by Megan Marple
Gentry met me with a smirk. “I didn’t say it would be easy.”
Without the protection of disguises, we just had to hope that looking like stray travelers and lying low would keep suspicions at bay. I turned my cloak inside out and made sure the pendant was tucked away inside of it, unable to be activated. Just in case.
To be fair, Gentry wasn’t wrong about there being all sorts of magical beings here at the outpost. The arching entryway reminded me of some of the older architecture you’d find in homes along the Savannah River, from another point in history. Not only was the inside of the trading outpost filled to the brim with beings hawking their wares, but there were plenty of outside tents and tables where you could purchase just about anything. The spicy scent of curry mixed with the sweeter scent of jasmine filled my nostrils as we cautiously walked past a vibrant purple food tent where a couple of beautiful djinns were selling bowls of something savory and delicious. My mouth watered at the sight of it.
“Where do you think we should go first?” I whispered to Gentry, looking around the open-air market. “Any specific informants that would help the MARC, maybe?”
I was sure I just imagined the eye-roll as he nodded toward the entry of the main building. “No one likes the MARC around here. Let’s be clear on that. They’re not the most fond of witches to begin with, but if you have the means, they’ll sometimes cooperate.”
I followed after him as he weaved in and out of the crowd of bustling folks doing business at the outpost. I practically jumped out of the way of a ten-foot tall troll with a nasty look in his eye as he pushed past everyone to go back outside. Rude.
We headed toward the back of the building where the crowd seemed to thin out some. Less and less tables were covered in items and it hit me that these weren’t the misfit types back here… these were where the Fae did their work. Many of them used their gifts as a service to sell to those less fortunate around Danann. The stunningly beautiful creatures sitting and standing behind more elaborately set-up spaces with gauzy fabric and sweet, intoxicating scents caught onto our presence immediately. I could feel the icy-blue gaze from one of the Fae—possibly a Faerie knight even. I tried not to return the eye contact, still following after Gentry.
“Wait.”
The breathy voice sent chills up my spine, and even though I knew we shouldn’t draw attention to ourselves, I couldn’t stop myself from slowing down and turning.
The Faerie woman was young, possibly still in her human length life, with hair the color of autumn leaves in mid-October. Her eyes were impossibly blue, offset by lashes so thick and pale it was as if she was wearing delicate cobwebs along her eyelids. Once I took her in I realized that I actually recognized her somehow.
“You’re his sister,” she said in that same breathy voice, her sadness gripping at me.
Gentry was already back by my side, his eyes darting back and forth between us. “And who are you?”
“My name is Brennrie. I . . . knew your brother,” she said to me, ignoring Gentry completely.
I’d seen the side of her hauntingly beautiful face peeking out past her curtain of hair in a picture sitting on the table at my brother’s apartment, next to the one of our family. “You were his girlfriend.”
She simply nodded. “I was. Tristan spoke about you to me, although you’re a little different than what I’d imagined.”
I frowned. “Hm. Well, I guess I’m not really a spring chicken anymore, am I? We don’t age quite as gracefully as you do.” I guess the acid in my tone wasn’t exactly subtle, judging by the way she raised a pale blonde eyebrow at me.
“I was going to say that your hair looks different than—”
“Can we skip the pleasantries here? Let’s find a spot that’s a little more . . . cozy,” Gentry interrupted, looking over his shoulder at the Faerie Knight who was still watching us.
Brennrie and I both followed quickly behind Gentry until we were outside in the fresh air again. I had a million questions, but I knew thanks to my Shadow Hand training, that there was a line of questioning that worked best with the Fae.
Gentry must have been thinking the same thing. “So, your name is Brennrie? What Fae clan do you hail from?”
As young as she looked—really no older than twenty-five—there was a fierceness to her that didn’t like to be trifled with. “I had not realized that this was an interrogation,” she said coolly.
I gave Gentry a look. “Don’t worry about him, Brennrie. He’s what you’d call tactless. And believe me, I’m not here to interrogate you. I don’t work for the MARC or anything. I just want to find my brother.”
The angles on her face softened as her perfect posture drooped. “And that is the one thing I wish I could help with.”
“Surely you must know something,” Gentry said.
She didn’t bother looking at him, but I could see the same iciness in her gaze. “If I did then I would volunteer that information if I thought it would protect him.” When she did finally look at him, I could practically see the gears in her head spinning. “You. I have seen you before. What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t,” he replied.
I groaned. The last thing we needed was for our only real lead to get pissy with us. “What he means to say is that he grew up here. That’s probably where you recognize him from.”
Gentry folded his arms across his chest, flexing them as if to prove something. God, sometimes I didn’t understand how he of all people came to be my uncle’s top Shadow Hand enforcer.
But Brennrie didn’t like to play games. She rolled her blue eyes and focused on me again. “As I said, I have no information about Tristan. I trust you and your intentions of finding him,” she explained, before glancing over at Gentry. “You, I don’t. I can smell a MARC rat from a mile away. As most of us can.”
But this didn’t make much sense to me. At least the part about her not knowing anything about where Tristan was now. “My uncle was given a tip from someone here. About Tristan hiding away in Arcadia. And I figured he might be with you if he was here.”
Confusion clouded her face. “A tip? But he is not here. I would know it if he were. I would feel it,” she said, clutching at her chest.
Behind us, the noise of the building seemed to grow louder by the second. A few growls caught my attention enough to look backward, only to see a few shapeshifters circling a couple of vampires. That was not the sort of thing I wanted to be anywhere near, but Gentry had other plans.
“Better go and break this up,” he mumbled. Well, at least no one could say he wasn’t a true Shadow Hand, following the laws even outside of our territory.
“And we better get out of here before we end up get caught in it,” I said, motioning for Brennrie to follow me.
28
With the crisp air breezing past us, we found a spot way outside the main scope of the outpost. Brennrie waved her hand around and two large red-topped mushrooms grew three times their normal size until she sat down on one of them, gesturing for me to sit with her.
I crossed my ankles as I sat down, acting as if I was used to Faerie magic. “You and my brother. Why don’t you tell me about that?”
“Tristan and I . . . we were in love. I’d known him for a while. I have some friends who dabbled in the Dark Market here and there, though it was never really something I was interested in. My friend talked about him, always bragging that he would flirt with her and he was the only witch that could catch her eye.” The corner of her mouth twitched. “She invited him here to Arcadia. Told him it was a little adventure and that must have hooked him.”
I didn’t doubt it. My brother had a knack for all things adventurous and also dangerous.
“When he did come, it wasn’t my friend he was listening to or wanting to dance with. He saw me and acted as though he’d completely forgotten about her. He asked me to dance in one of our Faerie circles. I told him it was dangerous, and he didn’t care. He said he just wanted an excuse to touch my hand.
So, I let him. My friend, Jessamine, wasn’t a fan of his after that.”
It was hard not to smile at the way her eyes sparkled when she talked about him. “It sounds like you two were very close.”
She nodded. “Considerably so. I begged him to come live with me here, but in the end, it was Tristan’s charms that won out, and I moved in with him. But then . . .” her voice trailed off as she pulled her knees up to her chin and looked straight ahead. “Things became complicated for him. He became irritable. Enoch demanded his presence more often than not. He was forced to work longer hours for him, rarely getting the chance to come back and have any time alone with me. He was miserable there in the Dark Market, and I was miserable staying in his place all alone.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. It must have been difficult for you.’
“Incredibly so. I hated that he was away so much. I thought that when he told me he was planning on getting out of Enoch’s business endeavors that would change our situation for the better. But before he had a chance to do so, he came back one night completely shaken. Something bad had happened to him and he told me he had to leave. He said I needed to go back to Arcadia and forget about him. He even . . .” she sniffled, wiping delicately at her nose with the sleeve of her dress. “He even told me that he’d compel me to leave him if I weren’t already a Faerie. Witch magic has different effects on us and doesn’t work as strongly. I told him I’d never forgive him if he forced me to do anything. And then he did. That bastard sent my brother, Mikhail, after me. You see, Mikhail never approved of our relationship and Tristan knew that. He knew that if he told him that I was in danger Mikhail would come collect me. That was him in the Fae armor watching us in there,” she explained, pointing her long finger toward the building. “And he did. I’ve been here ever since.”
Ouch. I couldn’t imagine how that must have felt to her. If Tristan would’ve done that to me he’d be missing several limbs most likely. “He shouldn’t have done that. Men have a funny way of trying to do the dutiful thing to protect us. Even when we’re strong enough to protect ourselves.”
She looked up at me as if inspecting me for something. “I suppose you’re right. But I swear to you, Gwendolyn, I have not seen or heard from him since I’ve been back. You know that I cannot lie.”
“I wouldn’t think you were lying, even if you weren’t a Faerie. But this just doesn’t make any sense. The MARC’s sources are reliable. I don’t know how they would’ve gotten such a dead-end tip.”
“I would have known if Tristan were here. Before I had to leave I made sure to do a bit of sensing magic on him. So I’ll know if he’s close-by. He wouldn’t stay here unless it was to be able to keep watch over me, I don’t think.”
I smiled. “I think you’re right about that. And thank you for telling me all this. I know it can’t be easy trusting a stranger.”
Brennrie stood up so gracefully that I felt like a baby giraffe taking its first steps when I hopped off the mushroom next to her. “You’re hardly a stranger to me, Gwendolyn. Like I said, your brother told me much about you. He cares very much for you, you know. And besides, it wasn’t you I was concerned about. It was your partner. The Shadow Hand.” She spoke the last words as if they tasted particularly disgusting.
“Hey, I get it. But he’s not so bad, believe it or not,” I laughed.
“It’s the MARC in general. Things between our realms have been shaky at best.”
“That’s the first I’ve heard about it. What do you mean?”
“It does not matter. My kind will always have an issue with your kind and its rules. It’s a tale as old as time itself, really.”
She brushed it off as if it were no big deal, but I knew there was something else at play here. Arcadia didn’t trust witches so much, yeah, I knew that, but this was different. It was as if the foundation under our feet really was shaky.
“Well, thank you again for talking with me. It’s nice to hear about my brother from someone else who cares so much about him,” I said with a smile.
Heavy footsteps fell across the pebbled walkway until I turned to see Gentry wiping a small trail of blood from the corner of his mouth.
“This is what happens when you sell wolfsbane at an open market where wolf shifters walk freely,” he chuckled, spotting a tattered part of his sleeve. He ripped it off and stared at me. “What did I miss?”
“I was just telling Brennrie thank you for talking with me. Apparently, she and Tristan had—” my voice died in my throat as I noticed she was nowhere to be found. “Brennrie?” I called out, spinning around.
“Guess she didn’t want to hang around and talk about old times after all. Did you get any more information about him from her?”
I glared at him. “You know, you don’t have to be so careless about this whole thing. I know it’s just a job to you or whatever, but this is my family we’re talking about. Show a little more respect, will you?”
“Whoa, whoa. No need to get all angry with me. I was just asking a question.”
I folded my arms. “Right. Well, it looks like Uncle Gardner’s tip was a total dead-end. She said she hasn’t seen or heard from him in weeks. Since everything happened with Enoch. So now what?”
Gentry scratched as his chin. “I suppose we should get back. And let your uncle know about this. Maybe he can use his power of command to bring Brennrie in and question her some more.”
“No. Absolutely not. The poor thing as already gone through enough and she made it clear she had nothing to do with him afterward. We’ll tell Uncle Gardner what happened, but I will not have her being interrogated.”
A white-hot pain burned against my hip as soon as I raised my voice, and I hissed. I moved my hand under the cloak and nearly forgot it was the pendant hiding there, glowing brightly even through the fabric. I tried to cover it up before Gentry saw but his eyes swept over where my hand was inside the cloak, his dark eyebrows rising slowly.
He didn’t say anything about the glowing object in my pocket, but I knew he wasn’t an idiot. He probably had guessed his boss had given me something as a precaution. How he felt about not being included in this, I didn’t know.
“Maybe she was purposefully being deceitful. Not outright lying—I know that’s impossible. But the Fae are very tricky when they want to be.”
I shook my head. “No. She wasn’t trying to deceive me. She didn’t trust you, but she said she trusted me. I don’t see why she’d be anything than one-hundred-percent honest with me.”
“Suit yourself. But if that tip did end up coming from her, she’s going to have to answer to the MARC. Whether she likes it or not.”
Gentry wasn’t a bad guy and the determined look in his eye wasn’t malevolent, but I knew he was in it to win it when it came to tracking down my brother. And I still didn’t know how I was going to use this to get to him first.
29
“Your drooling has become a problem.”
A soft, fluffy something swatted at my arm thrown over the side of the bed.
“Go away,” I mumbled, vaguely aware of the wetness on my chin and pillow. My head was still pounding as if I were hungover. I guess after spending the day fighting off Fae magic, I sort of was.
“If you insist. Although I must tell you that the mongrel is crying downstairs. Apparently, he requires food.”
Without missing a beat, I opened one bleary eye. “Then why don’t you make him something? It’s not that hard, Osh. I do it for you practically every morning.”
The brilliant white sharp edges of Oisín’s teeth became visible as he grinned. “I could very well do that. I believe there’s some spare rat poison underneath the kitchen sink, in fact.”
I sat up and glared at him. “Must you always be such a jerk to my dog? What has he done to you? You act as if you’re actually a cat with a bone to pick with him. Or maybe your feline brain has overtaken the rest of you.” One could only dream.
Oisín’s tail flicked behind him as he jumped down from my
bed onto the floor. “He follows me around like a depraved lunatic. It’s as if he enjoys me picking on him.”
And with that he was out the bedroom door and down the hall. I shook my head.
“Well, there’s no accounting for good taste.”
It took a hot shower, a hair brush, and some toothpaste to feel normal again but once I’d thrown on a t-shirt and shorts, I tucked the pendant inside my shirt and padded down the hallway and into the kitchen. I knew it was mid-morning without even looking at the clock on the wall, by the way the sunlight was slanting through the windows.
Pushing back the sheers on the window at the sink, I sighed. A gorgeous day and here I was, stuck inside feeling like absolute crap. It figured. I was essentially playing hooky from work and I wasn’t even able to really enjoy it.
Jax yipped at my ankles, his tail wagging like crazy as I bent down and scratched behind his furry ears. “Hey buddy. You hungry?”
He leaned into my hand before licking it like an ice cream cone.
“Okay, okay,” I laughed. “I’ll get you some food. In fact, I should probably feed myself, too.” I poured his kibble into his bowl, nudging it into the usual corner with my foot, and poured some fresh water into his other bowl. “If only it were that simple to make myself something to eat.”
The pendant hummed against my chest, teasing me. It wanted me to use magic. It would be only too easy to make a quick omelet, or even something more complex using it. I wasn’t exactly known for my cooking prowess, after all. The pendant must have sensed my hesitation.
“No. That’s not what this is for,” I reminded myself out loud, garnering a quirky look from Jax before he dove back into his food. “I can do this on my own. That’s what I signed up for.”
I leaned against the counter, staring out the front window of the house. I did truly miss having the ability to use my magic however I wanted. It always felt a little like cheating whenever I wanted to use it here in the Human Realm. Not to mention the fact that it wasn’t nearly as powerful here. But was that the real reason that stopped me? Or was it the guilt I had about Fiona-Leigh?
