changeling chronicles 03 - faerie realm (7 page)

Or maybe not. I had enough problems on my list already.

“It’s impossible to keep track of everyone,” said the Chief. For the first time, surprisingly human tiredness showed on his too-handsome face. “I will question the prisoners again, too.”

“Good,” said Vance. “See to it. If you find anything out, let me know. I’ll come back here tomorrow in any case.”

The Chief’s eyes narrowed. “Send an emissary first. It’s difficult to reassure my people that they are under protection when you insist on defying our laws and appearing on my territory without any warning.”

I hid a smirk as Vance and I turned our backs and walked away. “You teleported in here?”

“Chieftain Taive refuses to join the twenty-first century and acquire a mobile phone.”

“I don’t think
he’s
a villain,” I said, surprised how relieving it was to know one person in the supernatural community wasn’t plotting to destroy the world as we knew it. Though he’d be happy to see me dead.
Can’t have it all.
“Still… I don’t know if what he’s doing is enough. He barely has control over his people. They could be plotting anything right in front of him.”

“He’d know if one of them had taken the talisman,” said Vance. “The nature of faerie magic… I looked into it, and I’m told their magic tends to warp and distort the reality around it. It’s not meant to fit into this realm.”

I turned to face him. “Yeah… that’s about right. Who told you?”

“It’s commonly known amongst the faeries,” he said. “I assumed as much from what I witnessed at the Trials.”

I fought back a shiver at the memory of half-faeries with shark teeth and poisonous barbs and the ability to transform into anything. Warping reality… yeah. I’d seen the worst of it in the Grey Vale. And then some.

“It explains why mine’s acting up.”

His grey eyes watched me. “Your magic?”

I nodded, unease skittering down my spine. Even now, I wanted to keep my secrets close to my heart. “It’s kind of… erratic. I keep accidentally letting half-faeries see me use magic. And last night, when I was looking after that kid, the piskie went berserk and I panicked. I shot magic at him without meaning to.” I stopped, part of me wishing I hadn’t spoken. I didn’t think Vance of all people would judge me, but worrying about what other people thought just added to the original problem. “If the Chief wasn’t such a dick, he might have been able to give me pointers.” My magic fitted better with people who hated me than with my new employers. No wonder I felt even less like I fit in with the mages.

“He’s Summer,” said Vance. “Mage magic and faerie magic aren’t so different in principle. You can come to the manor whenever you like, even when I’m not there. There are usually other mages in the training ground.”

I nodded. “Okay. What’re you doing now?”

“Checking in with the mages reporting on necromancer territory,” said Vance. “I’d go there myself, except we’re trying to watch them without them knowing we’re encroaching on their territory. Lord Evander would be displeased to find himself under watch.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass, if it turns out the necromancers are sitting on the missing talisman,” I said. “
Could
they be? Warping reality… surely the talisman can’t be hidden on the Ley Line. It’d cause way too much of a reaction.”

“Perhaps. If I knew more about faeries’ talismans, I might be able to think of something else. I suspect the Chief didn’t tell us everything he knew.”

“Is this what you used to do?” I asked. “You guys hate each other. Before all this madness started, did you always go around pissing off every head of each supernatural community in town?”

“Sometimes I pissed off the ones outside the town as well.”

I burst out laughing. “Vance, I think I’m a bad influence on you.”

“You may be right. And the madness hasn’t only started recently. You’ve just never been at the centre of it before.”

“I want a holiday.”

He chuckled. “I wish we could move our date earlier, but I need to make sure Drake hasn’t set anyone on fire.”

“Is that likely?”

“With necromancers? Yes, unfortunately.”

I had to admit he was probably right. “Okay. You go and check on your mages. I’ll go and make sure the Cavanaughs haven’t got into any more fights. Isabel’s in charge of babysitting tonight.”

“Good.” He swept me in for another bone-shaking kiss.

“Tease,” I mumbled against his lips.

“See you later.”

And in a rush of wind and thunder, we were on the doorstep of my flat. A brush of his lips against mine, and he was gone. I skipped into the hallway and nearly collided with Henry.

“Shit. Sorry.”

“You were with the Mage Lord?” His nostrils flared. “He’s been here since this morning.”

“Of course he has. We’re dating.” Might as well get it over with.

Henry’s eyes went wide. “You’re
dating
one of them? You’re human.”

“So’s he.” Mostly. “What does it matter?”

“It matters because shifters and humans aren’t
the same,” said Henry. “As the Coltons should know already.”

“Look, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.” And to be honest, I wanted answers. “Vance is a quarter-blooded shifter. His uncle lives on shifter territory, right?”

“Unfortunately.”

Okay…
“And his grandfather? What’s your issue with him?”

“He meddled in things he wasn’t supposed to,” said Henry. “Brought a human into our territory. It was before my time, when supernaturals hadn’t yet come out of hiding. It was incredibly dangerous of him to reveal what we are to a stranger. And during the invasion…” He shook his head. “It’s not my place to reveal other people’s secrets.”

“I don’t see what that has to do with Vance. He doesn’t live on shifter territory. He’s the leader of the Mage Lords.”

“We live by different rules to humans, Ivy. You can’t know…” He trailed off, anger flashing across his face. “We’re forced to cage ourselves because of the rules the Mage Lords put into place. His father betrayed us. His family’s cowardice was responsible for many losses in the invasion.”

“His family
died.”
I knew that much. “His parents were killed fighting the Sidhe. I wouldn’t call that cowardice.”

He shook his head. “I was a child, but the stories…”

“You’re being really specific here.”

“Ask on shifter territory if you have a death wish,” said Henry, edging around me uncomfortably. “If word gets out that I’ve told a non-shifter…

“I’ll ask Vance himself, then. On our date.” I’d never had a particular argument with Henry—unlike most other neighbours I’d had—but his tone grated on me.

“Don’t go near shifter territory,” he said. “The gates were open last night. Briana still hasn’t been found.”

“She’s dead,” said a female voice. Henry’s wife, Susie, approached from behind Henry, easily as haggard-looking as her husband. The only sign of the tiger she shifted into was in the dark streaks in her auburn hair, and the reddish tint to her pupils. Tall for a woman, she towered over me, her denim jacket hugging her wide shoulders. “They found her body.”

Crap.

“What—who killed her?” I shrank back as Susie’s catlike eyes glared at me. The fear-effect reminded me of a hellhound and made me twice as determined to stand my ground.

“A half-faerie,” she said. “Traces of magic were found at the scene. They tore her to pieces.”

I swallowed, bracing my feet to stop myself from cowering away. “I’m sorry. I can’t think why anyone would…”

“You were with the half-faeries today, weren’t you?”

“Vance and I met with the Chief, yes.” Why would a half-faerie kill a shifter? Might have been a random murder—both species were volatile as hell, after all—but shifters didn’t leave their territory at the full moon. They knew the consequences if they did. And even if the shifter was completely out of control, a half-faerie wouldn’t be the one to put them down. They didn’t care about shifters
or
regular humans.

“The Mage Lord,” said Henry, nostrils flaring again. “He’s not trustworthy. If you insist on meeting with him, Ivy, tell him he has no part in the investigation. Briana was a good person. I have to go—”

“—check on George,” said Susie. “He’s sleeping. I’m going to see what happened to Briana. She was found on the boundary with half-blood territory.” Her blazing eyes cut into me. “This might mean war, Ivy. I’d stay out of it.”

I stepped aside. Susie was intimidating on a good day, but right now, she was brink-of-shifting angry. My hands itched to conjure up magic to counteract the fear like when I faced down a hellhound.

Susie’s heels snapped on the pavement as my eyes followed her path. Dammit. Going after her would be downright stupid, but how else was I supposed to figure out if there might be a connection?

I turned to Henry instead. “Why would one of your people leave shifter territory last night in the first place?”

“You aren’t to get involved, either,” said Henry, eyes lighting with the merest flash of yellow. He was a wolf in shifted form, though not as scary as his wife. God only knew what kind of creature George would end up turning into when he reached puberty. A tiger wolf? Some new monstrosity?

“All right. I’m technically a private investigator, if you haven’t forgotten. It’s my job to help solve supernatural cases involving the faeries.”

“You’re working for the Mage Lord.” Henry sighed. “I don’t want to argue with you, Ivy, but trust me when I say the man’s untrustworthy and his family is worse. As for this death… your involvement with the faeries puts you at risk of being accused yourself if you try to interfere.”

“Figures.” Okay. I could stay out of this one. I had enough to be getting on with already. “Fine. I can’t stop the Mage Lords getting involved, though. They’re in charge.”

“Not according to us,” said Henry. He glanced over his shoulder and moved back into the hallway. “I’m going back upstairs to check on George. Don’t go to shifter territory.”

“Gotcha.”

I’ve never been good at obeying orders. Especially when I didn’t have to. Sure, going to shifter territory would be a bad move, but a half-faerie killer walking around the city was my responsibility. Could they be connected to Calder? Even if not, someone was dead because of the faeries. Again. Last time a half-faerie had lost it and murdered someone, they’d been acting under the influence of Calder’s drug. I couldn’t look the other way.

I’d just check. That was all. Besides—I did have a way to sneak around unseen.

CHAPTER SIX

I slipped out of the flat, sticking to the shadows by habit. The sky had darkened to navy blue in early evening, and the tall blocks of flats cast long shadows on the tarmac. Fallen leaves skittered through the street, some pursued by piskies. I never did catch all the ones that escaped the other week, and aside from Erwin, none of the others had decided to stay at our flat.

The wind whistled past, got into my coat and bit at my arms as though to warn me off. But I had time to kill and a shifter death near half-blood territory was nothing if not suspicious. Cloaked in the shadow-spell I’d activated before leaving the flat, I couldn’t be seen by anyone, human or otherwise.

I walked the long way so I wouldn’t pass within sight of the half-faeries’ gates. Even the shadowy illusion wouldn’t mask my magic if it decided to make an appearance.

Lowered voices drew my attention. I followed the sound, half-wishing I’d waited a couple of hours until the sky was darker and the shadows more pronounced. I edged alongside a high fence, the dividing line which cut half-faerie territory off from shifter territory. Both extended out of the suburbs into the countryside, where the wilder fey-kind and shifters who didn’t want to embrace humanity had settled. The majority, who wanted to live peacefully, stayed here in the city. Despite the truce, some shifters hadn’t forgotten they’d been the group who’d suffered the most losses in the invasion.

I’d never been this close to their territory, not even on the boundary. The voices grew louder, and I slowed my pace, one hand on the hilt of my sword.

At the place where the low wooden fence bordering on half-blood territory met with the steel enclosure surrounding the shifters’ area, a wide alleyway ran between the two fences. Several people gathered there. Humans, not half-faeries. They must be shifters.

Scarlet dots scattered on the pavement, darkening to thick smudges. My heart sank in my chest.
Oh, no.
This was the murder site, all right.

I edged closer, even as a primal instinct urged me to flee, both from the beasts in human form standing in the alley, and from the killer whose presence lingered in the form of the carnage they’d left behind. Blood spattered the alley floor and walls, and the dead shifter’s form lay sprawled on the ground, her body ripped open from stomach to throat. I choked on vomit as I drew closer to see through the crowd, close enough to hear their voices.

And see the magic.

Fanning out from the dead shifter’s open chest, threads of green light spilled onto the ground. The magic was
inside
her, too, smothering what was left of her organs. She hadn’t been torn open. Someone had hit her with magic hard enough to blast her body apart.

The skin had been torn from her skull, hanging in bloody fragments. I swallowed bile, trembling all over. Throwing up would alert the others to my presence. The rumble of voices became more distinct.

A deep male voice said, “…declaration of war.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” said a female voice. “The half-faeries don’t want another war any more than we do. Some of them were under the influence of a drug last week. The Mage Lords said—”

“The Mage Lords are liars who want to save their own skin,” interrupted an angry male voice. “They all but abandoned us after the invasion, even knowing what we lost.
They
don’t want another war, because it might knock them down from the positions of power they wrongfully took.”