Changeling on the Job: A Changeling Wars Novella by A.G. Stewart Read Free Book Online Page A

Chris’s home.
    “That was a little cold,” she said as Kailen disappeared around the corner of the house. “A little distant. You haven’t spoken to him in a month.”
    “Really?” I said as I knocked on the door. “You have an opinion on this , too? I don’t see you dating anyone.”
    “Oh,” Anwynn said. “Is that what people call it nowadays? I’d guess that you two are just very uncomfortable bedfellows.”
    “Were. Once.” Why was I telling my hound this? I didn’t regret what had happened between Kailen and me. I was just stuck in the weird position of not actually dating him because of his baggage and mine—yet still having to be around him because he was the only other Sidhe I knew that lived in the mortal world. “Maybe we should have just stayed friends.”
    “Were you ever just friends?”
    I tried not to think about how I’d practically jumped Kailen the first time I’d met him—and I hadn’t even been divorced then. Sure, I’d been under the influence of magic, but I hadn’t been under that influence when I’d decided to sleep with him. I threw up my hands. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty or…something. Quiet, I can hear someone coming.”
    Chris opened the door, bleary-eyed and in a fuzzy bathrobe. The wispy hair on the top of his head stood on end; his glasses slipped to the bottom of his nose. He had a tumbler of what looked like whiskey in his right hand. I watched the sleepiness drip away from his face like a melting icicle, leaving only cold realization in its place. “This isn’t over, is it?”
    “It will be,” I said, taking the vial from my pocket. “Also, don’t be alarmed, but there’s a guy walking around your house right now. He’s going to keep that cloaked man from coming back for you. Now hold still.”
    I uncorked the vial and poured some of the water into my palm. The skin there tingled. It felt a bit like holding a handful of minty, effervescent water. I slapped the hand to his cheek, trying not to lose any of the precious droplets. His stubble was rough against my skin as I rubbed it into his face. I cleared my throat. “Do you…remember anything else about the cloaked man?”
    Chris’s brow furrowed. “I told you everything I know.”
    “Did the man say anything else?” He didn’t resist at all when I took each of his hands and rubbed the water into his fingers. “Just ‘take him’ and that was all?”
    His eyes grew fuzzy, distant. “Actually, I think he might have said something else, but I was passing out from that powder at the time. I think he said, ‘She will be pleased.’” Chris shook his head. “I can’t be sure, though. I mean, I was being knocked unconscious.”
    I reached for the opening of his robe.
    “Whoa, whoa,” he said, coming to life. “I’m married to a woman I love very much. I’m not interested.”
    “I’m not trying to—”
    He slapped my hands away. “That’s quite enough, thank you.”
    A step creaked behind me. “And I thought we had something special,” Kailen said from behind me. His tone was light, but I think the words held more meaning than he’d first intended. He’d told me once that I was special, that he hadn’t felt this way about someone since his wife had passed away.
    I thrust the vial at him. “You do it, then.”
    “Sir,” Kailen said, his voice cool and professional, “I’m just going to open your robe a little and put some of this water over your heart. This is the last step and this will all be over for you. Can I do that?”
    I stalked from the porch, my hand going to the stone in my pocket. It was warm to the touch, from more than just my body heat. Anwynn leapt gracefully over the steps, her lanky form a comforting presence at my side, much as I hated to admit it.
    I’d saved Chris from a horrible death, and I had one of the cloaked man’s ingredients, but I wasn’t any closer to figuring out his identity, or why exactly he wanted to enact a daemon geas in the first place.