all my favors too fast and it might come back to haunt me.