Unfortunately, I had no idea how long I’d been gone. Time passes differently in the Otherworld, and we’d spent time in both Tech Duinn and Faerie. I wasn’t sure what that meant for any potential homecoming.
From our perspective, we’d been gone over a year. But the wisps who I’d healed upon our arrival had still been alive. When Eben Braxton hired me, and I’d found the iron sick wisps in his junkyard, I’d assumed the wisps wouldn’t have long to live. But I was no expert.
“I need to return to the harbor, and get word to my people and our allies the selkies and mer,” Ceff said. “I will escort you as far as the Emporium. It is on the way.”
“And I think I’ll tag along and see what your witch friend has to say about a horde of barghests in her city,” Torn said.
“Barghests?” I asked. “As in plural?”
“Yes, Princess,” he said, stroking a tattered ear. “You do know how to make an entrance.”
I groaned, and quickened my pace to catch up with the long legged stride of the cat sidhe lord. Sweat trickled down my spine, and it had nothing to do with our hurried pace.
Years ago, one rogue barghest had threatened Harborsmouth, and numerous magic users and Hunters from the local guild had died in the ensuing battle to bring it down. One witch had survived, and I had a bad feeling about how she was going to react to the news that we’d led a bunch of the hellish hounds into her city.
If Jinx didn’t kill me, Kaye sure as hell was going to. I frowned, but hurried toward the junkyard gates. Now wasn’t the time for cold feet. Kaye was one of our most powerful allies, and I had a responsibility to do everything possible to save the innocent residents of Harborsmouth. I just hoped she wouldn’t decide to turn me into a toad for my trouble.
Chapter 4
I was envisioning Kaye turning me into a toad when Jinx stepped out from behind a burned out car frame. My gasp of surprise was quickly replaced by a bark of nervous laughter when she raised her crossbow and trained it on my chest.
“Where have you been?” she asked.
“On vacation…with Ceff…and…” I stuttered.
“Don’t give me that innocent crap, Ivy,” she said. “You disappear for days, taking almost nothing with you except for your weapons, and you don’t respond to any of my messages. Forneus is twitchy every time I mention you or Ceff, and when I tried to use all my powers of persuasion to find out what he knew, I got an earful of legalese.”
“You’re dating a demon attorney,” I said. “Twitchy behavior and legalese should be the norm.”
“He passed up sex, and tossed a fireball at Sparky when he snuck up on him,” she said. The crossbow in her hand shook slightly.
“Is Sparky okay?” I asked.
“Sparky is fine, he thought the light show was a hoot,” she said. She drew her shoulders back, and her hand stopped shaking. “So, I repeat. What the hell is going on?”
A howl split through the night, and Jinx’s eyes widened.
“While I hate to break up this little reunion, especially when it involves an attractive woman holding a deadly weapon, we really should get moving,” Torn said.
“Torn is right,” I said. “You can shoot me later if you have to, but right now we need to move.”
Jinx lowered her crossbow, but didn’t put it back in her bag. Smart girl. With howling monsters on our tail, we needed to keep our weapons at the ready.
“Is your father here?” I asked as we ran for the junkyard gate.
Eben Braxton had hired me to investigate mysterious happenings in his junkyard. I’d feel responsible if I left him here to face another supernatural menace, especially one I’d somehow brought here from Faerie.
“No, he took your advice and gave his men the week off,” she said. “Then I encouraged him to take a fishing trip upstate.”
“Good,” I said, mind racing. We’d been gone from Harborsmouth less than a week. That news might have made me giddy with relief if we didn’t have a horde of fae beasts to deal with. “Ceff can you carry us to the Old Port?”
“I can try,” he said.
His skin was ashen, but I nodded. It was likely that shifting into his kelpie horse form would be difficult here in a junkyard filled with iron and so far from the waters of the harbor, but it was a risk we’d have to take.
Ceff moaned, and fell to his knees, stripping his clothes from his body as spasms contorted his face in pain. Normally, Ceff made shifting shape look effortless, with his clothes coming and going at his will. The fact that he was clawing at his shirt and jeans was a sign of how difficult this shift was for him.
My jaw tightened, and I blinked away foolish tears as I put my back to Ceff with the excuse of guarding over him as he changed. Even Torn turned away, eyes searching the night for threats.
“I could drive us,” Jinx said, dangling a set of keys in her fingers. “My dad took his truck, but he let me borrow his car so I could check on the place while he’s gone.”
I shook my head. The proximity of so much iron in the junkyard was already taking its toll on Ceff, and I was pretty sure the sweat soaking my shirt wasn’t from our brief jog to the gate. My father, in his effort to protect me from Mab, had magically altered me as a baby, making me partially human to hide my highborn blood. But just as reaching maturity had begun to form cracks in the geis he used to cloud my memories, entering Faerie had changed me, exacting its own price.
I’ve never liked the close confines of a stranger’s vehicle, too much risk of unwanted visions, but now I had a feeling that the option had been stripped from me entirely. If the oily sensation swirling through my gut was any indication, I wouldn’t survive a ride to the Old Port Quarter packed inside a moving iron coffin. I was much more fae now than when I’d used my father’s key to enter Faerie.
Another howl tore through the night, triggering a familiar ache between my shoulder blades. I wasn’t sure of the limitations to my new powers now that I’d returned to the human world, and I wasn’t quite ready to reveal all of my secrets to Jinx, but that didn’t change the fact that wings like those of a damselfly longed to burst from the prison of my flesh.
Not for the first time, I had to wonder how much of my humanity—if any—I had left.
Movement at my back nudged me from my thoughts, and I spun on my heel as Ceff stood, snorted once, and pawed at the ground. I stepped forward, leaned close, and whispered in his ear.
“Are you able to carry us?” I asked. “Jinx can drive, and meet us at the Emporium, but I’d rather not split up.”
Ceff nodded and lowered himself to the ground, his intention clear. I tugged at my gloves, and checked that my jacket was fully fastened before leaping onto his back. The awakening of my highborn blood did have some advantages. Even with the beginning of iron sickness, I was faster and more agile than before.
Of course, my uncle’s brutal training, and my relentless pursuit of Ceff and Torn’s captors had also honed my skills, but there was nothing from my time at the wisp court that wasn’t tied to pain and suffering, so my mind balked at the memories and focused on my human friend as she struggled to gain Ceff’s back without breaking her neck.
Jinx wasn’t nearly as graceful as I’d been, but she managed to climb up behind me with Torn’s help. I tensed as she grabbed my jacket to steady herself, but it wasn’t skin to skin contact, so no visions came. Just a grouchy friend who looked ready to shoot Torn, whose hand lingered on her hip.
“Come on, Torn,” I said with a scowl. “Cut it out. We don’t have time for your games, and as much as I’d love to see Jinx shoot you, we can’t afford the delay.”
“You have a dirty mind, Princess,” he said, raising his hands. “I was only trying to help.”
“Help, my ass,” Jinx muttered.
“Exactly,” he said with an exaggerated wink.
I sighed, and Ceff pawed at the ground.
“Come on,” I said. “Get on. We need to move.”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Torn said with a l
eer.
He leapt up behind Jinx, and from her squeal and his purr, I’d guess he was using the opportunity to cop a feel. As Ceff launched us forward at inhuman speed, I whispered a threat into the wind, knowing that Torn’s fae ears could hear every word. He chuckled, but his laughter was cut short as once again howls ripped through the night.
Torn may have a cat’s curiosity and a lust for battle, but even he had to respect the sheer might of the Wild Hunt. We fell silent, each of us weighing our chances to survive the night. Considering what Ceff and Torn had told me so far, I didn’t like our odds.
Chapter 5
My current predicament, riding astride a kelpie at breakneck speeds to gather allies in hopes of saving my city from the Wild Hunt, was a reminder that there were many dangers that threatened not only my life, but the lives of those I cared about.
Jinx was human and vulnerable, which is why I hadn’t left her unprotected when I’d gone to Faerie. As she clung to my leather jacket with white knuckled fingers, I had time to realize that if she was just at the junkyard alone, then either something had happened to her boyfriend, or Forneus had broken his promise to watch over my friend. The demon better hope he was dead.
“Where is Forneus?” I asked, raising my voice so that Jinx could hear me over the rushing wind and the pounding of Ceff’s hooves on pavement.
He wove us through thickening traffic as the sun crested to the east, bringing commuters into the city, but I was too angry to wonder at what his glamour forced humans to see as we passed. I was too intent on wanting to slay me a demon.
Jinx didn’t answer, but her grip on my jacket tightened ever further, my silver reinforced collar nearly choking me as I leaned forward, trying to put a few inches of space between where we both sat astride Ceff’s back. I was used to physical distance between us. It was the emotional distance that threatened to bring tears to my eyes, and light me up like a supernova.
I used the techniques I’d learned in Faerie to tamp down the urge to glow, but my magic did nothing to quell the anger rising to the surface. Ceff had barely stopped in front of the Emporium before I launched myself from his back and spun to face Jinx.
“Where is Forneus?” I asked, voice hard.
Jinx ignored me, and started to climb to the ground. I was ready to lunge forward if she fell—Jinx hadn’t acquired her nickname for an ability to avoid injury—but there was no need. Torn was more than happy to lend his assistance…and a hand on her ass.
“Paws off, Torn,” I said, one of my throwing knives hitting my gloved hand. It was sheer reflex, but he raised his hands and took a step back.
Ceff also moved away, giving me and Jinx space. With us all on the sidewalk and his horse form no longer necessary, Ceff began to shift. There was nothing I could do to ease his pain as his body contorted and contracted, so I focused once more on Jinx.
I raised an eyebrow, tapping my foot, and she sighed.
“I slipped some Ice into his wine, and snuck out before he woke up,” she said, tossing her hair back. “Not that I have to explain myself to you, Ivy. It’s not like you’ve been totally honest with me lately.”
Jinx wasn’t talking about frozen water. Ice was a powerful mix of narcotic and magic.
“Where the hell did you get your hands on Ice?” I asked, mouth dropping open.
Jinx folded her arms over her chest, but Torn was more than happy to tattle.
“They’ve been keeping it off the streets, ever since Puck was found dead in the Club Nexus storage rooms,” he said. “According to my spies, our human and demon friend have become quite the Bonnie and Clyde of the supernatural underworld.”
Oberon’s eyes on a god damned stick! I’d been reluctant to support Jinx’s decision to date a demon, but I’d backed down when I believed that Forneus would do anything to keep her safe. Becoming vigilantes; policing the city’s supernatural criminals; and ripping off drug dealers wasn’t safe, it was suicidal.
I should know.
I’d put my life on the line more than once to keep the monsters in check. Technically, protecting the city from rogue paranormals was the job of the local Hunters’ Guild. Problem was the Guild was sworn to protect humans. They didn’t often care much about fae or undead victims. That had been clear when I’d teamed up with my friends this past spring to rescue dozens of the city’s faerie children who had been stolen from their beds while their parents slept.
Even with the help of my friends, and a well thrown pixie nest, I’d barely escaped that mission with all my limbs still attached. I stalked toward Jinx, ready to give her a piece of my mind, but she held up a hand and shook her head.
“You know I have to do it,” she said, eyes softening. “Ever since that night…”
Her voice trailed off, and I sighed.
“Yeah, I know,” I said.
I did know. Not so long ago, Jinx had been slipped a supernatural roofie and was fed on by an incubus. The glowing marks were gone from her body, but that kind of violation left psychological scars. That kind of damage doesn’t fade easily. If Forneus was tagging along while Jinx rid the city of a magic date rape drug, who was I to argue?
We all knew that Jinx had been struggling to regain her sense of control over her body, over her life. If this helped her retrieve that part of herself and become the confident woman I’d grown to love, then I needed to support that choice. Not try to talk her out of it.
If I gave Forneus any credit at all, I’d have to admit that he’d come to the same conclusion, and rather than bully her, he’d decided to go along with her crazy mission. Hell, he was even providing backup, and trying to keep her safe.
Tension eased from my neck and shoulders, and I sighed.
“Look, I get it,” I said, rubbing a gloved hand over my face. “I get why you need to get Ice off the streets. But why drug your boyfriend? Why sneak out to your dad’s junkyard in the middle of the night?”
I was missing something, and I was too tired and too busy worrying about the Wild Hunt to figure it out.
“Because I knew he was lying to me, about you,” she said. “And don’t try to tell me he wasn’t. I know you and Ceff weren’t off on some romantic vacation.”
“No,” I said. “We weren’t.”
She nodded, and started to pace.
“You’ve been acting weird for weeks, and it got worse when you took the junkyard job,” she said. “So I figured it had something to do with wisps, and your dad. Then you made some cryptic comment about getting a possible new tip on his whereabouts and rather than clue me in on your plans, you go on vacation.”
She growled out the last word, punctuating each syllable with violent air quotes. I was just glad her fingers were busy gesturing, and not on the trigger of her crossbow.
“And the second you left, Forneus started acting like I was some fragile freaking flower,” she said.
I sighed, and shuffled my feet.
“That’s my fault,” I said.
“I figured,” she said.
I’d asked Forneus to protect my friend, to keep her safe while I was gone. I hadn’t known if I’d make it back from Faerie, and though she didn’t know where I’d raced off to, Jinx probably suspected that I was up to something dangerous.
Taking off, lying about where we were going, and asking her boyfriend to double as a bodyguard had crossed a line. I got that.
I’d also do it again in a heartbeat.
“As much as I know you both need answers, we really should get inside,” Ceff said as he strode to my side.
His feet were bare, but he’d taken the extra time to magically clothe himself in jeans and a dark green button-down shirt that showed off his eyes. The love and concern in those eyes reminded me that there were other secrets I’d kept from Jinx, news I hadn’t been ready to share under the circumstances.
Before I left Harborsmouth, Ceff had proposed, and I’d said yes. I hadn’t told Jinx, figuring it wasn’t the kind of news to give before leaving town. Hell, she would have i
nsisted on throwing a party, and setting a date, and a venue, and mailing invitations. I hadn’t had time for any of that, nor was I ready for it.
Now with the Wild Hunt on our tail, the timing seemed even worse, but I had to tell Jinx soon. Torn knew, and though the cat sidhe liked his secrets, he liked tormenting me even more. I had to make some kind of announcement before Torn let the cat sidhe out of the bag.
I swallowed hard, and turned toward the entrance of the Emporium. I wasn’t sure what was more unsettling, informing an irritable witch that I’d led the Wild Hunt to her door, or making a formal engagement announcement. I shook my head and snorted, striding forward.
It probably wasn’t a good thing that I had less experience informing my friends of happy news than of telling them that death was once again at our door.
Chapter 6
As I suspected, Kaye wasn’t happy that I’d led a pack of barghests to her city. Not one bit.
“You did what?” she asked, her power making my skin itch as it swarmed inside the confines of her spell kitchen.
We were in the back rooms of Madam Kaye’s Magic Emporium, and I wasn’t the only one eyeing the exits. Marvin, a young bridge troll, and Hob, the resident hearth brownie, had joined me, Ceff, Jinx, Torn, and Kaye. Arachne was out front in the part of the shop that was open to the public, helping human patrons who were oblivious to how close their fragile lives were to being swallowed whole by the supernatural creatures that secretly lived amongst them.
Normally, I pitied the young apprentice witch, but right now I envied her. Kaye had deemed her presence unnecessary. Sadly, I was stuck here in the hot seat, beneath the glare of one of the most powerful witches in America.
That too was my fault. I’d inadvertently helped Kaye regain the full strength of her powers, a surprising side effect of our recent temporary deaths and resurrection by magic apple. I was glad to have escaped the faerie bargains that had threatened my friend’s lives and my own happiness, and it had been a relief when Kaye survived the poison she’d administered here in this very kitchen, but I couldn’t help worry that I’d unleashed something dark and sinister when I’d restored Kaye’s magical power.