The Grimm Files Collection Boxed Set

by Selene Charles

  He pulled back, and I almost fell forward. I had to yank myself back. I didn’t know I’d been leaning in toward him until the heat of his presence no longer rubbed against my own. He glanced off to the side with a hard and strange look upon his face, and I wondered what he was thinking.

  He bit his front teeth together, and suddenly I just knew. Crowley and I weren’t friends, and yet, I was as confusing to him as he was to me. Maybe it was the haunted look in his eyes, but I didn’t have to ask to know that he was thinking about me handing over my soul to save his.

  Truth was, I hadn’t done it simply to save him. I’d known that giving the witch that part of me was the only way to get us out of there, so I suppose in a roundabout way, I had tried to save him too. But he’d been more incidental than saving Hook or myself. I didn’t want to think about what I might have done if there’d been a way to ensure Hook’s and my safety without involving Crowley. I’m not sure I would have bothered with him.

  Guilt punched me in the lower gut, but the fact was that Crowley had made my life hells for far too long.

  I looked to the side, not wanting to see any more of his thoughts and definitely not wanting him to see mine. What we had going on between us was a tenuous thing at best. My best shot at getting out of Undine intact was Crowley, much as it pained me to acknowledge it. His deep connections in the Bureau would serve us far better than my own paltry ones with Grimm PD.

  He sighed.

  “So what is this, then? Magick?”

  “If it’s magick, it doesn’t have the taste of it.”

  I knew exactly what he meant. Magick left its trace. I’d never tasted it, but then I wasn’t a shifter, either. I had, however, felt its hair-raising prickle in my time—it was almost like walking through a cloud of ozone just after a lightning strike. Crowley was right. There was none of that there. “It’s nothing,” I said. “I mean, it’s literally nothing.”

  “Exactly, and what can do that, Detective? In all my decades on the force, I can’t think of one single time it’s ever been done. And yet”—he jerked his chin at the marking I’d left on the ground—“the evidence is there, right before our eyes. The lack of anything is what makes it so significant.”

  “So what do we do?”

  Licking his front teeth, he shook his head. “We do nothing. We tell no one.”

  What? I shook my head. That didn’t sound like something I’d ever dreamed of hearing Mister Uptight Arsehole ever saying. “But the Bureau?”

  He chuckled wolfishly, a low growling sound of dark humor that made my flesh run with goose pimples. “You know as well as I do how much they pander to royals. If we’re going to solve this case and get the hells out of here, we trust no one.”

  I took several deep, long breaths. Crowley, who’d never trusted me a day in his life, was implicating himself in a pretty serious way. He was showing me a level of trust I’d never dreamed of seeing from him. If I reported him to the agency, I could cause him literally to lose his badge for what he was suggesting.

  “If not for me, think of Hook, Detective. I don’t know what kind of shit I’ve stepped into here, but I’m sensing it’s not good.”

  All I could hear was the sound of my breathing. Crowley, the agent who’d made my life a living hells for as long as I’d been on the task force, was now the very one asking me to trust him. It didn’t make sense. None of it made sense. I felt as though I’d fallen through Alice’s rabbit hole and into an alternate reality where I didn’t know the rules or the game. “And yet you trust me?” I whispered.

  He shrugged. “I always pay my dues, Detective.”

  “Dues?” I shook my head then realized what he meant. I’d saved his life, so he would save mine. I snorted. “Right. And once we’re back to even, you’ll go back to making my life hell. That it?” I asked bitterly.

  When he didn’t answer right away, I looked back at him. There was tension around his eyes and mouth. He shrugged, leaving me to decipher what he meant on my own.

  “You really are a heartless bastard, aren’t you?” I laughed, but the sound was shrill and full of something even I couldn’t quite put my finger on. He owed me nothing. I didn’t even know what I wanted to hear him say. I was so messed up from the events unfolding and from the fact that I’d lost my sister, whom I’d not even begun to fully grieve yet. Not to mention the knowledge that the witch had stripped me of the only identity I’d ever known… I was barely hanging on, and he was just a convenient target.

  I stopped talking and took two deep breaths, telling myself to stop making everything so godsdamned personal. Fact was, Crowley was my best chance at going free. And if we were at each other’s throats after that, it would be status quo.

  “You’re not the only one on trial. I am too,” he said in a near growl, leaning in until his nose was mere inches from mine. “And don’t imagine for one moment that BSI won’t hesitate to give my ass up if that’s what’s best for them.” He poked at his chest even as he straightened.

  I wasn’t ashamed to admit that Crowley was an intimidating guy when he cared to be. I cracked my neck before speaking. My tone was purposefully neutral. “It doesn’t matter. Solving this case won’t save us. You have to understand that. If the tribunal decides we’re guilty, we’re done for. That’s how shit works on Grimm. You know this, and I know this. How many times do we have to see an innocent swing before it sinks in?”

  His smile was nothing but sharp teeth. “You think I don’t know that? Of course solving this case won’t save our asses, but what it does do is buy us time. Time that we desperately need, Fish.”

  My spine tightened and my fists curled when I heard that damnable word slip off his tongue. But in seconds, my brain registered that he hadn’t used it as a slur. There’d been something else this time, a softness that I was sure I must be misinterpreting. My brows puckered, but I relaxed my grip infinitesimally.

  I shook my head. “Time for what, though? Who is going to step in to help us out here?” I laughed darkly. “If you think I’ve got allies who are suddenly going to swoop in and save us from the dark abyss, you’re sorely mistaken. The people of Undine might actually hate me more than you do.”

  He pursed his lips. “I don’t hate you, Elle.”

  Then he turned and walked back toward the scene, leaving me to gape at his back like a slack-jawed fish on a hook. Somewhere, pigs were flying.

  CHAPTER 39

  ELLE

  I DON’T KNOW why I followed him. I should have gone back to my room or investigated more on my own. A few years ago, that’s exactly what I would have done, but I’d spent too long as a partner, and I found to my everlasting shame that I liked being half of a dynamic duo—“dynamic” obviously being the key word. But Crowley was turning out to be as keen minded as my own partner had been.

  Thinking of him brought on a fresh onslaught of questions and worries. Hatter must have been climbing the walls, panicking, wondering. I squeezed my eyes shut for half a second, swallowing my own sense of panic at knowing how badly he must be taking things. He hadn’t wanted me to do it in the first place, and I knew him well enough to know that he probably suspected foul play on Crowley’s part. There hadn’t been, but he wouldn’t know it—or maybe he would, if he got a vision of the past. I hoped he would, if for no other reason than to give him some peace of mind.

  My only hope was that Anahita had already reached out to Grimm PD to at least let them know I was alive.

  Even if they knew, they wouldn’t be able to enter Undine without the king’s—or, given the circumstances, the acting queen’s—implicit okay. Unlike in other realms, there was no way to force one’s way into Undine unless one was a water spirit or a witch with some high level magick. Otherwise, one needed the queen’s okay to breathe down there.

  But at least if Hatter knew I was okay, he might be able to calm himself enough to figure out why none of us had anticipated the truth of the matter. His visions had shown us the witch—I knew that in hindsight, as he s
urely must have too.

  Even so, neither of us had expected it to be anyone other than Bonny herself. I sighed, shoving my hands deep into the hidden pockets of the very expensive and ostentatious gown I was forced to endure wearing while in Undine.

  Crowley grunted, pulling my thoughts away from my partner back home. He’d slowed his pace to match mine. I must have been lagging behind.

  I shook my head, an automatic apology resting on the tip of my tongue, but I realized I had nothing to apologize for and simply sighed, staring over at him and waiting to see if he might have something to say to me.

  We had moved into the corridor that led directly toward the main dining hall. For reasons I couldn’t quite fathom, I reached toward his elbow, latched on, and stopped him when he still hadn’t said a word.

  He looked at me with a hard, quizzical frown. That’s when what I’d done dawned on me. I snatched my hand back, flexing it and shaking my head softly, but the less inclined he was to talk about it, the more crazed I became. I needed to know how the impossible had been made possible. “How did you come back? What’s happened to Hook? You never did explain any of that.”

  His stance was cold, his visage frosty and aloof. I half expected him not to answer, of if he did say something, to snap at me and threaten to rip my limbs off and beat me blue with them for daring to touch him in so familiar a manner.

  But once again, he surprised me. It was his turn to latch onto my elbow and pull me toward a shadow as one of Father’s countless servants swam by. I noticed the male’s cursory and curious glance in our direction, but he was a well-trained staff member and didn’t linger. Still, I was sure I’d be hearing the gossip about my “forbidden and vile tryst with a legger” at some point later.

  “I’ll tell you everything. But…” His jaw muscle twitched before he leaned over me, invading my bubble with his heat and lowering his mouth to my ear. “Not here. These walls have ears.”

  I lowered my brows. There were no more listeners than in any other castle in any other realm, but he was acting cagey, even more odd than usual.

  “Tonight, in the gardens. When the sun’s set. We’ll talk.”

  “But we were just— ”

  “Tonight, Detective.” He said it with such finality that I knew I would get nothing more out of him.

  Then he turned and walked away, not waiting for me, making it even more clear that we were not continuing the conversation. I didn’t doubt that my presence would be far from welcomed now.

  I watched him go, wondering all over again what in the twin hells kind of reality I’d found myself in. It was a world in which my only ally in my own home was a male who’d wanted nothing more than to see me dead at one point in our not-so-distant history. Maybe things had changed, but I couldn’t help but think that maybe they hadn’t.

  But I was no helpless damsel in distress. Whether I still had friends here or not, it had once been my ancestral home. Still was, I supposed. And since I was here, I might as well take advantage of it.

  Turning on my heel, I headed for the hidden stairwell blanketed by one of Jacamoe’s wards. If anyone but a royal tried to use these particular stairs, they would be burnt to a cinder immediately. I felt a tingle ripple through my body when I stepped through. Outcast though I might have been, my blood was still pure, and the veil of magick parted reluctantly for me. Jacamoe’s brand of magick was almost tangible—I could literally feel the spell’s fury at being denied a meal.

  I climbed the steps toward Father’s private chambers, my lungs feeling strong even though my legs were weak. I was startled to note several eels popping their heads out of small crevices above me—the veil that charmed the place had also been a deterrent against sea life, or so I’d thought. Maybe Jacamoe’s magick was growing weaker since Father had been injured.

  I took another step, and my knee buckled. “Holy hells,” I muttered through clenched teeth, wondering what the devil was happening to me. I’d been just fine out in the gardens with Crowley.

  It wasn’t as if I wasn’t used to using legs. I wore them often enough when on a case, so I was sure the fatigue stemmed more from my fight with the Sea Witch rather than any true weariness of limbs. But by the time I reached the top of the stairs, I was quite literally clinging to the walls just to ease the shaking of my inner thighs.

  Just how much damned magick had the witch taken from me? It almost felt like it had decades before, when I’d first been cursed to use that foreign form. Taking two quick breaths, I shook my shoulders to loosen the kinks in them, staring at the heavy drift wood door that separated me from Father’s chambers.

  Memories came flooding through me. None of us were ever allowed within the chambers of Father’s most private study. Our tutors would yank us away by the ears should they ever find us within, but I’d proven adept at not getting caught, finding small enough nooks and crannies that I could hide in.

  Mother’s massive portrait hung upon his wall. It was the only one that didn’t look faked and forced. In it she was smiling, her eyes practically glowing. I’d been young when she died, and most of my memories of her had faded with time, so the portrait was how I’d remembered her. When I felt the memories slipping away, I would hide away for hours, just staring at her, looking for myself in any part of her, and sometimes seeing it in our smiles—but never in our features.

  My heart sank. Clenching my jaw, I gently rapped at the door.

  “Come in, sister,” Anahita’s voice sounded muffled through the wood.

  My lips thinned even as I turned the knob. The inside of the study hadn’t changed one iota from how I remembered it. There were miniature seahorse carousels on every shelf and one resting on the floor was nearly the height of Father himself. Mother had been obsessed with them, and he had been extravagant in his presents, gifting her one each year on the anniversary of their marriage. We girls had probably been more excited than Mother to see each year’s token.

  I swallowed a lump in my throat. The seahorses were carved of ebony and pearl and had shimmering inlays of abalone shell and gold. Their eyes burned like hell flame—I’d always found the beasts terrifying as a little siren. Now, they looked fake to me. They weren’t the terrors of the deep I’d once fancied them as. They were just carvings with no life in them whatsoever.

  I lowered my brows, blinked away the memory, and glanced at my sister, who peered up at me from over the edge of her wire-rimmed spectacles. She had sheaves of paperwork in front of her. “I’m going over Father’s ledgers. What do you need, Arielle?”

  I couldn’t hide my momentary flinch at the aloofness of her tone. She and I had once been close. I grinned to cover for my strange feelings. “How’d you know it was me? Developed new powers in my absence, have you? Can see through walls now? Should I call you ‘Sister’ or ‘Super— '”

  She snorted. “Father installed seeing eels a few years back.” She pointed to a row of monitors I hadn’t yet noticed, masquerading as volcanic rock within the walls.

  That would explain the eels I’d seen. They weren’t real after all, though they’d looked incredibly lifelike. I immediately frowned. “But why? The stairwell is warded. Doesn’t that seem a little paranoid?”

  She shrugged. “You know Father.”

  I wanted to tell her that no, I didn’t know father at all—not anymore and maybe not ever—but that would surely lead to an argument I didn’t want nor had the energy to deal with at all. So I swallowed my words and studied her instead.

  She wore a cape of glittering glowworms that even in the light of day cast her smooth, ivory-colored flesh in tones of blue bioluminescence, giving her an otherworldly quality. It was all she wore. Her rose-tipped breasts were bared proudly, and upon her head, she wore the heart of the sea. It had once been Mother’s crown. Its center was a geode of crystals that burned with the colors of amber, sea green, and rich ultramarine blue. It was the only stone of its kind and therefore very precious to the grand history of our peoples.

  To see it upon he
r head forced another lump to work its way up my throat. Fisting my hands tightly by my sides, I forced myself to take two deep breaths. I hated feeling that way, stirring up all those damned memories. The sooner I figured out a way out of here, the better. “Why do you look as though you’ll be ready to receive dignitaries?”

  She’d gone back to poring over the ledgers, but at my words, she sighed deeply, as though I was an annoyance she was too polite to tell to feck off. “Surely, you’ve not forgotten that tomorrow is our sister’s song, no? It’s a matter of state, Arielle. All major houses will be arriving today.”

  “Narina too?”

  Her nostrils flared, and I knew my hunch had been correct. “To be sure,” she muttered, feigning sudden interest in the parchment before her.

  “They are father’s greatest rival, or they were when last I lived here,” I said coyly, knowing full well why she was actually hosting them.

  She scoffed, but her look was full of pain and sorrow. “Be that as it may, I hope that we can broker some kind of peace to honor our late sister’s passing. It’s the least the houses could do, considering how important Aquata was to us all.”

  I felt a stab of guilt for trying to needle my sister about Ebonia. I was petty, and I would readily admit that. But there was also something depressingly sad about the fact that Ebonia and my sister still were tiptoeing around what were obviously deep feelings for one another.

  I should have apologized to her for that, but I’d never really been any good at it. Instead, I rolled my wrist and said, “I’m just saying, not all rules are good ones, Anahita. And you’re in charge now. No one can deny that Ebonia is— ”

  “None of your business, that’s what she is.” She stood upon her tail, glaring over me.

  I’d forgotten how much more imposing our tails made us when we stood to our full height. As a pathetic legger, I felt sorely underwhelming.

  “Do you imagine for one moment that just because father is ill and unconscious I would abuse my authority in such a manner? He is still king down here!” She practically vibrated with fury, and even the waters around us had warmed significantly from her wrath.