by Helen Harper
‘Excuse me?’ If they knew what they were doing, I wouldn’t have almost died.
She blinked, her long curly lashes emphasising her confused expression. ‘The maintenance stuff.’ She gestured around the small room. ‘You know, to make sure everything is in tip-top shape and the Metafora magic is in perfect working order.’ She let out a small giggle. ‘Can you imagine if one of us got into trouble and the magic stalled so we were trapped?’
I stared at her. ‘Yes. I can actually imagine that.’ I paused. ‘This … maintenance was scheduled?’
‘Oh yes.’ Figgy bobbed her head, her shiny hair bouncing in the glow of the Metafora light. ‘It’s been on the calendar for weeks. And the Director reminded us all in morning briefing.’
Unbelievable. The one and only time I’d missed the morning meeting appeared to be the one and only time that important information was doled out. I rolled my eyes. It didn’t matter. I’d cheated death and I still felt super-duper awesome about that.
I walked out so that Figgy could come in and make her own preparations to head out to her client. ‘Saffron!’ she called. ‘You dropped this.’
I turned round and saw that she was holding the scrap of paper with Adwell’s autograph on it. I took it. This was proof that the politician was involved in some very shady dealings. Proof of sorts, anyway.
I smoothed it out and mulled over what I’d learned. The fact that Art Adwell’s greasy fingers were all over the plot to assassinate Rose was surprisingly exciting. I’d stumbled into some sort of real-life human conspiracy. Given the troubles we’d had with the trolls, it was heartening to know that the humans had their own issues too.
I fantasised briefly about setting the trolls onto Adwell and vice-versa while I sat back with some popcorn. Then I reminded myself that this wasn’t a game and real lives were at stake. Speaking of which, I had a task force to inspire. It was time to haul ass and find out what information, if any, the others had uncovered. I shoved the paper into my back pocket and got a move on.
‘You can’t have a meeting in here,’ Philippa told me when I strode up to the open doorway of my meeting room. Her arms were folded and her foot was tapping. ‘I booked this room months ago.’
‘You couldn’t have. The slot was free. I double-checked.’
‘Then there was some kind of mistake. Anyway, I get priority because I’ve been here for longer.’
I gritted my teeth. ‘No, I get priority because this is for the troll task force.’
Philippa rolled her eyes. ‘Who cares about the trolls? Their leader is dead. We already beat them. They won’t come back.’
They bloody would. I stepped towards her. ‘We don’t know how many trolls there are or what they are planning next. And it wasn’t their leader who died. Regardless, they’re not going to forget about what we did to them all those years ago.’
‘We’re faery godmothers.’ Philippa tossed her head and the tip of her long, glossy ponytail slapped me in the face. ‘They’ll never beat us.’
I had serious doubts about that. From what I’d learned, the trolls were cannier and stronger than we’d given them credit for. They’d managed to hide their existence for decades; even now that we knew they were out there and gunning for us, we still couldn’t find any trace of them.
Trying to persuade the likes of Philippa that we faery godmothers were neither infallible nor unbeatable was a pointless task. Right now, I couldn’t even persuade her that I needed this damned room more than she did.
Fortunately I had Alicia on my side for once – temporarily, anyway. She breezed past the pair of us and settled down on the chair at the head of the table.
Philippa looked from her to me and back again. ‘Fine,’ she muttered. ‘If you want the room that badly you can have it.’ She stalked off.
‘Oh, I’m sorry, Saffron,’ Alicia tittered. ‘I didn’t mean to sit in your spot.’
‘You can sit wherever you want, Alicia. I don’t need a seating plan to know that I’m in charge of this task force.’
Alicia’s smile vanished. I reminded myself that I needed to keep her on side and that snarky side comments wouldn’t help.
‘What I mean is,’ I said, ‘that I think this task force is beyond such petty issues. We have far more important things to worry about.’
‘I’ll say,’ Billy grumped. ‘What’s this about you having a nose job?’
I glanced at Delilah, who was looking pointedly in the other direction. ‘Never mind that,’ I said, trying not grin. Given that Billy had been out of the office all morning, Delilah had done really well in getting the information around. ‘Let’s get this meeting started. I don’t want to take up a lot of your time. I know you all still have clients to deal with as well as the trolls.’
Alicia snorted. ‘I’ve got a bloke who is adamant that he wants nothing more than for his penis to be extended by five inches. It’s the fifth client this year who’s wished for the same thing.’ She tutted.
‘I’m perfectly happy with my dick,’ Rupert declared. ‘It’s more than big enough to get the job done.’
I sent up a silent prayer that he wasn’t about to whip it out to show us. Or offer a demonstration of how he ‘got the job done’.
‘Right!’ I interrupted hastily. ‘What have we got? Let’s start with you, Delilah. What have you heard on the streets? There must be some whispers out there about where the trolls are hiding.’
She frowned, clearly unhappy. ‘Not that I’ve heard. I’ll keep trying, of course, but if anyone knows where they are they’re not saying.’
I scratched my head. ‘Okay. I’ve already spoken to Rupert and…’
‘And,’ he continued for me, ‘I’ve found nothing helpful in any of the old Adventus records. Even before most of the trolls were killed they kept out of our way.’
‘Uh-huh.’ I looked at Alicia. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘in the event that we do find the trolls, what have you discovered that will help us fight them?’
Alicia pulled out a tube of lip gloss and delicately applied it to her mouth before answering. ‘Their magic is stronger than ours. They don’t have to use wands to create powerful spells. In a one-on-one fight, troll to faery, the faery is bound to lose. We have a chance if we have the numbers, but if they take us by surprise…’ She raised her shoulders. ‘It’ll be adios godmother faeries.’
I sighed. ‘So effectively we have nothing. We don’t how many trolls there are. We don’t know where the trolls are. We have no idea what the trolls might be planning. We are completely clueless and completely fucked.’ I fiddled with a button on my cuff. I hadn’t expected this to be easy but I’d expected at least one of us to come up with something.
I raised my eyebrows at Billy but he made a face at me in return. We were all coming up empty handed. This was shit.
‘Actually,’ Angela said, ‘I think I might have something.’
We all turned towards her. I wasn’t the only faery with hope flaring in my heart. Alicia leaned forward, clasping her hands under her chin. Delilah’s eyes widened, Billy began to jiggle slightly in his chair and Rupert scratched his balls, which I supposed counted for excitement in his world.
Basking in the glow of our rapt attention, and all without the aid of a PowerPoint presentation, Angela smiled. ‘The Human Resources office is at the front of the building. We have a direct view of the street outside. It occurred to me that there was a good chance the trolls were still keeping tabs on us. After all, they’re bound to be worried about what we’re up to and whether we’re getting close to them. And they must have been watching us for a long time. The faery godmothers who were kidnapped were lured out. The only way that would work is if the trolls had watchers on this building.’
That was a very good point. I congratulated myself on having had the foresight to bring Angela into the team rather than focusing on the fact that I should have thought about troll spies hanging around outside myself. ‘So,’ I asked, my fingers curling in anticipation, ‘have you seen a
ny trolls outside the window? Watching us?’
Alicia shuddered. ‘Ugh. That’s so creepy.’
‘The bastard that I noticed this morning is definitely creepy,’ Angela said. ‘He has to be a troll. For one thing, he hardly has any neck to speak of.’ She hunched her shoulders to show us what she meant. ‘His skin is covered in acne and he has a look in his eyes that shows he’s some sort of psychopath.’
I frowned at her. ‘I thought you were watching him from the window on this side of the street. How could you see what his eyes were like from there?’
‘I have excellent eyesight,’ she replied primly, folding her hands neatly in her lap.
Rupert sniffed. ‘And a pair of binoculars in your top drawer.’
Billy’s grin told me that Rupert was right.
‘Binoculars?’ I asked faintly.
‘She uses them to ogle the bloke who works in the office across the street.’ Rupert’s lips flattened into a sneer.
Delilah grinned brightly. ‘The one you’ve been stalking?’
To my surprise, Angela’s cheeks turned pink. ‘We all need a little distraction from time to time. And it’s not stalking if you never manage to bump into them in person or find out any details about them. I’ve looked up the address where he works. There’s no company listed there that I can see.’
‘See,’ Delilah murmured. ‘Stalking.’
Rupert snorted. ‘This man is supposed to be good looking. I don’t see it myself.’
Angela blushed harder. It was fascinating. ‘He is very good looking,’ she said, as if that should make a difference. ‘Unbelievably good looking. He might even give the Devil’s Advocate a run for his money.’
Alicia scoffed. ‘You mean he’s intimidating and stares at you like you’ve spent your morning drowning puppies?’
I looked at her in astonishment. ‘Jasper’s not like that.’
‘Yeah,’ she said sarcastically, ‘he’s just a big fluffy cuddle-monster under all those hard edges.’
‘Well, he’s arrogant and high-handed but he’s also—’ I began, before noticing Billy smirking at me in amusement. ‘Never mind.’ I coughed. ‘Let’s focus on the man Angela has spotted. Is there anything other than his appearance that suggests he’s a troll?’
‘He looks like a troll,’ she said. ‘In your report, you said that they had a strange quality about them. That when you were up close, something about them didn’t sit right. Well, that’s definitely true of this guy. And his behaviour is highly suspicious.’
‘In what way?’
She pursed her lips. ‘It’s easier if I show you.’ She pushed back her chair and got to her feet. ‘Come with me.’
We all exchanged glances then did as she said. Angela trotted out of the room, humming to herself while we all followed like the Pied Piper and his rats. I spotted Jasper standing in the doorway of his office watching us. The way he was looking at us was reminiscent of a hard-eyed, ‘you killed my puppy’ stare. I flashed him a smile but he didn’t relax. If anything, he appeared more stern.
Shrugging, I followed the others into the HR office. Angela paused at her desk, taking out what was indeed a set of binoculars from her top drawer, and walked to the window. The other HR workers watched her with a mixture of derision and envy. She raised the binoculars then smacked her lips. ‘He’s still there,’ she declared. ‘He’s still doing it.’
I reached across and took the binoculars from her. Peering through them, I squinted to see what she was talking about. I swung slowly to the left, pulling back with an involuntary gasp when the man she’d described turned his head and looked directly at me from an open window.
I recognised him: he was the man I’d bumped into in the street the other day. The one who’d made my skin shiver.
‘See?’ Angela said triumphantly. ‘There’s supposed to be magic across this place that prevents humans from registering that the building exists but all morning he’s been looking this way. For all we know, he could have been watching us like that for weeks. Months even.’
Billy straightened his shoulders. ‘Then let’s go there. Right now. Let’s confront him and find out what his deal is.’
I smoothed my hands down my skirt and tried not to get too excited that we were onto something. ‘No.’ I shook my head; talking to the man in person was a very bad idea. I’d already had one dodgy experience today from blithely wandering into a building while woefully under-prepared. That wasn’t going to happen again. ‘We need to tread very carefully. If he is spying on us, we don’t want him to know that we’re onto him. Remember our remit is to find the trolls and discover what they’re planning next, not to make any moves that might blow up in our faces.’
‘Or,’ Alicia muttered, ‘blow us up. Don’t forget what Bernard did when he set off those bombs.’
The others suddenly paled. ‘So what do we do?’ Delilah asked.
‘We act normally,’ I said. ‘Angela, you can keep an eye on him from your desk. Let us know if he leaves, or if you see anyone else coming and going. Billy, you’re sensitive to magic. Go out for lunch and walk casually past that building. See what you can pick up. I’ll speak to the Devil’s Advocate and find some way to gain entrance to it. When it’s dark I’ll sneak in alone and see what I can find. There might be some incriminating notes or equipment lying around. We need to know what we’re dealing with before we make a move against this man.’
‘If you’re sneaking in there,’ Delilah said, ‘then I’m coming with you.’
‘Me too,’ Billy said.
Alicia nodded. ‘And me.’
Rupert shrugged. ‘I guess that means me too.’
‘No. We need to be sneaky and quiet. The fewer people, the less chance there is that we get caught.’
‘But…’
I glared at Billy. I wasn’t going to brook any argument. ‘I’m going in alone,’ I said. ‘And that’s the end of it.’
Chapter Sixteen
‘You can’t go alone. I’ll come with you.’
I folded my arms and frowned at Jasper. ‘No, you won’t.’
‘Yes, I will.’
‘No, you bloody won’t. We don’t know for sure who that guy is and I’m perfectly capable of managing a tiny incursion like this on my own. He’s probably a normal bloke who has no idea that faeries or trolls even exist.’
‘You saw him watching this building.’
I did, and I’d felt something akin to magic emanating off his body, but I wasn’t completely sure he was anything other than human. Not yet. ‘That doesn’t make him a troll, even with the magic that makes humans avoid this place. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions.’
Jasper regarded me implacably. ‘No,’ he agreed. ‘But if he is a troll you’re putting yourself in grave danger. He might not be the only one in there. In fact, that building might be teeming with trolls. You won’t know until you get in there.’
‘I’m not planning to take them on single-handed,’ I said irritably. ‘All I’m doing is looking for confirmation that there is a troll – or trolls – in there. This is a covert fact-finding operation, not a suicide mission.’
He didn’t even twitch. ‘It doesn’t matter. You’re not going in there without me.’
‘Don’t you have an audit to deal with?’
‘It’s coming along swimmingly. I can easily afford to take a few hours out.’ Jasper paused and dropped his voice. ‘Or are you afraid to be alone with me?’ He started to toy with the mug in front of him, his long fingers lightly caressing its rim. ‘We’re supposed to be friends but maybe you think that, given what’s already happened between us, you won’t be able to control yourself around me.’
‘What?’ I stared at him. ‘Of course that’s not it! And I’d like to remind you that nothing has happened between us.’
‘Mmm.’ He continued to play with the edge of the mug. ‘I shouldn’t bring it up again but there was that kiss in the park.’
‘We both know that was a mistake,’ I said stiffly.
‘And anyway, it was a faked kiss.’
I registered the fleeting amusement in his expression and my eyes narrowed. Honestly, what was he up to? He was the one who’d put a stop to our supposed relationship. Why did he insist on referring to the frisson between us? A cloud of suspicion formed in my mind but he changed the subject before my thoughts could coalesce.
‘Regardless,’ he said. ‘We’ll go in together. My magic is stronger than yours. If this is indeed a troll, you’ll require proper back-up.’
I sniffed. ‘I think you’ll remember that last time it was you who needed the back-up. Not me.’
Jasper’s jaw tightened. ‘That’s because the trolls are strong. They’ve been hiding away for decades, generations, and concentrating on only one thing – revenge on the faery godmothers for what they did. We can’t underestimate them. Ever.’
His tone was sombre enough for me to drop my protests. ‘If they are in that building,’ I said, ‘and if we do find them, then what next? I could argue that their plans for revenge are justified. Most of their race was wiped out because of what the faery godmothers did.’
Jasper held my gaze. ‘There are five faery godmothers who might argue that the remaining trolls deserve the severest punishment.’
‘You’ve been speaking to Lydia DuChamps,’ I replied. ‘A lot. She’s one of those five faeries. Is that what she wants? To see every single troll in this country hung, drawn and quartered?’
‘Even the most bloodthirsty faery wouldn’t want that. We’re not living in the Middle Ages.’
He was deflecting – and we both knew it. ‘It was a figure of speech,’ I said, ‘as you are fully aware.’
Jasper sighed and ran a hand through his ink-dark hair. ‘From what little I learned during my brief time as their prisoner, the trolls won’t stop until the Office of Faery Godmothers is destroyed. I get the feeling that they’re incredibly single-minded. They’ve waited a long time for their revenge and nothing is going to get in their way.’