“You don’t act like it.”
“You earned more of my patience when you didn’t let me die.” I paused and drew back from her. Perhaps she required a different response from me. “Should I be less agreeable? Do you want to argue?”
She whirled to face me, her eyes flashed. “What if I do?”
“I’m a sailor. Not a fighter. It’s not something I’m good at.”
She put her hands on her hips. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“True, all the same.”
We resumed our stroll, side by side, and her hair hid her face once more. As we walked, the breeze teased white strands from her braid, making them dance in the wind.
I tipped my hat to a passing, bronze-skinned Djinn. “Why are you here, Mara?”
“Because I have to be.” She paused. “The shifter said so.” She added the words as an afterthought, an addition required of her.
I heard it as the lie it was. “You can trust us, you know. You can cease your charade. Ask us for help.”
“I can’t.” Her voice broke.
Yet whatever trouble she was in, she needed help. That much was clear.
“Then tell me what you are and how you came to be here.” I needed to know why she sought me out. “Once around the next corner, we’ll be within sight of the exit… and Jason. Now’s your chance.”
“I… I…” She tripped on something but didn’t stop moving. “I can’t.”
“Look at me.”
She didn’t respond and kept her face averted.
I continued, “We’ll continue on the path you’ve set us on, but don’t be foolish, Mara. If we know what we’re dealing with, we might all survive what’s coming.”
“I don’t know how,” she murmured as we took the next right.
Ahead, Jason paced in front of the Unseen Street exit. The Jaru Jumpers stared straight ahead and over Jason’s head, ignoring him as he wore an oval into the pavement.
“Trust us,” I said. “Sooner rather than later. You might find we’re not such bad fellows. You might even grow to like us.”
In the quiet, I thought I heard her mutter, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
16
Finding the Bird
Jason
By the time Trylon and Perisphere conducted their exit searches and we’d stepped across into the subway terminal, I’d nearly pulled my beard out and bit through my tongue.
Lev shot warning looks at me with a hair-trigger on his semiautomatic face. He probably didn’t want a repeat of what it had taken to gain admittance to Unseen Street.
Mara stared at her feet, indifferent to the excessive manhandling of the Jaru Jumpers. Preoccupied by her heinous plans, no doubt.
Back in New Haven City, we jogged across the subway platform and hurried up the stairs. Dew weighted the air, and a slight fog obscured anything farther than a block away. Down the street, four o’clock bells chimed in a church spire.
The simplicity of our rudimentary plan appealed to me: search the park until we came across the peacock. Once we found her, we could ask for her help.
Using telepathy, Arún had helped me work through some of my memories when I needed more clues to solve a previous mystery. Maybe Jane had the same ability and could do that with Mara. Unless Woe knew someone in the Fae world that would help us, Jane was the only telepathic creature we knew.
I hoped the bird was in a good mood.
Jane. I mentally corrected myself. Jane Jones probably would be more likely to help if I used her name.
By foot, the park wasn’t far, and we hurried. A priest, a young Winston Churchill look-alike, and a hippie weren’t the weirdest things traipsing about New Haven City at that hour, so we didn’t draw much-unwanted attention.
Lev hadn’t mentioned it out loud, and I hadn’t either, but our biggest concern would be running into Woe. The last we’d seen of her, she’d been on her way out to hunt. The need for vengeance never left her alone for long, and she was doggedly determined to exact retribution on Jane.
We slipped into the park near the North Woods. “Where should we go first?” I asked Mara.
She shrugged.
Lev guided Mara ahead of him. “We should check the Blockhouse,” he said. “We might be able to see something from there. If not, it’s a good place to begin a grid pattern search.”
Situated in the northwestern portion of Central Park, the Blockhouse had been built upon on elevated, rocky terrain, its foundation made up of ruins that dated back to 1776. Constructed with hewn stone from the surrounding area, the square, squat building overlooked the North Woods of New Haven City Park. The roof had long since caved in, and, while it wouldn’t provide a view of the whole park, I couldn’t fault Lev’s reasoning. Once the sun crested the horizon, we would be in a good position to plan out the remainder of our search.
With Lev assisting Mara, we made short work of the climb up the hill to the historic structure and an entrance in one side. When I pulled on the handle, the metal door didn’t budge.
Lev turned to me. “Need any help?”
Mara milled about behind him in the pre-dawn darkness, uncharacteristically quiet since we left Unseen Street.
“No, I’ve got this.” I pulled my lock kit from my pocket and prepared to get us inside. Lev could boost me up to the top of the one-story Blockhouse wall. If we were lucky, we might see a large white bird roosting in a nearby tree. I pressed the tension wrench into the bottom of the keyhole and then placed the pick at the top, drawing it across the pins. We’d be inside within five minutes. Tops.
“Jason,” Lev said. He must have come up behind me. He bumped my elbow and knocked the tension wrench from the keyhole.
“Quiet,” I hissed and jabbed the wrench back in. He made it hard to hear the pins set inside the mechanism.
He grasped my elbow. “Stop that.”
I tried to shake his hand free.
“Jason,” he repeated, knocking the other tool out that time.
“Lev, that really isn’t helpful.” I gritted my teeth and hoped he could hear my frustration with him. My patience was wearing thin.
“Hello, Jane,” Mara said.
“Jason,” Jane said, her voice low and raspy as she studied the scuffed toes of her tennis shoes. “What do you want?”
I froze at the gentle words.
Taking a deep breath, I turned around.
Jane wore black from head to toe, a baggy t-shirt, and sweats. A low-ponytail held her hair, and her face was the only exposed skin, most of it hidden behind over-sized glasses. Any day in any part of the city, she remained unremarkable.
Jane didn’t stand out. She kept her arms crossed in front of her, and her shoulders rounded as though she expected harsh admonishment.
My heart softened toward the defeated woman. She didn’t want to be there any more than we did. While she waited for my answer, I glanced toward Lev, and he jerked his head toward Jane. I guessed the asking was up to me.
“Ms. Jones,” I began.
“Jane,” she interrupted, scooting the glasses up the bridge of her nose.
“Jane.” I tried to smile, and she scowled. Maybe a smile wasn’t the right choice.
“We found the toy. Thank you for sending Mara.” I spoke carefully. Diplomacy would be the only way to get what we wanted.
“I thought you’d want to speak with me after that.” She pursed her lips and shifted from side to side. “So it was his?” She waved toward Lev.
“It was my son’s,” he answered. “Thank you for returning it to me.”
“I couldn’t be sure, but memories have psychological scents, and I thought that one smelled like you.” She grimaced. “At least what I remembered from Arún or what I remember from his memories… when we were connected.”
When she siphoned off Arún’s psychic energy and mashed his brains.
That’s what she meant. The sarcastic thought brought an unpleasant twist to my mouth, and I worked to school my features.
“You were correct,” Lev soothed, filling the gap in conversation I’d left.
Jane bit her bottom lip. “Did you tell Woe you were looking for me?”
“Not yet,” I said. That was the truth.
We hadn’t even been back to the church yet. But I got the impression Jane wanted Woe to know she’d saved Mara, that she thought the mercy she’d shown to Mara and Lev would win points with Woe. Yet, I wasn’t sure Woe’s forgiveness could be earned.
I gestured toward Mara. “She hasn’t managed to recall how she came by the toy.”
“There’s some sort of spell on her memories. I’m not sure why.” Jane approached, drawing her hand over Mara’s head.
Mara took a step backwards.
“I wasn’t able to untie the knot that held those recollections,” Jane said. “I was able to view them, but not put them back in their place. They slipped right back into the forget spell.” She scowled. “Do you know who did that to her?”
All three of us shook our heads.
“Not yet,” I said. “We want to find out.” That admission brought the conversation around to the reason we were there. “Arún once walked me through my own memories.” I tugged on my beard. “Could you do the same for Mara?”
Jane tilted her head. “I believe so.”
“Would you come to the Athenaeum? The Librarian can monitor your vitals and record the process.”
Jane’s eyes widened, and she shivered. “Woe won’t mind?”
In the edge of my vision, Lev blanched, and Mara wrapped her arms around herself. While I worked out how to answer the shifter’s question, the blood returned to Lev’s face. He would never ask me to abandon the truth, but we didn’t have much choice. We needed more information out of Mara, and Jane was the only way to get to it.
I plastered a pleasant look on my face and told a lie bigger than Frakes Tower. “Woe won’t mind at all.”
17
Empty
Woe
Frakes Tower, New Haven City
I daydreamed about our baby, and my hand rested on my abdomen.
My feet hung over the edge of the 103rd-floor balcony of the Frakes Tower Building, swinging in the ever-present gale.
The sun would rise over the horizon and spill over the metropolis, seeping over buildings and waking the world of men. The wind whipped my hair first one way and then the other, nearly unseating me from the squared edge.
Yet I barely noticed, caught in some mother-to-be emotional fuzziness that dulled my determination to find the peacock shifter.
Since I’d left Ziva’s room, thoughts of the wee one in my womb had distracted me, rendering my hunting skills useless, and I was as empty-handed as I always was. Though, this time, I didn’t mind.
Ziva called my child a girl, and my heart embraced her words as though they were a promise. Even though it was several weeks before Vic would be willing to conduct an ultrasound to confirm or deny the sex, and I was trying to talk myself out of the excitement of believing I already knew the truth.
I could be carrying the next queen of the Fae realm.
The realization struck me like lightning. I thought over my embarrassing first meeting with Arún’s parents. Queen Ányah had been determined to make me feel like an outsider, a mortal inferior, unworthy of carrying her son’s royal blood. Strong wine had flowed from decanters to goblets. Between that and Queen Ányah’s stern, but probing questions, I made a fool of myself in the Fae Realm.
I wanted to see Ishka, to tell her. Maybe the healers could tell me if it was true before Vic could. I should go for a visit.
Standing, I shivered. King Kentigern and Queen Ányah would demand our child take her place as lady of the royal castle in the capital of Eilean Ren. They still believed Arún had been killed by a peacock shifter.
Ishka’s pale face drifted through my thoughts. She knew the truth and would likely be my strongest ally in Eilean Ren.
I wouldn’t risk our child for a visit with Ishka.
They must not learn that the prophecy by Arún’s grandmother had been right. Not yet. If they found out about their grandchild before they found out about Arún, they wouldn’t rest until they had the baby.
The rumble in the elevator shaft signaled the start of first trip from the ground floor to the infamous observation deck of Frakes Tower. The building wouldn’t officially open for hours yet, but it was time for me to go.
I’d stop in to see Vic and pick up my daily fizz-tonic. I didn’t care that she slept late. She’d just have to get on out of bed earlier than noon.
A familiar feeling stole through the edges of my thoughts. The same sensation that always came when Arún listened to my thoughts. I couldn’t be certain, but maybe our child would share that trait with her father. Then I couldn’t stop the happiness that rolled through me.
Burying the hatchet appealed to me more than ever. The time had come.
With that, I turned in the direction of Jason’s church and leapt into the air as the sunrise broke.
18
Unanswered
Lev
Our Lady of the Park, Catholic Cathedral, New Haven City
Jane and Jason argued on the sidewalk behind me while I traced the design on the double swinging front doors of the church. Jason told a whale of a tale to get what he wanted. Mara was the only thing I could think about, to pass the time while Jason reassured Jane that Woe wouldn’t take issue with her presence in the church.
“I won’t go in,” Jane said. “Not without Woe’s say so.”
“She’s fine with it.”
It went on like that while I studied the entrance.
The impending sunrise tinged the horizon. The sun hadn’t yet risen or knocked the chill out of the air, but we were back at the church. Jason once told me that the material had come from the trunk of the same tree that the Bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon, had used to burn Joan of Arc at stake. The branches wept supernatural sap from their wounds for years after, each drip blooming into white perennials on the forest floor.
When a fire had threatened the fabled tree, a local monk had tried to dig it up, killing it instead. He had called for other monks to help turn wood from the miraculous tree into parts for his church. The original structure had disappeared in a spiritual cleansing of one kind or another, but these doors had ended up there at the behest of one of Jason’s predecessors.
I wasn’t certain I believed the whole story, but the legend fascinated me.
My mouth twisted. To get what I wanted. At least Jason wasn’t lying to Jane inside the church. Somehow that made it marginally better.
Mara had already wandered inside to wait in the pews instead of on the front stoop. If I hadn’t felt obligated to provide Jason with moral support while he worked out the details, I’d have gone in with her and had a nap.
I bet Mara made a good pillow. I made a note to ask her. The thought of her reaction made me chuckle, and the sound of my laughter echoed down the dark street.
The arguing stopped.
“What is it?” Jason asked.
“A priest and a shifter went into a church,” I started.
Jane rolled her eyes. “I’ve heard it before.”
“You two ready to go in?”
Jane gave an exasperated sigh and flapped her arms at the same time, but she joined me on the top step.
“Are you sure this,” she waved an arm around, “is okay with Woe?”
I shrugged. He’d decided to lie. Covering for him wasn’t in the job description. I jerked a finger toward Jason, harsher than I intended. “He’s the man in the know.”
She glanced back at Jason. “I don’t trust him.”
I leaned close. “I don’t either.”
The echo of her laughter followed mine. If we were lucky, Woe would drag herself back to Arún’s instead of the church. Maybe we wouldn’t see her before noon.
If we were unlucky, she’d soon appear. Sometimes she visited Vic before she went home to sleep off her nocturn
al habits.
Jason joined us on the top step. “Now what’s funny?”
“Same joke,” I said.
“We should get inside,” I muttered. I knew of more places to hide inside the church than outside it.
Jane didn’t budge. She took turns staring at one of us then the other. At long last, she sighed. “If you two are sure.” Her shoulders drooped even more as she stepped in my direction.
I pressed against the doors, and one side opened with a creak.
Jane slipped past me and into the church foyer. It wasn’t much of a foyer, really.
The entrance opened almost directly into the auditorium. We passed by the basin that held holy water. To the left, tucked into shadows cast by the columns, was the crate in which I had first arrived and which now held all the neighborhood’s donated clothes. Jason had issued a standing invitation that anyone could rummage through the box and take what they needed from the serviceable items.
“Yes, yes, I’m certain,” Jason soothed as he followed her. He glanced at me with a triumphant look on his face.
I nodded, followed them in, and hoped the curve of my lips resembled a smile rather than a frown. It had been a long day, and all the activity had caught up to me.
Heading down the center aisle, I scanned the pews. Mara should have been in one of them, though I didn’t see her yet. “Mara?”
There was a small snort. “Yes?” Hair disheveled, she popped up from between two rows near the front. She gave me a bashful grin. “I dozed off.”
I winked at her, hoping Jason wouldn’t see it. She rewarded me with an even wider smile. “We’re headed downstairs to get started.”
Mara pressed her lips into a line. Then she slid down the length and stepped into the aisle just as I reached her row. Up ahead, Jane waited on Jason to lead the way.
We followed Jason through an arched passageway to the left of the large altar, down the few steps and through another arch into the upstairs Library. Jason tugged on the secret switch, and the hidden door opened, blowing dust over the room with a gargantuan whoosh.
Leviathan's Rise Page 10
