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THE PROMISE AND THE GOODBYE
AMALIA
The burner phone digs into my shoulder as I pin it under my jaw while I rifle through the battered nightstand drawer.
The reek of industrial detergent battles with the ghost of old cigarettes in my nose while Trent rasps through the speaker, the result of too many late nights. “You’re still good for midnight?”
“Never stood you up before.” I check the blade of my custom dagger under the sickly yellow light of the motel desk lamp. The weapon cost me a fortune, but the witch who inscribed the runes on its blade promised it would do the job. “I should have the glasscrawler in the bag by ten o’clock, at the latest.”
Trent snorts. “You planning to show up at the client’s door covered in crawler dust?”
“Seeing a little guts always encourages them to pay out faster.” I sheath the dagger at my waist and riffle through empty protein bar wrappers, searching for a meal.
My stomach knots, but I can’t tell if it’s hunger or the caffeine and adrenaline. Both keep me wired.
“Sure you don’t want to put off the next job for a day?” The old bounty hunter pauses. “Give yourself some time to rest up?”
“I can sleep on the drive to the next hunt.” I find a protein bar still in the wrapper and set it on the nightstand, next to my bottle of caffeine pills. “That’s the benefit of teaming up with you old coots, yeah?”
Trent and his group of mercenary monster hunters have been trying to recruit me for years. I’ve joined them on some bigger jobs I couldn’t handle alone but always resisted the whole team dynamic.
After my time in the fae realm, though, loneliness had sunk its hooks into me. With some negotiation, I might consider taking the plunge into becoming part of something bigger than myself.
All I need to do is finish this last job, and I can officially exchange me for we.
Shudder.
“You got the target pinned yet?” Trent asks.
“Yes, Gramps.” The phone slips, and I wedge it harder with my cheek, sweat slicking the glass to my skin. “Crawler’s nesting in a theme park that’s shut down for the season. Tormented some kids who spent the night there on a dare.”
“Those things aren’t easy to kill. You need backup?”
As I peel a strip of duct tape off my wrist, my fingers twitch, betraying the three-day insomnia stretch. “Stop trying to invite yourself to my party. I’m not splitting the pay with you lot.”
Silence, heavy with concern, settles on the line. Beneath it, the static hum of passing cars bleeds through paper-thin walls. I pick at the peeling laminate on the nightstand, fingernail scraping splinters.
“Jack’s in your sector,” Trent says carefully, as if afraid he’ll spook me. “Ten minutes out. You sure you don’t need an extra pair of blades? Pro bono.”
I stiffen. “I don’t need your charity.”
“Just trying to protect my investment, now that I finally got you on the line.”
I rifle through the duffel bag slumped at my feet, letting the beat stretch. “Already told you, I’m fine. Not dead yet.”
“I’m starting to think you wouldn’t know the difference.” A soft exhale fills the line, sounding frustrated. “I worry about you sometimes, Wolf. No offense, but last time I saw you, you looked about ready to keel over.”
I twist my head, working a kink out of my neck, while the room’s fluorescent hum rakes through my skull. “Little insomnia never killed anyone. Besides, after this next job, I plan to sleep for a week.”
Restless now, I stand and stride to the bathroom, putting the phone on speaker. I splash cold water on my face, and the shock steals my breath for a moment.
My reflection stares back at me, water dripping down my cheeks. Rough doesn’t begin to cover it. My black hair is pulled into a messy braid, angular features pale beneath my natural dusky skin, eyes bloodshot and underscored with shadows.
I tilt my chin up, popping in eye drops, then wiggle the left contact to get some hydration under it, revealing a blue iris slashed through with dark brown. Fae-touched, they call it, marking me as a witch who can see past the illusions of demons, and as I learned, the fae.
Such a thing could get me blinded or indentured into servitude again if seen by the wrong beings.
