Shimmerspell: The Shimmer Trilogy, #1 Read online

  A tall raven-haired girl stepped into view, a convincing Snow White, if not for the charcoal smudges all over her flimsy dress.

  Jensen blinked away the girl’s angelic appearance, the cold, flat eyes letting her know this chick was no nun. Instead of stepping over Rutland, the girl used his head as leverage, walking right across his body.

  “Stay back Keira,” Liam said, his voice colder than the corpse on the ground.

  “And if I don’t?” she asked in a creepy voice that made everything sound like a nursery rhyme. Before Liam could respond, she lunged forward, a blur of black and white whirling past them. She grabbed Jensen from behind, her ice cold fingers wrapping around Jensen’s throat. “Looks like I win.”

  Liam’s eyes became mere slashes in his face. “Release her now and your fall will be quick.”

  Keira’s fingers tightened, almost touching her thumb. “I do not barter with children.”

  Jensen opened her mouth, but no air filled her lungs. Fireworks burst behind her lids and time seemed to slow to an excruciating crawl. Death—turtle slow and far more unpleasant than she had ever imagined.

  Chapter Five

  Jensen came up swinging as she was jostled awake by warm, calloused hands. Those same hands slid down her arms, pinning her wrists to her sides and forcing her to forego her attempts at slaying her captor. She cracked her lids, expecting to find herself a prisoner in a forest of pitted concrete and cold iron bars. But warm sapphire eyes stared down at her, filled to the brim with worry.

  Liam furrowed his brow and released her wrists, brushing back the black strands in her eyes. “You’re safe.”

  Jensen’s hand flew to her throat. “Where am I?” she croaked, feeling like she’d swallowed barbed wire.

  “My home. Do you remember what happened?”

  Images filled her mind. Dead fingers squeezing her throat. Glazed eyes peering at her while a crimson tide oozed across a beatless chest. She shook her head, not wanting to go there. “Where’s Lauren?”

  “Who?”

  “My … cousin.”

  Liam’s eyes filled with awareness, then he averted his gaze, focusing on her ring. “I know of no Lauren.”

  Jensen pushed herself up and swung her legs off the side of the bed. “I have to go.”

  “Where?”

  She shoved a foot into a navy striped flat. “I don’t know. Somewhere.”

  “Look at me.” When she didn’t comply, he reached down and tilted her chin, gazing into her eyes. “You will recall that you’re staying with my family while your cousin’s away on business.”

  She smacked his hand away. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  His eyes widened and his mouth fell open. “I know things seem weird now, but—”

  “Weird? One day you’re normal and the next, you’re walking around with a butterfly attached to your back. Then Malice in Wonderland tries to squeeze my head off, and you’re calling it weird. This is beyond weird. Crazy, fantastical even, but definitely not weird.”

  Liam rubbed his hands down the middle of his face, pausing at his mouth. “Bad choice of words,” he mumbled through his fingers, then headed for the door. “I’ll be right back.”

  Jensen nodded, going through a mental list of places Lauren could be staying. Their last conversation rushed back to her, along with that terrible hollowness in the space where her heart used to live.

  Her sister didn’t want to be found, didn’t want to be around her anymore, like she was this terrible burden to deal with. And with that, Jensen didn’t know what to do. For a moment, terror welled up inside of her.

  Forgetting Liam had left, she turned back to ask what the hell was going on and met a closed door. She wrapped her fingers around the knob, pulled it open, and eased into the dark hallway. Voices carried up the stairs, soft but understandable.

  “Are you sure you did it right?” a boy’s voice asked.

  “Of course I did,” Liam replied. “It’s just not working. The girl is Two-Sighted.”

  “How can that be? She wasn’t before,” the boy said.

  “Well she is now.”

  “Liam, humans don’t just wake up with Sight.” A girl spoke now. “They either have it or they don’t. There’s no gray area, no in-between.”

  “She sees through my glamour, ignores my compulsion.” Liam’s voice sounded solemn, distant.

  They hurled the word human like it was a disease, one they didn’t share. What the hell were they?

  Someone moved. Fabric ruffled and shoes clacked and scraped against hardwood. Shit. She was going to get caught eavesdropping. Desperate to get out of sight, she ducked through an open door and eased it closed.

  There had to be hundreds of books in the room, bindings in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Though she wanted to scan the back cover of each and every one, her eyes refused to budge from the old leather tome sitting on top of a bronze pedestal in the center of the room.

  Jensen couldn’t tell if it was a family cookbook, or a book of shadows, but the promise of secrets hidden within piqued her curiosity. She ran her fingers across the intricate wing design embossed on the cover and pulled it open, careful not to rip any of the fragile pages. Thees and thous taunted her, but like a child, she ignored the writing and focused on the pretty pictures. Beautiful, gossamer winged beings danced across the pages, their faces forming expressions of pure delight.

  Jensen’s breath caught in her throat. Winged beings. Like Liam. Abandoning her plan to be gentle, she flipped through the pages, halting when she came across a word written in bold black ink: Unseelie.

  “You’re not supposed to be in here,” Liam said.

  Jensen spun around, her hand flying to her chest.

  Liam’s eyes burned like swirling blue flames as he walked forward, annihilating her personal bubble. He raised his arm.

  She flinched away. But all she felt was a light breeze on the back of her neck as Liam flipped through the pages of the book. She found herself sighing in relief, since the only weapons she had were wobbly knees and an untested right hook.

  She pried her lids apart, looking at him closely.

  He was cute, in a crazy winged-thing sort of way. A faint scar slashed through the end of his left eyebrow. Golden stubble dusted his chin making him seem older, rougher than the baby-faced boys at school. A short, spiky fohawk finished the look.

  “What are you?” she asked before she could stop herself.

  He didn’t respond, simply motioned for her to turn around.

  She glanced back and gasped. Long pale hair framed a heart shaped face, one very much like her own. Running her finger across the image, she traced every curve more from memory than sight, knowing exactly where each dimple should be.

  The young girl wore an unflattering beige dress, probably stuffed with feathers at night to rest her head. Either that or she used it to lug around potatoes. Solemn eyes stared out at her. Though the paper was colorless, she knew that those wide eyes were a shade lighter than that of the morning sky. Beautiful eyes. Lauren’s eyes.

  Beneath the image was an unfamiliar name written in sprawling letters as if the person in question had been deemed undeserving of perfect penmanship. “Lorelei Le Fae,” Jensen mumbled aloud, the words tasting wrong on her tongue. Le Fae? The Faerie?

  “The only child of Morgen Le Fae,” Liam whispered, his arms trapping her between the warmth of his body and the cold, bitter lies of the book. He flipped the page again, this time going backwards, leaving Jensen bereft for the face she knew better than her own.

  A pale-haired woman with a face just as beautiful as Lauren’s, maybe even more so, stared out at her, her eyes colder than a ice storm and more calculating than a mathlete on X. Morgen Le Fae, Betrayer of Camelot served as the caption.

  Jensen slammed the evil tome shut. It was clearly a dark book of shadows, warded to hurt those not meant to read it. “You’re trying to tell me you’re a faerie? That Lauren’s a faerie, and that she�
��s somehow related to the woman who brought down Camelot, King Arthur’s sister? Liam, that’s pretty gay.”

  “I’m trying to tell you the truth. Whether you choose to accept it is up to you. But Morgen was not Arthur’s sister.”

  Jensen closed her eyes, rubbing her brows with her thumb and forefinger.

  Liam’s fingers wrapped around her arm, his thumb rubbing the spot above her elbow. “You know the story of Camelot?”

  Her mind at war, she could only nod. She wanted to crown him the king of tall tales, but in the end, she couldn’t. How else could she explain his wings? Or how she was still alive?

  Words began to pour from him as if her answer had never mattered. “Morgen’s interference in mortal dealings ended the Pendragon line. The Seelie Court could not allow such a thing to happen again. There had to be a punishment for all involved, including the Lady of the Lake, the emissary between our realms.”

  “Vivian,” Jensen mumbled, remembering the name from the movies.

  Liam nodded. “Morgen’s older sister. As punishment, King Auberon barred Vivian and Nimue from entering the Isle of Man for a period of sixty years, Arthur’s age when he died, and exiled the betrayed to the Isle of Ash. Her daughter remained with Vivian in the Isle of the Beloved.

  Liam paused, clenching his jaw so tight she feared his teeth would soon shatter. His knuckles blanched as one side of the bronze pedestal curled under, causing the tome to fall from its perch. “But 1500 years after the death of Arthur, Vivian was murdered and her Shimmerspell, lost to us.”

  “Shimmerspell?”

  “The power to move between our realms. Auberon is able to create temporary rifts, but the Lady could keep them open and shimmer as she pleased.”

  A shaky hand covered her mouth as she tried to make sense of the story Liam told. “I don’t see what any of this has to do with Lauren.”

  “Who do you think let Morgen into Vivian’s home?”

  “Not Lauren.”

  Liam ducked down and grabbed the book, flipping through the pages. “Are you trying to deny that this is your Lauren?” he asked, holding up the photo of the solemn girl.

  “It is, but it isn’t.” Jensen backed away, her finger pointing at the picture. “I don’t know that person. My sister is not a faerie. She’s a con-artist. That’s why we move around so much.”

  “I don’t know how “your sister” conned you into believing she’s human or the horrors she’s inflicted upon you, but she—”

  “She hasn’t done anything to me. Our mom died and Lauren raised me. All by herself. She didn’t have to do that. She could’ve let me go into the system.”

  “So where is she now?” a girl asked suddenly, stepping into the room.

  Jensen spun, coming face to face with a life size version of Tinkerbell. She was tall and slim, with blue eyes, the same shade as Liam’s. Glossy blonde hair fell from her ponytail in golden spirals, and iridescent wings flapped stiffly behind her back.

  “Fiona,” Liam scolded.

  She shrugged. “What? I wanna hear all about this wonderful sister of hers. What name is she going by now? Lauren?”

  “Get out!”

  Fiona’s eyes swept Jensen’s body, sparkling when they reached her hand. “Ooh nice ring. Give it to me.”

  Jensen twisted her arm behind her back. “When hell freezes over and Satan passes out popsicles.”

  Fiona tilted her head to the side and barked a laugh. “What the hell did Lorelei do to you?”

  “Get out Fiona!” Liam yelled.

  “She’s so fucked up; she doesn’t even know she should be afraid.”

  Jensen stepped back, bumping into Liam.

  “I said get out now!”

  Fiona waved her dainty hand through the air, grabbing the door knob with the other. “Fine, I’ll let you two have your moment. But you and I are gonna have ourselves a little chat later on chickadee.” She winked and closed the door. “Maybe I can help you find out if Lucifer has any more popsicles,” she yelled from the hall.

  Liam sighed. “She’s just talking. No one’s gonna touch you.”

  “Why should I believe that?” And why should I trust you?

  “Because faeries cannot lie.

  Jensen tilted her head, staring at him in disbelief. Everybody could lie. Some just lied better than others, she thought. “Not at all?”

  “Nope. And if I wanted you dead, I would’ve let Keira finish you.”

  “Then you’d be good and dead” hung in the air, thicker than formaldehyde.

  Jensen crossed her arms, hugging herself. “Who was she?”

  “Fiona’s my sister.”

  “No, Keira.”

  “One of the Moirae, a follower of Morgen. They liken themselves to the Greek Fates.

  “But how is she here? I thought you said faeries aren’t allowed in the human world.”

  “That ruling meant nothing for the solitary fae already in the Isle of Man.”

  “Oh. So your family already lived here?”

  He shook his head. “When the Lady died, all hell broke loose, so to speak. The fae already living in the mortal world picked sides. Some remained neutral, but many chose Morgen. King Auberon dispatched the Sidhe Guard to the Isle of Man to keep sentry over the mortals, eliminating any threats that arose.

  “And you’re a member of this Guard then?”

  Liam nodded. “As were my parents and grandparents before me.”

  “Where are they now?”

  He cleared his throat. “In the Isles on business.”

  “So what did they do—I mean, the ones who sided with Morgen?” She didn’t attend school often, but she would’ve remembered hearing something about a human-faerie war.

  “Let’s just say, certain human plagues were faerie related.”

  “Oh. Well, thanks for the history lesson.” Jensen grabbed the doorknob.

  “Where are you going?”

  She shrugged. “I guess I’ll figure it out when I get there.”

  “And what if one of the Unseelie finds you first?”

  She grimaced, remembering her run-in with Keira. “I’ve lived sixteen years without even knowing faeries existed. Why are they after me now?”

  His blue eyes bored into her, searching. “That’s what we’d like to know.”

  “I think it’s safe to say that I haven’t the slightest idea.”

  “When was the first time you saw through my glamour?”

  Jensen’s cheeks heated. “In the hallway during third period.”

  “When you ran off?”

  She nodded, deciding her hands were the most interesting hands she had ever seen. Big, fat knuckles and nails, bitten off and some quite dirty. She dropped her hands, shoving them into her pockets.

  “And before that?”

  “You didn’t have wings.”

  “So what changed?”

  “Hell if I know. I see you one day and you’re semi-normal I guess. I see you again and you have this big ass butterfly attached to your back. So I’d have to say you’re what changed weirdo.”

  The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Not weird. Fantastical, remember?”

  “Whatever.”

  “So what were you doing out there in the first place?”

  “Getting something from my locker.”

  Liam snorted, scratching the back of his head. “Then what?”

  “Then nothing.” Jensen shook her head. “I felt dizzy and nauseous, and then you showed up. Hey, if you’re this powerful faerie soldier, why don’t you just make me see whatever you want?”

  He averted his gaze. “I would if I could.”

  “But you can’t?”

  He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head.

  “Why not?”

  “For starters, compulsion doesn’t appear to work on you. Why didn’t you scream in the hallway?”

  Jensen shrugged. “I figured if you really did have wings and no one was supposed to know, screaming “hey ev
erybody, this kid has wings,” probably wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do.”

  Liam smiled. “Probably not.”

  Chapter Six

  Beautiful wickedness all around, but Jensen couldn’t tear her gaze away from the little green boy soaring through the air, buck naked save for the hot pink diaper covering his ass. She and Liam were at H2O, the hottest club in Rolling Hills. So hot in fact, fae were known to frequent it from time to time, mingling with unsuspecting mortals.

  Girls wearing body paint danced in golden cages dangling from the ceiling. Alternating strips of bamboo and mirror decorated the far wall behind the bar. Another wall made of intricately carved stone served as a floor-to-ceiling water fountain. But Jensen couldn’t focus on any of that, with stupid cupid flying around. Only hours had passed since she’d found out faeries were real, and now she was already being harassed by one of them.

  “Ignore him,” Liam kept saying, but that was easier said than done when the green-thing kept soaring by, running his tiny fingers through her ponytail and pulling the strap of her tank down.

  “Why are we even here?” she asked, ducking when the pixie reached out again. One more time and she was going to knock him on his ass.

  “Because Brennen is here.”

  Her eyes scanned the room, preparing for the next assault. “And who is he?”

  “Someone who can help us figure out why you’ve become Two-Sighted.”

  Jensen shifted on her feet. “How is this supposed to help me find Lauren?”

  He glanced over at her like she was the dumbest person in the world. “Doesn’t the timing of her disappearance strike you as odd? You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.”

  Yep, she’d thought about it all right, had replayed their last tete-a-tete a dozen times in her mind. Her begging Lauren to save her from the big bad killer with wings. Lauren chunking up the figurative deuces. But that was all just a horrible coincidence. Lauren was tired of playing momma to someone else’s child, even if that child was her own sister.

  Jensen tore her gaze away, but not before catching skepticism etched into Liam’s face. “I don’t see what the big deal is anyway. I’m sure there have been other humans that could see through your faerie dust.” Yes Jensen, change the subject.

  “The ones that do don’t live long,” he replied.

  Jensen stiffened as shivers slithered up her spine. “I thought you said you were sent to protect us.”