The Glass Man Read online

  “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.