by R K Dreaming
If he was going to ignore it, then so was I.
So I forced myself to laugh. “Can you believe how ridiculous Polliver was, threatening everyone who ever crossed his path, the megalomaniac! He’s just gotten worse with the years. You know, I really don’t think I want to solve this Mockingbird case for him and help him solidify his position as chief. That would be a huge mistake.”
My light-hearted tone did nothing to ease the furious expression on Charming’s face. He seemed to be working very hard to control himself as he ground out, “Why in heavens did you think it was a good idea to trail Polliver to that restaurant? Can you imagine how furious he would have been if he had seen you?”
“You did it,” I pointed out.
“Because he has no idea what I look like,” snapped Charming.
I rolled my eyes. “Listen, can you please calm down? Quite frankly, I can’t see why you’re so angry. You said you would investigate, and you are. I said I would investigate, and I am. What’s the difference?”
He looked like he was about to have an apoplexy, so when a knock came on the door behind us, I was relieved.
I opened it immediately, and was pleased to see my brother Oberon standing outside. If anyone could calm Charming down, it was him.
I tugged him in. “What are you doing here?”
Squeak, who had been perched quite smugly on Charming’s shoulder, immediately fluttered off and landed on Oberon’s outstretched hand. Oberon looked very pleased to see her, and promptly pulled some sunflower seeds for her out of his pocket.
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? I’m surprised that chicken isn’t huge!”
Meanwhile, Charming was glowering at Oberon. “Do you mind?” he said rather rudely. “We’re having a private conversation here.”
Oberon only grinned, and sauntered into my lounge to plop himself down comfortably on the couch. “Nice digs. Is that how you greet someone who has come with news for you?” he said.
“What news?” I asked immediately, my heart jolting unpleasantly.
Last time Oberon had brought news, it had been that my father was out for my blood.
Seeing the look on my face, Oberon hurried to reassure me, “It was only something that Charming and I were talking about earlier.”
I looked suspiciously between the two men. “You two have been talking? About what?”
Now Oberon looked about as offended as a handsome young chap could look while he was petting a fuzzy tiny chicken snuggling against his chest.
“About what you and I should have been talking about, dear sister,” he said accusingly. “I knew you would be interested in the Reaper case when the murder happened in our town, but did you even call me?”
I shot him a guilty look.
He continued, “And not only that, when I tried calling you, you didn’t even bother picking up the phone!”
I patted my pockets guiltily. They were empty. “Sorry, I haven’t got into the habit of taking it with me yet.”
He rolled his eyes in exasperation. “No doubt you were used to your bodyguards carrying your handbag for you?”
I shot him a dirty look. “No, actually. Nobody ever called me in my old life.”
This was true. They had only ever called me for work, and whichever assistant had been assigned to me for the day had always taken the call. It was odd to realise that I had my own life now, and people who actually wanted to talk to me.
“You’d better get used to carrying it around,” said Oberon seriously. “You might actually need it one of these days, especially since you’re insisting on running around trying to catch a serial killer.”
He pulled a phone out of his pocket, and tossed it at Charming who caught it immediately. “I got one for you too.”
Charming, a genie who had been born in ancient times, held the phone tentatively between finger and thumb as if it was an unpleasant piece of garbage.
“Don’t tell me that you’ve never used a phone before?” said Oberon in disbelief.
“I’m sure I can figure it out, but why would I want to?” said Charming. “You think I enjoy being at people’s beck and call? As if anyone should be able to call me up to summon me anytime they want?”
He couldn’t help but throw me a dirty look.
I felt a flash of remorse. Poor Charming, who had warned me that the wishes would only bring me pain. Who had tried to persuade me to throw his lamp back into the murky pool where I had found it. Who had been at every wish-makers beck and call for a thousand years.
“It’s only a phone,” I said gently. Technology and magic not being made to meld, Charming’s powerful genie magic might frazzle the phone before long. I added, “You might want to keep it switched off until you actually need it. You might find it useful.”
“Like when I’ve been trying to find you for hours,” pointed out Oberon. “I didn’t come here for no reason.”
Squeak was struggling to wriggle into Oberon’s pocket for more treats. He gave up trying to stop her and came over to show Charming how the phone worked.
“See here, this is an app called Instagram. Ever heard of it?”
“For photographs?” said Charming with loathing, looking alarmed.
And no wonder. The last thing a genie who didn’t want to be found wanted was to be photographed and logged into the halls of digital memory forever.
“It has its uses,” said Oberon, looking amused. “Gosh, you’d think you’d been born in the mediaeval ages.”
“No,” said Charming. “Definitely not the mediaeval ages.”
I leaned in to watch as Oberon thumbed through various photographs, and paused at a video. “Here it is. I had an idea and looked up Jenny James’s Instagram. She’s put some videos up of the time that she was supposed to be in that beach cottage with Noah Clooney.”
A look of interest came over Charming’s face as Oberon hit play on the video. In it, a beautiful young brunette was chattering in a cheerful voice about some movie that she was filming, and walking around a rustic yet luxuriant little cottage.
I recognised her. “Is that the actress, Jenny James?” I asked. “What you mean that she was in a beach cottage with Noah Clooney? I thought he was in Ireland with Garrett Clooney?”
Oberon nodded. “Yeah but—”
“Shut up,” said Charming suddenly, and snatched the phone from Oberon’s hand to turn the screen away from me.
At Oberon’s surprised look, he said, “Your sister and I have got a wager. We’re investigating the case separately. See who can solve it first.”
I scowled at Charming. Wager indeed. He just couldn’t admit the truth about breaking the curse to Oberon, who had no idea he was a genie, and I couldn’t even contradict him.
Oberon sighed. “You two are so strange. I get that a race to the finish line might be a fun couple’s game, but wouldn’t you be better pooling your resources?”
“Exactly,” I said jubilantly. “That’s what I’ve been telling him all along.”
“So that’s what you two were arguing about?” said Oberon. When Charming raised an eyebrow, he said, “It was obvious from the look on your faces when I walked in. I thought it was another lover’s tiff.” He grinned.
“No such thing,” I said in a huff. “Only a typical man,” — I glowered at Charming — “thinking he has to be overprotective. Thinking I don’t have a right to do exactly what I want whenever I want, as if I wasn’t practically a middle-aged woman.” I couldn’t help but glare at Charming.
I tried to pry the phone from his hand. “Just let me see,” I demanded. “Oberon will tell me anyway, won’t you Oberon?”
To my exasperation, Oberon looked at Charming for confirmation.
“You have got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed. “What about family loyalty?”
“Don’t you dare,” said Charming.
Oberon gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, I said I wouldn’t.”
“I cannot believe this,” I huffed, turning to him beseechingly. “My
own flesh and blood is turning against me!”
Oberon held up his hands, placating me. “Keep me out of this.”
I scowled at Charming. “I can’t believe you brought him into this. Needed a little help, did you?”
“I did not,” said Charming. “Can I help it if your brother is as annoying as you? He insisted on tagging along.”
“Persistent,” said Oberon. “Not annoying. Since I’m here, are you two going to tell me what you’ve been up to today?”
I gave Charming a dark look. “Not while he’s here. But actually, Oberon, I do need your help with one little thing.”
I needed to get to London to find this wizard Bellamy Gwydion, whose business card had been hidden among Rodan Hale’s things.
When I grabbed Oberon’s arm to try and drag him towards the door, Charming grabbed his other arm and yanked him to a halt.
“Actually, Oberon,” Charming said, “I need your help with one little thing too. I need you to persuade your sister to stop diving into trouble and sit this one out.”
I goggled at him in exasperation. “You want my little brother to try to stop me from doing something? What am I supposed to be? Some meek helpless little madam like Bridgit Corkmony?”
Charming looked offended. “What has she got to do with this?”
“Don’t think I didn’t see the way she pranced around that office after you, flushing her big old eyelashes. You just love damsels in distress, don’t you!”
I was gratified to see him flush. “And you can’t see what’s right in front of your eyes,” he snapped. “You were sitting too far away in that restaurant, so I’m going to do you a favour and tell you. Polliver is determined to frame anyone for Amelie’s murder, including you. Now why the heck do you think that is?”
“Because he’s a scheming git who doesn’t care who goes down for it, so long as he gets to take the credit for it,” I said scathingly.
Charming grabbed my shoulders to make me pay attention.
“No, you fool! Has it never occurred to you that maybe the Reaper is a sentinel? That maybe Polliver himself is actually the Reaper!”
My mouth dropped open.
He continued, “Think about it. He travels internationally for his job, he gets to keep his eye on all the Reaper investigations, making sure no one can ever catch him.”
I cut him off with an incredulous laugh. “You can’t be serious. I worked with Polliver for decades. I would have known.”
“Maybe it was him who knew about you all along and hid it from you,” he said heatedly. “Working with you, he’d have known your gift doesn’t show you the things that mean most to you. Like your own daughter being alive!”
A hot wave of humiliation and hurt washed over me at this mention of Gaia, who I had not even known was my daughter when she was right in front of my own eyes. He had picked the one thing he knew would hurt me the most.
Oblivious to the feelings roiling inside me, he carried on, “And did you never think that maybe it was him who was biding his time, keeping you under his thumb, until you found your daughter, so that he could kill her? Even now he is keeping you under his thumb, pretending he wants your help with Troy Mockingbird. But Polliver was your boss. He knew your baby went missing. Heck, maybe it was him who hired you into the sentinels in the first place, who made them give you — a sanguith — a chance. And then when you became a Grace, he feared your powers had grown too strong and he distanced himself from you because you might finally see him for what he really was?”
I was shaking my head in stunned disbelief. “No,” I whispered in a quiet voice. “You don’t understand. I worked with him so closely for decades. It couldn’t be him. It couldn’t.”
In stunned silence, we stared at each other, both of our cheeks flushed, his with determined anger, and mine with such turbulent emotions that I couldn’t even put a name to them.
And then Oberon said quietly, “You have a daughter.”
He sounded stunned.
I reached out to him automatically, horrified. I couldn’t believe that Charming had just told someone about Gaia, even if that someone was my little brother.
“You can’t tell anyone,” I said to him hoarsely, my eyes wide. “Father would kill her. And The Reaper… The Reaper is after her. You can’t tell anyone she exists.” My voice was shaking.
He looked wounded. “You know I would never,” he said.
I nodded jerkily. “I couldn’t tell you, Oberon. I couldn’t tell anyone.”
I threw Charming a hurt look, and I walked out.
Chapter 16
SIGOURNEY
Oberon chased me out of the house, and put his arm around me comfortingly as we walked up the drive.
He didn’t ask any questions, didn’t ask about Gaia, whose name he did not even know, even though he must’ve been extremely curious.
And I was glad for his silence, because the horribly seething emotions inside me were threatening to boil over. Even after my rocketing heartbeat had calmed down, which he must have sensed, sensitive and emotionally intelligent as he was, he still did not ask.
I gave him a hug, which I much needed, murmuring, “Thank you, Oberon.”
“For what?” he said.”
“For being you. For being so very good. However do you manage it all the time?”
I managed to chuckle, but tears seeped out of my eyes, and I wiped them away quickly, embarrassed that he would see.
He gazed down at me solemnly, my little brother who looked so like our dangerous father with his dark hair and his widow’s peak and his crystal clear green eyes, but who I had grown to feel a love for that I had never expected.
“Are you okay, Sigourney?” he asked me so seriously.
“I will be. I will be, once we catch The Reaper,” I added fiercely.
“Do you think Charming might be right?” said Oberon hesitantly. “That The Reaper might be this guy, Polliver?”
I shook my head, but said, “I don’t know. It can’t be. You don’t understand what my gifts used to be like. There was this psychic music that was there all the time, even when I got so used to it that I stopped being aware of it. It was like it used to resonate off the very substance of reality. It would be gloomy or glad, jarring or sad, and there was so much that I could sense from it. It was so incredible. I miss it. How could I have that, and never know that Polliver, who was right in front of my eyes, could be such a beast? It couldn’t be.”
I shook my head fiercely. It just couldn’t be.
“But you will be careful?” said Oberon, looking worried.
“Of course.” I laughed a little. “I’m always careful. That’s me all over. Lifetime of practice.”
“Hmm.” Oberon did not look convinced. “I have a feeling that you’ve discarded your lifetime of practice these days.”
I punched him jokingly in the arm. “Stop being so perceptive.”
“What about this Mockingbird thing?” he said.
I explained that the criminal Troy Mockingbird had been found dead outside Brimstone Bay and that Polliver had made me look over the scene.
“I think my psychic powers might be coming back,” I admitted, not knowing how to explain that I had lost and somewhat regained them because of wishes.
“That’s great!” he exclaimed, looking relieved, as if he understood full well how much this meant to me.
“Polliver wanted me to tell him who killed those men.” I lowered my voice. “There was a witness who got away, but I can’t tell him yet. Can’t trust the man one inch.”
We had paused down the street from my house, Oberon musing over what I had said. Before he could launch into more worries about Polliver, I said brightly, “And anyway, I’m glad you’re here. Do you know anyone who can etherhop me to London and back, no questions asked?”
“Can’t Charming do it?” he said.
“I don’t want his help.”
“You two are as stubborn as each other,” he said in exasperation.
I tucked my arm into his. “And you are the friendliest, most charming young man in Brimstone Bay. And don’t tell me you don’t know someone who can help me, because I know you do.”
I was right of course. Oberon made a few phone calls, and within fifteen minutes, one of his friends, Allegra Westbrim herself, had arrived and etherhopped us to London, to a narrow alley just off the busy Soho street where I needed to be.
She even retreated a discreet distance so that Oberon and I could talk.
“Are you sure that you don’t want me to come with you?” he said.
“Absolutely. I think it’s best if I go alone. It’s amazing what men will tell a woman when they’re not threatened by another man being present.”
“Are you at least going to tell me who you’re going to see?” persisted Oberon.
I shook my head, and patted my pocket. “I’ve got my phone. I promise I’ll call if I run into any trouble.”
But really I knew that if I got into any real trouble it made more sense to scream for Charming, who had arrived in a heartbeat last time I needed him. I full well planned to not have to resort to that.
“I know you’ve got your little wager,” he insisted, “but I don’t see why I can’t help you, since I went with him earlier?”
The idea of having Oberon at my back, who was a very capable dhampire, was reassuring, but I doubted Charming would be happy with this. He needed to catch Amelie’s killer by himself to reverse the curse, and didn’t even want my help, let alone for me to involve Oberon too.
I shook my head. “Actually, I think you should ask Charming. Harass him as much as you like.”
He raised his eyebrow. “And what about your wager?”
I shrugged. “I think he can do with all the help he can get.”
A smile spread across Oberon’s face. “Now that’s what I call true love.”
I flushed, remembering the kiss, and found it difficult to meet Oberon’s eyes. “It’s complicated. You should be off. Tell Allegra I said thanks again, will you? I’ll call her when I’m finished.”
Not looking happy, Oberon turned to join Allegra, who had popped into a shop on the corner, but then a fluffy little ball of brown feathers exploded out of his jacket pocket with a squawk.