Part 20 (1/2)

I sensed I was losing him, and I'd been so close to getting him to spill his guts. I rushed to save the moment. ”Sure, why not? I'd like everyone to get along. You know, fae and humans.”

He stepped closer to me, excited about my explanation. ”I have the exact same hopes for our people and the humans,” he said, smiling. ”That's all I've ever wanted.”

”Cool,” I said, feeling warm inside. I could work with this. Maybe he wasn't such a bad buy after all. Maybe he really did just want all of us to be friends or at least, live in harmony together. ”So we're a team, then?”

”Yes. We're a team.”

”So what's the plan, Captain?”

He raised an eyebrow at me. ”So, I'm the team captain?”

”Sure. You're the one with more experience. You're older. You've been around the fae and humans a lot longer than I have. I trust your judgment.” I wasn't sure that was entirely true, but it sounded good, and the expression on Ben's face told me I'd struck gold. His ego was going to be his downfall someday, I was sure of it. It was just too easy to manipulate.

”I do have a plan, actually.” He seemed hesitant, as if he didn't really want to tell me about it, which if course got me wanting to know what it was more than anything in the entire world.

”Oh, goody. Tell me. I'm anxious to be doing something productive instead of waiting around for the council to tell us what to do.” I brought the council into the picture because I knew how much he hated them bossing him around all the time. I refused to feel guilty over doing it either. I needed to know what he was thinking in that devious head of his, and being sneaky was the only way. I was going to follow the advice my father had given me many years ago: Trust but verify.

Beau remained quietly in the background, watching both of us intently. He'd moved slowly to stand beside Ben and me, so he could see our faces.

”I'm frustrated too with their machinations and interference in my work.”

”Your work? What work?” It seemed a strange way to phrase what we did around here.

”My work, my life purpose, the things I've been moving towards for over a hundred years.”

I got a chill from his words, suddenly remembering very clearly the lecture he'd given me and my friends as we sat around a table in my hometown, just before I took Tony back to the Green Forest with me to become a changeling.

”Remind me what that was again?” I said as innocently as possible. I could feel the sweat breaking out on my upper lip, so I fake-coughed, moving my hand up to cover my mouth and surrept.i.tiously wipe it off.

”I'm sure you must remember. We discussed it when you were newly changed. I knew once you'd lived the life of a fae long enough you'd realize the reality of what I said.”

I nodded, not sure we were talking about the same thing, hoping we weren't. ”You mean the whole human thing?”

”Exactly.” He smiled.

”Explain it to me again. I'm not sure I remember all the details. I was really worried about Tony and all.” I played stupid, because I knew he saw me that way. Hopefully, it would help to get his guard down even more.

”It's simple. I'm sure you understand now that it's ridiculous for us to continue to live in hiding. The demons escaping to wreak havoc on the human world makes it even more obvious. We are too powerful to live in the shadows. We need to rise up and seize our place in the world.”

I nodded, frowning to feign serious consideration of his words, not trusting myself to speak.

Ben continued. ”Now that we have the Light and Dark fae together, we can address the issue of humans being aware of our existence.”

My heart was beating double-time now. Ben hadn't changed his mind about anything. He was still wanting to rule the world, and probably now expected me to be at his side the entire time. s.h.i.+t! What am I supposed to say to this? I tried to think of a response that wouldn't give away my thoughts or shut Ben down. I needed to learn his entire plan so I'd know how to deal with it.

The thought kept running around in my brain, and for better or worse, I listened to it: What would Tim do? I said the second thing that popped into my head, glad I had the presence of mind to not say the first thing. ”What about the demons and the portals and everything? Shouldn't we deal with that first?”

He shrugged. ”Why would we do that? Their presence here only helps our cause.”

Now I was totally confused. ”How? By eating the humans' souls?”

”A few, maybe. Humans need to realize there's a threat before they can be in the right frame of mind to accept our help. Think about it.”

Praying my expression wasn't giving me away, I said, ”I guess the demon uprising is pretty convenient when you put it that way.”

Ben gave me the most arrogant smile I think that it's possible for a guy to make. ”I knew you'd figure it out. You're a smart girl. Sometimes what appears to be merely coincidence is actually a carefully coordinated plan to bring about a necessary change. No great accomplishment comes without great sacrifice.”

I didn't trust myself to say the right thing or not try to strangle him. I was pretty sure he was taking credit for the tearing of the veil, but I wasn't one-hundred-percent there yet; and before I went ballistic, I knew it was critical that I had all the evidence I needed to rat him out for good.

”What's the matter?” he asked, stepping closer to me. ”Are you upset?”

I shook my head. ”Huh-uh.” I knew it was suspicious that I wasn't saying more, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't let the words come out. It would ruin everything.

”Do you agree with me? That we need to get the humans on board?”

I nodded, using every ounce of self-control I had to look and act cool.

Ben reached up and rubbed my upper arms. ”You look a little freaked out.”

So much for cool. A different tack seemed like a good idea. Operation psycho cheerleader is now in play. I smiled as hard as I could and turned up the perky to level ten. ”I'm just so totally psyched about the idea of living out in the open and having humans know who's boss and everything. I mean, yeah ... we're like supernatural and they're just natural. That tells you something right there.” I sounded like an idiot, but maybe Ben wouldn't notice. He probably thought I sounded that way all the time, anyway.

”Exactly my point.” He squeezed my arms. ”I knew you'd come around once you'd lived the life of a fae for a while.”

”Cool. So who's on our team? I mean, who's helping us with our plan?”

”I'll give you all the details tomorrow. I have a lot to think about, and it's late. You need your sleep.”

”I can stay up. This is all so exiting.” If I had a pom-pom, I'd be waving that s.h.i.+t all over the place.

”I know, it really is.” He dropped his hands from my arms and started rubbing them together. He looked so much like a master-planning psycho at that moment my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. He continued, sounding like he was thinking aloud. ”So many pieces to the puzzle. So many events to line up and execute.” He came back to the present and stared at me. ”You have no idea how long I've worked for this.” He pulled me into a hug. ”I'm so glad we're in this together. With you on board, we can't possibly fail. It'll be like it was always supposed to be.”

”What do you mean?” I said into his shoulder. ”Like it was always supposed to be, as in, how?”

He was rubbing my back now, and I tried not to be nauseated by his touch.

”A long, long time ago a scrying was made. It showed that our world was destined to be one where the natural and supernatural mingled as one. But somewhere along the way, things went off-track. We became separated. The Mother and the Father were not as one. Now we're just putting things back to the way they should have stayed, and with you on board with me, it's a done deal. It's the natural order of things. I had been afraid to hope before, but now I'm not.”

I couldn't think of anything to say to that. I was always of the mind that things happened for a good reason, even if they felt pretty sucky at the time. Messing with the natural order of things sounded like a really, really bad plan. And the fact that a scrying was involved made me doubly nervous. Everyone on the council seemed to think it was a seriously bad idea to try and see into the future.

”I've sacrificed my whole existence on behalf of our kind,” he said. ”Someday, I believe they will appreciate my efforts.” He pulled away from me and stared into my eyes, shaking me once by the shoulders. ”Our efforts, Jayne. You must be prepared to make sacrifices.”

”Oh, I am,” I a.s.sured him. ”Totally.”

”The first being that you have to keep our plans secret for now. Just between you and me. That means not even telling Tony or that pixie friend of yours.”

If Tim ever heard himself being referred to like that, he'd freak. I decided to let it slide in favor of keeping my cover. ”Of course not. They wouldn't understand anyway.”

”Exactly.”

I glanced over at Beau, wondering if he was falling for my act as thoroughly as Ben was; but as usual, his expression was neutral.