He leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek. She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t turn her head and place her lips against his either. Lydia released his arm and he walked over to the back door.
“Dylis, protect Lydia. Please.” He didn’t wait for an answer before he stepped onto the verandah.
The light was less bright now that the sun had moved, but it made the scene more chilling. It wasn’t just mirrors. The garden had been torn up. Pavers and grass had been upturned. Plants had been ripped from the ground and were scattered around. He walked down the stairs—even if he got rid of the mirrors there was still damage that needed fixing. And this was just the backyard.
He took a couple more paces and entered the forest of mirrors. His hand brushed the edges as he walked. Most were mundane. People checking hair, a house getting painted, children playing. His hand jerked back as blood splattered and someone died.
“Was that it?” Shea said from behind Caspian.
“No. The mirror witnessed a murder. A recent one.” And there was no one he could tell about it. Sometimes his gift sucked like that.
This time he noticed a half-dozen smaller banished fairies loitering like a gang waiting to be told to start something. Shea’s little band of helpers. What had he promised them in return?
He ignored them and took a deep breath, then kept going, letting the images wash over him instead of taking over. He got fleeting glimpses of a hundred different lives. They spun around and made him dizzy. He wasn’t used to filtering this much information at a time. Usually it was a couple of items, and spending time with each. He stopped and shivered, momentarily disoriented, and he still had the front yard to go. His stomach clenched on the coffee. He should’ve eaten breakfast. He needed to ground himself back in the mortal world instead of the past.
“Well?” Shea demanded like a passive-aggressive shadow that wouldn’t let up.
“None of these.” Caspian pushed the words through gritted teeth. He was cold, like he was standing in iced water. “Return them.”
Shea didn’t move. He looked shorter in the morning light and less ethereal. The magic was costing him. Caspian bit back the smile. Burn through it and shrink so you’re nothing more than an ugly, little, powerless troll. As soon as he thought it Caspian realized Shea probably had help gathering all the mirrors. He was a lord not used to doing anything for himself.
“I won’t do more if you don’t return them.”
“You agree to help?”
“I agree to nothing.” The sun on his back helped warm Caspian while looking at Shea froze whatever hope he had of pulling this off. Even if he touched all of the ones Shea had brought, there’d be more tomorrow and the next day and the next. Until he had the Counter-Window, then the location of the Window would be revealed.
Could he hold out and still protect Lydia? He knew the answer and didn’t like it. The longer he waited, the less advantage he had. But he wasn’t ready.
He walked on; again he trailed his fingers over the mirrors, but this time he tried to focus on the grass and dirt beneath his bare feet and the breeze on his skin, the simple things that would keep him in the present. When he’d finished all the ones in the backyard, he shook his head and began to walk around the house to where more mirrors waited in the front yard.
Shea snarled and stalked after him. “You seem to like blondes. It would be a shame if something were to happen to her; she is so mortal.”
Caspian turned slowly. “Leave her alone. She isn’t part of this.”
“But she is. The time you spend with her is time not spent finding the Window. And I have just begun to realize how many mirrors there are in the world now. Last time I spent any time in the mortal world they were a novelty of the rich. Now everyone has them.”
“I’m not here for Lydia. I’m here for a job. This is my livelihood,” Caspian said.
“That is not my concern. There are bigger things at stake than your livelihood. Or life.”
“My job is important to me.” And so was his life and Lydia. He was going to have to deal to stop the hostilities and stop Shea from ruining his life. No matter where he went Shea would follow. He didn’t want the Greys making more trouble for Lydia.
“Help me and I’ll leave her alone,” Shea said.
Caspian shook his head. He didn’t want to be in a deal that said he was helping a Grey. The wording of a deal was everything. If he botched even one word, he wouldn’t live too long to regret it. It had to sound like he wanted to help, but without promising to hand the mirror over… and even then he was counting on Shea not adding clause after clause and binding him up so tight he had no wriggle room.
He found the words he wanted then spoke clearly and slowly so there could be no mistake. “I will find the Window.” Give the Grey what he wanted first. “In exchange call off your Greys and cease the petty pestering.”
Shea blinked, his pale eyes assessing. “I will stop harassing as long as you are helping. You will check every mirror I bring to you.”
“You will return them to where you found them—except the Window, should I find it.” Caspian waited for Shea to tighten the terms.
“You swear not to lie?”
That was a bit vague; he might need to lie to Shea at some point… actually, he could see himself definitely lying to Shea. An honesty clause was a bad idea. “I will tell you if I find a fairy-made mirror.”
His heart was beating a little too fast. He wanted this over. Already the deal was getting more complex than he wanted.
Shea grinned, cold and victorious. “If you fail to find the Window, Lydia’s soul is mine.”
There wasn’t a chance in hell he was agreeing to that. “I have a year and a day to find the mirror. Then you get my soul.” Assuming of course he lived that long.
“No. One turn of the moon. Then your soul is mine.”
One month. Was that long enough? He hoped Dylis was as close as she claimed to getting the Counter-Window. That was a clever clause. Even if he failed to find the Window, Shea could use his soul to bribe his way back to Annwyn—assuming his father the Prince cared enough to let that happen. That was a gamble they were both taking.
“I accept.”
“A bargain is struck.” Shea inclined his head.
For a moment Caspian didn’t move. That was it.
There was no peal of thunder or flash of lightning. Just the cold surety that he’d made a deal with a banished fairy. If that didn’t get the attention of the Court, nothing he did would. He knew in his near future he would be called upon to attend. At least the deal had been reasonably favorable, while there was a time limit he hadn’t actually offered to hand the Window over to Shea once found. Before he could sigh with relief while in view of Shea, he turned and walked toward the house.
Chapter 12
Caspian appeared to be talking to someone out in the yard, but Lydia couldn’t see the other person or hear the conversation. This was just too weird. If not for the fairy peeking out of the window with her, she would have discounted everything Caspian had said. She almost had. That awful feeling that she’d slept with a stranger, a man she didn’t really know, and that he was delusional had filled her with dread.
That he was actually half-fairy and could see things she didn’t wasn’t much better. It was too far-fetched. And yet how else did she explain the mirrors, and the noises… even Caspian’s psychometry?
She glanced at Dylis, wanting to reach out and touch her to make sure she was there and not some kind of shared hallucination.
“You don’t have wings.”