Free Agent

by J. C. Nelson

  “Let’s go,” said Evangeline, grabbing Ari by the arm.

  Ari shook loose. “I need to see them take him out.” At midnight the reapers would come and the coffin would be taken to the cemetery.

  Evangeline leaned down to whisper in my ear. “You’ve got blood on your face. I think the bathrooms are up the stairs.”

  “You got Ari?” I asked, as Ari wandered aimlessly in the crowd.

  “Got her. The queen caught me by surprise. Won’t happen again.” I’d seen that look on Evangeline’s face before. It would take a miracle to keep this party from ending in blood, and Grimm was a bit busy.

  I looked around and found the queen, surrounded by a flock of bodyguards. Evangeline would tear through them like tissue paper if they bothered Ari. I headed off for the bathrooms.

  The ballroom was standard for Kingdom. The entrance on one side led down a grand set of stairs to the dancing floor. On the far side of the oval room, another set of stairs led up to a refreshment table, private feasting halls, and most importantly, bathrooms.

  At the top of the stairs stood a table of food, mostly ignored in favor of champagne, but I was hungry. I debated cutting a slice of cheese from the wheel. I loved Gouda, but it reminded me a little too much of the cheese in the Agency fridge. That’s when I felt that familiar feeling, someone looking at me, and I looked over my shoulder. The huge mirror on the corner wall showed the dancers whirling in dresses, but the mirror itself was what caught my eye. Grimm didn’t even try to call much in Kingdom, but that’s exactly what it felt like.

  In the bathroom I washed the blood off my lip. There, I sensed it again. “Grimm?” I asked, but he didn’t answer. Then again, it was the lady’s restroom, and we’d had a few intense discussions on appropriate places to talk.

  Outside, I snagged a glass of wine from a host and watched the dancers below. Ari and Evangeline stood off to the side. The feeling of being watched surged over me again. I turned to the mirror and walked closer, as if by staring into it I could see through. My own face looked back. A nose too small, eyes too large, and a chin that showed no particular heritage. I reached out a hand to touch my reflection.

  “That would leave fingerprints,” said a voice.

  “Show yourself,” I said.

  The mirror swirled, turning milky. In the center something strove with my mind to form, but I rejected the image it sent and countered with another. She came into view, an older woman. Sixty-five or so, with gray hair pulled back in a bun.

  “Well met, Marissa.”

  “Who are you?” I asked, though I was sure I knew the answer.

  “Your Fairy Godmother, of course. We should talk, but not here. Trouble follows you everywhere you go. I’d hate for you to spoil your friend’s mourning. She’ll take care of that all on her own.”

  “Where? And don’t say the basement. I don’t do basements.”

  She clucked her tongue at me in a disapproving way. “I was thinking over here.” She flashed into a metal bannister. “This way,” she said, farther down the hall.

  I walked to the far end and opened a pair of wide doors. This was a feast room, large enough for a hundred guests or more to have their fill before a party. I peered into the shadows with the same suspicion I gave the mirror. “I don’t do pitch-black rooms either.”

  “The lights are by the door,” she said, and I turned them on. She stood in a massive mirror above the fireplace, a sweeping white gown over her gaunt frame.

  I reminded myself I chose what she looked like, and she shifted to half-snake, half-grandma.

  “That’s impolite,” she said, forcing herself back into gown form.

  “What is your name?”

  “Odette. You may call me Fairy Godmother.”

  I sat at the serving table where I could look at her without turning my head. “So talk.”

  “So rude. I’m not your enemy yet, darling, though that may change. I simply wanted to meet the girl I hear so much about. Marissa saved this, or Marissa found that—I’ve heard your name more times than you have, and never seen your face.”

  If there’s one thing I couldn’t stand, it was people who complimented me. Especially ones I’d never met before, who claimed to know a lot about me. This one had to have an agenda. “What do you want?”

  “Why, to help you, darling.” She smiled warmly and her voice sounded like Grandma’s, after school.

  I wasn’t buying. I’d had a lot of people try to help me. Help me off a building, help me under the water until I stopped breathing, or help me find out up close and personal what my intestines looked like. Help tended to be deadly. “What do you know about the fae?”

  “I know you carry their blessings. Why didn’t he intercede for you? Or help you remove them?” Her eyes flickered with each question.

  “What do you know about the Seal?”

  “Ah, directly to the point. Good girl. I’m actually here because of it. Did you know what the word on the low streets of Kingdom is? They say the Seal was stolen by a servant of the mirror. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

  “I didn’t take it.” It occurred to me at that moment that “servants of the mirror” was no longer a unique term in this town.

  “Obviously not, darling. The seal is a living creature, and pure magic. For one like you, with so little affinity, touching it would be torturous. Your friend, the princess. She’s a seal bearer. She could touch it and it wouldn’t so much as shock her. In fact, the experience would be empowering. Of course, she has plenty of magic. Tell me something, why is it after all these years he hasn’t gifted you with magic?”

  “Stop trying to get me to doubt Grimm.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t need to do that, darling. You are already doing it yourself. How close are you to being free? You know, I don’t keep people. Three tasks for me and their debt is paid. Why, even if I made it three years you would already be free of me twice.”

  I kept my face calm. “I’m almost there.”

  She gave me that wan grin and shook her head slowly. “I’ve had so much more experience lying than you, child. You are maybe halfway. Probably less. At some point you’ll be injured, or maybe you’ll make an honest mistake, and he’ll sideline you.” She flashed to a silver pitcher directly in front of me.

  “Listen to me, child, while I tell you the truth: You will begin to spend your Glitter, and wait for him to allow you to work, and that day will never come. Do you know anyone who has paid their debt to him? Have you ever seen it happen?”

  I didn’t. I hadn’t.

  “You are evil,” I said, but I wasn’t sure anymore. I was asking those questions. All on my own, before she ever showed up.

  She wasn’t angry. She smiled that look that said she knew so much more than I did. “I give you my word, darling. I have never given someone something their heart did not desire. I grant wishes and give, it is my way.”

  “I’m done being vaguely threatened, and I’m done listening to you talk about Grimm. I pay my debts, and I do what he tells me to. You can go now. If your agents lay a hand on Ari, they’ll be leaving teeth under their pillows for you for a month.”

  I don’t know which upset her more: the dismissal like she was a servant girl or the deal with the teeth. There are only two magical creatures that deal in teeth, pixies and efreets. Pixies take the tooth under the pillow. Efreets bring pliars.

  Her eyes flashed the same way Grimm’s did, and the silverware on the table rattled. “Don’t think I can’t harm you, girl. My wishes are weapons, and I can destroy you with your heart’s own desires. Indeed, it is the only way. Or perhaps I grant the wish of those you love. Does the blacksmith wish to forget you? You mother, does she ever wish she had more time to herself? Without a young child she’d have all the time in the world.”

  I shook with sudden anger, and my hands clenched over something in my pocket. I slipped my hand in and found a few stones from the vase, and I started to laugh.

  “How
would you like to work for me? I pay your debt. You work for me. You could be free before the end of the year.”

  I did want it. Anger welled up in me like a fever. Anger at myself for wanting to accept her offer, rage at her for knowing how much I did. I shoved the anger down inside me with that same cold wall of emotion I’d practiced so much.

  “I’m not going to skip out on Grimm. All the magic I need comes in ammo boxes, and I’d rather plunge an ogre’s toilet every day than work for you.” I stood, taking the rocks from my pocket. They were solid black, polished. I picked up a pitcher and threw it across the room. She retreated to the mirror.

  “Child, do not raise your hand to me.” Her face became stern, her mouth pulled back in a grimace, and her eyes narrowed.

  “You threaten my friends or my family, and I will find a way to kill you, if it takes me a lifetime.” I threw the stones. They struck the mirror and it shattered, splitting like a spiderweb. The mirror bled, blood gushing from the cracks like I had sliced an artery.

  She screamed in rage, a word that spun past me like the wind, and rooted me to the spot. I strained against the spell but it pinned me in place. The table shook and silverware went flying. The lights exploded in a rain of sparks. My blessings, it seemed, didn’t like her any better than I did.

  Then something appeared in the air. It popped into existence. A bottle, and a brush, and the brush began to paint the mirror. As it did the blood turned black and disappeared, and the mirror was flawless. The stench clawed at my nose, the smell of fleshing silver. As the brush wiped the last drop of blood clean, she formed again in the mirror.

  “I return your blow threefold, foolish girl.” Her skin was pulled back so tight she looked like a talking skull, and her flowing white dress now looked like woven bones.

  “Get it over with,” I said, steeling myself.

  Instead the spell released me, and when I looked up she stood there, her normal self.

  “Not yet, darling. A blow struck in haste is a blow wasted. When the time is right, I will give you my gifts.” She faded out. “Only when you have received the third may you ask, and I will grant your request. Only then will I kill you.”

  The giant clock in the ballroom rang over and over, and as I counted it, I realized it was midnight. I had lost hours to the fairy’s voice. I ran out the door to the ballroom, and heard the shouting before I could see them.

  “You will come home,” said the queen. Most of the guests were huddling near the entrance, but Ari stood before the coffin, between it and the queen.

  “I don’t think you understood my friend,” said Evangeline, and I knew her tone. It was the harbinger of pain and violence coming.

  I ran down the stairs. “Leave her alone.”

  The queen turned to face me. “Hold your tongue, fairy whore. You turn cheap tricks and pass them off as magic, but you would make more Glitter on your back.”

  She looked to Ari. “You choose them over me? Then I decide. Until you return to my house and accept my training, you are not my daughter, and you’re not of this family. I cast you out of this house and Kingdom.”

  Ari let out a sharp cry as if she had been punched in the stomach, and Evangeline grabbed Ari’s wrist. The doors to the ballroom slammed open and the reapers entered, sending guests rushing to the walls. They marched through the ballroom toward the coffin, and the queen stepped aside as they passed, their robes trailing. They seized the coffin and marched out, and the head reaper waited. Evangeline seemed to be wrestling with Ari, trying to put something on, but my view was blocked as the head reaper approached me.

  He didn’t speak. He looked at me with his empty skull, and I felt his gaze on me, like when Grimm is watching. He bowed before me and followed the others out. Evangeline pulled Ari out the front door, and I followed, running up the stairs and out the door.

  Evangeline ran to the valet booth, dragging Ari with her. “We’ve got to get out of here. She’s fading.”

  The valet wandered off at his normal pace. I realized what was wrong. The queen couldn’t change who or what Ari was. Sadly, she’d be a princess and seal bearer for the rest of her life. The magic of Kingdom did follow strict rules though: Stripped of her family title, Ari wasn’t just thrown out of the family. She was being removed from the place. As I watched, she faded from view, disappearing completely.

  “Where is she?”

  Evangeline looked around, checking the street signs. “You don’t want to know. That part of the city isn’t somewhere you go in daylight, let alone midnight.”

  “I’m going after her. We’ll meet you at the gates. Grimm, if you can hear, let me go.” I pulled my Agency bracelet off and threw it at my feet. The world wrenched sideways, and the shimmering lights of Kingdom disappeared. Abandoned cars sat against the curb, missing tires and burned.

  That’s when I heard someone scream: someone who wasn’t Ari. I took off in that direction because any scream is a bad scream. I rounded the corner, and there in the middle of a gang of men was Ari. One of them was rolling on the ground, clutching at his crotch while the others laughed. I cursed this tiny dress purse with no room for my gun.

  I whistled as I approached. “I’ve had a bad night, boys. I think it’s about to get better.” A couple split off to meet me. They weren’t expecting what happened next. There wasn’t any reason to.

  I raked the first one in the eyes and followed it with a knee to the groin, grabbed the second and bent his arm until I got a nice clean snap, and let him scream for a moment to give the others something to think about. Ari swung a broken bottle and hit one of them in the head. He fell like a bag of sand and the others decided they were done.

  I walked up to her and gave her assailant a kick. “Sorry I missed the fireworks.” She had been crying, but it was anger as much as fear or sorrow. I heard the thugs in the alley. They were coming back, and this time they were bringing friends. “Take off your shoes,” I said, and she did. We ran. I think they followed for a few blocks, but we ran all the way, all the way down and across, and we didn’t stop until we hit the gates, where Evangeline was waiting.

  As we spun through the city, Ari drooped over and dozed. Evangeline clicked on the light to check on her. “Some night, M. We’re going to have trouble with the queen, you know.”

  “Yeah, but she’s not who worries me.”

  “Something worse than an angry royal?”

  “You have no idea.”

  Twenty-Four

  I GOT TO the Agency bright and early the next day. The waiting room was empty—Rosa had put a closed sign on the door and hung signs that read “Caution, Biohazard,” “Now Entering Tuberculosis Infection Zone,” and “Jehovah’s Witness Meeting Today!” at various places in the halls. Even the most desperate wishers wouldn’t risk catching Jehovulosis.

  I entered the conference room, which normally only held this many people on poker night. Jess and Clara, Evangeline, Ari, and myself.

  Grimm waited while Jess and Clara took turns giving Ari hugs, and then cleared his throat. “We are no closer to finding the Seal, despite your exemplary efforts. The fae, on the other hand, grow restless. The fae realm lies exposed, and they believe someone in this world holds their Seal.”

  “Plus,” I said, “there’s a fairy godmother in town.” In the silence that followed I watched Grimm digest this.

  “Marissa, I would ask if you were certain, but I know the answer.” Grimm crossed his arms and looked at me over his glasses.

  “That’s crazy,” said Clara. “You gonna let her move in on you?”

  “No, I am not.” Grimm kept his voice calm and low, with an unmistakable threat in his tone. “At the moment, there are certain problems. Foremost, that I have no idea where she might actually be.”

  “Do the bunny thing, and then mug her in an alley,” I said. “It worked on me.”

  Grimm shook his head. “You need to read more. I can’t enter another fairy’s domain any more than she could mine. The traditional way is to break he
r original mirror. As I stated, we don’t know where it is.”

  “Then rumble with her directly.” Clara sat forward at the table like she was giving orders to him. “Even if you can’t approach her, you could make it bad enough that she’d move on. These tweens you hire nowadays might not understand, but I’ve seen what you can do.”

  Grimm closed his eyes. “You have seen what I can do against normal creatures. Weaklings, like the fae, or the demons. Fairies cannot directly interact, our powers repel. We cannot approach each other.”

  “Her mirror is at the hotel. She spoke to Marissa there,” said Ari.

  Jess gave her a look of contempt. I’d gotten that look a thousand times from Evangeline, and learned to ignore it as best I could. Ari, on the other hand, started a Mexican standoff that could only end badly for her.

  “No, young lady, her mirror, her original mirror is unlikely to be at the hotel,” said Grimm. “It would be somewhere safe.”

  Ari looked at him. “Where is yours?”

  Evangeline and I exchanged uncomfortable glances. Grimm would sooner give out his bank account numbers, vault codes, and turn over every bit of Glitter he owned.

  “Someplace safe,” said Grimm, and Clara smiled.

  “Her name is Odette. That ring a bell?” I asked Grimm.

  His eyes grew slightly wider, but he kept his face impassive.

  I glanced around the room. “She suggested one of us took the Seal. She offered me wishes, Grimm.”

  An uncomfortable silence passed over the table. I kept waiting for Clara to say something stupid like, “You better not have taken them” or “Do you have any idea what you’ve done,” but she kept looking to Grimm. Grimm fidgeted for a moment. “May I have a word with Marissa alone?” In the stunned silence, no one moved. “That is not a request.”

  One by one, they filed out. The jealous glare on Evangeline’s face, the accusing look Clara gave me, and the expression of worry on Ari’s face only added to my nerves.

  I held up my hands. “I didn’t take them. She said they are weapons, and she’d hit me three times.”