I stared at her, then my jaw slowly dropped open as Queet suddenly appeared, misty but in full view. An artifact from the Weather Wars?
“Does the World Regency Corporation know that you know?” I asked.
She nodded. “Not yet, but you know what this means.”
My stomach flipped. Weather magic was illegal. All the Corp-Rats knew that—Gaia had laid down the law when she opened up the World Tree. Humans weren’t allowed to use any form of weather magic, and neither was anybody else. It had almost destroyed the planet, and Gaia was so over the vast gales and storms that had rocked her body.
Hecate continued. “It’s my belief they’ll simply say they found it and were trying to keep it safe. But you and I both know how likely that is. For one thing, any artifacts of that nature are to be turned over to Lightning Strikes immediately upon discovery.”
“Yeah, that’s going to be one hell of a shit storm when word leaks out.”
“Oh, they’re going to pay a steep price for it. Even possession of this disk without immediately reporting it is a capital crime. I called Lightning Strikes early this morning. The World Regency Corporation is in line for a royal smackdown and I doubt if they’ll survive this. But worse, somebody out there in the city is now in possession of the device.” Hecate leaned back in her chair, a grim look on her face.
I processed the information. The ramifications were enormous. The World Regency Corp. would be better off facing Zeus. On a good day, Zeus might have some mercy. Lightning Strikes wouldn’t be so compassionate.
Lightning Strikes was a worldwide organization directly under Gaia’s authority. Dedicated to preventing the use of weather magic, the organization was given authority over any country or magical guild when it came to manipulation of the weather. They were above any government on the planet and they were policed by the Greenlings—Gaia’s henchmen. Even the Devani couldn’t touch them. While Lightning Strikes couldn’t monitor every magus or witch, they were extraordinarily thorough.
“What’s really frightening is that such an artifact still exists. And it’s now in the hands of rogue magicians? Scary times two.” I leaned back in my seat, pushing the chocolates aside. “What next? How do I fit into all of this?”
Hecate tapped one perfectly manicured red-taloned nail on the desk, folded her hands together beneath her chin and, elbows resting on her desk, leaned forward. “The Fates say this matter is likely to throw the world out of balance. And if it gets that far, who knows what Gaia might do? Perhaps obliterate all life? Start over completely? Nobody knows because she’s the Great Mother. In the end, even if we were to band together, all the gods could not—and would not—stop her. She is the heart and soul of the world. But for now, the Fates say we still have a chance to salvage the situation. We must find the Thunderstrike and destroy it, and we have to find out who stole it and prosecute them as well.”
Queet suddenly piped up. “Just how powerful is the artifact?”
“Very, though I doubt if any of us know the full extent. The World Regency Corporation will try to cover up as much as they can, but Lightning Strikes will get the information out of them. When they are done, that company is going to be a bloody mess.”
“I’ll be surprised if Lightning Strikes lets them survive. And, of course, you know they’ll tell Gaia.” I shook my head. “All right. What are my orders?”
“Track down the disk. I don’t know how yet, so don’t even ask. As soon as I can, I’ll dredge up all the information I can. But even more important, I need you to find out who stole it. I’m going to do some research and should have more information by tonight or tomorrow. Meanwhile, keep your ears open in Darktown. I know you don’t head into the Junk Yard often, and with good reason, but there may be something in the rumor mill there. Perhaps you can ask your friend Jason to have a listen?”
“Am I the only one you’re attaching to the case? I need to know so I don’t think I’m being shadowed.” That had happened once before. Hecate had assigned somebody else to work a case and we had almost taken each other out, not realizing we were on the same side.
“For now, you’re it. At least, out in the field. I’m going to ask Zeus’s assistant to keep an eye on the weather. We need to be alert for anything out of the ordinary. If the cretins who stole the Thunderstrike decide to use it, there’s no telling what ramifications it will have.” She paused, a strained look on her face. “I have a feeling we’re sitting on the tip of an iceberg, Fury. And I don’t know how far below the surface this goes. The World Shift altered life forever. Another…might destroy it for good.”
Everything around me seemed to shift sideways as she spoke, and within that one blink, I could sense her fear.
“All right. I’ll wait till you contact me. Is there anything else?”
“Yes, actually. Two things.” She pulled out her phone and texted me a name. “First, here’s a phone number for a job. It’s simple, some sort of spirit cleanup in an office building up in North Shore. It will net you some money and shouldn’t take long. Sheila will be in her office Monday morning, so call her then.”
I stared at the number gratefully, hoping to hell that it wouldn’t be another Suit who wanted my services but didn’t want to pay. That happened all too often, people of means thinking they shouldn’t have to pay for the services they engaged. But I pushed it out of my mind because Hecate was speaking again.
“There’s one more thing. This is going to be tricky, but I want you to talk to someone tomorrow. He lives over in Arbortariam. I would visit him myself but he’s not fond of the gods for some reason. But he’s agreed to talk to an emissary.”
I stared at her. The Arbortariam? Oh. Fucking. Hell. “I’ve never been out there. And truth is, I don’t want to start visiting now.”
“Well, you need to adjust your goals because that’s about to change. Contact Jerako. He’s one of the Greenlings. They need to know about this now, and he can also tell us if something is changing in the environment, long before the rest of us notice. I had an intermediary set up a meeting for you tomorrow morning at seven a.m.”
The Greenlings. Double hell with crap on it.
The Greenlings were Gaia’s henchmen and they had singlehandedly destroyed a number of cities during the World Shift. I had never seen one, though I knew of them. They were reclusive, keeping within highly wooded grounds. A number of them lived out on the island of Arbortariam in Idyll Inlet. Ancient beings, they were far older than the Fae, and they were repositories of natural history. They were also dangerous as fuck.
“No more arguments. You are going, because I can’t.” She stood. “But you have to be cautious on this case. I fear much is riding on it.”
“When your friend Jerako finds out there’s a weather magic device on the loose, you do realize all hell’s going to break free,” I mumbled. I knew my history.
“Welcome to my world, Fury.” Hecate motioned to the chocolates and handed me a shopping bag. “Here, for your treats.”
As I shoved the box in the bag and headed toward the door, she added, “Remember—be careful. You’re strong and you’re good at what you do, but you’re not invincible. And I don’t have the power to resurrect you, and I’d rather not have to hand you over to the Boat Man.”
With that sentiment ringing in my head, I headed back to Dream Wardens.
Chapter 6
By the time I arrived back at Dream Wardens, the shop was full. Hecate had texted me, reminding me again to not be late for the meeting with Jerako. I let out a muffled grunt, and reassured her I wouldn’t forget. A seven-o’clock meeting meant getting up at four in order to catch the Monotrain down to the ferries, but I didn’t bother complaining. Instead, I just planned on another late night and an even earlier morning.
Jason glanced up as I strode through the door. His hair had come out of his ponytail and he looked shaggy and frazzled. He was also wearing sunglasses—a dead giveaway that he was on the verge of a migraine. He overlo
aded quickly when the shop filled up like it did during Bonny Fae week. Add the Portside Festival to the mix, and his head must have been ready to split wide open. As tired as I was, Jason probably felt worse. I quickly dropped off my bags in the back and hurried over to him.
“Go take a break,” I said. “Tam and Hans can run the register, and I’ll take the readings you lined up for me and cover when they need someone to field customers.”
“I don’t know…”
I couldn’t see his eyes behind the wraparounds, but the strain was apparent in his voice.
“Go lie down. You look like hell.”
As he gratefully headed into the back, I turned to face the crowds.
Tam was out on the floor, swamped with women. He was a heartbreaker all right, especially when his people were in town. We always played up his Bonny Fae heritage, and he willingly volunteered himself as bait. In fact, I suspected he liked it. The Bonny Fae were proud of their glamour and saw nothing wrong with using it.
Jason had scheduled two readings for me, which would help out. Besides running the Crossroads Cleaning Company—a psychic cleaning company that I ran out of Jason’s shop—I also read the cards and threw bones.
The readings were simple. The first—a woman who wanted to know where her sister had disappeared to—was hardest.
“I don’t know where Delia went. She’s never been gone this long before, and I know she hasn’t got a boyfriend or anything like that.” Marie couldn’t have been over twenty-two, and she was wide-eyed and worried.
I hated this kind of reading the most and it always broke my heart a little. I bit my lip, barely looking at the cards, because I was too busy watching Marie’s sister. Delia was standing behind Marie’s shoulder, clear as life to me, but she wouldn’t be coming home. Her throat had been slashed—I could see the blood oozing down her neck—and she smiled sadly at me.
Using whisper-speak, I asked the dead girl, “Where’s your body? Your sister needs to know.”
“Up on the Tremble. I took a joy ride with a guy I just met.” She paused, then added, “Tell Marie I’m happy, will you? Tell her that I’m okay, and that I’ll watch over her? And tell her that the man who murdered me is named Donal Tripoli. He lives in Uptown.”
I nodded softly. That wasn’t going to be easy. Uptown was where the upper crust lived—that and North Shore. Croix was more middle-class, or what there was left of it. But in Uptown, people had money to buy off the Corp-Rats. Though the Devani, at least, were less likely to take a bribe. They were ruthless in their pursuit of justice, but that meant the government’s idea of justice, and the government was ruled by money.
“Marie…your sister…I don’t think she’ll be coming home. I see her now, with you.”
Marie let out a little cry, and at that moment, Delia reached down to wrap her arms around her sister. “I feel her. I can feel her. What happened?”
“I think she was murdered.” I wrote out what Delia had told me.
“I can’t go to the Devani,” she whispered, paling. “They arrested my brother last week. I don’t know why, but I’m scared to tell them about Delia.”
I nodded. The Devani seldom gave anybody a reason for detaining them—the government was really good at making people disappear on a whim.
“Listen, I’m going to tell you what to do and you follow my instructions. If you go to the Devani, they may ignore you. And you can’t give them my name or they won’t bother looking into the case. I want you to contact a friend of mine. His name is Dane, and he’s a Theosian like I am. He is yoked to the goddess Tisiphone, and he can figure out a way to help you find your sister’s body and bring her killer to justice.” I scribbled out the basics on a piece of paper, including Dane’s phone number. “I’ll tell him to expect your call.”
“Thank you.” Delia’s whisper-speak hit my ears and I looked up to see her smiling. “My brother’s dead too, thanks to the Devani. But don’t tell Marie. I don’t think she could handle losing two of us in the same day.”
I stifled my reaction, simply wishing Marie the best. She paid me—twenty cash, which wasn’t much but I knew it was all she could afford—and hurried out of the store.
I put in a call to Dane and let him know to expect a call from her. He, like me, lived off-grid, and he was bound to the Furies, to those who had been wrongly murdered. By the time I was off the phone, my second reading was there. She was easier—just a bride-to-be nervous about her husband, but my reading turned up nothing unusual or worrisome, and she left happy. She dropped me thirty cash, along with a twenty-five cash tip.
Sometimes, I thought as I pocketed the money, being one of Hecate’s chosen had its benefits, though when I thought about Delia, I sobered. After seeing the excited bride out, I settled into helping Tam handle the steady flow of customers. Hans manned the checkout stand.
I tried to push away thoughts about the Thunderstrike and the Greenlings, immersing myself in the work. An hour later, the store phone rang and I grabbed it so that Jason wouldn’t have to pick up.
“Fury?” The broken voice on the other end of the line was shaking.
“This is she. May I help you?” I impatiently looked at the throng at the counter, wishing we could just send all calls to voicemail when we were swamped. But Jason liked his store to have a personal touch, so we answered the phone even when we were busy.
“This is Eileen’s mother. Is Jason there?” She hurried to add, “If he is, don’t get him yet.”
I frowned. Her voice sounded thick with tears. “Yeah, he’s in the back resting. I think he’s on his way to a migraine.”
“Fury, Eileen was…” Again the throaty sob, but this time the pain came through loud and clear. “Eileen was killed an hour ago. She was out flying early this morning and accidentally ran into one of the sky-eyes. She… The drone thought she was attacking it and fired on her. The Devani have labeled it a ‘regrettable accident.’ ”
Fucking Devani. Every day it seemed I found a new reason to dislike them. I leaned against the counter, unable to speak for a moment. Finally, I found my voice. “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Wallace.” There wasn’t much else I could say.
“I don’t know how I’m going to tell Jason. I can barely think.” Her voice was breaking.
I paused, then realized what she was asking. “Do you want me to tell him?”
If I could spare Eileen’s mother any pain, I would. Eileen had been a smart, funny woman, almost impossible to dislike, and her family was just as likable.
I could sense the relief pouring through the line. “You would do that for me? Thank you, Fury. I can barely…” She paused. “Precinct 37 has more information, though I doubt it will do any good.” Tears clouded her words again. “I have to go.”
“Of course.” I slowly hung up, glancing back at the crowd. I caught Tam’s eye and motioned to him, nodding frantically when he shook his head. He frowned, then weeded his way through the customers.
I cornered him against the back wall behind the counter. “Listen, I need you to get these people out of here and lock the store.”
“What—”
“Don’t argue. Just do it. Trust me?” I stared him down. It was hard to maintain eye contact with someone who could bore holes through your skull with his gaze, but I wasn’t about to tell Jason his fiancée was dead with a store full of people around to hear. I’d seen too many rubbernecks in my time, and I wasn’t going to subject Jason to that.
Tam closed his eyes for a second before a melancholy look washed over his face. “All right, Fury. Give me a moment here.”
He swiftly rounded the counter and within minutes, he was gently herding people to the door, encouraging them to come back tomorrow. I watched as he worked, his glamour coming out strong. He was trim and lithe. At times, he made me think of a sapling. His curling mane of hair frizzed out like branches, tangled in a sexy way. And everybody responded to him like he was a hot knife sliding through butter.
&nb
sp; I anxiously watched, hoping Jason wouldn’t hear what we were doing. If we were lucky, he had put on his ear buds to drown out the noise. Finally, the shop was empty. Hans locked the door and flipped on the Closed sign. Glancing at the break room door, I was relieved to see it was still closed. I motioned for Hans and Tam to follow me to my nook.
“Sit down and listen. We don’t have time to waste.” Every minute that passed was one more moment closer to somebody calling Jason to say they were sorry.
“Who died?” It wasn’t a rhetorical question or a joke. Tam cocked his head to one side, his gaze brushing me like liquid fire.
I stared at the table for a moment, then said, “Eileen. She was flying and got hit by one of the fucking sky-eyes. Hans, can you go down to...” I frowned and glanced down at the note I had scribbled to myself. “Precinct 37? They should have more details. I don’t dare go, given my chips are altered. I offered to tell Jason. Eileen’s mother was in no shape to relay the news.”
Tam reached out and took my hand. I closed my eyes as he softly drained away some of the heaviness weighing on my heart. The Bonny Fae liked touch, they liked connection. If a friend was in pain, they did what they could to help.
“Thank you,” I whispered, feeling less ragged. “I’d better go tell Jason now. Tam, come with me?” I wasn’t sure if his magic would work on a hawk-shifter, but I was hoping for some little miracle. “Unless it’s too much to ask…”
“Not at all. I can handle more than you think, Fury. Come, let’s get this over with.” He glanced at Hans. “Lock up when you go out and set the security code.”
Hans nodded, his face a blank mask. But I caught a glimpse of the ache in his eyes. Eileen wasn’t really one of us, but she had been Jason’s chosen mate, and that was all that mattered. We had lost one of our own.
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