by Lyra Evans
“It’s what cops do,” he muttered to himself. “What I’m meant to do.”
“Giving yourself a pep talk?” a voice asked. Niko worked every ounce of his willpower not to jump. He turned slowly, smoothly, his expression unbothered, as though he had known all along he wasn’t alone. “I’m pleased to see you are, in fact, a man of your word. Odds had it about forty percent you’d bring your squid boyfriend with you.”
Schooling his expression to one of nonplussed boredom, Niko took quick stock of the area. Phoebe Linden stood further down the cross over, having apparently come from the opposite wing. She wore a floor-length gown in midnight blue adorned with what looked like diamonds sparkling all over it. They intensified in number toward the base of the dress, and Niko realized they likely were real diamonds. Her arms were covered in fingerless white gloves, fastened in place with a single ring of platinum and obsidian around her middle fingers. Her jewellery was delicate and wildly expensive, adorned with diamonds and sapphires everywhere, and her pale mauve hair was piled in an elegant and complicated knot at her crown. She carried nothing else with her—no purse, no weapon, no means of communication. But Niko knew better than that.
Her earrings were cuffs at her ears, slightly heavy-looking for her otherwise dainty jewellery, and Niko guessed they were her means of communication. The fine hairpins throughout her coif buzzed with a soft kind of magic that told Niko they were weapons of a kind. And, of course, Noor Juniper was somewhere above them. The police were at every door, he was certain, and the audience was flowing in just beyond the stage.
Ignoring the insult to Cobalt, Niko aimed for a haughtiness she might admire. “I don’t make statements I can’t back up,” he said. She didn’t react.
“Straight to the point,” Phoebe said. “I appreciate that, Mr. Spruce.”
“Detective,” Niko corrected automatically.
Phoebe smiled darkly. “Not anymore.”
A wave of anger fluttered under Niko’s skin. “That’s rather the point of this meeting, isn’t it?”
“We shall see,” she said. “I’m still waiting for you to present your case. As it stands, I see no reason not to call in your former colleagues to arrest you. After all, you’re a dangerous criminal who has cornered an unarmed Courtier of the Council with a gun at your waist.”
Niko made no move to remove the gun from its holster. “I think we both know I’m no criminal,” he said. “And if you really thought me so dangerous, I don’t think you’d have agreed to meet me alone.” Niko shrugged, aiming for a laid back, unconcerned façade. He moved to one of the massive reels and leaned against it, reaching up with one hand to brace against the heavy cable. Wrapping his fingers gently around the cable, he pressed down very carefully. “You coming alone also confirms something for me, so thank you.”
He lowered his hand, having found a comfortable position, and crossed his arms over his chest. Phoebe looked down her nose at him.
“And what is that?”
Niko smiled. “Your husband doesn’t know, does he?”
“That I am speaking with a wanted criminal?” she asked.
“That you aren’t a Redwood,” he said.
The air crystallized, tension suddenly peaking. The look in Phoebe’s eyes was jagged as shattered glass.
“In fact, my name is Linden now,” she agreed.
Niko shook his head. “I’m guessing Ambert doesn’t really know either. He doesn’t seem the type to associate freely with mixed-blood relatives,” Niko said, considering this as the weather. “I bet he didn’t even question when he inherited the family business over you, his elder sister. Probably figured it was some sexist nonsense on his father’s part. It’s his father’s business, after all, isn’t it?”
“You do speak a lot of drivel,” she said. “If you had real proof of your ridiculous accusations, you would produce it.”
Niko pulled out one of the burner phones and tossed it toward her without warning. She reacted as quickly as he expected, catching it with the reflexes of a cat. She was much more agile and powerful than she appeared. He turned to face her more directly.
“Images of the lab results, the items tested, and the pages from the book I sent earlier,” he said. “You can destroy the phone if you like, all the original copies are hidden safely away.”
Swiping across the screen, Phoebe’s expression hardened. “Blackmail is an unflattering feature for a police officer.”
“You were just kind enough to remind me I’m not a cop anymore,” he said.
Handing him back the phone, Phoebe didn’t bother to hide the loathing in her look. “So is that all you want, then? To be Detective Niko Spruce again?”
Niko shook his head. “Makes little difference if my name isn’t cleared,” he said. “And all my friends too, of course.”
Nodding slowly, she said, “An apology can be issued by the department. I can have Chief Banyan draft it immediately. She’ll reinstate you, your friend Fern as well. The prostitute will need another job, however. Another agency will be happy to hire her, I’m sure. And the medical examiner will return to work. But as for the squid—”
“Cobalt Sincloud,” Niko said. “He wasn’t even in Maeve’s Court at the time of the murder.”
“He remains a Selkie interloper. There is no way around that,” she said. “At most, I can clear him of any wrongdoing and allow him free return to his own Court. If that does not suit him, perhaps they will take him in Nimueh’s Court. Or Connor’s Court. All I can guarantee is he will not be killed.”
A serpent coiled its way inside Niko, writhing and constricting around his stomach and lungs and heart. That they had always meant to kill Niko was clear to him very early. The moment Chief Banyan announced the order to shoot him on sight, Niko knew there was a very specific price on his head. But somehow he’d neglected the reality that Cobalt was also on a hit list. By virtue of being a Selkie—let alone one connected to Niko—he was slated to die. Reality hit Niko hard, and he wondered how he had been so stupid before. Phoebe offering him a promise to let Cobalt live, as long as it was far away from Maeve’s Court, was only proof of her ultimate plan. And it chilled Niko to understand that Phoebe didn’t just want power, she didn’t just want war with Azure’s Court and maybe the other two as well, she wanted the eradication of the Selkies. Genocide.
“I’m not sure that’s going to be enough,” Niko said, stopping himself before he called her Phoebe. His anger almost took grip of him, and he longed to knock her further down from her pedestal, but it wouldn’t serve him now. If he appeared too disdainful, to full of disgust, she wouldn’t bother to maintain the ruse either. “The DNA results I showed you don’t lie. Your entire career and future are in the balance, here. Not to mention your marriage, I’m sure. Your family. Friends. Your entire secret enterprise. One Selkie is too much to ask for all that?” Niko sighed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “And for the shit you’ve put me through, I think a promotion is probably in order too.”
Phoebe was still unmoved. “Sergeant Spruce? Captain Spruce? I certainly won’t be making you Chief anytime soon.”
“Why not? I’m in it with you now, aren’t I? You are the Woods,” he said. “So why shouldn’t I take Chief Banyan’s job? I’m just as compromised as she is. And best to have me as an ally than an enemy, no?”
“Is that all you want? Then fine. Give me the evidence you’ve got, and you’ll have your wish,” she said. “I’m rather pressed for time, in case you didn’t know. I’ve a show to watch and then a Council to gather.”
Niko raised his eyebrows. “You aren’t going to have that Council if I spread the DNA results. Astral Roots requires you to have generations of Courtier blood, correct? And last I looked, the Cottonwoods were never Old Trees.” He shrugged. “I’d ask Esther Cottonwood herself, but she isn’t around anymore, is she?”
Phoebe squared her shoulders. “If your true goal is simply to gloat, I think our business is done.”
“No, I
want answers,” he said. “You’ve had research done on me. You know that’s what I live for. Answers. Tell me the truth about these things, and I’ll give you your ticket to controlling the whole of Maeve’s Court.”
Eyes narrowed, Phoebe said, “You want answers? What a waste of a negotiation. You are as stupid as you look, Spruce.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But that’s the price.” He held out a hand. “Answer me with the truth to every question I ask, and I will provide you with the location of all the original documents linking you to Esther Cottonwood by blood. No one believes me anymore, anyway. What difference does it make to you if I know the truth?”
Phoebe eyed his hand a long moment. Niko watched her face closely, wondering if he had pushed too far. But slowly, she took his hand and shook. He made the trade, sealing the deal, and magic flowed between them.
“Ask away,” she said. “But make it quick.”
“Who killed Sade Hemlock?”
Rolling her eyes, she said, “Noor Juniper. On my order. You should thank me for that.”
“Why?”
With a smirk, she shrugged. “He knew you were following him. He was planning to abduct you the night Noor intervened. What he had in store for you…like I said, you should thank me.”
“How did you get him out of prison?” Niko asked.
“You did that,” she said. “You and your absent squid boyfriend. I just called in a few small favours to get him to the hearing. Your reckless decisions in search of the truth and justice are what got him released. Well done.”
“What happened to Esther Cottonwood?” Niko asked.
With a heavy sigh, Phoebe said, “Really? Why do you care about that?” With only a pointed look from Niko, she went on, “Ambert, the fool, hit her while she was at work at one of his buildings. He abducted her under the guise of driving her home to apologize, I believe, then held her in his dungeon for days. I will not go into what he did to her in that time, as I do not have the fine details. I had no interest in knowing them then, and I still do not. He typically goes through me to pay off his victims, but when I learned her name, I made other arrangements. I convinced him he’d gone too far this time. He doesn’t much care about how problems get sorted out, as long as they do. I had her body disposed of in the jungle-forest.”
“What is the Woods?” Niko asked.
Phoebe smiled. “Oh, you poor thing. There is no way to define that. At best all I can say is the Woods is me. I am the Woods. The web of roots that binds all the trees together, acting beneath the surface to keep the natural world alive. Soon, everyone will better understand. When I get the power I am owed.”
Niko latched onto that. “What power are you owed and how do you plan to seize it?”
With a frown, she said, “You already know that, do you not? The rite of Astral Roots will seize power from Maeve and place it in my hands. Then I must simply have Maeve removed permanently from the picture—it helps that I’ve got the allegiance of all the High Guard—and I shall be made permanent ruler of the Court. That is the power I’m owed. For all the years I’ve spent helping others gain their power and desires, now it is time for mine.”
“How do you plan to remove Queen Maeve from the picture permanently?”
“I do not see how that concerns you, given our arrangement, and I’m quite certain I answered that already. The High Guard. They are my insurance. They have access behind all her protections. They will allow my chosen gun in at the right time to dispose of Maeve. I was going to have Preston do the deed, but it seems that’s no longer an option. Perhaps I’ll have to call on Noor one more time.” She seemed pensive here. “She does like a challenge, though I’d hate to lose her, and Maeve’s murder cannot go unanswered.” A light sigh and soft shrug were all she had to offer on that. “Ah well. Decisions to finalize later.”
“Are you responsible for the deaths of Courtier Citali and her family?” Niko asked directly, mind pulling at every thread he could.
“Yes,” she said simply.
“Were Selkies actually involved?”
A disgusted look crossed her face. “No,” she bit out, clearly unwilling to speak honestly on that subject.
Nodding, still unconcerned, Niko asked, “Who is your father?”
A dark look crossed her face, and she grimaced. Her features were warped into a vile creature in that moment, a mask of rage and hatred. “The man who impregnated my mother was Abner Cottonwood, a lowly peasant gardener, but he was not my father. My mother married my father in an arrangement of the old families, but she had foolish ideas about love and romance. Idiot. Early in the marriage she fell in love with the damn gardener, had an affair, and then had me. When my father found out, he fired Cottonwood and cut me out of his will. They refused to make a prominent scandal out of it, though, so publicly he pretended I was his just as much as Ambert.” She shrugged. “No one ever knew but my parents, Abner Cottonwood, and a handful of documents. I had the documents destroyed, the records changed, and my father had Abner Cottonwood killed, so he did take care of that.” She shrugged. “Not even my idiot brother knows.”
“How does Lucius Linden not know?” Niko asked.
Raising one eyebrow, she said, “Very interested in my marriage, are you?” She studied her nails a moment. “Lucius is fifteen years my senior. I remember him ogling me at every society event and gathering since I was seven. When it came time to make arrangements for my marriage, my parents were somewhat caught. The Old Trees generally require blood tests. Lucius was so obsessed, he waived the blood test. He was rich and powerful and promised to help me achieve my goal, so I agreed. I said nothing. He’s a simple man. I let him fuck me now and again, and he lets me do as I please and follows instructions. Anything else, or are we done?”
“How do you plan on clearing my name for the Hemlock murder?” Niko asked. “You have no choice but to close the case now it’s Court-wide news.”
“Haven’t you heard? There’s already evidence of another suspect,” she said. “Some Wolf prints behind the building. I don’t think anyone will be surprised to find the killer was intentionally trying to frame you. It really makes quite a lot of sense, at the end of the day.”
Niko glared. “That isn’t an answer.”
With a complacent look, Phoebe said, “And yet the magic of the deal isn’t urging me to respond more clearly. Seems you already have that answer, I would think.” She glanced down at her glittering fingernails. “Now is that all? The performance is about to begin, and I’ve somewhere to be.”
The atmosphere shifted slightly, and Niko tracked it with his senses. He felt eyes on him from all sides, felt the world narrowing around him. The warding and runemagick of the theatre made it difficult for him to sense what he was looking for. He was cut off, in the cross over, from all other areas in more ways than one.
“I think that’s about it,” he said slowly. He glanced upward at the fly system, but there was nothing there that hadn’t been there before. No sound came from any direction but his own and Phoebe’s. There was no shift in lighting. His muscles tensed, anxiety spiking. “I suppose you’ll be wanting the location of those documents, then.”
“That was the deal,” she said. “You seem somewhat disappointed by it, and yet you set the terms. Buyer’s remorse, Mr. Spruce?”
Niko fought the urge to move, to tap his foot or look over his shoulder. “Not really,” he said. “I just want to make sure I get my money’s worth in the truth out of you. It must be quite a rare experience for you to speak it. The truth, I mean. Been a long time, hasn’t it?”
Phoebe gave a small, shallow chuckle. “I am often truthful, but truth is entirely about perception. Those that accuse me of lying are often simply perceiving reality incorrectly.” She glanced over his shoulder, to the corridor behind him, as though looking for something. “But I know a play for time when I see it. You were expecting something else to happen, weren’t you?”
Pupils contracting, Niko made no move. “I’m not the
one on a schedule.”
“Aren’t you?” Phoebe asked. “I would have thought you were waiting for your prostitute friend to emerge or signal you she’d taken out my sniper. Or perhaps you were waiting for your nosy little ex-boyfriend to pop up with handcuffs and a recording spell to take me away.” She sighed and waved a hand. “Sorry to disappoint you, darling, but I’m too well prepared for that. I’ve been doing this since before you were a twinkle in your mother’s deluded eye.”
The jab about his mother cut through him to his stomach, but what stung more was the sight of Starla appearing from behind Phoebe, bound in rope and ushered by Noor Juniper. Starla’s mouth was packed with a fabric gag, and her eyes shone with a hurricane of shame and fury and fear. Juniper held a gun to her jaw and shoved her forward roughly. Niko made a minute gesture to Starla, dismissing her silent apology. Did Noor know much about Starla? If she did, he wondered if it complicated matters for her. Starla and Juniper had so much in common in their histories, both victims of horrors when they were meant to be still so young and innocent.
“Where’s Uriah? What have you done to him?” Niko asked tightly. The gun at his waist suddenly seemed very inadequate. The urge to draw it and shoot was strong, but his common sense overrode his urges. Any indication he was going for his gun would end up with Starla hurt or killed. Noor had the advantage on him there, and both she and Phoebe appeared to know it.
“I imagine he ran into some of my police minions on his way,” she said dismissively. “They weren’t terribly happy to hear one of their own was working against them. The blue line people so often talk about when referring to police loyalty does have its limits, and apparently Fern’s betrayal of his race to aid and abet criminal Selkies was just too much. Plus, they’ve been so frustrated with their search for you, I think they were more than happy to take out their frustrations on one of your allies. I can only imagine what they might have done to him.”