Tithes (Ava Delaney

by Claire Farrell

  I had just turned off the news in disgust when Phoenix arrived. I let him in, and he paced in my hallway, barely able to contain his anger.

  “He’s gone. While his agitators did their work, he got away. He can’t be found, and now it sounds as though we’ve been persecuting a sick man all along. People are backing him, despite the fact he appears to have jumped bail.”

  “The truth will come out.”

  “It will. Because we’re going to find him—him or more evidence.” He stopped walking and gripped my shoulders. “We’re going to fix this.”

  Anything was better than sitting around waiting. “What’s the plan?”

  “We’re going to break into his properties,” he said. “His brother has come up with the address of a house Egan used as a summer home, a kind of escape. It would be a perfect place for him to lay low. We’ll start there.”

  “What if he’s left the country?”

  His fingers pinched. “He hasn’t. We’ve had everyone watching for him. He can’t move without somebody seeing him, so he must be hiding. We have to find him.”

  “Breaking in doesn’t sound like the opposite of persecuting him,” I hedged.

  “I don’t care what it sounds like! Don’t you want to find the child?”

  My stomach curled up at the words. Of course I did. I was just trying really hard not to mess anything up. And Phoenix was close to breaking. If I didn’t go with him, and he found Egan… I didn’t want to think about it.

  “He skipped bail,” he persisted. “He’s broken the law. If the system can’t touch him, then we must.”

  “Fine,” I said at last. “I’ll go.” And I hoped I wouldn’t regret it.

  The full moon was high in the sky as we drove. I called Peter to let him know what I was up to. He had planned on dropping by to look through the paperwork we had again.

  “Need a hand?” he asked.

  I glanced at Phoenix. “Nah, it should be nothing. I’ll let you know if we run into trouble. Just let yourself into my place if you still want to go through everything.”

  “I might,” he said. “There has to be something we’ve missed.”

  “Or lots of things,” I said wryly. “Talk to you later.”

  The journey continued in silence.

  Finally, to feel as though Phoenix knew I was there, I spoke. “What do we do if we find Egan?”

  “Arrest him,” he said, but a vein throbbed in his neck.

  “He can’t get hurt,” I warned. “Not by us. The place is already wound up to the last. We can’t be the ones to screw it up.”

  He glanced at me. “Are you trying to say something?”

  “I thought I did say it. This has to go… well.”

  “We’re breaking into a man’s house,” Phoenix said. “That’s crossing a line we can’t return from.”

  “So is murder,” I said under my breath. I worried because Phoenix rarely lost his cool. It could be bad.

  “Kenneth was sure about this place,” he said. “Either we find Egan and arrest him, or we knock another place off the list. He’s somewhere. We’ll find him.”

  We drove close to the children’s home along the way. “Not to tempt fate,” I said, “but I wonder why the kids haven’t been attacked here.”

  “No reason to. The school got far more coverage.”

  “Why would a human want to go to all these lengths?”

  “Why would a supernatural?” Phoenix said. “Greed, I assume.”

  “I just… I feel like I understand why a vampire would do something like this. Spend enough time with Daimhín, and you’ll be convinced she doesn’t have a soul.”

  “Is that what you believe?” he asked. “That we don’t have souls?”

  “I don’t know what I believe,” I said. “It just makes more sense in my head to think that people do this because they have nothing that keeps them good. It messes up my head when humans do bad things, because they have so many reasons not to. It feels worse somehow.”

  He made a noncommittal sound. “I think there’s something at the core of all of us, Ava, supernatural or not, that we either choose to ignore or nurture. We’re all capable of terrible things, whether we choose to believe it or not.”

  “So what gives us more power? Knowing what we’re capable of or refusing to believe it?”

  “I wish I knew.” He smiled. “You ask a lot of questions. Has anyone ever mentioned that?”

  I grinned. “How else will I learn?”

  “Exactly,” he said under his breath. “Exactly.”

  Egan’s summerhouse was a McMansion on the outskirts of Waterford. The place was empty, and by the cobwebs around the doors, nobody had been there for quite some time.

  “He’s not here. We could take a look at all of the properties on the list and see if—”

  “No,” Phoenix said. “We’re here now. We might as well take a look inside.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Then wait in the car.” He got a wheel brace from the car and went to the glass side door. He smashed it cleanly then stepped inside. I cringed, waiting for an alarm to go off, but nothing happened. That in itself was disturbing, but maybe we were in one of those places where everyone felt safe enough to forgo the occasional noise pollution.

  I hesitated for about five seconds before following Phoenix inside. The kitchen was large and spacious—too clean to be lived in. There were a couple of bedrooms, an empty room, two living areas, and a study. In one of the living rooms, the bookshelves were covered in fantasy books, both children and adult.

  I scanned the shelves.

  “Anything?” Phoenix asked.

  “Nothing but a fascination for anything out of the ordinary.”

  “I’ll check out the study then.”

  I followed him, if only to keep him from destroying anything. The study was an eerily similar copy of the one in Egan’s main abode. Phoenix looked through bookcases and glass cabinets, tossing books to the floor in his anger.

  I was drawn to the desk, where I felt a tremor of something—something I wanted to touch. The only drawer was locked, but the lock was unusual in appearance and function. There was an empty space as though a coin unlocked it.

  I searched the desk and found a circular piece of wood that looked like the right fit. A hole had been carved through the centre. I held up the piece to my eye and squinted, but I saw only darkness.

  “Anything in the desk?” Phoenix called from the other side of the room.

  “Just about to unlock the drawer,” I said, hurriedly pushing the wood into the gap in the drawer.

  Then I screamed as a shock of magic blasted me into a bookcase. I tried to move to protect myself, but my limbs felt separate from my body. The shelves collapsed, covering me with books.

  Phoenix shouted something. I tried to sit up, to do anything, but I couldn’t even blink. Some kind of magical paralysis had taken over my body. I offhandedly thought it would be a perfect addition to the house security services Moses and I had chatted about.

  “Ava!” Phoenix pulled the books away and looked at me, aghast. “No,” he whispered, looking back at the desk. “He killed her.”

  Great. The fae prince thought I was dead. I desperately tried to do… anything to show him I was okay, but nothing happened. Phoenix gathered me in his arms, his face wan with panic. He laid me on the sofa and felt for a pulse. The dawning of relief on his face was so comically over the top that I would have laughed if I could do anything.

  “Not dead,” he said. “Bespelled instead.” He stood then hesitated. “If you can hear me, don’t panic. I’ll fix this.”

  Don’t panic—like he wasn’t panicking. I imagined myself rolling my eyes, since I couldn’t actually do that. Phoenix dashed around the room. I couldn’t see him anymore.

  He was worrying for nothing anyway. Given enough time, there was always a way past magic. I tried to push against it, but it was heavy, a different kind of magic than I had ever experi
enced before. It wasn’t just restraining my body, but my ability to fight at all. I attempted to reach out with my other senses, but that accomplished nothing, bar a serious headache. Scared people would pay so much money for that kind of security system.

  I heard Phoenix open a drawer, unfold something papery, and release an exclamation of satisfaction. He called somebody then.

  “You wanted a second chance,” he said. “Be ready.” He hung up and came to me. “I can’t find anything here,” he said. “And I have something I must do.” He looked away. “But I can’t leave her here.” Frowning, he lifted me into his arms. “I’ll take you as far as the children’s home. Alanii will take care of you.”

  He carefully carried me out to the car, where he left me in the backseat. In the car, the drive toward home took an age. It was only a couple of hours, but every minute that passed increased the strain in Phoenix’s demeanour. My nose itched something terrible, and Phoenix kept muttering under his breath. His rapid descent into chaos was unsettling, and I couldn’t do a thing to calm him. If anything, my corpse-like presence only tightened his nerves.

  He brought me to the children’s home and briefly explained things to Alanii. “I’ll get Ari,” she said, hurrying out of the room.

  “I must leave.” He laid his jacket over me. “I know where Egan is, and I’m going to make him confess.” He brushed the hair off my face. “I swore to protect my children,” he said, a hint of panic in his voice. “There can be no mistakes this time, no taking things for granted. I won’t let history repeat itself. I will end this once and for all.”

  Then he was gone. I had no choice but to wait until Alanii returned with Noah and Ari. “Can you help her?” she asked. “Phoenix thinks it’s some kind of spell.”

  “I don’t know,” Ari said. “I’m not sure I know what to do.”

  “Try,” Noah said sharply. “Ari, you have to stop acting like this.”

  She folded her arms across her chest. “You know what magic is like. I could accidentally kill her. What then?”

  “She can’t stay like this forever,” Alanii said. “Try to at least figure out what’s wrong with her.”

  With a scowl, Ari knelt next to me and touched my arm. “It’s… sort of like she’s suffocating in magic.”

  “Can you fix it?” Noah asked.

  “I think so,” she said softly, but I thought I heard a note of excitement in her words. Her hands hovered above my body, and she inhaled deeply. “Whoa,” she whispered. “There’s so much of it. How did they do this?”

  “Not so important right now,” Noah barked.

  “Take it easy,” Alanii said. “Can you help her, Ari? It’s important.”

  “I can try to… take it from her. I’m not sure if it’ll work, but I’ll try.” She exhaled loudly then squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers twitching.

  I felt the magic being pulled away from my skin. There was so much of it, though, so many layers being peeled away. The farther down, the closer to my skin it clung. The process began to hurt, even though I couldn’t feel my limbs. It hurt somewhere else, beyond my body.

  Ari kept going, and I thought she would suck the life out of me, too, because she threw her head back and gasped, and her eyes turned golden for the briefest instant. The others appeared not to notice, while I had no choice but to look at her. Not for the first time, I considered the fact that Ari wasn’t like other witches. But whatever she was doing was slowly working.

  Finally, with the heaviest weight of magic finally off me, I was able to use my own abilities to shrug off the last of the magic. I concentrated on moving my fingers and toes.

  “She’s moving,” Alanii said.

  I tested my limbs, but it was too soon.

  “There’s something old,” Ari said. “It sort of joined with the new magic and made it more powerful.”

  “She thought she was cursed,” Noah said. “Maybe she really was.”

  “It’s over now.” Ari shrugged nonchalantly. “She’ll be back to her annoying self soon enough.”

  After a while, I was able to blink and move my mouth. Talking and sitting up took longer. I felt groggy from the aftereffects of the magic. I felt it touch me still, but it no longer dulled my extra senses.

  “How are you feeling?” Alanii asked when I was able to sit up unaided.

  “Tired,” I said. “Could you call Peter and ask him to come get me? I don’t think I have the energy for a walk home right now.”

  “I’ll get you a cup of tea, too,” Alanii said. “You two, watch her and call me if anything else happens.”

  As soon as she left the room, I turned to Ari. “You need to find Phoenix. Right now.”

  21

  “What am I, your personal assistant?” Ari folded her arms across her chest again. “Just call him.”

  “He’s not going to answer.” I pressed my fingertips against my temples, struggling with the urge to wipe that sneer off her face. “This is serious, Ari. He’s… upset. You’ve heard the news, right? About Declan Egan.”

  “Yeah,” Noah said. “The sleazy human is the slave trader, and nobody wants to believe it. None of us count as human to them because we’re different.”

  “Most people are idiots,” Ari said. “I bet they’re jealous of us.”

  “Is that why Phoenix is upset?” Noah asked. “Because nobody believes you?”

  “It’s more than that,” I said. “He had photos and information on lots of people. Me, my friends, and even Phoenix’s children. Phoenix has already lost them once. He’s not going to risk it again.” I made to get up then thought better of it. “We went looking for Egan tonight, and that’s how I ended up here. Phoenix is losing his grip on things because he’s worried. This reminds him of everything he went through with his own mother, and he’s terrified he’s going to let everyone down. We have to stop him before he does something to Egan.”

  “So what’s the problem?” Ari said. “Phoenix will deal with him, and the world will be better off. Why should we help out that creep instead of Phoenix?”

  “That creep’s human, and if Phoenix takes care of him, people will lose their minds. There’s already been too much trouble. It’s clear Egan’s a scumbag, but as Noah said, nobody wants to believe it. Look what happened at your school, how easy it was for the papers to misdirect the blame. Now imagine if all of the humans turned against us. We’re way outnumbered, and there are rules, and—”

  “Rules,” Ari scoffed. “Nobody has to find out who killed this man.”

  “Even if somebody else did it, Phoenix could get the blame. And if he finds Egan tonight, there’s a good chance he’ll forget about the rules himself. People will start thinking he’s like his mother and want to get rid of him. Besides, it’s not so easy to kill a human, Ari. It matters when they can’t fight back the way a vampire might. Taking a life means something.”

  Her gaze turned hard. “How many lives have you taken?”

  “Ari,” Noah said.

  “Too many.” I thought of them, too, sometimes and wondered if any of the faceless enemies I’d fought had families who missed them. Thinking of them as monsters was so much easier. “If Phoenix kills a human tonight, he’ll regret it tomorrow. We can’t let that sit on his shoulders when he’s not thinking clearly. We have to stop him to help Phoenix, not Egan.”

  Noah looked at Ari. “Do it. She’s right. It could kick off another civil war. We’ll be the ones who lose out if Phoenix gets into trouble. You said it yourself—he’s the only one in charge who actually cares what happens to us.”

  Ari considered this. “How will I find him? It took those witches a week to track down the baby.”

  “You know Phoenix,” I said. “And you just sucked a truckload of magic out of me. Plus, I’m a conduit for power. You can use me to find him. He gave you books, right? Whatever it takes, let’s do this. Just hurry.”

  “You’d let me take from you?” She tried her best not to sound interested but failed miserably.

&
nbsp; “For this, yes,” I said. “I need to catch up to Phoenix before it’s too late.”

  “There are scrying spells in the books Phoenix gave me,” she said slowly. She took his jacket from the sofa. “With this, I could probably do it, but I’ve no idea how long it will take.”

  “Just find him. Before Alanii comes back and notices.”

  “I’ll distract her,” Noah said. “Ari… play nice.”

  Ari made a face then left to prepare.

  “Am I crazy to trust that girl with this?” I asked.

  Noah shoved his hands into his pockets. “You’re desperate, right?” He looked at me questioningly. “Why do they have to hate us? When people found out Nate and I worked at the garage, they picketed the place. They don’t even know us, but they decided to hate us because of what happened to us. We didn’t choose to be born different, and we definitely didn’t choose to be taken from our families, either, so why do they blame us?”

  “They’re scared.” I patted his arm. “They don’t understand why their world has to change to accommodate us. They liked it better when our problems were hidden from them. There will always be people who don’t want us around, but someday, human won’t mean ‘normal’ or even ‘better than.’ Someday, we’ll find a way to fit together.”

  “And people like me? Supernaturals call me a human. Humans call me a mistake. How do I fit in?”

  “By proving you’re more than they make of you,” I said firmly. “And you’re already doing that. Anyone can spout hate. It’s a lot harder to live like a good person. Only you can choose how you react to the nonsense that’s going on around town lately. You’re the one who has to decide you’re better than anything they say.”

  “But they—”

  “Do you respect them?” I asked. “Do you admire them or want to be like any of them someday?”

  He made a face. “No way.”

  “Then their words don’t matter anyway. Most people in this country can’t imagine the kind of life you’ve had. If anyone doesn’t respect the fact that you’re trying to move on from that past and make a better life, then they’re not worth listening to. You’re a good kid, Noah. Don’t let their hate define you.”