The Bargainer #1
*This book contains explicit sexual scenes, abuse, blood, and murder on the page.
Visit Laura Thalassa’s website HERE.
Disclaimer: I have read this book of my own volition. Any and all opinions and interpretations contained herein are my own.
The Spoiler Report is a recounting of the major events of the novel mixed with my own interpretation of the meaning and symbolism of events, emotions, and actions. Reading this report is NOT a substitute for reading the actual novel and should not be taken as such. Not every single detail, feeling, and event is divulged within. It is essentially a lengthy outline of the story. Many details and all dialogue have not been included. This report is for those who appreciate knowing what happens or feels they may miss things when reading, or just want to have a detailed overview of a book before, or during, reading.
****THIS REPORT CONTAINS SPOILERS****
This is not a book review. For the full review of Rhapsodic please visit here.
8 Years Ago
Standing covered in blood with her tormentor dead at her feet – her stepfather. Because of who and what he is, she can’t contact the authorities. Instead, she contacts the Bargainer.
Present
Callie walks into a swanky restaurant, focusing on her target, Micky. Using her siren powers, she clears the private dining room where she compels Mickey to confess to his wrong doings.
8 years ago
The Bargainer appears but initially wants nothing to do with the situation because Callie is still a child but will be sixteen soon. Legally an adult in the supernatural world.
Against his better judgement, and clearly unhappy about his choice, the Bargainer agrees to the deal at no cost. For the time being, he is sending a now orphaned Callie to a supernatural boarding school on an island in the UK.
Present
Returning to her oceanside home after wrapping up her time with Micky, Callie is ready to luxuriate in a late-night swim in the sea. But the Bargainer is waiting for her in her bedroom.
8 Years Ago
An officer of the supernatural police contacts Callie five months later with some questions about the death of her stepfather. Panicked, Callie contacts the Bargainer.
Present
It’s been seven years since Callie has seen the Bargainer, aka Desmond Flynn. Who exposes Callie’s bracelet of onyx beads. Each one represents an IOU for a favor from the Bargainer. And now he has come to collect on the 322 favors Callie owes him.
The first bead disappears with a simple kiss. With a promise to return the next night to collect more favors.
It is time for Callie to make some changes and prepare to pay back the now 321 favors. First order of business, end things with her werewolf boyfriend. Which also includes telling him the purpose of the beaded bracelet she never takes off. Though leaving out the part where those 322 favors were her way of simply keeping the Bargainer in her life as a besotted teenager.
8 Years Ago
The Bargainer is less than thrilled about being summoned to Callie’s dorm room. When she tries to use her siren powers to glamor him, he’s angry enough to make another deal.
Present
Desmond shows up again, as promised. Callie is torn between wanting to hate the man that devastated her heart seven years ago and falling back into the overwhelming feelings she tried to bury.
Remembering what he had been to her until he wasn’t. Trying to mask his own emotions as he watches Callie prepare for her next payment, but ends up revealing his wings to her for only the second time.
October, 8 Years Ago
Callie officially has her first IOU bead as she calls on him again. This time needing only his company. She hasn’t been able to fit in at the school as she had hoped. The Bargainer agrees to one, plutonic night.
Present
Desmond’s current form of payment, Callie is to choose furniture for his guest bedroom. Callie’s attempt at rebellion backfires as she suffers through the magic compelling her to complete this task within the given timeframe. But it does cause two more beads to disappear.
Des flies her back home, treating her tenderly before asking is she knows the reason behind his leaving her seven years ago – another payment.
Forced, again, Callie believes that her actions back then pushed him away. He warns her that this time he will not be leaving. Especially having to wait seven years to return.
November, 8 Years Ago
Callie now has a whole row of beads surrounding her wrist. For reasons she can’t understand, the Bargainer continues to indulge her desire for simple companionship. Even though she suspects he actually enjoys their visits.
Present
Waking in the morning, Callie finds Desmond has fixed the door he destroyed the night before during his dramatic entrance, for free. Very uncharacteristic of him; everything comes with a price.
That is not where her mind snags, his parting words and the fact that she only has 316 beads left. That means the Bargainer took more away after the furniture debacle.
After work, Callie gets a message from Eli, the boyfriend she broke up with since she had no idea what the Bargainer would ask of her. Eli has effectively declined their breakup and put the Bargainer on the supernatural most wanted lists at number three.
That night, the Bargainer crashes her evening of wine drinking and book reading. After pouring her wine into the sink, claiming he’s only looking after her.
Another bead vanishes.
November, 8 Years Ago
Pushing Callie into a panic asking for an explanation as to why she killed her stepfather. Callie realizes Desmond already knows.
Before rushing off, the Bargainer finally leaves her his name – Desmond Flynn.
Present
Des flies Callie to his personal home on Catalina Island, right across the ocean from her own home. She is the first person he has taken there.
As she walks in, Callie notices little touches that could possibly signify the time the spent together before he abandoned her.
The payment for the night – truth.
Desmond wants to know what Callie has been up to for the last seven years. (As if he didn’t know.) She tells him how she and Temper became best friends during their senior year of high school. After graduation they opened a PI business together. Taking advantage of their respective magical abilities.
Forcing her to talk about her personal life before admitting he needs her help. Something is happen in Otherworld. Des, King of the Night is not able to solve this one without her.
People are disappearing. The women are the only ones being returned – only not in any state they can tell about what happened to them.
Callie’s siren powers of glamour do not work on fairies. Des wants her to talk to the human changlings in his kingdom.
December, 8 Years Ago
For an additional bead, Desmond reveals he is a fae king in the Otherworld. The king to the most ruthless kingdom. Callie had no idea he was even a fairy.
Present
Desmond flies Callie toward her next task. Wrapping herself around Des as he carries her, she realizes that he allows himself a smudge of vulnerability whenever he holds her. He always has.
Back at Desmond’s Catalina home, Callie studies case files of whatever information Des has gathered. The women are being returned in glass coffins, not unlike Sleeping Beauty, Disney’s version at least. They are in a suspended stasis. Unlike Sleeping Beauty they are holding a weapon in one hand and a live baby in the other.
Des takes some time to explain how Otherworld works in order to prepare Callie before he takes her there. Ending their night with a snack and confusion.
When Callie was a teen, Des remained a prude when it came to non-plutonic physical contact. No matter how much she tried to change that. Now, seven years later he’s suggestive and purposefully enticing.
After a full day at work, Callie just wants to swim in the ocean. Instead, Eli barges into her house full of intensity and possessiveness.
Only one day post full moon, he is visibly struggling to maintain control. And losing. Eli continues his physical pursuit no matter what Callie says. It isn’t until Desmond makes a dramatic entrance that the werewolf stops himself.
The two of them in the same room puts Callie at a crossroads. Eli offers the supernatural-American dream. One where Callie becomes a subservient wife and mother to Alpha Eli and the pack.
Then there is the path that Des offers. Pain, heartache, and the freedom to be herself.
Des and Callie narrowly escape an enraged werewolf.
January, 7 Years Ago
Against his better judgement, instead of scaring Callie off for good, Des takes her to Venice via ley line portals, to see a client of his. All it does is show Callie that Des has been giving her special treatment from the beginning.
Present
Pieces of a scheming puzzle fall into place for Callie where the fae king is involved. For Des, none of this has been a game. This is the only thing that is real and worth anything.
January, 7 Years Ago
Callie continues to see that Des has been affording her special privileges and she doesn’t want to stop untile she has all of him.
Present
Stuck at Des’s house for the night since there is an angry werewolf ravaging her house, Callie finds that Des has gone above and beyond to make her comfortable in his home. Including an indulgent swim in the ocean that brings another small sliver of Des’s vulnerability to the surface.
In the morning, Callie finds her name has been added to the bottom of the most wanted list. Des remains at number 3.
Dressed to fit in with the fae in Otherworld, Callie nervously faces the portal Des has in his house. The man himself is also dressed for the occasion.
January, 7 Years Ago
Callie is a mess of tears when Des arrives in her dorm room. He is ready to enact revenge on whomever caused this. But for the moment, he holds and comforts her. It isn’t until later that he is able to act as the deadly fairy Callie often forgets that he is.
Present
Des and Callie go through his personal portal to Otherworld.
Arriving with Callie in his arms at his palace. Making a very public entrance which is met by cheers from all.
Callie finally gets to see a side of him she’s never been able to before. Truly beginning to understand that he is a king and not just the Bargainer. It is one thing to know that he is king, it is another to see him in action.
Des immediately takes her to interview a human nursemaid in the royal nursery. The children that have returned with the women in glass caskets are not your average young.
Covered in bite marks and bruises, the nursemaid reveals the children, aged three months to eight years old, spout prophecy as they feed. The Thief of Souls fears only Desmond, the Emperor of the Evening. And he is preparing to take everything.
February, 7 Years Ago
Callie gets a taste of what Desmond’s magic will feel like when he finally decides to seek payment for her now nine rows of beads. It also gives her a better understanding how torturous her own powers as a siren can be to others.
Present
Callie is even more troubled after learning these disappearances have been happening for a full decade and they still know so little. She offers to use her siren powers of persuasion on the children.
The royal nursery is eerily quiet, nothing like a human nursery full of children. Another nursemaid takes them to the children who had to be separated. They were beginning to feed from the other children.
All the children begin to scream as Des enters the room. Callie turns on her siren powers and begins to sing, hoping to insight calm. It works.
The questioning begins. All the children have the same father. The Thief of Souls, who now has his eyes on Callie. As soon as one of the children touches her skin, Callie is given a nightmarish vision.
February, 7 Years Ago
Laying in bed, surrounded by her depression, Callie allows her past to loom over like a lead cloud filled with acid. The Bargainer barges in using extortion to coax her out of bed. Becoming a tough-love cheerleader and urging her to never give up on herself. Reminding her that she is never alone or without hope.
Present
Callie wakes from her vision in Desmond’s bed in his house on Earth. A room he had not wanted to show her before now.
Sharing what she saw in the vision , Des now has information he didn’t before.
Callie needs to leave Des’ house. She is no longer comfortable being so close to an active Otherworld portal.
Desperate to keep her close, Des dangles a favor in front of Callie, kissing her. A kiss that reveals snippets of his feelings for her.
Callie is a moment away from falling into the man she has pined over since she was a teenager. Her head clears and she is able to remember what he is. Despite what his demeanor says, he agrees to take her home over spilling his own truths to her.
Des uses his magic to repair some of the damage done by the werewolf. Both him and Callie are clearly struggling with what was revealed, but unsaid, as they continue to cross more physical boundaries that had been in place when she was younger.
March, 7 Years Ago
Des asks Callie to talk about her mother. Wanting moreinsight to the unfortunate circumstances of her childhood.
When Callie turns the tables on the Bargainer, he gives her a cryptic answer before excusing himself for the night.
Present
Beginning to clean up her ransacked house, Callie immediately feels an unexpected emptiness without Des around. But it gives her a chance to call her bestie, Temper. Who is absolutely beside herself with worry.
Callie tells her the origins of the bracelet of beads. Neither have talked about their pasts since they met in high school.
Temper can immediately detect Callie’s feelings for the Bargainer and warns her off. Callie continues to tell her everything. Starting with the year she spent with the fore-mentioned man as her nearly constant companion.
The Thief of Souls and the children haunt her dreams Waking, she finds her bedroom is littered with feathers, the bed is shredded around where she was sleeping.
Calling Des, he is there before she can blink. The man is beyond furious. So much so he informs Callie that she is to stay with him until all her beads are gone. She is unable to refuse – it is the payment of the day and not a request.
March, 7 Years Ago
Des is in her dorm room per usual. From his position Callie is reminded that he masks his presence when he visits. She understand, in part, why he does it. But she wants more. It is no longer just a hero/victim complex with her. The more time she spends with him the more she finds to like about him. The more concessions he gives her.
In the Bargainer’s eyes, she is able to see some of his truths. It leads her to ask him to stay the night. Innocently. True to his nature toward Callie and not his reputation, he leaves.
Present
Trying to reconcile her feelings over her current situation – living with the Bargainer for the foreseeable future or however long it takes to pay off her debts. Most of Callie is annoyed and angry. Another part of her is not mad at it.
Des takes her to the café they would frequent when she was in school.
Opening the topic of why Des left seven years ago. Using his favors, Des forces her to answer his questions. Including describing her nightmare with the Thief of Souls.
Determined, Callie insists on fully helping Des solve the case, not to repay her debt.
March, 7 Years Ago
Callie tells Temper she has to take a leave of absence from their PI business, one that might become permanent since she has no idea what the Bargainer truly has in store for her. Though she wouldn’t mind giving into him by her own volition.
Callie just isn’t prepared to face the heartache that is sure to follow.
Unable to palate the tension any longer, Callie again pushes the Bargainer for answers. He pushes her to ask the right question. Once she does, Des gives her some soul-shaking truths of his own before daring Callie.
Performing her dare, slowly letting go and silently confessing her feelings. Free of his magic forcing her payment, Callie throws caution to the wind and continues to explore Des’s body with a new found epiphany – Des has always felt the same about her as she for him. Even when she was sixteen.
April, 7 Years Ago
Des takes Callie to claim payment from one of his clients.
Annoyed by the man’s stubbornness and cowardice, Callie allows her siren to aid the interrogation. It may get Des the information he was looking for but he’s pissed. Callie has potentially put herself in great danger.
Present
Callie wakes in Des’s arms. Both having fell asleep while watching a movie. Gaining more confidence with Des, Callie pushes for more physical intimacy. Des doesn’t fight her as she brings him pleasure. Giving her satisfaction and another truth,
Back in Otherworld, Des takes Callie to see the women in glass caskets. But first they make a stop at the king’s quarters where Des returns the favor Callie willingly gave him earlier. Taking one of her beads just for the privilege to pleasure her.
After confessing the extent of his desire, Callie still internally fights the hope that knowledge brings. Des makes that much more difficult as he mentions the inevitability of his future queen.
April, 7 Years Ago
Des holds Callie as she fights sleep. Just as he has done every night since her nightmare. Reveling in the complete feeling his presence gives her.
Present
Des flies Callie to see the sleeping women. So many rows and rows. Each returned with a weapon and live child. The number of children she saw yesterday was very limited compared to the number of women. Many of the children have been killed by the mother’s surviving families in self-defense against the children.
Walking amongst the women, Callie’s siren begins to sing. Mainly to calm her anxieties since her siren powers of glamour don’t work on fairies.
It doesn’t wake them but brings forth something else. Some entity that brings a warning and a promise.
April, 7 Years Ago
Des asks Callie to tell him the truth about the night they met.
As much as Callie wants to bury the memory of that night and of her father, it’s time to talk about it. Des provides the safe space to do that. Safety to jump knowing he is there to catch her. And he does.
Present
While Des stays behind in Otherworld to be his kingly self, Callie wanders and snoops about his Catalina home.
She is interrupted by someone at the door that has come to see her and not the Bargainer.
May, 7 Years Ago
As it has been for several nights, Callie is no longer calling upon favors from the Bargainer for him to keep her company. He is visiting of his own volition. And tonight the dorm hallway is chaotic. It’s the school’s version of prom.
With disappointment clearly written on her face, not just about not getting an invite but also involuntarily being ostracized by her peers.
Des grandly asks Callie to take him to the dance.
Present
Eli apologizes for the way he handled things. But he is still stuck thinking Callie is staying with the Bargainer to simply pay off her debts in anyway he chooses. The only way to make Eli understand the extent of her relationship with the Bargainer is to tell him about the night that they met and what led up to her killing her stepfather.
Des interrupts their talk, wings out. When Eli sees Callie with the Bargainer, he finally understands the situation between them. Even if Callie still doesn’t understand the full extent.
Des wants to talk. But Callie excuses herself and gives Temper a call who has more knowledge of the fae than she. Callie is interested in the nuances of fairy wing etiquette and their meanings.
Hearing that Des had his wings out when he approached Eli and only a handful of other times lead Temper to spill a surprising fact. Des’s wing behavior is how Fae act around their betrothed.
May, 7 Years Ago
Having Des as a date brings unwanted attention to the once invisible Callie. But the real intensity is in the edge of Des’s eyes as they dance.
Present
Callie confronts Des about the possible meaning of him strategically flashing his wings at her ex. He corrects Temper’s misconception. It’s not their betrothed they show their wings to, but their soulmates.
May, 7 Years Ago
After the dance, Des is stoic, telling Callie he can’t do it anymore. Clear to everyone (the readers) but Callie what he is really talking about. He is allowing his feelings for her, an intensity only a supernatural would understand, chip away at his control.
Callie, being extremely young, thinks that Des must actually ‘like her’ by the way he is acting.
After Callie initiates a kiss, Des struggles to control his erratic emotions. Losing the battle, his wings come out. It’s the first time Callie is seeing them.
Des apologizes. Callie interprets that as regret. Regret regarding their entire time together. That she is still nothing more to him than a child. When she has recklessly fallen in love with the fae king.
Desperate, Callie tries to rectify the situation, reciting an old binding verse as part of her final bargain. At the end of which Des disappears in a puff of smoke. Never to return until seven years later.
Present
Des confesses everything. The reasons why he spent the year with her after she killed her stepfather. Why he hesitated and remained at arm’s length. Why he was forced to stay away for seven years. Now Des can finally confess the extent of his feelings and commitment to Callie. Who shares his love and devotion.
Breaking all emotional and physical boundaries between them – finally – after seven long years of waiting.
Enjoying a cup of coffee while looking out over the ocean, a stranger approaches Callie. Another fairy. One who has been looking for her. A client that has been insisting on working with her and not Temper. After a short struggle, the stranger takes Callie.
Callie wakes in a prison cell carved into a rock wall. Looking out of her cell, she sees a cavern full of other cells. Just the same as in her vision she was given.
A place the Bargainer cannot get to.
Considered a slave in Otherworld because she is essentially human. Not a fae warrior like every other woman that was taken. But she is a special human. Callie is the King of Night’s one true weakness.
Removed from her cell in thick iron shackles to meet the Thief of Souls. Who is really Karnon, King of Fauna, aka the mad king. He had Callie brought to his bedroom. He has also been the one to impregnate all the sleeping women and is eager to do so with his new prize.
After magically immobilizing Callie, he sends her back to her cell as she attempts to fight him.
After standing up to a guard, Callie finally gets one of the other women to talk to her, Aetherial. The fae warrior recounts what she has been through thus far. Until they watch guards remove another woman from her cell on a crude gurney. The longer a prisoner stays, the more paralyzed they become by the Thief of Soul’s toxic magic.
Next meeting with Karnon, Callie is treated like the treasured guest of a delusional psychopath. Karnon is appalled to find that she has no markings of the siren she harbors. It isn’t until she fights back that the cruel Thief of Souls persona appears. He is the personality that notices the bracelet of beads for the first time.
Furious at the guards for allowing foreign magic into his kingdom that can be traced.
Breathing his toxic, paralyzing. Magic into her once again, knocking her out. At least she now knows Des can find her.
A few days after her meeting with the mad Karnon, Callie still feels weak and miserable.
Aetherial demands she pulls herself out of it. Aetherial has noticeably lost more mobility since she and Callie had last talked. Karnon’s magic isn’t working on Callie the way it does on Fae. Her body rejects and cleanses itself after each visit.
Being met mostly by the maddened version of Karnon more than the concerned version that sees her as a precious pet.
Aetherial is no longer responding to Callie.
Meeting yet again with the King of Fauna, Callie is faced with the confusing, compassionate Karnon. Thinking she is dying because her inner siren is smothered and not because she has been continually poisoned for days and days. But Callie needn’t worry, he is going to free her.
Karnon releases a tsunami of magic onto Callie. He is trying to set her animal, her siren, free. The pain is beyond agonizing. It isn’t until she has been transformed that Karnon’s magic retreats.
Callie now has talons at her hands and scales on parts of her body. Then there’s the wings. She is nowhere near Karnon’s excitement level. She almost despises her new appearance. Thinking herself a true monster.
There is a distant pounding at the door. When it goes unanswered, they are blown open – destroyed. Des has finally found Callie. She is happy but doesn’t want the King of Night to see what she has become.
Des is a fortress of pure rage. While Karnon antagonizes Des, shadows and night quietly take over the room; pulsating with Des’s power. They decimate everything other than he and Callie down to the foundation.
Callie wakes in Des’s room in his palace. He finds her transformation beautiful; Callie is still horrified. But as soon as Des forces her to look at herself in the mirror, she realizes she is not deformed. Seeing beauty in the new additons.
The women in the coffins have not woken even though Karnon was destroyed. Callie can feel that the enemy is still coming and that this is far from over.
Des reassures her that he will be by her side ‘till darkness dies’.
