The Grimm Files Collection Boxed Set

by Selene Charles

  I was exhausted by all the memories that continued to pour through me, but they wouldn’t stop. They just kept coming and coming. I should have stepped away from him and refused his tender touch, but it’d been too long since I’d felt anything quite so pure, so I stayed, squeezing my eyes shut, fighting the strange urge to fling myself at him and hug him tightly as I wept like a little girl for all that I’d lost.

  “I never said that it cannot be tamed or controlled, Arielle. The wellspring of the magick is dark, but even a dark mage once had the choice whether to walk the black path or stay to the light. Did you not know that my own power was once as dark as yours?”

  My mouth parted just a little, and I leaned away from his touch enough that I could look at his face without being forced to cross my eyes. “It is? I thought that— ”

  “I am bound to a lamp, Princess, and therefore to a master who controls me in all ways. I cannot do more than I am allowed. My own powers are birthed of darkness, but if a Djinn is fortunate enough to know and feel love… Well”—he looked at me deeply—“there is hope for us all.”

  I didn’t have to ask him what he meant. I felt the truth of his words in his touch, in his gentleness toward me, and I knew he loved me just as I loved him. I pressed my lips together, fighting their trembling so he would not witness my shame.

  With one last pat of my cheek, he stepped back. “I must deliver the spyglass to your sister, and then if you would like, you could meet me in your mother’s solarium tonight so that we might begin to learn the true scope of your powers.”

  I almost agreed until I remembered that I was supposed to meet Crowley in the gardens again. I sniffed and pretended to scratch an itch on my neck. “Tonight, I cannot, old friend. I must meet with Agent Crowley to— ”

  “The crime scene, of course. Although your father’s people scoured the grounds, they said it was cut and dry. The witch killed poor Aquata.”

  I knew he was as curious as the rest of them, but though I loved Jacamoe, my training kicked in all the same. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could tell you something, but my hands are tied. I’m assisting what is now a top-level case. If you wish to know anything you’ll have to go through Agent Crowley.”

  “Ah”—he batted my words away—“forget I asked. Of course, I understand how the law works. It is only that what’s been done was so shocking to us all. She was a good girl, your sister. She did not deserve what was done to her.” He took a deep breath.

  I heard the overwhelming note of sympathy and misery in his voice. Jacamoe had always taken a keen interest in me, but he’d cared for my sisters, too, in his own way. Most of them had viewed him less as a friend and more as a servant, but Aquata had been kind to him. It’d been her way. She’d never had a mean bone in her body.

  It was my turn to pat his cheek. “Do not blame yourself for what was done to her, old friend.”

  He blinked, forcing a tight smile onto his face. “If only I could have saved her.” He stared hard at his wrists, where the same tools to squelch his own not-so-insignificant powers were visible.

  I would have bet that a Djinn versus a dark witch would have been a showdown for the ages. They both had infinite power, but it could have been very possible that Jacamoe would have won such a trial. We would never know, though, because his powers were as limited as a baby mage’s for as long as he was forced to wear the cuffs.

  “Tomorrow, then?” I asked him.

  “Yes, Princess. Tomorrow.”

  I smiled stiffly. “Not anymore, Jacamoe.”

  “You will always be a princess to me, Little Fish. Now, I must— ”

  I grabbed hold of his elbow, stalling his exit just a little longer. “I did come here for one other reason.”

  “Ah, the truth finally wins out.” He smiled warmly before nodding for me to continue. “What can I do for you, Arielle?”

  I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. “I came here with two men. Agent Crowley and my ”—I coughed, catching my slipup a second too late—“er , that is to say— ”

  “Your Hook.” He finished my thought.

  I winced but nodded anyway because the truth was the truth. After what Hook and I had done in the ship, he wasn’t just another man to me. The old fire, the old love… it was still there.

  He shook his head. “No, my dear. I do not have him. But I have heard that he is being kept in the east tower.”

  I winced again. Nothing good ever happened in the east tower. It was where Father had stored his prisoners of war, keeping them chained until their executions, or worse, their public humiliations. Father had been a benevolent king as equally as he’d been a cruel and terrifying tyrant. It simply depended on whom one asked.

  I took a deep breath and hugged my chest. “What are they doing to him?”

  Jacamoe’s eyes looked worried. “I do not know, Princess, but if you would like, I could look in on him. I could at least do that for you.”

  It wasn’t much, and we both knew it. Jacamoe would be as helpless as I was to stop Hook’s tortures, if that was indeed what Anahita had ordered. But knowing something was better than knowing nothing at all.

  I glanced at Jacamoe’s pocket where he’d hidden the spyglass, wondering for a split second if I could convince him to let me borrow it.

  As though he sensed exactly where my thoughts were, he covered the pocket with his hand. I looked at his stern face. “This goes to your sister now.”

  I heard the warning. Don’t steal. Don’t be stupid and give the tribunal anymore opportunities to convict me. My hands curled into fists at my side, and my lips thinned, but I didn’t move. I didn’t make a grab for it. I just looked at him.

  He executed a nearly perfect bow, which must have been extremely painful for him, then elegantly turned and walked slowly down the hall toward my sister’s wing of the castle.

  I watched him fade into nothingness before I slowly turned and stared at the hallway full of portraits of Undine heritage that felt as foreign to me as they always had.

  Much as I wanted that spyglass, I knew he was right. Damn him to the twin hells, he was right. I was on shaky ground. I had to watch my p’s and q’s, for whoever was chosen to head the tribunal I could almost bet my weight in gold would be no friends of mine. Something as simple as stealing the king’s spyglass, which now belonged to my sister, could have been all they would need to convict me, should the greater crime miraculously be absolved. Father had murdered others for less. My people were a bloodthirsty lot.

  I kicked at the wall hard enough with my bare foot to make my toes throb miserably when I’d finished. I had to get out of here—I had to get us all out of here. I might have been walking around freely, but I was far from free, and I knew it. The feeling of claustrophobia, as if I was being squeezed in on all sides, was overwhelming. I wasn’t used to sitting still, to not always being busy.

  If I had been in Grimm, I would have had so many things to do: cases to solve, people to speak with. But in Undine, I felt like a burden, mostly forgotten by all, with nothing to occupy my mind or time.

  I had hours yet before I could meet up with Crowley. I was no princess. I would not be expected to greet any of the incoming dignitaries. I literally had nothing to do.

  Lowering my head, I rubbed at my aching temples and muttered, “what am I gonna do now?”

  I needed to focus and create an action plan, just as Hatter would have done.

  Hatter. I sighed. I hoped he was all right, wherever he was.

  CHAPTER 41

  HATTER

  AS I RODE the elevator to the top floor of my flat, I heaved a weary sigh as I rolled my neck from side to side. It was nighttime in Grimm, and the moon was at its zenith. Outside I could hear the murmurs of the midnight bar crowd. I was tempted to go find a place to sit a spell.

  I’d been at work for the past thirteen hours, until Bo had returned and caught me still wearing the same clothes as when she’d left me eight hours earlier. After that, she’d kicked me out with a ster
nly worded command not to return for at least eight more.

  Knowing Elle was relatively unharmed hadn’t lessened my anxiety for her in the slightest. I’d spent the day learning just what an Undinian tribunal entailed. It was some nasty, dirty stuff. There was no jury, no assumption of innocence until proven guilty. She would be tried by randomly selected elders of rival houses and if found guilty would be tossed into the eternal pit of the damned.

  I knew a little of Elle’s past, at least enough to know that she was not entirely liked in her realm. She was a true outcast in every sense of the word.

  The elevator stopped suddenly, and I glanced up, wondering if I could be at my floor, the fiftieth, already. It’d been quite fast.

  But when the fae-enchanted-oak doors parted, I didn’t recognize the floor at all. In fact, it was like nothing I’d ever seen inside of the Whispering Willows. I’d chosen the flat because of its similarities to Wonderlandian workmanship. I enjoyed the seamless merging of nature and the urban sensibilities of Grimm.

  Never had I seen a floor with such an aquatic flair, though. The floors gleamed like mother-of-pearl, the walls themselves looked carved from bone-white coral, and—I blinked, wondering whether that had been the fin of an electrified eel rounding the corner.

  Scratching the back of my head, I stared at the empty space. It literally seemed to ripple like the invisible bands of water currents.

  I took a deep breath, reflexively more than anything, halfway wondering if I might soon lose all ability to breathe if that was really water before me. But even though my heart banged in my chest at the thought of drowning in my elevator, I didn’t actually seem to be in danger of losing my air supply.

  I blinked, wondering if it was the work of fae craftsmanship or—I glanced down at my arms. Am I having some sort of strange vision? But I saw no glow of light and knew in a moment that whatever it was, it was very real.

  “Hello?” I asked, glancing around, considering if perhaps someone was out there, waiting to enter. When no one responded, I automatically said, “Going up?”

  But when there was still no answer, my anxiety only increased. What the bloody hells is going on here?

  I glanced over at the glowing button for the fiftieth floor. I pressed it once more, wondering if there had been a malfunction. But nothing happened. The doors remained opened, and when I looked back, I definitely saw a fish swim by.

  “Bloody hells,” I muttered, even as the water began to swirl and ripple faster before me. That was definitely water out there, which meant that whatever was happening was of a magickal nature.

  In my gut, I knew it was related to Elle.

  Then a shimmer began to take shape in front of me, a loose image that was vaguely human but veiled in a bioluminescent glow.

  “Elle?” I whispered.

  “Not Elle,” a deep masculine voice replied.

  I scooted back on my heels, immediately hearing the growling tones of Crowley’s rasp. “Agent Crowley?”

  “Aye,” he said. “I do not have long. Seconds at best. But you are Arielle’s partner, no?”

  I lowered my brows as the glowing smoky image shifted closer toward me. Crowley’s glow was so bright that I could not make out his features, but it was definitely his voice I was hearing. Still, he knew that I was Elle’s partner, so the only thing I could figure was that he was being purposefully secretive.

  “Yes,” I snapped as my pent-up tensions came pouring out of me. “How is she? Where is she? Can I speak with— ”

  “No time. I am not a magick user. As it is, I am depleting what reserves I have left from the agency. Listen to me carefully, Constable Hatter— ”

  My spine went taut to hear him refer to me as such. Not that there was any shame in in being a constable, but he knew damned well I’d advanced a year ago. I wondered if it was some sort of backhanded slight.

  I clenched my jaw, quieting the hum of anger burning like a caged, angry thing inside of me, and focused my energies instead on simply listening. Crowley had reached out to me for a reason.

  “—it does not look good for Arielle right now. The tribunal is desperate to lay the blame somewhere. The King is gravely injured, and a princess has been killed by the willful releasing of the Sea Witch.”

  “I’m sure that if Elle did so, her reasons were— ”

  “—immaterial,” Crowley cut me off.

  I fisted my hands by my sides. Glad to see the bastard hadn’t changed at all since I’d last seen him. “The law is the law, Agent. She deserves a fair and honest trial.” I pled to his law-enforcement side—surely, he could see what was obvious to me. Blaming Elle for the death of her sister and her father’s injuries was unjust.

  The laugh he gave sent chills straight through me. “You are the biggest godsdamned fool if you believe that, Detective. They need a scapegoat, and Arielle is it. She will be sentenced to die for this—make no mistake.”

  “How do you know this?” I snarled, fury making me forget myself. My vision was turning bright with spots as I felt my inner flames began to roil and churn at the thought of Elle alone and unprotected down there.

  “I have worked amongst the royals long enough to know how these matters work themselves out. I tell you all of this because we need an ally in the above whom we can trust to work alongside of us and not against us. Secrecy is the key here, Detective. You must tell no one what I am about to share with you. Do you understand?”

  I nodded.

  “Do you understand?” He snapped with the sharp edge of a growl to it.

  My brows gathered into a sharp vee. “I understand what you’re suggesting I do, Crowley: go against my damned precinct, my captain, and any and all authority. Now you do you understand how bloody awful this can go for me if they find out I worked behind their backs?”

  He grunted. “It’s a chance you will have to take if you want her back alive.”

  “What the hells does that even mean?” I snapped, taking a step forward as my fists began to burn with flame. The waters outside the doors started to sizzle, filling my elevator with steam as the heat from my hands hit its wall. Is he implying that she is in danger from him as well? Knowing the bastard, I don’t doubt it.

  “Is she what matters most to you?”

  I hissed, shaking my head reflexively. I didn’t trust Crowley in the slightest, and a confession might free her from the tribunal’s clutches but could land us both in a different kettle of fish when she came back home.

  “Well, is she?!” he snapped, and I didn’t think.

  “Yes, godsdammit, she’s everything to me. Now you— ”

  “Good. That is good.” The obvious note of relief in his voice shut me up instantly.

  Confusion circled like water around a drain in my head. Why does he sound so pleased by that? Crowley has always had it out for Elle, but this doesn’t seem like the Crowley I remember.

  “No matter what happens, Arielle must survive this. Do you hear me, Detective?” he asked, cutting through my musings.

  “Of course,” I answered honestly.

  “She must survive this,” he expressed once more with an urgency that infected my own soul. Just what in the hells had happened to them in the Never?

  “Now, listen to me, and listen closely,” he said. “There is a chance, a way to turn the tribunal’s focus elsewhere. The answers begin in a tavern in Grimm, a place called Bârân .”

  “In the Persiannous district?”

  “Aye, the very one. You must go there and speak to one known only as the Tinkerer.”

  “What?” I shook my head, noticing that the image was becoming more and more insubstantial. His voice was growing weaker. “I need to save Detective Elle. I don’t need to go to the— ”

  “If you wish to save her, as I do, you will do exactly as I have told you. In three hours, you must go find the one they call the Tinkerer, Detective, and let her know that it is the agent who has sent you.”

  None of it made sense. The conversation had only rais
ed a thousand more questions. “I don’t understand. How can going there be of help any to you?” I didn’t get a chance to finish my thoughts before his ghostly vision vanished and the floor was water no more, but a verdant garden of perpetual flowers in bloom.

  I stared dumbly around me for several moments, feeling oddly as if I’d found my way back to Wonderland, given the surrealistic nature of my predicament. But when nothing else happened, I riffled my fingers through my hair and scooted back on my heels until my back hit the wall of the lift, watching with detachment as the doors slid silently shut. Once more, I felt the rocketing movement of the lift rising.

  What the hells just happened? Why had Crowley seemed so strange? Why had there been such an urgency in his voice?

  “Elle,” I said aloud, closing my eyes as my skin shivered with electrical currents. What the hells happened in the Never to have made Crowley make such an about-face? How much danger are they really in?

  Moments later, the lift came to a stop, and the doors parted to reveal my own one-bedroom flat down the hall.

  Would I go to the Eastern district and not tell my Captain why, on nothing but a vague command that I should?

  The answer was simple. I would have sold my golden soul to save my partner. I would return to my Hel. And I’d go to the damned tavern to speak to the Tinkerer, if it meant bringing her home. I would do anything.

  Anything.

  Elle

  IT WAS FINALLY time to meet up with Crowley. He’d mentioned the gardens, and that was the direction I was headed. I’d spent the past couple of hours reading in the library, learning what I could about all of Undine and specifically father’s rule while I’d been exiled.

  That hadn’t been all that exciting, in truth. Life had seemed to grow dull after my absence, if the histories were to be believed. Perhaps I had brought on much of the calamity in that land with my antics, after all, just as father had once accused me of having done.

  I was just rounding a corner when I bumped into a large and sturdy chest. “Oh!” I cried, instantly reaching up to shove back the curl of hair that’d slipped over my eye. “I’m so sor— ”