Box of Frogs

  Surprisingly, Finn’s mouth twitched in amusement. ‘You have no idea,’ he muttered.

  Morgan and Jinn simultaneously folded their arms in irritation. This shaky partnership could actually be quite a lot of fun, I decided.

  ‘I vote,’ I said aloud, ‘that we go back to the golf course. There will be some sort of clue there that I didn’t kill that bogle.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter whether you killed the bogle or not,’ Jinn said. Except it mattered to me. ‘What matters is finding out what Rubus is up to and stopping him before he destroys this entire demesne and all the humans in it.’

  Morgan frowned. ‘The bogle, Charrie, went to the golf course, presumably on Rubus’s orders. So did you Madrona. There must be something there that will provide a clue about Rubus’s plans.’

  ‘We scoured the area. There’s nothing,’ Finn grumbled. ‘There’s no need to go back. We even used a reveal spell after we recovered from the Madhatter’s attack.’

  I coughed loudly. ‘You attacked me. Not the other way around.’

  He waved dismissive. ‘Anyway, we used the spell in case there was any magical residue, or anything you or the bogle had inadvertently left behind. There was nothing.’

  ‘You used a what spell?’ Julie asked.

  Morgan smiled at her. ‘When there are some faery-related objects or spells, or—’

  ‘Not just faery,’ Finn interrupted.

  Morgan inclined his head, acknowledging the point. ‘I apologise. When there are some alternate demesne-related objects or spells or whatever, they are often hidden from sight. If any humans noticed them, they either wouldn’t understand what they saw or they would put themselves in grave danger by attempting to make use of them.’

  Julie was fascinated. Frankly, so was I. ‘Like what?’ she asked.

  He scratched his cheek. ‘Um…’

  ‘Wishing wells,’ Jinn interjected.

  ‘But I’ve seen wishing wells,’ Julie said. ‘They exist.’

  ‘You’ve only seen the fake ones. The real wishing wells are dangerous things. Even for us. In fact, especially for us. If every wish you made at a wishing well came true, imagine what would happen.’

  I screwed up my face. ‘I’d wish for Rubus to be stopped. Job done.’

  ‘Sure,’ Jinn said. ‘Then you might wish for all Redcaps to be dead. Morganus might annoy you one day and you’ll wish for him to be dead. And so on and so forth.’

  ‘I’m really not that petty,’ I snapped. ‘For you I can be persuaded though.’

  ‘You get my point,’ Jinn said, smiling slightly. For a large, bullish guy, he was very earnest. I sighed and nodded reluctantly. ‘So,’ he continued, ‘Mother Nature conspires to keep the real wishing wells hidden. We don’t believe there are many of them. You would have to know the exact location, and be in that exact spot, to use a reveal spell that allowed the well to be displayed. Not even Fey idiots like Rubus are crazy enough to go looking for one. But sometimes there are other things that are more useful to locate. Hence, reveal spells.’

  Julie shook her head in amazement. ‘I’m 173 years old and I never had an idea about any of this. Or about any of you.’

  Jinn shrugged. ‘Why would you? We keep ourselves hidden from each other all the time. We’re so determined to keep up the façade that we’re something else or someone else that we don’t notice what’s going on right in front of our own eyes.’

  Her eyes shone. ‘All this is simply fabulous.’ She licked her lips. ‘So do you have magic wands? Do you wave them in the air and say the magic word?’

  Morgan and Jinn laughed. ‘No, it’s not like that. Usually spells are bound up in objects of their own,’ Morgan said. ‘Virtually all magic needs something physical to cling onto. Any such objects are difficult to create and enormously valuable. I’ve only seen a few myself.’

  Jinn agreed. ‘Rubus has been collecting these objects for years. We’ve even hunted down a few of them for him. But there was no sign of any magical object or spell on or around the bogle’s body. Word is that the dragon’s magic-sucking device is very small. Of course, that makes it even harder to find. We’ve been trying to locate the dragon to see if he can help us trace it. That’s what we were doing now. We had a lead on a nearby flat which we attempted to search but,’ he frowned at both Morgan and me, ‘we were interrupted.’

  ‘Magically-bound objects,’ Julie breathed. ‘How wonderful.’

  I bit my lip. ‘Um…’

  ‘They are quite few and far between,’ Morgan cautioned. ‘It’s not easy to create such objects in the first place, let alone use them.’

  I put my hand tentatively up in the air. ‘Hello?’

  ‘But anything could be a bound object?’ she enquired.

  I waved my hand around a little. ‘Just a little thing I should mention,’ I said.

  ‘What is it, Maddy?’

  ‘You’re saying that you searched around the golf course for a magically bound object because retrieving it might have been why the bogle was at the golf course?’

  Finn shrugged. ‘Yeah. But it’s probably irrelevant to all this. We’ve not found a thing. There definitely wasn’t anything like that at the golf course, so there’s no point worrying your pretty little head about it.’

  I scowled at him. ‘Enough with the patronising,’ I said. ‘Because I’m going to save all our skins. You lot,’ I pointed at each one of them in turn, ‘are going to bow down to me and be pathetically grateful.’ They looked at me. ‘I have amnesia. If I’m not given relevant information, I can’t possibly help out. Now you’ve given me the relevant information, I can save the day. It’s quite simple really.’ I beamed.

  ‘Go on,’ Morgan growled.

  ‘Charrie the bogle did have something strange with him on the golf course. I know because I took it out of his pocket and kept it. I didn’t know what it was – in fact I still don’t. It’s a smooth metal sphere, not much larger than a marble, which is attached to some sort of hook. It’s so odd looking that I’d happily believe it’s one of these bound objects, maybe even the world-destroying one that we’re looking for. The bogle took it from the golf course and I took it from him.’ I spread my arms. ‘Ta da!’

  Jinn stared at me. ‘You have a magically-bound object from the bogle? But we searched your hotel room in case you’d taken something. And even when we were right behind you, there was no sign of a magical trail clinging to your body.’

  My grin stretched from ear to ear. ‘I can’t promise it’s magical or it’s the dragon’s magic-sucker – and I really think we ought to come up with a better name than magic-sucker – but I can assure you that I’ve had something of the bogle’s all this time.’

  ‘You didn’t think to mention this before?’

  ‘To be honest, I’d completely forgotten about it. Between dead bodies, saving soap stars, amnesia and running for my life, a little chunk of shiny metal didn’t seem all that important.’

  ‘Well, get it out.’ Julie gave an excited little skip. ‘Let’s take a look at it, darling!’

  Ah. ‘I don’t have it here.’

  Morgan frowned. ‘Where is it?’

  ‘It’s, uh, in my coat pocket.’

  ‘Where’s your coat? At Julie’s house?’

  I winced. ‘No. It’s, um, underneath a car. Near Mike Timmons – Begonius’s –Travotel.’

  Now everyone looked confused. ‘Mads, darling,’ Julie said. ‘Why would you put a coat under a car?’

  I raised my shoulders helplessly. What could I say other than the truth? ‘I didn’t want to give away my secret superhero identity if I could help it.’

  Finn stared at me. ‘That doesn’t make any sense.’ He flicked a look at his brother. ‘No wonder we didn’t notice anything magical. We didn’t realise how crazy she was and we didn’t think to look under the chassis of every vehicle we passed.’

  ‘If you possessed a super brain like mine, you’d understand why I did what I did,’ I said airily. ‘Or if you poss
essed any brain at all.’

  He started towards me but Jinn put a heavy hand on his shoulder, holding him back.

  Morgan passed a hand over his eyes. ‘Why are we all still here? Let’s get to that hotel and get hold of that coat.’ He was obviously still unhappy with me. ‘It would have helped if you’d mentioned this before, Madrona.’

  Yeah, yeah. I pointed at his wrist. ‘Are you wearing Jinn’s Rolex?’ I asked. ‘The one you took from me, which I took from him?’

  Jinn, Finn and Morgan bristled. Julie looked entertained; I knew I could count on her. ‘It’s back at the Metropolitan Bar,’ Morgan said, glaring at me. ‘I’ll return it to Jinn as soon as I can.’

  I thumped him on the shoulder and smiled broadly. ‘Good for you!’ I tripped over to the door. ‘Now that it’s agreed that I’m not the only one around here who’s made catastrophic errors of judgment, let’s vamoose.’ I spun round like every good superhero should and headed out. The others would follow.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Despite my blithe superhero styling and sauntering, I couldn’t prevent the constant niggles gnawing away at me, like those spa fish that nibble away dead skin from your feet. Except these metaphorical fish weren’t just nibbling; they were chomping at both my inner calm and my soul.

  Despite everything, I found it hard to believe that I could have killed anyone but there wasn’t anyone else who could have lopped off the bogle’s head. For all their faults, I didn’t believe that Finn or Winn were lying about their story. Neither, it appeared, did Morgan. So, either my former self had been working behind the scenes, just like the Redcaps, and doing everything she could to undermine Rubus and save the day – or she’d been working for Rubus all along and was as nasty and evil as he was. I tried to imagine myself being responsible for the end of the whole world. I’d go down in history. Except history would no longer exist. Gasbudlikins.

  When we reached a set of traffic lights and Morgan was forced to bring his motorbike to a stop behind the Redcaps’ van as we waited for the green, he turned his head towards me. ‘Stop it,’ he murmured. ‘You’re thinking too hard.’

  I grimaced. ‘I can’t help it.’

  ‘We’re on the right track, Maddy. We know exactly what Rubus is up to, so now we can work with the Redcaps to stop him.’

  ‘The Redcaps whose brother we killed, you mean.’

  ‘That was an accident,’ he pointed out, although his eyes looked pained.

  ‘Sure,’ I said, ‘that was an accident. But it’s the second death I’m responsible for.’ I turned baleful. ‘What if I did kill Charrie the bogle? What if my former self was fully aware that Rubus is looking to destroy this demesne and I was helping him?’ I swallowed, making a weak attempt at keeping the atmosphere light. ‘If he achieves his goal then there will be no more St Thomas Close. No more gin. No more Pot Noodles!’ A car pulled up behind us. I glanced at the sleepy-looking people inside and my stomach dropped. ‘No more families on the school run,’ I added in a strained whisper. ‘What if that’s the world I’m seeking to create, Morgan?’

  ‘Maybe it was what you were seeking.’ A muscle throbbed in his cheek. ‘Hell, Maddy, I’d have had no trouble believing it of you a week ago. But even if that was the case, I don’t believe it is now. You’re not the same person you were then.’

  I dropped my eyes. ‘You don’t know that for sure.’

  ‘Yes, I do.’ His voice was quiet but his expression didn’t flicker. He held my gaze steadily.

  The car behind us beeped its horn loudly and Morgan and I both jumped. The traffic lights had turned green and the Redcaps, with Julie beside them, had already accelerated away. Rather than rushing, however, Morgan leaned his head towards mine and with a feather-light touch brushed his lips against my cheek. Only then did he turn back around and rev the engine to move on.

  ***

  For convenience’s sake, both Morgan and the Redcaps parked in the Travotel car park. The beige blinds on the window of Timmons’ office twitched. For old times’ sake, I gave him a little wave. He didn’t wave back.

  Julie got out of the van and frowned at the hotel. ‘I don’t understand, darlings,’ she murmured. ‘Why would a faery be a manager of a hotel? And a hotel like this, to boot? Surely you’re all more fabulous than this?’ She waved a hand and I had to admit she had a point. Everything around us was dull and nondescript.

  ‘We try to keep a low profile,’ Morgan told her. ‘We don’t want humans learning of our existence.’

  She sniffed. ‘Darling, I’m a vampire with a high profile but you still didn’t know about my existence. Secrecy is no excuse for drabness.’

  I tried to muffle a giggle and glanced at the Redcap brothers. ‘I understand that you both want as many supernatural creatures on your side as possible but, vampire or not, Julie doesn’t have that many special abilities. How is she going to help bring Rubus down?’

  Jinn shrugged. ‘It’s less what she can offer and more who she can offer. She can bring other vampires to us. We obviously can’t involve humans. We don’t know which faeries to trust and there aren’t many of us Redcaps. But there are quite a few vampires around. If we can take care of idiots like the vampire hunters in exchange for their help in taking care of Rubus, we all win.’

  Julie coughed delicately. ‘I did try to tell them that there aren’t many of us. And that it’s been quite a while since I’ve been in contact with the others.’

  ‘Let’s not forget your age,’ Finn said, failing to notice Julie’s grimace. ‘That gives you a great deal of knowledge, wisdom and experience that we can put to good use.’

  Jinn nodded enthusiastically. ‘Once we get the werewolves on our side, we’ll have all the fighting power we need.’

  ‘What about the dragons?’ I asked, utterly fascinated.

  ‘They’re terrible fighters,’ he said. ‘But as well as the ability to create world-ending magical objects, they also have lots and lots and lots of gold. Rubus is minted – we’ll need considerable funds of our own if we’re going to match him.’

  ‘Obviously there will be plenty of faeries involved too,’ Morgan said. ‘Together we’ll easily overpower Rubus.’

  Jinn’s eyelid twitched. ‘That’s very good of you,’ he said. ‘But we have to point out the obvious.’

  Morgan frowned. ‘Which is?’

  ‘Rubus is your brother.’

  He stiffened. ‘In blood only. We have not been brothers in any other sense of the word for a long time.’

  ‘That may be but the Fey truce means you can’t attack him directly. And the family ties mean that you might not want to.’ He jabbed a squat, hairy finger in my direction. ‘And none of us know about her. None of us know whether she’ll run back to Rubus as soon as her memory returns. She could betray us all. Even she doesn’t know what she’ll do when she remembers.’

  ‘If she remembers,’ I butted in. ‘And I won’t betray you.’ I met his eyes. ‘I give you my word.’

  He didn’t blink. ‘I’ll believe that when I see it.’ He lifted up his chin. ‘Now where is this car? We need to retrieve the dragon’s magic-sucker.’

  I sighed. I’d have argued about my integrity but I wasn’t sure I believed in myself any more than anyone else did. And the magic-sucker was indeed what was important. I pointed down the street. ‘It’s that way.’

  We set off with me in the lead. I could only begin to imagine what an incongruous group we made: two hulking Redcaps, with overhanging foreheads and bulging ears; two green-eyed faeries – one of whom at least was eminently desirable – and a bottle-blonde soap star who was actually a vampire in hiding. You couldn’t make this shit up.

  I stopped thinking about it when Morgan’s fingers repeatedly brushed against mine as we marched. Every time we touched, a delicious tingle ran across my skin. He didn’t look at me and I didn’t look at him but I was almost certain that he was thinking the same. After all, there was a hotel right behind us with plenty of beds. Once the object was
safely back in my possession – presuming it was actually more than just an oddly shaped key chain – I’d direct us gently in that direction.

  I breathed out when we turned the corner, relieved that the dilapidated old car was still in the same spot. I grinned at the others and darted forward to it, crouching down to try and grab the bundled-up coat. When I couldn’t quite reach it, I got down even lower, my belly on the pavement, then I shuffled underneath the car. I’d done an even better job of hiding the coat than I’d realised.

  I’d only just snagged my fingers on the material, grimacing when I spotted the considerable amount of oil that had dripped onto it, when a new set of feet appeared from nowhere and a gruff, male voice spoke. ‘Hand her over.’

  My eyes widened and I froze, one hand still clutching the dirty raincoat. Another set of feet appeared, then another – and those were only the ones I could see. Morgan wouldn’t give me up – of that I was almost sure – but I reckoned Jinn, and certainly Finn, wouldn’t hesitate. Gasbudlikins.

  ‘We’re not going to do that.’

  If I’d not already been lying down, I would have fallen down. That was Finn’s voice. My winning personality must have brought him round to my side despite what happened to his brother. I relaxed slightly and grinned. Go me.

  ‘You don’t know who she really is,’ the disembodied voice continued. ‘Or what she’s capable of. She’s an evil creature of hell.’

  That was a bit melodramatic; even Morgan thought I’d changed. Not to mention that I was a faery, not a hellish demon.

  ‘We know exactly what she is,’ Jinn said. ‘She’s under our protection. You’re not having her.’

  I felt touched that he was standing up for me. Shaking myself out of my fugue, I scrabbled in the pocket of the raincoat, my fingers immediately finding the smooth metallic sphere. I drew it out and clutched it tightly in the palm of my hand. The Redcaps wouldn’t give me up and I wouldn’t give up the dragon’s magic-sucker. If that’s what it was.

  ‘We’ll kill you if we have to. She is unnatural. She doesn’t deserve to live.’