I needed a second to work out the puzzle. I’d been seeing the two fairies all weekend, so they’d been seeing me, which meant they knew about the history between me and Luis, they way he’d been carrying on, Ben’s reaction—
“You mean like some kind of A Midsummer Night’s Dream shtick? For real?” I said.
The one who’d had the spritzer perked up. “Never gets old! Ow!” she added, when her captor pinched her shoulder.
“We’ll just be getting out of your way now,” she said and grabbed the two by their shirts to drag them off. They didn’t even struggle.
“Wait—that’s it?” I said.
She paused, glanced back. “What more do you want?”
I wanted an interview with her for the show. What were their kind doing in the middle of the city? What did they get out of playing pranks on us? On anyone? I realized: I wanted all her secrets. Wasn’t going to get them, no doubt. “How do we know they won’t come right back and bother us again?”
She pointed at her two charges, who huddled where they were. Convinced they’d stay put, she turned back to me, tilted her head. An odd expression, when she’d been commanding before. My image of her kept changing, even though I hadn’t looked away. “You want a guarantee? Or a wish—that’s usually what mortals ask for. All right, then—what’s your wish?”
One thing popped into my mind, and it wasn’t an interview this time. If I could have anything, I knew. I didn’t even have to think about it. Whether or not she could even grant such a wish didn’t occur to me—it couldn’t hurt to ask, right? I just had to say it, and if she said no I wouldn’t have lost anything, I couldn’t be more disappointed than I already was. But if she said yes …
“Nobody answer that,” Cormac said. “It’s a trick.”
I hesitated, my mouth open to speak, and realized I could be more disappointed. I took a deep breath to settle myself, and the exhale was a little shaky.
The woman put her hands on her hips and glared at Cormac. “You’ve had dealings with us before, I see.”
“Not hard to read a few stories,” Cormac said. He glanced to me. “She’ll twist your words, you’d get what you asked for but n
ot what you meant. Or she’d ask for more in return than you could give. Better to ask for a rain check.” He spoke with a confidence that I wasn’t feeling. “We accept your offer, to be redeemed at a later date.”
“You make us beholden to you,” the woman—the leader of them—said, disbelieving. “Do you think that’s wise?”
“We’ll see,” he said.
I hoped he and Amelia knew what they were doing. They seemed to know what they were doing. Did Cormac ever seem otherwise? Would we know if he didn’t?
“Well then. I owe you a wish.”
“We’ll need a token of that,” Cormac said.
“You’re a demanding mortal.” The woman pulled a scarf from some pocket or other with a flourish. Pale gold, wispy, and floral, it floated in her grip as if it might have been a ribbon of mist, until she dropped it in Cormac’s outstretched hand, when it became just a strip of cloth.
My phone started ringing. I’d had it in my hand the whole time, set to Tyler’s number. I couldn’t remember if I’d actually dialed him or not. I stepped away from the others and answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Kitty, did you just try to call me?” the soldier said.
“Yeah, I did. I’m sorry, I was distracted.”
“You think?” he said, chuckling.
How did I explain the last ten minutes? I didn’t. “I just wanted to check in. Have you had any weird encounters? Any more random recruiters or warnings? Vampires hanging around?”
“You mean more than you’d expect at a conference on the supernatural?” He was still chuckling, and I flushed, chagrined.
“Yeah, exactly.”
“Not really. But I do feel like I’m walking around with my hackles up all the time.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling. Well, let me know if … I don’t know. You see something weird. There’s some bad politics around just now.”