Page 13 of Explosive Chemistry

“Why are you here?” the prince asked.

“I helped to defeat Spearfinger and told them where to find the soldiers’ bodies.” Liliana felt herself relax now that she had a good question to answer. “Detective Jackson asked me not to leave until they were done exhuming the bodies, in case they had more questions for me.”

To keep track of time, Liliana watched the digital satellite clock display on the dashboard. She didn’t want to make the colonel late for Pete’s report. It took her a moment to locate the clock among the tactical maps and side and rear camera images in the broad display surface that stretched from one side of the vehicle to the other. A bunch of knobs and tactile controls unlike anything in other cars ran in a line under the displays.

The second eyes on her temples peered through the curtain of her dark hair. They let her watch him beside her and the clock in front of her at the same time.

His expression was thoughtful as his gaze traveled over her tattered, dirty clothes and the scrapes on her skin. “You saved my life the last time we met. Your actions anticipated exactly what would happen, and you knew precisely when to act. You also seemed to know the answers to questions I intended to ask the Wolfhound.” He studied her. “How?”

Liliana shrugged. “I know it the same way I know that you will be in danger in a few weeks and will die in less than a year. I know it the same way I know that you are not just an Army colonel, but also the son of Titania, the Queen of Air and Darkness. I am a spider seer.”

“I’ve heard of your kind. Spider seers are supposed to be powerful and dangerous. But I thought they were extinct.” The focus of his eyes sharpened on her face like the hot point of a laser sight. “I never thought I’d meet one.”

“Now you have met a spider seer. I am Liliana.” She nodded a sketchy bow in his direction. Letting a Sidhe know that her kind still existed was a huge risk, but she had to decide if she would save this man’s life. His fate was closely tangled with Pete’s, and with all her friends in one way or another. They respected and admired him and would mourn his loss. Her few brief encounters with him were enough to hint that given time, his life might become precious to her as well.

He nodded a half bow back to her from his seat. “I am honored.” Old world manners surprised her from a new world soldier. “A spider seer could be a powerful ally.”

“Or a powerful enemy, your highness. I must decide which to be. I need to know more about you to make that decision.” Since he knew what she was and no one else could see, Liliana opened her third eyes, like tiny black teardrops under her first eyes, turned, and looked into his soul.

On the surface was order, complex and unrelentingly strong, like blue ice crystals in interlocking geometric snowflake patterns made of frozen steel girders. The red hue of passion tinted the crystalline order, but the strong desire was for civilized structure and fairness. Very unusual in a Fae, especially unseelie. Cold, ruthless logic ruled over that carefully controlled icy surface.

The spider seer looked deeper. There was far more to this man. What lay beneath the first layer was far from cold. His center burned with the black and orange charcoal fire of bitterness and rage.

So much anger. Why?

She opened her fourth eyes, too, and saw glimpses of his past. The proud prince on his knees in his youth, hands bound behind him, blood running from his nose, rage in his burning eyes. Another image of him face-down in the dirt, trembling with weakness, fighting to stand, with clothes tattered, while mocking laughter rang in his ears. This powerful prince had been humiliated. Someone had treated him like dirt beneath their shoes.

The many layers of his self were interwoven with an iron gray determination to never be weak again, to never be anyone’s victim again. He craved power and respect like other men craved love and comfort.

A will of iron.

But she’d already known that. Her view into his heart told her a great deal about who this man was, but not why he watched over her favorite red wolf. His conscious mind, where his thoughts lay, was like the surface of a lake, reflecting distorted images back at her.

Shielded with magic.

She sank so deep into contemplating her third eyes’ view of this fascinating, multi-layered soul that she failed to notice as he moved his strange gun until the barrel touched her forehead, right between her fourth set of eyes.

“Get out of my head,” he ordered her.

Liliana gave a slight nod of respect, all she could manage with the position of the gun barrel, and closed all but her human eyes. “As you wish.” She waited for him to lower the gun, but he hesitated, still pointing it at her.

Her heart beat faster.

She couldn’t know for certain now that she couldn’t see his heart and mind, but he seemed to be considering whether to kill her right there and then. Nearby witnesses be damned.

This Fae prince feared loss of control and powerlessness above all. Liliana knew this now. In learning his deepest fear, she had unintentionally shown that she had the power to know his secrets. He could not stop her from seeing into him. She frightened him.

A frightened soldier with a gun pointed at your head was a very dangerous thing.

The spider-kin carefully did not move. She wasn’t good with words, but they were the only thing that could save her life right now. “I am not the one who threatens your life, prince of shadows,” she reminded him softly, hoping it was the right thing to say. “I seek a reason to save it.”

His lips tightened, showing none of his fear, only a hint of the deep well of anger that lived at his center. “Don’t do that again.”

“You only have to ask. The gun is not necessary.”

He set the gun back in his lap. “My apologies.”

The spider-kin let out a quiet breath and some of the tension left her shoulders. “Accepted.” Lately, people trying to kill her was a normal part of becoming acquainted.

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