by E. A. Copen
Mara’s place had the strongest wards of any place I’d encountered in all of Paint Rock. That was on purpose. As a medium, Mara was particularly vulnerable to drawing spirits to her. It was natural and instinctive, especially if she was asleep. Her abilities meant constantly having to be on guard. I taught her the basics of how to defend herself, mind and body, from further possession by spirits, everything from mental blocks to protective symbols. Mara went as far as to have some of them tattooed on her body. As long as those symbols were in place, no spirit could enter her body and control her mind. The same was true of the wards that protected her home. A home is a sanctuary. Mara deserved to have one place to retreat to, and she and I had worked together to put up the best wards both of us could manage.
And now they were gone. Not broken, destroyed or otherwise wrecked, just gone.
I gripped the doorknob and tried it. Locked.
Why would she take down the wards? “Mara?” I called, knocking. “Mara, are you home?”
No answer.
I had a decision to make. I could break down the door, barge in, and try to figure out what happened to Mara. There were definite signs something was off, but nothing concrete pointed to anything other than perhaps a series of bad decisions and oversleeping. Without any sign of a struggle or imminent danger, I couldn’t legally break in. With Abe skulking around and being a hardass, I didn’t know if I wanted that kind of heat, especially if Mara was just passed out and hungover.
But if Mara was really in trouble, I’d never forgive myself for just walking away.
There has to be an easier way, an unlocked window or something. With this thought in mind, I went around the side of the building and tried to peer into the dark apartment through closed blinds. I couldn’t see a damn thing, and all the windows were locked. I worked my way around the side of the house and came to the back door. It was locked, too, the deadbolt secure, but at least my breaking and entering wouldn’t be visible from the road.
Lock-picking is hard and requires special tools. Also, I didn’t know how to do it. But I did know how to use magick to physically enhance myself. I closed my eyes and felt for the swirl of magickal energies present in my aura, drawing some of it into the muscles of my arms, back, and shoulders. The muscles burned a little and pulsated with the sudden extra energy. Then, I gripped the doorknob, careful not to put too much pressure on it, and gave it a hard yank. The metal knob tore through the wood, leaving a gaping hole behind. After that, it was just a matter of reaching up and feeling around to unlock the deadbolt.
The door groaned as I pushed it open and stepped inside a dark kitchen. As soon as I passed the threshold, the temperature plunged forty degrees. My breath came out in thin, puffy wisps of cloud. Frost crawled up the windows on the inside. A pipe under the sink had burst, flooding the kitchen before the gushing water froze solid. A layer of ice covered the floor. I progressed with caution, trying to control the chattering of my teeth, and stopped two feet in when I realized the flooding and freezing weren’t the worst of it.
The place had been ransacked. The kitchen table and chairs were overturned. Shattered glass was embedded in some of the ice along with bits of drywall. When I scanned the wall, I found a giant, spiky club sized hole a foot or so above my head, too high to have hit Mara. She was only a few inches taller than me. Streaks of red lined the walls and the floors, though, and a bloody handprint sat on the wall next to the door inside of a triple circle.
“There goes the deposit,” I muttered.
Expecting trouble, I pulled the gun from my waist, flipped off the safety, gripped it tight and pointed it at the floor. Every step I took forward was carefully planned so as not to disturb the scene or alert any potential intruders I was there. Anyone in the apartment had heard me break in, but they didn’t need to know I was creeping through the apartment, back straight, body low, mind on high alert.
I stepped past the overturned table and ventured onto soggy carpet. An efficiency apartment, I could see most of the place almost as soon as I stepped in. It was tossed, but not in a way that said someone had been looking for something. Overturned and broken furniture, as well as the hasty ward-breaking spell on the wall, told me this had been a fight and not a search. Someone unexpected had come in and Mara had stood her ground. Judging by the cold, the blood, and the holes in the wall, it looked like the giant had been here, too. I shivered, and not just because I was cold.
Why had the giant been here, though? Sven had said it was Crux, not the giant, who had Mara.
I went to the dresser, which had been smashed from the top down, and searched it with no idea of what I was looking for. Mara was gone. God, I hoped she was alive. If she was involved in Harry’s porn movie, that was one thing, but she sure as shit didn’t deserve to die.
When I’d gone through the dresser and come up empty-handed, I turned to the bed. The headboard had been smashed. The blankets and sheets were on the floor beside it. The nightstand was overturned, the drawer falling out, revealing an array of personal lubricants, vibrators…and Mara’s cell.
I grabbed the phone, thinking I could check it for clues. Silly me. I forgot about the security lock. I pocketed it, thinking I’d call Ed to help. Then I paused. Did he know what she was doing? If he didn’t and I told him, would it crush him?
My eyes stopped on a framed picture on the shelf. It was of her and Ed, hugging, Ed flashing a peace sign while Mara stuck out her tongue. Both of them looked so happy… Surely, he didn’t know about this. If he did, he would have stopped her. How would he react if my gut was right and Mara was in trouble? How could I enlist his help without telling him?
And what if Mara was dead?
I felt sick. After all the hell I had already put Ed through, to have to tell him Mara was not only missing but possibly dead—or worse, undead—thanks to some kind of ice giant…Was it my fault? Had the giant targeted her because of me? It was the only thing that made sense unless I was missing something else.
A sound in the little alcove next to the bathroom made me jerk my head up. I immediately went on high alert and raised my gun, pointing it at the source of the sound. When I saw who was crouched there, I almost squeezed the trigger on principal alone.
There, squatting in the alcove with his back to me, lifting a lavender candle to his nose and giving it a sniff, was Creven. I thought about firing a warning shot next to his head and then decided against it. The neighbors would call the cops if they hadn’t already. I didn’t know how to explain the situation to them without getting Mara into trouble.
So, I just cleared my throat. Creven made a choking sound and then slowly turned, a big grin plastered on his face.
“Tell me you didn’t have anything to do with this,” I said.
“Actually,” he said, standing and then wincing as he grabbed at his gut, “no. Not this time, anyway, although I did come for the girl.”
I hopped over the bed and charged Creven, landing on him with my forearm across his throat, pointing the gun at his stomach. “Did Kim send you?”
“It’s not what you think,” choked the elf, his voice strained. “I came to protect her. She’s in danger…”
I pulled my gun away and lessened the force I was applying to his throat. “Who took her? Was it the giant?”
“No,” he said, struggling against my grip. “It was Crux. I was listening in. Heard him talking to someone, someone who wants her. Crux thinks she’s behind the murders. They were arguing about an exchange.”
I released him and took a step back. Creven rubbed the red spot on his skinny little neck. “What kind of exchange? Who was Crux talking to?”
“I don’t know for sure.”
“Then give me your best guess.”
The elf paced past me and retrieved his staff from inside the bathroom, leaning on it as he looked at the holes in the wall, the blood, and the broken furniture. “It’s the reason they’re comin’ here,” he said quietly. “All the low fae. They’re like beetles before a fores
t fire, fleeing while they still can.” He turned around, lifted his staff and planted it against a patch of ice on the floor. The ice cracked and groaned. “War is comin’ and one person’s driving it.”
“You’re talking about the instability in Faerie,” I said and then shook my head. “But what does Mara have to do with that? And why would that bring one of the giants here?”
Creven was quiet for a moment, examining a dent in the wall. “I heard the old werewolf describing the division in Faerie to you. You know the giants are unbound, free to support whoever they want.” He frowned, looked around, and righted and overturned a chair to sit in. “I didn’t say anything before, being too busy dying and all, but I think your ice giant is an agent of the Unseelie.”
“What makes you think that?”
“The magick for one. Unseelie magick has a particular feeling. Dark, slippery, as enticing as a cool night on the eve of summer. The giant wore it draped over him like a shroud. It’s the reason he reacted so strongly to the magick I was throwin’ at him.”
“You’re Seelie fae?” I asked. This was getting complicated. Pretty soon, I was going to lose track of who sided with whom, and I wasn’t even involved in whatever was going on in Faerie.
But Creven shook his head. “Like repels like, lass. I know the source of his power intimately, so I was able to subvert it.”
I swallowed. “You’re Unseelie.”
“I’m neither,” Creven answered quickly, his eyes shifting so he could stare beyond me and into some dark memory. “Not anymore. It’s why I came here. America’s the land of second chances, right?”
The elf cracked a smile, but it did nothing to settle the uneasiness in my stomach. Like Chanter had said, magick isn’t either good or bad, and that was primarily what divided the two fae courts. There could be good Unseelie, I told myself, but it also meant Creven could do a hell of a lot more than throw up barriers and defensive spells. He had Unseelie magick at his disposal.
“If you’re Unseelie, or were, why—”
He cut me off, swiping his staff. “I don’t play with that magick anymore. I’m reformed. As I said, I don’t have a side. But your friend, Mara, it doesn’t mean she’s undecided.”
“Mara’s not fae,” I said, shaking my head.
“Mara’s a Speaker, able to speak to the dead. D’ya know how valuable she’d be to the Unseelie? There’s those among them that can control the dead, lass, and would raise an army of them. An Unseelie agent could come here looking for her. She’s a weapon. If this is who I think it is, he would pay any price, strike any bargain to get his hands on her. Anything that increases his power. Mara would do that if she’s a Speaker.”
“Humans can’t go to Faerie.”
“Aye, but they can. It’s just your kind’s not welcome there, not unless you can be useful. And I’m under orders to look into any allies they are gathering here, which is what brought me here. I think your case and mine have unintentionally collided.” He shifted forward, resting the staff across his lap.
I narrowed my eyes. “Under orders? From who? Kim?”
Creven batted the question away with his staff and changed the subject. “I’ve seen these undead things before, the ones with the black veins under their skin. That’s Unseelie Magick. Necromancy.”
“Where?” I asked. “Where have you seen it before? Who can do this?”
Creven turned his gaze to a particularly big, crumbling hole in the drywall. “The fae I’m hunting can do it,” he said quietly. “But he wouldn’t hurt Mara. She’d be of no use to him dead.” He lifted something small, pointed, bloody, and white.
“What the hell is that?”
“Half a vampire fang,” Creven announced. “There’s some connection between the Unseelie magick the giant’s wielding and the vampire, Crux. What I can’t see is how the two of them are related. The necromancer I’m hunting may be the one trying to strike a deal with Crux. But Crux thinks Mara’s responsible for Harry’s death.”
“You don’t think she is?”
Creven shrugged. “Can’t say I care. But I do know Mara’s not the one who opened the door for the giant. She doesn’t have the right power. Besides, judging by the fight, I’d guess the giant was actually opposing Crux.” He pointed to the bloody smear on the wall I’d first noticed when I came in. “That’s too high to have been aimed at your friend, but it stands just about right to have been tossed at Crux. Crux is also the only link I still see between Harry and Kim.”
“If Crux is trying to make a deal with the necromancer using Mara as collateral and the giant is on the same side as the necromancer, why would it attack Crux?”
“Don’t know. Neither do any of my sources. I already asked.”
I narrowed my eyes and flipped the safety back on my gun, sliding it back into its holster. “Which reminds me, who is your employer? And don’t say Kim. I know she’s not in on this.”
Creven pulled his lips into a tight, thin line.
I wanted to push him further, to make him tell me, but it wasn’t an immediate concern. Finding and saving Mara was.
“If Crux took Mara, where would he keep her?”
Creven shrugged. “Hard to say. But, by the looks of things, the giant objected to her being taken. That symbol on the wall in blood? Mara disabled the wards. She let it in.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Why would she do that?”
“I don’t know, lass. I don’t have all the pieces. I do know he’ll take another turn at Kim, you can be sure of that. Giants are honor-bound to keep their word, and he swore he’d kill her. He won’t just quit.”
“Maybe there’s something on this that will help,” I said, pulling out Mara’s phone. “Something that would at least tell me why she was so desperate for money that she’d rather be a stripper than ask for a loan.”
I started typing in numbers, trying to guess the passcode. Creven watched me with mild interest. “Your friend, Mara, how old is she?”
“Nineteen. Why?”
“No parents to speak of?”
“They’re dead.” I glanced up from the phone. “Why?”
Creven shrugged. “Just a thought. I remember being a young lad, striking out on my own for the first time. Me da… Let’s just say he didn’t want to let me go. The more he pushed me to stick around and stay in contact, the more I wanted my independence. I thought I could do it all on my own and I would have done anything to prove it. Could be this is the same. Pride might have driven her to earn the money instead of askin’ for a loan.”
I turned back to the phone. The fact she needed money wasn’t the only thing Mara had kept from me. She hadn’t told me about Ed. I’d been pushing Mara so hard I’d gotten too involved. I did everything for her or with her, from taking her grocery shopping to helping her with her laundry. She’d been through so much; I just didn’t want her to ever feel like she was alone again. I couldn’t believe she’d hidden so much from me. It was like she had a whole second life, one that didn’t even include me. Like with Hunter, it had been time to let her go a long time ago. But I’d been so worried about fixing her, I forgot to let her go.
I pocketed the phone. “You’re right. This giant may be protecting Mara,” I said. “But I still can’t see the link between him and Harry and Kim’s deal. And this necromancer you’re talking about, I need to find him, bring him in, see how he’s involved.”
“You’d sooner catch the wind,” said Creven, shaking his head. “If all the knights in the Faerie Queen’s court couldn’t bring him down, what are you going to do? No, lass, he’s beyond us. He’s already raising an army. Why do you think everyone’s fleeing here? They don’t want to be in Faerie when he deposes the queen and fashions the place how he likes.”
“If he’s unbeatable, why are you looking into him?”
“I didn’t say he was unbeatable, lass. I said he was beyond us.”
“Can you at least give me a name, Creven?”
Creven stood, cringing as he unfolded himsel
f completely. “There’s power in names. You of all people should know that. Speaking his name could draw his attention. He’s got eyes and ears everywhere. You sure that’s what you want?”
“You’re going to tell me sooner or later.”
“Let’s make it later, lass. For now, you’ll need to find a way to draw Crux out and stop this giant before he goes on another killing spree. If you’re lucky, one of them will lead you back to Mara.”
How am I supposed to do that? I thought. And then it came to me in a flash of realization. I had everything I needed to get the giant to show up. Kim wasn’t going to like my plan, and neither was Abe, but I really needed the extra set of hands. When it had been just me and Creven against the giant, we hadn’t fared so well. Abe’s shotgun and bad attitude could tip the scales in our favor.
“Creven, I’ve got a plan.”
“Oh?” His eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“But I need your help. And Kim’s.”
I told him about my plan.
Afterward, the elf shook his head and mused, “She’s not going to like that. I don’t like it.”
“But will it work?”
He tapped a long, lean finger against his chin. “What I know of giants could fit in a teacup, lass. It’s stories. But I do know some things about Crux and this necromancer. I know he’s taking from Faerie with one hand and giving with the other. The necromancer is not going to be pleased if he finds out. He may be a heartless bastard of the highest order, but he won’t stand by while Crux abuses his access to fae magick, taking fae and draining them of their lifeblood for profit.”
“How displeased do you think he’ll be?”
“Displeased enough to perhaps make an appearance,” answered Creven with a shrug. “Especially if seeds were planted to make him appear weak to the Seelie court. He’d have to move or else risk damage to his reputation.”
“Can you make that happen?” I asked.
“Dangerous…But yes.”
“Get your end set up,” I told him. “We’ll meet at Aisling later tonight. Seven-thirty. Don’t be late.”