by Erin Johnson
I splayed my palms. “I don’t have any papers.”
The woman stared me down, her eyes hard. She jerked her chin toward the crowded deck behind me. “Then go give your statement, get your clearance papers, and come back.” She looked around me. “Next.”
I blocked the couple behind me from advancing by darting in front of them. “Here’s the thing….” I racked my brain. “I had them, but they blew out of my hand, overboard, and I’ve got a kid at home with a babysitter who can’t stay any longer and if I don’t get back in the next—”
The lady cop gave me a flat look and barked. “Next!”
I shot her one back. “Good talk.”
“Jolene!”
My shoulders hiked at Peter’s voice. Oh sea goddess, no. I kept my back to him and flashed my eyes at the lady cop. “Please.”
“Oh, well, since you asked nicely….” She waved a hand toward the gangplank, and I gasped.
“Really?” I hiked up my skirts, ready to make a break for it, but she scowled at me.
“No!”
“Jolene! I’ve been looking all over for you.”
Peter’s voice came from right behind me. Daisy’s panting sounded nearly as loud as my heartbeat. Maybe I could just keep my back to him?
I cleared my throat, and my voice came out squeaky. “Oh… really?”
Daisy let out a low growl. Liar. Where have you been?
I grimaced. “What? Nowhere.” I chanced a quick glance over my shoulder and found Peter frowning in confusion.
“Who were you talking to?”
I pressed my eyes shut tight. Urg. Rookie mistake—you don’t answer the animals out loud! The potions and the stress had made me sloppy.
“Jo—Jolene?”
Zale’s voice. It was official. I wanted to die. I peeled an eye open and slowly, slowly turned around.
The lady cop waved the next couple in line forward and the line moved up, brining Zale and Eve closer to me. Peter and Daisy looked between them and me. Zale’s thick brows pulled together, concern and confusion playing across his features. Eve, subtle as ever, stood with her mouth hanging open, aghast.
“Jolene.” Zale said it again, certain this time. “It is you. What—” He shook himself, dark eyes glued to my face. “What are you doing here?”
For the briefest of moments, I considered making up an elaborate story about how I was actually Jolene’s long-lost twin sister… who was also named Jolene. But then I remembered that Daisy would call me out—as if anyone else would believe that.
I opened my mouth to explain I was working as a police consultant now, when Eve cut me off. “Yes.” Her hard eyes narrowed as she gawked at me. “What in the shell are you doing here?” She slid up closer to Zale’s side, her arm looped through his.
He glanced over at her, and his neck reddened before he turned his quizzical gaze back to me.
Peter turned to me, brow pinched. “You… know each other?”
I shot him a simpering smile. “No.”
Daisy growled, and I longed to toss a toy overboard and yell “fetch!”
“I mean….” I turned toward Zale and Eve, searching for the right words. “We used to… a long time ago.” I plastered on a broad smile. “It was so lovely to see you both.”
Daisy barked. Big lie!
I spun to face Peter, ignoring the German shepherd, and raised a fist to my mouth, pretending to yawn. “Peter, I’m beat. You and I both know I didn’t kill anyone, so can you clear me so I can go home?” I raised my brows expectantly at him and bounced on my heels.
He stared at me, no doubt dumbstruck by my abrupt demand and the obvious weirdness between Zale, Eve, and me. “But we still have people to question and—”
I pressed my lips tight together and shot him a pleading look. “Please,” I ground out.
His throat bobbed. He stared at me, eyes glassy and suddenly far away. He licked his lips and looked down at his feet. “Sure.” He nodded. “Of course.” His voice came out tight and gruff. He looked up at the lady cop. “She’s cleared and can go.”
The woman’s eyes darted to me briefly. She jerked her head toward the gangway, then turned back to examining the scroll in her hand.
I gasped in a shaky breath and mouthed “thank you” to Peter. He gave me a grim nod in return before watching Eve and Zale for a long moment. He slunk off toward the rest of the crowd on deck with his shoulders hunched.
Daisy glared at me and flattened her pointy ears. She growled and the partygoers near her edged away. You hurt my Peter. She turned and padded after him.
Well… I felt like a real bottom feeder. I let out a heavy sigh, then lifted my eyes to find Zale’s on my face. He opened his mouth, but I spun quickly away and dashed past the lady cop and down the gangplank.
Whatever he had to say, I certainly didn’t want to hear it. Now… or ever. He’d betrayed me, and so had Eve. My heels thudded down the wooden planks. I’d been a fool to think this night could’ve ended any other way… though I certainly couldn’t have predicted the whole drowning thing.
HALF AN HOUR LATER, I dragged myself down my street with its thumping bass beats from clubs, food carts billowing steam, and drunken revelers staggering down the street. I fished a big iron key out of the pocket of my dress and unlocked the graffiti-covered metal door to the flight of stairs that led up to my apartment. I looked up and pressed a palm against the door to shove it open but froze.
There, at eye level, was the mark of the shifter underground, magically carved into my door. My breath caught.
The mark looked like a slightly askew lowercase t, the cross slanting up and to the right. An old rune the shifter underground had co-opted. I’d never seen it personally, but all shifters knew what it meant and feared it—a summons to go see Ludolf Caterwaul himself.
I let out a heavy sigh and leaned forward, thunking my forehead against the cold metal. Just when I thought this crabby night couldn’t get any snaking worse.
14
THE UNDERGROUND
I stood beside the grated sewer drain and whistled. Then cawed like a crow and finished it off with a, “The salamander swims at moonrise,” just for good measure. I’d never been to the secret Shifter Underground headquarters before, which was literally underground, but all shifters knew the entrance. The main one at least. I suspected Ludolf had inlets and outlets hidden all over the city.
I kicked the toe of my boot against a brown glass bottle, which sent it tinkling over the rocks, and sighed loudly. “I don’t have all night, you know.” My old boots, to be clear. No way was I about to go traipsing around the sewers in the new ones I’d bought with my police consulting money.
I’d changed back into my worn jeans and favorite band tee before dragging myself down to the seediest part of the docks to answer Ludolf’s summons. I had no idea if someone was going to meet me or what the secret password was or how this all worked.
I huffed. As much as I was annoyed with all the dramatics of carving a rune on my front door (which I was so sure my landlady, “the dragon,” would be thrilled about) and making me answer a mysterious summons, I couldn’t quell the nerves that made me want to bolt from the island and never look back.
Then again, where would I go? I needed a special permit to go to the human lands, and if I went illegally, I’d be even more of an outcast for the rest of my life.
I groaned and leaned forward, trying to peek around the side of the tunnel and through the grate without stepping into the trickle of putrid sludge that poured from it. Was anyone even on the other side?
“Fine.” I shrugged and tried to make my bluff sound convincing. “I’ll just go home then.”
But that was the thing. I couldn’t. You didn’t ignore a summons from Ludolf Caterwaul. Anyone who did disappeared.
A rat—no, I blinked—a ferret scuttled out of the grate and peeked up at me with dark, beady eyes.
I gave it a flat look. “Hey, Victor.” I wiggled my fingers in a wave.
A moment later, it
spun around and scampered back into the tunnel, squeaking, and then the grate swung outward with a groan. I gripped the stone side of the tunnel and leapt over the sludge river—only to land in more of it with a little splash.
“A little light, fellas?”
Shadowy figures stood inside the dark tunnel, their features completely hidden, but I knew who to expect, even before torches magically burst into flames in their hands.
I blinked a few times, as circles danced behind my eyelids, to clear my vision and adjust to the sudden brightness.
“Hi, Jolene,” Sacha grunted. The enormous brute of a man stood with his bald head slightly dipped, due to the relative lowness of the tunnel.
I nodded in greeting back. Sacha was always the politest of the bunch.
Neo, who’d grown up in the orphanage with me and was a few years younger, passed his torch to his right hand and used his left to fix a strand of hair that’d fallen loose of his perfectly coifed ’do. Shaved on the sides and slicked back on top, his black hair gleamed in the flickering orange torchlight. He worked a toothpick between his lips.
“A summons?” He rolled the toothpick to the corner of his mouth and clicked his tongue. “Not good, Jolene.”
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, Captain Obvious.”
In a flash of green magic, Victor transformed from a ferret back into his wiry, tattooed human form. He grinned manically at me, his gold teeth glinting in the firelight. He let out a high-pitched cackle. “Ludolf’s got ya tail! Yers in trouble now!” He clutched his skinny middle and devolved into giggles.
I lifted my palms. “Really? I thought I’d been called down here to receive a lifetime achievement award.” My tone dripped with sarcasm.
“Oh, no.” Sacha’s heavy brows drew up and together, his face full of concern. “No, Jolene.” He always spoke in such a low, slow voice. “You’re in trouble.”
I pressed my eyes shut tight for a moment before answering the well-meaning block of a man. “I know, Sacha. I know.” Still, my stomach twisted at hearing someone else speak the lame truth out loud.
Neo, who’d been leaning against the wall, one knee bent, pushed off it and started down the tunnel. “Let’s go. He’s waiting.”
Goose bumps prickled my arms. “Goody.”
Skipping, Victor led the way, though he held no torch, just plunging ahead into the darkness. I followed behind Neo, and Sacha fell into step behind me. I sighed. As if I was going to make a break for it. I’d shown up hadn’t I?
The bottom of the tunnel was also round, the stone bricks on the sides dry, but the center part a few inches deep with foamy, dark water. A few rats and cockroaches scurried along the outskirts, chirping about the best garbage patch and arguing over whose turn it was to guard the eggs.
Our footsteps splashed and sloshed as we moved further on. I rubbed my arms, goose bumps prickling them with a mix of nerves and cold. Though it was late summer, the underground tunnel grew chillier the further on we went. The torchlight cast our shadows along the curved walls and gleamed off bits of metal debris and shards of glass.
I glanced right and left as we passed round openings that led to other stone passageways. How extensive was this labyrinth? I gulped. And would I make it out alive to tell Heidi and Will about it?
“Stick to the main tunnel.”
I glanced behind me at Sacha. He raised his brows. “For your safety.”
I sniffed and faced forward again. My safety, huh? Were there giant alligators down here or something?
Clank!
I jumped at the loud sound and glanced up. A round sewer grate emblazoned with the wave and trident symbol of the Water Kingdom rattled overhead. Footsteps and voices sounded, and the dinging of a bell. We were passing under a busy street—which one?
Were we near my home? I thought of my little corner of the Darkmoon District that I’d always thought of as one of the seediest parts of Bijou Mer. I looked around me at the stone tunnel. My shabby apartment was seeming pretty spiffy right about now.
We walked on for what seemed like hours. Now and then voices sounded, faintly, from down the tunnels but we saw no one. I was almost grateful when my dread began to turn to annoyance.
Arms folded, I called up to Neo. “So… ol’ Ludolf really likes to build the suspense, huh?”
From up a ways, he stopped and held still, but didn’t answer.
I trudged forward, my feet splashing through the sludge. I curled my lip at the splattered hem of my jeans. Great. Now I’d have to do laundry. I scrunched my nose. The water reeked of well, sewage. More likely I’d have to burn these pants to get them clean.
I glanced up at the curiously frozen Neo. “I mean… are we ever actually going to see him or is this just your cute way of taking me on an underground tour of the city?”
“Shh!” Without turning around, he shot his hand up for me to stop.
Behind me, Sacha’s footsteps halted.
I paused too but frowned. Snakes. Could a girl not even make a joke around here anymore?
Somewhere, a water leak drip drip dropped into the stream at our feet. I frowned as I became aware of another noise—a quiet rushing. Then frantic footsteps.
Victor, who’d disappeared around the next bend, sprinted back toward us, his skinny, tattooed arms pumping. “Tide’s early!”
Neo, wide-eyed, whirled around and addressed Sacha behind me. “Where’s the last side tunnel?”
Sacha jogged a few paces back, craned his head, then shook it at Neo. “Not for a while. Well, except for the chute.”
“Snakes!” Neo gritted his teeth.
The roaring grew louder, and my breath quickened. “Uh—what’s going on, guys?”
A line of rats sprinted past, hugging close to the curved wall and heading back the way we’d come.
“Squeak!” Run!
Neo pointed behind me. “We took a shortcut, and the tide’s come in earlier than expected. Go! Hug close to the wall and try and find a handhold.”
“A what?!” I scoffed and threw an arm toward the rounded wall. “It’s curved!”
But since he and Victor were already sprinting my way, I turned and ran too. Neo soon caught up with me and we ran, side by side, the rats outdistancing us.
“A shortcut?” I huffed, arms pumping and feet sloshing through the waste water. “Nice.” I scowled at him.
He glared back at me. “Like you know anything about the world down here.”
The roaring grew louder, and he paled, his expression stricken. “Hold on tight—don’t let go.”
He threw himself against the wall, as did Victor.
I stopped and threw my arms up. “To what?!”
A wall of water rushed around the bend and headed straight for me. Oh, shell.
A heavy hand clamped around my shoulder and yanked me backward. My back and head slammed against the stone bricks as Sacha threw a beefy arm across my collarbone and pressed me back against the wall.
“Bubble spells!” Neo gasped.
Several flashes of light followed, green, blue, and red, as the men cast the spells encasing their heads in bubbles that would allow them to breathe underwater. Using magic—which I didn’t have.
The wall of water burst through the tunnel and slammed into us. The torches extinguished, thrusting me into pitch blackness. Sacha’s arm kept me pinned to the wall as the ice-cold water rushed over my head and past. My chest burned as I held my breath and squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to imagine what was in this sewer water.
My fingers and toes went numb with cold, and soon I began to tremble. I didn’t know if it was the cold or the fact that I was nearly out of air, but I began to shake. Sacha pressed me harder against the wall, but I began to slide down as my legs buckled and my head lolled.
I opened my eyes—which probably meant pink eye for life if I survived this—and glanced left at Sacha. A faintly glowing red bubble encased his head, and his shadowed features moved—he was trying to talk to me, but his voice came out all muffled.
I frowned. He seemed agitated. Darkness crept into the edges of my vision, and I went limp.
15
LUDOLF CATERWAUL
“She dead?”
I blinked rapidly, my vision blurry. A burst of bright orange heat stung my cheek, and I groaned. “I’m not dead.” My voice came out choked, and I rolled to my side and coughed up water. My hair hung in stringy clumps across my face, and I shivered with cold.
As the world came back into focus, I looked down at my hands and found that I couldn’t see them under the thick, black sludge that coated the bottom of the tunnel.
“Oh, snakes.” I coughed again and pushed myself to sitting. “This is disgusting!” I lifted my filthy palms and gawked at the guys.
Sacha slumped against the side of the tunnel next to a round opening, his barrel chest heaving. Victor skipped around the center of the tunnel, kicking up little splashes of filth and giggling.
“She’s not dead!”
Neo stood doubled over, his hands on his knees. All three were as soaked and covered in sewer filth as I was.
I sniffed and gagged. “It smells awful.” Like a mixture of sewage, rat droppings, and seaweed. I made a face at Neo, who looked up and glared at me. He shot an arm out and pointed at Sacha.
“Who gives a crab about the smell?!” The whites shone around his dark eyes. “If it weren’t for Sacha risking his life and diving after you down the tunnel, you’d have gone right into the chute!”
I glanced toward the opening next to Sacha. Darkness loomed beyond. I wasn’t sure what the “chute” was, but it didn’t sound good.
“Why didn’t you use magic?” Neo righted himself and jerkily drew a circle around his head. He raised his brows at me, agitated.
The truth was, I had no magic and couldn’t form a breathing bubble, but I didn’t love to go around sharing that tidbit with just anyone. In fact, Will and Heidi were the only people who knew the truth. I’d have been an instant target if anyone in the Darkmoon knew I had no magic with which to defend myself or my (few) possessions.