A passing waiter gave me some champagne. I took it, but I didn’t drink any. ‘You don’t think he feels the same?’
Pru looked down at her polished fingernails. ‘I don’t want to know. It’s never going to happen.’
I looked closely at her. There was a doggedness to her expression, and I knew she meant what she said. I was wondering whether to pry or to leave it when she forced a smile on her face and said, ‘Anyway. Enough about Greg. What’s the plan? Do you want me to find the owners and compel them into telling us what they’re up to?’
I nodded. ‘That’s as good an idea as any. Let’s circulate and see what we can find.’
We moved away from each other and worked our way around the room. It was hard to find anyone who appeared to be in charge, and all of the waiters and croupiers insisted that they were only temps, and that they had no idea who hired them. There was no office to be found, just more gaming tables in each and every room.
I think I’ve mentioned before that I don’t consider myself stubborn to a fault, but rather stubborn to a purpose. Well, that night there was no amount of stubbornness, no matter how purposeful, that seemed to make a difference.
‘I don’t believe you’re a temp,’ I told one of the croupiers. ‘A temp doesn’t wear a watch that costs more than a private jet, now do they?’
My current argument was with a short, rotund man. A man who looked all too familiar. I was sure he was the one who had tried to get Pru to fake her fortune telling and direct people to the casino. He looked down at his overpriced watch and smirked. ‘Funny,’ he said, ‘you don’t look like the law. Tell you what – come back here with a warrant, and then maybe we’ll talk.’
I tried to argue further – because let’s face it, arguing is my forte – but I was pushed out of the way as more gamblers crowded the table, shouting and jostling for space. A glance around the room told me that things were really getting out of hand. There were commotions breaking out everywhere.
‘This game is rigged!’ came a shout from a nearby blackjack table. I looked over and saw an unempowered male witch I vaguely knew. Like Beth – she of the golden bidet – he lived in Greg’s building. ‘Beth Plimpton won three wishes. Three! The most miserable woman in the world gets three wishes and I get nothing!’ He threw his glass of champagne to the floor and stalked out of the casino, his spot quickly being filled by the next in line.
I glanced at my own mid-range watch and saw that I’d been in the casino for almost forty-five minutes. As Pru walked towards me, I could tell by her expression that she hadn’t had any more luck than I.
‘It’s like all of the waiters and croupiers are immune to being compelled,’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’ She moved closer and whispered, ‘At least sixty people have won coins, though. And that’s only the ones I’ve seen. These games might be rigged, but they’re not rigged in the house’s favour. It’s like they want people to win.’
I let out a breath of air. Pru was right. Despite the many rows that had been going on around the tables, I’d seen dozens of winners. But I hadn’t yet managed to see one of the wishing coins. Any time I’d spotted a winner, they didn’t stick around to show off. They couldn’t, because the other people at the tables tried to fight them for their coins. Every winner I’d spotted had scarpered as soon as they could (the witches who won snapped their fingers and disappeared) clutching onto their prized wishing coins for dear life.
‘Did you see any of the coins?’ I asked. ‘What do they look like?’
‘Like big shiny gold coins,’ she told me. ‘Why?’
I wasn’t sure how to answer that one. It was my sióga powers which enabled me to see a green glow around dark objects. After my conversation with Fuzz, I was sure that telling Pru was the right thing to do. I opened my mouth, about to be honest with her, when the lights in the house suddenly dimmed.
A voice boomed through the room – I recognised it as that of the croupier with the fancy watch. ‘The Crossroads is closed for the season. Go off and enjoy your wishes, folks –and be sure and tell your friends and family to look out for us next Midsummer!’
The voice stopped speaking, and the house descended into darkness.
All around me, I heard dozens of witches mutter, ‘Solas.’
Balls of bright light appeared, hovering inches in front of the witches’ fingers. But there was little for them to illuminate. We were standing in the same grotty room I’d visited with Greg earlier, all traces of the casino having disappeared.
14. Chaos
It didn’t take long for the casino’s patrons to scatter. No doubt some of them had coins they were eager to use. Pru and I were pushed out along with the masses, but when we arrived at Greg’s Wizardly Wagon, I didn’t get in the van. Instead I stood still, staring at the house. The air was shimmering brightly, even more powerfully than earlier that day.
‘They’re still here,’ I said. ‘I can feel it. Shouldn’t one of the witches try and force them out of invisibility or something?’
‘They should,’ said Pru. ‘But no one is behaving normally.’ She nodded towards a group of wizards standing around a shiny new car and screaming at one another. As we watched, one of them extended a wand and set the car on fire. ‘I haven’t seen anything this bad for years.’
I stared at her. ‘You’ve seen something like this before?’
Pru slumped against the side of the van. ‘More than once. There’s always a reason behind any kind of chaos or rioting. Someone messing with the fabric of things. Usually for a very bad reason.’
Greg poked his head out through the door. ‘The thing you have to understand is that supernaturals are just as lazy as humans,’ he said. ‘Most people just want to get on with their own lives. Sure, there are some sociopaths in the world, but the majority don’t want to argue. They might crib and moan about their neighbour having a better car than them. But to burn that car?’ He looked troubled. ‘Pru is right. The reactions people are having are not normal. This is the kind of madness that has someone else pulling the strings.’
While they discussed possibilities amongst themselves, and talked of revolutions and riots, reigns and falls, I kept my eyes on the house. A soft spot, Fuzz and Greg had called the area. A place with magic that could be utilized on certain days. But it couldn’t be travelled through, not unless the people using it were sióga. And seeing as Greg and Fuzz were so sure that this wasn’t the way faeries went about things, then maybe … maybe the people behind this scheme were still here?
They could still be in there, unseen, using the veil or whatever it was called to hide themselves. They were probably enjoying a drink in there, laughing their evil heads off at the chaos they were causing while they waited for us to leave.
I changed my gaze, not forcing it, trying to make it as soft as the veil supposedly was. As I did so, the air in front of me solidified.
I stood to attention, staring at the house before me. It was lit up once again, and I could see people inside – ten of them, sitting and standing around. I gasped. Just like I’d imagined, they were all having a drink and laughing their evil heads off. Although those evil heads looked just the same as when they’d been croupiers and waiters.
I might not know all that much about the sióga, but I knew instinctively that these people weren’t them. Greg’s and Fuzz’s instincts had been right. I could feel it now, as I looked at these people – they were something else altogether. And they were using the leftovers from a magic that wasn’t theirs to turn the whole of the supernatural world into a madhouse. Well, stuff that. I could see them now, and they had no idea. I had the advantage of surprise, and I was going to use it.
As I stepped forward, Pru pulled me back. ‘Ash – why are you trying to go back into that house? There’s nothing there now.’
I looked from the lit-up house to Pru and back again. ‘There are people in there. I can see them. And I forgot to tell you earlier, but I’m sure one of them is Bandana Man.’
/> ‘Well then I’m coming with you! If anyone should get to wring that creep’s neck, it ought to be me!’
Greg shuffled into a more comfortable position. ‘Let her go, Pru. We need to get to the bottom of this, and Ash can handle this better than we can. We can’t exactly confront something we can’t see, can we? But Ash can see them. It must be … a witchy thing. So just … let her go.’
Pru frowned, but she removed her hand from my arm. ‘Okay. But we’re right here, Ash. Shout out the second you get worried.’
I gave her a brief nod of thanks, and moved cautiously away from her, knowing she wouldn’t raise her voice to call me back. My hands and legs were shaking, but I kept on walking. The front door was ajar, and I quietly pushed it open and crept into the casino’s main room.
As soon as they saw me, the ten people around the table jumped. One woman even dropped her beer.
‘You! You’re the one who was asking all those annoying questions. How did you get in here?’
The man with the fancy watch sat back. I noticed that, now, he also had the addition of his good old bandana. ‘Because she’s sióga, that’s why. A half breed, I’d say.’ He gave me a leering smile. ‘I smelled it on you earlier. Your kind don’t normally show themselves, these days. I’m George, by the way.’
One of the other young women raised her hands. ‘We borrowed the magic fair and square, okay? It was here for the taking. You abandoned the Crossroads nearly a hundred years ago.’
I crossed my arms, doing my best to look more confident than I felt. ‘I don’t care about that. A lot of people have been hurt because of what you’re doing. Why are you handing out wishing coins all over the place?’
‘Wishing coins?’ George sniggered. He reached down to the floor beneath him and picked something up. As he placed it on the table before him, I could see that it was a cauldron, filled with glowing green coins. ‘They’re chaos coins. As any self-respecting faery ought to know.’
I could barely keep my eyes off the coins. That green glow was just like what I’d seen around the dark objects Dean Danger had used in order to kill the people he believed were witches.
‘Don’t bother trying to take them off me,’ George went on. ‘They have to be given freely by a chaos demon in order to work. So if you want to wish yourself a nice pink Cadillac or a diamond necklace, then you’ll have to ask me nicely.’
‘What? I don’t want a car or some jewellery, you idiot. I want to know why you’re doing this and how to stop it.’
He shrugged. ‘We’re not doing it. At least not anymore. The job was to let a whole lot of people win some coins last night and tonight. Which we’ve done – very well, I might add. After we’ve had our beer, we go home.’
I approached the table, looking more closely at the coins. There was something off-putting about them – an energy that made me feel extremely angry. ‘So these things grant more than just wishes, right? They do something else to people?’
He smiled. ‘So you are worthy of the sióga blood, after all. Yeah, they do more than just grant pretty little wishes. They’re called chaos coins because they literally cause chaos. Every time someone wins a wish, everyone who knows them gets bitter and angry. And the wishes themselves … well, they’re not all that straightforward, either. If you had managed to wish yourself up a nice diamond necklace, you’d spend the rest of your days paranoid that someone was going to steal it off you.’
I gritted my teeth. ‘You still haven’t told me how to undo it. Or who hired you.’
George sniggered. ‘There is no undoing it. But there’s no need to worry. The madness will wear off in a day or two, and everything everyone wished for will just … poof! Disappear. So you just have to wait it out. Oh – except for anyone who might die as a result – that’s something even a chaos demon can’t undo.’ He let that hang in the air for a moment before continuing. ‘And as for who hired us … it was a genie called Dave. Now his wishes … his wishes are real. So instead of worrying about who hired us, you ought to be worrying about who hired him. Because whoever is controlling the genie, they’re the ones who caused all this.’ He held his hands up. ‘Oh, and before you ask, I have no idea who’s using Dave.’
‘But you do know Dave the genie,’ I said. ‘He hired you, didn’t he? So you must know how to find him.’
‘Nope.’ The chaos demon shook his head emphatically. ‘No idea where his lamp’s at these days. But seeing as he wanted most of the chaos to erupt in this town and in Riddler’s Cove next door, I’m guessing he’s lurking in one of the two places.’ He stood up and smiled. ‘And now, sweet faery-woman, I must bid you adieu. But before I go …’ He held out one of the glowing green coins. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like to make yourself a wish?’
I glared at him. ‘Very sure, George.’
He pulled what looked like a turkey wishbone from his pocket, snapped it in two, and everything in the room, including George and his assistants, disappeared.
I was once again in the grotty old house at the Crossroads, but at least now I knew what I had to do. I had to track down the fiend who was using a genie called Dave. That couldn’t be all that difficult. Could it?
15. All We’re Missing is the Big Slobbery Dog
As I rushed out of the house, I saw Pru pacing worriedly on the grass, talking to a bat. Before my eyes the bat changed form, and Jared stood tall in front of me. I was rendered temporarily speechless (for obvious reasons). So when Jared rushed towards me and gathered me into his arms, I just hung like a rag doll for a full five seconds before I pulled away.
‘I was with Mam when Pru called me. I flew here as quickly as I could,’ he said.
‘Just for the record, I did not agree with Pru calling her brother,’ said Greg through a mouthful of chocolate-covered strawberry. He was sitting by his chocolate fountain with a pile of fruit at the ready. ‘I knew you could handle yourself. So what happened?’
‘Pru was right to call me,’ said Jared, cutting across any answer I might give. ‘She told me you’d gone back in there by yourself. That you could see through the veil even though whoever is doing this put it back up again. What happened? Did they hurt you? If they hurt you, I swear to Dracula I’ll kill them.’
I wasn’t sure what to say to any of that. So instead I said something incredibly appropriate to the moment. ‘You’re fully dressed, Jared. So when you change to and from your bat form you get to keep your clothes on? I bet weredogs and werewolves hate you.’
He laughed out loud. ‘I’ve often thought that the whole reason for centuries of hatred amongst us was down to the very fact that vampires can shift whilst fully dressed. So … you’re all right then?’
‘I’m fine, but we have to get going. All of this mess? I think it’s down to a genie called Dave. Or … at least to whoever is using the genie.’ I repeated my conversation with George. ‘So what do you guys think? Maybe it’s the new Minister who’s using Dave. That stuff he said on the news about winning some coins could be total bull.’
‘Darrell Plimpton?’ Greg shrugged. ‘Maybe. And thanks to my trusty hacking skills, I know exactly where he is right now.’ He laughed wryly. ‘And let’s face it – even if I didn’t know where the Minister was, at least he’d be easier to track down than a genie called Dave.’
Seeing my confusion, Pru explained. ‘Ash, Dave is like the most common name for genies.’
‘You’re serious?’ I shouldn’t have bothered asking. I could see that she was. ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Well then, I guess we’re off to chat with Minister Plimpton. And let’s hope that by the end of our chat, he won’t be Minister much longer.’ I glanced at Jared. ‘You … em … you don’t need to come with us. I mean, you know Pru and me are all right now so … if you’ve got better stuff to do …’
He snorted. ‘Yeah, right. I’ve waited my whole life to be part of a crime-solving gang in a van. All we’re missing is the big slobbery dog.’
As I looked at him agog, he added, ‘What? Witches might think
they’re too good to watch human TV shows, but I sure don’t.’
≈
The potion Greg had given me was wearing off, and as we took the hyper-speed mode to Warren Lane, my stomach was lurching. Sure, it was a much better journey than my first trip in the van, but no amount of improvement could make me overlook the fact that I was in a flying van. Worse than that – I was the one controlling the thing, seeing as Greg’s toe was still too painful. The sooner Brent taught me to travel via finger click, the better.
Greg had tried to contact Grace while I was in the casino with George and friends, and he tried once more while we took our short trip.
‘Still going to her message minder,’ he said. ‘It’s a pity, because this seems like the sort of thing she’d like to know about.’
As I set the van down outside a building that the others assured me was the fanciest hotel in Ireland, I looked the place up and down. Swanks was currently disguised with a distraction spell, but the people outside the building told an altogether different story.
‘They’re Peacemakers?’ I said, my mouth feeling dry as I looked at the six people standing guard in front of the hotel.
On the surface of it, there were only slight differences between their uniforms, and the uniforms that I’d seen the Wayfarers wear. The Peacemakers wore grey breastplates, whereas the Wayfarers wore silver. And the Peacemakers wore helmets, whereas the Wayfarers didn’t. But the Peacemakers terrified me, whereas the Wayfarers … well, ever since I’d become part of the supernatural world, the Wayfarers had only ever made me feel safe.
Maybe it was something in the way they stood. Maybe it was the helmets they wore. Or maybe … and I’m just spitballing here … maybe it was the fact that two of them were currently beating up a passer-by.
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