Silence stretched the minutes. Bree knew just as well as I did how bad this looked for her friend.
“Listen. I believe you, okay? But we still need to go and talk to her anyway. She could have told someone else how to get inside the Academy without being seen. Maybe she has important information that we should know.”
Bree looked up, a distant, haunted look in her deep blue eyes. “You believe me?”
“Of course I do.” I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. Even here, in these strange lands, with the beast hiding deep within her bones, she still smelled like Bree. Like lavender and roses. Like home. “I know what it’s like to have a friend who has been unwillingly transformed into something she doesn’t want to be. And I know how it feels to believe that she’d never do a single soul any harm, no matter what she’s become.”
“But I did hurt people,” she whispered, her voice rough and raw.
“No.” I shook my head. “You didn’t hurt anyone. The Autumn fae controlled your mind. They did that. It wasn’t you.”
She sniffled and looked up at me. “Well, what if that’s happening again? What if they’re controlling Shai and using her to hurt those at the Academy? They attacked this place once before. Maybe they’re doing it again.”
I gave a nod. “It’s a possibility. If that’s what is happening here, then we need to find out and put a stop to it. The best place to start? Talking to her.”
Finally, Bree let out a defeated sigh. “Okay, I know where she’s been hiding out recently. I can take you there, but Norah…I need you to promise that no one will harm her. Don’t tell anyone else about this. Please. I know what Hunters prefer to do to Redcaps. Kill them outright, even if they haven’t done anything wrong.”
“I’m not a Hunter, Bree.”
“I know.” Suddenly, she went stiff and nodded to someone behind me. “But he certainly used to be one.”
I whirled on my feet to find Liam hovering in the doorway with Finn by his side. Even though they originated from the two more lighthearted seasons of the realm, their faces were nothing but grave. There was no telling how long they’d been standing nearby. There was no telling how long they’d been listening. They must have heard everything.
“Were you going to whisk yourselves away to go and talk to this Redcap girl alone? And when? Were you going to at least cancel today’s training or were you going to leave us hanging and wondering where you were? Rourke and Kael are in the forest, probably wondering where the hell we’ve all disappeared to,” Liam said, his voice low and deadly. “If it weren’t for Finn, I’d be none the wiser myself.”
“Don’t get angry. Bree shared this with me in confidence.”
Finn arched an eyebrow. “So, you weren’t going to tell us?”
“I would have told you when we got back. Well, as long as…”
“As long as the Redcap girl wasn’t Boyd’s killer,” Liam finished for me. “Don’t tell me you’re valuing the life of a murderer over the life of the victim here.”
Liam’s voice was sharp, much sharper than I’d ever heard him be before, especially not with me.
I frowned. “Of course not, but we don’t know if she was even involved yet. Bree believes that Shai didn’t do this. She wouldn’t kill Boyd willingly. So, if she was involved, then there’s something more going on here.”
Something like what had happened when I’d first arrived at the Academy. Queen Viola had used the Redcaps against us, hoping she could wipe us all out. Just because she was no longer alive didn’t mean that her supporters would just go quietly into the night. This could be their way of getting back at us. They could be using the Redcaps once again.
But that still didn’t explain the bloodied word on the floor.
“Finn,” I said, turning toward my Spring fae instructor. “Boyd was a Spring fae. What do you know about him? Has he ever been involved in anything that might have led to this?”
Footsteps echoed on the stone floor, and Alwyn turned the corner down the hallway, her long golden hair billowing behind her. She stopped before us with pursed lips and hands clasped together. Her glittering eyes were sharp, intelligent. Hell, sometimes it felt as if she was all-knowing. Alwyn Adair was a calculating fae. Far more calculating than she ever let on. And I knew she’d sentence Bree’s friend to death in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately, the look on her face suggested that she’d heard every word.
“Bree.” Alwyn gave my best friend a nod. “I was just coming here to have a word with you, but it looks at though Norah beat me to it with her misplaced belief that she is the one running this Academy instead of me.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but she held up a hand.
“As powerful as you are and as happy as I am to have Marin’s daughter training here, you would do well to remember that you are a student here, Norah Oliver. And I am the Head Instructor of this Academy. As such, you should not be sneaking around and investigating things that are none of your concern.”
My eyebrows shot to the top of my forehead. “None of my concern? An instructor got murdered here last night. Brutally. I’m pretty sure that’s the concern of every instructor and changeling who call this place their home.”
“And so you came running straight to your Redcap friend to launch an investigation without even checking to see what I, the actual head of this place, planned to do about it.”
“What do you plan to do about it, Alwyn?” I asked, fisting my hands by my sides. “Track down a random Redcap and slaughter her without any confirmation that she was in control of her actions? Without even being one hundred percent certain that she was involved in the first place? Whoever did this wrote ‘murderer’ on the floor. That doesn’t sound like a random Redcap attack to me.”
Alwyn’s steady gaze met mine, and the skin around her jaw rippled as she clenched her teeth together. Something about the way she stood before me with confidence and power radiating off her skin, it made her seem ten times taller than she truly was. But I wouldn’t back down. Yes, she was the leader of this place, but I wasn’t a mere changeling. I’d fought for this realm. I’d gone up against one of the most dangerous Autumn fae alive—at the time. And I’d won.
“Very well. Have it your way, Norah,” Alwyn said in a dangerous voice that sent shivers along my skin. “This should be a good test for you. You will take the lead on this investigation. Find out who murdered Boyd and bring her—or him—to me. I will decide what to do from there, whether that be imprisonment or physical punishment or something else.”
I knew what that something else would be.
Execution.
Alwyn took one step closer, her eyes boring into mine. She was so close that I could smell the hint of orange on her breath. “This is a chance for you to prove were your loyalties lie. With the Academy and with the realm. Or with…others.” Her eyes flicked to Bree at that. Anger and irritation flared up within me, but Alwyn continued before I could make a retort. “If you do this for me, I can give you one thing I know you want. An item that will keep your step-father away from your human caretaker. Forever.”
I braced my arms on the windowsill and stared out at the rolling hills that surrounded the Academy. Alwyn had just dangled an irresistible carrot in front of my face, and she knew it. How long had she been holding on to this leverage? And how the hell could she be cruel enough to use it against me?
My heart ached with the desire to reach out and grasp it with everything within me. I needed it. Whatever it was. But I couldn’t throw someone else to the wolves in order to get it.
“What could she possibly have to take down your asshole step-dad?” Bree asked from where she perched like a cat on the arm of her sofa. Finn leaned against the wall beside the door, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched me glare out the window as if I could find my answers in the cloud-studded sky. Liam had vanished after Alwyn’s little speech. He would fill Rourke and Kael in on what had transpired.
“Hell if I know,” I muttered
. “Some kind of weapon?”
“It’ll be information,” Finn said with a flash of a smile. “That’s her specialty. She used to be a spy, you know. She gathers up information like a rat and stores it away, just waiting for the perfect moment to use it. To be honest, I’m a bit surprised she’d choose this situation for something quite so big. As horrible as Boyd’s death was, it is a fairly isolated incident. She’s acting as though finding his killer affects the fate of the entire realm.”
I blew out a hot breath. “Well, I’ll investigate. I’ll find out who did this. But I know it wasn’t Bree’s friend, not unless she was controlled. There’s no reason she would have done it. Murders need motive. I can’t see what hers would be.”
Finn paused, flicking his gaze toward Bree. “Unfortunately, this Shai you speak of would have a motive. You keep asking me about Boyd, Norah. I don’t much about him, but I do know one thing. Before joining the Academy, he was a member of the team of Hunters who tracked down Redcaps. He would find them and kill them. So, you see, there is a reason why she would want to see his blood on the ground.”
Chapter Four
The six of us gathered together outside of the Academy for the hunt, though I knew Bree wouldn’t want to call it anything of the sort. Liam collected the horses from the stables while Finn and I filled Rourke and Kael in on the plan. It was simple really. We would follow Bree’s directions to the Redcap hideout, find Shai, talk to her, and determine whether or not she was involved in Boyd’s death. And we would not bring her back to the Academy unless we were certain she was guilty.
Even though it was midday, the sky was a gray as twilight. Thick clouds hid the autumn sun from view, their bloated bellies full of rain. It hadn’t stormed for several weeks, but the sky threatened it all the same, and the wind whipped my loose hair around my face. Shivering, I pulled the golden cloak around my shoulders, but it did nothing to push out the uneasy chill from my bones.
Kael looked dark, mysterious, and powerful in his own billowing cloak, and his was a black as deep as the darkest of nights. He turned toward Bree, searching her face. Out of all my instructors, he would understand her plight the best. His own blood roared with the blood of the beast. “How far along is your friend in her transformation from human to beast?”
“I’m not sure,” Bree admitted with a frown. “She’s a lot stronger than I was, and she’s held it off pretty well. I think she found her way to Otherworld a couple of months before I did.”
“You may need to accept that she’s lost control,” Rourke said in that matter-of-fact way of his. “And if she has, we’ll have to take her in.”
Bree fisted her hands and propped them on her hips. “Would someone who is out of control take the time to write some kind of message on the floor? That seems purposeful to me. Like whoever killed Boyd planned the whole thing and came to the Academy with that intention in mind. Revenge, of some sort. It doesn’t sound like a wild attack by a beast.”
“She’s not wrong,” I said. “If an out-of-control Redcap attacked the Academy, there would have been far more chaos. And far more damage.”
Far more deaths.
“Perhaps.” Rourke pursed his lips. He didn’t look particularly convinced, and I understood why, even if I didn’t agree. Bree’s friend looked guilty as hell from where I was standing. I just had to hope, for her sake, there was more going on than met the eye. I’d promised Bree that we wouldn’t take her back to the Academy unless we were certain she was guilty, but there was nothing I could do if she’d actually committed the crime.
Once we’d mounted the horses, the six of us began the long trek across the rolling hills, following Bree’s directions. As much as I wished we could use my travelling magic to blink us away from the Academy and straight to wherever Shai was hiding, we couldn’t. After Queen Viola’s attacks against the courts, a heavy dose of magical restrictions had fallen across Otherworld. Every court had sealed their borders, casting wards that prevented anything but travel by foot. Alwyn had taken it upon herself to do the same to the free territories. Even though this part of the realm wasn’t under anyone’s command, she’d still sealed it off, too.
Bree warned us that it would be a long journey, one that would require a stop along the way. We’d set off from the Academy at mid-day, and it didn’t take long for the sun to disappear behind the horizon. As the night began to deepen, Rourke led us away from the hills and deep into the trees where we set up camp in a small clearing that was hidden away from prying eyes.
“Right,” Rourke said while Liam used his Summer magic to get a small fire going. “We’re in the middle of the free territory, which means there are threats all around us. The Wilde Fae often roam these lands at night, though they prefer the fields to the dense forest. Still, we need to be alert. We’ll need to take turns keeping watch. Who would like to go first?”
I’d stepped forward before he’d even finished speaking the words. This entire trip had been my idea. If someone had to stay up and lose sleep this night, it should be me. “I’ll keep watch.”
A frown flickered across Rourke’s face. “You should get some rest. I’m sure one of us will be happy to—”
“I’d like to do it, Rourke.”
A pause, and then a nod. Rourke had spent enough time with me to know that I often preferred to do things myself.
“Very well. You take first watch. If there is any problem at all, wake me immediately.”
After we ate some porridge and hard bread, I took my spot beside the fire, warming my hands as the forest chill deepened along with the darkness of the night. My five companions settled onto the ground and drifted off to sleep in what felt like mere moments. As I dropped back my head, I spotted a break in the cloud cover, smiling at the brilliance of the stars. It was hard to imagine that I’d never called this place my home. Less than a year ago, my feet had pounded the streets of Manhattan day and night, the sparkling city lights drowning out all signs of the stars in the sky above.
I had loved the city at times, but my bones had never felt that same sense of rightness there. The world and my life had never fully felt like my own.
Just behind me, a twig snapped, and the scent of him swirled into my nose. Mist and darkness and snow.
“Hey.” I glanced up and shot Kael a smile. “Couldn’t sleep?”
He shook his head and settled onto the damp ground beside me. “I don’t know how the others are able to relax out here. The Wilde Fae could easily ambush us if they happened to pass through.”
I shivered and not from the cold. “Honestly, I hope I never have to see another damn Wilde Fae in my life.”
He shifted a little closer, and his arm brushed against mine. The two of us sat staring into the flickering fire, silence passing between our lips. But it didn’t feel weird or awkward or anything but right. With a sigh, I dropped my head onto his shoulder and closed my eyes. The warmth of the fire soothed my skin as it crackled away, a soundtrack to what was beginning to feel like a perfect night.
“Does it bother you?” I lifted my head, finally breaking the silence after several long, calming moments had passed by. “The fact that everyone likes to demonize the Redcaps?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his body slightly stiffen. “I am not truly a Redcap, Norah. You know that.”
“No, but you were bitten. You can transform into the beast. And you do, sometimes. Surely it bothers you when everyone around you seems to hate the mere thought of it.”
A pause. “They’re just afraid of what those creatures can do unchecked, the human ones who have fully transformed into the beast. The ones who have no humanity left within them. Our own creation has turned against us. And it will never be something we can undo. Even the Starlight cannot fully erase it.”
“Why do you think the Starlight didn’t fully cure Bree?” I asked with a frown. “I thought it would make her human again. Instead...well, it made her more like you, I guess. And you didn’t even take the Starlight.”
/> “Ah.” His smile was sad and ghostlike. “Bree was human. I am fae. The Redcap venom didn’t affect me the way it did her. As a human, she wasn’t able to withstand the full horror of it. As for why she wasn’t fully cured…I do not know. Perhaps the Starlight is not as powerful as we once thought. Perhaps Bree was too far along in her transformation. Perhaps she had spent too much time in the fae realm. Perhaps…well, I am not certain I should say.”
I arched an eyebrow and shifted to face him. “Just tell me, Kael.”
He pressed his lips together, sighing as he wrapped his hand around mine. “Perhaps she did not want to fully let go of the beast.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?” He pursed his lips. “If Bree had become fully human again, she would have been forced to return to her own realm. Since she has been here, has she even once expressed a desire for home? Or regret that she had to stay in Otherworld? From what I can see, she prefers it here.”
I shifted back just slightly, surprise flittering through me. As much as I wanted to argue that Kael was wrong, he had a point. Bree had been practically ecstatic when I’d told her she would be staying at the Academy. I hadn’t thought much about it at the time, mostly because there was no place I would rather be myself. Had she somehow purposefully prevented the cure from fully taking shape?
I couldn’t believe that was true.
“To be honest, I don’t blame her for wanting to stay here,” I said, stretching my finger so that the tip of it rested against the edge of his knee. “I wouldn’t want to return to the human realm, not after knowing this place. And everyone in it.”
The desire to be close to him suddenly overwhelmed me to the point where I could barely think of anything else. All I wanted to do was climb on top of him, wrap my legs around his waist, and to feel his lips on my skin.
A Touch of Starlight Page 3
