I was back in that darkness swirling with light and chaos. There was music,
haunting music everywhere, like the screams of the dying coalescing into song, a strange litany of macabre beauty that pricked at my ears and my heart.
I’d heard it once before. I was so sure of it yet not sure at all. It was as though I sensed what would come next in the aria, though I wasn’t sure how.
I felt something inside of my head slink and move, slither through me like a serpent—a memory of great and distressing darkness that was so far down deep I’d even forgotten it was there because until just now, it had been locked away in a vault I’d never even known existed inside of me.
The skies were gray above me and clapping with thunder. I stood not upon land but water, water that rushed in a torrential current, roaring as though it crashed over a steep cliff to the land below.
Why was I seeing this vision through my eyes? It was different from Hatter’s normal visions. I was only ever a spectator looking in, but this time, I was the active participant.
Looking down, I saw that my feet were in water. I should have been forced to shift because of the contact. Yet I was human, and I sensed that it wasn’t fear that kept me trapped in that form but that I actually could not shift. The heart in my chest was beating rapidly, far too rapidly.
“Hatter?” I called and heard the echo of my voice. It sounded odd, disjointed, as if I wasn’t really there in physical form but rather a spectral of that form. As if I were a… ghost.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I blinked and looked up, down, and around. I was all alone in the darkness. The roaring and singing grew louder.
Where was I?
The skies lit up with lightning and quaked with thunder. Dark, evil-looking black clouds rolled in. I needed to get away from there. I needed to find shelter, safety.
But there were only miles of pitching and angry waves and that ever-present roaring and song buzzing in my ears like angry hornets.
I walked left first, and the roaring began to grow faint. Something inside of me told me my only hope for safety was to walk not away but closer to the noise. So I stopped and turned and walked in the opposite direction, and each step I took made my heart bang in my chest, my skin prickle, my head ache. Then my heart began to stutter, and I clutched my chest. I was dying.
Wait, I was dying?
I looked down at myself with a frown and saw that I was coated in a netting of silver—a spell.
It was dark magick.
Shaking my head, I pressed on. My vision grew dark and full of spots. I was just barely clinging to consciousness. I could feel my body swaying like a drunkard with each step I took. But the roaring, it was so close.
So very, very close.
One more step.
Then…
I saw it. A doorway, in the water itself. It was open, and eternity beckoned to me.
I couldn’t go through that door. It might kill me. I would die if I did. I just knew it.
The singing was changing its tune. I could hear words… thready and just barely there, but if I held really still, I could hear it.
You must do it, Elle! You must trust us!
I blinked, thinking that maybe I’d recognized the voice but not exactly sure how. I shook my head, backing up a few steps, able to take easier breaths when I did.
Arielle, this is the escape. This is your way out, love. Jump! You must trust me, damn you. Jump!
A different voice, also familiar. Also not.
“No,” I muttered. “No. I’ll die. He’ll kill me. He’ll— ”
Trust. Us.
Then I felt myself being watched again. But this time, even the air seemed a malevolent presence. There was death waiting for me.
With a gasp, I looked up and saw a ghostly white specter, no face, no body, just a ball of glowing light, and I began to hyperventilate. My knees went weak. I dropped to the ground and kicked back on my heels as I desperately tried to scrabble away.
But the ball of light laughed, a terrible, wicked, and low laugh.
“You poor, unfortunate soul ,” it said in a voice that was deeply feminine, then it screamed.
With a gasp, I pulled away from Hatter’s arm. A soft glow still emanated from beneath his sleeve, but it was fading fast.
I was gasping, choking on air, looking at him and shaking my head, having a hard time severing myself from the vision we’d just shared, and still feeling trapped by that evil, knowing that soon I would die.
His hands gripped my shoulders, and I screamed, flailing at him to get off me, desperate to jump into my waters, to run away, feeling as though I’d been tainted somehow.
“What? What?” was the only word I could manage to say.
He was moving me, hefting me in his arms as I felt my skin begin to roll. The panic was shredding at my insides, raking at my innards with claws that eviscerated and bled me dry. I could almost smell that blood, thick and viscous and full of iron. There was a tang of it on my tongue.
I still felt her touch. That evil, it was spreading through me. It would never stop.
“Water, Elle. You need your water. Stop fighting me!” Hatter snapped in my ears, waking me up just a little.
Blinking, I finally took note of his face. He was clawed up, and there was blood dripping down my nails. I licked my mouth. There was blood on my tongue.
I shivered violently, suppressing the desperate urge to continue fighting him as he quickly undressed me.
“Go to your waters, Elle. Right now. Jump into your waters,” he said softly but firmly.
My back teeth chattered violently as I nodded and turned, moving on autopilot as I somehow swayed my way toward my waters. The first touch of its coolness against my flesh made me explode out of my skin.
My legs shifted instantly, the change so painful because of its brutal swiftness that I cried out, but I didn’t stop. I let my waters drag me in deep, then I flicked my tail and gained a powerful burst of speed. The instant I cut through the cool depths, I felt myself slowly begin to regain myself, felt that demonic entity release its grip on me.
What the hells had that vision been? Had that really been a vision of me? In trouble? His green eye had flared, which meant that was a future not yet seen.
I swallowed hard, trembling all over as I thought about my isolation, my fear, and the terror when I’d seen that… that thing that somehow I recognized even though I knew I’d never seen it before.
I swam for several more minutes, breathing in deeply through my gills, purifying my mind and purging myself of the remnants of those emotions. When I finally emerged topside, I flicked my tail and swam for shore. I’d gone several klicks out.
What had that been? What in the devil had I seen?
By the time I was halfway to shore, I felt lethargy start to creep up over me. That vision had wrung me dry. I’d burned through all of the adrenaline and was simply depleted and exhausted. The calming spell long worn off.
Then I spied light, bobbing, dancing, beautiful light, and I gasped.
“Godsdammit, the queen!” I hissed. How the twin hells had I forgotten why we’d come here in the first place?
Forcing my weariness to the back of my mind, I put on a great burst of speed. I could feel Titiana’s gaze burning a hole right through me as I jumped clear of the water, vibrating my tail so hard that I dried myself off instantly and reformed myself so that when I landed, I stood on my own two feet.
But changing so swiftly, so quickly, and with all that adrenaline I’d consumed too, I was dizzy. I swayed on my feet. Maddox was instantly by my side, grasping hold of my elbow to steady me.
Titiana had come with only a small contingent of her guardsmen. Only two, but I recognized them both. Cute and childlike, they looked, one with skin as dark as night and the other as golden as the day, both with eerie red eyes and holding onto no weapons—because they were the weapons.
The dark one was called Niht and the golden one Dae.
“Queen Titi
ana,” I said quickly, upset by the gravel in my voice.
She narrowed her eyes. The queen was robed in a gown of flowers and thorns. She sat in her bee-led chariot, staring haughtily at me.
“You requested my presence, and then you make me wait.” she hissed, “I should kill you where you stand.” Her teeny voice trembled with that promised violence.
“I meant no disrespect, Titiana,” I whispered, my throat feeling swollen, as if I’d swallowed a stone.
Maddox shook his head. “There are matters of most greatest urgency, fair queen of the winged folk.”
The fire that had been licking at the center of her pupils dimmed as she turned her gaze upon Hatter. A small smile curved her lips like a sickle, showcasing the tips of her elegantly pointed fangs.
“Ah yes, ye must be the fabled mad one I’ve heard so verra much about,” she purred heatedly.
I glanced at Hatter from the corner of my eye. He wore a smirk, too, just barely there but enough to turn him from already sexy to something slightly darker and far more appealing.
“In the flesh, beautiful one.”
He released his grip on my elbow, and I swayed only a little, feeling far more in control of myself. He crossed one arm over his stomach and gave an elegant bow.
I had to hand it to him. Hatter knew how to play the game—well.
She tittered. “Oh, I do like ye. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to bed a human.” She cocked her head, her dark eyes raking over him boldly before she sighed longingly and said, “Though not quite so human, after all. I sense a god in ye, mad one.”
I bit my bottom lip, telling myself not to turn and look at Maddox’s reaction. We weren’t here so that we could unearth each other’s deepest, darkest secrets. We were here for the case and only the case.
Even so, I did look. He still wore his arrogant smirk, but his spine and his shoulders were stiff. He hadn’t liked her saying that.
“You can try to figure me out, queen. Many have, though none have succeeded.”
I frowned. Was this truth or bluff? What the devil was he talking about?
“Oh, I do love a challenge.”
I stepped forward and held up a hand, eager to end whatever nonsense this was. “My most sincere apologies, Queen Titiana, for the unfortunate — ”
Hatter twitched, just barely, his hands clenched by his sides, and I knew that he was thinking the same as I was about my use of that word. I could still hear the ghostly echo of that evil ringing in my ears.
“Delay. I took rather ill of a sudden and needed to heal myself in my waters.”
Her eyes cut to mine. She looked me up and down then pursed her lips. “I sense no untruth in your statement. You may continue. But do not ever do it again I am not a dog that can be summoned. Next time, I might not come at all.”
I nodded, hearing the threat quite clearly. I needed her enchantments. She did not really need me.
“My ornë …” She said the guardian’s name in the native tongue of her people. “Told me of your being.”
I dipped my head, glad the guardian had mentioned me but bristling all over again when I thought about how she’d planned to send me through fae land with no guide. I hated the fae bastards.
She smirked, and I couldn’t help but think she knew exactly what I was thinking.
“What was stolen from you, Titiana? What was taken?”
She stared at me, never blinking, her tiny, beautiful face looking vexed and furious.
“You waited days after I told ye to visit. To go. To see about me people. Why should I give ye anything else?”
I’d known that would come up. I’d been prepared to defend my actions, knowing full well she might still deign to not answer me. I’d kept to my bargain but too late. She could not kill me for breaking an oath, but I’d curried no favor with the queen.
I opened my mouth, but Hatter gently touched the back of my wrist and stepped forward.
“Even in faery, you must know of Grimm’s troubles. The syndicate has grown bold. Dangerous.”
“The dragon,” she whispered, fires licking at the center of her pupils again. “Aye. I ken what’s been done to that poor beast.”
My ears perked up, detecting a note of sadness in her tone. “Do you know anything about what was done to Whiskers? He will hang without sufficient proof of his innocence.”
She laughed, the sound like demonic tinkling bells. “The beast kills children, yet it is not for them that you fight now. I’ll grant ye, them Lost Boys were naught more than wildlings. Yet they say it is faeries that be heartless.”
I clamped down on my tongue. She was goading me, but I would not take the bait.
“Can you help him, Queen Titiana?” Maddox asked in his deep accent.
She rolled her eyes. “I suppose I could. I saw what was done to the beast. I can prove his words, now that I ken he were acting against his will. But again, why should I help ye?”
“Just for once, for one damn moment could you fecking—” I growled, but again Hatter clamped down on my elbow and this time he squeezed hard, telling me to shut the hells up before I blew it for us both.
Snarling, I turned on my heel and marched back and forth in the sand, temper right at the surface of me. Bloody faes were sometimes impossible to deal with. Everything was a tit-for-tat sort of nonsense with them, and tonight, I was just too damned impatient to play the game.
Her laughter grated on my nerves.
“Titiana. Or could I call you Tati?” Hatter murmured as a lover would, and the queen purred.
I glowered at them both. Bloody hells, we didn’t have time to pacify the bitch. We had a syndicate to stop. Something big was coming.
I felt it. I knew it in my bones. I’d been a detective long enough to sense when there’d been a shift in the winds. An uneasy feeling was curling through my body, my bones. Something grave and terrible was headed our way. And very, very soon if we could not—
My eyes almost popped out of my head when I turned and spied Titiana—flower-wreathed head—bent over Hatter’s thumb and sucking lustfully on it.
“Godsdammit, Maddox,” I muttered under my breath. Giving blood to a fae was a terrible idea. The wee bitch could kill him if she had a mind to.
As if realizing I was spying on them, he glanced over his shoulder at me, a bored expression on his face now that Titiana was occupied, and slowly shook his head.
And I shook mine back. You know what? Whatever. If he had a death wish, then who I was to stop him?
I crossed my arms and glowered.
He merely rolled his eyes and turned back around.
Seconds later, she unlatched from his finger. Her mouth was coated in red. She looked like a demonic child with her glowing red eyes.
“Gods above, what power,” she whispered. “You have kept to your end. Now I shall keep to mine.” She continued to speak with that blood still painting the lower half of her face.
I grimaced.
“A slipper. Cinderella’s glass slipper, to be more precise. That’s what was stolen from my stronghold.”
Niht and Dae sidled in closer toward their queen’s side. Then without a bit of warning, they both leaned in and began to lick her clean.
Gods, the fae were nasty lil’ bastards.
My stomach rolled.
Titiana laid a hand on the backs of each of them. Judging by the looks of it, I knew they were quite comfortable sharing their queen. Not that I cared, but… I really wished they’d done it someplace else. Not everyone enjoyed blood with their sex.
“A slipper? And this is significant why?” Maddox asked, in full-on detective mode once more.
She snorted. “Gods, are you even of Grimm that I should have to spell this out for you?”
He said nothing, and I cocked my head. Well, that was interesting.
What else was there in the universe but Grimm? There were a hundred realms. Surely, Maddox was of one of them.
“Happily ever after,” she snapped. “Whoeve
r possesses the slipper will gain their happily ever after. It’s one of our strongest enchantments.”
My entire body suddenly tingled with unease, and I stopped thinking about the mysterious origins of my partner.
“Why the hells was something that dangerous not destroyed?” I snapped.
Titiana rolled her eyes like a petulant child. “Because it’s mine. And I would kill anyone that dares to steal from me.”
“Yet someone did just that,” I replied tersely. “Successfully.”
She hissed.
Maddox stepped between my line of sight and hers, holding his hands up. “This helps no one!” he thundered, looking between the two of us. “Get yourself together, Detective. Whatever this is, stop it now.”
Furious that he would take her side over mine, I very nearly picked up handfuls of sand and tossed it at him. But then that would be proving him right, that I, and not Titiana, was being the petulant crybaby.
Maybe I was. Hells if I knew. But he was my partner, and he should have taken my side.
I knew it sounded silly the second I thought it. I sighed and clenched my hands into fists. It was me. Godsdammit. It was me.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
He took a deep breath, looking at me for a moment longer than normal. I shook my head.
“Rest assured, Detectives, that when I find the arsehole responsible for this crime, I will personally be the one to remove its head from its body. No one steals from me. Least of all a thing not even fae at all.”
She sounded more upset by that fact than by anything else.
“Word of warning, Mad One.” She looked at him. “If they stole the slipper, whatever they have planned… it’s big. It’s big, and it’s nasty. And if they succeed, we’re all fecked.”
With those words, she, her chariot, and her guards vanished.
Maddox turned and looked at me. “I’m sorry. I… I don’t think I handled that we— ”
I held up my hand. “I’m a wreck right now, Maddox. The spell is wearing off. Your vision has got me sick, and now I think we might not be in time to stop whatever it is that’s coming for us. We’ve missed something. A clue. Something big. There is no time for this. For bickering. For making up. There is no time for anything right now. We have to stop this. We have to speak with Bo.”
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