They were poisoned somewhere else and dumped here.
"Do the other Courts know about it?"
"Of course, but they don't use it. They have their own places to use." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Now tell me why I'm here."
"You wanted me to find the missing ones. I did."
"They're here? All of them?"
"I have no idea. You're here to verify that. But you should know, I think they were poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Simon looked shocked.
"Follow me," I said, leading them down the stairs and across the storage room to the door marked "Staff Only."
I brought them both up to speed on my conversations with both Flint and Hammond, and what I discovered behind the door. I picked the lock and pushed the door open.
The endless room was just as I'd left it: the woman with the nest hair stretched on the floor, her arm outstretched, reaching for the door; bodies of fae in variations of animal and human forms haphazard; infinite darkness.
Curled up in a ball, metres from the door, was Flint, seemingly fast asleep.
Simon gasped and muttered softly, repeatedly catching his breath as he saw faces he recognized. He bowed and made gestures that likely satisfied some faerie protocol I wasn't familiar with. Leander gulped and looked away, keeping his gaze firmly on the floor. I couldn't blame him; seeing the fae piled up like discarded dolls was disturbing at best.
"What kind of poison can do this to—your kind—and how do we fix it?"
Our voices were unnecessarily hushed in the dark room, as though the poisoned faeries might wake at any moment. But speaking at normal volumes seemed inappropriate.
Simon turned to Leander. He pointed at the nest hair faerie. "Pick her up. Carefully."
"I don't work for you." Leander crossed his arms over his chest.
Simon narrowed his eyes at Leander. "Julia, tell your dog to behave. I need to take a closer look at the victim."
I pleaded with Leander with my eyes.
"I'm free," he snarled at Simon. "I don't answer to you."
Simon squared his shoulders, returning to his formal stance. "You are rogue," he said in a steady tone with undercurrents of power that gave me chills. "Without master. That makes you free for the taking. I could claim you right now, dog. I could make you my own."
"No," I said. "There will be no claiming. You’re only here because I called you. You don’t get to pick on my friends."
Simon narrowed his eyes at me. "Then I suggest you get your dog to pick up the Queen right now so I can take a closer look at her."
Leander scowled but reached down, slipped his arms around the female fae, and raised her to her feet. He held her out at an arms' length from his own body and turned his head to the side, hiding his face behind her nest of hair.
"Wait," I said. "Who is she?"
"She is Her Elegance, the Queen of Mist and Dreams, the Green Lady, the Maker of Unbreakable Pacts," Simon said, exasperated.
"She sounds kind of important."
Leander chuckled. "She's the reigning sovereign of the Summer Court."
"Forgive me, Your Elegance," he murmured as he used his finger to pull down on her chin to more closely examine the inside of her mouth. He sniffed.
"Can you identify the poison?" I asked Simon.
"It could be a forced hibernation spell administered by means of food or beverage," he said, straightening.
Leander lowered the Queen of Summer to the floor. He shuddered.
"How do we fix it? Counter it? Undo it?" I asked.
"The unmaking of spells is complicated," Simon said. "Without knowing the exact ingredients, we could do more harm than good. This will take time. I'll need to inform my sovereign and compose a plan. In the meantime, these victims need to be warmed, slowly, in a safe place, while we formulate a healing tonic made with precisely the right ingredients."
Cold fingers clamped around my leg. My heart froze. I jumped, squealing. Leander and Simon cried out and moved toward the door.
The Queen of Summer moaned. A whisper escaped her mouth. "Hem…"
A shudder ran through me. With the initial shock abating and my lungs taking in oxygen again, I wasn't sure what she was trying to say.
"What is it?" I asked. "Do you know who poisoned you?"
"Hem—" she whispered, sounding a lot like a cat about to throw up. "Hemlock."
"Hemlock?"
I noticed the slightest movement under all that hair: a nod. I turned to Simon. "The poison? Or a faerie? I never know with you people."
He agreed. "Likely one and the same."
She became agitated. I stood frozen in shock.
"Find him. End him," she hissed. "Betrayed us."
"Of course, we will, Your Elegance." Simon knelt next to me.
"Simon?" she asked. "Is that you?"
"Yes, Your Elegance."
"Betrayed. We've been betrayed," she croaked. "Everything is at risk—"
"I'm here now, Your Elegance. I will take care of this. Julia saw that we found you in time."
"Julia..." She clamped her cold, bony fingers around my wrist and took my hands into hers. "Take this."
Something cold and hard appeared in my hands.
"My gift to you," she managed to say before she collapsed to the dirt.
I stood up and moved to join the others at the door, anxious to get out of here, anxious to solve this problem. Trying to understand everything that was happening.
I opened my hands and found a glass pinecone, exactly like the one that smashed years ago.
Leander saw the look on my face. "What does it mean?" he asked. "Why did she give that to you?"
I looked at Simon.
"I believe I can offer some explanation, but not here," he said. He turned toward the female fae with the hair nest. "I will see that a remedy is prepared, Your Elegance. Justice will be served."
He bowed and gestured again and then ushered us out the door and back upstairs. In that time, I managed to put a few things together.
"Hemlock is a Summer fae, isn't he?" I said. "He's betrayed the Summer Court by poisoning them and dumping them here?"
Simon's face was unreadable. "Yes."
I held up the glass pinecone. "And this is a gift for helping her."
"Yes," he said. The fae didn't mind showing appreciation, but they hated giving and receiving thanks. Thus, the gift of a glass pinecone instead of just saying "thank you."
"Great. Why did Hemlock betray his people?"
"I don't know," he said. "I don't really know this Hemlock. Treaty negotiations were going well until the winter solstice. Then the entire Summer Court suddenly disappeared. Now we know why."
"They've been missing for two and a half months?"
"There was nothing we could do until the equinox. The Spring Court will gain power now. Hopefully we can restore the health of the Summer Court before the summer solstice."
"If you can't?"
"It would be a massive loss of our kind, but for humankind..." He thought for a moment. "The last attempted assassination of the Summer Court was roughly two hundred years ago and resulted in a phenomenon you people know as 'The Year Without Summer,' when the clouds in the overcast skies were so heavy that crops failed to produce, starvation happened, et cetera."
"And that was an attempted assassination?"
"Correct. We got word and thwarted the attempt just in time, but the Summer Court was weakened, though not so bad as they are right now." He frowned. "I fear this time the consequences may be catastrophic."
What a cheerful thought.
"We need to find Hemlock and an antidote," I said. "He could be anywhere by now."
"Agreed," Simon said. "This will not be easy. Our arrangement continues. You will notify me of any information you uncover about Hemlock."
I hesitated. I wanted out of this faerie hunting gig. Once I had Hammond behind bars, I was going to quit. That was the plan.
But Simon didn't have to know that.
&
nbsp; "Just one question," I said. "How does Flint fit into this?"
"He's one of Summer Court," Simon said as if that explained everything.
Ruby had said she had nothing to do with Flint being at the arena, only that she capitalized on his being there so she could observe me. But what if she'd been lying? Simon had said the Winter Court opposed the treaty negotiation. Was the Winter Court behind the poisoning? Were they working with Hemlock? I posed this theory to Simon.
"Obviously." He sounded disappointed it had taken me this long to mention it. "We have to find him to verify it."
"And then what will happen?"
"He'll stand before the Courts and answer for his crimes."
I didn't ask for specifics because I had a feeling the punishment for faerie treason would much worse than for human treason.
"Good," I said. "I'll help find him, but there's something I need to do first. I helped find your missing ones, now I want an end to the fires. I want Hammond. Tell me everything."
"He's also one of Summer Court," Simon said.
"Why isn't he here?" I asked.
"Likely part of a larger plot that Hemlock is involved in," Simon said. "We have to assume they are working together whether by their own design or someone else's."
"Agreed."
Simon took a step toward me. "Julia, you must be careful. I heard about the restaurant inferno, and I fear Hammond's mind may be collapsing."
"I figured," I said, wondering why he suddenly cared so much about my welfare.
Simon frowned. "If he is too far gone to see reason, you may have no choice but to end him."
"Are you telling me I have to kill him?"
"Your human weapons will be no match. If you find him, call for me."
Simon turned, his long black coat swirling around him, and left the building.
"What's our next move?" Leander asked.
"We find Hammond and we end him."
I drove to an internet cafe where I could print out the email and sit down with a hot cup of coffee while poring over the data that would give me Hammond's location.
Leander looked hungry when we arrived, so I asked him what he wanted and ordered the same for myself. The server filled our coffee cups and brought us a couple orders of birdseed pancakes with pineapple whipped topping and a side of breakfast sausages. He scarfed his food down in under two minutes. Despite his insistence otherwise, I still had visions of him living off scraps from dumpsters. I wasn't hungry, so he ended up finishing most of my order too.
The email with the data from Oshaun simply said "good luck." I supposed that meant I had her approval for what I was about to do, even if she wouldn't approve under normal circumstances. I had a feeling she was just as chapped about Garfield as I was.
Unless she was being facetious and didn't expect me to be able to make heads or tails of the data.
Yeah, the latter seemed more likely.
Finally, I had a location. Hopefully. I showed Leander the spot on the map.
He raised an eyebrow. "You're looking for the salamander called Hammond, right?"
"Salamander? Is that what Hammond is?"
That made sense. Salamanders have long been associated with fire.
"Fire salamander," he said with a nod. "Did not realize his name was Hammond."
"It doesn't matter what his name is. I've finally worked out where to find him. Are you ready to go?" I gathered up the printouts and maps.
"Yeah, but not there."
"What do you mean?"
"He's not there. Not anymore."
I slumped back against my chair and tossed the maps and papers back on the table. "Great."
Leander continued to happily eat and drink from his mammoth dessert beverage.
"That address is the only lead we had," I said. "I don't know how we're going to find him now."
It was a small consolation that the police wouldn't be able to find him using our data, either. That meant fewer casualties for the moment.
But if Hammond kept up with his usual pattern of going home with someone, there would be at least one casualty tonight.
"I can find him," Leander said.
I fixed Leander with my gaze, meeting his eyes and finding sincerity there. I believed him. I believed he could find Hammond; he'd probably been keeping tabs on him all along.
"And you didn't say anything until now?" Anger rose up on coffee-flavoured bile.
"You didn't want to talk to me," he said. "You were pretty clear on that point, until you whistled for me."
Damn it. He was right. He'd been tailing me for days and I'd been brushing him off, dismissing him.
"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Not that I can think of."
"What's Hammond's location?"
"Nuh-uh. I'm not telling you so you can leave me behind," he said. "I'm coming with you."
"We're not partners."
He shrugged. "Okay, we're not partners. But you're not going after him alone."
"I'm not taking another partner."
"Look, I get it. All I'm saying is we're working together this one time."
I thought of my failure to capture Hammond at the restaurant. If I'd had backup, the fire could have been prevented.
My phone buzzed with a new notification. From Oshaun.
"Shit," I said, reading the message. "Oshaun's been taken in for questioning."
My agency was down. They could handle themselves, but I needed a team. I had no choice but to forge something new. Leander was certainly strong enough and capable. In many ways, I didn't have to worry about him like I did with a human partner.
He was right. This didn't have to be permanent. This one occasion only.
"Fine," I said. "Just don't tell my boss."
28
The agency had weapons caches tucked inside storage units in a few locations around the city. I hoped these locations were secure from the police. There was every possibility I could find them empty.
I didn't know how many rules I was breaking by letting Leander know about the weapons locker in addition to the salt cells; I couldn't count that high. But I also didn't care anymore.
I might not like the fact that Leander was fae, but I knew I could trust him. He didn't want anything from me. He was paying back a favour. I wouldn't owe him a favour in the future for this. He was an extra pair of eyes, ears, and hands that would be needed in the capture of Hammond.
That was all that mattered.
I approached the unit with caution, making one pass to see if it was clear or under observation. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, and ultimately decided that if something was there, I would kick its ass. I was in the mood to give a good ass-kicking.
"All right," I said. "Here's the deal. I never brought you here. You never saw this."
He nodded and shifted on his feet, trying to stay warm. Clouds of my breath blew up around me as I spoke. The cold snap seemed more intensely personal tonight, like ice-cold fingers inserted into my flesh and wrapped around my bones.
With a good pull, I lifted the roll-up door.
Along one side of the room, gun cabinets were bolted to the floor. On shelves inside the cabinets were more of the M1911 relics, like the one I usually carried, along with spare magazines and rounds. In other cabinets, I would find more cast-offs from the military, including the gas-assisted rifle, FNC1A1, along with boxes of the .762 round to fill its magazines. Another cabinet bolted to the wall contained bayonets, knives, and currency from all over the world. There were even boxes of rations and bottled water.
I laid out everything I wanted on the workbench, stripped and assembled the weapons, cleaned the knives, and once satisfied, loaded up.
"Ready?" I asked, shoving magazines into my pockets.
Leander looked down at the array of weapons. "These weapons are meant to kill humans."
"Yes."
"They will not work on my kind."
"They work well enoug
h," I said. "Enough that I can slap on a metal-reinforced zip-strap and haul faerie ass to a salt cell."
"This time, it won't be enough."
"Why not?"
"The salamander, Hammond, is a fire faerie who has lost his mind." Someday I would have to ask him for the real word for his kind.
"So?"
"Your weapons of war might only fuel his fire, if you know what I mean."
"I don't."
He drew in a breath. "We're elemental. Your weapons of steel and lead are consumables to him. Salt and iron merely diminish our powers. If you wish to render Hammond incapable of harming another human, only cold iron will work."
I weighed his words and measured him with my eyes. There it was again: cold iron. And the notion that we humans weren't enough. Everything Ruby had said.
"I arrest and detain," I said.
"Have you considered that might not be enough in this instance?"
"Yeah, I heard what Simon said, but I'm not a killer."
"Hammond has already killed several humans. He is not in his right mind."
"Obviously. But I'm not planning to reason with him. I want him behind bars."
"He will resist, and he is powerful enough to escape everything you throw at him but cold iron."
I rolled my eyes. "And how do I get cold iron?"
"From the Winter fae."
"There must be another way." I flapped my hands up in frustration. "I don't work with faeries. I won't do it."
He opened his mouth to continue to argue his point.
"Forget it. I'm not doing it," I said. "It's off the table."
We stepped outside. I closed and locked the roll-up door.
My cell phone buzzed with notifications. I’d missed a call from Luke. Cell reception had likely been hampered by the concrete block walls of the storage unit. He left a voicemail. I played it.
"J-Julia? I'm sorry. I know this makes me a giant hypocrite, but I think…I was on my way home tonight and I…I think someone was following me."
Fear spiked down through my body. I stopped breathing.
"I didn't get a good look at him. I think he has curly hair…"
Hammond.
I couldn't breathe. I felt sucker-punched.
"I need you to know I love you," he said.
Winterstruck: an urban fantasy supernatural crime thriller Page 18
