Nearby, Professors Tristal and Gaspar sat together behind a table covered with extra-large party poppers. They encouraged us all to take one and enjoy the surprises they offered. Gabriel cracked his first and a rainbow of sparkles exploded in his face.
“Ack. I have glitter in my mouth.” He spit and rubbed a hand down his face. “Why can’t I get rid of it?”
“Because you have your own personal glitter flurry.” I pointed to the glimmering cloud over his head, far too amused with his predicament.
“My turn!” Anji said, then pulled the two ends of her popper apart. An orange bubble with a cupcake inside floated into her hands, popping at the moment of contact. “Oooh, looks like I got a treat.”
I tugged the black foil ends on my party popper and ripped them apart. A hot blast of air blew my hair back but that was nothing compared to the banshee-like scream that followed. I screeched, heart pounding in my chest, and stumbled back. Gabe caught me before I fell on my ass and I ended up with a face full of his glitter.
“Oh man, that was great!” Cole’s face had gone red, he was laughing so hard at me.
“Ha, ha.” I shook glitter from my hair, embarrassed by how my hands shook. “See what you get, birdbrain.”
Cole’s popper released a flock of red-eyed ravens. The birds swooped up into the air like a dark tornado then turned down again and fell like meteors, each one bursting into flames as they shot straight for him. His eyes widened in fear and he cringed, but the birds vanished into smoke a split second before striking him.
“Ha!” Holden roared, smacking Cole on the back. “Who’s shaking now?”
The rest of the group went similarly, with Dain and Teresa getting more treats while the others enjoyed tricks ranging from silly to scary. It was good fun overall, and some impressive spellwork mingled with glamour. Later on I’d have to ask Tristal how she’d worked such ingenious magic.
Eventually our tricks faded away into faerie dust and vanished, and we moved on to an impressive hay bale maze designed by Provost Riordan. A glimmering portal took our gang to the center, requiring us to find a way out of it to rejoin the rest of the carnival. Some of us split from the main group and moved off down different paths. The shifters all had different ideas about which scent trails to follow, which meant Pilar and Dain emerged first, much to many accusations of cheating.
The fae lord aimed a smug smile at us. “It isn’t my fault that I can feel the air current.”
At last, Dain had won something.
We were contemplating whether or not we wanted to visit the haunted house to see Holly’s handiwork before reporting for our group entry to the costume contest, when Lia suddenly bolted from my side.
For the first time since we’d met, Oberon arrived without fanfare. He was merely there, lacking the usual entourage on his heels. He wore a blue, high-collared tunic with dazzling scarlet feathers around the collar, the deep neckline revealing the chiseled definition of his chest. I glanced at Gabriel in a sapphire, high-collared tunic with the same ruby feathers.
They were wearing identical outfits, down to the leggings that really brought attention to their asses. Praise the creator of such a wondrous garment. David Bowie and his infamous package had nothing on my mate.
For a moment, Gabriel and Oberon stared at one another, the latter wearing an expression so bewildered I was the first to laugh.
“What in the name of the summer wind is happening here? Why do I have a twin? And is that… is that—that is mine.” The king looked downright indignant.
“It’s for the costume contest,” Lia explained, rising on tiptoe and kissing her husband’s cheek. “And yes, it is yours. I borrowed it.”
“He does fill it out rather nicely,” Oberon agreed. He sniffed. “I suppose he may keep it.”
“Oh, no!” Gabriel started to protest, holding out both hands. “That isn’t necessary, I—”
Oberon waved it off. “As you can see, I own more than one. Besides, every man deserves a well-tailored suit. But, may I make a few alterations to better suit you?”
“Uh, okay, sure.”
One finger-snap created a surge of magic that fell over Gabriel like a tidal wave. Adjustments in coloration swept over the garment from head to toe, whisking away the sapphire blue in favor of a deep, gorgeous crimson. The red feathers turned ebony, peacock eyes interspersed with raven. They were oil slick hues that gleamed under the lights, reminiscent of my natural hair color—of the color Lia now sported. Despite the changes, there was still no mistaking that Gabriel was dressed as Oberon.
Especially when the fae monarch removed his crown and gently set it on Gabriel’s head. “Of course, one cannot be a king without a crown. I will want it back at the night’s end.”
“Of course. Thank you, Your Highness,” Gabe babbled.
Lia clapped happily. “That looks wonderful.”
Royalty looked good on Gabe, even I had to agree on as much. We posed for even more selfies than the photos we’d taken outside of the guest house, stopping every so often at a decoration to pose for more pictures with our fellow students and buddies outside our close friendship circle.
To my surprise, as if they’d been warned, each person we encountered was respectful of Oberon and Dain’s privacy and did not crowd around the two powerful fae to beg for photos and attention.
“Thanks for this, you guys,” Holly said once we’d all met up again at the hot cider fountain. “Thanks for convincing me not to miss all this.”
I wrapped one arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “We’re friends, and friends don’t let friends miss Halloween.”
“Especially when it’s our last one,” Pilar added. “This had better be the best haunted house yet.”
It was.
19
Aced
After acing midterms, I looked forward to a short break away from the ongoing investigation into Annalise. No matter how many leads we followed, nothing ever panned out, and the looming threat was enough to drive anyone batty. While others chose to stay and gain extra field hours working the case, Simon encouraged me to take the break and clear my head.
Thank goodness I’d listened to him.
I spent Thanksgiving with my family, wondering if it would be the last one I enjoyed in the mortal realm. Becoming Lia’s Morrigan no longer felt like a terrifying, alien concept, but I mourned the things I would leave behind to live in Tir na Nog.
Cell phones did not operate in Tir na Nog. Fae didn’t upload selfies to the ’Gram or watch late-night Game of Thrones episodes with friends.
Due to the rule—top brass claimed it was a guideline, but we were taking no chances—requiring sentinels to employ safety in numbers, Holden and Ben traveled with us to meet my folks and hang out. We lured Holden with the promise of limitless soul food, and Ben wanted to escape his family’s drama and eat a meal that wasn’t catered.
Technically, Ben wasn’t a sentinel, but we figured it was better to apologize than ask permission for him to fill in as our mage.
During the week away in Virginia, Gabriel and I played with my little brother and spent time exploring the surrounding area. We almost didn’t leave the campus at all, and I could tell he’d been torn between hanging around to assist with the rising danger in Chicago or using some of the hellacious amounts of vacation time he’d been accruing. The two weeks he took off during the summer barely put a dent in it, because he devoted so much to voluntary overtime.
While we were gone, two more half-fae vanished, and a mage went missing.
The worst part was that the city felt different. Had something changed during our vacation, or was it that the time away had sensitized us to the portentous atmosphere?
None of us knew. The tension reminded me of when the pressure changes in the air preceding a storm, and I had nightmares I awakened from but couldn’t remember.
Then it was time for finals and I passed each of my classes, with a borderline final grade in Protective Theory and a seventy-three percent
in Environmental Assessment. Apparently, I sucked when it came to assessing our surroundings for threats, but kicked ass at keeping someone alive. On paper. The final saved my ass, because I guided our TA through a gauntlet of dangers unharmed. That flawless exam score dragged me up to a C.
Gabriel and I made his busy work schedule work with our personal lives as best we could during the winter break. We stayed at PNRU and celebrated Christmas with Sam, Ash, Teresa, and Ama, then rang in New Year’s alone.
Most times, I brought meals to him at his desk. If I didn’t, Gabriel lived on whatever could be delivered to their offices and vending machine snacks.
Tonight, Lia sent me over with a platter of fried chicken and roasted potatoes that had the entire office drooling. Sebastian “wandered” by twice before Gabe and I took pity and offered him a drumstick and thigh to take to class with him.
“I bet he wolfs that down, bones and all, before he even reaches the gym,” Gabe joked.
“Ew. Bones?”
“Hey, some of us like a bit of crunch.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I thought cooked chicken bone was bad for—”
“Dude, just listen to me. You have this all wrong. It isn’t how it looked!”
The sudden commotion in the front office grabbed everyone’s attention. I slid off Gabriel’s desk and peered around the cubicle, startled to see Victor escorting Cole inside.
In cuffs.
“What’s going on?” Gabe asked from behind me. He moved into the aisle, a frown creasing his brow. Victor led Cole over and pushed him down into the empty seat across from the desk.
“Caught him messing with the protections on the gate,” Victor said in a tight voice.
“What?” Gabe and I said in unison.
My mate went from buddy to work mode in a blink. Without needing to be asked, I grabbed the remnants of our meal and cleared them away, then moved back to give them space.
“All right, tell me what happened,” Gabriel said to Victor.
“A freshman tracked me down during shift change, and said they spotted a suspicious figure east of the gate, so I went to check it out,” Victor reported. “Caught Cole here drawing nullification glyphs on the number three pillar. Almost didn’t believe my eyes. Managed to stop him before he finished, but we’ll need someone out there ASAP to verify the integrity of the protections.”
“Please, I swear, this isn’t what it seems like.”
“Then tell me what’s going on, Cole, because these are pretty serious accusations, and Sentinel Romanov has no reason to lie.”
They were bringing out last names and official titles.
Fuck, this was serious. I knew it was serious without the shift in their demeanor, but that was just one more nail in the coffin.
“I…” Adam’s apple bobbing, Cole’s gaze darted from Victor to Gabe, then finally to me. His eyes screamed for help. “They made me do it, Sky, you gotta believe me.”
“Don’t look at me for help. I’m not even licensed to—”
“They threatened to hurt my mother.”
My blood ran cold. I’d heard this story before, only it had been a fae the last time.
“My parents are human, they can’t defend themselves. They don’t have a chance.”
Gabe scrubbed a hand down his face and looked at Victor. “Call Sebastian and Simon. They’ll know what to do.”
Simon, Sebastian, and Provost Riordan arrived in record time. By then, Victor had escorted Cole to an interrogation room. I sat in observation, cell phone in hand. No matter how tempting it was to call Anji, I couldn’t until I had the go-ahead from my superiors.
“Who tasked you with sabotaging the school boundary?” Simon asked, his tone far calmer than I’d expected it to be.
“Annalise.”
“How long have you been taking her orders, son?”
“Since last summer. She made me keep tabs on everyone at the campus. Follow them when they were here or away from school grounds. I swear I didn’t—all I wanted was for my mom to be safe. Someone followed her home from work. Then a fae from my dad’s job vanished and I knew they really were watching my family.”
“Why didn’t you come to us?” Riordan asked.
“She has other people here watching. Staff. If I’d come to you, they’d have known. They probably know now. Fuck! What’s going to happen to my family when she finds out you guys busted me?”
Behind me, the door opened and shut. A few seconds later, Sebastian moved to my side and watched through the observation window, arms folded over his chest.
“He’s not lying,” I said quietly.
“Yeah, we know.” Sebastian sighed, for once looking as tired as he sounded. “He’s been under our noses this whole time. One of our best students.”
“What’s going to happen now?”
“Get his family into safety. Someone is already en route to collect them as we speak. We’ll move his parents and sister into hiding.”
“His sister is a sentinel at the CCSBA.”
“Michelle will be relieved of duty for the moment, interrogated, and then placed in hiding too if her story checks out. We can’t take any chances of another accomplice getting away.”
“And Cole?”
“In the old days, he’d be Bound right away. Now, he’ll get a fair trial once this is all handled. Same as with Jiro. When we picked him up over the summer, he was petrified because of the shit Annalise asked him to do. We shipped his family over to Japan. They’re on a nice little island, far from this psycho’s influence.”
“Damn.” A few moments of silence passed between us before I found the courage to quietly ask, “What was it she asked that was finally the last straw for him?”
Sebastian smiled thinly. “To abduct orphans from St. Bosco’s Home for Magical Children.”
I wanted to puke. “No!”
“He couldn’t go through with it. We found him in the infant room, sobbing. Every staff member had fallen asleep. Not their fault, but you know that.”
“If he hadn’t had a crisis of conscience…”
“Helena and so many other babies would be dead to make more valravn. Yeah.”
“She’s twisted. Evil.”
“Power is a drug. The only thing an evildoer with power wants more than they want the demise of their enemies is to have more power. The thing is, we haven’t yet figured out her angle and motivation. Why take the name of a dead Bound girl from twenty-something years ago?”
“We have to stop her, Sebastian.”
“We will, Sky. Sometimes, all it takes to make a break in a big case is for someone to make a mistake.” He glanced at Cole through the one-way glass. “Maybe bringing Cole on board was her error.”
“I’m supposed to meet her at a safe house tonight. If I don’t report in, she’ll know something’s gone wrong. If she doesn’t already.” Cole licked his lips nervously, gaze darting to the glass. “If whoever is still on her side on this campus hasn’t told her you guys brought me in.”
“He has a point,” Gabriel muttered. “What’s the plan, Sebastian?”
“We make some calls and plan to storm a safe house.”
* * *
“We’re swamped right now, Kane,” Kendra said, the exhaustion heavy in her voice as it filtered over the speaker phone of Sebastian’s office. “I have three units tied up with a pixie dust den downtown and another two teams dealing with gremlins at O’Hare. Do you recall what happens when a major airport gets shut down?”
“Yeah, the governor rides your ass.”
“The governor rides my ass. I can get a few guys over there, but it’ll be a couple hours.”
“Are you serious, Kendra? This is it. This may be the night that we take her down—”
“And our men are already in the field. I can’t pull them away, but I can call in a few guys on the overtime list.”
“Fine.” Sebastian let out a deep breath. “There’s another option. We can take this with your go-ahead. I have enough campus
sentinels and a few students. Maybe Lake County can spare a couple, too. All we need are enough mages to take her on.”
“Lake County teams are tied up with that blood-doping scheme up at the base I told you about over beer last week.”
“Shit, yeah. Well, all the more reason to give us point on this while you round up anyone else who can get in. We’ve never had the benefit of knowing Annalise’s moves before she makes them like this. It’ll be an opportunity wasted if we don’t.”
As I listened to their conversation, an idea came to me. I whipped out my phone and sent a quick text to Pilar, telling her to contact her fae lord and his brother and send them covertly to our office without mentioning it to anyone. Now that we knew Cole had been brought over to the other side, no one could be trusted.
She responded with a thumbs-up and a kiss emoji.
Sebastian ended his call and groaned into his hands. “Fuck.”
“I asked Pilar to contact Dain and Eldan. Annalise fears Eldan. She beat the rest of us, but she had to haul ass to escape him.”
“Good idea, and the more help we have, the better.”
Simon joined us in the observation room a moment later. “What have we got on this side?”
“Kendra’s passing point to us following up this lead. The bureau is swamped. You really buying his story about needing to be there?”
“Wait, what?” I must have missed something in the interrogation room while talking to Sebastian, but apparently his super wolf hearing hadn’t.
“Cole claims the safe house is keyed to him by blood magic. If we charge in, we’ll set off the wards and the place goes up in flames.”
“That’s easy, right? We take a sample of his blood and—”
Gabriel shook his head at me. “You haven’t had this class yet. It’s coming spring semester. But wizards and sneaky fucks who use that kind of spell expect you to bring a sample to try to fool it. You need the whole vessel and a living, beating heart. Otherwise people try to bring corpses since those can’t struggle or fight back.”
“Oh, well, crap.” I glanced through the window to Cole. He sat with his head dropped into his hands, presenting a pathetic and almost pitiable picture. “So he has to come.”
The Puppet Master: The Paranormal University Files: Skylar, Year 4 Page 23