Chapter Twenty – Tammy

“Shit you really aren’t ok. Rita’ll know how to fix this. She has to.”

Alyssa was talking mostly to herself. I was leaning on her by the time we passed into the shadow of the building’s outrageously oversized sign. The trench coat, with its propped up newspaper and empty glasses, proudly proclaimed the building as The Inside Scoop.

My hot flashes had swung straight back to chills on the way here and sharp turns of my head meant my vision started to grey out. Honestly? I shouldn’t have been driving. Even Alyssa somehow felt cold – and I knew from the last few times that she ran a lot hotter, body-temp wise, than I usually did.

I was owlishly looking around at the gimmicks sprawled across the store while the sphinx went up to order. Newspaper clippings, comic issues, superhero merchandise. It was exactly the kind of tacky that Teresa and I would have loved as kids, but Grandpa had never really taken us. Spontaneous trips had never been his thing. Just like teaching and telling us about magic had never been his thing.

If he’d just cared none of this would have happened. I wouldn’t be swaying on my feet trying to stay upright. I also wouldn’t have a cute definitely-not-in-any-way-human girl this close to me. Not nearly enough of an upside to make all of this worthwhile.

Before I knew what was happening, she was tugging me along to the back and pulling out a chair with the ear-piercing squeak of rubber on tile. I slumped forward onto the table, closing my eyes as the sphinx fussed around. There were audible swishes as her wings fluttered in place, the click of nails on a table. The distant hum of kitchen equipment.

Then the clack of heels on tile, the swing of a door, and a voice that sounded vaguely familiar. Like a splash of green across dark skin, swimming through a drunken haze.

Oh fuck, this was someone from the council meeting.

I took a deep breath of cold air and pushed myself up. The room spun, a lightheaded dizziness that didn’t have the warmth to it of being drunk. My hands were shaking even holding the edge of the table, but I could handle a little pain to meet the woman’s eyes as she stared me down. Actually looking at her, I realized something.

I recognized her.

The black woman in an understated suit had been at the funeral, one of the people that filed past a closed casket that we’d never met. The police said he hadn’t been in good shape when they found him. So…wait. How’d they get in if things were locked down? It…

“You seem to have a talent at falling into trouble, Miss Aufrey.” Her eyes flicked over to Alyssa, her mouth in a grim line, its edges just as sharp as her tone and her eyeliner. “There are a number of people who would be quite concerned to see you two together. Including a certain three-letter agency sniffing around my business because you’ve been ignoring them. To what, pray tell, do I owe this pleasure?”

I started to stammer out a warning about the questions. She raised an eyebrow and touched her necklace. The emerald flashed, a dozen tiny symbols flaring bright enough that I screwed my eyes shut.

“I assure you, I have protections. That the heir of Aufrey is here with another of our town’s sordid little secrets, without her own, is worrisome. Especially seeing as she happens to be out from beneath her guardian’s wings. I would tell that spirit to keep watch, if I were you, but let’s move onto something much more concerning. Now please, let the woman who can string more than two words together speak.”

I nearly bit my tongue before Alyssa started in. She was still pacing as she said, “We were training. She drained herself and wasn’t feeling great, so we came for food. She’s gotten so much worse since we left – I don’t get it. She should be fine. This isn’t what’s supposed to happen.”

“You are most certainly right on that. The Aufrey that sold her sister to the Fae, being taught by the sphinx that her own people want buried and forgotten. It very much shouldn’t be happening, and people with looser lips might be very interested in talking about that. If you’d be so kind, get to the point about why you brought trouble to my doorstep.”

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“You need to help her! She…”

“Yes, fine, fine, if I’m paid. You,” she sighed and pointed to me. Her voice changed, less playful and a lot more brusque as she stepped closer. “Shakes. Light-sensitivity. Shivering? I’m assuming there’s nausea and a headache, deep aches, and dizziness?”

I nodded. My head didn’t stop spinning even when the motion was through.

“Fever, chills, tingling, or static?”

I stammered out, “Yes.”

“Good news – I can help. It isn’t cheap, but neither of you are strapped for resources. Bad news is, you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do if someone that gives a damn notices that Tamara here shot straight past all the intermediate steps and is tits-deep in mana starvation.”

I blinked away stars and nearly fell off the chair as a sharp stabbing pain flared and then died in my side. She sighed, and pinched her nose as I started coughing.

“I suppose I can suspend payment. Please, try not to die too quickly.”

She stormed out as my head hit the table again. Dying? That – no. I couldn’t be. Teresa would…

…Teresa would be the only heir. Would that…

Someone was rubbing my back. It felt good even when something hard pressed in – the pain there was better than the pain in my head. And the creeping, cold, numbness settling into my bones. Where the Faerie magic anchored itself to me – a ring looped around my ear and the branded palm – it twisted into something else. Faint, lukewarm heat and a promise of something else. Whispered, just out of my hearing.

One was beckoning. The other, grounding.

The rubbing turned to shaking and I blinked my eyes open for a second, colors blurring as the glow under my skin dimmed in the Sight.

“Tammy, seriously, say something. You’re scaring me.”

It felt like my lips were moving, but I wasn’t sure if anything came out. My tongue felt like it was wrapped in cotton someone had soaked in vinegar and hot sauce. The distant creak of crackling wood filled one ear, the rush of blood the other. Her hands came back, and that was nice. Grounding. It was easier to focus on the touch, and how it would be better to feel like when Alara had been asking me things. I couldn’t see right right now, I knew that, but Alyssa was definitely prettier and not as old or intimidating.

I wonder if she could do that thing. Safely. Getting to forget about my problems for a few minutes sounded amazing right now.

“Please…don’t stop…”

The hands stopped. Rude. They pulled me upright, and there was some clinking. The muffled sound of voices that might as well have been coming through an ancient TV covered in static. It pushed away the other sounds, then something freezing cold pressed against my lips. A soft, warm hand squeezed my cheek. Then the…spoon? Probably a spoon…clicked against my teeth as something red and soft brushed across my nose and I sneezed. My arms flew out and latched onto whatever they could catch.

Something cold and deliciously sweet smeared itself across my tongue. With it, came magic. The pain from the sneeze, the aches…everything vanished.

A wave of cold clarity washed across me. Spreading, slowly, from my mouth and sliding down my throat with what I realized was chunky ice cream. It pushed the fuzz away from my head and snapping things back into focus, the kaleidoscoping colors resolving themselves into a world.

Rita was standing a bit back, a literally sparkling bowl in her hands. Alyssa’s arm was trapped in my grip, soft and warm and yielding.

“Now that the situation is less urgent, I believe it’s time to discuss payment. Accounting for my time and what I’m providing, as well as existing commitments to the Pride of Inquiry and the House of Aufrey – fifty-thousand dollars or equivalent seems more than fair.”

Fifty grand? For this? For that bowl. We were rich but that was ridiculous. And yet – I could already feel the fuzz starting to push back into my brain. The ache had just been delayed, not stopped, and the cooling wave hadn’t made it much past my arms. Whatever that was I knew I needed the rest of it.

Alyssa’s wing moved before I could spit out the spoon. It trailed across my shoulder and face as she reached out to pluck a long, beautiful, scarlet and crimson feather.

Rita’s eyes were locked on it when I managed to pry my fingers loose from Alyssa. Her face was a neutral mask. “No refunds. No change. No receipt. I need an oath: I’m not going on the Prides’ list for this.”

“I’ve got conditions too.” The sphinx coughed. Her voice was hoarse. “You finish this. If that isn’t enough, bring out whatever else you think she needs. You tell us how it happened and how to stop it from happening again. Mom…mom can’t know we messed up this badly. It would…”

I nodded, jerkily and she cut off mid-sentence. The spoon clattered to the table as I managed to spit it out. I could barely recognize my own voice.

“I won’t say anything.”

Rita looked between us. Slowly. Then she sat the bowl down, just out of reach, and held out a hand. Alyssa took it. The world pressed down again around them, the ripple of magic that rolled out setting my nerves on fire and sending tears to my eyes. When I blinked them away, the feather was nowhere to be found. Rita had taken a seat across from us, staring inscrutably at me.

The sphinx pressed the spoon back into my trembling hands, a dollop of excessively sparkly ice cream on it. The cold rush this time was just as intense, tension I didn’t even know I had draining out of me as my head cleared again. Until her question came and I choked.

“So. Aufrey. Are you human?”