was a soft shimmer, an ethereal wind and then he stood before me.
He looked so like my Robin that I felt a pang. But there was no spark of recognition in his gaze.
“I want to make a bargain,” I said before he could speak a word. “With you.”
He blinked and his full lips turned up in a predatory smile. “Do you now? What for?”
“The same as you came here to offer Clara.” I shook out my skirts and got to my feet. “The life of her son for a favor.”
He tipped his head to the side as though he were trying to puzzle me out. “Why would you do this?”
“Clara has a son to look after and protect. I don’t have anyone.” The people that would truly miss me were part of a timeline I could no longer reach.
Inside the house came another pitiful cough. It was now or never.
I took a step forward and put my hand on his chest. “I know that you need an anchor to stay here. She doesn’t. I also know that part of you is decent. You don’t really want to separate a loving mother from her only son, do you? Not when I can willingly serve the same purpose.”
Again his gaze roved my face as though hunting for the trap. This earlier version of Robin was much warier than the one I knew. Was that because he had just come from the fae realm?
At long last, he offered his hand. “The bargain is struck, then.”
I reached forward and shook. “The bargain is struck.”
The clock in the center of town tolled midnight as the colorful swirls of the bargain broke free. But instead of the lulling swirls, I’d known from before, these were like razor blades cutting through me.
“What’s happening?” Robin shouted. His gaze was wild and he glared down at me with malice and fear. More so than when he’d been recalled. “Who are you?”
His genuine terror scared me more than anything else. My arms burned, and my heart pounded. I tried to withdraw my hand from his grip but they were sealed fast.
Colors swirled around me, pulling my feet from the ground. We spun in a circle, faster and faster. My gorge rose and I barely kept from retching.
Then the colors exploded and left me floating in the void. My sight dimmed to a pinprick and I knew no more.
Chapter 19
“All’s well that ends well. Hogwash. Nothing ever really ends except in faery tales.”
-Notable quotable from Grammy B.
Yellow light danced just beyond my eyelids. I groaned and rolled over, burrowing down deeper into the warm embrace of my comforter. The tick of the radiator, the sound of the water in the pipes from my bathroom. Familiar morning sounds.
Then a young female voice accompanied by a tap on a door. “Joey?”
I opened my eyes just as Dragon walked into the room. “Hey, I thought you were going to drive me to school. Did your alarm not go off?”
Disoriented, I pushed myself upright and took in my surroundings. Same room as always. From downstairs the smell of coffee and the sound of Patsy Cline belting out the lyrics to Walkin’ After Midnight.
Dragon scowled at me. “Is everything all right?”
“What day is it?” My throat was dry and full of frogs.
“Um, Wednesday. My first day of school, remember?” She squinted at me as though trying to locate my damage.
I let out the longest breath of my life. I was back where I belonged. Fat ass, broken nose, throbbing wrist, the entire Joey Whitmore package. I was even wearing my fuzzy flannel pajamas, not some slinky nightgown. Back in my room. In my life.
I bounded from the bed and rushed to my cousin. Plucking her up like a daisy, I spun her around in a circle, laughing with giddy relief. No dysentery or whoring in the seventeenth century for this chick!
“Are you all right?” Dragon asked as I set her down.
“Better than all right. And yes, I’ll drive you. Just let me find something decent to wear.”
“All right. I’ll just wait downstairs.” Dragon ducked out of the room her brows still pulled down as though wondering if I was on the verge of mental collapse.
I pirouetted to my dresser and yanked opened my top drawer, sighing in relief when I spied the cheap yoga pants and tank tops. Not a single piece of designer clothing. I dressed in plain cotton underwear and bra, a black pair of pants, and pulled a white long-sleeved v neck tunic