by Lyra Evans
She had long, pale blond hair and skin like bone china. The low-cut dress she wore revealed the triangular mark just below her collarbone and above her cleavage. She’d been the first ‘victim’ out on the stage. And if Niko remembered correctly from the information Cobalt had given at the precinct, her name was Amber.
Suddenly his mind was awhirl with the facts of the case. Amber was one of the Selkies that had come with Indigo. She had known him since childhood. She was his friend. But she was also the first one to lease an apartment and lead the others to the same building, and she was the first to ‘disappear.’ Cobalt seemed to think it unlikely that she would betray Indigo, but then what was she doing here?
Thinking quickly, Niko pressed his hand to the wall that connected to the door. Before she could close it completely, he made a trade and altered the locking mechanism just enough so the door would close but not lock. Once it was closed, Niko waited a few more seconds for her to walk away, then he cast a glance around himself and rushed to the door. Pressing himself deep into the shadows of the short corridor, he urged the door just slightly, breaking contact with the frame and allowing air and sound to pass more freely. Back to the door with his ear as close to the crack as possible, Niko watched the hallway ahead of him while listening intently to what he could hear inside the room.
“—getting antsy. It’s of no consequence. I’ve dealt with him,” Amber’s voice came, muted somewhat by a low hum like that of a fan. A glance at the plaque on the wall told Niko this was the Monitoring Room.
“Simple-minded fool,” another voice answered. It sounded like a man’s voice, but something about it rang oddly in Niko’s ears. As though he’d heard it before but only in a dream. “Driven by carnal desires and base pleasures. Idiot. Enticing him into this was pitifully easy. He and the other fools. All they see is pieces of flesh for them to play with. It’s a mystery even to me how most of them accrued the wealth they did. They’ve no imagination. But then you’d know that better than most, wouldn’t you, Starfish?”
Amber made a derisive sound. “The first time he bought me, he spent the entire two hours he had pinching my nipples and calling me a dirty whore. Then he tried to fuck me in the ass with no lube and no prep and was surprised when it was painful for him too. Moron.”
Niko caught on this little detail, his mind flashing back to Sade, but he pushed it aside. The information Amber and the man were giving him made it difficult for Niko to believe Amber was not a willing participant. Or at least, more willing than Cobalt seemed to think.
“Yes, you do put up with a lot,” the man’s voice agreed, though it sounded only vaguely interested.
There was a pause, then Amber said, “On that topic, I was wondering if perhaps I might sit out the auction this time? I think the customers have more than enough selection from the others, and I’m really more useful—”
“Afraid not, Starfish,” the man said, cutting her off. “I need you to keep them salivating. The one they can’t really have. If they get bored, they stop coming. And if they stop coming, I can’t fund my work, now can I?”
A low sigh followed. “Yes. Of course. It was a silly thought.” Amber sounded disappointed, putting on a falsely chirpy voice to placate him. “I understand.”
Again, there was silence for a moment, then the man said, “Starfish. You know how important you are to me. You’ve proven yourself so much more loyal and helpful than anyone else. What with all you do to keep the merchandise in order, and then taking care of that terrible mess last weekend. You’ve been invaluable to me, and you will be rewarded for it all. You know that.”
“Of course, I do,” she answered, sounding more at ease than before, but Niko barely registered her answer. The man’s words replayed in his head. The mess last weekend. He had to mean the murder. Amber had taken care of something for him. It was possible he meant a literal mess—cleaning the blood and glass and body from the crime scene. But then Niko’s thoughts snagged on what Pauline, the little serving girl, had told them. About a woman with long silver hair walking the grounds, covered in blood. Was it possible Amber was Pauline’s Banshee? Had—had Amber been the one to kill Indigo?
But that still didn’t explain how she could have done it. Cobalt was convinced there was no way a Selkie could produce a sound that powerful and that precise. The most likely candidate was still a Witch or Wizard, someone who could control a magical assault with precision. But then what exactly was the man referring to? And if Amber hadn’t been the one to kill Indigo, and assuming she was the woman Pauline saw, what had she been doing?
Niko’s increasingly racing thoughts were interrupted by something far more urgent. Amber seemed to have calmed down and was back to business. “So when do you plan to address the problem of Sincloud? He can’t be left to run around freely for much longer.”
Heart stopping, Niko froze. Cobalt?
“I’m not terribly worried about him,” the man answered, sounding bored. “I’m sure he made for quite the engrossing show, though. He’s a unique specimen. Selling him will net us a small fortune, I’m sure.”
Niko was a stone statue, unmoving and unbreathing, afraid that the slightest motion would tip them off. They knew about Cobalt. They knew he was here. Because of course they did. Of course, Amber must have recognized him when she went on stage. The look on her face had been so different to the other Selkies. How had Niko not guessed sooner? Did Preston know too?
“You still plan to take him alive?” Amber asked, clearly surprised. “You do know what he’s here to do, don’t you?”
“I have no plans to allow Cobalt Sincloud to kill me,” the man responded, unperturbed. “Royal decrees aside, it’ll take more than the likes of a Fixer from the Northern Reefs to best me.”
Niko shut his eyes, the reality of what was going on finally sinking in fully. It had been hovering in his mind, like a descending fog, for some time now, but he’d pushed it aside, refused to think on it. The way Cobalt had agreed to obey the laws of Maeve’s Court or suffer the appropriate punishment, his resignation that he would likely never go back to Azure’s Court, his determination to find the killer at any cost. And just as all the little pieces fitted themselves into place in Niko’s mind, his heart called up Cobalt’s words back in their room. How angry he’d been that he could have killed Niko, how dark his tone got when he spoke of the difficulty of killing someone, of it weighing on your Soul. But he never told Niko. Not once did he think to be honest with Niko about his goal. He’d lied.
Like planets colliding, a catastrophic rage of emotions laid waste to Niko’s insides. His anger and sense of betrayal clashing with the Soul Stone and its constant, humming, soothing presence. Bile rose in his throat, his every wish to collapse and vomit out the violence inside of him. But he couldn’t. There was no time.
“He’s extremely skilled,” Amber warned. “Like no other Royal Guard I’ve ever seen. The King didn’t assign him to Prince Indigo for no reason.”
“And yet he’ll still fall in line for me,” the man said. “He hasn’t come up against a power like mine. His strength and skill are of no consequence, anyway. I’ll take him tonight, while he sleeps. Maybe I’ll pick up his little submissive as well. You’re sure you didn’t get a look at who was with Sincloud?”
“No, Sincloud was blocking him,” she said. “I couldn’t look more closely without making it obvious.”
Blood pumped through his veins like gasoline through an engine, propelling him forward. He needed to find Cobalt, and he needed to do it now. They were out of time. Cover blown. At least, Cobalt’s was. Niko moved away from the door and slipped back into the narrow corridor between the outer rim of rooms and the outer walls of the sound stage. He paused a moment, trying to think.
Cobalt could have been anywhere. He could have been with Preston and others, taking in some kind of ‘show,’ which meant Niko couldn’t just openly warn him of anything. And being submissive, Niko couldn’t just pull Cobalt away without arousing Preston’s susp
icion that something was off. Niko made a move for the main pathway down to the main stage, but something stopped his foot. He paused, suddenly certain he should go in the other direction.
Thoughts trickled into his head, a stream feeding a lake. Cobalt had said he would scout out the perimeter of the place and report back. He was determined to find Indigo’s killers and to rescue the captive Selkies. If Niko had found the head of the Woods, which it seemed like he might have, maybe Cobalt had found the Selkies. There was no way Cobalt was sitting around waiting for Preston to get the ‘okay’ from the Woods to release them. For some reason, Niko was certain that Cobalt would be where the Selkies were. And without knowing how or why, he started down the corridor in the opposite direction from which he came.
Moving as quietly as possible, Niko rushed along the veins of the sound stage setup, only vaguely paying attention to the presence of other people or obstacles. He had no time to waste; both Cobalt’s life and the lives of the other victims were at stake. But he moved in such a trance, tunnel vision focused on his goal, that he stumbled across the path of a guard stationed at one of the exit doorways.
“Excuse me, Sir, you can’t be—” the guard started, but Niko’s eyes caught the gun in his holster and nothing else mattered.
He moved toward the guard, who instinctively raised one hand. Niko grabbed the man’s wrist, yanked it toward him, and struck hard at the man’s neck with the edge of his hand. The guard swayed, but Niko’s strike either wasn’t perfectly placed, or the guard tensed in time to take the blow. His moment of dizziness helped, though, and Niko drove the palm of his hand into the man’s throat; then, as he choked, Niko slammed the side of his fist into the man’s temple, sending his head spinning and knocking him out cold.
Catching the guard so he wouldn’t make noise, Niko laid him gently on the ground and disarmed him. He checked the magazine and the safety, then slid the gun into the waistband of his pants at the small of his back. It wasn’t a smart place to keep it, but he needed to keep it out of immediate sight of whoever he might come across next.
Scanning around himself, Niko saw no one else, then continued on his way toward wherever he was headed. It only took him another minute or so to find what he was looking for.
Stopping in the shadow of a room, Niko caught himself when he saw Cobalt standing outside a heavy steel door with Preston. Cobalt seemed calm, almost friendly with Preston, and something in Niko’s gut tightened. Preston looked somewhat hesitant, for his part, though he smiled at Cobalt as though they were old friends in on the same joke.
“You’re putting me in quite the position here, Cobb,” Preston said, eyeing the door. “No one is supposed to have access to the merchandise ahead of the auction. The lashing I’d face at the hands of the other guests if they knew I’d brought you here…”
“A man like you doesn’t concern himself with the mercurial tempers of the other guests, I’m sure,” Cobalt said, looking him up and down. “You’re a man who does what he wants and takes what he wants. At least, I thought you were.”
Preston laughed. “Oh, you sly dog,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re almost as persuasive as I am. If we went into business together, not a thing could stand in our way.”
“That is tempting,” Cobalt said. “But business later. Pleasure first.”
“Too right,” Preston said, then he stepped up to the door and pressed his palm to the space above the doorknob. A faint glowing traced his handprint, then a soft click released, and the door was unlocked. Preston turned the knob and nodded his head for Cobalt to join him. Cobalt glanced around, as though pretending to be sneaky, then followed him in. Through the open doorway, Niko saw several people sitting neatly on a couch of some kind, wearing as much or as little as they had been for the ‘parade.’ From what Niko could see, all of them were staring straight ahead, more like dolls than living beings.
The door began to swing shut, so Niko placed his hand on the ground and made a series of trades until a small portion of floor jutted up to catch the door, like a doorstop. He moved over to the wall by the door to listen in and decide his best course of action.
“Did you narrow down your choice?” Preston asked. Niko couldn’t see him from where he was, but he heard the steps of his designer shoes pacing slowly around the room. From the little Niko spied through the door, the room seemed to be the green room from the blueprints, outfitted with sofas and other seating, a table off to one side, and a vending machine that appeared to be unplugged. The victims took up most of the seating, and as Niko had thought, they were staring straight ahead, eyes somewhat glazed, unmoving. They didn’t even react when Cobalt leaned in close to one Selkie, staring directly into his face.
“There are quite a few I’m interested in, actually,” he said, his words coming out almost autonomously. His attention was clearly on the Selkies, his mind working to find answers Preston wasn’t giving him.
“Well, you’ll have to pick only one, I’m afraid,” Preston said. “And no touching just yet! The auction is quite fierce usually, so be prepared. Who is your favourite so far?”
“There’s one missing, it seems,” Cobalt said, sidestepping the question. “The woman who walked out first? Why is she not among these others?”
Preston laughed. “Oh her? I’d advise against that. Not a good investment, really. Particularly for what you said you were looking for. She’s just for timed play. You can’t purchase her outright. And quite honestly, from experience, she’s not much fun.”
“Oh?” Cobalt asked, clearly growing curious. He wouldn’t want to leave without Amber, Niko knew. Cobalt was still unaware of her involvement. Glancing down the corridors to every side of him, Niko saw shadows moving in groups in formation. The guards were patrolling down the main pathways. They were running out of time. “Where do you keep her, then?”
Before Cobalt could extract an answer from Preston, Niko pushed inside, knowing there was little time left if they were going to rescue any Selkies at all. He burst in, catching the door behind him to close off their conversation from sight. Cobalt looked over at him, his eyes flashing with surprise and concern. Preston, meanwhile, seemed blatantly confused.
“Kilo? How did you know where we were?” he asked, but Niko ignored him.
“We’ve got to go,” he said to Cobalt. “They know why you’re here.”
Cobalt’s jaw tightened immediately, his eyes shifting to a dark, flat colour.
Preston only seemed more confused. “What are you talking about? Who is ‘they’?”
“We need to find Amber,” he said. “She’s not—”
“Amber’s in on it,” Niko said.
“Wait—how do you know Amber?” Preston asked.
Cobalt’s expression darkened further, and he turned to Preston. “Go to sleep.” He Sang softly, his words reverberating in Niko’s chest, but the urge to sleep only afflicted Preston, whose eyes immediately rolled back into his head. He collapsed in a pile on the ground, no one making any effort to catch him. Niko grabbed him and dragged him behind the door toward the wall. He placed his palm against the surface and made a trade, creating a loop where there had been none. Then, making another trade, Niko pulled the lace from one of Preston’s shoes and turned it to a zip-tie. Fastening Preston’s hands together and attaching them through the loop of the wall, he left him secured.
“Did he know?” Cobalt asked. Niko shook his head.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “Not about you, anyway. But he’s personally involved in this whole thing. Investing partner or something. We’ve got to go now.”
“Get to your feet,” Cobalt Sang to the Selkies, but none of them moved. He shot Niko a look, but Niko shrugged. He still wasn’t sure what had been done to them. Focusing on a single Selkie, Cobalt Sang again, “Get to your feet.” But nothing happened. Taking control of all of them at once was likely too much for any Selkie’s power, as Cobalt had said before, but not even one? “I cannot leave without them,” he told Niko.
/> Niko frowned. “Obviously,” he said.
He reached for one of the Selkies, a girl who seemed younger than the others, though Cobalt had told him they were all of the same age. Niko took her by the arm and urged her to her feet. She complied easily, her vacant expression never changing. Niko shrugged at Cobalt, and Cobalt began getting them all up by hand.
The little green candy in Niko’s pocket was all he had, so he took it out and unwrapped it, popping it into his mouth.
“It was a trap for Sincloud. They don’t know about me yet, but they will. We’re going to try and escape with the victims in question, but we need all the help we can get. Hurry, Uri,” Niko said, the candy in his mouth. When he dropped the candy back into his palm, it morphed into a small green bird. It chirped once at him, and Niko held it up to the vent against the wall. Prying off the cover, Niko let the little bird fly into the vent and toward the sky outside.
When he turned around, Cobalt had collected all the victims—Selkies and Fae alike—and had them standing in groups of two in a line, holding hands. There were too many groups for Niko and Cobalt to take them each by hand and guide them out, and if they didn’t move fast enough, the group was likely to be seen. They needed to control them all easily, but with Cobalt’s Song ineffective, Niko was at a loss. And time was quickly running out. He didn’t understand what magic had been used on them, and he tried to think of what he’d seen during the parade. They had followed Amber out onto the stage and through the crowd, moving on their own.
Was Amber the key? Pressing his hand to his throat, Niko made a trade in his vocal chords. The magic was momentarily painful, but when he was done, he coughed a little and cleared his throat.