Several other changelings were clustered in small hushed groups throughout the lobby, all wide-eyed and pale as they stared at the grisly scene before us. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a little voice was trying to tell me that I should do something. What, I didn’t know. Just something. But the shock and horror of it all kept my feet rooted to the spot.
“What’s all this commotion about?” Alwyn breezed into the lobby, her eyes alert and wary. Within an instant, she’d taken in the scene before her, her face paling for only the slightest of seconds before she’d regained her control and composure.
She jerked toward me with a snap in her voice. “Norah. Get Sophia out of here. Take her back to your quarters.”
“What’s this all about?” I whispered, eyes locked on the bloodied words. “Why has someone written ‘murderer’ with his blood?”
“I don’t know,” she snapped. “For now, I need you to get Sophia out of here.”
With a nod, I stepped away from Boyd’s body and moved to Sophia’s side. I understood why Alwyn needed me to remove her from the scene. She was shaken—badly. Her eyes were hollow; her breathing was rapid. She was seconds away from a panic attack unless I got her out of here.
I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and steered her down the hallway, casting a glance on my shoulder at the body on the ground. A strange sense of unease settled into my bones. Someone had been murdered inside the academy grounds. With the security at our borders, it was chilling to think that someone could have snuck in and out undetected. But what was more chilling was the realization that it could have been someone from inside.
“What’s the plan for today? Are we going to pick up where we left off on that whole scent thing?” I asked when I plopped into a chair in the library. I met my four instructors here every day before we trekked out into the forest for our hands-on training sessions. Usually, my four instructors arrived before I did, but Finn was the only one lounging at our table, his feet propped up on the wooden frame.
He arched an eyebrow. “And ignore the fact you can see through the eyes of an animal? I imagine we’ll want to tackle that new insight into your powers first.”
With everything that had happened last night, I’d almost forgotten about my new-found ability. I’d spent most of the midnight hours sitting with Sophia and listening to her heart-breaking stories about Boyd. We’d stayed up until the sun had begun to brighten the sky. At that point, we’d both gone to bed, though I’d barely slept. My mind couldn’t settle knowing that we might have a killer in our midst.
“So, you do believe me.”
Finn drummed his knuckles on the table. “Rourke seemed pretty adamant that a rabbit was staring at him, and I’m inclined to take his word. He’s not really the type to joke around or imagine that furry little creatures are staring at him when they’re not.”
I snorted. “Tell me about it.”
Finn flashed me a smile, but then the amusement in his brilliant green eyes drifted away. “In all seriousness, Norah. You do understand how peculiar this is, yes? Not a single fae I know has this gift, though I suppose it’s something the Autumns could have been hiding from us all these years. I wouldn’t put it past them.”
He scowled, an expression I rarely saw cross Finn’s face.
“You really don’t like the Autumn fae, do you?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Do you? After everything they’ve done to you and Queen Marin?”
Queen Marin. My heart squeezed tight just hearing her name. Even though it had been three weeks since I’d discovered that she was my birth mother, I still hadn’t yet fully processed what that meant to me. It still felt abstract, like it was something that had happened to someone else somewhere very far away from me. How could I, of all people, be the daughter of a woman who had once ruled this entire realm? And it was impossible to fathom how it had even happened. Alwyn had told me that my mother had birthed me in secret and then made sure I was taken away under the cover of darkness, sent to the human realm in the place of another changeling.
She’d heard rumors that he Autumn fae had planned a revolt, and she was worried they would launch an attack against her. And she was even more worried what would happen to her baby girl if they found out she’d had one. So, she’d sent me away before anyone could find out.
Not long after I’d been swapped with a human, a fire had consumed every trace of the changeling records, ensuring that no one would ever know there’d been a Greater Fae baby except those who had been in on the secret. Alwyn had been in on it, and she’d kept her mouth shut all these years, just waiting for the moment I would return to this realm.
Finn shifted forward in his chair and took my hand in his. His touch was warm, soft, and comforting, but also more. My breath caught in my throat as I dragged my eyes from where our hands were entwined, and I looked up into his face. Those bright, sparkling eyes of his flashed with something I rarely ever saw, not from him. Finn was a jokester. Lighthearted and free, but he wasn’t careless. And then intensity I saw in him now made my skin buzz with a strange kind of electricity.
“I’m sorry I brought her up,” he simply said, voice soft and low.
“It’s okay.” I gave him a timid smile. “It’s just so strange to me, you know? Sometimes, I feel as if I’m mourning her, even though I’ve never even met her. Even though she died all those years ago.”
“It’s not that strange, Norah. She was your mother. Of course you are going to mourn her when you learn of her fate.” He sighed and sat back in his chair, and it took all my self-control not to grasp at his fingers to hold him close to me.
But that would be silly. Even though I’d felt a connection with Finn from day one, he was the instructor I knew the least. We’d flirted, yes. And we’d even kissed during that strange, intense moment we’d shared in the stables. But it had been so fleeting that I almost felt as if we hadn’t kissed at all, a fact I was desperate to remedy.
I wanted to know him as well as I knew Rourke and Liam and Kael. I wanted to feel his arms wrapped around me. I wanted to see into his eyes and understand everything he felt. But I didn’t know how to get from here to there, not when Alwyn would barely let us touch.
So, instead of jumping to my feet and wrapping my arms around his neck, I said, “You’ve never told me your story.”
“My story?”
“What did you do before you came here to teach at the Academy?” My breath stilled in my lungs as his eyes flickered with a hint of darkness. All my instructors had backgrounds that followed them around like hulking shadows. Kael, my Winter prince, had been cast out from his family, only allowed to return home with a bride. Liam had once served for Queen Marin and had been captured when she’d been killed. He’d been kept in a cell for years.
Rourke had been a member of the Autumn Rebels. He’d left them behind when he realized that they would never truly fight against the crown. He’d wanted to do something to make a difference, but they refused to fight. Even now, they still lurked along the border of the Autumn woods, watching and waiting but never lifting a sword.
“I’m afraid my story is not that exciting to tell. I come from a small little village in the northern-most part of the Spring lands. My mother manages a little farm where she grows some crops for the crown, though I suppose not anymore. All our Royals are dead.” He frowned. “I suppose she’ll be supplying them to someone else now. The Hunters, perhaps. I should visit soon. It’s been far too long.”
Even though three weeks had passed since Queen Viola had launched an attack on the courts, not a single soul had stepped up to rule the realm or to even take charge of each individual court. Things were a bit in chaos. The only thing keeping order was the Hunters, but it was a temporary solution that wouldn’t last long. A part of me knew deep down inside what the realm was waiting for, but it didn’t feel right.
I wasn’t ready.
“Is she alone?” I asked quietly, not wanting to push, even though I was desperately curious to know where Fi
nn had come from.
The distant look in his eyes drifted away as he flashed a grin. “Oh no. I have four brothers. They’ll be keeping her company and driving her mad at the same time. They help out on the farm. Plowing the land and harvesting the crops.”
Interesting. Finn’s life wasn’t exactly the dark and tortured history I’d expected.
I smiled. “And what about your father?”
Finn’s eyes darkened. “I don’t talk about him. As far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t exist.”
“Right.” My heart thumped. So there it was. The wound he hid deep down inside. “I understand how you feel. My step-father is pretty much the biggest asshole I’ve ever met. Here, in Otherworld, it’s so easy for me to pretend he doesn’t exist and that he’s not still there, probably making my mom’s life a living hell.”
Mom. Tears pricked my eyes. I still thought of her as my mother. Of course I did. She’d raised me; she’d loved me. Was she worried about me now? Did she have any idea where I’d gone? It had seemed that she did.
Was she glad I was far, far away from the claws of my step-dad? But more importantly…
“Do you think my mom knew, Finn?” I asked him, a question I’d been pondering for months. “I mean, she is the one who gave me that necklace, and she acted like it was the only thing in the world that could save my life.”
Finn leaned back in his chair and laced his hands behind his head. “Marin was fond of humans, a trait not shared by many fae. Truly, she had a fondness for most living things. She loved the changelings, even though most considered them less than just because they’d been forced to spend their growing years in the human realm. Queen Marin even loved the Redcaps, as dangerous and volatile as they can be. And you know what’s strange? I don’t remember a single Redcap attack from her reign. All of that came after. The storms and the attacks. Everything changed.”
I leaned forward in my chair. “So, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that it wouldn’t surprise me if Marin went into the human realm and met your mother herself to tell her exactly what was going to happen when you came of age. In fact, I would bet on it. She would want to be absolutely certain her daughter was going to a good home, and she’d want insurance just in case things went wrong. That necklace was meant to mask you so that no one would ever find out who you are. Marin gave your human mother that necklace. I’m certain of it.”
I blew out a hot breath, my mind and heart both racing. “And that was before my awful step-father was in the equation, so she wouldn’t have known how horrible my life would become.”
She wouldn’t have known just how close I’d come to getting hit.
“Of course, this is just my theory” he said with a slight smile. “You would have to speak to your human mother to learn the full truth.”
“I know. And one day I will.” I took a deep breath in through my nose. “I’m just not ready to face him yet. But when all of this is over, I will.”
But would it ever be over? Once I was done training, it would be time for me to graduate from the Academy and head out into the realm of the fae to live with my four mates. The courts would need help recovering from the Autumn fae attacks, and one day, I might sit on a throne myself. All of this could take months or years or even more.
And then the Dark Fae would come.
I was stalling, and I knew it. I’d faced off against dangerous fae and terrifying beasts, but the the thought of seeing my step-father against made my blood run cold with pure fear. I just wasn’t ready to face him.
Instead, it was time to change the subject. “What do you know about Boyd? Did you know him back when you lived in the Spring lands?”
Finn let out a lighthearted chuckle and leaned forward. “I know what you’re trying to do, Norah. You’re trying to change the subject. Don’t worry. We don’t have to talk about your step-father if you don’t want to.”
“Good.” I flashed him a smile. “So, what do you know about Boyd?”
“Is this your way of asking if he’s a murderer?” He arched an eyebrow. “Because, no. He wasn’t. Just because some lunatic spelled something out in blood on the floor doesn’t make it true, especially the kind of lunatic that would rip someone’s throat out.”
My mouth suddenly went very dry. I’d seen Boyd’s body when we’d rushed into the lobby, and it had been clear as day that the wound was somewhere on his neck. But he’d been face down. I hadn’t seen the cut myself. To hear that his throat had been ripped out…
Heart thundering hard, I asked the question that I very much did not want to ask. “Ripped out how? Like…an animal?”
“Now, don’t jump to any conclusions, Norah…” he began, but I was up and halfway to the door before he could finish his sentence. An old horror was beginning to creep into my mind, one I very much wanted to shove aside. But I couldn’t, not until I saw her first.
“I have to go talk to Bree.”
Chapter Three
Bree lived at the Academy, even though she wasn’t a changeling. She was the only non-fae allowed residence in this place, though I supposed she kind of was fae now, in a way, even though she’d been technically cured of the Redcap disease. She still had the ability to shift into the beast within, but she now had full control.
After much begging from me, Alwyn had allowed Bree to stay within these walls so that she could be trained to fight. Bree would now never return to the human realm, not when the wolf-like beast would always be somewhere deep within her. The Winter Starlight cure had helped. It had given her control of her soul, but she’d never be human. She’d never fit in the way she once had. And it killed me knowing that her fate was my fault.
I paused in the doorway of her room, relieved to see her familiar pixie face. “Bree.”
She glanced over her shoulder and flashed me a smile, her long dark hair twisted up into a ponytail. She wore fighting leathers, and a sword was strapped to her waist. Alwyn had thought it was a good idea for Bree to learn to fight with more than her claws, and I had to admit, she looked seriously fierce.
“Norah, what are you doing here? I thought you’d be with one—or four—of your hunky instructors right about now. What are they training you on lately? Smell, wasn’t it?” She let out a light laugh. “If you’d told me a year ago that you’d be trying to sniff out men in the woods, I would have thought you were crazy.”
I couldn’t help but grin back.
She was acting normal. So normal. Just like the Bree I’d always known and loved.
I eased into the room and perched on the arm of a chair. “Did you hear about what happened last night?”
The smile vanished from her pixie face. “To the new instructor? The one Sophia was going to mate with? Yeah, I heard. Someone killed him.”
“Yeah,” I breathed, searching her deep blue eyes. Nothing in them spoke of worry or sadness or fear. I let out a slight breath of relief. Bree hadn’t done this. She couldn’t have. She wasn’t violent. She was fully in control now. It was just a coincidence that the murder looked like a Redcap attack. And it was just a coincidence that it must have been someone inside of the Academy. None of that mattered though.
If Bree had done it, I’d be able to tell.
Wouldn’t I?
“It’s absolutely awful. And pretty terrifying if you ask me. How did anyone get into the building long enough to be able to do something like that? I thought there were tons of guards these days.” She shook her head. “Just when I thought we were all finally safe.”
“Well, it gets worse. Finn told me that it looked as though someone had ripped Boyd’s throat out.” A beat passed. “I hate to ask you this, Bree, but have you kept in touch with any of the Redcaps you met while you were…out there? Would any of them know where you are?”
Her eyes widened, and she took a step back as if by instinct. “Finn said a Redcap did this?”
“Not in so many words,” I said quickly. “He just that the wound was animalistic. It made me think that may
be it could have been a Redcap, especially since the killer wrote out a word on the floor with blood. What other creature can do both?”
“I can’t believe this.” Bree gripped the arms of her chair and averted her gaze, her face paling. “But yes. I have kept in touch with a few of the Redcaps. The ones who haven’t fully succumbed to the beast. They would never do something like this though. I know you think all Redcaps are violent and—”
She cut off her words, and unshed tears filled her eyes. I hated that I had to question her like this, but we had to find out who had committed this crime. Before they did it to someone else.
I gave her a moment to catch her breath before I continued. “Have they been cured? Have they taken the Starlight?”
If they weren’t cured, then they could never fully be in control. In fact, they would be quite the opposite. And then once the venom fully took hold...the beast would consume their minds.
“No,” Bree said, her voice pained and raw. “I told them about the Starlight. They’ve been searching for months, but they haven’t been able to find any. I swear to you, Norah. None of them would have murdered in cold blood. They just wouldn’t. It’s not their faults that they’ve been infected with this horrible disease. They don’t want to be a Redcap, no more than I did when it felt as though it was ruling my brain. Please don’t go after them. They haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Bree,” I said, striding toward her and gently resting a hand on her shoulder. “I’m not saying they did anything wrong. Hell, they probably didn’t. Like you said, how could anyone get inside of this place without being seen?”
She gritted her teeth, still refusing to meet my eyes. “The thing is, one of them has been inside of the Academy. She came to visit me a few weeks ago, and I snuck her into my room so that I could show her where I live now. I didn’t think it would cause any harm. She’s been having a rough time, what with not being able to find the Starlight and…” She let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. “She helped me so much when I first came to Otherworld. Before I found you. I didn’t know what the hell was going on or even who I was. She talked me through it all. She helped me find you. There’s no way in hell she’s behind this.”
A Touch of Starlight Page 2
