Between Homes (The City Between Book 5)

by W. R. Gingell

  “You’re not allowed up here,” I told him. Maybe the lemon juice had burned out my nostrils: I hadn’t smelled him before I saw him. “And what the heck do you mean, it’s interesting?”

  “He means that you saw one of the high fae. They’re the ones that spontaneously grow flowers where’er they walk and stuff. Lord Sero’s dad is one of ’em, too, so if it’s him we’re dealing with, we’re going to have to be a lot more careful. North must have been involved in something really big if she’s got high fae chasing her when she’s already due to be seen by the courts. Fae usually step back when the Behindkind courts are involved.”

  Heck, I thought, a bit worried. Had it actually been Zero’s dad I’d met? I said, “Whatever it was they wanted from her, they really did a number on her unit. It had to be the fae across the hall, right?”

  “Ne,” agreed JinYeong. “Certainly.”

  “Unless they were with her and arrived too late to help,” Daniel said. “No one’s ever been sure which side North’s on: Family, or anti-Family.”

  “Whoever it was that took her, they went for whatever she had hiding in an iron box as well as whatever she might have had around the place.”

  “What did you get?”

  “This was in the box,” I said, showing them the ribbon. I wasn’t yet sure if I wanted to show the glass USB while JinYeong was here.

  Daniel’s brows went up. “That was in an iron box?”

  “Yeah.” I thought about that, and added, “Hang on, that means the people who came after her were definitely fae, right?”

  “It means that’s who she was hiding that stuff from, at least,” he said. “Might have nothing to do with the fae that were there.”

  JinYeong made a small, unconvinced noise, and said so that we could both understand him, “It was Family. She had information that they didn’t wish to become known.”

  “Hang on,” I said, frowning. “Hang on. This has to mean that Upper Management are the ones defending North, right?”

  “It sorta makes sense,” said Daniel. “I mean, it’s a good way of controlling her: do as you’re told, and we’ll make sure you get off the charges, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s fair enough—especially if they were the ones who got her charged with it. It would also mean that’s why she needs someone else to break the contract between them and the Palmers. But if it was Upper Management who were defending her, how come they killed off Mr. Preston? I was pretty sure it was them.”

  “You can replace lawyers,” Daniel said. “Maybe he found out something that was too useful.”

  I thought about that for a bit. “If they’re the ones who made it look like she did it, and if they’re using it as a way for control to get what they want from the Palmer family, then they wouldn’t want her getting off the charge too quickly. Or,” I added slowly, thinking of the huge fae in the unit opposite North’s, “Upper Management weren’t the ones who killed Mr. Preston.”

  “I think you are being distracted,” said JinYeong, leaning into the wall. “I thought you had something else in your mind.”

  I looked at him with suspicion. “What do you know about what I’m investigating?”

  One of JinYeong’s brows went up again. “You are involved with North. But you would not help in such an issue if there were not a human in need of help. So you are helping some human who is connected with North: perhaps a little girl who is contracted to Behindkind. Am I not correct?”

  “You’re annoying, is what you are,” I retorted, which just made him look smug. To Daniel, I said, “I’m gunna get something to eat. We’ll figure out how much to tell Morgana tomorrow.”

  “All right. I’ll let her know you’re back. Don’t let the boys talk you into making anything for them—they’ve already had about twenty kilos of pizza. There might even be a couple of pieces left in the fridge.”

  I grinned and went back downstairs with JinYeong following me. I wasn’t sure what he was doing here again other than getting the kids to pass me lemons to make sure I didn’t stink too much for my housemates. Still, he didn’t do anything more annoying than sit down next to me on the couch when I decided to watch tv with Daniel’s pack in the living room, so that was refreshing.

  JinYeong was still there when I came back from putting cake up on the room for the kids, but it didn’t seem worthwhile to complain about it. I went to sleep with my back against him and my legs in the lap of a confused but willing lycanthrope, and when I woke up again the tv was off and I wasn’t the only one sprawled around the room.

  I shuffled back a bit into the warmth that was JinYeong, and wondered why it felt like someone was watching me.

  Oh. Someone was watching me. It was Zero, sitting in his chair back at my old house with his eyes unnervingly on me.

  “What is it?” murmured JinYeong. I knew he didn’t need to sleep, but he sounded sleepy anyway. “You are wriggling. Go back to sleep.”

  “It’s nothing,” I said, a little bit shaken. I could still see Zero there, looking at me, but I didn’t think he could really see me. He was in the fae version of rest, sitting perfectly still with his eyes half-slit and unseeing: he was looking at whatever thing was in the same position as me in the house he was in.

  I wriggled a bit more until I was shoulder to shoulder with JinYeong instead of leaning against him. The lycanthrope I’d had my feet on growled in his sleep, but didn’t wake up, and JinYeong flicked a look down at me as if to say what?

  I shrugged and tried not to look over at Zero again, but it was difficult. His eyes were always piercing in real life, and even half-shut and unseeing they were hard to meet.

  JinYeong followed my eyes, but he mustn’t have been able to see Zero, because his gaze panned over the wall without stopping, then came back to rest on me.

  “Go to sleep, you,” he said.

  JinYeong was still there when I woke up the next morning, but he wasn’t quite there there. He must have left some time during the early morning, because now he was back at my old house, and my old house had come here, bringing him with it.

  I groaned at the living room ceiling and tried not to think too deeply about it. Things were already confusing enough. The lycanthrope in whose lap my feet were resting growled in his sleep and seemed to be trying to catch a flea, so I stopped wriggling, and after a while he settled back down to sleep again.

  I sat up carefully, watching a not-quite-there coloured shadow of Athelas carry his teacup to his favourite seat and sit down near Zero. JinYeong was sitting in his usual place already, looking sulky, and if I had a guess as to why, it would have been because he had no coffee.

  By the looks of it, Zero and Athelas had been talking for a little while already, and since they both had their coffee and tea respectively, JinYeong must have arrived back home too late to be given the same benefit.

  “You’re late,” Zero said to him shortly.

  JinYeong shrugged and got up again to pad over to the kitchen and fetch a blood bag. I heard him say, “I am busy,” before he came back into sight with it in his mouth.

  “Then you’d better have something useful to show for it,” Zero said.

  “Mm.” JinYeong took the bag out of his mouth briefly while he sat down. “There is something.”

  I stood up in my indignation. Was he about to tell Zero about what I’d been up to? Well, I wasn’t gunna put up with that! I shuffled around behind his couch and leaned over it.

  “Oi,” I breathed in his ear. “You better not be about to spill the beans.”

  JinYeong choked on his blood bag and twitched around, his hand brushing against his ear as if to brush away a spider. I saw his eyes roam the space behind him, narrowed and thoughtful, and the realisation as it dawned in his eyes. As soon as it did, he saw me. I don’t know how, but he definitely saw me. Maybe it was just the knowledge of it that triggered his sight.

  His eyebrows went up challengingly, and he said over his shoulder to Zero, “The North Wind has been taken.”

 
; “I know it,” said Zero shortly. “My father has been busy. He must have heard she had something for me.”

  Heck, I thought, distracted at once. It really had been Zero’s dad I’d met.

  “Then I suppose we can at least surmise that the information she has is the sort to prove useful,” said Athelas. “How delightful. It would seem we have found ourselves a true lead this time.”

  I glared at Athelas; not that he could see me. Flamin’ fae. Always so cold-blooded, even about other Behindkind. Trust him to be more interested in the information than he was in the disappearance of North.

  JinYeong grinned a bit and turned back around, biting into his blood bag again.

  “I was supposed to meet her a few hours ago,” said Zero, rather grimly. “If, in fact, we have found a true lead, it would also seem that we’ve lost it again. I’m quite certain my father now has in his possession whatever it was North would have given me. He has been disturbed by her outside connections for the last few years at least. Even if she is yet alive, she has no knowledge of what it was she was giving me: she was merely the courier. I’ve got a suspicion that it wasn’t originally intended for me, if it comes to that; I suspect it was meant for Upper Management.”

  Okay, so whatever it was on the USB, it was something Zero wanted—and possibly something to do with the murder of my parents, his own mother’s death, or both.

  I didn’t realise I’d climbed over the back of the familiar couch until I plopped down onto a seat that wasn’t really there. JinYeong looked across at me, his eyes very wide for an instant, then dropped his eyelashes to hide his surprise before Zero could catch him at it.

  “The pet is keeping herself busy,” he said, looking straight at me. His mouth curved mockingly, he added, “You were correct, hyeong. She is involved with North, but only in regard to a human. It is nothing.”

  “Make sure she doesn’t get in my way,” said Zero briefly. “I don’t care if she’s busy, so long as she doesn’t turn up in my investigations.”

  I glared at JinYeong. What a rat. Funny, though. He still hadn’t mentioned anything about Upper Management, or our outing to find it together. Nor had he mentioned our practise bouts, or anything about my presence at North’s place yesterday. He only told Zero what Zero already knew.

  I stopped frowning and instead narrowed my eyes at JinYeong, who looked almost indecently pleased with himself. I stuck my tongue out at him, but he only grew a little more smug.

  “The Palmers will be out tonight,” Zero said. “There was a necessary meeting with the school, and they’ll to eat out. While I still have an agreement with North, I’ll make sure they’re kept safe. Athelas, you look for North: see what you can find out about who took her or if she managed to get away. JinYeong—”

  “I am busy,” said JinYeong in a lazy voice that nevertheless left no room for arguments. “Do not involve me in your plans.”

  “May one ask what you will be busy doing?” enquired Athelas, his voice deceptively pleasant.

  “What are you doing?” said another voice, causing my sight of all three to shudder.

  “Spying,” I said, and came to the realisation that I was perched, not on the couch, but the third step of the stairwell. Goodness knew how I’d gotten there: if I’d walked the way I seemed to remember walking and climbed over the back of something, it was also likely I had walked right through the wall and the stairs to perch where I was.

  “The troll lady’s at the door,” said Daniel, because of course it was him. “I think she wants to speak to you.”

  That jolted me right out of my desire to segue back into the other house with the psychos. If I’d thought about it earlier, it would have occurred to me that with North gone, there would be no more Hyacinth, either. I was glad to know I’d been wrong, but I was also anxious to ask Hyacinth a few questions about her mistress now that I could do it.

  She was less pink and cheerful about the face than when I’d last seen her. There was a slight look of strain to her eyes, too, and this time when I asked her to step in, she came without politely declining first. Hyacinth was obviously worried about her mistress.

  It was a good thing that I’d done some research before she came back, or I might have tried to offer her a cuppa again. As it was, I did offer her a cuppa—but of fine gravel, not tea. And yeah, I got it from the back yard, but it was finely graded and Daniel had said it was the fine stuff they liked.

  Which is to say that I did research, but my research was mostly asking the lycanthropes about trolls. Apparently everyone knows you don’t offer liquids to a troll. Probably the same everyone who knows humans can’t do magic, or escape Behind, or use Between.

  When Hyacinth was seated at the kitchen bench, rather nervously tipping gravel into her mouth and crunching softly, I said, “You know North’s gone, don’t you?”

  “Yes. Miss North was not there this morning when I went to see if she had further questions for you.”

  “Do you know where she is?”

  “No.”

  “Do you know if she’s alive, at least?”

  There was a very short pause before Hyacinth resumed crunching. “No,” she said, in a very small voice.

  “The fae in the unit across the hall seemed to think she was still alive,” I said, by way of small comfort. At least, the big one had let me go because he didn’t want to offend her.

  Hyacinth brightened. “That is a little bit cheering. If she got away from the Family, she will find a way to contact me. She is very concerned about Sarah Palmer’s case.”

  “That’s what I wanted to ask her about,” I said. So Hyacinth, like Zero, was certain it was the Family and not Upper Management who had come after North. “North’s connected with that little girl a heck of a lot more closely than she let on. I need to know why if I’m supposed to break her contract. Why does North care about her?”

  “I don’t know why Sarah was important to Miss North,” Hyacinth said. “That was before I came to be with her.”

  I blinked a bit. I hadn’t expected that. Hyacinth had the quiet, polite demeanour I’d come to expect of the long-term servants of Behindkind. Enslaved so long that they’d almost come to trust in and respect their owners.

  “Oh, right,” I said. “Did you know anything about the kid herself?”

  “She escaped from Behind,” Hyacinth told me. “Or that’s what Miss North said. I didn’t know it was possible.”

  I blew a breath out into my cheeks. “Me either.”

  I mean, I’d done it, but I was pretty sure I’d had help each time. If this kid had escaped from Behind, there was a good chance she was interesting to Upper Management in the same way that I was to the Troika.

  On a whim, I asked Hyacinth, “Who was North supposed to be meeting last night? Did it have anything to do with Sarah Palmer?”

  I already knew the answer—one answer, anyway—but I wanted to know if she would tell me at least the part I knew or not.

  “I couldn’t say,” she said guardedly.

  I couldn’t help grimacing slightly in disappointment, but at least the answer told me more than Athelas’ responses usually did, while being not much more openly communicative. It told me that whatever Zero had been about to get from North the other night, it had had something to do with the Palmers. Their protection, probably, but she would have had to purchase it with something pretty big to interest Zero in guarding three humans. That must be what was on the glass USB.

  It also told me that Hyacinth wasn’t going to answer any other questions about Sarah, whether or not she knew the answers to those questions.

  I dug the blue ribbon out of my pocket and waved it at the troll lady instead. “Know what this is?”

  “That’s Miss North’s! How did you get it?”

  “Took it from her apartment. What do you mean, it’s hers?”

  “She won it in a feat of great strength, she said. May I have it?”

  “All yours,” I said, passing it to her. I had no use for it
, and I wasn’t even sure it was important. The USB, on the other hand, I was definitely not going to be handing over. I wouldn’t even be mentioning it until I knew a bit more about it: not to North or her assistant, not to Zero or the rest of the Troika.

  Hyacinth left after she finished her gravel, passing Daniel in the hall as he entered it from the stairway. He watched her go, eyebrows up, and when the door shut behind Hyacinth, he asked, “Does she know North is gone? Or does she know something we don’t know?”

  “Everybody knows something that we don’t know,” I complained. “Even Detective Tuatu.”

  “What about Detective Tuatu?”

  “Nothing. He’s just got some info for me. I gotta go see him today because I didn’t tell him where I’m living now.”

  “You want coffee? I made a pot up in Morgana’s kitchen. Just came down for more milk.”

  “Beauty,” I said, and ducked into the kitchen to grab the milk. “Any food?”

  “Only if you want to make toast,” he said through the doorway.

  “That’ll do,” I said cheerfully. “All right, let’s go.”

  On the way up, to get it out there before Morgana could hear, I said, “She escaped from Behind, Hyacinth says. Sarah Palmer, I mean.”

  Daniel turned his head to stare at me and tripped over a step. Regaining his balance, he said, “That’s not possible.”

  “Yeah, I’m starting to think you guys say stuff like that just because you have no explanation for stuff. I s’pose Behindkind think tv is magic, too.”

  Daniel coughed away a laugh. “All right, but it’s supposed to be impossible. When impossible stuff starts happening Behind, it means trouble.”

  “What sort of trouble?”

  “Change of succession, usually. It’s gunna be dicey if the same thing happens again with the King Behind—I wasn’t around for the mess last time, but your lot must have been.”

  “So it’s what, a sign that your king is about to die so you can find a new one in time?”

  “There’s a bit of disagreement about it,” Daniel said. “Some people think it’s like that. Some of them think it’s a catalyst for the old leader to die and a new one to come in.”