"Are the other doors still up and running?" I asked Tilly once the three of us were finally alone again. Both Nina and Jeff had been confident that there wouldn’t be just one way into the castle.
"There are two others," Tilly confirmed. "One in the kitchen pantry, another in the third floor bedroom. Mrs. Hessman and her sons had taken that room, but I convinced them to switch with me."
"Where do they go?"
"That's the problem. I don't know. The only way to see for sure is to step through, but for all we know either one could take us right to wherever Aoife is now."
"Maybe that's something we could use," I suggested, thinking out loud more than actually wanting to go on the offensive.
"It's possible. But those connections are as dormant as the last one. Unless someone is waiting on the other side, I won't be able to open them easily either."
"Easily? So it's possible?"
Tilly studied the room before answering, starting to speak more than once before finally committing to her words. "It will be easier from this side, but it will take time. Possibly days. And again, we have no way of knowing that the current paths of these passages would be of any use to us. We could be inviting more danger in."
She bit her lip, clearly concerned that whatever I was going to do next wouldn’t be the safest of options. It was a good reminder that here was yet another person whose story I didn't know yet. Someone who had clearly been through more than enough crap at the hands of the factions to feel a justifiable pull towards caution.
One more person I needed to protect.
"What I'm thinking is more in line with finding us a way out. I thought I'd be planning an escape for everyone, and instead people keep showing up. We've got kids here now. So can we find a way to utilize one of these rabbit holes as a back door? If the hard work is getting them up and running, is it possible to reroute them?" My mind was moving quickly now, considering all the possibilities that this fae magick offered us. "How far can these passages go?"
Tilly frowned, leaving me feeling as though I'd put her on the spot somehow. "Certainly, it can be done. But not by me. That requires great power, far beyond what I possess."
Ah. "I was just thinking out loud," I said, smiling as wide as I could without looking deranged. I didn't want Tilly to feel that she'd disappointed me somehow, not in the slightest. I should have known that while there were those who had joined us that had greater magicks, their powers were limited—which was, more often than not, what had led them to me in the first place.
Still, it was a bit of a shame. In this building alone, we had people capable of all sorts of things. And gathering in Galway now were some of the strongest magicks in the world. But we'd never quite managed to all pull in the same direction.
Imagine what we could do if we were all working together.
A quick knock came at the door before Jeff, with a sheepish look in his face, stuck his head into the bedroom.
"Everything okay?" I asked. The question was becoming something of a new mantra for me. If the universe could constantly assure me that everything was fine, maybe my mind wouldn't implode.
"Rory Hessman may have gotten himself nabbed by one of the booby traps." He quickly raised a hand as though to ease the sickening fear that was already rising in my throat. He was just a boy! "He's fine! Just stuck. Taya will help." He paused, suppressing a chuckle. "And I think it's going to be a good long while before his brother lets him live this one down."
Chapter 3
Getting a small child out of a mystical, human-sized spider web had proved to be a little beyond Taya's skill set, but we got it done. Eventually.
"How worried should we be about the traps?" I asked Taya, Tate, and Jeff soon after, pouring everyone fresh cups of coffee. The kitchen was easily the best lit room I'd seen so far, with a row of wide windows over the back counters, looking out into the gardens. "Has it just been luck that we're only dealing with immobilization spells so far?" When no one volunteered an answer, I was forced to speculate. "I doubt she'd have set some traps up to kill and others just to catch intruders. It looks like she wanted to snag anyone who wandered in here."
"That sounds like her," Jeff agreed. "She'd know that anyone who managed to get in here had done it with an agenda. She'd want to know what it was. And hey, if she wanted to kill them, anyone her traps managed to get wouldn't be in a position to stop her."
Leaning against the counter, Tate frowned, his dark eyebrows furrowing with concern. "You make it sound like she's some indiscriminate killer."
Jeff shrugged but didn't argue.
"Let's not oversimplify things here." Tate put his coffee down on the counter before shoving his hands in his back pockets. "None of us involved liked the way she handled things, but she did everything with a purpose."
Maybe Jeff didn't want to argue. I didn't feel quite as generous. "Some of you were on board enough to kidnap a teenage girl just because her father was a werewolf." I'd never pointed out the perpetrators to Ethan, wanting to make sure some of my new allies lived to fight another day, but I hadn't forgotten either. "And even after everything imploded, some of your friends still agreed with Aoife enough to go with her when she left Ireland. We all know she's not out of the fight yet, and she's not alone. We now know just how persuasive she can be, so we have to assume she's convinced even more people that she's the side worth fighting for."
"Honestly, the fact that she hasn't made another move yet makes me nervous. There aren't many things more dangerous than a true believer," Tate grumbled from across the room.
I nodded. "Absolutely. Which is exactly why we need to assume Aoife's willing to do whatever it takes."
"As opposed to us," Tate asked. I couldn't quite tell if it was a question or a statement, but there was obviously something he was trying to say. I waited. Either he'd spit it out, or he wouldn't. "What Aoife was looking to do... well, there's a reason so many of us were behind her. The summit will happen in just a couple of days, and more likely than not the factions will decide that it's time to go public, before we're forced to. And they'll start small. With us. Whichever lesser magick people seem the most harmless to humans, we'll be the face of the biggest news story of all time. And then everyone will just wait to see if we get murdered. Or locked up in cages. Or dissected. And from what I've seen of humanity lately, I'm not feeling all that optimistic."
"So it's okay to take little girls from their homes? Or murder any fae you can get your hands on to start a war with the wolves?" I asked, trying not to sound as hostile as I felt.
"Of course not. Things got too hot, went too far. Honestly, looking back, I don't know what I was thinking. If I'd been asked by anyone else, or on a different day, or under different circumstances... I want to think I'd have made a better choice."
I grimaced, feeling too many things at once. "Aoife got lucky. Aoife is lucky." I didn't need to explain it to either of the guys, and Taya had heard me rant about the unfairness of it all more than once. As a leprechaun, Aoife's power was literally luck. If fate had a say, then more often than not, things would go her way. We were probably all a little lucky that she'd decided to take up this particular cause rather than going into the world domination game. "That doesn't mean she has the right to decide she doesn't like something and take matters into her own hands."
"Do we really know that the summit is all but a formality now?" Taya asked from her stool at the counter.
I tried to muster up more certainty than I felt. "We don't. And in theory, the summit is the right move for something like this. Humans are becoming a real problem; we won't be able to just ignore it. And getting as many people together to find the right answer has to be the best way forward. At least, it's the best one I can think of. Where Aoife wanted to derail the summit all together, I want to use it to our advantage. I want to use it to change minds, to get our voices heard."
"Instead, we're in hiding," Jeff countered.
Taya stepped in. "We're biding our time. The summit ha
sn't happened yet. Hanging out in the city is just asking to start a fight, which isn't what we want." She looked at me. "Right?"
"Right!" I had kind of hoped that part would be obvious by now. "Even if every single lesser magick person on the planet decided to join forces, there's no way we'd win that battle, or the war. There are too many of them, and they're far better established than we are. They have resources that would take us generations to amass. We can't win that way. I don't even think I want to win that way. So we take another route."
"Okay," Tate said slowly. "But what if that doesn't work?" He raised both his hands. "Just for the sake of argument here! What if things are too far gone, or the vampires are too pissed, or Aoife goes on a fae killing spree? What if there's no way for us to fix things? The summit goes forward exactly like Aoife says it will, and we're all screwed. All while they're still killing us on sight in Ireland and Greece. There has to be a breaking point."
I couldn't pretend this wasn't something I'd considered.
"I guess we have to wait and see what we're dealing with. We fight when we have to, but dire circumstances won’t change how outnumbered and outgunned we are. My best guess? We run." I took a long sip of my coffee, letting it refuel me from the inside out. "It's why I want to see what we can do with the rabbit holes here and what options we can find for Greece. I think that's what all of this comes down to, Aoife, the summit, what we do and where we go: options."
From the look on Tate's face, that hadn't been the pep talk or rousing speech he'd hoped for. I'd been hearing from every corner of the world's lesser magicks community since I'd first declared our faction, and while I hadn't had the chance to respond to as many of these messages as I'd have liked, I'd read every one. Tate wasn't the only person looking to fight back, literally whenever possible. Tensions simmering for years were quickly coming to a boil.
I finally broke the long, tense pause. "The one thing I can promise is that we're going to be the ones making the decisions about all of this. We'll find our options, and we'll pick which ones are best for us. We're done with the factions charting our courses. They wanted us out of Ireland; instead, we got out of their line of sight. No matter how many of them come to Galway for the summit, they aren't going to be focusing on us or what we're up to. We bought ourselves some time to make the next move."
"Maybe they won't all be looking out for us, or giving half-a-damn about what we're doing, but some of them will be." Taya took another long sip of coffee, emptying her mug before walking over to the sink. "Leda says Nadir left Greece two nights ago. He's sure as hell not coming as the official Greek delegate. Guess what he’ll be putting his time toward? Either looking for us, or looking to make friends and bolster his cause. It doesn't sound like he has many allies left in Greece, not after he lost his own home and half his power base. But Nadir is old; he knows how to play politics better than most."
"And we'll stay out of his way." Unfortunately, I wasn’t entirely sure how to go about that, not if I also wanted to make our presence known at the summit. "If he has plans, we just need to make our move first."
Jeff raised an eyebrow. "And our move is what, exactly?"
"Still working on that. But I'm open to suggestions. Right now, I'm..."
The kitchen door shut abruptly, shocking me into silence. It wasn't a slam, per se, so much as an old heavy door incapable of closing softly.
Tilly had walked into the kitchen, madly typing away on my phone. I'd handed it over to her to help Taya free Rory, asking for help to keep on top of all of my incoming messages. They'd been coming in fast and furious for days now, picking up speed with every new development. I didn't even know how these people were getting my email address, but couldn't risk bypassing any messages that could be a matter of life or death. Simon had already been dispatched twice to Greece, once to Belfast, and once all the way to Uruguay to help people make quick escapes.
Tilly handed me the phone as soon as she reached me. "We have reason to believe someone is going to attempt to break in to your apartment. They might be there already."
"Nadir?" Taya asked, taking a few long strides to stand behind me and read my messages over my shoulder as my eyes scanned the screen.
Thankfully, her guess was way off base. The message waiting for me was from the only werewolf I truly counted as a friend...although not the one I wanted to hear from most. I didn't know if Ethan was someone I'd strictly call a friend; it was becoming far more complicated than that. For now, there was another wolf I needed to concentrate on.
Cooper: The app you made for me pinged this morning. He's been watching your place all morning, and it looks like he's moving in. I'm about twenty minutes away but am on my way.
Shit. Of course Bryan would choose today to make his move.
Cooper’s big brother, a local policeman, had been suspicious of me ever since Ieza had shown up beaten and bloody in my apartment. Not because he thought I might be involved, but because he'd worked out my friendship to his werewolf brother, someone he wasn't exactly keen to trust anyway. He'd had nothing to go on, not really, but we'd all had a pretty good sense that he hadn't been about to give up and get back to his life, especially not with his estranged brother spending more time in the city.
I’d spelled Cooper’s phone so that his map app would show the location of his brother’s phone at all times. As far as digital tracking spells went, this was easily my most reliable.
I didn't know the siblings’ full history, or if the animosity between them had started before or after Cooper had been turned. But whatever their past, I didn't imagine it had been easy on either of them.
Dealing with the supernatural almost never went smoothly for the humans we loved. How could it?
But that was far from a good enough reason for some guy I barely knew to be hovering around my apartment.
Melanie: Don't worry about it. I'm going to head over there now.
Bryan always seemed a little less than cooperative when his brother was around. At least, that was the best theory I had so far.
It was time for me and Bryan to have a conversation.
Chapter 4
My front door was already open by the time I made it back to the place where I still officially lived even if it had never really had the chance to feel like home.
Standing in the front door, I weighed my options. Unholstering my gun or grabbing my knife might give me a sense of security. But since I was probably coming up against a police officer, the weapons were as likely to make a problem as solve one. The Garda didn't routinely carry guns, and I needed to learn how to at least pretend to feel safe in my own home.
"Hello?" I called out, stepping through the door, trying to announce myself as clearly as possible. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find Bryan literally rifling through my underwear drawer or something equally repulsive. Instead, he waited in my armchair, arms crossed.
He stood as I entered. "Took you long enough."
I looked behind me, baffled by his greeting. Surely, he must have been talking to someone else.
"We need to talk."
"So, you broke into my home?" The words came out slowly. I had to be missing something here.
"I came here trying to find you. You weren't home, and I'd been waiting for you to get back for three hours. Cooper isn't answering my calls, but I had to assume he was keeping tabs on me. I thought when I showed up here, he would too. Instead, I got you."
"I'll be honest," I said, not bothering to shut my front door, “You are a police officer. You broke into my home. All because you needed to talk to me. I've got a lot going on right now, and none of it has anything to do with you. Because you're Coop's brother, I won't report this. But come on. Entitled much?"
I nodded toward the door. It was a clear invitation to make his way out, but I hoped he wouldn't take me up on it. t, Truthfully, I was beyond curious about what Bryan had to say. But I wasn't going to play his game, acting like I owed him an apology or anything else.
Br
yan scrutinized me, poker face fully intact, before glancing at the door. I held my breath, He'd waited this long, come this far. There was no way he'd simply walk away because I'd give him a stern talking-to.
He didn't move, but he didn't start talking either.
"What is it you want from me? Or Cooper?" I gave him a look that said ‘get to the point’ as clearly as possible.
"I want to know what's going on. And don't bother telling me that nothing strange has been happening in this city. Or that it's not anything I have to worry about. I've heard it all before. Even before that woman showed up looking like she'd taken a beating from someone or something far stronger than she was, we'd been getting strange reports. Gang meetings in Eyre Square, murder, strange disappearances. I've now seen my brother more in the last month than I have in the last five years."
"Life in a big city." Yeah. Right.
"Not this big city. We had a college student found nearly dead from massive blood loss last night. And now we've had the most unusual influx of tourists I've ever seen. Not one of them seems to be a retiree or a teenager on a gap year looking to find themselves. Something is going on. I know my city too well not to see it, and I'm not the only one. Everyone I work with is on high alert, but not one of them knows what they're really looking for. So I want you to tell me. What's going on, and who is going to get hurt?"
Bryan stared me down, squaring his shoulders, and everything in me wanted to stare right back. I'd spent too much time lately navigating staring contests with wolves and vampires not to know the importance of who blinked first. I wanted to win, but I couldn't deny that Bryan had a point.
Clenching my jaw, I shut my door and stepped past the entryway into my living room, brainstorming new approaches every second.
It would be easiest to just make Bryan go away. I could deal with him later once the city had gone back to the way it was before.
Magic In My Blood Page 2
