by Jayne Faith
“I don’t know the exact reason in her case, but it could be a number of things. King Periclase’s wife might have some special grudge against Bryna’s blood mother, and may have forbidden him from accepting Bryna as his.”
“Periclase doesn’t seem like a man who’d let his wife tell him what to do.”
“You never know, but you’re probably right. It likely has something to do with the status of Bryna’s mother. Could even be political. Like, recognizing Bryna would give power to someone in a different kingdom or something. Who knows.”
“Well, someone knows. I bet Bryna does. And the way Unseelie love to gossip and backstab, I bet at least a few Fae know.”
“Ah, you’re becoming versed in the nastiness of the Unseelie.” I gave her a slow smile. “Has Maxen been tutoring you on the ways of Faerie?”
Suddenly she became very re-interested in her sandwich. “He’s told me a little. I’ve learned from others who’ve been helping me with magic and the homecoming process.” She took a bite and chewed and then looked up at me. “Hey, Jasper Glasgow is Unseelie. He’s not so bad, is he?” She raised a brow at me.
I rolled my eyes. “Maxen said something to you about Jasper, didn’t he? That turd.”
I had a sudden stab of longing for my best friend Lochlyn. She’d been my roommate on the other side of the hedge, before she’d lost her job and I’d gotten sucked back here to the fortress. She and I had often gone days without seeing each other, due to our weird schedules, but when we’d finally cross paths at the apartment, we’d sit around and bullshit like this. I really missed it.
“What is it?” Nicole asked, peering at me.
I shook my head. “I was just thinking of my friend Lochlyn. She and I had a place together before I moved back here. You’ll have to meet her sometime.”
“Is she Fae, too?”
“Yep, half Cait Sidhe and half Baen Sidhe.”
She tilted her head.
“Half cat, half banshee,” I explained. “Goodness to Maeve, you do not want to be in the next room when she’s having sex.”
Nicole snorted. “I can only imagine.”
I pushed away from the counter. “I’m going to hit the shower and then turn in.”
She nodded, and her posture seemed to contract a little as she hunched over her sandwich. I glanced back at her again from the bathroom doorway, observing the worry lines forming across her forehead.
“Don’t worry about the dad stuff,” I said. “It’ll all be okay. Worst case, you swear to the Order, and technically Periclase can’t touch you if you do that.”
Her frown eased a little.
I just hoped Maxen wasn’t leading her on too much, with all his attention and sparkly sapphire gazes.
I crashed on the pullout bed on the sofa, having more or less turned over the bedroom to Nicole. I tossed for a while, thinking about King Periclase. That bastard couldn’t be my father. No fricking way.
Morning came too soon after a restless night. I left the lights off and got dressed and then pulled on my scabbard over my cropped leather jacket and slipped out.
Emmaline met me in the lobby to deliver a small leather pouch.
“There’s a glass vial wrapped in gauze,” she said. “The Fae witch should only need a smear of blood. That’s what Marisol said, anyway.”
I tucked the drawstring bag into the pocket of my jacket and zipped it closed.
This time, instead of taking Vincenzo to the Golden Gate Bridge, I used one of the fortress’s internal doorways. Two guards stood there, but they must have gotten word that I was allowed to leave because they didn’t try to interfere.
Standing before a carved marble arch in a rock garden that was fashioned after a Japanese Zen design, I traced the sigils in the air with my finger that would tell the doorway where I wanted to go and whispered the magic words that would give me passage through the doorways. Then I stepped into the arch and lost all sense of time, space, and form. The only sensation in the netherwhere was cold, but without a body, I wasn’t even sure how I sensed it. It was like that for everyone—the chill and the nothingness were the only features of the space between doorways.
I emerged through a doorway at Fort Point, where I’d met Jasper the previous night. To the untrained eye the doorway looked like nothing more than a craggy tree. I had a few minutes before Jasper was due to meet me, so I headed toward a park bench and dialed Gretchen.
I still didn’t know how I was going to explain Gretchen and Jasper to each other, but I’d worry about that when the time came. Which was probably in the next fifteen minutes.
Gretchen picked up.
“I don’t know where I’m supposed to go,” she said. “I’ve already circled the place once.”
I looked for the nearest street sign and told her where I was. A minute later, headlights appeared. A gray compact rental pulled to the curb, and the driver killed the engine.
A woman stepped out, and I realized with surprise just how petite she was—five feet two inches was probably being generous. She didn’t look like a typical merc. Even from many feet away I could tell she was softer and prettier, somehow. I imagined she’d look right at home in a nice three-bed, two-bath family house in one of the developments outside Boise, baking chocolate chip cookies with a couple of kids running around.
“You’re right on time!” I called cheerfully.
She strode toward me, an attractive woman with long strawberry-blonde hair pulled back in a thick French braid that draped over one shoulder. She had no visible weapons, though I suspected she had at least a few knives hidden in the pockets of her cargo-style pants and perhaps under the corduroy vest she wore. The vest hadn’t always been a vest—the ragged edges where the sleeves had been ripped off betrayed the modification.
The corners of her mouth were drawn down slightly in irritation, her brow furrowed over blue eyes as she came to a stop in front of me. I decided to chalk up her cloudy mood to the Bay Area traffic. It was enough to make even natives frazzled, and coming from much smaller and quieter Boise, Idaho, she wouldn’t be used to battling the morning commute.
“If the delay cost me my mark . . .” she started with a warning tone.
Okay, maybe her cranky demeanor had less to do with traffic.
The vague threat sent a prickle of annoyance through me.
“Relax,” I said. “You agreed to it, so don’t get hung up on what’s already past. We’ll get your mark.”
She crossed her arms and looked around. “Where’s the doorway?”
I pointed to a group of seemingly random trees not far away. “That way. Let’s head over.”
I looked at her sidelong out of the corners of my eyes as we walked.
“Nobody else in Boise could help you out?” I asked. I wasn’t trying to rub it in. I was genuinely curious why she was willing to come all the way here to work with me.
“Like I said, I’ve been burned before when I’ve tried to partner with Fae. That was one reason I was willing to go along with Gus assigning this to you.” Actually, she’d said she’d been burned, but not specifically by Fae. She flipped a glance my way, her eyes not quite meeting mine. “I hear you’re some kind of fighting champion in Faerie, so I figured you’d give me a good shot at bringing in the mark. I know you’re on probation and got evicted from your apartment, so I knew you’d be hard-up for cash and would be especially motivated.”
It was an honest answer, and I appreciated it. She’d been okay with giving up half the bounty, too, which was generous. Surliness aside, I decided Gretchen wasn’t so bad.
Suddenly she stiffened and stopped short. The tingle of human magic burst into the air around me as she drew power.
I reached for Mort before I realized Jasper had arrived and had obviously spooked her.
“He’s no danger,” I said, pushing my broadsword back into its sheath.
She didn’t release her magic, keeping pace with me when I sped up to meet him.
“Who’s this?” Jas
per demanded with a flick of a glance at Gretchen. He drilled me with a look that was nearly a glare. “Why did you bring a human?”
Great, two cranky travel companions.
“She needs to go into Faerie,” I said. “I’m going to escort her.”
He shook his head vehemently. “No. I didn’t agree to this. We can’t have a human tagalong.”
I grabbed Jasper’s forearm, towed him a dozen feet away from Gretchen, and then faced him.
“Look,” I said in a low voice. “She won’t interfere. I’m under contract to help her capture a mark for a Guild job, and she’s on a deadline. I didn’t have a choice in the matter.”
He jammed his hands on his hips, and his golden eyes flashed with annoyance. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t mention it. I didn’t know for sure until late last night that she’d be joining us.”
“I thought you were fired from the Guild.”
I huffed indignantly. “I wasn’t fired. I’m on probation.”
He ran a hand through his hair and looked over my shoulder toward where Gretchen stood. “I haven’t even told you where Melusine is. How do you know our errand will take us in the same direction as the human’s?”
“Uh, I don’t,” I admitted. “But that’s the magic of Faerie doorways, right? You can jump between realms and cover great distances.”
I spread my arms as if I’d just revealed something miraculous and looked up at him with an exaggerated, huge grin.
After a couple of seconds, his stern expression cracked, and he made a noise deep in his throat that was half-growl, half-laugh. “I have a feeling you’re going to be the end of me, Petra Maguire.”
“See? I knew you’d get that it’s not a big deal.” I gave his arm a little punch, and he rolled his eyes.
His face grew serious again. “Fine, the human can come into Faerie. But our errand takes priority, and she will not under any circumstances accompany us to see Melusine. Not that the Fae witch would allow it, anyway. Agreed?”
I nodded. “Agreed. Where will we find Melusine?”
“Spriggan kingdom, in the Old World,” he said. His light brogue seemed to thicken a bit at the mention of Scotland.
He described the doorway he wanted to emerge from, one that was on the edge of the town that surrounded the Spriggan stronghold. Old World meant we’d be going into a part of Faerie that was anchored in Scotland. All the kingdoms had territory anchored to Earthly locations in the Old World, usually Scotland, but sometimes also Ireland or England. I double-checked with him that I knew the sigils to trace to get there.
We rejoined Gretchen, who was standing with her weight shifted into one hip and her arms crossed.
She pierced me with a squinty glare. “What’s going on, here? Who’s this guy?”
“This is Jasper, a Fae prince,” I said. I held up a hand when he started to say something, and I plowed on. “It turns out I’ve got Faerie business with him today, too, so we’re all going together.”
Her head whipped back and forth between us, and then her blue eyes flashed anger at me. “No way! I want your full focus on this assignment. This is a breach of our contract!”
I brushed past her, heading toward the stand of trees. “There’s nothing about this particular situation in our contract,” I said over my shoulder.
Gretchen started stalking after me, which was exactly what I’d hoped she’d do.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I can find something,” she hollered at my back.
I went to the tree that hid the doorway and turned. “Really? Could you show me?”
She whipped out her phone and angrily swiped at it as she continued stomping to where I stood.
She held out the device. “See, this part could be interpreted as an agreement to—”
Her words cut off with a squeak as I grabbed her wrist with one hand, traced the sigils with the other, and then yanked her through the doorway with me.
We emerged from the cold void into the middle of a circle of huge stones reminiscent of a miniature Stonehenge.
Gretchen fell to her hands and knees in the dirt, and her phone skittered away. She stayed there, hyperventilating, while Jasper materialized through the arched stone behind her.
When she raised her head, her blue eyes were equally frightened and furious.
“Welcome to Faerie,” I said and made a flourish with one hand as I bowed.
Then I turned my attention elsewhere, taking in the surroundings. Everyone panicked on their first trip through the netherwhere, and I wanted to give her a moment to recover.
Jasper came to stand beside me.
“Been here before?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Not this doorway. The stone circle is a nice touch.”
The sun was only just up, and the sky was filled with pale-pink and orange tones. To our left began the thick Spriggan woods. To our right, across a small field of wild grass, was a dirt road, and beyond that the town that butted up against the Spriggan stronghold. As with most things in this realm, the castle was made of wood. But not just any old wood, because that would have left it vulnerable to attack. It was so-called ironwood. Impervious to fire, and almost as hard as stone. There was no iron in it, of course, as iron was harmful to Fae.
Gretchen came to stand at my other side, and I gave her an appraising glance. “Okay?” I asked.
She nodded and swallowed hard.
“You never did tell me where your mark was,” I said. “I don’t suppose she’s in the Spriggan realm. That would be too convenient.”
Gretchen lifted her phone, started swiping the screen, and then frowned.
“No cell service in Faerie,” I said.
“Damn, that’s right,” she muttered. She frowned, thinking for a moment. “She’s in the, uh Dug . . . Derg . . .”
I suppressed a groan. “Duergar kingdom?” I supplied.
“Yeah.” She took in my expression. “That’s bad, I take it?”
“Well, it’s not good for my sake, at least,” I said. “But Jasper happens to be a native of that realm.”
She glanced at him. “Oh. It should work in my favor to have a prince of that realm with me, though, right?”
“In theory,” I said drily and then turned to Jasper. “Which way to Melusine?”
I thought he would point at the town. Instead, he swung around to face the thick woods. “She’s somewhere in there.”
Chapter 6
“SOMEWHERE IN THERE?” I asked. “Can you maybe be a bit more specific?”
“You don’t even have an exact location?” Gretchen demanded.
“Do you for your mark?” Jasper shot back at her.
She crossed her arms again and muttered under her breath, sending an irritated look off into the distance.
“Okay, kids, one thing at a time,” I said. “Jasper. What’s the intel on Melusine?”
“She’s taken up residence in a cabin somewhere in the woods,” he said.
I swiveled and faced the forest doubtfully.
“It kinda goes on forever,” I pointed out. “We can’t spend the next year hunting through the trees for a cranky old Fae witch who doesn’t want to be found in the first place.”
He’d recovered his composure, now giving me that look of vague amusement I remembered from our time in the Duergar palace. He’d been nearly unflappable, even when there were knives flying at us.
“The dryads will help us,” he said in that mild tone I’d come to know.
I frowned, shaking my head. “I don’t know. Dryads aren’t known to be the most reliable bunch. Plus, they’re shy.”
All of a sudden, a flock of dark birds appeared in the air above us, seemingly from out of thin air. They circled overhead in a dizzying vortex of black wings.
I looked at Jasper, and his gold eyes twinkled. “The ravens are going to help, too.”
“Ah, now you’re sounding like a man with a plan,” I said.
Jasper raised his arm st
raight in the air and made a fist, and the flock descended and then the vortex unfurled as the birds fanned out over the tree tops. One by one, they dropped down into the trees. He lowered his arm and began walking toward the tree line, to a spot that looked like the head of a trail.
“We’ll follow the path for a while,” he said over his shoulder to me. “If it becomes clear that we have a long distance to cover to get to Melusine, we’ll find a doorway. The two of you can go after the mark while I continue the search for Melusine, and then you can rejoin me.”
Gretchen and I traded glances.
“This is going to waste too much time,” she said. “A wild goose chase on the side was not part of our deal. The delay could very likely cost me the assignment.”
“It won’t,” I said. “We’ll find your mark.”
She crossed her arms and gave me an angry glare.
“Fine, I’ll take a pay cut for the delay.”
“Your share gets cut by a third,” she said.
“Deal.”
She wagged a finger at me. “And don’t think you can worm your way out of this adjustment to our contract just because I don’t have cell service to update it.”
I held up my right hand. “With this Duergar prince as our witness, I solemnly swear that I will abide by this oral revision to our original agreement,” I said, my voice tight.
She jabbed her index finger toward Jasper. “You heard her. You’re my witness.”
Then she stalked past me to follow him.
My pulse bumped in anticipation as we crossed over from open space into the realm of trees. The air seemed to soften, becoming cooler, moister, and earthier. Once we were about fifty feet in, the sky was almost totally blocked out overhead. We moved single-file, Jasper in the lead and me at the back.
When one of the ravens swooped over us and landed on Jasper’s shoulder, Gretchen let out a little shriek. The black bird softly clucked and chirped in his ear for a moment and then pushed off and took flight.
“What’d it say?” I asked.
“She said we’re good to stay on this trail for now,” he said.
The light grew more filtered and dim as we walked deeper in. Croaks, chirps, and rustlings surrounded us, giving the distinct feeling that we were in the domain of small creatures. We were the intruders, there.
