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

  “I’ll stay too,” Leandras said, his voice sounding so very far away, like an echo down a long, dark tunnel to nowhere.

  ‘I’m feeling pretty okay about this,’ the bank said cheerily.

  For real?

  She couldn’t tell if she was thinking directly at the bank anymore. She couldn’t even tell if she was thinking at all once her eyes finally closed and the only thing in her awareness became the steady rise and fall of her chest.

  ‘Hey, don’t worry. If anything happens to you before the morning, I’ll blow his murdering ass to smithereens.’

  Murdering?

  Jessica clung to consciousness as fiercely as she could, wishing the bank would clarify on that. But she was going under.

  The bank’s high-pitched giggle drew farther and farther away.

  ‘Kidding... Nighty-night, witch. Don’t let the Brúkii...’

  Chapter 18

  Jessica woke with a start and a gasp. She had no idea why her own hand was clasped firmly around her throat, but she immediately jerked it away and sat up. The room spun in fifty different directions, and she groaned.

  A stiff grunt came from the gray couch, which Leandras had apparently turned around so he could watch her sleep while he sprawled out for a little catnap of his own.

  Creepy or protective or just plain paranoid—either way, it made her scowl. “Comfy?”

  “Not at all.” The fae pushed himself up to sit on the edge of the couch and blinked wearily at her. “Good morning.”

  “No it’s not.” Jessica glanced around the room and clenched her eyes shut when the early-morning light spilling through the bay window sent daggers of agony ripping through her head. “Jesus. This is worse than a hangover.”

  “Interesting.”

  She turned away from the window and glared at him. “You say that like you had no idea what that stuff would do to me.”

  “On the contrary, Jessica.” With another grunt, he leaned forward and stretched his legs out in front of him. “I know exactly what it would do to you. But it’s interesting to see how you react to it.”

  “I need water.” Puffing out a sigh, she closed her eyes and wanted nothing more than to drift back to sleep again. “And another hour in bed—”

  “No!” The fae was on his feet in an instant and headed toward her.

  “What, did my time-warp rune suddenly jump us both twenty-four hours into the future?”

  It was a joke. But he stared at her like nothing about this was funny.

  “Leandras.”

  “No, you slept for a solid five hours, if I had to guess. However, the sleep itself...” He smoothed down the front of his shirt. “No matter how tired you may feel now, you cannot go to sleep without the Nihilistri.”

  “The what?”

  “The potion. Get up.”

  “No.”

  “Get up, Jessica.” He lunged for her hand and whisked her out of bed.

  She stumbled forward with a snarl and caught herself on the wall. “What is wrong with you?”

  “I...” Leandras clenched his fists, slowly released them, and blinked. “I stayed up all night watching for dangerous interactions. So I admit we both have a day of less-than-savory constitutions ahead of us.”

  “Why do I feel like shit?” Jessica kept a steadying hand on the wall as she shuffled into the bathroom, then glared at the sideways hinges of the missing door.

  “The Nihilistri eradicates dreaming. Dreaming, in its basest sense, occurs during REM sleep. You feel the way you do because you simply didn’t enter the deepest stages of your sleep cycle.”

  “Oh, great. So you basically kept me half-asleep all night.” She headed for the toilet and paused.

  No damn door.

  “It was either that or leave the bank to gather the necessary materials for me to enter your dreamscape and prepare to fight off another attack there. Neither of which is possible given our current self-inflicted...bank arrest.”

  Jessica froze. “Was that a joke?”

  “A poor attempt, yes. Jessica, I—”

  “You’re standing in my room with no bathroom door, fae. Give me two minutes of privacy.”

  “I really think it’s best if—”

  “I’m not gonna fall asleep on the toilet.”

  He sighed, then the sound of his footsteps padded across the room until the door shut behind him on his way out.

  Rolling her eyes, Jessica did her morning business and tried to blink away the extreme exhaustion. She thought she was bad on little to no sleep, but Leandras might have been worse. At least he knew when to stop talking when he was well-rested.

  ‘Wakey-wakey, witch.’

  “I am awake,” she growled.

  ‘And oh so chipper, I see.’

  “Did you know what that crap would do to my sleep?”

  ‘Nope. Didn’t know the fae would be standing watch over you literally all night, either. And he didn’t even bring any drugs for it. You know, the fun kind to keep you up. I know. I checked his room. Hey, you’re looking rough.’

  Standing to wash her hands, Jessica braced herself against the counter and wearily took in her reflection. Yeah, she looked even worse than the first time in the last twelve hours she’d woken up with not enough sleep. “He stayed up all night?”

  ‘Yep. Must’ve popped down onto the couch probably...oh, five minutes before you woke up thinking someone was strangling you. What’s that about, by the way?’

  “I don’t know. Maybe it means I’ve reached the end of my rope with a talking bank in my head. Ready to just throw in the towel altogether.”

  ‘Ha. Funny.’

  As Jessica studied the dark circles under her puffy eyelids and the slightly drying skin of her lips, the sound of banging around in the kitchen rose faintly beneath her.

  ‘Wait, you were joking, right?’

  “Maybe.”

  She hobbled around to turn on the shower and ran the water as hot as this rusty old building could handle.

  Leandras had stayed up all night to watch her. To be sure the Brúkii stayed away now that the asshole had rediscovered the scent of blood. Or vestrohím magic.

  Right when she’d drifted off into that inescapable not-sleep, she’d really, truly wondered if she’d just let herself be duped into drinking poison right out of the fae’s hands. Apparently, she’d imagined the whole thing.

  She hadn’t, however, imagined the way he’d practically jumped at the chance to nurse her into oblivion.

  Staring at her hands, Jessica summoned a puff of glittering black smoke in one palm, then the other.

  ‘You really think he’d damage the goods right before taking them into another world?’

  “I really don’t know what he’d do.”

  ‘Okay. I’m sick of babysitting. Trust him. Don’t trust him. Pretend to drink the next cup of that sludge tonight and then slit his throat after he falls asleep. I really don’t care anymore.’

  “What’s with you?”

  The bank snorted. ‘Oh, I don’t know. I’m just about to lose the most exciting Guardian I’ve had in centuries before I’m left here without a Guardian, completely alone, with no way to figure out if you’re still kicking in some other world I was built to keep everyone out of. Especially the Guardian. So excuse me if I’m a little touchy. You can suck it.’

  Rolling her eyes, Jessica stripped and got into the shower. The sting of the water turned all the way up to high heat definitely helped to wake her up, and she gritted her teeth through it for all of ten seconds before turning down the temperature.

  The bank’s moodiness was nothing new, but when it came on the even of her looming departure from Earth altogether, then yeah. It was a little disconcerting.

  ‘I’m fine.’ The voice was small, timid. Maybe even a little embarrassed. ‘I just might be a little messed up about the whole thing. No one’s ever gotten this close, Jessica.’

  I know. But someone has to do it, and all the other candidates are either dead or c
omplete assholes.

  The bank sniggered. ‘At least you have that going for you.’

  She spent the rest of that day hobbling around the bank, continuously reminding herself that all the exhaustion was for a good cause. For now, she didn’t even bother unlocking the bank for normal business hours. They didn’t matter now anyway, and Leandras’ closed-door policy most likely applied to customers stepping in for a rare and potentially final transaction too. She didn’t ask.

  Leandras’ mood didn’t improve either. But he busied himself with a slow, morose-looking perusal of the shelves’ chaotic contents.

  “Looking for something specific?” Jessica leaned against the shelf behind the desk, nursing her fifth cup of coffee. And they technically hadn’t even hit the midday slump yet.

  “I’m keeping myself busy,” he muttered, gazing at a fractured bird skull in disgust before tossing it haphazardly back into the unorganized pile. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve had to force myself into sleep-deprivation.”

  “Your bed’s right there.” She smirked at the open door to the office-guestroom and slurped more coffee.

  “I’ll sleep tonight, now that I know you take favorably to the Nihilistri.”

  “I definitely wouldn’t say I take to it favorably.”

  He turned to shoot her a deadpan stare, then rolled his eyes and returned to the shelves.

  Apparently, a moody fae was actually the worst kind.

  “So what do we have to do to get the Gateway all the way open? You know, when that weird seed we planted upstairs actually hatches and finishes the spell.”

  “Nothing, Jessica.” Leandras removed a book from the shelf, opened it, and stepped away when the ridiculously long plastic wallet insert cascaded from the inside cover flap to the floor. With his nostrils flaring, he lifted the string of accordioned squares and scrutinized the contents. “The Gateway will open on its own once the Hruandir is complete. Our goal is simply to survive until then.”

  “Fine.” Jessica puffed out a sigh. “Sounds relatively simple, I guess.”

  “It is.” His scowl deepened as he folded up the unraveled plastic sleeves that definitely didn’t have pictures in them.

  “What’s that?”

  “IOUs, apparently.” When he finally had it all wrapped up again, he shoved the photo holders back inside the book and snapped the cover shut with a thump and a thin puff of dust. “Stored inside Tame Your Chaotic Finances.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, Tabitha didn’t exactly have a businesswoman’s handle on the place.”

  After tossing the book back onto the shelf, the fae turned slowly to raise an eyebrow at her. “And you do?”

  The bank sniggered. ‘He’s gotcha there, witch.’

  “Hey, the contract only covered daily operations and protecting the contents,” she told them both at the same time.

  “Well you’re certainly going above and beyond, aren’t you?”

  That seemed to end the conversation, mostly because Jessica wasn’t in the mood to try placating Leandras’ snappy demeanor.

  ‘Right. Like you’re ever in the mood to placate anyone.’

  True. But just because they now had less than twenty-four hours to Portal Time didn’t mean she had to start now.

  THE REST OF THAT LAST full day within the bank passed in a long blur of boredom and trying to stave off the sleep neither one of them had had. Jessica ordered takeout, and the smell of lamb curry filled the lobby until Leandras took it upon himself to reheat the last of the Nihilistri potion for her just before 8:00 p.m. The combined stench was unbearable.

  “I don’t think I can drink that crap again.” She grimaced at the dark sludge inside yet another mug.

  The fae man stared at her with exhausted disapproval. “Your choices are to imbibe this potion one more night or risk bringing a Brúkii down on your establishment, both our heads, and any attempts we make from this point forward to not fail.”

  So he had some attitude in him after all.

  Getting that little dose of her own medicine made Jessica snatch the mug from him in a fit of her own sour mood and chug half the cup in one breath. She gagged, but at least her stomach kept a handle on the contents. It didn’t matter how much she wanted to puke the stuff back up; her body responded to the potion just as quickly as the night before. The last thing she saw before her eyes closed completely for a night of dream-starved oblivion was Leandras standing in the open doorway of her bedroom, staring at her as he switched off the overhead light. A flash of sliver illuminated behind his eyes, like two winking stars in the darkness.

  Then she was out.

  WAKING FROM A NIHILISTRI-induced coma two nights in a row did nothing to improve her mood. Jessica gasped awake just as violently, this time with both her hands wrapped tightly around her own throat. One of her index fingers had gotten hooked inside her lower lip, and the ache in her hands and jaw—plus the line of drool dried and crusted down her forearm—only made the first few minutes of her day that much more of a chore.

  ‘Nope. Hasn’t opened yet,’ the bank quipped.

  Jessica groaned and went through the laborious process of sitting up on the mattress. “I didn’t ask.”

  ‘Come on. I know what you’re gonna say before you even think it. And yeah, the fae’s still here. He should’ve called it quits with bacon and coffee the last time. I’m pretty sure that’s all he knows how to cook.’

  Pushing herself out of bed, Jessica stumbled toward the bathroom. She could hardly keep her eyes open.

  Bumbling around like she hadn’t actually slept in over forty-eight hours at this point couldn’t possibly be a good idea. Not for her, not for Leandras, not for anything they had to accomplish on the other side of the door when they made it through.

  ‘Correction. You’re bumbling around because you haven’t actually slept.’

  “Your point?”

  The bank didn’t reply.

  “Yeah, I thought so.”

  Ignoring her reflection—which would most likely just make it that much harder not to turn around and climb back into her bed—Jessica stripped out of her pajamas and turned on the shower.

  Her last shower on Earth for who knew how long.

  As long as no one else showed up at the last second and tried to ruin this whole thing.

  Jessica hadn’t come this far to let two nights without real sleep stop her. She just wasn’t all that sure she could handle herself anywhere close to professionally—or mercifully—in her current state.

  The hot water soothed away the ache in her muscles, though her eyelids were still heavy. She let herself close her eyes and sway there beneath the constant pound of the water before she could finally attempt washing herself.

  Shampooing her hair felt like trying to perform delicate surgery while wearing thick gloves two sizes too big. The soap splattered around the shower as she slapped the washcloth across her body, unable to put any real strength into it.

  ‘You know, I’ve been wondering,’ the bank mused.

  Of course you have.

  ‘If something happened to you on the other side...’

  She scrubbed the tops of her arms, under them, across her collarbone and up the right side of her neck.

  “Jessica!” Leandras’ urgent shout came from right outside the doorless bathroom.

  With a shriek, Jessica lurched away from the suddenly frigid water pouring all over her body. Sputtering and gasping, she slapped her hands against the slippery tile wall and tried to orient herself against the numbingly cold shower and the ache in her legs.

  “If you don’t say something,” Leandras called again, “I’m coming in.”

  “What kind of monster turns off the hot water?” she screeched.

  “I did no such thing.”

  ‘Yeah... Maybe instead you should be asking what kind of idiot scrubs a warded rune on their neck that jumps them through time.’

  “What?” Her foot slipped on the tub floor, and she crashed sideways before
slamming her hands down on both faucet handles and yanking them off. Only the one for hot water moved at all, and when the patter of the shower finally cut off, the only sound now was her rapid gasps and the pounding of her own heart.

  ‘Three hours this time.’ The bank sounded a little worried. ‘You should probably cover that thing up.’

  Jessica’s legs trembled as she pushed herself off the shower wall, her teeth chattering in her head.

  “Jessica?”

  “What?” she snapped, stopping herself from whipping the shower curtain aside when she heard footsteps across the linoleum floor.

  Great. She was shivering in here in the shower, the bathroom had no door she could lock, and now the fae thought he could just make himself at home.

  “Would it be safe to assume this was another one of your episodes?”

  “I don’t have episodes!”

  ‘I mean, if you take a look at the last few months...’

  “Shut up. And Leandras, get out.” She held herself around the middle, only now noticing how cold her skin was as she shivered there behind the curtain. The tips of her fingers had started to turn blue.

  Christ. Hypothermia in her own shower, because she’d fiddled with the damn rune and couldn’t even get out to wrap herself in a towel.

  “At least let me help,” the fae muttered. His shadow moved swiftly across the curtain, then darkened as he approached. “With a towel.”

  Hissing out a sigh, Jessica thrust her hand out from behind the edge of the curtain, her arm trembling too and her fingers so stiff she thought she’d drop the towel when he pressed it into her hand.

  Wrapping it around herself was an exercise in more irritation than she could handle, and she still hadn’t managed to tuck the towel under her arms when she growled, “Feel free to wait outside.”

  “Jessica—”

  “Close the bedroom door too. Just in case there was any confusion.”

  The fae man sighed but didn’t leave. “The first few minutes after experiencing the rune’s effects are crucial in pinpointing what may have gone wrong.”