by Holly Evans
The space was twice as large as my entire apartment in Dublin. He must have used some magic to make it press into the fae plane. I stood at the entryway and took it all in. The four tables spread throughout the middle of the room were all engraved with intricate sigils. The two side walls were covered in shelves that were packed with bottles, vials, and what I assumed were ingredients. The other two walls were covered in stunning murals depicting hunt scenes. When I looked closer at the mural closest to me, I saw that every small stroke was, in fact, a sigil. I was in absolute awe. The amount of time and energy it must have taken to create such a thing…
“There will be a price for my information,” a masculine voice said.
I tore myself away from the mural and looked at the elf alchemist. Like all elves, he was slender with very fine bone structure and long, silky soft hair that hung most of the way down his back. His very expensive linen shirt and pants hung in a way that was both practical and very flattering of his figure. I smiled politely and tried to figure out a way around this situation. Elves dealt in trades. Of course, they were very intelligent and prided themselves on their trading ability, so you were likely to get completely screwed.
“No trade until I know you have useful information,” I said.
His pretty mouth spread into a smile which showed his sharp teeth.
“What is it you seek?”
“A person.”
His eyes glittered.
“That will be quite a fee.”
“You have no idea who the person is or if you can find them.”
“Hand me one of your memories and we’ll see.”
“No deal.”
He sniffed and shrugged.
“Your loss.”
I ran my tongue over my teeth, trying to decide just how likely it was that he did know where the killer was.
“Do you sell fractured shadow?” I finally asked.
The smile on his face slipped for the fraction of a beat, enough for me to see his answer was a no.
“Thanks, but I’ll be leaving now,” I said with a victorious smile.
Forty-Two
I’d parked my bike a block away, as the alchemist was in a very nice part of Paris, which meant that parking was non-existent. I walked with my head high, enjoying the sunshine. We had to be getting close, now, surely, with Grayson in Germany and Alasdair speaking to Alain. I made a mental note to ask Simone why she hadn’t just tracked down the killer and been done with it. Surely, there must have been something from them at the ritual sites she could have used.
Someone grabbed the back of my jacket and threw me down an alleyway. I landed on my feet and once again regretted not having my knife on me. I was going to put my first pay cheque on a suitable blade. A pair of hunters strode into the alley.
You can tell hunters by the worn leather jacket, big boots, and the sneer on their face. That, and the silver knives in their hands. My magic was pushing to be free to burst through my hands and resolve this situation. I quelled it and waited a moment. If it could be resolved without magic, then I needed to do so. The fewer people that knew about that, the better.
“We heard the fae want you. You must be real trouble,” the man closer to me said.
He was a grizzled old hunter, likely my age when the Prague incident happened. Grey sprinkled the thick stubble on his weak jaw. He held his silver knife tight in his fist. His comrade, a woman who seemed to be about his age with greying auburn hair, hung back a little. I noted the stiffness in his left ankle and nervousness in her eyes. If I could take him down, there was a good chance that she would run.
The man lunged at me with his silver knife. It caught in my leather jacket, thank the goddess. I wasn’t sure how sensitive to silver I was as a made, but I didn’t want to find out. I punched him hard in the gut and followed it up with a punch to the throat. He gasped and tried to slash at my stomach with his knife. I punched him in the bridge of the nose and kicked him in the lower abdomen, driving him into the brick wall behind him. The woman had already run away. Hunters really didn’t have any loyalty, despicable beings.
I stamped on the hunter’s wrist as he tried to push himself back into a standing position against the wall. He cried out in pain, which drew the attention of a passer-by. I didn’t have long until the human police showed up.
“How did you know about the fae?”
He spat at my feet, a filthy habit. I punched him in the jaw.
“How did you know about the fae?”
“Everyone’s talking about it. The queen wants the abomination.”
Someone was standing at the entrance to the alleyway. Judging from the soft glow, they were either recording or preparing to record. Fuck. I turned and ran down the other end and joined the crowd of people, trying to act casual. I needed to get back to my bike without anyone realising I was the one who’d beaten that guy up.
I texted Alasdair telling him what had happened. He would probably lecture me, but it was better he knew.
We were in the cafe with Simone. Alasdair refused to sit.
“Why does the sidhe queen want you, Niko?”
“We’ve been over this, I don’t have a fucking clue. Sit down and stop being an ass,” I snapped.
He growled, but did as I said.
“Why couldn’t you just track down the killer?” I asked Simone, my tone sharper than I’d intended.
She had me pinned against the wall by my throat before I’d even realised she’d moved.
“Do not question me, Niko. I care deeply for Alasdair and Grayson, but you… I wouldn’t miss you.”
“I would, so do not harm him, Simone,” Alasdair growled.
She gripped my throat tighter. I didn’t dare fight back for fear of making the situation worse.
“I could not track the killer. I am aware what they say about made fae, but I am not a sociopath, and I wouldn’t have sat back and allowed those wolves to be murdered if I could stop it.”
She let me go, and I rubbed my throat.
“You should take better care of your mate,” Simone said to Alasdair before she sat back down.
“Partner,” I growled.
She shrugged.
“Whatever you prefer, sweetheart,” she said in a sugary sweet tone.
“This isn’t helping anything. Do we have any idea where this killer is?” Alasdair demanded.
“No, and we have two days to find her and stop her,” I said.
“Goddess be with us,” Alasdair said.
“She’s clearly not, else we wouldn’t be in this situation, now would we?” I growled.
“You know full damn well that she does what she can, but there are many other factors and gods in play here,” Alasdair said.
Simone pushed a plate of sandwiches at me.
“Eat. You’re grumpy because you’re hungry. Stop shit-stirring and fill your stomach.”
I went to argue that I wasn’t shit-stirring but let it drop. Fighting with them wasn’t going to help anything.
Forty-Three
Grayson showed up an hour later after Simone had fed me another plate of sandwiches. Every time I went to say something, she looked pointedly at the food.
“We have a name,” Grayson said triumphantly.
We all turned to face him.
“Renée Caron,” he said, placing the piece of paper down on the table.
“How far did you have to push?” Alasdair asked.
Grayson looked down and away. I wanted to offer him the support of touch.
“Harder than I would have liked. He was… difficult. Dad’s staying with me tonight. We’re going to talk it out,” he said quietly.
Alasdair pulled him into a gentle hug.
“If I can help, tell me,” Alasdair said firmly.
Grayson smiled and relaxed some. A flicker of jealousy passed through me. Simone gave a look akin to a cat that got the cream.
“Now we can set up the bait with Alain,” Alasdair said.
“Wait, you’re planni
ng on using the wolf as bait?” I asked.
The idea didn’t sit well with me at all. Enough wolves had died. We’d be far better tracking this Renée down and stopping her before she got near another wolf.
“Yes, it’s logical,” Alasdair said.
“We have her name, we can find out where she’s staying and take her down before she goes near another wolf.”
“He has a point, Alasdair,” Grayson said as he took the last of the sandwiches.
Simone stood and headed for the kitchen.
“Don’t you dare try and force feed me more sandwiches!” I called after her.
Grayson gave me a quizzical look.
“Niko was pushing. Simone concluded he was hungry,” Alasdair said.
The frown deepened on Grayson’s face as he looked between me and the plate.
“I wouldn’t have come to that conclusion, but Simone is good at what she does,” he said.
“Why aren’t you calling in your allies and contacts to find this Renée?” I asked.
“I got here five minutes ago,” Grayson said as he finally sat down.
I looked pointedly at Alasdair.
“Can you speak to your parents, Gray? I’ll ring around and let Selene know,” Alasdair said.
“Did you just call me Gray? Niko must be really-”
I was giving him a death glare, and he stopped speaking only to grin at me.
“They haven’t screwed yet,” Simone said casually as she placed a plate of brownies in front of Grayson.
My jaw dropped. Blush crept across my cheeks, and I refused to look at Alasdair. Simone gave me an innocent look that didn’t suit her in the slightest; to think that people believed that shit.
“Alasdair is supposed to be ringing his allies so we can stop more wolves from being killed,” I ground out.
Renée had been spending a lot of time hanging out at Cafe Rouge. Simone had slipped away at some point, leaving me with Grayson and Alasdair.
“Wait a second, so the sidhe queen wants you? And you resisted the Fear Dorcha?” Grayson asked.
I was growing tired of this line of questioning. I just wanted to save the day and go to bed.
“Apparently,” I said.
“And you have no idea why.”
“Not a clue. How far away is this cafe?”
“Ten minutes,” Alasdair said.
“Grayson will go around the back, you come through the front with me, Niko.”
“How do we know who she is? We can’t exactly say, ‘Hey! Anyone here murdering wolves so they can do some twisted shadow ritual?’”
Alasdair looked deeply unamused. Grayson, however, laughed.
“You can see his point,” Grayson said.
Alasdair turned his flat unamused expression on Grayson.
“Guardians are tied to the goddess. Alasdair will feel when we’re near Renée. You’ll get the sixth sense thing when you become a full Guardian, too.”
“How tied to the goddess?” I asked.
I didn’t like the idea of being trapped in any way. She was supposed to look after wolves, but that didn’t mean I wanted my life entirely in her hands. What if she decided I was an abomination, after all? If I remained untied, then maybe I’d have a better chance of staying alive.
“She looks after her Guardians. You’re chosen. Be honored,” Alasdair said.
The cafe was much like the other cafes in the area. Small wooden tables sat on the pavement outside the red frontage. Only half of the tables inside were occupied. Waitresses looked tired and ready to be done with the day, and the smell of buttery fresh pastries filled the space in front of the cafe. Grayson had already headed around back, which left with me with Alasdair.
“What do we do when we find her?” I asked.
“Take her away quietly,” he said before he stepped into the cafe.
It wasn’t very brightly lit, and the music was far too loud for the speakers. No one paid us much attention. The patrons were a mix of suits and more casual people; all were too interested in their newspapers, e-readers, and company to care about new people. The blond waiter greeted us with a tired smile and held a pair of simple white menus in his hand.
“We’re looking for Renée,” Alasdair said.
So much for subtlety and goddess-given sixth sense.
The waiter frowned and gave a sorry expression with his hands turned palm up to the ceiling.
“We haven’t seen her in a couple of days, she said something about people trying to…”
“Trying to?” Alasdair pressed.
“Hurt her. He said bad men were coming to find her. Her ex was an abusive ass and he was sending his guys after her…”
His face had drained of blood, and he was frantically gesturing to the red-headed waitress behind the glass cake counter. Everyone had turned to face us. We turned and walked out before the scene could be made any worse. She knew we were onto her, and she had people watching out for us. Fantastic.
Forty-Four
We were planning to sit in the cafe and push Alasdair’s contacts for more information - until the news came through. One of the wolves had gone missing, and Selene had a hit on a ritual site. We rushed through the traffic, cursing enough to make sailors blush as we raced to the edge of the city. We all leapt out of the car and ran to the old warehouse covered in blood-red graffiti. The shadow hit me the moment we crossed the threshold. My shadow magic clawed at my fingertips, begging to be freed. I turned around slowly, taking in the huge space with smooth concrete floors and metal beams far, far overhead. The faint light from the evening was barely penetrating the thick, fogged-over windows high above us.
The shadow crawled along the floor and called to some part deep within me, some part I wanted nothing to do with. A sound of footsteps snapped me back to the real world. My hunting instincts kicked in, and I took off across the wide expanse of empty warehouse after those footsteps with everything I had. I could hear her heart slamming against her ribs, smell the change as fear began to unravel around the cool slick scent of shadow. Then, suddenly, she was gone. I stopped in the space at the back of the alley, looking around the old rusted-out car and over the bare cracked concrete. The metal fence creaked softly in the breeze, but there was neither sound nor scent of Renée.
Grayson was slowly circling around the site of the attempted ritual. The man was dead, but his blood was still warm and fresh. The sigils hadn’t been fully painted yet. He was halfway between his wolf and human form. She must have used some dark magic to force that on him. Shifting didn’t take long enough to kill someone halfway through the shift. The shadow remained around the site, singing and whispering to me. I wasn’t even aware of it at first, the gentle melodies that came from it and filtered into the back of my mind. My fingertips reached out to caress the cursed stuff. I snarled at myself and stepped back from the main ritual site.
“She wasn’t supposed to do another ritual for two days!” Alasdair roared.
“The notebook was explicit; the moon phase is wrong tonight. Why did she go against the book?” Grayson asked.
His gaze fell on me. Slowly, his mouth tugged down and those shallow creases formed at the corners of his eyes.
“Niko, what are you humming?”
I hadn’t realised I was doing it. The shadow song must have gained a better foothold than I’d acknowledged. Fear filled me. I was chosen by the goddess. The shadow couldn’t claim me.
“Niko, talk to me,” Alasdair said, his hand on my cheek, his eyes intense.
I squeezed my eyes closed and focused on his scent, allowing the Scottish heather and stormy seas to calm me.
“I can feel the shadow.” I swallowed hard. “I can hear its song. I can’t be a shadow.”
“You’re not a shadow. Look at me, and focus,” he said.
I looked into his silver eyes and focused on the sensation of his warm smooth skin against mine.
“Push the shadow down, drive its song out of your head. You can do this, Niko.”
> I didn’t look away from his eyes, the mark of the goddess that had chosen me. Slowly, the shadow receded from my mind and coiled back up deep within me.
“We’re going to work through this. Once we’ve removed this Renée, we’ll work on your magic, ok?”
I nodded dumbly and glanced back at the poor man that we’d failed.
“We’ll set Alain up as bait. We can’t afford to waste more time chasing her around,” Alasdair said firmly.
I couldn’t argue.
Forty-Five
Alain had agreed to meet us, but Alasdair and Grayson both received a phone call at the same time that stopped them dead in their tracks. I watched as they both tensed and dropped their heads.
Alasdair finished his call first. “I knew we should have gotten you a suit.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “We’ve been through this, I can’t save the day in a suit.”
“I manage just fine,” he said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“I assume that was your father,” Alasdair said to Grayson.
“Yea, I’m joining you guys.”
“Anyone care to fill me in?” I asked.
“The Council has summoned you. They want to speak to you about this situation with the goddess and the hunters,” Alasdair said bravely.
I felt the anger rise. I knew they’d betray me. Fuck it. Alasdair bared his teeth before he bit my bottom lip hard enough to draw blood.
“Don’t you dare look at us like that, we didn’t tell anyone anything. We’re your pack,” he snarled.
I stared him down and tried to look for any sign of a lie on his face.
“Come on, let’s get this over and done with,” Grayson said, resignation filling his every word.
Alasdair put his arm around my shoulders.
“I’ll be right there at your side. I won’t let them harm you,” he said.
That didn’t stop the dread from pooling deep in my stomach. Having the Council notice me was the thing of nightmares. My mind conjured up all sorts of scenarios, each worse than the one before it. They could throw me in some cell, they could experiment on me, or hand me over to some witches to use as they saw fit. Hell, they could hand me to the hunters to kill me slowly. I’d heard some of them liked to drag the killing out over a few days.