by Jayne Hawke
“That’s weird. They’re usually obsessive about their paperwork.”
“Could this be Apophis’ doing?”
“Perhaps. He could be someone wearing a mask.”
I curled my lip.
“We’ll see what happens when I try to peel it off at the meeting, later.”
“We need to see where everything stands. A little fake smiling will get us further than ripping their heads off.”
I growled, but I knew she was right. If I went in there and shed blood, then they’d never talk to me.
38
I WORE MY OLD HOLEY jeans, my best stomping boots, and my three best blades, including the guardian dagger. Amy greeted me with a smile when I came down the stairs. I was sure that Cole would have looked gravely disappointed, but that was part of the point.
The drive over to the council building was quiet and uneventful. Amy remained back at the house, leaving me to face this on my own. Such was the role of an alpha. There was a flicker of something on the guard’s face as I walked past him into the building. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. It was as though the entire building was paused, waiting for something.
I smiled brightly at the receptionist woman. She pursed her lips and nodded in the direction of the room I’d gone to last time I was there. It looked as though I’d built up something of a reputation.
Walking with my head high, I strode down to that same room where I’d registered as a turned. The fluttering of anxiety began to form, but I refused to let it cow me. A lot had changed since that day. I was far more than I had been.
Unlike that meeting, the door opened as soon as I came to a stop in front of it. There were no grand entrances this time.
I walked into the room to find nine faces looking back at me. There was nothing between us. They stood in a casual semi-circle in front of the large window looking out on Fae.
Each council member was dressed in appropriate wear. That’s to say, very nice suits with delicate silver cufflinks and elegant up-dos. A look of disdain immediately formed on a witch’s face. I grinned at her, realising she was Kyra, the Epona witch that we couldn’t dig up any information on.
No one had ever said that I had tact. I walked right up to her, held out my hand, and said, “I believe you were in the same coven as Liam, the Apophis witch I killed yesterday.”
She paled and gripped my hand tight while I maintained my grin. A slender snake necklace hung around her throat. A bold gesture.
“It’s such a shame that one of our own turned to such a dark and dangerous path,” Kyra said flatly.
“Yes, a shame.”
I turned to look at the rest of the council members. Digby, the bear shifter, was easily twice as broad as I was. There was malice in his eyes, his bear barely below the surface. I could feel something wrong with him. It tugged at the edges of him. We needed to find proof he was in league with the Apophis witch.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, I am here to discuss the Apophis witch problem.”
“You already killed him. What more is there to discuss?” Kyra replied a little too quickly.
“He wasn’t alone. In fact, he had an entire coven around him.”
I watched Kyra’s face as I spoke. Her pupils elongated slightly before she caught herself and pulled an expression of shock and horror.
“But that’s incredibly illegal! I was always told that Apophis witches worked alone,” she said.
“Well, there’s all sorts of illegal activity carrying on, isn’t there? Why would someone willing to work with Apophis worry about such things as silly little laws?” I said.
The witch next to her, a slender redhead, ground her teeth.
“Brigid is appalled at such abominations and chaos,” she said.
“Remind me, which goddess is Brigid?”
“There’s some argument as to whether she’s a goddess at all...” an elf said.
“Oh?” I asked innocently.
If I could get them to argue amongst themselves, perhaps one of them would slip up and give me something I could use. I also needed to see where the alliances lay. Was the entire council working against me?
The elf crossed his arms and smirked at me.
“Yes. Some would argue she is, in fact, a fae. You see, Brigid is one of the Tuatha De Danann. They’re long thought of as fae, although some argue they’re Celtic gods. To answer your question, Brigid is of fire.”
“Well, goddess or not, we could use some fire to burn the Apophis witches,” I said to the Brigid witch.
“We do not bow to fae,” she hissed at the elf.
He smirked back at her.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
“Do you have proof there are more Apophis witches?” Digby demanded.
“Yes,” I said sweetly.
I didn’t. I only had a feeling and the fact the ritual was completely wrong. He didn’t need to know that, though.
“What proof? We have a right to see it.”
“Actually, no, you don’t,” I said.
He growled.
“I have reason to believe that Apophis has infiltrated this very council. Handing over key evidence would screw up the investigation.”
“Fae have no interest in gods,” the elf said.
“Your point being?”
He took a step closer to me.
“That I have no interest in bowing to gods or using their magic. Therefore, I am free from his bindings. You do look at though you could use a little help with this investigation.”
He wasn’t wrong. I was making this up as I went along and hoping for the best.
“Unfortunately, the fact remains that you’re fae, and thus can’t be trusted any further than I can throw you.”
He laughed, a bright laugh full of genuine happiness and humour.
“No one has dared speak so bluntly to me before. I like you.”
His emerald green eyes danced in merriment as he held out his slender hand.
“I do give you my word that I will give you all the help I am capable of with this investigation, and I will do everything in my power to aid you in removing the Apophis witch problem from this country.”
“The catch?” I asked.
“I’m only helping you with the investigation. Anything else is fair game.”
Meaning that any information he found that he could use against me, or anyone else, he would do so. He would also use this little investigation to further his own ends and power. That was something to worry about at another time.
“Thank you,” I said as I shook his hand.
A cool ribbon of magic wrapped around our hands. It was there and gone again, but I knew the binding would hold him to his word.
“You may call me Fionn,” he said with a bow.
I laughed at the ridiculousness of the bow, which brought a smile to his face.
Kyra, the Epona witch, was glaring at us both. Her necklace appeared to move. It could have been a trick of the light, or it could have been something much more.
The other two fae, a puka and a pixie, remained entirely silent as they watched on.
“As Fionn said, no fae would bow to a god. You are wasting our time,” the pixie said sullenly.
“Then you will have no problem making the same oath Fionn made,” I said.
The pixie bared his teeth before he held out his hand. I took it and soon found my hand being crushed within the slender fingers of the pixie. He made the same oath in a deep guttural tone that threatened to send a shiver down my spine. The moment the binding was complete, he stalked out of the room.
The puka was a little less openly aggressive about it all. At least that had reduced my number of suspects, which made life a little easier. I would have been in deep trouble if the fae were involved. Trying to navigate their politics and world would have been never-ending.
Digby went to follow the fae out of the room. I moved to block his path. He glared down at me.
“Shifters would never bow to a god e
ither,” he rumbled.
“I know about Fenris garou; the potential is there. We’re not done here,” I said.
“Garou are weak and foolish. Of course they need higher powers to bow to.”
I smiled up at him.
“Bears are stupid and pig-headed. They need a god to tell them how to function.”
I had no idea if they were stupid, but it got a reaction out of him.
“How dare you speak to me in such a manner? You are nothing but a worthless turned!” he roared.
“I am a guardian, and you will back down and tell me how you came to be wrapped up with Apophis!” I roared back.
No one had ever said I was cut out for politics.
39
I MADE THE COUNCIL members sit down. This was going to take a while, and I wanted to make it clear that they weren’t going anywhere until I was satisfied. I remained standing, an instinctual urge to stand above them.
“Who is responsible for replacing Cole so quickly?” I demanded.
Kyra and Digby both tensed. The Brigid witch looked away. I glared at the third witch, who had been remarkably quiet throughout this process. He gave me a thin smile.
“As the Morrigan witch present, I had the final vote.”
“And why exactly did you replace him so quickly?”
The smile spread across the witch’s face, becoming something vicious.
“Because he is dead.”
There was an air of victory there that I didn’t care for.
“You have evidence of that?”
“I don’t need it.”
I stepped forward.
“You can replace a council member without evidence of their needing replacing?”
“I am a Morrigan witch. That is all the evidence I need.”
Kyra began playing with her necklace, and I was aware of how she seemed a little wrong. Her body somehow seemed a little too slender and sinuous. When I looked at her straight on, she was a perfectly reasonable, if obnoxious, witch. Out of the corner of my eye, though, there was something else.
“Well, then, we’ll have to change that, won’t we?” I said to the Morrigan witch.
He stiffened.
“You have no place in this council, child.”
I gave him my own vicious smile as I became more certain he was involved in Cole’s disappearance. Not death. Cole wasn’t dead. I wouldn’t allow it.
“As a guardian, I have every right to be here. The gods chose me, did they not? Isn’t that how guardians work?”
Again, I was working with nothing. It made sense in my mind that the witches, at least, would believe the gods were responsible for the creation and placement of guardians. For all I knew, it was simply a fluke within the larger magic system. Perhaps I happened to be the one-hundred-first baby born on a special day. It wasn’t something I’d thought to sit down and consider. There were too many other things to dig into.
The Morrigan witch’s eyes narrowed and Kyra hissed. It was a soft sound that was barely within my hearing, but I caught it.
The cougar shifter looked at her sharply.
“The gods do not interfere with shifters,” the cougar shifter said coolly.
“They interfere with the rest of the world, do they not? Why would we be exempt from that?” I challenged.
The cougar shifter fixed her amber eyes on me. Everything about her screamed ambush predator as she slowly tensed in her chair. Her shoulders began to push forward as her gaze held mine, strong and firm. I hardened my gaze and allowed my wolf forward, reminding her that I wasn’t weak prey.
Fionn stepped up next to me.
“As you are all aware, the guardian has a position here within our political sphere. Her methods are imperfect, and, as such, we will be returning to this discussion at a later date.”
I glared at him. I was far from finished.
“We will bring you here when we have more evidence and a clearer path as to how to proceed,” Fionn continued.
I knew better than to directly contradict him, but I desperately wanted to throttle him. He turned his delicate features towards me and gave me a small smirk. It took everything I had to keep my wolf in check and make no moves to sink my teeth into his throat.
THE COUNCIL FILTERED out of the room. The garou was the only one who didn’t give me a good glare full of deadly promises. He walked with his shoulders back and refused to meet my gaze. I was left with some hope that I would be able to bring him and his pack on side. I was going to need all of the allies I could get.
Once the door was closed and I was left alone with Fionn, I growled and paced, trying to purge the tension and frustration that had been locked within me.
“You cannot brute force your way through this situation. You need allies and finesse. From what I can see, you need to purge these Apophis witches and reconstruct the council from scratch. I will, of course, maintain my seat, and I feel quite good about the garou Rafe, but the rest could easily be grasping at whatever threads of power this Apophis coven is offering.”
He was right. Of course he was right. That didn’t make it any easier to swallow.
“And what do you recommend I do next?”
“You need hard evidence. If you start ripping out throats without the evidence to back it up, you will make the situation worse. You need to be able to show the world that they are corrupt and dangerous.”
I slowed my breathing and thought through what he had said.
“There’s something wrong with Kyra, the Epona witch.”
“Agreed.”
“So, we start with her coven, the same coven that Liam, the Apophis witch we believe we killed, came from.”
“’You believe you killed’? I was told that you killed a dragon and left nothing but rags behind.”
“We did, but we had no proof that it was Liam.”
The elf’s features tightened, but he said nothing.
“You believe this coven’s plan is to bring forth the avatar of Apophis?”
“Yes.”
He walked in a small circle.
“I do not know much of gods. Would it be possible for him to have multiple avatars at once?”
My insides froze at the thought. We knew that one avatar would be enough to plunge at least a good section of the US into darkness and chaos. An entire coven of them could be a risk to the world as a whole.
40
THE LAST THING I WANTED to do was invite a fae into my home. For all I knew, they were like vampires, and I’d never get rid of the elf once I’d let him over the threshold. We needed somewhere we could talk freely, though, ideally with Amy and Sky to help us navigate the witch society.
I wished I hadn’t been so content to lose contact with Jake. He had chosen to disappear, but I could have worked harder to keep something between us. I turned my music up louder and shifted my thoughts to the things I could do, rather than to regrets and guilt-riddled anxiety.
Fionn drove a very sensible pitch-black car. It was all smooth lines, with a surprisingly powerful engine under the hood. Yet it blended in well with its surroundings and the cars around it. No one would have thought twice if he’d have said he was just some corporate office worker somewhere, albeit a strangely beautiful one.
He kept up with my pushing my Mustang, and easily caught me on the corners when he slipped behind on the straights. I needed to get my head straight, and taking the long route home was giving me a chance to do that. The witches were in deep with the Apophis witch, which didn’t make much sense to me. Sky was being torn apart and had lost her magic due to having two gods arguing over her, and yet they seemed to be courting two gods with no side-effects.
That being said, Kyra was wrong. I didn’t know exactly how or why, but the wrongness didn’t leave me. The more I looked back on my memories of the discussions with her, the way her hands moved and her necklace caught my eye, the more I saw the wrongness. Digby was clearly in deep, too. Bears were always difficult to deal with, such was their nature, but there was
far too much aggression and eagerness to leave.
The Brigid witch was an unknown. The tension between her and the fae could give her motive to try and connect with the Apophis coven. I swallowed hard when I finally accepted that there was likely an entire coven of them out there.
If the Brigid witch was genuine, then she could potentially give us the fire we desperately needed to purge the world of the Apophis coven. If she was on their side, I suspected she would be the most dangerous foe of all. I needed to understand how the witches were connected and who would stand to gain, and lose, the most from this alliance and situation.
Briar and Adam were home earlier than expected, both in their wolf forms. They had been sunbathing on the driveway. Ears pricked and bodies tensed when they looked past my car to Fionn’s. They had stronger territorial drives than I did. I wasn’t sure if that was because they were born rather than turned, or whether they were very protective over the fact they finally had a territory. Either way, they stood with their hackles up and teeth bared, ignoring me entirely.
“I invited Fionn here,” I said pointedly as I got out of the car.
Briar’s ears flattened against her skull. Adam’s head tilted slightly.
I stared Briar down.
“Fionn is a guest here because I asked him to be,” I growled.
Briar shifted into her human form as Fionn came and stood next to me with his hands in the pockets of his expensive slate grey suit pants.
“He’s an elf!” Briar complained as she crossed her arms.
“I am!?” Fionn said in mock horror.
I pursed my lips, ignoring the elf.
“I am aware of what he is. He’s here to help us with the Apophis witch problem.”
Briar softened and Adam shifted into his human form.
“He’ll help us get Cole back?” she said softly.
“Yes,” I said firmly.
Fionn looked at me with a curious expression.
“I am?” he whispered.
“You are. And if it turns out that Cole has... departed, then you will help us wipe the Apophis witches out. I’m sure it’ll play out well for you and result in a nice power vacuum you can make use of,” I said.