by Elle Adams
“No. He left no note, in case the vampires followed,” Nathan said.
“I guess I don’t really blame him.” I didn’t think we’d missed anything at the house—aside from that pixie, and I was so sure I’d seen it in the garden since. Given the poisonous flowers, maybe it was for the best that it hadn’t stuck around, but I wished I knew how it all connected.
“I’m going to clean up the mess I made when I cast a levitation charm,” I said to Nathan. “Let us know when Madame Grey shows up, okay?”
Alissa raised her eyebrows at me when I closed the door. “I wouldn’t have stood in your way if you two wanted to chat.” She made quotation marks with her fingers on the last word.
I swatted at her. “That’s not it. This is serious.” I crossed the room to where I’d dropped the book. “Look at this.”
She blinked at the purple flowers. “Yeah, those are the flowers someone booby-trapped. I know. Why?”
“They’re poisonous to fairies.”
Her mouth opened in an o. “Are you sure? I had no clue, and I studied poisons.”
I closed the book. “Might be a coincidence, might not, but it explains why the pixie never came back.”
She blinked. “Pixie?”
“There was a pixie in Lord Goddard’s house. I assume they were friends, like Vincent and my cat. It’s not like I can ask him now he’s dead. But I also saw it in our garden in the middle of the night the other day. It disappeared when I tried to chase it. At least, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t dreaming.”
“Here?” Alissa’s brows rose. “You’re being followed by a pixie?”
“Possibly. I don’t even know.” I tossed the book onto the coffee table. “Maybe the killer sent the flowers intending to poison me, maybe not, but half the suspects know what I am.”
“They do? The vampires… does the wizard?”
“I think so, but I doubt he’s coming back, thanks to those vampires. It’s that other vampire, Lord Anderson, I should have spoken to. Nathan’s going to ask if we can go and question him again.”
“Right.” She nodded. “Now my grandmother is directly involved, the investigation should be much smoother.”
“And—Keith? Is she going to help him get out of jail?”
She dropped her gaze. “There’s not much she can do if it looks like he’s guilty. It’s unjust. Believe me, there are things I’d like to say to those gargoyles, but I’m not the one with the power here. If they set off my grandmother, though…”
“Heads will roll. Let’s just hope she’s the one to do it, and not the werewolves.”
That night, my dreams were even more intense than before. Vivid images of flying, above a forest, the wind rustling my wings. My wings.
I should have felt free, but there was something chasing me, something dangerous…
“MIAOW.”
I yelped and fell off the bed. Sky stood upright on the windowsill, hissing angrily. I jumped upright and ran to the window, peering out into the night, but there was nobody there.
“What?” I lifted Sky off the windowsill, where he promptly ran to my bed and sprawled where I’d been lying. “Oh, come on.”
The cat yawned.
“Some familiar you are.” I checked the time, and picked up my wand. I had a magic lesson this evening after work, assuming Rita didn’t cancel on me again and nobody else got murdered. That was a cheery thought. Maybe it was for the best I wasn’t playing the part of the smiling receptionist at Dritch & Co full time.
The smell of herbal tea drifted from the kitchen, filling the air with its calming scent. I found Alissa stirring a mug of a calming draught, and helped myself to one of my own. Her eyes were underscored with dark circles and her nails bitten down to the quick. I wasn’t the only one who’d had a restless night. With her vampire friend in jail, it wasn’t surprising.
“Nathan’s not outside,” she said, checking her phone. “I think he’s still in the forest.”
“They’re going to have to let him sleep at some point.” Not that I felt particularly well-rested. What did these dreams mean? Sometimes they felt distant, like memories. Other times they were more nightmare material. And no pixie had materialised. Given the fairy poison, though, I doubted I’d be seeing it again anytime soon. “And hire more people,” I added, taking a seat at the table.
“They have.” She yawned. “The gargoyles have taken to the skies. Swooping around looking for trouble. Still managed to miss the latest.”
I dropped my spoon. “Latest?”
“Another body in the woods, Madame Grey said. I guess that’s what Nathan’s dealing with.”
My stomach turned over. “Another elf?”
“I assumed so,” said Alissa, sitting at the breakfast table opposite me. “Not a werewolf, anyway, though they’re still all fired up over the last one. Nobody’s declared war yet.”
“Just what I want to wake up to in the morning.” I sipped my tea, wishing I’d opted for motivational coffee instead so I wouldn’t fall asleep at work today. “Does Madame Grey have an update on who’s due for a questioning next?”
“Nope. I’ll keep you posted. I’m working this morning, but I’ll be free in the afternoon. They won’t let me into Keith’s questioning one way or another. I just wish I could help him.”
“Hmm.” I tugged a hand through my hair. “Ever get the feeling the person who planted that spell wanted to actively stop us from involving ourselves in the investigation? If they’d wanted to kill us in person, they might have done it at any time. Me, certainly, with all the running around I did.”
“Perhaps they couldn’t catch you on those boots.”
“Ha.” I took another sip of tea, its warmth somewhat soothing my nerves. “Yeah, right. All they’d need to do was put an obstacle in the way and I’d fall straight onto my face.”
“Or send in Nathan.”
“I don’t think our date’s happening, somehow.”
And my magic lesson? I didn’t care if the werewolves, vampires or otherwise stood in my way: I’d tell Madame Grey what was going on with my magic, and I’d get some answers. Target or not, the killer was linked to me in some way. And if nobody solved the case, the town’s peace might be shattered forever.
12
I got through work on caffeine and persistence, throwing myself into every task to avoid thinking of the murders and the most recent attempt on my life. The others in the office seemed reluctant to chat, too, while Veronica remained shut in her office with a ‘Do not disturb: chimera feeding in progress’ sign on the door. I hadn’t even told her about my recent discoveries about my magic, but I wasn’t about to see if there actually was a chimera in there. Bethan said her mother was paranoid about security but couldn’t get Madame Grey to allow anyone else to come and help. The pack refused to let Callie out of their sight, while Nathan was surrounded by people desperate to hire a paranormal hunter to protect them from rampaging werewolves and murderous vampires.
I got out of work as soon as the day ended. The instant I arrived home, I’d be under watch, which gave me a few minutes to do as much poking around as possible before someone realised I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.
Hurrying down the high street, I made straight for the bookshop. I’d get more out of snooping through Madame Grey’s books, but she didn’t have any volumes on fairies, to my knowledge. I might know the flowers were poisonous to me, but maybe there was another fairy-related clue I’d missed. Or at least a clue that explained why that pixie had shown up in a dead vampire’s house and then followed me.
I wove through the shelves to the section where I’d found the general guide to fairies I’d looked at the first time I’d come here. I skimmed through the list that unfurled when I tapped the button on the shelf, but when I reached the spot where the Guide to Fairies and Other Species should be, it no longer showed up as listed. I checked the shelf, but it wasn’t there. Someone else must have bought it, and the shop had had only the one copy.
May
be I’m not the only one with an academic interest in fairies. Had Madame Grey or one of the witches had taken it out? A fair few people knew my hybrid nature by now, which made it all the more difficult to figure out if the flowers had been intended for me, or the perpetrator hadn’t known they were poisonous. Especially as their positioning had indicated the flowers were for Alissa, not me. Nathan had left me bubble wrap, not flowers.
Chatter from the cafe at the back reached my ears, reminding me of the ‘date’ Nathan and I had been on during my first week in town—when Blythe had hidden somewhere behind one of these bookshelves and cast a spell on me to make me fall on my face. I turned around, suddenly conscious that I was ignoring Madame Grey’s request to stay out of danger, but saw nobody except a few casual browsers. Dropping my hand to the shelf’s edge, I hit the button to make the list of titles on the shelves too high to reach appear. The list unfurled almost to my feet, showing me all manner of eclectic magical titles.
Wood Fairies and their Relations. I tapped the list and the book leapt into my hand. The textbook mostly seemed to be about elves, but I did find a section on pixies near the back.
According to the book, pixies were fairly simple creatures which loved practical jokes. They weren’t intelligent fairies, but were more so than your average cat… somehow, I thought Sky would find that insulting.
Speaking of Sky. He’d lived here before, in the bookshop, before he’d come to find me. He’d also, if my eyes hadn’t deceived me, had been able to see through the pixie’s glamour.
I skipped ahead in the book, to the glossary. I ran my finger down the list, and my gaze snagged on fairy cats.
Fairy cats.
I stared at the words. No way.
Skipping to the relevant section, I paused. Fairy cats are highly intelligent creatures that are typically independent and self-sufficient. While most shun humans, it is not unheard of for a fairy cat to develop a friendship with another paranormal who it chooses to be its special companion.
The description fitted Sky so well, I had to reread it a couple of times to check I hadn’t made it all up. Maybe he’d picked me because I was a fairy—not because he was a witch’s cat and witches needed familiars, but because he’d felt some kinship with me.
I returned my attention to the book. The description didn’t mention anything about mind-reading, but Sky’s link with the vampires must one-sided. When Vincent had asked him to fetch me to help Alissa, he must have used his own psychic power to project the image at him. Fairy cats could pick up on things nobody else could. And as to how he’d got into the flat when all the windows were closed? The book said that fairy cats weren’t a hundred percent understood, since they generally avoided people, but had been known to show up in locked rooms or places that nobody should be able to get into.
I lowered the book when a couple of other customers moved to browse nearby, and returned it to the shelf to avoid drawing attention. I might not have any leads on the killer, but now I might understand my cat a little better.
I walked out of the shop, grateful for the crowded high street for making me feel slightly more secure walking alone to my magic lesson alone. The town still felt safe, the faces familiar, and I hated the idea of there being someone among them who meant me harm.
I entered the witches’ headquarters and found Rita in the entrance hall, a bundle of books in her arms.
“Blair?” she said. “What are you doing here?”
“I know I’m early for my lesson,” I said, “but I have something important to tell you. About my magic.”
To my relief, she nodded and opened the door to the classroom. I scooted in ahead of her, and when the door was closed, I explained. Quickly. Her brows rose when I told her how I’d accidentally made a dent in the floor with the sofa. Not to mention the disco lights display.
“No, reverse wand holding isn’t common at all,” she said. “One in a thousand, if that.”
“Is it because I’m half fairy? Weird stuff has been going on with my magic for a while now. Even with my wand in my left hand, I’m having trouble with moderation. When I lifted the sofa, it was only supposed to levitate a rolled-up newspaper.”
She nodded. “It’s entirely possible your two magical types are clashing in some manner. I do want to apologise for the situation you’re in. I know it isn’t easy. But you’ve been made into a target, and—the last thing Madame Grey and I want is to lose you. Our own attachments aside, there are others to consider—and your family.”
My family.
There was a time and a place to keep secrets, and this wasn’t it. Not when I may have been targeted for my fairy nature alone.
I took in a deep breath, and told her about the note.
“I didn’t go,” I finished. “Obviously, going to the falls in the middle of the night is a bad idea at the best of times. But the body showed up, and I didn’t want to risk it. Ever since then, I’ve been having… nightmares. About being a fairy.”
“Tell me about these dreams.”
I gave her a brief rundown. “Flying, mostly. Being chased. Sometimes I’m looking into a mirror, and I’m not—human.”
Her lips pursed. “I’m a diviner, not a seer… there’s a difference there. Dreams such as yours can mean a great many things. You might be remembering the past. Or you might be worried for the future.”
I didn’t need a crystal ball to tell me that.
“It might be that after your glamour came off, the memories started to come back, but they sound too vivid to be your own childhood memories. How long have you been in foster care?”
“My whole life, as far as I know,” I said. “But Mr and Mrs Wilkes took me in when I was three. They haven’t lied to me and they aren’t magical.”
“No,” she said. “I’d advise you to put it out of mind, if you can. Your witch magic sounds like it’s the part that needs work on, and it’s certainly the only part I can personally help you with.”
She wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t sure if I actually felt any better, when it came down to it, after telling her. But it was nice to know that I wasn’t entirely alone.
“To be honest, it feels like even my witch magic is spinning out of control,” I admitted. “Sometimes I wave my wand and it does what it’s supposed to, but other times, it levitates everything in the room. It might even have levitated the house if I’d kept going. It doesn’t seem to have an ‘off’ switch.”
“Magic often reacts to strong emotions,” she said. “Is your paranormal-sensing power behaving as it normally would?”
“Same as ever,” I answered. “But… well. I accidentally blocked a vampire from reading my mind the other day. Maybe two. I’m not sure how I did it. Does that ability definitely come from my mother’s side of the family?”
She pursed her lips. “I would imagine so, given your mother’s gift, but she definitely wasn’t able to block vampires’ mind-reading skills. I’d suggest asking Madame Grey about that development.”
“Might have to wait a while,” I said wryly. “I know she’s busy dealing with the werewolves. But I can’t pick up my wand without it dying things purple at the moment, and I’d really like to know why.”
“If you like, I can take it off your hands,” she said.
“Best not,” I said. “Considering everything that’s happened, it might well save my life.”
Her gaze became shadowed. “I wish I didn’t think you were right.”
Considering someone had tried to poison me… no wonder Sky hadn’t been near the flat when the flowers had been planted there. Since he hadn’t warned me, I could only assume he hadn’t been present.
“There’s another thing,” I said to her. “My cat. I think he’s a fairy cat. I just went to the bookshop on the way back from work, and I picked up a book on fairy creatures. Sky fits the description. Can’t explain why he makes friends with vampires, but the two of us have never entirely connected in the way a witch and her familiar should be.”
She arched a bro
w. “Fairy cats? Hmm. I can’t say I’ve ever met one before. Did you say… makes friends with vampires?”
“He and Vincent are buddies,” I said. “They knew each other before Sky found me. But we’ve never seen eye to eye. Maybe it’s because he thinks I’m basically human…”
“Human,” she said. “You’ve never taken off your glamour?”
“I can’t do it myself,” I admitted. “But—the waterfall can temporarily remove glamour. I haven’t been able to go there since the murders, but…”
“Yes?”
I dropped my gaze. “The flowers that were left at my flat are poisonous to fairies.”
“Goddess,” she said. “Have you told Madame Grey?”
I shook my head. “I realised last night. She’s been occupied all day, and I might be wrong. I mean, it’s not common knowledge that they’re deadly to fairies, let alone that I’m half of one.”
“Unless the spell was meant to divert your attention,” she said. “Did the person responsible expect you to think the flowers were a gift from Nathan?”
“I wondered, but he’s never left me flowers. Alissa’s ex has. She wasn’t home when they were left there, though. She was at the jail arguing with the gargoyles on Keith’s behalf.”
She looked at me, in such a way that suggested she was looking right into my thoughts. “You do have a theory, Blair, don’t you?”
“Lord Anderson,” I said. “He was the first suspect, and he asked to speak to me in particular when I didn’t even know him. At first, I thought it was because he wanted me to use my lie-sensing ability to get him off the hook. But if he’s working with someone else who’s committing the murders, he’d be able to honestly answer my questions and not give the game away.”
“And you think he tried to scare you off when you became involved in the case?” she asked.
“Maybe. The spell was intended to knock out, not kill. We know the killer at least has a vampire accomplice, since there were bite marks on one of the victims.”