Free Burning Bright (Ivy Granger) by E.J. Stevens Page B

fast that my half human eyes couldn’t
follow the movement.  One second he was staring at the cooling food on the
stove and the next he was facing me across the counter.  His dark green eyes
bled to black and I stifled a chill.  Ceff was pissed and giving off his king
of the sea vibe.  Or maybe it was his, “I’m going to drown your ass and pick
your bones” vibe.  Sometimes I just can’t tell the difference.
    Thankfully, his anger wasn’t directed at me.
    “What does The Green Lady want of you?” he asked.
    He started to pace and I suddenly wished we’d splurged on a
larger apartment.  Ceff may have been in his human form, but the energy coming
off him was that of a wild stallion—and yeah, he was still giving off that drag
you down and feast on your bones kind of feeling.
    “Look, you sure you want to know any of this?” I asked. 
“Cause I understand if you don’t want to get involved.  She’s a faerie queen
and you’re a faerie king.  I’m guessing that means that things could get messy
if you join team Ivy on this one.”
    I wanted him by my side so bad it set my teeth on edge, but
I didn’t want anyone else I cared about getting hurt.  My human mother still
couldn’t write her own name after she’d tried to help give me answers about my
real father.  Jinx was on her deathbed because of me, spell circle or no spell
circle, and if the glaistig got her way, Kaye would be next.  If I could save
my friends, I would.  The least I could do was give Ceff the choice, no strings
attached.
    “As you would say, I am all in,” he said.  “Now what does
she want?”
    “She wants me to kill Kaye,” I said.
    Just saying the words was like taking a punch to the gut. 
Judging from the way Ceff’s face paled, he felt the same.
    “The Green Lady, queen of the carnival fae, has asked you to
take the life of the most powerful witch on the entire eastern seaboard?” he
asked.  “The same witch who came to your aid on more than one occasion, who has
fought to save this very city…the witch you call your friend?”
    “Yes, the one and only,” I said.
    “You agreed to such a thing?” he asked, incredulous.
    “Yes, but, in my defense, I didn’t know what I was agreeing
to at the time,” I said.  “And she was holding Jinx’s life as bait.”
     “You owe The Green Lady a boon,” he said with a sigh.  “In
all likelihood, there was not much that you could have done.”  Ceff shook his
head and returned to his cooking, lighting the flame and placing the frying pan
back on the burner.  “So what are the terms of this agreement, be as precise as
you can.”
    I chewed on my lip, thinking back to my conversation with
the glaistig.  Yeah, she’d dangled Jinx’s welfare like the carrot that it was,
and I was not a happy bunny.  I’d have to be more careful when it came time to
fulfill my second bargain with The Green Lady.  Fool me once, shame on you—fool
me twice, shame on me.  I’d learn from this and move on.  Too bad learning
experiences with the fae tended to be so costly.
    “She says I have to kill the witch Kaye O’Shay to fulfill
our bargain,” I said.  “And just to make it worse, she said that I had to do it
or else she’ll let her incubus continue feeding and kill Jinx.  I suppose
that’s her little insurance policy, in case I find a way around the bargain.” 
I pounded the counter with a gloved fist.  “Mab’s bloody bones, there’s got to
be some way to win this thing!” I muttered.
    I felt like a cat sidhe chasing its own tail.   No
matter how many times I thought the problem over, I kept coming up with the
same thing.  I needed The Green Lady to order her incubus to break his
connection with Jinx, but the only way to do that was to fulfill our bargain by
killing Kaye.  I couldn’t bring myself to kill Kaye, which meant that my best
friend was going to die.
    Ceff turned and raised an eyebrow at me as he slid a pile of
seasoned eggs and buttered