He stared at me. “You think I’m going to ring your parents and tell them or something? Give me some credit, Oona.”
I opened my mouth and then shut it. He was right on both fronts: I was worried he’d tell my parents, and I wasn’t giving him the credit he deserved.
“Sorry.”
His face stayed serious. “I’m going with you.”
That wasn’t going to happen.
“Right now,” I said lightly, “I’m going home.”
I turned and started walking on the pier, heading back toward Hermosa.
“I’m going with you, Oona,” Chas said again. “I won’t let you go into danger alone.”
I kept walking. He grabbed my arm, turning me back toward him. I yanked free of his hold.
“Think about it, Chas. If I was planning on doing something as stupid as storming the Bastille, what good would a non-magical, recently beat up, still sore-ribbed and sore-shouldered person be?”
His face showed the pain my words caused. “I just want to help.”
I sighed. “I know. I appreciate that.” I sighed again. “There will be an attempt tonight, but I will be tucked up safe in bed when it happens. I’ve hired the fairies. They’ll be the only ones trying to free Diego and the others.”
I was becoming quite the little liar. I didn’t much like it.
The relief in Chas’ vibe only made me feel worse about lying to him.
“Okay, then” he said. “I’m thinking pizza with everything on it for dinner.”
∞∞∞
The clock on my bedside table said 2:15. I reached out with my sense and poked around in Chas’s mind. He was deeply asleep, dreaming about motorcycles and women with long streaming hair. I smiled in spite of myself. It seemed so Chas for him to be having a dream like that.
I slipped out of bed and quietly got dressed in black cargo pants and a black sweatshirt. I carried my high-tops in my hands. Bare feet were quieter on the stairs. I carefully lifted my purse and keys from the pegs in the foyer and tiptoed down the hall to go out the back door to the garage.
The garage door squealed as it opened. I really needed to oil those hinges. But even if the noise woke Chas, it was too late for him to do anything. I backed out into the alley and headed toward Torrance through dark, nearly empty streets. Seeing a car pass me now and then was reassuring—the world was still there. People were still there. The fairy-warriors would come. I wasn’t alone.
Alaska Avenue was deserted when I arrived. I cast out my senses and didn’t pick up so much as a security guard or homeless person tucked up behind a building, out of the wind. I searched for Dee’s signature and couldn’t find it. That didn’t mean he wasn’t here. The warehouse was probably heavily veiled, hiding whoever was in there.
I wondered briefly how the fairies would transport themselves as I pulled my car to the curb half a block down from the warehouse. I didn’t want to park in front, in case someone was keeping watch. I checked the safety on my Smith and Wesson before I tucked it into a pants pocket. I got out of the car, locked it, then put my keys in a different pocket than the gun. I glanced up at the sky. The moon was nearly full, the stars all but hidden in the ambient light on the street. I sent my sense into the warehouse as I walked toward it. If my sense was to be believed, there was no one inside. Veiled, I decided. There, but hidden. They had to be there. If they weren’t, I was running out of time to find Dee and the others before the Vulture Moon.
The back of my neck prickled. I couldn’t hear footsteps, but I knew someone was following me and closing the gap between us. I spun to face whoever it was, spell words at the ready.
Elgrin put a finger to her lips. Behind her followed half a dozen fairy-women dressed completely in black with swords on their backs, staves in their hands, or knives in their belts. Each was as tall or nearly so as her leader and equally powerful-looking. The fairy women stood upright but floated a few inches above the sidewalk, their large, translucent dragonfly-wings propelling them forward. The only sound was a soft whir of wings and the quiet slap of my shoes on the sidewalk. I was half surprised I couldn’t also hear the pounding of my nervous heart.
My mouth was dry from fear and nerves as we came around the back of the building and approached the smaller door. But really, wasn’t this a lot like hockey? It was my nature to press forward, but I was smart enough to go around obstacles in my way, rather than try to run over them. I wasn’t strong enough to beat the men with my physical size or speed, so I had to be smarter than my opponent, anticipate better, be better prepared. It was the same here. I’d need to be smarter than whatever waited for us inside. I was as prepared as I would ever be. And completely focused now on reaching my goal—Dee—and getting the win.
Elgrin stepped up to walk beside me. I pointed to the warehouse as we approached it. She nodded, gestured to her troops, then took the lead going around the side and to the back. At the small back door, she motioned to me and stroked her hair in sign that I should use my psychic powers now. I had been all along, and I still wasn’t registering anyone inside. I drew my hand over my face to indicate a veil. She frowned but nodded.
I reached to try the door, but the fairy leader pushed my hand away. She peered at it a moment, then cupped both hands around the knob. I heard a very quiet click. Elgrin slowly turned the knob and opened the back door a tiny crack. She signaled her troops to ready themselves, then threw the door open wide. The fairy warriors streamed into the small kitchen. The motion-sensor-controlled lights switched on.
A quick glance around showed that the room seemed abandoned. There were no dishes in the sink or empty take-out cartons lying on the table or in the trash bin this time. The air smelled stale, as if this room had been closed and deserted for weeks. Still, now that we’d breached the threshold, I felt the hum of magic. From their body language, I thought the fairies felt it too.
I carefully cracked open the door to the office and looked around. No one was there that I could see. I cast my sense out again, focusing on Dee, his particular flavor of magic and his personal signature. My heart fell when I didn’t feel anything of him here. Had I recruited the fairies and broken into this building for nothing?
Not nothing. Magic was here. Present magic—not some left-behind spell. Which meant someone was here even if hidden by a veil. Maybe The Gate. Maybe Gil. Maybe Dee, though I’d have thought I’d feel his signature no matter how strong the veil around him. It seemed arrogance now on my part, to think my magic would always find his no matter what. Or maybe Dee wasn’t with them anymore, not if Maurice’s rat was right and all three had been here earlier.
It was too many questions. I needed answers.
I pointed toward the door at the back of the kitchen that led into the main warehouse. Elgrin glared at the sensor and said something I didn’t understand. The lights in the kitchen and office went out. Just enough light streamed in the small window in the door from the streetlamps in the alley for us to dimly see each other.
Elgrin turned her palms up and raised her arms in sign for the warriors to move forward. Each warrior lifted a few inches off the ground, her wings beating, making a soft whir. I moved as quietly as I could in my rubber-soled shoes, wishing I had a silencing spell to hide the sound completely.
My mental list of things to learn once Dee, The Gate, and Gil were freed was growing longer and longer. Maybe I should move into Dee’s house for a while and do nothing but read through his library once this was over.
But first, we had to get the men out of here, if they were here, and figure a way to stop the sorcerer from trying again with different victims. Elgrin wanted the sorcerer responsible for the dark plan, but he had acolytes. What was to stop one of them from stepping into his leader’s corrupted shoes?
Elgrin cautiously cracked open the door to the main warehouse. She carefully peeked around as best she could, then turned her gaze to me. She shook her head to indicate she couldn’t see anyone in the black hole of the warehouse.
Ma
gic crackled through the small opening in the doorway. I knew someone was out there in the darkness. Many someones from the itch between my shoulder blades—none of whom felt like Dee.
Hesitating wasn’t going to make whoever or whatever waited in the warehouse change. Better to leap in and get it over with. I stepped up beside Elgrin and motioned for her to open the door wide. She raised her eyebrows at me but nodded and signaled her warriors to be ready. She flung the door open so hard it banged loudly against a wall.
The fairies swarmed into the huge, open warehouse. Once the door shut again behind us, it was as black as oil inside. I blinked, trying to help my eyes adjust. Again, I sent out my psychic sense looking for Dee, but didn’t find his signature.
A shot of lightning flew crackling and hissing across the room, striking one warrior in the chest. The fairy grunted and hit the cement floor with a thud. She struggled back to her feet. I lost sight of her as the room fell back into darkness.
Another bolt flew across the room toward us. In the sudden light I made out six men in brown robes working in concert, their arms upraised and stretched out before them, the fingers of their hands extended. I’d once seen Dee shoot lightning from his fingers. He’d said not every wizard could do it. It seemed to take all six of these brown-robed sorcerers to throw a bolt. That was good. That meant the lightning would come one shot at a time. The room went black.
Lightning flew a third time, from a different place in the room. The acolytes had shifted their position. A new thud sounded to my left. I swung my gaze toward the sound and saw a fairy warrior on the floor, her wings on fire. Another fairy kneeled beside her, beating at her companion’s wings with her hands, trying to put out the blaze. The burning fairy’s face contorted with pain. None of the sorcerer’s seemed to have been hurt or injured. If Elgrin’s warriors kept getting hurt at this rate, she might call for retreat and I’d lose my chance to search the warehouse for the missing men.
The cavernous space went dark again. I ran along one wall. In the brief light, I hadn’t seen other doorways that might lead to other rooms where Dee, The Gate, and Gil could be being held. A veil could hide them, but I guessed that whoever was holding them here wouldn’t want them hurt before the Vulture Moon. I’d spotted a tall stack of pallets when I was here before. The men could be hidden behind it, safely out of the fight.
Lightning flashed again, and again the acolytes had moved. The fairies seemed not to be able to find the sorcerers but they found a fairy with almost every strike.
Elgrin must have figured out how the acolyte sorcerers were moving, a pattern. She said something in a language I didn’t understand. Three of her warriors darted forward, swords drawn. I itched to help the fairies fight, but that wasn’t my role here. My job was to find the missing men.
When blackness returned, I sprinted through the dark toward the pallets, hoping light would return before I crashed into the hill of wood. In the next blast of light, I saw two brown-robed men were down, their heads bleeding. I had to let run the rest of the way to the pallets before dark fell again. I ran but kept my sight on the battle.
In the momentary light, the fairies swung their weapons toward the men, only to be beaten back by magic that threw one warriors completely across the room. She smashed against a brick wall and fell to the cement floor, unmoving.
I reached the pallets just as the light was lost to darkness. I stretched my hand out to touch the pallets and held still, waiting. Screams tore the darkness. Male screams.
A bright, incandescent light filled the warehouse. I blinked my eyes. Either one of the fairies had found the switch or the sorcerers had decided they’d rather see what they fought against than not.
I ducked behind the pallets, fully expecting to see Dee and the other men there. Maybe restrained. More likely bespelled.
What I saw was nothing.
My heart sank. If Dee wasn’t in the kitchen or office and he wasn’t behind the one available hiding place in the otherwise empty warehouse, where was he? Maurice’s rats had said he was here only hours ago.
I moved through the maybe six-foot wide area behind the pallets, my arms outstretched. If the men were veiled I wouldn’t see them, but I’d feel them. I moved slowly, covering every inch of space carefully even while screams rent the air around me. No one was here. So, where were they? The acolytes might know. Probably did know.
Beyond the pallets, the sounds of the battle raged. My own rage built toward what I knew was a stupid move, but I did it anyway. I loosed the gun from my pocket and took it out. I stepped around from behind the pallets, dropped down the safety, and fired into the air.
“Next person who moves, dies,” I called out, stalking toward where the fairies and sorcerers were.
The sorcerers had gotten the worst of it in the fight. Only two were still standing. They froze as if bespelled at my words. Besides the fairy with the burnt wings, three more were down. One had a wing dangling, nearly torn off her body. The other cradled her arm in her other hand, the white of bone poking through her forearm.
“Please,” I said to the fairy leader, keeping my gun trained on the brown-robed men. “tend to your wounded. And if one of you could bind these two sorcerers, hands behind their back, I’d like to talk with them.”
The fairies set to helping their comrades; all except one who ran into the kitchen/office area and returned with bungee cords she’d found and used to bind the men.
I used the barrel of my gun to motion the men toward the kitchen. Inside, I motioned for them to sit in two of the plastic chairs set by a small square table with a white melamine top. I saw that they weren’t men at all, just boys—seventeen, eighteen at the most.
“Where are the wizards you were holding prisoner here?” I asked.
Elgrin stepped into the kitchen and demanded in her rough, gravelly voice, “Where is your overlord?”
Fear widened the boys’ eyes. One looked at the other, and then away. Neither spoke.
Elgrin crouched down next to the one who looked most afraid. “Do you know about the fairies, boy? Do you know the revenge we exact from those who hurt our kind? How it is slow, painful, and fatal?”
Her voice was so cold it made me shiver. Both brown-robed boys visibly shook, but both kept their mouths clamped shut. What scared them more than the fairy’s threat?
I slipped inside the oldest boy’s mind. He was scared all right, scared half to death by the fairy but more afraid of someone else. I reached for a name, but Master was all I got. I looked in his mind for a visual of his master’s face but saw only something that looked like a television picture scrambled by static. I tried the other boy’s mind, but it was the same. It was a good guess the “master” had bespelled the boys to scramble the sorcerer’s face in their memories, just in case a psychic happened along, or the magic police caught them.
Whoever Master was, he seemed to have carefully thought through his plans. I’d have to be smarter than him, then. And lucky.
The door to the kitchen opened and the fairies brought in their injured companions. The anger flowing off Elgrin as she gazed on her wounded troops twisted my stomach. She jerked one of the brown-robed boys to his feet by the collar.
“Take them both,” she said.
Desperate fear flowed from the boys. My head started to ache. I dipped into the fairy leader’s head just long enough to know any pleas for mercy for the boys were useless. Fairy justice was sure, swift, and unbending.
Two fairies took each boy by the arms and marched him toward the small back door. My throat dried with worry for the boys. I knew that was crazy. They would have harmed me without a thought. Still—
A great wind suddenly pushed the backdoor wide open. We all turned to look, the warriors crouching into a ready position. A sound like electricity crackled in the air. A long tongue of fire streaked through the room. The boys screamed.
The fairies who’d held the boys now held nothing. At their feet lay two small piles of ashes and bone shards. The room sm
elled of burning flesh.
I ran out the door and threw up by the large blue metal trashcans.
Chapter Eighteen
The fairy-warrior leader walked over and stood impassively beside me as I straightened up and wiped my mouth. She wrinkled her nose.
“Let’s move away from the stink.”
Heat rose in my cheeks, both from embarrassment and anger. We’d just seen two people burned alive and it seemed not to bother the fairy at all.
“Did anyone check on the sorcerers still inside the warehouse?” I said.
Elgrin nodded. “Ash and bone. All of them.” She wrinkled her nose again, but I didn’t know if it was the stink still bothering her or the senseless destruction of the six acolytes. I hoped it was the latter.
We walked back over by the door and watched the fairies bring out their wounded and then disappear in a shower of multicolored sparks until only Elgrin and I remained.
My mouth tasted like vomit. My throat was dry. My stomach was tight, and tears stung my eyes. I needed water to wash the taste from my mouth. What I wanted more than anything was to be home with Dee with all of this behind us. That wasn’t going to happen if I didn’t stop failing to find him.
“Why weren’t your warriors burned by the fire?” I asked.
Elgrin shrugged as if it were not important. “Fairies are immune to human magic.”
“Your warriors were harmed by the acolyte-sorcerers’ lightning.”
Elgin shrugged. “That magic wasn’t purely human-made; it was boosted by something from the other side. But the fire that killed the brown-robes was human-sent. Human only. Nothing else.” She peered at me. “I wonder why their master didn’t burn you up as well and get you off his trail? You’re human.” She peered at me again. “Mostly, though there is something else in you, too.”
“They say my great-grandfather was a selkie,” I said.
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