Agent of Chaos (Dark Fae FBI Book 2)

by Alex Rivers

  I grabbed my size off the rack, and crossed the shop toward the changing booths, snatching a gold-plated necklace along the way, and some matching hoop earrings.

  I hurried into one of the changing rooms, my mind vaguely connecting to the reflection by my side. As fast as I could, I stripped off my jeans and shirt, pulling off my bra and shoving everything into the bottom of my bag. My pulse raced, and I tried not to think about the ticking clock. I could only hope that Roan wasn’t fucking with me, and that all this was an important part of getting into Grendel’s Den.

  I slipped the dress over my head, and the soft fabric slid over my bare thighs. I tied the halter behind the back of my neck.

  How much time did I have left to find Lucy? My hands shaking, I snatched the necklace, clasping the ropes of fake gold around the back of my neck. Next, I looped the hoop earrings through my ears.

  I rifled through my bag for a moment. As fast as I could, I smudged some lipstick onto my pale cheeks, giving them a rosy sheen, then filled in my lips. I rifled through my bag a minute, pulling out a pen. I twisted my hair around the pen in an approximation of a messy updo, and appraised my appearance in the mirror.

  Okay, so it wasn’t quite Oscar material, but it would have to do.

  I snatched my bag from the ground, and stared into the mirror. Handy thing about changing rooms. If I continued to be a fugitive for the rest of my life, I could avoid using credit cards by just taking clothes out through the reflections.

  I let my mind form a bond with the mirror, and as the reflection shimmered, I felt myself falling into its gravitational pull. I searched for Gabriel, until I saw a glimpse of him walking past a parked car on Clink Street. When I’d found him, I let myself fall into the mirror, and its cold magic washed over my skin in a thrilling rush.

  I slid from the car into Clink Street, eliciting a panicked shriek from a nearby middle-aged man.

  By the side of the narrow road, Gabriel was standing by the ruins of an old palace, its remaining walls over grown with ivy.

  As I approached, he turned, his eyes widening. “Where did you come from?” His gaze slid to my dress. “Where did you get that outfit?”

  “I’m here. I…”

  A sudden dizziness spell caught me, and as I started to lose my balance, Gabriel caught my elbow, steadying me. I leaned into him, breathing in his clean, soapy smell. For just a moment, I closed my eyes, battling the nausea rising in me.

  “Are you okay?” he asked softly.

  “Yeah. Just give me a second. I think the mirror-traveling is disorienting.”

  “I’d imagine so.” He wrapped an arm around my back.

  I took a deep breath, trying to marshal my strength, but I felt drained. Maybe I was overtaxing my powers. Once I got Scarlett away from her abductor, I’d sleep for a week.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” asked Gabriel.

  “I’m fine.” I opened my eyes, stepping away from him.

  Gabriel frowned, and I had the distinct impression he was mentally working overtime to keep his eyes on my face and not on my plunging neckline. “I’m a bit perplexed about your attire.”

  “I found out where we need to go. It’s a fae club called Grendel’s Den, and apparently, they like their women to dress fancy.”

  Gabriel arched an eyebrow. “‘Lucy Locket lost her pocket, dear old Grendel found it.’ And do you know where it is?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s connected to Winchester Palace, but…” I pointed at the overgrown ruins. Arched windows remained in two walls, but that was about it. An herb garden grew in the center of it, with bluebells and primrose growing among the foxglove. “Is this Winchester Palace?”

  “That’s it. There’s nothing connected to it.”

  “We’ll have help, I think. We just need to wait a bit.” I pulled my phone from my bag, checking the time. “Roan should be here in about five minutes.”

  Gabriel crossed his arms, and I could see him visibly tensing. “Roan? Are you kidding me?”

  “We need his help, Gabriel. Neither of us have any idea how to get into Grendel’s Den, or who Lucy is. We can’t do this without a fae. A proper fae, not like me.”

  “If Roan is so helpful, why couldn’t he just tell you how to get inside? Why did he need to accompany you? Let me guess. He wanted something in return.”

  My fingers tightened around the strap of my bag. We had just under thirty minutes to find Lucy and get her into Gabriel’s car, and I didn’t have the time or the energy for arguments. “Why don’t we discuss strategy at a later time? Right now, I care about one thing, and one thing only. And that’s getting Scarlett back. Anyway, if I go within ten yards of a fae club, there’ll be chaos. They’ll sense my pixie aura and leap all over it. Roan can hide it. Like it or not, we need someone who knows the fae world.”

  Gabriel glared at me. “I don’t trust him.”

  “I don’t either. But he did save your life and mine. And he knows the fae culture a hell of a lot better than we do.”

  “What happened to working with the CIA? How did we get Roan involved?”

  “The CIA thing is a bit complicated.” My sentence trailed off as I sensed unease in the nearby crowds.

  When I looked further down the cobbled road, I saw what it was that had unsettled the humans around me. Roan was walking toward us, towering over nearly everyone around him. The only one who could match him in height was Gabriel, but it was more than just Roan’s height that set him apart. He didn’t look quite human, and despite his casual clothing—a simple black T-shirt that showed off his powerful arms—he didn’t blend in remotely. Maybe it was the intoxicating whorls of lethal-looking tattoos covering the golden skin of his muscled arms. Or perhaps it was the way his hair seemed to gleam in the sun, or the severe black lines of his brows. The deep, emerald gaze locked on me, a green you didn’t find in human eyes. He looked like an ancient god, one capable of stunning displays of divine wrath. And despite the effect he had on everyone around him, he walked with a casual saunter, his hands in his pockets, as if he didn’t notice the hearts fluttering around him. Even I felt the excitement and nervousness rippling over the women he passed. And he felt it much more keenly than I did. He was tuned to lust—it energized him, made him stronger.

  As he approached, the look he gave me—a slow, lingering gaze up and down my body—seemed designed to remind me that he’d once seen me naked, and that he’d caught me having a very dirty dream about him in his cabin.

  On top of the excitement in the crowds around me, I could see Gabriel’s body tense, as if ready to fight. He hated Roan, and I had a feeling this was about to get messy. I needed to keep them both focused so we didn’t waste any more precious time, when we should be saving Scarlett.

  Roan completely ignored Gabriel as he walked up to us. Instead, his eyes took in every inch of my body. “The dress isn’t bad.”

  “Glad you approve,” I said. “Should we get going?”

  Without so much as glancing at Gabriel, he said, “Your human should stay outside.”

  Gabriel folded his arms, widening his stance. “I’m not her human, and I’m coming with her. Clearly, she is safer with me than with you.”

  “Don’t be a fool.” Roan finally slid his gaze to Gabriel. “Cassandra needs me to hide her aura and help her find the club. You’ll just get in the way.”

  Gabriel’s lip curled. “I’m not leaving Cassandra alone with you, demon.”

  I sighed. Gabriel still called fae “demons,” and I wasn’t able to break him of that habit. “Gabriel, I just need to go.”

  Roan took a step closer to him, his eyes glowing a pale gold. “I am not shepherding you around, human. You will stay outside.”

  Gabriel’s body was tensing, his jaw tightening, and he pointed a finger at Roan. “Listen, you arrogant cun—”

  “Shut the fuck up, both of you!” I was about to completely lose it. “Cassandra can speak for herself perfectly well. Roan, Gabriel is coming with us; deal with it.
Gabriel, don’t antagonize him until we get to Lucy. This testosterone display is a waste of time. We have—” I checked my watch “—a bit less than twenty minutes to find Lucy and convince her to come with us. You can compare dick sizes later.”

  Roan peered down at me. At last, he said, “Very well, but your friend won’t be able to enter the inner court of Grendel’s Den.”

  “And we need to get into the inner court, I take it? Who is this Lucy? Do you know?”

  “I’ve never met her, and I don’t know what she looks like, but I believe she is one of Grendel’s concubines. That parchment will get you in, but not him.”

  I pulled the paper with runes from my bag. “Do you have a ticket?”

  Roan’s hands were in his pockets, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “I don’t need one.” The smug tone was unmistakable.

  “Fine, I won’t go into the inner court.” Gabriel managed to inject a sense of disgust into the last two words.

  “Another thing.” Roan pointed to my handbag. “You can’t go inside with that.”

  I shook my head. “I need it. I know it looks stupid with the dress, but—”

  “It does look stupid with the dress, but that’s not the point. The fae guarding Grendel’s den don’t allow bags in. You’ll have to leave it at the entrance.”

  The bag held my knife, wallet, new cell phone, the last of my cash, and—most importantly—my mirrors. “I can’t leave it behind.”

  Gabriel nodded at his black sedan. “You can leave it in my car.”

  I stared down at the tiny strips of fabric masquerading as a dress. “I can’t carry anything in this dress. I’ll be defenseless.”

  “You won’t be defenseless,” said Roan. “I’ll be with you.”

  Gabriel’s hazel eyes met mine. “Are you all right with this, Cassandra?”

  “I don’t feel like I have a lot of choice,” I said. “He’s right. He can mask my aura, and I don’t fancy our chances of finding Lucy on our own.”

  “Fine.” He held out his hand. “Give me your bag.”

  I pulled the parchment from my bag, then handed it to him. He crossed to his car.

  For just a moment, I thought I saw golden horns glimmer above Roan’s head. “You’ll have to stay close,” he murmured. “If you want me to hide your aura.”

  “Is there anything else I need to know?”

  “Don’t get into any fights, or the guards will close in.”

  “Yeah, I’m not the one who randomly rips people’s hearts out, so I think I’ll be good. How do we get in?”

  He pointed to an arched doorway in the old ruin, which seemed to be a dead end. Another building stood directly on the other side of it. “Through there.”

  “There’s nothing there.” But even as I said the words, the glamour shimmered for a moment, revealing a deep hall lit by twinkling lights, and the faint pulse of a rhythmic music.

  * * *

  Roan led us through the wildflower garden. I glanced back at the street. Clearly, we were trespassing, and yet no one seemed to notice. Part of the glamour? Or just English politeness gone too far?

  He led us through the stone doorway, and what had appeared to be a brick building on the other side gave way to a hall of high, peaked arches—hemlock boughs intertwined with gold—and among the leaves hung tiny, glowing lights.

  At the end of the hall, before an ornately-carved wooden door, stood two guards, their ginger hair flowing over green, velvety uniforms. While the soldiers in Trinovantum had been wearing heraldic emblems of skulls under water, these two men wore a stag insignia—not unlike the stag pin I’d seen Roan wearing. As soon as they saw Roan, they nodded at him, and stepped out of the way. Before it opened, I caught a glimpse of the door’s carvings—it looked like three tall, thin crones, and a man with a stag’s head.

  The door opened into an enormous hall, crammed with a throng of colorfully dressed guests, their bodies caressing, grasping, licking. Under stone walls carved with gargoyles, the fae writhed against each other, dressed in the most stunning fabrics I’d ever seen—sheer dandelion yellows, sage greens, and chicory blue. A deep, melodic music pulsed through my core, the rhythms strange and hypnotic, haunting tones that blended together in otherworldly combinations.

  The hall was nearly as stunning as the guests. Shimmering white vines climbed the walls, reaching up to the high ceiling—a starry sky that seemed to shimmer between phantom branches high above, as if we were both inside and outside at the same time. And from the vines, a riot of wildflowers grew, in colors that dazzled my eyes. Their delicate scents, blended with the smell of medicinal herbs, filled the air.

  Here, the fae had shed their glamours, and a man with satyr’s legs pushed past me, smelling faintly of goat fur. I glanced at Gabriel, whose gaze had locked on a tiny brunette dressed in a tiny blue corset, red panties, and sheer white thigh-highs. She was dancing on her own, stroking her fingers up and down a pearly necklace. Her arms shimmered with iridescent scales.

  I squeezed Gabriel’s arm. “Stay focused.”

  His wide eyes met mine. “How is this place in London?”

  “Magic,” I whispered.

  In the humidity of the place, his deep copper skin had taken on a faint sheen, and I found myself wondering what it would feel like to kiss his neck. What was wrong with me? The waves of lust in this place were getting to me. And that meant there were humans among the fae in here, too.

  Roan turned to look at me, his deep green eyes burning into me. Here, where my senses seemed to be heightened, I could see the gold flecks in his eyes.

  He beckoned me closer. “Stay close, Cassandra.”

  I nodded, keeping within a foot of him. As we moved through the crowd, we passed a stone dais to my left. On its mossy surface stood a cluster of musicians playing stringed instruments and some sort of hand drums, their voices blending together. In peaked alcoves around the room, the fae writhed, some of them with humans.

  Roan turned to me, grabbing my hand, his eyes now completely gold. He hadn’t shed his glamour, or unveiled, but by the tension in his body, I had the sense that he was restraining himself.

  “I’ll take you to the inner court.” He pointed at another carved wooden door on the far side of the hall. It was enormous and featured a naked woman, wrapped in her long hair and ivy. “Let’s go.”

  I turned to Gabriel, who stood staring at one of the beautiful singers—a siren, I thought—with dark skin, silver hair, and a crown of black thorns, her eyes pale as starlight. Platinum bird wings curved behind her back. “Will you be all right here?”

  He stared down at me, a flicker of fear in his eyes. “I’ll be fine. But if we get separated… Just make sure I don’t get stuck in here.”

  I reached up, touching his cheek. “I won’t leave you behind.”

  Roan’s grip tightened on my other hand, and he began tugging me away. I held Roan’s hand as we slipped deeper into the crowd, bodies brushing against my skin, some of them nearly naked. My new dress slid over my skin, and without a bra, I felt practically naked myself.

  As we passed another alcove, I took in the scene. Twenty feet away, a shirtless male sat on a large chair. Straddling him with her arms around his neck was a tall, beautiful fae woman, her raven hair tumbling down her back. She turned, her eyes locking on me. Avelina. Last time I’d seen her, I’d left her unconscious body naked in a castle hall after stealing her dress. As bad first impressions went, that was probably at the top of the list.

  I was certain she was about to run for me in a storm-wind of fury, but instead, she simply returned her stare to her male companion. I lowered my eyes, taking a lot of care to be as invisible as possible.

  I pulled Roan close to me, whispering into his ear. “I saw Avelina.”

  Roan turned to me, his eyes deep as amber. His gaze slid over my body, and at the look he was giving me, my pulse raced. For just a moment, he reached for me before curling his fingers into a tight fist. I wasn’t entirely sure what it m
eant when his eyes changed color, but I thought I had an idea.

  “Everything okay?” I asked. “Are we on our way to find Lucy?”

  “This place,” he rasped. “It’s overwhelming.”

  I nodded, knowing what it felt like to be overwhelmed with human emotion. Roan was the type of fae who tuned in to sexual excitement, and this place was a hurricane of lust.

  I squeezed his hand, conscious of the ticking clock. “Let’s go.”

  He nodded. “Right.”

  He turned, but from behind, a deep voice interrupted us, “Roan Taranis.”

  The voice was sharp, full of disdain and mockery, and I could see Roan tense as he heard it.

  We turned to face the speaker. A tall, broad-shouldered fae loomed over me, his eyes black marbles, his hair as white as snow. He sipped a glass of wine. “Imagine seeing you here, after all those years. I heard you were out of prison, but I couldn’t believe it.”

  “Kellen,” Roan spat. “I’m surprised you can still use your tongue after all the years it spent lodged up the king’s arse.”

  “Treasonous words.” Kellen’s lip curled, and he took a step closer. “Talking about our king like that. And what are you doing in this… den of debauchery? The king might be annoyed to hear you were seen here. It would only confirm what everyone knows about your family.”

  “I could ask you the same question.”

  “My position gives me certain leeway, Taranis, while you are always standing at the edge of the precipice.” He turned to me, mockery in his eyes. “And who is your woman? Aren’t you a lovely sight… and your eyes are so…” He reached for my face.

  “Stay away from her,” Roan growled, smacking his hand away.

  “I’ll take what I want, Taranis.” Kellen stepped toward me.

  Oh hell no. I really regretted not having access to my weapons right now. My heart was slamming against my ribs. This was not a good situation.

  Roan growled, and I touched his arm, hoping to calm him down. If he attacked Kellen now, we’d never get to Lucy.

  “Roan. Let’s go,” I hissed at him. “I can take care of myself.”