Her First Mistake

Chapter Fifty-Three: Her Again?

    Oddly, after that interaction, I found myself not nearly as worried as I should have been. I was obviously doing something right, if Dani was going as far as to offer a deal. Something was happening that she wasn't happy about. 

   The rest of the afternoon was spent pretty easily. I found some paper and scrawled a letter for Mark, warning him that Dani had directly threatened his life and that there could be a spy in Death Valley. I dropped the letter off of the elf that had let us inside the Council's room. She promised to deliver the letter within an hour. Hopefully, Mark would be smart enough to keep his guard up.

   After Tate and I found something for dinner, we retired into the hotel room pretty early. As I tugged off my shoes again, he spoke up. "We need to be ready for Dani to attack," he said. "She obviously doesn't want you on that team, considering she just threatened four lives to make you stop. Now that you've confirmed you're going regardless, she's going to act on it. Her entire operation has been militaristic. She powered herself up, took out the opposition, and started targeting another obstacle. She attacked head-on the first two times, and then sent a messenger. Typically, the messenger comes before another assault."

   "And we've seen six of her lackeys," I added. "She has a whole group. If it wasn't obvious that she's up to something earlier, it's pretty obvious now."

   "That's one thing I don't understand," admitted Tate. He sunk down to sit beside me. "She's never struck me as someone who works well with others. But she has six people working for her? How did she get them to help her? What's their motivation?"

   I pulled off my shoes and socks, making a face. "They must be helping her for their own gain, right? Dani must have promised them something."

   "What could she have that they want?"

   "A crap-ton of power. People are power-hungry." I blew out a breath. "The bottom line is that Dani has a group of lackeys at her command, and they're not shabby fighters, either. She's got experienced people following her. Maybe this team will have an idea as to what Dani could have promised them in exchange for their help."

   Something touching my foot made me look down. Tate had absentmindedly brushed the tooth-mark scars, his fingers lightly resting on the uplifted skin. His face looked distant. I wiggled my toes and he blinked, looking up. I subconsciously shifted my foot a bit, cold. 

   "You know," he murmured. "If I had been thinking clearly when Dani ambushed me at the sentencing, you wouldn't have those scars. My parents would be okay. Alexie would be alive."

   My tongue set between my teeth as they clenched a little. There was a small prick of pain. I grimaced and looked at the scars. "You have no way of knowing that. She could have escaped another way." 

   "She might not have escaped at all."

   "Or she could have killed someone because they didn't comply, like you did." I elbowed him. "It doesn't matter. I hate this phrase, but it's true. It is what it is. Shut up about it. It doesn't matter anymore."

   Tate felt guilty. And he had a reason to to. His father had proven that Tate's fear over his family's safety had been unreasonable. Tate could have stood up to Dani and called her bluff. Then he probably would have died. But he didn't see it that way. He probably couldn't. Instead, he saw what he could have done and what lives might have been saved.

   I'd never been someone to wallow in past mistakes. After they were made, it didn't matter. Instead, I chose to focus on what I could do to prevent it from happening. I wished I could transfer that line of thinking to Tate so he'd stop beating himself up.

   His hand brushed my foot again. I scowled and jerked my leg to smack his foot. "Hey, cut it out. That tickles."

   He looked up. "You're ticklish?"

   The blood drained from my cheeks. Oh, crap. I'd said that to Simone one time and she'd never forgotten. And she'd abused the fact forever. I glared at Tate darkly. A grin curled his lips, not unlike the one he'd gotten when we were having a snowball fight.

   "You know," I said casually, looking down at my hand. "You probably won't sleep well tonight anyway, so how about I solve that for you?"

   "What?"

  Gold sparked from my hand and Tate's eyes widened. I lifted my hand in front of his nose and snapped my fingers. The spell formed a spiral on my thumb. Tate caught my wrist, but I'd already gotten his nose. The crimson sank into his skin. His eyes closed and he slumped immediately. His body flopped unceremoniously onto the bed.

   "Whew." I blew out a breath and shook my thumb. I'd only ever practiced that spell with Alexie and done it correctly once. The first time I was able to do it properly, Alexie moved on. He probably didn't like how he was the only practice dummy I had for that spell. I'd forgotten about the weird sensation it caused on my skin. Almost like bugs were scrambling across the surface.

   Tate's breathing was even. I got up and realized that he was on my bed. I'd knocked him out on my bed. Making a disgusted sound, I debated transporting him over, but decided not to. I didn't actually know how effective my sleeping spell was. I'd rather not bother it. Tate needed the rest.

   I grabbed the bottom of his shoe and pulled. Once his shoes were off, I carefully lifted his head and slid a pillow under it. Tate only moved to turn his head more into it, inhaling. I backed up and swiftly changed into some pajamas for the night. After setting the alarm, I pulled back the cover on his bed and got in.

   The pillow smelled like the hotel's shampoo that Tate had used. It was a bizarre mix of charcoal and mint. I pulled the cover up and nestled into the sheets, wrapping myself firmly into a burrito. 

~

   The alarm went off way too soon. Tate snapped awake first. By the time I cracked my eyes open to throw the alarm clock across the room, he was sitting upright and rubbing his eyes. I yawned behind my hand. "How'd ya sleep?"

   Tate shot a look my way. "You could have warned me first." His voice was rough from sleep.

   He was truly annoyed, for once. Not just teasing. I halted rubbing my eye. "Oh. Sorry, I just knew you needed the sleep."

   "I mean, I did need it, but that was a little sudden." He rubbed his face. "What's the alarm for?"

   I dragged my feet sideways and set them against the floor. My head lifted as I answered. "The team representative should be here in half an hour. We've got until then to get dressed and eat."

   Tate used the restroom while I pulled on my clothes. I was making sure the jacket's collar was flipped right when he came back out, finishing pulling on his shirt. Almost exactly when I finished tying my shoe, there was a knock on the door. Tate snapped his head up. I glanced his way. "How did you not hear them coming?"

   "I just thought they were going down the hall. Their gate is really confident. I just didn't expect that from someone who's currently trying to chase down Dani Darhk."

   I headed for the door, not even bothering with the peep-hole. "They're early," I grumbled. Undoing the latch, I swung it open. My spine stiffened a little and my lip curled.

   Her black hair was tied back. Sharp features adorned a heart-shaped face. Hazel eyes found mine and immediately darkened in hatred. There was a staff strapped to her back, and she wore a lilac tank top with black jeans. Her face soured at the sight of me. 

   "You cannot be the person I was sent to pick up," seethed Karen.