by Lyra Evans
Niko gritted his teeth. “Obviously I told them all that. But they didn’t seem interested in listening to me,” he said. “Said I was biased against Sade because of our history. Said I was reckless and my actions flew in the face of standard police protocol in the circumstances. And then they said they couldn’t even be sure how much you forced out of him that he was denied the ability to stop—”
“That makes no sense,” Cobalt interrupted. “I didn’t deny him—”
“But they don’t understand that,” Niko said, angry now with Cobalt, and himself, and everyone. He couldn’t focus his anger on any one person. There was too much spiralling out of control. “And they wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to explain. Said they needed a Selkie present and willing to prove the limit of their powers. And since you were not on hand for that…”
Cobalt flinched slightly, and Niko wasn’t sure if he regretted bringing it up or not. He didn’t want to talk about it, but he also couldn’t forget.
“So they sided with Hemlock,” Cobalt concluded. “And that was enough to release a sex trafficker who sexually assaulted and tried to murder a cop?”
Niko shrugged, as though it was all meaningless now. It wasn’t, but he couldn’t bear to keep invested in it. He was tired. “Apparently.”
Cobalt leaned over his knees, his face wrought with frustration and confusion. After a long time, he looked back at Niko. “I’m sorry, Niko. I should have been there,” he said. Niko looked away, throat closing over the words he couldn’t say. “And now the fucker is dead, and they think it’s you…”
Niko stared determinately at the baseboards along the wall. There were tiny runes carved into them to keep the floor from gathering dust. “You haven’t asked me if I did it.”
Cobalt’s eyes bore into him. He felt it without looking. “I know you didn’t kill him,” he said, as though it was obvious. “But I should have.” A cold blade pierced through Niko’s spine. “I would have…but someone beat me to it, apparently.”
“That wouldn’t have helped anything,” Niko said, thinking over all the vitriol spewed recently about Selkies and how much of a threat they were to Fae. “And it would hardly have made me less of a suspect.”
“I’ve grown rather good at making things look whatever way I want,” Cobalt said, and there was a strange quality to the comment. It could have been arrogant, which would have chilled Niko. But it wasn’t. Instead it came off somewhat rueful, and Niko wasn’t sure if Cobalt was speaking of his role as Royal Guard or of what had happened between them during the auction case.
Unsure what to say, Niko lingered in his confusion. The delicate silence was quickly broken when Starla emerged from the bathroom, hair wrapped in a towel and wearing what looked like a black cocktail dress. She didn’t seem surprised to find Cobalt and Niko both in the master bedroom.
“Settling in?” she asked, though it was clear from her expression she didn’t think that was happening.
“What’s the dress for?” Niko asked.
Starla pulled the towel from her head and began rubbing her wet locks with it, rushing along the drying process. She wrinkled her nose at the scent of both Cobalt and Niko, giving them both a wide berth as she made her way to the door.
“I need an alibi,” she said. “I figured work was as good as any, but if I’m going to look like I was on cheating husband duty, I need to look the part.” She paused, tossing the wet towel over the banister out in the hall. “Also I don’t have a lot of clothing options stashed here. It was either this or lacy lingerie, so…”
Niko almost laughed, but the urge wasn’t quite in him. He shook his head instead, suddenly feeling the weight of the day—or maybe the last three months as a whole—on his back. It bore down like a clinging nightmare, unwilling to disperse in the stark light of day.
Down the hall, Coral emerged from the bathroom as well, wearing some worn pajama bottoms and a time-stretched t-shirt that read ‘Mermaid Vibes’ in faded green-blue text. Starla pressed her lips together to keep from laughing at it.
“Okay, so the shirt was less tacky before we knew Selkies were for real,” she admitted. “But it’s all I had on short notice for her.” No one had commented on it. Niko only raised one eyebrow at the response, then watched as Starla showed Coral to the spare bedroom. With a glance over her shoulder, she told Niko, “Towels are top shelf of the closet there.”
Niko followed her instructions and opened the closet again. Along the top shelf were indeed some towels. They were white and pleasantly plush, so he pulled one down each for himself and Cobalt. Hanging inside, along the steel rod, were the other ‘outfits’ Starla had referenced. Mostly they were women’s lingerie in lace or leather or satin, but a few items seemed much more gender neutral. There was a leather harness and some cuffs hidden further back, and Niko wondered just how involved Starla’s cases got before she stepped back, got photos, and shut it down.
“You take this one,” Cobalt said, gesturing toward the en-suite bathroom. “I’ll take the hall. Take all the hot water you like.”
Niko nodded tightly as Cobalt stood, and they were, once again, within inches of one another. For a moment, Niko forgot why they were so determined to shower, Cobalt’s sea-breeze scent overwhelming him again. It was freedom and lightness and sun-warmed sand. He saw himself and Cobalt lying on a secluded, sandy beach, completely entwined together, Cobalt’s hands on Niko’s throat as he bit at Niko’s nipples and—
Shaking off the images, he turned to the bathroom, barely noting the flicker in Cobalt’s eyes. Niko closed the door behind him, undressed, and got into the bath, pulling the curtain behind him. He turned on the showerhead to as hot as he could handle and stood with his head down under the spray. He felt the biting of the drops into his skin, searing him and turning his flesh pink, but he didn’t move.
Everything was a mess. The pit of his stomach had hardened and turned to a coal, the pressure inside him increasing to the point of hardening it to diamond. He couldn’t cry or yell or break things because none of those things would get out enough of the tension in him. So he remained paralyzed, standing beneath a burning hot spray. It was the worst he’d ever felt, he thought. Worse than losing his mother. Worse than that day in the abandoned lot, when he’d been only a kid. Worse than anything Sade put him through. Though maybe this counted on that list. It was all Sade’s fault, in the end, wasn’t it? Fucking Sade.
Normally, Niko would turn to work to set himself straight. He’d dive deep into a case, new or cold, and refuse to let up until he found answers. He would work overtime, logging only half as many hours as he actually spent at the precinct because they’d ask for a psych eval if he was honest about how long he was there. He’d scour old police reports and files and databases, looking for leads and connections where others hadn’t bothered. And eventually, he’d find the crumb of truth. The tiny shred of an answer, the beginning of the finished puzzle. And when he came to the end, he’d have an arrest and feel better. Enough to keep going, anyway.
But now he didn’t have the force or the databases or even his shield. He couldn’t go in to work to find the solution because he was wanted. They thought he had done this horrible thing. So much they hadn’t bothered to call him in for questioning before sending in the Special Response Team. He wondered what would have happened if the glitched number hadn’t sent the text. If Niko had woken up to his door being blown in and a team of highly trained officers surrounding him.
I’d have cooperated.
And that was the simple reality. He would have done nothing to make them shoot, nothing to fight back. Because he knew these people. He worked with them. Why should he try to hurt them? Why wouldn’t Niko trust in the police to get to the bottom of things and clear his name? Why wouldn’t he have faith they would solve Sade’s case properly?
He’d run because the number told him to, and it had never been wrong in the past. But was that the point? Was it some kind of trap, to make Niko look guilty? Had he been lured into a f
alse trust? He didn’t even know who the person on the other end was. He’d tried tracing it so many times…but nothing. But why would the glitched number send him valuable and accurate information all this time only to turn on him at the end?
As Niko turned off the water, his skin and hair now clean, his mind clear, he made a decision. He knew what he needed to do. There was no other way. It was the right choice, and it was what he should have done from the start.
He got himself dressed in his clean clothes, wrapping the soiled ones in his used towel to set aside for washing. With a quick brush through his over-long hair, he opened the door and set his jaw. There was no indication of anyone else upstairs. The master bedroom was empty, Cobalt’s clothing gone with him to the bathroom. But when Niko stepped into the hall, he found the bathroom door open as well. The bedroom at the opposite end of the hall seemed equally deserted.
Faint noises were coming from downstairs, though, and Niko made his way down quickly. He found the three of them standing around a small flat screen television, watching something with the sound low.
“I’ve made a decision,” Niko said, steeling himself for their reactions. But no matter what they said, he knew what he had to do. “I’m going to turn myself in. The only way to resolve this is to work with the police. I should have just gone with them from the start, but turning myself in now is the best I can do to show them I’m innocent and want to prove it the right way.”
Cobalt and Starla both turned slowly to face him. Their faces were identical masks of dread. Starla was the one to speak first.
“You can’t go in, Niki,” she said. And without another word, she gestured to the screen. The channel was set to the news, now broadcasting an early morning report. A photo of Niko’s face filled the screen with a set of descriptive details alongside it.
“—ective Spruce is wanted in connection with the murder of a recently released inmate of Sluagh Penitentiary. He is considered armed and very dangerous. Do not approach. If you see him, call the number on the screen immediately and get yourself to safety. Chief Dipa Banyan stresses the fact that Spruce is exceedingly capable as an officer and as an undercover agent. There is also a possibility he is acting with aid from Selkies who may be in the Court illegally. Given the extreme circumstances of the case, she has instructed her investigators to shoot him on sight.”
Chapter 6
“This is insane.”
“They can’t do that…can they?”
“This place is fucked. Police shooting on sight?”
“It’s madness. What kind of justice system gives the green light for that kind of action?”
“They haven’t proven Niko guilty, but they’re willing to kill him anyway?”
“Why did you bring me here? This is worse than dealing with the fucking Royal Guard.”
“It wasn’t like this. I don’t understand how everything could have so easily come off the rails.”
“Fucking Sade. Still ruining lives from beyond the grave. And this Chief Banyan bitch is only making things worse.”
“Who does it serve to tell the public Niko is armed and dangerous and should be shot on sight? All that can do is undercut trust in the police and breed fear.”
“I’ve been studying police procedures for my training, and I can’t remember anywhere in fugitive recovery protocol that mentions shooting on sight. They don’t even do that with suspected terrorists, right? Not even people accused of treason, right? So how can this be part of the protocol for a murder suspect?”
“It isn’t,” Niko answered, interrupting the back and forth bickering. The din of his three abetters’ stream-of-consciousness concerns made his head throb. All he could focus on, through the chaos of everything, was the cold feeling inside him. All his carefully thought-out plans crumbled before him. There was no turning himself in. There was no surrendering. There was no working with the police—his colleagues. Chief Banyan had just okayed his execution.
He felt submerged in something thicker than water—maybe nitroglycerine—clear enough to see through, but the slightest movement could destroy everything. Niko wondered if maybe that was the goal of this exercise, to set everything on fire and rebuild anew from the ashes. Because watching the institution he’d devoted his life to turning so viscerally on him felt much like watching his house burn down.
He just wished he understood why it was on fire. And who set it alight.
The ground suddenly vanishing from beneath his feet, Niko felt himself step backward until he fell into the sofa. It yielded little beneath his weight, but he didn’t much notice anything beyond the pictures of Chief Banyan speaking at a podium, vilifying him in front of the entire Court. Then filler shots of the outside of the crime scene where Sade’s body was found filled the screen as the news anchor outlined the details of the case, making connections where there were none.
“We need to get out of Maeve’s Court,” Cobalt said suddenly, moving over to where Niko had collapsed on the couch. “It is much too risky to stay if the police are instructed to kill you.”
“And where else should we go?” Coral asked, arms crossed. “As I understand it, the three Land Courts all have a Treaty. Do you really think either of the other Courts will jeopardize their relationships with this one for your boyfriend’s sake? No one wants to be known for harbouring a dirty cop.”
Cobalt jerked toward her, his body ringing like struck iron. “He is not dirty,” he snapped. She didn’t flinch.
“It doesn’t fucking matter,” she said. “That’s what it looks like.”
“We can’t leave,” Niko said, dismissing the argument.
“Niki’s right. The borders will be closed,” Starla said, holding herself close. She was more shaken than Niko had ever seen her. “They’ll be searching every car, patrolling every inch, doing everything they can to make sure Niko doesn’t leave the Court.”
“Then we’ll take to the water,” Cobalt offered instead. Starla cocked her head to the side.
“Oh? Have you noticed gills on either of us? Because that would be a fucking shock to me,” she snapped.
Cobalt rolled his eyes. “You can trade anything,” he said. “Make a temporary trade for gills. I’ve seen Fae do much more dramatic things to their own bodies.”
“So you took me out of Azure’s Court just for a quick stint as fugitives only to go straight back?” Coral asked, eyebrows arched high on her forehead.
Cobalt hesitated. His jaw worked at something. “No, we’ll go to the rivers,” he said. “There are plenty of rivers deep enough, lakes vast enough to hide out in until we can resolve this mess.”
“The closest river is miles from here,” Starla said. “And it’s more of a creek than anything. If you want to take to the water, the only real option is to start in the ocean, but they’ll be patrolling the beaches too.”
“We managed to get in,” Cobalt pointed out.
“That was before the manhunt began,” Starla answered. “Now they think Niki might be working with you—which they’re not wrong about—they’re going to have officers posted every five feet.”
“Well, what do you—”
But before Cobalt could finish his angry question, a strange buzzing sound interrupted them. They all froze, trying to identify the origins of the noise. Halfway through the second buzz, Niko’s eyes widened and he realized. He pulled his cellphone from his pocket. His body hadn’t registered the vibration, but now he saw Uri’s name flash on the screen, he reacted on instinct. Pressing down the lock button, he cancelled the call and popped open his phone, pulling out the sim card and the battery.
“Shit,” he said aloud, wondering where his fucking head was. They all stared at his phone, now in pieces in his hands. “I caught it in time,” he said, thinking back over his past cases involving pinging cell towers to locate a suspect. It usually took at least two rings for the towers to recognize a phone’s location. That or an answered call. But Niko’s heart pumped an erratic rhythm nonetheless.
; He didn’t believe Uri would be trying to trace him, at least not willingly, but he couldn’t risk it. He should have removed his sim card before leaving his apartment building. Or just abandoned his phone altogether. But he was unaccustomed to being unreachable. Niko always had his phone on him. Always. What if there was an urgent case in the middle of the night? What if a lead popped up while he was picking up dinner?
But his reliance on it as both work tool and lifeline had made him vulnerable. He gritted his teeth and tossed the phone pieces aside on the couch. Already he felt more helpless. All he had now was his personal gun. His badge, department issue weapon, and now his phone gone, all his connections to his job had been stripped from him. Uri could no longer contact him now. Neither could the Captain or Dr. Aspen. And a small voice at the back of his mind added neither could the glitched number.
“Just as well,” Cobalt said, breaking the shaky silence between them all. They’d been waiting, it seemed, for the other shoe to drop. For the Special Response Team to converge on their location. For the sirens and the flashing lights. But nothing came. “You can’t take your phone into the water anyway.”
Niko shook his head. “I’m not leaving,” he said.
“Idiot,” Coral said immediately. Cobalt shot her a look.
“Niki, I don’t like it either, but maybe—” Starla began.
“I’m not running from this,” Niko interrupted, looking up with his jaw set. His expression was hard and determined. His approach might have to be different, but he knew what he had to do.
“You cannot still be considering turning yourself in,” Cobalt said, a myriad of thoughts swirling on his face.
“No,” Niko said, and Cobalt and Starla both visibly relaxed. “I’m going to do what Chief Banyan doesn’t seem to want to. I’m going to investigate Sade’s murder.”