I held up the bracelet. “Most days it’s like a job. Some days a good job, but it’s never a choice.”
“So can he make you do something?”
I tried the next lane over in hopes it would move faster. It didn’t. “He could. His requests aren’t requests at all. So you do what you have to do, and you tell yourself it’s what you want to do, because in the end it’s the thing you are going to do.” I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Ari staring at me. She knew about not having choices.
Liam spoke so softly I could barely hear him. “You said you made two mistakes with me. What was the second one?”
I wanted to tell him. To swing the wheel over and jump across the seat and hold on to him. I thought of what happened in Grimm’s office. What if Grimm didn’t want a relationship cutting into my work time? What I wanted wasn’t a factor in my life. “It doesn’t matter.” It didn’t, I told myself. It didn’t.
We pulled up at the entrance to the queen’s tower, and I left the car out front. The doorman saw me coming and tried to explain, but I pushed past him and banged on the blank steel elevator panel. The doorman whispered into his phone, and I felt the elevator activate.
It came down and opened, and inside stood Shigeru. “The royal family is not present.”
“We’re here as part of another investigation. I’m looking into a murder.”
Shigeru’s face stayed as emotionless as mine. “I can give you access to Prince Mihail’s floor, but I am not permitted in the living quarters when the royal family is not present. I am confined to my quarters while I await their return.”
“You search us when we come down. I promise we won’t take anything. Where are the king and queen?” I put my money on out of town, maybe out of the realm.
“They petition the High King to make war against the fae and recover their son.” Shigeru whispered in Japanese into the elevator. I remembered the queen’s comment about it being alive. Probably a command.
“So if we can find him and bring the prince back, they’ll back down?”
He laughed, a sharp, static, almost cough. “You have not spent enough time with Queen Mihail. She will seek war regardless.”
We crowded into the elevator and rode up. When it opened, we walked out onto the black marble flooring. Ari whistled.
“What a setup.” Liam squeaked a boot on marble tiles.
“I’m glad you like it,” said a voice I knew all too well. From behind the elevator came Prince Mihail, a gun in his hand. He was missing his shirt, his pants were unbuttoned, and on one arm hung a woman who was more silicon than flesh. You can buy magical breast enhancements, to be sure, but silicon is cheaper.
“Is this her?” asked the bimbo, and I saw a gleam of dryad green in her hair.
Mihail walked over to me, keeping the gun carefully pointed at my chest. “No. She’s a girl who keeps getting in the way. This is her.” He pointed the gun toward Ari, and she turned red.
“Her?” asked the dryad. “You were going to marry her? She’s fat and flat. I have handmaidens who would make better princesses.”
“Yes, I was going to marry her,” said Mihail, “and once I was done wiping myself with her, I was going to throw her out that window.”
“Do it now,” said the dryad.
I felt Ari gathering her power, and this time she was furious. She threw a blast of light from her hand, and the dryad screamed as it burned across her.
“Run,” said Mihail, shoving her.
She did, right across the room, toward the dressing mirror. She stepped into it and disappeared. Liam’s breathing became ragged, and his face turned the color of blood. Wisps of smoke curled out of his clothes.
“You, you’re the one who stole my curse,” said Mihail.
“What?” I said.
“I was supposed to receive it. Had a nice nullification potion on board so I didn’t burn down my favorite restaurant. The problem with transformation curses is you can’t take them. They have to be sent, and that one required ‘A fair maiden, with love’s first bloom in sight.’”
Ari rolled her eyes. “What idiot came up with that idea?”
Mihail looked offended. “That’s the curse’s purpose. To separate two lovers. All you had to do was think of the right person. Me, and the curse comes to me. Instead you think of this lout and give it to him.”
“You cursed me?” said Liam, looking at me.
Ari spat at Mihail. “You would have made a great salamander.”
He laughed a deep, natural laugh that told me we were in trouble. He looked at Liam. “Turn around or I shoot them both. Then lie down on your face.”
Liam did, and Prince Mihail knelt on his back. He gestured with the gun. “You two, over there.”
“What did you do with Clara?” I asked.
Mihail gave me a vapid grin, trying his princely charms. Didn’t work. “You know, I never did like her sitting around. She wasn’t afraid of Mother, and she asked so many inconvenient questions. She had the gall to look around in my things. So I sent her away.”
“Where?”
“Through the mirror, of course. There’s someone on the other side who would love to meet you. To know all your little secrets. I don’t need any more taste testers for apples, but I’m sure my friend could find something entertaining to do with you.”
“Playing with fairies is bad for your life expectancy. Your mother would not approve.”
The prince glowed at the mention of his mother. “I’d bring you along but really, I hate traveling with companions. Too much like flying coach for my tastes.” He looked around at his many, many portraits. “I’ve always enjoyed matching decor. When the solstice comes, this whole city will be ashes, just like you.” He pulled the bracelet from Liam’s arm and ran for the mirror.
Twenty-Nine
I DIDN’T WATCH him leave. I was focused on Liam, who groaned and convulsed. Without Grimm’s bracelet to restrain the curse, he was changing. His clothes caught fire and burned right off of him, leaving his skin untouched. Liam began to change, and I understood. The fires. The waking up miles from where he went to sleep, the strength. His arms grew longer and his skin turned reddish green and hardened into scales.
“Get away,” he said, flailing at me as his fingers shortened and widened into claws. The rest of his words became hisses and gurgles. Grimm had told me once that when a prince got changed into a frog, his nervous system was the last thing to change. They felt the entire process. Most required counseling afterward.
Ari pulled me by the hair until I followed her. I looked back once more, and I knew why Grimm hadn’t been able to find Liam. The curse wasn’t turning him into a salamander.
He was a dragon.
Ari pulled me toward the kitchenette. “Come on.”
Liam’s voice was gone, replaced with the guttural hiss of an ancient lizard. As he stood up, I got a good look, and it was bad. He was only half dragon, like a man and a komodo mashed together. He walked on two legs and bounded on four. His head was long and his face ended in a mouth full of teeth. With each step, his claws chipped the marble, and his skin was now covered in bright red scales with a tint of shiny green. Liam raised his head, inhaled, and set the couch on fire with a stream of flame.
As I ran through the kitchen, I hit a chair. Liam’s serpentine head whipped around to follow me. With a roar, he ran on all fours across the apartment. I picked up a plate and threw it at him, simultaneously whispering an apology. It smashed into his head, and he ignored it.
As the dragon came through the kitchen, plates and cups flew from the cabinet, smashing on his scales. My blessings objected to me getting roasted, which might have been the first time we agreed on anything. Liam shook bits of glass off of his nose and turned to come for me. He turned too quickly on the kitchen tile, and his hind legs slipped out from under him.