by Elle Adams
“It didn’t look like you had much of a choice in the matter,” I said. “Has anyone figured out who our new guest is, or how he ended up in that state?”
“Some other witches and wizards went undercover to the street where he showed up to see if they could find any witnesses,” she said. “We have to work within our own laws, and when someone creates a scene like that, it’s hard to avoid side effects.”
“Namely, freaking out my foster parents,” I said.
“Were they okay?” asked Alissa.
“Yeah, for a wonder,” I said. “Aside from my cat inviting himself along, today actually went pretty well. My meeting with the fairies, on the other hand, was a total disaster.”
She arched a brow. “You met with the fairies?”
“I wanted to ask them a few questions, but Sky Hulked out and scared them off,” I said. “Now they’re probably warning everyone else at the market about the fairy-witch with the mad cat.”
“Maybe he thought he was protecting you,” said Alissa.
“They weren’t threatening me.” I shook my head. “They didn’t think they saw any normals at the market, either, but as they reminded me, nobody can tell the difference between a normal and a paranormal, if they both look human. Unless they have my ability, I guess, but what am I supposed to do, stand with the security team and spy on everyone who comes into the market?”
“You might not have to,” she said. “That street where the guy showed up? It was right down the road from where Thistle was drunkenly wandering around the other day.”
“Seriously?” I stared at her. “Have you asked him?”
“I would have, but there’s a slight problem,” she said. “He went missing this morning.”
9
“The elf is missing?” I said to Alissa.
Seriously? Where in the world had he disappeared to this time?
“It took me a while to find out, because I wasn’t on my shift when he escaped,” she said. “He wasn’t supposed to be discharged yet either. I assume he didn’t go far, but considering the timing…”
“What—you think he went straight to Sloan and got that guy drunk on goblin brew?” I said dubiously. “And then disappeared?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. So far, we haven’t been able to dredge up any witness accounts from people who saw him, but he’s been unaccounted for all day.”
Oh, no. Had he found his way to Sloan? It wouldn’t be the first time, after all. “He didn’t leave at the same time as Riff did?”
“Nope,” she said. “He’s supposed to have been in his ward, but the others were too busy dealing with other patients to realise he was gone until long after they’d taken Riff away. He can’t be supervised all the time, especially with people coming in and out needing care. There’s only so many of us staff on duty, and a lot of people booked the weekend off to go to the market. Having said that, I don’t know how he can have walked all that way without help.”
Hmm. He was the one link between the normals and the market, albeit a tenuous one. Still, his disappearance couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Maybe he went to see that witch who makes cocktails,” I said. “He’s always going on about her.”
“Who is she?” Alissa asked.
“She works at the Laughing Pixie,” I said. “Not sure if she’ll be there now, but she makes the cocktails he likes. Perhaps he stopped by her place after he left the hospital.”
“All right,” said Alissa. “We’ll head there. Our new visitor is sleeping right now, and we’re still trying to figure out who he is and where he came from. He’s not capable of giving us a coherent testimony at the moment. Oh, and we’re calling him Spud. That was Ava’s idea, not mine, but now it’s the only name he answers to.”
“All right.” I turned away from the hospital and Alissa and I made our way to the Laughing Pixie. My headache was on its way back, and the smell of booze soaking into the floor of the student pub didn’t help in the slightest. You’d think selling anything containing goblin fruit in here would be illegal, but then again, the other neon cocktails looked like a health hazard, too. Not to mention the floors.
Luck was with me for once, and Pix herself was working behind the bar. Her pink hair was tipped with purple today.
“Hey, Blair.” She looked at Alissa, her brow wrinkled. “You’re from the hospital, right? I remember seeing you carrying some of my customers out of here a couple of times.”
“I expect you did,” said Alissa. “I’m Alissa. We’re looking for a patient of mine who sneaked out of the hospital this morning, and he spent the whole time he was under our care raving about your cocktails. He’s been unaccounted for all day.”
“Who?” she asked. “Was he an elf, by any chance?”
“You’ve got it,” I said. “We’re worried he might do himself an injury. I mean, worse than he already did.”
“I’m afraid I haven’t seen him today.”
True. “When did you last see him, then?”
She hesitated. “Why do you want to know?”
Alissa’s eyes narrowed. “Have you been to the hospital recently?”
The witch’s shoulders slumped. “All right, so I may have smuggled him a drink or two in the hospital to cheer him up.”
“That’s why he took so long to get sober,” I said. “Now he’s running around with several broken bones, which would normally be his problem and not ours, but he may be a suspect in an ongoing investigation as well.”
“Investigation?” Her brows shot up. “What kind?”
“Two humans have been found under the effects of goblin brew,” I explained. “The second showed up in a normal town today and caused a scene. Given that it was the same town where Thistle himself almost exposed our world to the normals the other day, he’s wanted for questioning.”
“Whoa.” Her eyed rounded. “I didn’t know he’d shown magic to any normals.”
“He didn’t need to use magic. Just running around in public would have been enough to freak most people out.” I gave an eye-roll. “The two normals in this case, though… they were under the influence of some pretty strong hallucinations.”
“You didn’t give any of your drinks to other hospital patients?” asked Alissa.
“No, of course not,” she said. “I only visited Thistle because he specifically asked me to. I didn’t speak to anyone else.”
True. She hadn’t seen Riff, then. Not in the hospital, at least.
“Including any of the staff,” added Alissa. “What did you do, use an invisibility potion to get in? Or a diversion spell?”
“I swear, I wasn’t involved in his disappearance,” she said. “I bet he shows up here sooner or later, though. He always does.”
“Can you give us a call if he does?” I asked. “Tell him he’s wanted at the hospital.”
She nodded. “Of course I will.”
Alissa and I headed for the doors. I cast one last glance around the pub in case the elf was lurking in a corner somewhere, but if Pix had been truthful, she hadn’t seen him since before his escape.
Alissa let the pub door swing closed behind us. “Do you reckon she’s involved?”
“She’s not lying,” I said. “She also doesn’t sell goblin brew. If she did, this wouldn’t be the first time we’d have had this kind of trouble.”
“Doesn’t mean she didn’t buy some from the market anyway,” said Alissa. “I can’t believe she got in and out of the hospital without being seen. She must have used an illusion or a disguise spell. Seems an awful lot of trouble to go to for one elf.”
“It sounds like he’s responsible for half the pub’s business, though.” I thought of Argyle, the gardener witch. “Is Argyle Winthrop still in the hospital?”
“Argyle?” she echoed. “Nope. We fixed her arm and sent her home. She’ll be sleeping it off and avoiding the market until she recovers, if she has any sense.”
“She was drunk on goblin brew,” I said. “And she was o
ne of the first people from Fairy Falls to go to the market.”
“Uh, so were you, Blair,” she pointed out. “We’re going to need more clues if we’re to track down who’s manipulating normals, and I’d say we should deal with the elf first.”
With no other options at hand, we walked back to the market. For all I knew, Argyle Winthrop would be here, too. Like the elf, she didn’t seem to learn from her mistakes. Then again, judging by the growing crowd dancing in front of the band on the hillside, they weren’t the only ones. I didn’t see the elf among the frolicking dancers, and considering he should still be wearing a cast on his broken arm, he ought to be noticeable enough.
I scanned the crowd, my gaze snagging on the goblin brew stall. The goblins both broke into raucous laughter at the sight of me, banishing all hopes I might have had that they’d forgotten what a colossal fool I’d made of myself the previous night.
“Having fun?” one of them asked.
My face turned scarlet. “No thanks to your goblin brew. Why didn’t you tell me it would have such a strong effect on me?”
“It’s different for everyone,” he said. “Maybe you’re a lightweight.”
I ignored the jab. “Have you seen any elves today?”
“Those two?” He pointed at a stall staffed by two elves.
“An elf wearing a cast on his arm,” I elaborated. “He’s missing from the local hospital, and we think he may have wandered into the market. He has a habit of getting intoxicated.”
“He’s in good company.” The two of them burst into laughter again.
“Yes, but he’s also injured and is wanted back in the hospital,” said Alissa.
“We didn’t see an elf who fits that description, little witch,” said one of the goblins.
True.
“Then have you seen a human?” I asked. “Another normal showed up under the effects of goblin brew. That’s two this week.”
“They’ve finally found a sense of fun?” he said.
“It’s illegal,” Alissa said.
“You and your uppity witch coven can put your pointy hats back on,” he said. “We don’t sell to normals. Look for your lost elf elsewhere.”
So we did. We went from stall to stall, speaking to humans and goblins, elves and others, and yet nobody had a word to say about an elf wearing a cast.
“He didn’t take the cast off, did he?” I remarked to Alissa. “Because that would explain why they didn’t recognise him.”
“He shouldn’t have,” she said. “Unless he used a potion or spell to fix his broken arm, that is. We were waiting until he sobered up to ask if he wanted us to use magic to fix it, but I didn’t realise that he had someone smuggling him drinks in the hospital.”
We began another circuit of the market again. As we did so, Alissa’s steps went jerky, and when the band changed to a faster tune, she began to skip along with the beat.
“Not you, too.” I grabbed her arm and hauled her out of the market. I should have known her wilder streak would come out in close proximity to the merriment. In contrast, all I had was a screaming headache, and I had too much pride to ask the goblins where I might buy a cure. Knowing my luck, one of the fairies would trick me into taking a tonic that turned me into a mushroom or something.
Somehow, I managed to get both of us out of the market without either of us falling into the fairies’ trap.
“C’mon, we should head back into town,” I told her. “That’s enough revelry for me.”
“But what about the elf?” Alissa protested. “He might be dancing with the others.”
“If he is, then I expect he’ll be checking into the hospital again by tomorrow,” I said. “With another injury.”
Her expression cleared as the sounds of merriment drifted away. “I’d like to believe you’re wrong, but knowing his track record, you’re probably right. Let’s go home.”
We walked away from the market, towards the large expanse of the lake. Normally, merpeople and nereids swam in the shallows, but now the lake was partially frozen, its rippling surface undisturbed by movement. I’d heard the merpeople migrated to warmer places in the winter months, and I understood why. The freezing air bit at my exposed hands, while my headache continued to pound behind my eyes.
As I looked downhill, I spotted a small figure wandering around near the lake. I pointed him out to Alissa, and her lips pressed together. “Elves. I hope they’re not up to mischief.”
As we drew closer to the lake, another elf appeared in the shallows of the water to join his friend. They both walked along the path to the forest, singing to themselves. Neither of them was someone I recognised, but given the state of them, there was a high chance of them wandering onto the shifters’ territory by accident.
“Where are they going?” Alissa whispered.
“I can’t tell if they’re from the elf king’s people or not.” I walked closer to the singing elves and called out, “Excuse me?”
“Hello, fair one,” said one of the elves, nearly tripping over his own feet in the shallows. “Have you come to show us to the falls?”
“Are you one of the elf king’s people?” I asked. “Because if not, I don’t think he’ll take kindly to you wandering in his woods. Neither will the werewolves.”
They wouldn’t want me showing up without warning when I hadn’t figured out who’d bewitched those two humans yet, either. Especially when they believed the goblins were responsible and didn’t seem inclined to take responsibility for Thistle’s wild antics.
“And do the falls belong to anyone?” the elf enquired.
“The falls?” I echoed. “No, but if you want to go there, you might want to sober up first.”
The route to the waterfall was treacherous enough even when you weren’t inebriated, as I’d discovered when I’d had to use my levitating boots or wings to get down the hill without face-planting into the lake. Please say that’s not what Thistle did.
“Where did you come from?” Alissa interjected.
“That way.” The two elves both pointed in different directions, then burst into hysterical laughter.
Just what we needed. Two intoxicated elves who weren’t the one we were looking for.
The sound of someone clearing their throat came from the bushes, and two more elves stepped out on the path. One of them was Bramble, and the other was his friend Twig. I opened my mouth to ask if they knew the pair of newcomers, but a sudden flash of light ignited in Bramble’s hands.
Whoa. I backed up as the air went static with lightning, and the two elves fled along the lakeside, back towards the market.
Bramble and Twig regarded their flight with expressions of satisfaction on their faces.
“Was that really necessary?” I said. “I doubt they were coming here to threaten you or your king. They just got lost.”
“Market elves are nothing but trouble,” growled Bramble.
“Thought it was the goblins you didn’t like.” I folded my arms. “Speaking of trouble, have you seen Thistle? He sneaked out of the hospital and went missing somewhere.”
“That shameful excuse for an elf has not been seen in the forest,” Twig said. “Why do you want to speak to him?”
“Another human fell victim to the effects of goblin brew,” I explained. “One who wasn’t anywhere near Fairy Falls.”
“You said you would find the culprit,” said Twig. “You mean to say another human fell under the spell while you were watching?”
“It didn’t happen when I was watching,” I protested. “I was out visiting my foster parents in Sloan and had no idea until he showed up.”
“I hear you spent last night partying with the goblins instead,” Bramble growled. “Drinking their brew and acting the fool.”
Great. Even the local elves had heard the story. “I was trying to find out if anyone at the market had seen any normals, that’s all. I didn’t mean to get drunk.”
“The goblins are not trustworthy,” said Bramble. “They came here
for nothing but mischief.”
“I don’t disagree, but Thistle is just as bad,” I replied. “Can you let me know if you see him? I promise I’ll try to find out who bewitched those normals.”
“Do not delay any longer, Blair Wilkes.” Bramble disappeared into the bushes without another word. His companion followed an instant later.
Only then did I remember that I’d intended to talk to them about my dad—not that there was much chance that the elf king would share another helpful word with me if he’d heard the story of my misadventures at the market last night.
“Are they always that abrupt?” Alissa scanned the bushes for any more wandering elves. “We’d better go before they come back and chase us off.”
“Nah, they won’t,” I said. “It’s the market folk they don’t like, and I’ve just proved their point. I don’t know why I believed a word those goblins said.”
All the same, I remained convinced that someone outside the market had bewitched those two normals, with or without goblin brew. As far as my lie-sensing power could work out, none of the people I’d questioned had set eyes on a normal inside the market.
Alissa checked her phone. “Sounds like our new arrival is awake. Want to see if we can get any sense out of him?”
“All right,” I said. “It’s worth a shot.”
We walked away from the lake, towards the high street and into the town once more. There weren’t as many people wandering around the streets as there normally would have been, and even Charms & Caffeine looked unusually empty despite its invitingly warm atmosphere. Everyone seemed to be at the market instead.
Since my headache was back, I went to get another hangover cure on the way to the hospital.
“Hey, Blair,” said Layla. “Same again?”
“Make it a double, and you can keep the change.” Layla’s business was probably suffering due to the market being here, so it was the least I could do.
As I turned away from the counter, my gaze fell on the only customer inside the cafe. Thistle the elf sat at a table under the window, nursing a mug of coffee. You’ve got to be kidding me.