by Lyra Evans
A hand to her mouth, Starla seemed stricken. “I—I had no idea. Fuck. I’m sorry,” she said. “This was my fault.”
Niko shook his head. “No. It’s mine,” he said. “I should have gone in alone—”
“Can you argue over who is more stupid when we get somewhere with clean water?” the woman asked, pressing a hand to her stomach.
“Right, the place I have in mind isn’t far from here,” Starla said, offering to help the woman to her feet. She seemed rather proud, but apparently the poison water had taken quite a toll as she accepted Starla’s arm and leaned heavily on her when back on her feet.
Niko took Cobalt’s hand, a burbling of conflicting feelings just beneath his skin. Cobalt’s crystal eyes searched him, but he said nothing as he stood up. He tried not to lean on Niko much, but he was weak too. Niko didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing.
Starla led the way with the woman leaning on her, their darkened form ahead of Niko and Cobalt like a strange, limping monster. They followed the edge of the marsh fence until they met a rough road, then turned and slowly penetrated back into the city. They’d come so far underground Niko wasn’t sure of their exact location, but as they began to pass the old shipyards and the industrial strip, he figured it out.
Niko stopped a moment at the base of a largely unremarkable street. He looked down the road and spotted a haze of coloured lights peeking from between two of the old buildings.
“What is it?” Cobalt asked, following his gaze.
“That’s the crime scene,” Niko said. “Where those lights are coming from.”
Starla stopped too, casting a look down to the lights. “Shit,” she said. “I don’t think they’ll notice us if we’re quiet, though.”
She was right. They were moving on foot and far enough away the police had no reason to pay any mind to them, but that wasn’t quite what had stopped Niko. He wanted to go back, to study the crime scene again. He wanted to investigate it himself. There had to be something there that didn’t point to him. Something he could identify that no one else could.
But Cobalt seemed to read his mind and urged him onward. “You can’t right now,” he whispered. “We need to find safety first, then make a plan.” Jaw tightening, Niko shrugged Cobalt’s weight and moved on.
“Sade went in there alone? At night?” Starla asked as they left the crime scene in the distance behind them.
“Yeah,” Niko said, and without words or glances, an understanding passed between them.
“He really was so fucking stupid,” Starla said, spitting the thought like venom sucked from a wound. “To try and start his shit up again so soon after being released…”
“Can you know that for certain?” Cobalt asked. It wasn’t meant to be challenging, but Niko tensed.
“I fucking know,” he said.
Silence followed, then Cobalt said, “I did not mean…”
But he never finished. Starla stopped at the edge of a small property at the edge of the industrial strip. The neighbourhood beyond had recently been experiencing some gentrification. The properties were small but rundown and mostly boarded up. But their proximity to certain areas of the downtown core meant that with a little effort, the real estate market here could burn hot. Developers had been snatching up lots wherever they could, knocking down old, dilapidated buildings and throwing up brand new condos or sleek new homes where appropriate. In the meantime, the poorer families that had lasted through the turbulent history of the area were being displaced. Either they were given nice but undervalued settlements for their land, or they were being pushed out by city ordinances or other bureaucracy meant to facilitate the growth of businesses. With the changing landscape, the ones who rented were being forced out to accommodate the rise in prices. But there was little other place for them to go.
So Niko looked with mild surprise at the clean, modern design of the cozy house Starla seemed to have the key for. She stepped up to the door, slipped the key into the lock, and shocked Niko when the door opened. With a cursory check of the mailbox before entering, Starla ushered them inside.
The interior was furnished like a staged home, pleasant and tasteful but not quite lived in. There were no personal touches anywhere. The artwork on the walls was bland and inoffensive, the couch stylish but slightly too new. The kitchen, beyond the small living area open to the doorway, was tidy and looked completely untouched. There were no plants but for a plastic fern in the corner. It smelled of air freshener.
“What is this place?” Niko asked as he dropped his go-bag in the entrance. He eased out from under Cobalt’s weight, needing space.
“Safe house,” Starla said, as though that explained anything. At Niko’s prodding look, she elaborated. “The agency maintains a number of safe houses for use on a case, whenever necessary. They gave me the key to this one for whenever I consider it a requirement of my role in an investigation. I obviously can’t take a mark back to my actual apartment, so I use this as my ‘place’ when I need to get them alone.”
Struggling somewhat to take off his shoes given his weakened state, Cobalt arched a brow, his face strangely dry. “Agency? Investigations? What do you mean?”
Niko went to the kitchen and poured out two large glasses of tap water. He handed them each to Cobalt and the woman while Starla explained.
“I work for the Black Willow Detective Agency now,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. She waited until Cobalt had finished drinking his water and looked somewhat healthier before snapping at him again. “A lot changes when you disappear for three months, huh?” Cobalt shut his eyes, evening out his breathing. Niko wasn’t sure what that meant. “Niki got me a job as a junior investigator there, training to get my Private Investigator’s license. So that’s what I’m doing.” She smiled at herself. “Pretty good at it, too, if I say so myself.”
“That’s great, Starla,” Cobalt said. “I’m glad to hear it. Do you work with the police at all?”
Starla’s expression faltered. She sighed. “Not really,” she said. “Because of my ‘professional background,’ the lead PIs like to assign me to cheating partner cases. So I mostly follow idiots around, sometimes testing them by hitting on them, propositioning them, that kind of thing. That’s what the house is for.” Seeing the question circling in Cobalt’s eyes, Starla pre-emptively answered, “I don’t actually fuck them, obviously. Just get them here, get them to take off their clothes, snap discreet pictures and video and send it in to the lead on the case. The partner who paid us gets the evidence, and we, well, get paid. Kinda boring but pretty lucrative.”
The woman was sitting at the base of the stairway that led to the upper floor. Her head in her hands, she seemed even more irritated now than she had been at the start of their adventure. The water had helped little.
“Super fascinating and all, but can someone please explain to me what the fuck is actually going on?” She squinted up at all of them, but her question seemed particularly directed at Cobalt. “I didn’t agree to come here just to become a fugitive and go on the run with a murdering, dirty cop.” Then, after a pause, she added, “I didn’t agree to come here at all, actually.”
A flare of undefinable emotions rose in Niko, his nerves having rubbed far past raw already. He glared at her, the mess of emotions he felt toward Cobalt finding an outlet, deserved or not. “Maybe you’ll tell us who the fuck you are, first.”
She cocked a dark eyebrow at Niko, her gaze cutting him. Cobalt reached out to calm Niko, but he was too weak to stand and diffuse the situation effectively.
“Niko, this is my sister,” he said.
Niko rounded on Cobalt. “You have a sister?”
The woman snorted humourlessly, shaking her head, and Cobalt shot her a look before looking back at Niko with an indescribable expression. “Yes. This is Coral.” He gestured to Coral in return, as if this could somehow be salvaged as a normal introduction. “Cor, this is Niko. He’s not a dirty cop. This is all a terrible misunderstanding or
mistake. None of it makes sense.”
Niko bristled at Cobalt’s words, noting he missed denying Niko was a murderer.
“Obviously that’s Niko,” Coral said. “I’m not daft. I figured that shit out when he opened the door you knocked on. That he opened it with a gun pointed at you is about the only thing I like about him so far.”
Cobalt pressed a hand to his forehead. “Can you just—not be you for a moment?”
Coral pulled a face at him. Now they were in a somewhat calmer state, Niko took the time to study her. Her eyes were a deep green, almost leaning into brown, and her skin was of the same midnight-blue-toned brown as Cobalt’s, though it was somewhat paler in that moment. In fact, even the curve of her cheek and the slant of her shoulders seemed to echo Cobalt’s, but more feminine. She was also shorter than Cobalt, though that wasn’t saying much, as she was still taller than Niko. Everything about her that he could see harkened back to Cobalt, though she bore the characteristics in a very different way. Where Cobalt was control and calculation in his movements, his body radiating both sensuality and magnetic desire to Niko, Coral was defiance and rebellion. He felt no physical attraction to her at all, though she was certainly aesthetically appealing, he supposed. And where Niko’s mind was flooded with sexual imagery when he was in Cobalt’s presence, not a flicker of a thought regarding Coral filtered in. Was it as simple as sexuality? Was Niko unaffected because Coral was a woman?
“Look, we’re all smelling up my fake entrance,” Starla said. “There are two bathrooms with showers. One in the master bedroom’s en-suite and one in the main bath.” She pointed upstairs. “Two of us will have to take a cold shower, but I’m guessing Selkies don’t care much about that shit. So we’re all going to clean up, get this crap off us, then we can reconvene to talk over a plan. Got it?”
Niko nodded shortly, and Cobalt nudged his chin toward Coral. “Let her go first,” he said. “She clearly needs to cool down, anyway.”
Coral glared at him, but Starla shooed her upstairs to show her to the correct room. “Niki, you wanna take the first round?” Starla asked as she did.
Niko glanced at his phone to check the time. It was getting close to normal waking hours, which meant Starla would have to report to work. He shook his head.
“You go,” he said, though his guts writhed at the thought of being alone with Cobalt. “You’re going to need to head out. I’ve apparently got nowhere to be.”
She nodded gently, pressing her lips together as though she knew what he was worried about. “You can settle into the master if you want. Bring your stuff up. Whatever.”
Niko nodded again, gathering his go-bag, as she disappeared upstairs. He stared up the stairs for a few moments, standing in the silence that swirled around him and Cobalt.
“Niko—”
“Let me help you upstairs,” Niko said, cutting Cobalt off. Cobalt fell silent, his lips slightly parted. He took Niko’s offered hand, and together they climbed the stairs. Despite the noxious scent of the waste water and garbage marsh lingering on them, from this close Niko couldn’t ignore Cobalt’s sea-breeze scent. It cut through the rotting odour, lifting his soul from deep within him, and being aware of that hurt too, in its own way.
At the top of the stairs, Niko found there were only two bedrooms. The master stood to his right, facing the front of the house. In front of them, slightly off from the top of the stairs, was the door to the main bathroom. Niko heard running water from beyond it where he imagined Coral was soaking in whatever she could to recover. To the left was the door to the only other room, and from where Niko stood, it appeared to be a small bedroom. The foot of the single bed was visible through the open doorway, which left Niko with a single option.
Starla would have to return to her own apartment, at least to keep up appearances should the police look into her at all. But that left three of them to stay in this small house for the foreseeable future. Following the only reasonable conclusion logic could draw, Niko helped Cobalt toward the master bedroom. The queen-sized bed inside was nicely made with pale blue comforter and relatively gender-neutral pillows. The parquet floor was covered in a plush area rug that extended beneath the bed, and a birch-coloured wardrobe stood opposite the bed. A small vanity sat near it, and two small nightstands framed the bed. Cobalt lingered in the doorway, apparently unwilling to move further in. The door closest to the head of the bed was closed, and the steam and running water sounds indicated that was the bathroom. Another smaller door sat next to it, which Niko guessed was a closet.
“Perhaps I should wait until I bathe,” Cobalt said, words stilted. Niko was relatively sure he wasn’t actually worried about the state of the bedding. But Niko merely walked over to the closet and pulled out a spare blanket. He tossed it over the edge of the bed and gestured for Cobalt to sit.
“You look dead on your feet,” Niko said. “Sit.”
Cobalt eyed him but did as instructed. Though it was more of a perch than a sit, he seemed relieved once his weight sunk into the mattress. Niko turned to the dresser and placed his go-bag atop it, not knowing what else to do. He unzipped the top and began pulling out a clean outfit for himself.
Noticing this, Cobalt muttered aloud, apparently mostly to himself. “I suppose I’ll need to wash my clothing immediately.”
Tightness in his throat, Niko reached deeper into the bag and pulled out a pair of trousers, a shirt, a sweater, underwear, socks, and even a pair of shoes in Cobalt’s size. They were clothes he had left in Niko’s keeping after the auction case, when he’d left.
“Here,” Niko said, offering the pile to the Selkie. Eyes flickering with something Niko refused to identify, Cobalt took them carefully and placed them on the clean portion of the bed.
“You brought things for me,” he said, “but you had no idea I was here until I knocked on your door. You already had everything in the bag.”
There was no question there, so Niko did not feel the need to respond. Instead, he turned back to the dresser and began taking stock of what he actually had in the go-bag. Spare ammunition was stowed in a small pocket to one side. Basic toiletries were in another. Socks, underwear, a hat that could shield his identity, a reflective blanket that folded down to nothing, some emergency cash, a couple fake IDs, a few Wizard-made items inlaid with gemstones and enchantments that could come in handy, Fae-made rope, and a reusable aluminum bottle made up most of his items. There was a pair of jeans and two t-shirts in there too, but he was about to wear two thirds of that set now. He’d have to wash the clothes he was currently wearing. There was no telling how long he’d be unable to return to his apartment.
The thought stabbed through him like a knife, and Niko dropped his head. He was on the run, yes, and he’d thought it a possible eventuality which was why he’d prepared the go-bag in the first place. But he’d never imagined he would be a fugitive from the police. He thought some crazed criminal might come after him—Sade, someone connected to him, or the Woods, maybe—but never the cops. Never his own people.
The urge to cry rose in his throat, and pinpricks of pain poked behind his eyes, but he couldn’t manage it. He couldn’t manage to let himself feel any one thing for more than a moment. There was too much.
“Niko, I’m—”
“I can’t,” Niko said, cutting Cobalt off again. “I just can’t. Not right now.” He looked over his shoulder to find Cobalt staring at him with a pain in his eyes Niko couldn’t face. He’d never been good at these things. “Please.”
Cobalt nodded gently. “Why don’t you tell me what happened, then. Everything.”
Focus on the case. Focus on the problem to be solved. Niko could do that. Cobalt knew that. He grasped at the straw like a lifeline, and sinking into the tiny vanity chair, Niko sagged.
“People were angry. After the auction case. When the full story came out,” Niko said, clinging to facts as though they would keep him afloat. “I knew people would be freaked out by Selkie powers, but I couldn’t anticipate the—�
� He searched for a better word, but there was none. “The hate. Fae have never really been the type to judge others. Not like that anyway. We’ve been on good terms with the other two Courts for centuries, even through the Wizard-Werewolf Wars, the tentative treaty after that, and all the nonsense in between. It’s been maybe a thousand years since we were at war with another race. So when so many people started spouting anti-Selkie sentiment, calling for bans on Selkies entering the Court, armed protection at every beach and inlet, a registration program for any Selkie intending to enter the borders—all of the insanity really—I just thought it was a small but vocal group of lunatics. I thought the majority of people were reasonable. I thought Maeve would tamp it all down and restore order.” He shook his head. “But it only grew.”
Niko looked out the window, watching as the sky slowly began to lighten on the horizon. “Maeve and the other leaders of the Courts tried to step in, to call for civility and order. Strangely, Connor’s Court and Nimueh’s Court didn’t seem to have as much of a problem with the whole thing. There were definitely some xenophobic people, sure, but largely it was just fascination about the new race that had been there all along. But here…” Niko heaved a sigh. “A group of Courtiers began to speak out, calling for a tightening of the laws governing outsiders in Maeve’s Court. Placing stronger restrictions on tourists and demanding something be done to better protect the rights of Fae.” Niko met Cobalt’s gaze for the first time then, his expression darkening. “Then Sade brought his case before the Court. Claimed we violated his rights and bodily autonomy. I thought it was a joke. The Court did not.”
Cobalt’s jaw was wired shut, his expression hard. He looked away from Niko, staring at the wall. “Did no one explain the circumstances of the case? That Sade had tried to do drastic harm to you? That he was an abusive and violent criminal with information that could lead to the recovery of living Selkies being held prisoner?”
