I realized dimly that Barrons had me by the shoulders and was shaking me, roaring, “Mac!” straight into my face.
I blinked up at him. “What?” I said blankly.
“What the hell was that horrific sound?” he demanded.
“Horrific? It wasn’t horrific. It’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard. It hurts to stop hearing it.” I glanced around the room for confirmation of my words, reinforcement that there was something wrong with Barrons’s hearing, not mine, but everyone was looking at me as if I was crazy. “Oh, come on! How could you not think that song was beautiful?” I glanced at Jada. “Wasn’t it mind-blowingly amazing to you?”
She shook her head grimly. “It made me want to die.”
I frowned at Dancer.
“Ditto,” he said roughly. “That was pure hell.”
I looked back at Barrons, who nodded, then at Christian and Ryodan, who nodded in turn.
“Made my bloody skin crawl,” Christian said tightly.
I shot Ryodan a look. “What did it make you feel?”
He gave me a penetrating look and said carefully, “Like I was having a hard time holding on to my skin.”
My eyes widened as I got the message and my gaze flew back to Barrons.
His dark eyes gleamed. We both nearly changed. Had to fight it with everything I had.
I frowned down at the music box, wondering what in the world it was, and why only I could hear the exquisite melody it played.
We wrapped up a little over an hour later, having accomplished pretty much jack shit.
No one had been willing to let me open the music box again, although Dancer asked me to bring it by the lab the next day. Everyone agreed that it shouldn’t be permitted out of my or Barrons’s hands, as Cruce had clearly coveted it and could easily take it from Dancer.
“I’ll listen to it again tomorrow but I want to hear it at my lab. I think there’s something to it. Any frequency that has such a profound effect demands further inquiry. It felt like the Devil’s tritone to an exponential degree,” he told me, grimacing as he reflected on it. He paused at the door, ready to leave, and glanced back at Jada, a smile lighting his face. “You coming?”
She gave him a cool look. “Something came up. Raincheck.”
His smile faltered. Though he tried to quickly conceal his disappointment, it was evident for all to see.
Ryodan said, “I don’t need you tonight after all, Jada. Go with him. Take the night off.”
Her head whipped his way and she glared daggers at him.
“Cool,” Dancer enthused. “Let’s go.” He was back to being happy again.
“Ryodan’s…issues…weren’t the only things that came up,” Jada said tonelessly. “I’m busy.”
Ryodan said in a voice I’d never heard before, and couldn’t even peg the emotion of, “Jada. Go. With. Him. Now.”
They locked gazes for a long moment, then she stood, bristling, blasted past Dancer and stormed out the door, tossing a “C’mon, let’s go” over her shoulder to the bewildered looking young man.
Once they were gone, I said to Ryodan, “What on earth happened between you two? Last thing I remember is you saving her from the fire. I thought she’d appreciate that.”
“She did. Even bloody thanked me. But then something else happened.”
I waited.
He assessed me a moment, taking in the Khaleesi-blond hair, lingering on my eyes a long moment. “I’ll be damned. You really are turning Fae. Do they have the power to heal human bodies?”
I pondered that a moment then said, “I believe they do to some degree but I don’t know how, nor do I know how fully. I suspect they use the Elixir of Life to heal serious wounds on the exceedingly rare occasion they want to keep a mortal alive, and that has a serious side effect.” Immortality. “Why? Who’s injured? And can’t you do anything about it?”
“Not something of this severity. This is beyond my ability to affect unless I did the same thing I did to Dageus—”
Barrons growled, “Which you are never doing again.”
“I have no intention of it. I doubt he’d survive it anyway. He’s not the right raw material.”
“He—who?” I demanded.
“Dancer,” Ryodan said tightly. “He has a congenital heart problem. Apparently quite serious.”
I went rigid. Dani adored him. They had something more than mere friendship. Once, long ago, she’d blushed when she told me he’d given her a bracelet. I’d often wondered if a romance might bloom between them. And as she continued to thaw, becoming more like Dani and less like Jada, he seemed the perfect fit. The right young man to make her feel alive again, perhaps recapture a sense of innocence. Whether or not that happened, it would still break her heart to lose him. And she’d already had more than her share of heartache and loss. Why him, of all people? “This is complete and utter bullshit,” I seethed.
“I agree,” Ryodan said grimly as he vanished out the door.
JADA
I threw my leg across the Ducati, glanced back at Dancer to motion him to get on behind me then shot right back off it and growled, “I changed my mind. Let’s walk.” If I crashed the bike, no big to me. Every big to him. Besides, he was already excited enough about Mac and the song and music box. I didn’t want him getting any more excited.
Don’t kill the boy before he’s dead, Jada, Ryodan had said with his cool silver gaze moments earlier. You’ll hate yourself for it one day. Go talk with him.