The Poisoned Veil (Accessory to Magic Book 4) Read online

  “I see.” He didn’t look at her but moved down the row of shelves, scowling at the impossibly disorganized contents. “Then perhaps your sentient building could waylay the jesting and make itself useful with these ingredients.”

  ‘Useful, huh? And he seemed so sure he could find everything he needed without your help at all.’

  You heard that whole conversation?

  ‘Like I said. I never left.’

  Jessica puffed out a sigh.

  So how about helping out, then?

  ‘Get a list.’

  “What are you looking for?” she asked, poking at the partially bitten pizza roll only to find it still hadn’t cooled to safely ingestible levels.

  “Bitterthorn. Veninastrum.” Leandras glanced at the desk, where he’d assembled an obviously incomplete collection of ingredients. “And Reapershade. Which, now that I’ve been browsing this unconscionable pile of rubbish half the night, I realize would have been more useful to carry on my person instead. Even despite its volatility.”

  ‘Aw, look at that. The fae’s a bit miffed, wouldn’t you say?’

  Jessica ignored the bank and swallowed. “Volatility?”

  “Yes. I can’t imagine Tabitha would have maintained this poor excuse for magical supplies without it, but it seems I was wrong.”

  “Wait, I thought you were making me a... I don’t know. Some kind of sleeping potion.”

  “It’s far more than that, but yes. I assumed as much myself.”

  “You’re not trying to kill me, are you?”

  He finally turned to look at her, and though she smirked at him, the question was legitimate.

  The fae wanted to feed her a potion to keep the Brúkii at bay, but that one ingredient sounded an awful lot like it would just make her insides explode.

  ‘Or eat away at them from the inside out. Slowly. Painfully...’

  “What?”

  ‘Just kidding.’ The bank sniggered. ‘That’s only if you’re stupid enough to drink it straight from the bottle.’

  “If I’d already replied to that tasteless jest, Jessica, I would have said no. Which I hope by now you’ve already come to understand.”

  “I wasn’t... Never mind.” She shook her head.

  Do you have the stuff or not, bank?

  ‘All right, all right. Yeesh. Keep your pants on.’

  Rolling her eyes, Jessica sat back and tried to look natural while Leandras shot her the occasional frown between searching for his special ingredients.

  A pile of rolled-up cloth on top of what looked like a set of symphony cymbals jumped from the shelf on the opposite side of the lobby. The cloth unraveled and spilled out a small green velvet bag. It thumped to the floor a second before a wooden box rattled on the shelf behind Jessica’s office chair and tossed itself onto the desk. She leapt to her feet and caught the box under her hand before it could skitter off the desk and onto the floor.

  Leandras whirled around to stare at her with narrowed eyes.

  She lifted the box as she sat down again. “One down. Two, actually. There’s a bag on the floor over there.”

  “And the third?”

  The shelves in front of Leandras rattled. The entirety of their contents knocked against each other, shuddering and jolting. Books toppled onto their sides. A case of vials filled with different-colored liquids tottered precariously as the glass vessels clinked together. Something metallic crunched or sprang open; Jessica couldn’t tell which.

  “Jessica, if the bank is listening, it really must be careful. Throwing these items off the shelves is one thing, but dropping an unprotected vial of extremely unstable Reapershade is bound to take us all down if it reacts.”

  You hear that?

  ‘Yeah, yeah, I got it.’

  Leandras stepped away from the shelf to take in the movement of all the junk rattling around. “This isn’t how I expected—”

  A massive vase sitting on the very top shelf rocked perilously. Honestly, the thing looked more like an urn, and Jessica really hoped Tabitha hadn’t been keeping someone’s ashes in there. Then again, Leandras had been walking around with a bag of ashes on him for their anchoring-stone potion.

  His eyes widened when the vase teetered on the edge of its base and cast a long shadow across the floor. Then it finally tipped over and dropped like it was filled with bricks.

  Chapter 17

  “What are you doing?” Jessica shouted.

  The bank cackled.

  At the same instant, Leandras hissed and darted forward just in time to catch the vase in his arms. He just barely saved it from hitting the ground, but the heavy vessel had born him down onto one knee before he stopped it from dropping any farther.

  The instant he drew in a sharp breath, the shelves stopped jostling everything around, and the lobby was silent.

  He set the vase on the ground and peered inside it before reaching in to withdraw a rolled-up strip of cloth. Then he stood, unwound the cloth, and held a vial of seaweed-green liquid up to the light. “She put Reapershade in a vase on the top shelf...”

  Jessica grimaced at the walls of the lobby and slowly sank back into the chair. But she’d be ready to jump to her feet again if they were about to blow themselves up with anything else in here. “Uh...if that’s what you’re holding, then I guess so.”

  Leandras slowly licked his lips. “Tabitha was eccentric. Not foolish. And your bank almost cost us everything with that little stunt.”

  ‘Hey, I’m just trying to keep the guy on his toes. If you ask me, he’s been getting a little too cozy in...well, me.’

  Jessica tried on a sheepish smile. “The bank says you’re welcome.”

  “Does it, now?” With the vial clenched tightly in one hand, he tossed the scrap of fabric aside and headed across the lobby to retrieve the green velvet bag from the floor. “I’m beginning to believe it doesn’t much care for me.”

  ‘Aw, come on. That’s what he’s getting out of this?’

  You made him jump for an ingredient that could’ve killed us both if he missed.

  ‘Yeah, but he didn’t.’

  “I don’t think it has anything to do with you,” Jessica blurted.

  Leandras straightened with the bag in hand and blinked at her.

  “I mean, I went through the same thing. Kinda. But now you have everything you need, right?”

  The fae man stopped to open the bag and peer inside before stalking back toward the desk. “That and an intense distaste for a lifeform I can neither hear nor see.”

  ‘What, is he blind?’

  Drop it.

  Jessica grabbed the bitten pizza roll off the desk and popped it into her mouth. Warm, not hot, and gut-wrenchingly tasty. And it would probably make her gut feel even worse after she finished off the plate, but who knew how long it’d be before she got to burn herself on another pocket of searing red sauce like this?

  ‘You have all your priorities really freaking backward, witch.’

  I deserve a little enjoyment.

  ‘Yeah, and you’ll pay for it later.’

  As Leandras set the ingredients down on the desk, she slid the plate of pizza rolls toward him.

  “They’re good now.”

  “No thank you.”

  “Try one.”

  “Jessica, I am in no mood to—”

  “I made them for both of us, so quit being an idiot and try one.”

  He paused and turned slowly to look at her. Then his gaze flickered toward the plate, and he snatched up a pizza roll to pop it into his mouth. Apparently, he didn’t mean to actually enjoy it as he went back to his work with the small cauldron and his sleep-potion ingredients, but then he froze and chewed a lot more slowly.

  “Right?” Jessica grinned and ate another.

  Leandras puffed out his cheeks like he was about to spit it all back out. But he forced himself to swallow and let out a weak chuckle.

  “Good. I know. Believe it or not, a person can actually live off these things for at l
east two months. I checked.”

  He turned to look at her, grimacing as he tried to suck everything out of his teeth. “I find your taste in midnight snacks...astounding.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  ‘I don’t think he said thank you.’

  Well you know what? We’ve been throwing those phrases around like candy lately. Let me take this one.

  Ignoring her jest, Leandras returned to his work over the cauldron. Two more times, his hand darted out to snatch up another pizza roll. Jessica sat back in the chair with her arms folded, smirking as she grabbed bites for herself.

  So she’d introduced him to how people like her got by on stuff like this, and he wasn’t throwing a fit. Maybe now they were getting somewhere with each other. Finally.

  ‘In no way does that qualify as you being able to trust him completely,’ the bank warned.

  She didn’t bother touching on how the voice in her mind had urged her to spill her guts to the fae less than two hours ago.

  It didn’t matter. Leandras was off his high horse now, and as long as he didn’t actually poison her with the goopy potion brewing like sludge in the cauldron, maybe he was okay.

  The bank sighed. ‘He just gave you an open ear for you to tell the worst story of your life and didn’t give up on you, but it’s the plate of fried death that starts to change your mind? I don’t get it.’

  Maybe it’s a walking, talking meat-sack kinda thing.

  ‘Whatever.’

  WHEN THE POTION WAS finished, Jessica could hardly keep her eyes open. She kept yawning and couldn’t touch another bite on the plate, despite have a bag that remained uneaten.

  Leandras ladled a huge glob of the stuff into a coffee mug, then turned and nodded toward the stairs. “Let’s go.”

  “No, I can take it right now.” She reached for the cup, but he pulled it away with a raised eyebrow.

  “It’s quite strong, Jessica. You’ll be asleep seconds after drinking it. So unless you want me to carry your unconscious body up the stairs to tuck you nicely into your own bed, I suggest we head upstairs first.” There was that devious smile again.

  He knew he had her cornered with that one, didn’t he?

  “Fine.” She pushed herself out of the chair and walked toward the hall, looking back over her shoulder. “You know what, I’ll just take it and drink it upstairs—”

  “Everything has side effects.” Leandras tilted his head. “No, they’re not nearly as severe as with the warded rune, but I prefer to monitor you for a time.”

  She folded her arms. “You don’t actually think it’ll work.”

  “I know it will. But keeping the Brúkii out of your mind is merely the root intention. Sometimes, there can be additional...complications.”

  “Spit it out.”

  “Your body might reject the potion.”

  “Christ, will I never get a break with you and your shitty options?”

  His lips twitched. “You’re not the only one who hopes this is the last time.”

  “And if I do reject it, you better tell me you have something for that too.”

  Leandras opened his other hand, and a brief pulse of silver light flashed before dimming to reveal a small brown square in his palm.

  She pointed at him. “Is that chocolate?”

  “The antidote is much more palatable when administered this way.”

  “Great.” Spinning around, Jessica stalked down the hall and ran a hand through her hair. “I’m getting escorted upstairs so a fae can feed me sleep-potion poison and chocolate. Don’t say anything to that. I’m not in the mood.”

  ‘Wait... Were you talking to me or him?’

  “Either of you.”

  Leandras’ soft chuckle followed her as she rounded the first landing of the stairs and headed up to the second floor.

  When she reached the top, she stopped to study the slowly pulsing purple lights in the anchoring threads spreading away from the stone. “Is that supposed to happen?”

  The fae stopped beside her and cocked his head. “Hmm.”

  “What?”

  His smile widened. “It’s doing exactly what it’s meant to do, Jessica. Feel free to let your guard down anytime.”

  Without letting her respond—and she wouldn’t have anyway, because he was back to his usual exasperating self again—he walked into her bedroom and left her there in the hall.

  Let her guard down. Right. Because she hadn’t already.

  ‘Not if you put it right back up again.’

  Leandras waited for her beside the bed, the emergency-remedy chocolate hidden once again in whatever secret magical depository he kept on him. He gestured with his free hand toward the bed and didn’t say a word.

  The whole thing felt way too much like being scolded by a parent to get back to sleep in the middle of the night.

  Wrinkling her nose, she headed across the room. “You can wipe that smirk off anytime now.”

  “Am I not allowed to enjoy this?”

  “I really wish you didn’t.”

  “I’m sorry.” His smile disappeared. “I’m merely not accustomed to being this...useful. When neither one of us is facing imminent destruction, that is.”

  Jessica stopped beside her bed and shot him an exasperated glance. “Define imminent.”

  “Not currently taking place.”

  She snorted and climbed up onto the mattress before pulling the covers up over her legs. Even sitting here like this made her feel like a child. Small. Clueless. Helpless. And laughed about behind her back once the grownups left the room.

  Damn, this was the weirdest turn of events for a single night.

  “May I?” Leandras nodded at the foot of the bed.

  “Sure. To sit. Nothing else.”

  With his pursed lips twitching against another smile, he lowered himself onto the bed and finally handed over the coffee mug of sleep potion.

  She took it and leaned over the mug to take a whiff. “Oh, come on.”

  “If it’s any consolation, the flavor is equally enticing.”

  When she wrinkled her nose and met his gaze, they shared a soft laugh. “Not very encouraging.”

  “But it works.”

  Jessica forced herself to slurp down the dark, still-steaming sludge and almost spewed it back out all over the fae man’s face. “Oh...”

  “Or perhaps the taste is a bit stronger.”

  “Yeah, no kidding. How...” She swallowed and forced back another gag. “How much of this do I have to drink.”

  “Start with half.”

  “You know, if this is revenge for feeding you pizza rolls, I’m still not sorry.”

  “One of these days, I’ll have to take you out for a five-star meal.”

  She choked on the next thick, acrid sip more like chugging engine oil than potion. “Wait...”

  “Then perhaps you’ll understand how part of this does honestly feel like revenge for that mound of fried garbage you call food.”

  “Just to let it sink in, huh? Or was that you asking me out?” She immediately clamped her mouth shut.

  Why had she said that?

  “I’m choosing to believe that question from you means the potion’s working.” Leandras leaned forward to guide the mug back to her lips. “Drink.”

  “I didn’t—”

  “Half now. If in three minutes you’re still blurting out what you’d rather keep in your head instead of lying here unconscious, then you’ll take the rest.”

  Grimacing, Jessica chugged down another few swallows and had to take a break. “I can’t. Sorry, I just...”

  She smacked her lips. Ran her tongue along the inside of her cheeks. Opened her mouth wide before pursing her lips.

  “That’s...tingly.”

  “Painfully so?”

  When she shook her head, the room whizzed past her in trailing lines of light. “Whoa.”

  The fae took the mug from her, studied its content, then set it on the ground and scooted farther up the bed
toward her. “Apparently, you have a rather low tolerance.”

  “Not half?” Her mouth felt like it was full of gel.

  “Almost. Lie back. Don’t try to fight it.” He gently helped her lower herself back onto the mattress and settled her head onto the pillow.

  Yeah. Lying down felt a lot better.

  She blinked heavily and studied the patterns of light and shadow dancing across the destroyed ceiling of her bedroom. “I better fucking...wake up morning.”

  And now she sounded like a child. With a prematurely dirty mouth.

  Leandras chuckled again. “I promise you will. And I promise I’ll be here.”

  His face entered her vision as he leaned over her. “How do you feel?”

  “Warm.”

  “Good.” His finger felt particularly cold when he wiped it gently against the corner of her mouth. A smear of potion came away on his fingertip, and he licked it off as carelessly as if he’d just given her a spoonful of brownie batter instead.

  Why was she thinking about brownies?

  His dark eyes with their silver-tinted glow roamed over her face, moving as if someone had turned the dial way down on normal speed.

  If there was a clock ticking anywhere nearby, she’d swear it would have slowed too.

  A small smile creased the corners of his eyes as Leandras smoothed her hair away from her forehead and brushed it off her cheeks.

  She wanted to swat his hand away, but the most she could manage was a brief twitch of her fingers.

  Damn.

  “It’s best not to fight it.”

  The laugh she tried to huff out just made her lips sputter against each other. “Sounds...creepy.”

  “Merely a suggestion. Just remember this is all part of keeping you safe, Jessica. For as long as possible.” A frown flickered across his brow, and he tilted his head with a mixture of concern and amusement. Or maybe it was victory, and the sleep-goo was making her hallucinate. “Or should I call you Lilith?”

  “No...” For as warm and heavy and blissfully relaxed as her body felt now, Jessica managed to shake her head a fraction of an inch. “No. Lilith...died. Let it...stay...”

  “Of course.”

  Her eyelids drooped now, closing a dark curtain across the fae man’s gentle smile and the somehow reassuring glimmer in his dark eyes. She tried to swallow, but the potion made even that much movement almost impossible.