by Jayne Faith
“Okay. I’ll have J.R. send over the details. You’ll get them around one thirty this afternoon. It’ll be an after-dark job.”
“Great, I’ll be on the lookout. Thank you, Katerina.”
“No need for thanks,” she said. “Just do the job.”
We hung up.
When I emerged from my bedroom, Fel was in the process of bustling the two older kids into the car and trying to get Luna and Nolan to sit still at the table long enough to eat their seven-grain hot cereal.
“You go,” I said to my sister. “I’ll keep an eye on the twins while I organize some of the kitchen things.”
Fel was driving Dom and Sasha to school that day, instead of having them take the bus like usual. The new house was still close enough to the twins’ school that they could walk.
“Thank you!” my sister called over her shoulder as she chased Dom and Sasha out the front door.
The kitchen was mostly unpacked, with only a couple of boxes left to go. I dove into one of them.
“I can’t wait to come home after school and play in the treehouse!” Luna said. She let out an excited high-pitched giggle.
I looked up to see her bouncing on her chair, a big grin on her face as she craned to see through the kitchen window to the back yard.
“No treehouse if you’re late to school,” I said. “And you can’t get up from the table until your bowl is empty.”
She picked up her spoon and attacked her cereal.
“I could set up a home plate and bases back there,” Nolan said dreamily. “They’ll all fit, and there’s room for an outfield, too.”
“I know,” I said, kneeling to shove some large pots into a lower cabinet. “Pretty cool, huh?”
“Yeah!” he said enthusiastically.
“Yeah!” Luna echoed.
“Yeah!” Noland said again.
They went back and forth like that, giggling like maniacs. Finally, I had to cut in.
“Bowl check,” I said. “Who’s still got cereal to eat?”
They both busily resumed shoveling food in their mouths, emptying their bowls and then popping up to put their dishes in the dishwasher.
While the twins were brushing their teeth, I paused to pull out my phone, remembering that I needed sigils for a doorway in Portland so I could easily go get Judah. I sent a text to Ray Artois to see if he was familiar with any of the Faerie doorways in the Portland area.
Then I scrolled through my email and scanned some messages. Ray responded before I had a chance to put my phone away. He knew two doorways. He gave me the locations and sent images of the sigils he’d hand-drawn. The quickness of his response reminded me that he still wanted me to work with him to find some special object that would help him avenge his mother’s clan in Faerie. He’d need to do a few more solid favors for me before I would even think about getting tangled up in that mess, though.
I sent a quick text to Judah to let him know about the doorways, and he responded:
Can’t say I enjoy travel by Faerie doorway, but it’s worth it to be able to see you so easily.
A small smile touched my lips, lingering there as I returned to unpacking the boxes.
The rest of the morning, Mom and I worked on organizing the house, and Felicity turned her focus to her business while the place was relatively quiet.
Around one in the afternoon, I stopped to eat leftover pizza and check my email to see if that night’s job info had landed in my inbox yet.
There was a message from Volkov Retrieval. I opened it and went to the company’s secure portal to read the job document. It didn’t contain much detail. There was a picture of a plain-looking cuff-style bracelet maybe two or three inches wide and made of silver, white gold, or something similar. I knew the item was magicked, or Katerina would have put someone else on the job. But the file didn’t say whether it was human magic or Fae magic, and it contained no info about what the cuff was for.
Under location there was an address for where the stolen item was located. My brows lifted when I saw it wasn’t local. I’d have to go to Seattle, and the file included sigils for a Faerie doorway that would get me in the vicinity of my target. Ah, yet another reason to put me on this particular job. It saved Volkov Retrieval quite a bit of money in travel to have me take Faerie doorways rather than fly me around like they had to do with their non-Fae retrievers—not to mention the time the doorways saved. I would have an allowance for a car rental or hired rides. Considering the time of night I’d be working, I would probably end up opting to hire rides. Renting a car was a hassle and wasted too much time, anyway.
A photo of the house at the address given revealed a sleek, very expensive-looking condo. I pulled up the address on my phone and found it was located on the water in Seattle’s Eastlake district. Nice places often meant good security systems. This one would be a challenge. That was okay. I was up for it.
The kids started arriving home not long after I finished lunch, and from then on I was absorbed in more boxes, afternoon snacks, helping with homework, and getting dinner ready.
After the dinner things were put away and the kitchen clean, we got the younger kids settled in bed. Dom and Sasha were zoned out in front of the TV with their phones in their faces. I went to my room to get my belt loaded up for the job. Checking all the shurikens and throwing knives, I filled in the gaps. I also grabbed a couple of spell capsules that would help if I got in a jam.
I said goodbye to Mom and Fel and went out to my car. Driving it to the doorway under the freeway felt strange. When I’d stood on the front porch with a wad of cash in my hand while the shifter guy drove the Rover away, I never dreamed I’d ever sit in the comfy, worn leather seat again. Things had a funny way of working out.
I parked and set the alarm, and then I walked over to the concrete pillar with the Faerie doorway etched into it.
Just as I was ready to shut off my phone and begin the ritual that would take me through to the netherwhere, an incoming message buzzed. I looked at the screen. Text from an unknown number.
Greetings, Firefly. Go to the Fox and Crow in the Spriggan kingdom Friday at seven in the evening. A messenger raven will have a note for you there.
Firefly. My heart skipped a beat. The message was from O’Malley. I licked my dry lips, not sure whether to be excited or scared.
I typed out a message to Judah.
Ready to hunt? This Friday evening.
I knew I should get going, but I couldn’t resist waiting to see if he’d respond. I was ready to give up and go through the doorway when a new message popped up.
I’m in, Rainbow.
I grinned and powered off my phone, tucked the device in my pocket, and turned to the doorway.
Time to get to work.
Look for Echo of Bone,
the next book in the
Tara Knightley Series by Jayne Faith!
Go back to when it all began . . .
Oath of Blood, the Tara Knightley prequel, is now available!
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Books by Jayne Faith
Ella Grey Series (complete)
urban fantasy
Stone Cold Magic
Dark Harvest Magic
Demon Born Magic
Blood Storm Magic
Tara Knightley Series
urban fantasy
Oath of Blood (prequel)
Edge of Magic
Echo of Bone
more to come
Stone Blood Series (complete)
urban fantasy
Blood of
Stone
Stone Blood Legacy
Rise of the Stone Court
Reign of the Stone Queen
War of the Fae Gods
Sapient Salvation Series (complete)
dystopian sci-fi romance
The Selection
The Awakening
The Divining
The Claiming