Blood Before Sunrise

“That woman. The priestess. She’s the Time Keeper?”

Delilah graced me with her Mona Lisa smile.

“Wait,” I said, wading through the details in my mind. “That can’t be right. There’re more than one of them. I saw three different girls. Are they all Time Keepers? Or just one of them?”

Laughter answered me. “Time is a strange thing in O Anel.”

It couldn’t be. Could it? As I slowly pieced the information together, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized it sooner. Those sapphire eyes, the curling raven hair. And their smiles. All the same, and so familiar. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen that expression either. “They’re all the same girl,” I said more to myself that Delilah. “And”- holy fucking shit-“the Time Keeper is Brakae.”

“You’re finally catching on,” Delilah said. “Took you long enough.”

“What about Fallon?” I said. “How does he fit into all of this?”

Delilah laughed in astonishment. “Darian, how could you not know by now? We’ve covered this. Fallon is the Man from The Ring.”

I slumped back, saved from a fall by my ass bouncing on the foot of the bed. Of course Fallon was the Man from The Ring. Who the hell else would he be?

“I’m sorry, Darian, but I did warn you.” Delilah stood and laid a comforting hand on my shoulder, which I promptly brushed away. “You should have killed him like you did the others. But you let him get away. Too concerned about Tyler’s injuries, I suppose. Who could blame you? You love him.”

“What’s going on here?” Fallon walked through the door, slamming it behind him. “Delilah, my dear, you’ve been running off at the mouth again, haven’t you? I thought I could trust you without sealing your mouth shut. I guess I was wrong.”

Delilah seemed to melt under Fallon’s heated stare, shrinking back down into her chair. “I didn’t tell her anything she didn’t already know or wouldn’t have figured out with a little thought.”

I’d run out of time and could already feel the draw of his presence, my will dissolving. I’d be nothing but a dancing puppet as he pulled the strings in a matter of moments. With determined focus, I cataloged everything Delilah told me, praying I wouldn’t forget.

“What do you think, Darian?” He beckoned me with a finger and I obeyed, walking toward him as if I had no other choice. “Does Delilah have a big mouth?”

“Oh yeah.” I blurted the words as if he’d fed them to me on a teleprompter. “She likes the sound of her own voice.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Fallon pulled a long knife from a sheath at his waist. Not made of anything metal, the black sheen of the blade ran with veins of emerald. “You’ve played your part, Oracle. Now it is time to go to your sister.”

Delilah clamped her jaw tight and bucked her chin up in the air. The girl had moxie. It was the one thing I admired about her. Her expression softened into that of resignation…no, reverence, as if she sat in the presence of greatness. I’d seen that expression before, when the Enphigmale had sprung to life before Delilah’s unseeing eyes. She’d stood in awe of them. Fallon ran his hand over her hair-a loving gesture, really. Just as he’d done to me earlier, he soothed her, shushed her lightly, and kissed the top of her head before running his knife through her heart. He twisted the blade with a jerk and pulled it out, cleaning off the blood on Delilah’s own shirt while she died.

And I did nothing to stop it.

Fallon returned the knife to its sheath and put his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t mourn her,” he said. “She’s with her sister. I found us something suitable to eat,” he said, letting me go to retrieve the bag he’d left at the door. “Sit and let me feed you.”

And, damn it, I did. I rested my arms at my sides as Fallon pushed my chair in. He placed a clear-plastic container of food in front of me: breads, fruits, and cheeses all garnished with flowers.

“I found a Sylph downtown who owns a bakery. You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to find our kind in this city, but I have to admit, it took some looking.” Fallon set a fork beside me and plucked a grape from a small bunch. “Taste this.” He brought the fruit to my mouth, which I opened obligingly. He placed the grape in my mouth, his finger brushing my lip. “Tell me that’s not the sweetest grape you’ve ever eaten.”

The fruit burst in my mouth. It was sweeter than anything I’d ever tasted, with a strange floral aftertaste that tingled on my tongue-delicious. “Eat,” he said, pushing the fork toward me. “It’s all wonderful without a trace of human taint.”

I picked up the fork and ate my breakfast as if I didn’t have a mind of my own. Eat, drink, sleep…What else would Fallon command me to do? I shuddered at the thought. While I stuffed my face with “taint-free” food, Fallon retrieved my backpack from the closet. He sat down beside me, unzipping the bag as if it would explode if he didn’t take care. Peering down, he found his prize, and a hungry smile graced his lips. He drew the broken hourglass from my bag and carefully unwrapped the towels I’d used to cushion it.

“The prize,” he said, setting the glass on the table between us. “We’re so close.”

“Close to what?” I asked.

“Freedom,” he said.

“What does that hourglass do?” The food must have been charmed. I couldn’t stop eating it. Everything tasted so delicious, even the flowers used for garnish. And the more I ate, the more confused I became, having to remind myself that I was sitting at the table of a madman with a corpse for company.

“Broken, the hourglass is useless. It maintains the flow of time in the realm to which it belongs. But we’re going to join this half with its mate. And when we do, wondrous things will happen.”

Fallon spoke with a passion only fanatics possess. He watched, mesmerized by the golden grains of sand falling upward and passing into nothing before returning to fill the bottom of the glass. I nibbled on a piece of cheese, my eyes wandering to poor Delilah, who had let her grief and need for revenge steer her toward the dark path that led to her death. If she could have seen her own future, I wondered if she would have done things the same way. I reached toward her with my left hand and touched her shoulder, my gaze drawn to my thumb. The skin below my knuckle was smooth, as if something had worn it that way. Had I been wearing jewelry earlier? It seemed a ring was missing from my thumb. And I had a feeling it should not be missing, and that somehow, without it, I was incomplete.

“Fallon,” I said, “where are you taking me?” Others would miss me-I thought. I had friends, loved ones, didn’t I? I knew just a moment ago. Remember. I closed my eyes and forced myself to focus despite the fog shrouding my mind. Delilah had told me about someone. Someone I’d been searching for. My friend’s daughter. Raif’s daughter-Brakae-the Time Keeper. She lived…Where did she live? In the Faerie Realm. And I was her Guardian. Don’t forget, Darian. Don’t you dare forget again. You’ve got to find her and kill Fallon before he kills you so you can get home to Tyler. He thinks you’ve left him. “Where the hell’s my ring?” I stroked my thumb with a forefinger. “And where are you taking me?” I asked again with more force behind the words. I pushed the plate away; I wanted more, craved it, but I couldn’t allow myself to eat another bite.

“It’s not where I’m taking you,” Fallon said, still enrapt by the hourglass. “It’s where you’re taking me.”

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” I said. Or did I? Yes, I had to find Brakae. For Raif. I couldn’t forget again.

“You’re taking me home, to O Anel. I have business with the Time Keeper.”

Chapter 22

“There’s one problem with that, Fallon.” I held on to lucidity by the skin of my teeth. My mind reeled in his presence. “I have no idea how to get us there.”

His expression warned of rage, a storm close to breaking. I slid my hand across the table, picking up one of the shards of glass I’d used to threaten Delilah. No way in hell was he getting his hands on me again. I felt the violence coming, uncoiling from somewhere deep within him, and I watched as his hands clenched into tight fists. “Do it,” I warned, my voice low. “I dare you to hit me.”

The silver light swirling in his eyes calmed to neutral gray, and he busted out into over-the-top laughter. “I can see why you were chosen to protect her. Such a…badass,” he said as if searching for the right word, “aren’t