12
Sera wiggled her toes uncomfortably in Helen's old, cracked-leather boots, the brown hide faded and creased from where they had been flopped over in the cramped closet that she shared with Aline. She was pretty sure that her feet were a size bigger than Helen's, but she hadn't wanted to offend her hostess' kind offer to replace the shredded disaster of her own favourite boots. They had also managed to turn up a wrinkled, black Clave cloak that had belonged to Aline once Sera had asked for anything that might resemble the right shape. While the others had watched in confusion, Sera had unscrewed the handle from a broom and then nodded in satisfaction as she looped a cord around it.
Her Portal had opened just next to the graffitied concrete wall that marked the entrance to Otherios' home. Steadying herself against it, she shook her head. Need to take it easy for a bit, she thought to herself, knowing even as she did that it might prove to be a tall order. She took a few deep breaths of the cool night air and waited for the dizziness to pass, taking stock of herself.
A few throwing knives remained strapped to her thigh above where she had tucked her ragged pant leg into the borrowed boot, and she still had her crossbow hanging down her back with two nearly-full tubes of bolts. The pilfered broomstick handle was slung over one shoulder on an improvised cord, and the cloak was bundled into the crook of her left arm. Blood had crusted in her tangle of gold and platinum waves, but she could care less what she looked like now. In fact, it might even be help her case with the fat little troll. What she didn't have right now was a fat sack of cash.
Her alarm rune flared to life under her hand, and then she leaned back to wait for him to emerge. Idly, she examined her nails, and was surprised to find that her hands were shaking. She clenched her hands into fists. Keep it together.
A concrete slab grated across the gravel near the water and Otherios' trademark stink wafted up nauseatingly. The troll squirmed upward through the opening. For one terrifying second, his horribly unrecognizable towel caught on the edge and Sera was certain she was going to be sick if it fell away, but he heaved his gut over and hauled the dirtied cloth back into place.
The scowl on his heavy face slipped slightly when he saw her and his mouth sagged open, putting the ground-down stumps of his yellowing teeth on full display. Whatever grumpy greeting he had been cooking up for her died on his bloated lips. He stared.
Sera shifted under his silent gaze. "Otherios... I'm sorry for coming back so soon..." The troll remained silent, and Sera turned her eyes down to avoid what she saw in his face. "I need your help again."
Even though the troll barely stood higher than her waist, she felt small standing there. Asking for help had never been her thing. She had always been able to work or pay for everything she had, and her life had taught her to rely only on herself. But the walls that she had put up had started crumbling the moment she had decided to free Rayce at any cost. She wasn't used to being so vulnerable.
"Girl..." the troll started, still absorbing her battered appearance.
"I don't have any money this time," Sear warned, gold eyes raking him from under her eyelashes, and her hand hovered unconsciously over her remaining throwing knives.
Genuine hurt filled his eyes when he saw the motion, his usual disgruntled act discarded, and he shook his head sadly. His gravelly voice was uncharacteristically quiet when he asked, "What kind of help?"
Sera sighed with relief. "I need you to take me in. All the way." She expected a barrage of complaints from the little Faerie, protests about how it would be impossible to take a human into the Seelie Court, but again, he surprised her. His lumpy head nodded slowly and he hiked up his loincloth again.
"I'll still name a price, girl, whether you have cash or not," he said.
"Whatever you want," she answered tiredly.
"Honesty." Sera blinked. The troll lifted one too-long finger and poked it in her direction. "No snark, no sarcasm, no lies. You answer me truthfully." She dipped her head in assent, confused at where this was going.
He drew himself up and puffed out his chest, eyeing her carefully to watch for signs of deceit. "Whatever you're doing – is it worth it? Worth all of," he waved his hands at her, "this?"
She closed her eyes and felt a line of tears well up as her lips pressed together, but she willed herself not to cry. She reached up and rubbed the back of her hands across her eyes and looked back at the troll, who seemed surprised by her emotional reaction. "Have you ever been in love, Otherios?"
His clicked his mouth shut and blew a gob of snot out of one nostril in disgust. "Phaw. Never. Love costs too much." He lifted his brow at her knowingly. "Sometimes it costs you everything."
Sera shook her head. "Then even if I can find the words to explain how 'worth it' this is, you won't be able to understand. But the short answer is, 'yes'." She felt naked under his scrutiny as he stood there with his hands on his hips to take the measure of her answer.
Finally, he seemed satisfied. "You just keep track of what its costing you, girl, and make sure its not more than you're willing to pay."
He turned away from her and waded into the water, then motioned for her to follow him. Sera clutched the cloak tighter and then squashed the guilt that came with stepping into the cold water in Helen's boots.
When she drew alongside him, knee-deep in the current, he reached out and gently touched the brace of throwing knives. "And I would have done it because you're my friend, Sera." He was full of surprises tonight.
Otherios took her hand in his slimy, grey-green grasp and took one more step forward. Together, they vanished.
Sera gasped and opened her eyes in an earthy tunnel that smelled of loam and damp wood. Bright Faerie light glowed in a pair of woven sconces that appeared to be crafted out of delicate tree roots.
"This way," Otherios said in a hushed voice, leading her forward. The lights along the wall brightened and dimmed with their passing, and time seemed to stretch as they walked. They might have trekked on for minutes or hours; Sera couldn't tell. At one point, she felt a fierce pressure build in her temples, and she recognized it as the same feeling she had experienced with Rayce, when they had crossed what he had called a 'seam'. The tunnels remained deserted, and she was alone with Otherios and her headache.
The quality of the passage started to improve, and Otherios slowed cautiously. "Do you have a genius plan for getting a Shadowhunter past all the angry Faerie knights and into the Queen's apartments?"
"As a matter of fact," Sera answered with a cryptic grin. "I do."
"I sure hope so. You wouldn't believe what happened to the last guy who tried to get in unannounced." Otherios scratched under his paunch.
Endeavouring not to notice the hideous gesture, Sera shook out the Clave cloak and shrugged into it, pulling the dark folds around her comfortably. "Then it's a good thing I'm not a guy."
Otherios' eyes bulged in disbelief. "Is that a cloak of the Conclave?"
She nodded once and worked on settling the makeshift loop created by the cord around the broomstick across her chest. The troll's mouth flapped open and closed as he sputtered, "That's a terrible idea!"
Sera ignored her friend's protests and closed her eyes to concentrate. She reached down and pushed the cloak out of the way to close her left hand around the lower half of the broomstick. A moment later, a perfect copy of Rayce's staff shimmered over it as the glamour rippled outward from her rune. Then she laid her right hand over her heart and brought Rayce to life in her mind, feeling her pulse quicken as she did so. Strength poured into the mendelin that bloomed, and with a sigh, she became her prince of the Courts.
Otherios gasped at the transformation, but Sera waved him off. The clock was ticking now, and she wasn't sure how much gas she had left in the tank if she needed to re-apply before reaching Arynessa. She now looked like an exact copy of Rayce as she had last seen him on Seraphine's balcony with Gwyn's mantle draped across his shoulders. Sera chivvied the troll in front of her so that his staring wouldn't wear away at the glamour.
With his dark cloak flaring out behind him, the Lord of the Hunt stalked confidently through the widening tunnels toward the private apartments of the Seelie Queen.
The Seelie Queen's amethyst eyes flashed in annoyance when she looked away from her lover to reach for an iced goblet of water touched with raspberry and mint that had been left on the side table. She lifted it to her lips to take a sip and then fixed a smile in place before turning back to Solarius, sliding closer to him on the couch they shared in what had formerly been her mother's apartments.
"I worry about acting too precipitously, my love," she said lightly, downplaying her irritation. She smoothed the soft white silk of her dress over her thigh as she crossed her long legs seductively. The Seelie crown shimmered atop her loose, lilac-hued tresses.
"Precipitously?" The Rift Lord's pale-blond eyebrow lifted delicately. "I worry about acting too slowly."
The Queen sighed. They had been arguing about this ever since a massive surge had rocked through the ley network around Alicante. Through her network of spies, she had been able to learn of the Unseelie King's betrayal of the Shadowhunters, but she doubted that he had fully grasped the far-reaching consequences of that bit of fun.
The Rift had been carved into a natural chasm of ley line power, and it relied on the earth's magic for its survival. It existed neither within the realm of Faerie nor in the Mortal world, and there was a delicate balance of power that kept it that way. With the sudden and severe depletion of ley energy, the Rift had been flickering alarmingly as it struggled to maintain its existence.
Solarius had come to the Queen following the first of the fluctuations, seeking an immediate evacuation of the Rift's inhabitants until the cause of the instability could be determined, but she had resisted. The Rift was the primary source of income for the Seelie Court, and she was mindful of the possible ramifications of crippling her economy so soon after taking the throne. She couldn't afford to show weakness while she worked to consolidate her power, and shutting down the Rift, even temporarily, would certainly be seen as such.
"We know the root cause of the problem now, Sol," she said soothingly. "The Eternal Forest was in shock, but it will only grow stronger with time, not weaker. The Rift will be well again soon."
The Rift Lord shook his head, his smile forced as he said apologetically, "I fear that I do not share your confidence, my Queen. I have not been able to detect any improvements, or any lessening of the frequency or intensity of the disturbances. It is as if the Forest starves."
The Queen sipped at her water again, thoughtful. Her brother wore the cloak now. Was it possible that he was not continuing Gwyn's duty to the Fey? It's entirely possible, she mused, keenly aware of Rayce's stubborn streak.
What would happen to the Hunt if its leader didn't have a reason to preserve Unseelie interests? She shivered inwardly. Perhaps the Courts had taken Gwyn's faithful service for granted. The Fey had become deeply dependent on the earth's magic, particularly with the creation of the Rift. If it were to dry up...
She leaned in and gently pressed a kiss to the Rift Lord's lips before rising smoothly. "Perhaps I need to summon my brother and remind him that the cloak carries both power and responsibility..." She took another sip from her goblet and looked down into the flavoured water, eyes veiled. "If he refuses to serve, then it may become necessary to explore options to... relieve him of his command."
Solarius allowed a smile to play over his lips as he threaded his fingers through her locks lightly. "There are others who would gladly wear the cloak, my Beautiful One," he murmured.
The Queen felt a thrill of pleasure race down her neck as he traced up the side of her throat, but she pulled away, regaining control. She slipped across the sitting room to the door where two Faerie knights stood guard outside.
Cracking it open, she spoke quietly to the pair. "Send my brother in at once when he arrives." They clapped their fists over their hearts and bowed their heads to her, and then she closed the door once more. Summoning him would be easy later; he would be compelled to come.
Sol watched her curiously, unconcerned by her distraction. "You are summoning him now?" he asked.
The Seelie Queen set her drink down and sashayed back to her lover. A playful smile spread across her full mouth as she straddled the Rift Lord's hips and ran her hands up his chest and over his shoulders to draw him in for a deep kiss.
"After," she breathed.
Sera followed Otherios through the warren of deserted tunnels until she started recognizing a few landmarks from her last trip to the Seelie Court. Each one shot a qualm of guilt through her. Wearing Rayce's appearance felt like a betrayal, even if her intentions were good. She roughly shoved aside her remorse to make room for her bigger problem; what she was going to say to bluff past the guards outside the Queen's rooms. Otherios had warned her of them, and she had been working on her angle ever since.
I beg a word with my sister... Sera rolled her eyes. I will never call that woman my sister, she swore. Everything she tried sounded stiff or awkward. I could just glower a bit. Loom a little. Sera straightened up and took a deep breath, but she couldn't manage to duplicate the air he had taken on to get them through the checkpoint last time.
They only passed a handful of Faeries, but each one stopped to stare at the new Lord of the Hunt. Word had spread quickly through the Court after he had almost single-handedly cut a path to the throne for the new Queen, and many feared his return. Sera only feared for how much longer her glamour would last if these Fey kept rubber-necking.
Otherios stopped and peered around a corner, then looked up at Sera. "Two more turns. This is where I leave you," he whispered, head swivelling to search for watchful eyes. "Do you want me to try to find you when you get out?"
She shook her head. "Get back to your bridge safely, Otherios. I owe you big time for this. I get the feeling that if she doesn't agree to help me, I'm gonna need a lot more than a guide to get out of here."
"Don't owe me nothing," he said gruffly. "Just need to take better care of yourself. Can't be having you bloody and torn-up. You get through this in one piece, you hear me? Who else is going to lean on my doorbell every time they need a favour?"
A flush of warmth spread through Sera. "No one. I'll kick their ass. You're my troll." If she could have, she might have hugged the small Faerie, but both their location and his stench prohibited it. Maybe later. Much... much later.
A satisfied grin crept over his face before he lifted his jaw and harumphed. "First left, second right," he instructed. "I'm out of here before the Queen decides to turn you into a hat rack or something."
Sera briefly contemplated life as a hat rack while she waited for him to vanish before following his directions. In the final hallway, two Faerie knights stood guard outside of an ornate wooden door that was beautifully carved. She couldn't spare a glance at the scenes that were adorned with precious gems and touches of silver and gold, her eyes focused on the two guards. Raziel, help me,she prayed silently.
The Faerie on the right reached back and pushed the door open for her without looking inside, and she was so shocked that she barely remembered to keep moving. Um... thanks, Raziel?
She bit back her thanks as the door swung closed silently behind her and she was treated to the sight of Arynessa's slim back, left bare by the cut of her dress, arching in toward a man she had pinned to the couch as she kissed him teasingly. This looked like a game that Sera did not want to interrupt.
The Faerie lord caught sight of her standing cloaked in Rayce's image and his breath caught, alerting the Queen. Sera was unsurprised when she recognized the Rift Lord as he sat up. Arynessa's eyes were furious as she whipped her head around to confront the intruder. Anger quickly faded to confusion as she saw her brother.
"I didn't summon you yet," she snapped.
"I doubt that it's me you really wanted to see," Sera answered as she pressed her right hand over her heart and cancelled the glamour. The Clave cloak rippled and returned to its regular appearance, and she felt distinctly nonthreatening now that she was armed with little more than a broomstick handle.
Shock was stamped across Arynessa's face, but Solarius had covered his mouth with one hand to hide his amusement.
The Seelie Queen struggled to regain her composure as she rose from the divan. "You," she said accusingly.
"Me," Sera confirmed.
"You must be either very brave or very stupid to trespass here, little Shadowhunter."
Sera shrugged. "Neither. It's not my fault that your guards suck. And I'm taller than you, so watch who you're calling 'little'."
The Queen's mouth gaped open in disbelief and Sera felt the air in the room thicken as displeasure rolled off the other woman. She couldn't help it. Seeing Rayce's sister again had stirred up all the resentment from the vampire bar, and the hatred for the coolness she had shown in Sera's dream of the battle for the Seelie Court as she had dispatched not one, but two brothers into exile without hesitation.
"They will have little difficulty removing you – in pieces – if you don't explain yourself to my satisfaction," the Faerie Queen hissed through her teeth. Solarius was doing an excellent job of containing his laughter, which was wise in the present climate.
"I need a favour," Sera answered, cringing inwardly.
Arynessa looked at her incredulously. "The Queen of the Seelie Court does not hand out favours lightly, and rarely to those who offer open insults."
"Yeah, but you owe me one." Wow, Sera thought to herself, I'm amazing at this. I wonder if I'll literally go down in flames, or just figuratively.
The Queen narrowed her deep purple eyes at Sera defiantly. "I owe you nothing."
"If you want to call that crown on your head 'nothing', go ahead."
Solarius watched the exchange from the divan, safely out of Arynessa's line of sight, but not Sera's. His eyes sparkled as he listened to the two women.
"My brother placed the crown in my hands, not you," the Seelie Queen retorted.
"But I'm the one who saved him from Malchezed the first time, and then got him back here to steal it right out from under the Unseelie's nose. So, technically, you owe me."
Arynessa sighed in annoyance. "You have a very twisted sense of debt and obligation."
"Oh, ho!" Sera laughed. I'm going to die. She will literally kill me. "Are you the pot or the kettle in that one? We're both black, either way." She waited to burst into flames. Worth it. Can't stand her face. When no retaliation came, Sera cut to the chase. "I just need to get into the Rift. That's all."
The Queen was mute, her emotions sealed away once more, and the quick rise and fall of her chest was the only indication that Sera had scored a point.
Interest lit up across the Rift Lord's face. "What business would a Shadowhunter have in my domain?"
"Answers." Sera took the easy excuse to look away from Arynessa. "I'm running out of places to look in the Mortal world. A friend suggested trying elsewhere, and I might know someone who can help me in the Rift."
"Cassius," the Faerie lord intuited easily. "But answers to what question?"
"I'm trying to free Rayce from the Hunt," Sera answered hesitantly, afraid of what Arynessa's reaction would be. Maybe getting rid of two brothers for the price of one had been her plan all along.
The Queen exchanged a long look with her lover, communicating volumes that Sera couldn't read, before turning her gaze back on the Shadowhunter. "Do you truly believe that you can reclaim him from the Hunt?"
In the back of her mind, Sera heard her friend's comforting words from that terrible night when she had awoken alone in the condo, 'There's no magic in this world that cannot be undone, Sera.' She took a deep breath.
"I have to believe. Just get me into the Rift."
The Rift Lord's smile was generous as he stood and extended his hand to her. "I'll take you myself," he promised. Sera looked at him doubtfully, wondering just how far to trust him, before stepping forward to lay her hand in his. His nose crinkled delicately.
"But perhaps a bath could be arranged before you leave."
That was how Sera found herself immersed in the Queen's own bathtub, surrounded by a froth of bubbles, her tanned knees poking up out of the steaming water as Kaelie Whitewillow worked to gently wash the blood from the Shadowhunter's hair.
The handmaiden worked silently, their former alliance seemingly forgotten in the wake of all that had happened. Her days of running messages for Sera were clearly over.
Sera would have preferred to bathe alone, but Arynessa had insisted sweetly that the two should renew their acquaintance. The younger woman hadn't missed the implication behind the suggestion. Arynessa knew exactly how Sera's warning had made it to Zeke and then Rayce, which was not something he had shared when telling their tale in Solarius' home.
Uncomfortable in the quiet, and unable to make out the indistinct conversation taking place in the Queen's bedroom, Sera looked sideways at Kaelie and tilted her chin toward the door. "What do you think of Arynessa as Queen?"
Kaelie lowered her eyes and continued gently scrubbing through the wild tangle of platinum and gold. "She is an excellent Queen for our people," she murmured quietly.
"What does that mean?"
Kaelie looked at the door. "We need a strong Queen who will put the needs of her people ahead of all others during this difficult time."
Sera snorted. "Is that what you call it?"
The handmaiden shook her head. "Please, it is not for me to discuss. And you must not speak her name; it is not wise to show such disrespect."
Sera rolled her eyes. "What about Solarius? Is he a good guy? Bad guy? I can't get a read on him."
Kaelie tugged sharply on a particularly stubborn knot in Sera's hair and raised her eyes to the door again. "Lord Solarius is an excellent match for the Queen."
Wincing, Sera nodded faintly. Okay, I get it. No talking.
"Then I hope they are very happy together."
Clad in a flowing white gown out of the Queen's closet and carefully cloaked against scrutiny, Sera survived an uneventful trip through the ley line network within the protection of the Rift Lord's arms. She still hadn't untangled Kaelie's ambiguous responses, but she knew enough to stay on her guard, at least. The Courts were a deadly game of chess and she was still trying to play checkers. Blindfolded.
Sera plucked at the shimmering material self-consciously. For death and mourning, the colour's white. She tried to push those morbid thoughts out of her mind. Maybe she just really likes white. She probably never has to do laundry now. It felt strange to be wearing a dress with her crossbow still hanging down her back under the cloak, but she had been unwilling to leave any of her weapons behind.
Solarius halted just outside of Cassius' bookshop and stepped off the street into the darkened doorway, pulling Sera in after him. He was uncomfortably close, and Sera swallowed nervously. The veiled amusement that so often creased his face had vanished, and had been replaced by harder lines that were drawn in the shadows of the alcove. He lifted a finger in warning to her.
"Whatever else you do while you are here, remember that you are still in my city, Sera." His voice was low, and it sent a chill through her, reminding her just how mercurial the Fey could be. From charming suitor to iron ruler in a moment. He leaned in and she felt herself recoil slightly. "Be mindful of Rift law, Shadowhunter."
He touched the lock on the bookshop door gently and Sera heard its mechanism click as it released. His clear, green eyes flashed in the darkness as they lingered on her a moment longer, and then he was gone, his cloak whispering around the edge of the doorway.
Sera poked her head out. "Does that include breaking and entering?" she called after him. Quiet, dark laughter floated back across the widening distance between them. Guess not. The Rift Lord's silhouette melted into the shadows, leaving her alone.
Wary of being found by some of the more unsavoury characters in the Rift, Sera sighed and slipped into the shop, locking the door behind her. If that even does any good around here.
Sera felt her way forward, wishing belatedly for a witchlight or a flashlight, or an anything-light. She had only been in the bookstore briefly last time, but it was enough to remember that there were stacks of volumes everywhere, and a staircase at the back. Very faint, soft golden light was visible around the bend of the stairs from above.
As she edged past a table that was covered in tomes, her elbow clipped one heap and sent a pair of books thudding to the floor to join others that were splayed open there. She swore softly under her breath and stooped to pick them up, setting them back randomly. Cassius didn't seem like the kind of guy to leave books carelessly strewn across the floor, Sera wondered silently.
The stillness of the closed shop was eerie. When she had dreamed of Zeke and Cassius here, they had been frantic, banging on the glass in the front window desperately. She didn't understand why that would be true when everything seemed so calm.
She reached the stairs without further incident and started climbing, wincing as one or two of the steps creaked gently. The soft light glowed from a single Faerie lamp as she turned the corner and found a cozy loft sprawled out around her.
The room was dominated by a wide bed with silky-looking dark sheets, and Cassius was stretched out on his stomach, his single wing trailing off the left side of the bed as he slept peacefully. Seeing it sent a flash of recognition through her, and she felt a sadness for the strange Faerie. Only the barest shred of sheet preserved his modesty, and Sera sheepishly tried to find somewhere else to look. The pillows were tossed haphazardly around the sun-darkened Faerie, and his right arm was thrown out to the opposite side of the bed.
Cool steel kissed Sera's throat and she froze as her eyes flicked down to see a hard arm corded with muscle.
"Nice and easy now," a voice whispered in her ear. Sera's heart pounded in her chest as she slowly raised her hands.
Cassius' eyes blinked open to the strange scene, but he smiled lazily when he recognized Sera in the circle of Zeke's arms, and he closed his eyes again like a cat settling back into a nap. "Hello, beautiful Sera," he said dreamily, seemingly unsurprised by his late-night visitor.
The knife vanished and Zeke slipped around her right side to get a better look at her in her borrowed Faerie clothes. He crossed his arms across his bare chest appreciatively, completely unconcerned that he was only wearing dark boxer-briefs. He let out a low whistle.
"You're Sera?" he exclaimed, eyebrows raised in disbelief.
She nodded once, unable to stop herself from connecting the mussed bed with the two men.
Zeke shook his head wonderingly. "That boy didn't cry nearly hard enough if you're what he was losing to that goddamn cloak. And that dress looks much better on you that it did on Arynessa."
Sera flushed and looked down. "Um... I can... uh... wait downstairs while you guys... um... yeah."
Embarrassment flashed across Zeke's face and he turned away to find a robe while Sera backed down the stairs, her face burning. I wonder if I can walk in on anyone else in the bedroom tonight. Why the hell does everyone else get to canoodle except me?
When everyone was properly clothed again and tea had been brewed, Cassius brought the lamps to life downstairs and drew heavy green curtains across the front window of the shop, inviting them to gather around the table Sera had slipped past earlier. She caught a glimpse of Zeke pouring a splash of what smelled suspiciously like brandy into his tea, and he caught her looking. He raised a finger to his lips conspiratorially and winked as the flask vanished back into the pocket of his robe.
The Faerie gently pushed a few books toward the centre of the table and perched on the edge lightly, graceful hands wrapped around his mug as he looked at her over the rim with mischievous curiosity in his eyes.
"What brings you back to the Rift, lovely Sera?" His voice said he already knew the answer, but still wanted to play.
It was disconcerting to be complimented so easily by a near-stranger, and Sera shifted uncomfortably, turning her mug in her hands. "Just Sera, please."
Cassius tilted his head. "You should not be ashamed of your beauty, but as you wish." He nodded in assent before repeating, "What brings you back -"
The entire building shook violently, cutting him off. Sera's eyes widened in fear as the china teapot rattled threateningly in the clamour. The roaring rumble that ripped through the room was ten times worse than standing in a subway tunnel with the commuter express barrelling through, and it sent scores of books chattering forward on their shelves to tumble down while others fell from the heaped stacks around them.
Sera clenched her teeth and gripped her mug in fear as the very air of the cavern outside seemed to groan and stretch, moaning mournfully as the light around the edge of the heavy curtain flickered in unison with the Faerie lamps inside, plunging the room into darkness when they sputtered out.
It ended as suddenly as it had begun, and the lights abruptly returned to their previous brightness. Sera's hands were white, and ripples shook through her tea, so she decided to set it down before she dropped it.
"What the hell was that?"
"The shuddering breath of the earth," Cassius answered sadly, bending over to pick up some of the volumes that had hit the floor. One had lost its front cover, and he stroked its spine gently as he carried it to the back of the shop like a bird with a broken wing.
Sera's mouth gaped open as she looked to Zeke for a better answer. His grey eyes were serious now, and worried.
"The Fey gentry are trying to keep it quiet, but the Rift has been struggling to survive ever since the night the system blew." He waved his hand vaguely at the window behind the curtain. "The warlocks out there were gone like a shot after the first quake. They know something's up, and the magic isn't working like it used to."
"Then why the hell are you still here?" Now her dream made sense. Terrifying, horrible sense. But sense.
"The same reason you are, girl. Been lookin' through all this crap for answers since Rayce told me what happened. I don't like it any better than -" Sera threw her arms around him fiercely, heedless of the brandy-infused tea that slopped over the rim of his mug as he made a tcha noise under his breath.
She squeezed her eyes shut when she felt the warmth of his body. Here, finally, was someone else who loved Rayce and was trying to help him. Relief washed through her, and she sank against Zeke gratefully.
After a minute, Sera pulled back and looked up at Zeke with fresh hope burning in her golden eyes. Cassius had disappeared behind the counter at the back of the room, and was out of sight for the moment, but Sera dropped her voice anyway.
"I'm sorry about barging in on you earlier," she offered apologetically.
Zeke shrugged and scrubbed his right hand back through his black hair bashfully, the shattered Voyance ruin dark against his skin. He looked over his shoulder for Cassius, but they could only hear the other man rummaging through drawers in the back room, presumably to repair the damaged book or to give them a modicum of privacy. "Guess there isn't much point in trying to keep it a secret now," he admitted.
"Rayce doesn't know?"
"Didn't want him to," Zeke answered ruefully.
Sera frowned. "You didn't want him to know that you were happy?"
His steely eyes softened. "That's what you see?"
"That's what it is," Sera said firmly, certainty spreading through her.
The older Shadowhunter gave her the ghost of a smile. "When I first came to the Courts... Cassius saved me. From the Clave, from the Fey, and most importantly from myself." He snorted. "I was an idiot. Wanted to go back to Alicante, weapons shining, carve a goddamn path right to Imogen Herondale's doorstep so I could cut her throat for what she did to me." He touched the Stripped Marks on his hand and one on his chest just inside the open front of his robe so that Sera would understand.
"Cassius took me in, kept me alive, kept me from going on a suicide mission for misguided revenge, and he never asked for anything in return. When I had my head on straight again, I let him bind us together so that I couldn't run off and do something stupid." Zeke shook his head from where he was lost inside memories that were decades old. "Even then, I thought I could use him. He's a hell of a lot more dangerous than he looks." A smile tinged with pride crept across Zeke's list.
Sera was spellbound by the softness of his voice, by the raw vulnerability shared in return for her own breakdown. They were united by more than their love for Rayce, now.
"I was convinced that I could force him to come back to Idris with me, or maybe just the Silent City to get that bastard, Antioch." His eyes narrowed for a moment before he smiled again. "But you know what? Something changed between us, and I never even saw it happening."
He cast another glance at the back of the store. "I needed him, Sera. And I think he needed me, too. It was hard to find time while I was training Rayce, but it got easier to sneak away, especially once the boy started fighting those Faerie idiots for his mother. I should have put a stop to it, but I couldn't. Not when it gave me hours of stolen time."
Sera's heart ached. She understood why Zeke was opening up to her.
"Now Rayce needs you," he said seriously. "And I think you need him, too, even if you don't understand why yet. There's a reason you found him, Sera, and I don't think it was just so that you could lose him."
A tear slipped down her cheek, and Zeke brushed it away gently. "No tears, girl. You're going to need your game face."
Sera sniffed. "Game face? Why?"
He threw back his head and laughed, shattering the quiet moment they were having.
"Wait until you hear Cassius' plan."