by Perry, D. R.
“I can do it.”
“Then return whence you came, renewed.”
The pungent odor of crushed grass and old leaves met my nose. I took an honest to goodness breath. Staring at the ground was no good, so I pushed off and sat up. When I blinked, the number nine appeared on the inside of my eyelids. I did it again, and the numeral persisted.
“So that’s what they meant by renewed. Wow.”
“Tony!” Arms and feathers surrounded me, Olivia’s cheek pressed against mine. This was Heaven, and if I wasn’t mistaken, I had nine more lives left to experience it with.
“Damn kid.” My father still stood on the other side of the portal, pointing his gun at the ground.
“Will you shoot again, Dad?”
“Nah. The silencer’s busted.” My father wore an expression I’d never seen before. It reminded me of the time I’d snuck in to see The Sixth Sense in the theater. At the end of the movie, all the people had the same dazed and bemused look now appearing on my father’s face.
“What was that arrow, Olivia?” I turned to look at her.
“Arrow of truth.” She grinned. “It works for Wonder Woman’s lasso. Why not the Gamayun and her magic bow?”
“Huh.” I blinked.
“Miss Adler’s a rare bird.” Dad’s voice made my tail stand up, all the hairs on end. I hadn’t expected an answer from him. “The neutral magical bird shifter.”
“They’re extinct, though.” I shook my head. “Legends.”
“So are Kells Cats.” Dad’s eyes narrowed in a greedy glare I knew too well. “And one of those has been dangled in front of me like a fish on a line for over twenty years. That was why I got so pissed when your body vanished. I must have miscounted the times you died. That house falling on you should have been nine, so shooting you was extra credit. I don’t know why you’re still sucking wind. I want the ear that gives you your power.”
“But why?” I couldn’t understand. A Kells Cat’s ear wouldn’t do him any good. Those neutral magic shifter pieces only worked on people born in the Under.
“Ask him where Cassandra Spanos has been all this time.” Olivia’s glare was sharp and palpable. “Ask why she’s put on weight, while you’re at it.”
“Oh, no, Dad.” I shook my head. “You didn’t.”
“I made sure my second son was born in the queen’s castle.” Dad smiled. “Not a hole in the ground like you two.”
“I’ll have you know that the Royal Howe is no mere hole in the ground. It’s special in ways that bend the rules between courts nearly to their breaking points.” The Goblin King strode forward, hand on the hilt of his sword. “But a pretender to Roman greatness can wait for my attention. My champion will direct me as to the fate of the interloper.”
“Your Highness,” Olivia made the most graceful curtsy ever done while holding a nocked bow. “This interloper wishes to ask your permission to remain in your demesne.”
“Does he now?” The king’s eyebrow tilted upward. “He shall have to speak for himself.”
The wolf shifter sat up and begged. His whine carried more than just canine noises, even though I couldn’t have deciphered it in a million years. The king chuckled. Of course, he spoke wolfanese.
“Champion, you are released from my service. For now.” The king put his hands together in a series of slow claps, as though we’d finished nineteen holes on the fairway instead of a Quest in the Under. “Derek Dennison, you have my permission to remain here until you choose to leave. If you should return, however, I expect to hear of it with haste.”
“He can use my portal here if he wants.” Dad’s brief grin went as sour as moldy cheese. “I’ll kill him the second he gets to this side, though.”
“I commend you for your newfound honesty, Gino.” The king inclined his head. “I am sure my former wife and her suitor will appreciate it immensely, especially once they understand your true opinion of them.”
“No.” Dad reminded me of the first guy I saw insulting him. That fellow turned up dead in the bay three months later.
“What’s wrong, Dad?” I asked. “You can take those two, right?”
“I can’t.” He looked like an empty balloon. “But you. You and your punk kid friends. You could hide me, son.”
“But I won’t.” I shook my head. “I’m on the right side of the law, remember? Hiding fugitives isn’t the kind of thing I should be doing.”
“I bet Extrahuman Witness Protection would help, though.” Olivia’s voice carried a flood of sincere concern. I wasn’t surprised. She’d see the good in a discarded candy wrapper if it needed help. As unrealistic as that was in my dad’s case, I loved her for it. “If you offer to help put Hopewell away, they’ll protect you.”
“I’m no rat.” Dad’s left hand reached for his pocket. “Good luck finding me.”
The magic holding his portal open started fading. I didn’t even have to look at Olivia for agreement. The time for questioning her trust was over. We jumped, and Derek bounded after.
Chapter Fourteen
Olivia
I stumbled when we landed, nearly toppling onto Derek Dennison in his wolf form. Tony didn’t. Cats really do always land on their feet. I wondered how he’d managed that with his tail, ears, and whiskers vanishing once we stepped into the mortal realm. He must have been prepared for that eventuality. I had been, too. In error.
An updraft coming off the water righted me. I still had my partially shifted extras. It finally occurred to me that although Tony had cat features besides his tail, I only had wings in the Under. I shook off the unintended woolgathering. Gino Gitano was getting away. I pulled my phone from the pockets that had replaced my satchel when the king upgraded our clothes and started a message to all the right people.
“Dad, wait!” Tony took a step forward.
“Not when you got that pigsticker, I won’t.” Gino stepped back as fast as a suburban power-walker with his hands up in front of him.
“Um.” Tony looked down at the copper dagger in his hand, then stuck it in the post to my left. “Changed my mind. I’ll help hide you if you cooperate with the police.”
“You make no sense at all, you know that?” Gino shook his head. “What do you want to help me for?”
“Because you’re my dad.” Tony paced toward his father, hands out to his sides. “Because even though you’ve been a right criminal bastard, we’re still blood. My godmother said Mom loved you. There has to be some good in you still if that’s true.”
“You met the crazy fox bitch, then. Good.” Gino chuckled and stopped, then put his hands down. “She’s not what she says she is, you know. And yeah, your mother loved me. I loved her. But you came along and ruined all that.”
“What?” Tony froze.
“Celestina was my moon and stars. Mine.” His voice lowered to a threatening rumble, like a distant thunderstorm. “The second she went into labor, she stole that Kells ear from me and ran to the Under, tithed to that fool of a king. Your mother, a Sidhe changeling, went Unseelie because she saw in some vision that she had to. For your sake.”
“She was a Precog?” Tony’s shoulders drooped. I wanted to do something, say something to comfort him, but he needed to hear this, and I would not interrupt. I finished my text message instead. “You never told me that. Or anything else about her, either.”
“You didn’t deserve to know anything about her! You ruined her and ruined us!” Gino’s hands made fists like small boulders.
“How?”
“By existing.” Tony’s father took a step toward him. “She loved you more. She was yours before you even took your first breath. You stole my Celestina’s heart from me, and I’ll hate you forever for it.”
Tony staggered back as though his father’s words were physical blows. I understood exactly the kind of man Gino Gitano was now, even though I’d hoped for better. Did Tony? I tapped Send.
Tony
“Did you ever think there might be some other reason?” I tried to sta
nd up straight, throw my shoulders back, and knock off all the chips on them in the process. Instead, I barely managed to keep my voice from cracking. “Maybe Mom stopped loving you because you’re a jealous, possessive meathead with homicidal tendencies.”
“Those things never bothered her before.” Dad showed his teeth. “Tina was a survivor. She understood the Reveal was changing everything. It was why she chose the strongest mate.” He looked past me at Olivia and smirked. “You take after her in that, at least.” He chuckled. “Gamayun. That’s power big enough to make your Kells Cat shtick look like a lame duck in comparison, but nothing you do will ever make up for how you turned your mother on me. You made it so she had to die and leave me stuck with you. You’re not the son I wanted.”
“I never was. Never will be.” I managed to drag my gaze up from that creepy grin to his eyes. He’d said things like that before, implying it was my fault he’d killed Mom. “And here’s a big surprise. I care about that. I care way too much about your thoughts and feelings.”
Dad chuckled, the sound tapering into the rumbling purr he always let loose when he knew he’d won. But he didn’t know jack. He held his right hand cocked, inches from the copper-loaded gun at his hip.
“It ain’t healthy. You make noises like everything’s my fault, and you even believe it, but none of that’s true. Now it’s time to put the blame where it belongs. I grew up twisted, scared of my own shadow. Hinky, they called me. Because of you.” I hung on his gaze and used it, clawed my way up from the half-crouch he’d cornered me into for most of my life. I watched his eyes widen, almost missing the tremor in his right hand. “And that. Ends. Now.”
I stood straight and tall, his scowl roiling around me like fog in the darkest hour of the night. I let him sulk and grumble, the fact that all his words were true unable to cut me down. Because of him, I knew darkness. But because of Olivia, I knew it died with the light, and there was none harsher than truth and justice. None brighter than love and friendship.
High-beams cut across the grass, the wet crunch and smack of tires on damp pavement a counterpoint to Derek’s growl. Dad’s smoke-and-shadows act burned away as he turned away from me.
“Mister Gitano, you’re a material witness in an open investigation.” A pair of slender shadows bisected the headlights, one about my height and the other nearly six feet tall. “I also suspect you’ve got key information on a case currently at trial. I’ve got a subpoena.”
“Good luck keeping me alive to honor that.” Dad’s left shoulder hitched in a shrug.
“I just happen to have Luck in abundance.” The shorter figure moved closer, and I made out his face. Yoshi Ichiro. Olivia had called her employer to deal with the Mafia boss. “Come with me if you want protection.”
“Said it before, I’m no rat.”
“This isn’t about any alleged connection to illegal imports and exports, sir.” I recognized the voice. Albert Dunstable. “This is about catching a bigger fish.”
“I know that fish. He’s one cold shark. You either join him or sleep with other specimens of the scaly and water breathing variety if you know what I’m saying.”
“All the same, we can protect you if you agree to help us.”
“Wait.” The word barked out sharp, like a blade on a chalkboard.
Derek Dennison stood there on two legs, one hand holding a branch that blocked everything from his waist to his thighs from view. Thank goodness. I remembered him now.
“You’re Josh’s missing older brother.” I looked from him to my father. I already knew the answer to my question, but Dad didn’t. “Why should the best extrahuman defense attorney wait for a scrub werewolf without a stitch to his name?”
“Because this scrub belongs to the FBE, kid.” Derek coughed. “Ichiro and Dunstable made a nice offer, but they need law enforcement supervision when dealing with someone like your Dad here, and I’m one of the agents assigned to this whole mess.”
“Good points.” I smirked. “Sorry for calling you a scrub.”
“Nah, it’s good.” Derek waved his free hand. “Anyway, we’d better be going.”
He strode toward the car, somehow managing to snag Dad by the arm and making it look easy. All the hair went up on the back of my neck. Everything would have been different if Derek hadn’t got stuck in the Under instead of being free to investigate since the spring. Maybe Wilfred Harcourt would still be alive. Maybe Josh and company would have had more help with everything that came after, too.
“Just call your parents,” I called after him. “Your brother and sister, too.”
“Well, duh.” Derek had his back to me, but I still thought I could hear his eyes roll.
Ichiro got in the driver’s seat while Derek ushered my father into the back. Albert Dunstable had his hand on the front passenger door, about to pull the handle.
“Wait, Al!” Olivia ran forward. “Can you stick around for a minute?”
“I suppose.” He stepped away from the car, waving at its occupants. After it pulled out and drove off, he met us halfway between the monument and the parking lot. “What’s this about, then?”
“I have something for you.” Olivia rummaged in one pocket of her feathered skirt. “If only I could remember where I put it.”
“Hold on,” Al chewed his lower lip, his eyebrows drawing a line in his forehead between them. “Is that Unseelie adventuring gear you’re wearing?”
“Watch it, Al.” I made a cutting motion with my fingers. “Ix-nay on the estions-quay.”
“Hmm.” One of Al’s eyebrows avoided the imminent confrontation with its opposite by lifting halfway between his eye and his hairline. “You have magic now. So, you’re tithed to the king.”
“Um, no.” Olivia blinked, her hand finally out of her pocket and curled around a garishly colored piece of paper. “This magic isn’t faerie. It’s older. I only put high-ranking faeries into debt with questions. You’re just a knight, Al. You’re good. The king told me that as the Gamayun, I’m a free agent, like Kells Cats and Kitsunes.”
“So you’re not the Sirin. Good. One of us would have to leave the law firm if that were the case. Too much risk of monarchal wrath.”
“What to the who now?” Being left out of the loop bugged me even more than the confusion that came with it.
“You study faerie history, and you’ve never heard of the three magic birds?” Al blinked. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Of course, I’ve heard of them.” I shook my head. “But only the Alkonost has been active recently. The Sirin feather is around somewhere.” I wasn’t about to tell them about the thing in my pocket. “The Gamayun feather vanished.”
“Like Kitsunes vanished, right?” Olivia sighed. “Hoo, boy. They’re trinket bearers like you and me. You get an ear. Kitsunes get tails. We get feathers. But I didn’t call Al back for a history lecture. Your dad wasn't bluffing.”
Another car approached, turning its lights off at a respectable distance this time. I tried not to peer into the darkness after it. Familiar voices got louder and closer. I smelled vampire, bear, and human, and felt the tingle of Psychic energy in the air and a prickle of magic. The magic felt light, but worn as though with use. Whoever the Magus was, it had to be a professor, not a student. I wondered which faculty member my pack would drag to a cemetery in the middle of the night, then shut my curiosity inside a box.
I didn’t bother waiting for Tinfoil Hat’s arrival. Instead, I turned to watch Olivia hand Al the paper. I recognized it. The kid’s drawing of herself and her mom and grandpa that Kiki had been trying to steal. As the Sidhe’s hand met the flimsy newsprint, his hair blew back even though there wasn’t any wind. What little color he had left his face.
“You’ll tell me where you got this, Olivia.”
“I can only tell you that deep down, you already know who it came from.”
“So say it.”
“It’s not my place to say.” Olivia smiled gently. “I’m just a messenger.”
&
nbsp; “Why bother bringing something you can’t explain?”
She probably would have answered, but after that, everything went sideways.
Chapter Fifteen
Olivia
“Move!” I leaped into the air, using my wings to maneuver between the newly opened portal and Tony and Al. I had some crazy idea that I could shield them both with my wings the way Blaine had described shielding Jeannie and Kimiko from bullets six months earlier. But I was a bird, not an armor-plated dragon. I’d get shot to bits.
At that moment, I didn’t care. Nothing in the universe could make me go through losing Tony again.
No projectiles tore through my feathers. No bullets riddled my back.
“Turn around.” Tony glared at something over my shoulder, someone who invoked as much negative emotion in him as his father.
“Fine.” I did as he asked, keeping my wings outstretched just to be on the safe side.
“I always hated that insipid rhyme about the owl and the pussycat.” Richard Hopewell’s sneer looked as sharp as the knife he held to Kiki’s throat. “And I am sick and tired of you meddling kids escaping death all the time. It’s even worse when I consider how much I hate your elders with their 'magic for everyone' agenda.”
“Karen, no!” Henrietta Thurston looked older than usual, the gray in her hair more pronounced, and her posture stooped and cowering. The anguish in her voice startled me almost as much as the unfamiliar name she’d given to Tony’s godmother.
“Hi, Hen. Ow!” Kiki’s attempt at a parade wave got cut off by Richard Hopewell’s knife pressing closer to her neck.
“Listen here, you sorry excuse for a Scooby-Doo villain,” Tony’s voice drawled, the letter R dropping like hot potatoes. “You let go of my godmother, or there’ll be hell to pay.”
