Conviction

by Jennifer Blackstream

  “No such thing.”

  “You know Andy needs to do this himself. It’s entirely up to him how he wants to proceed from here.”

  “I thought he was going to stay at Evelyn’s church?” Peasblossom grunted and heaved herself back onto the mirror, wrinkling her nose when she sat in the sticky patch again.

  “He is, but that’s not what I mean. I mean, he’s going to have to decide if he wants to learn to use…his new abilities.”

  “He doesn’t have a choice.”

  “Yes, he—”

  Peasblossom squeaked as she tumbled off the mirror. I reached out to catch her with the ease of someone who had done this many, many times before.

  “No, he doesn’t,” she snapped, smoothing her skirt down. “If he doesn’t learn to harness them, they’ll come out on their own. When he doesn’t want them to. His only other option would be to dedicate himself to a deity and hope they helped cleanse his corruption from him.” She huffed and stood up in my palm. “And since he’s not a true believer, that’s not likely to happen, is it?”

  She wasn’t wrong. Divine intervention was the only method I knew for sure could cleanse a corruption like his. It wasn’t something a magic practitioner could just wipe away. It took dedication, time, and patience.

  Lots of patience.

  “Evelyn will talk it all through with him,” I murmured. “She’ll be better able to help him with this than I am.”

  “Being a friend is just as important.” Peasblossom crawled up my arm to my shoulder, leaving glistening, sticky footprints all the way up before sitting on my neck. “Knowing you’re here waiting for him when he’s done with Evelyn is important.”

  Before I could voice my agreement, the front door to Andy’s house opened. I popped my trunk open. After locking the door carefully he carried his suitcase to my car and loaded it in the trunk. He ran his hands down his suit, checking his cuffs and smoothing his lapels before climbing into the passenger seat.

  “How’d it go?” I asked.

  “Fine. I’m good.” He paused briefly. “I think my mom’s going to cry when I leave.”

  I glanced up at the window and saw Mrs. Bradford’s ghostly figure waving. Her face pulled into a smile that reached up to her eyes, which looked brighter than usual for a ghost. Andy was right, that woman was going to cry.

  “I’ll cheer her up when I get back,” Andy said. “Once I get a better hold on…this, I’ll have more answers for her.”

  “You’re a good son,” I said, meaning every word.

  He smiled, just a little lift at the corner of his mouth.

  “And a good cop.” I started the car and pulled out of the driveway. “How did you know? About Siobhan and all those missing people?”

  Andy kept his eyes on the road. “When I first started hanging out at Something Fishy, Siobhan wasn’t there. It was usually just a handful of kelpies hanging out on a boat like college kids throwing a kegger. When Siobhan started showing up, it was pretty clear no one liked her. They made faces when she wasn’t looking, didn’t face her when she was talking, and just generally seemed to enjoy themselves less when she was around.”

  I flicked on my turn signal, heading toward Goodfellows. “I can’t blame them.”

  “Me neither. But I started wondering how she could be leader if no one respected her. So I started learning what I could about kelpies. Hachim answered a lot of questions for me. I found out kelpies operate a lot like pirates. For the most part, whoever can convince the rest of the team that they can improve their lives gets to be in control. And if they don’t live up to their promise, someone else might make a better promise and mutiny to take over.”

  “Did you know about Gloria?” I asked.

  “No. No one mentioned her. When I asked how Siobhan came to lead, Hachim said he’d heard it was because she had the idea for Turning Tides, and the kelpies were getting edged out of Fortuna’s Stables.”

  “So she promised them a better life.”

  “And delivered, for the most part,” Andy agreed. “But it still bothered me that the others clearly didn’t respect her, but they were willing to play along to her face. One thing I’ve learned is that an employee who tolerates a bad boss with good cheer is usually doing it because that boss is letting them get away with something. They’re a bad boss, but it works in the employee’s favor somehow.”

  “And you guessed it was because Siobhan wasn’t controlling them like she should.” I nodded. “Very observant.”

  “Hachim said that a leader of any group, in any Otherworld race, bears the responsibility for controlling their people when it comes to the human world. That’s how the Vanguard sees it. So if a leader is letting their people run around eating humans, that’s the leader’s fault. So I just needed to look for victims that would have been appealing to the kelpies.”

  A tiny part of me wanted to ask him why he hadn’t told me about that investigation. But I held my tongue, because this wasn’t about me. Andy knew I was here, and he knew I’d help if he asked. But an FBI agent was more than qualified to find missing people and investigate murders. And it sounded like Hachim had helped him—and the water spirit would have been a much bigger help searching for bodies that vanished in or near water than a witch.

  Liam and Evelyn were waiting for us outside Goodfellows. Evelyn was there to take Andy to her church, and Liam was there because it was in his alpha nature to be overly cautious and he wanted to see me after I took Andy to his emotional farewell with his parents. Well, he’d said he was there to eat, but I knew him better than that.

  Both of them looked a little tired, but Evelyn was smiling and Liam pulled a protein bar out of his pocket and waved it at me as I climbed out of the car.

  “For all you know, I already ate,” I told him as I approached. “You’d be surprised how much food I have in this pouch.”

  “Did you?” he asked.

  “No, she didn’t,” Peasblossom answered from my shoulder. “But I did. Because I’m responsible.”

  I grumbled under my breath and took the protein bar. “Thank you for all your help, Evelyn.”

  “It was my pleasure.” She turned to Andy. “Are you ready?”

  Andy nodded. I waited for him to say something, but he kept his mouth shut. His eyes were a little wider than they should have been too.

  “Evelyn said you’d stay for a few weeks,” I said, keeping my voice light. “We could meet here when you’re done. Have lunch?”

  Andy nodded again, but the tension didn’t go away. If anything, he looked more uncomfortable.

  Liam took a step closer, his aura growing warmer, bathing one side of my body in a low heat. He looked Andy in the eye, waited for him to meet his gaze.

  “I would never let you hurt Shade,” he said softly. “I’d kill you first.”

  My jaw dropped and Peasblossom let out a surprised squeak.

  Andy’s shoulders fell, and he let out a breath I hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He nodded to Liam, one of those guy nods that seemed to stand in for an entire conversation. Liam nodded back. Also saying a lot with that one gesture.

  Evelyn looked back and forth between them, then murmured a farewell and started toward her car, trusting Andy to follow.

  As they left, I turned to Liam.

  “One of the most common fears for a new werewolf is that they’ll hurt someone they care about,” Liam explained, reading the question in my face. “They need to hear that someone is there to stop that from happening. It’s what lets them relax enough to focus on themselves, and to face parts of who they are that might scare them.”

  “It makes perfect sense when you say it like that.” My throat constricted, squeezing my voice at the end.

  Liam noticed. “You don’t like it.”

  “It’s not that. I believe you that he needed to hear that—I could see it on his face.”

  “You understand you couldn’t be the one to do it? Or Evelyn for that matter. Hearing those words from you wouldn’t
have the same effect, because he would never believe that you’d kill him. And he’d never believe you wouldn’t do everything you could to hide him from Evelyn if she’d made the offer.”

  I didn’t bother arguing with that. Anyone who’d worked with me on this particular investigation would know how far I was willing to go to protect Andy. How hard I fought to believe the best in him even when the evidence didn’t support me.

  “What’s bothering you?” Liam asked gently.

  I looked him in the eye. “You mean it. You’d kill him.”

  “Yes. If he was in danger of killing someone he cared about, I would kill him first.” He stepped closer, took my hands in his. “There are so many steps that come before that. I know what to look for. And if he’ll accept my help, I’ll help him. I’ll do everything I can to flag him before it ever gets to that point. And I’ve been doing this awhile, Shade. I’m good at what I do. This is a big part of why I’m alpha.”

  I nodded, but swayed on my feet, my thoughts thundering through my head with the force of worries pushed to the side for too long. Then his arms were circling me, pulling me against him. I buried my face in his chest, soaking in the warmth of his aura as it closed around me, buzzing against my skin. My eyes burned, but I didn’t cry.

  “I never wanted this for him,” I said, my voice muffled by Liam’s shirt.

  He laid his cheek against the top of my head, his breath stirring my hair. “I know.”

  Peasblossom squirmed around on my neck, her sticky arms tacky on my skin as she added her own hug to the mix.

  We stayed like that for a long time. Or it felt like a long time. Liam showed no sign of pulling away, apparently content to hold me as long as I needed it. I pulled back before I was ready, if only because a lack of sleep made it a distinct possibility I’d pass out standing here.

  “Do you want company?” Liam asked. “I can stay with you awhile.”

  I shook my head. “No, I’ll be okay.”

  I walked him to his truck and Liam climbed into the driver’s seat and appeared to hesitate. “You’re not going to confront Morgan right now, are you?”

  My eyes narrowed. “No. No, in fact, I’m not going to confront her at all.”

  “You seemed pretty intent on doing just that not long ago.”

  “Yes, but now I’m thinking Andy had the better idea. I let myself get too distracted by the fact that there seemed to be some sort of geas that stopped Morgan from telling me exactly what was on her mind. I wondered who would order the geas, and why. Whatever event that geas is keeping shrouded in secret took down an entire House of enforcers—a House that Morgan and her family made up a large part of. Sidhe chose to fade because of what happened.”

  Liam raised his eyebrows. “Something serious then.”

  “Yes, but I was focusing on the wrong thing. I let myself get frustrated because I couldn’t get anyone to talk about it. But Andy took out Siobhan by doing what he’d do if she’d been human. He asked around, looked for physical evidence.”

  “You’re going to look for physical evidence?” Liam asked. “For a geas?”

  “Not exactly. But a geas can’t affect the entire world. It could be that the only people under the actual magical enforcement of the geas are the ones who witnessed whatever happened. Or who have direct knowledge of it. But this is the sidhe we’re talking about. They gossip, they spy, they plan. Someone, somewhere, who isn’t under the geas knows something. And if I use Morgan as a starting point, I can find them.”

  “My army of spies!” Peasblossom said excitedly.

  I smiled. “Indeed.”

  Liam considered me for a minute. “Getting involved with the sidhe is going to draw attention to you eventually. It’s well known they don’t appreciate it when outsiders pry into their secrets. What is it about this geas that makes it worth the risk?”

  I really loved it that he assumed I had good reason, that unlike Flint, he didn’t accuse me of making enemies without a thought to the consequences.

  “Morgan has hinted more than once that she knows something about Scath that I don’t. She makes Scath sound like a threat. But she’s the one who keeps causing trouble when she tries to ‘help.’” I shook my head. “It makes me think there’s something going on I need to know about. And that something has been driving Morgan to interfere with my life. And now Raphael and Luna are butting in, and I don’t need an oracle to tell me that’s a bad thing.”

  “Like playing a game when you don’t know all the rules,” Liam said.

  “Worse, I feel like a game piece that other people are moving around, and I have no idea what the goal is, or even who’s playing. I don’t like it, and I’m not going to take it anymore. I want answers, and I’ll get them however I have to.”

  Liam blinked, looking genuinely surprised.

  “What?” I asked.

  His mouth twitched at the corner and he straightened in his seat and started his truck. “I almost feel bad for Morgan.”

  “But not quite,” I added.

  He grinned. “Not quite.”

  Despite my bravado, it was a little harder to say goodbye than I wanted to admit. More so because unlike Liam, I wasn’t heading for bed to get the sleep I’d missed out on last night. But as much as I’d have liked to stay with him, maybe try to finish our interrupted date, there was a conversation waiting for me back at my apartment.

  Fortunately, Goodfellows wasn’t far from my apartment, and ten minutes later I was stepping into the blissful quiet of my quarters. Flint was nowhere to be seen—probably off to whatever safe house he hid in when he wasn’t making my life difficult.

  Scath watched me, her large black feline body curled up on the couch and leaving brick red smears from where her healing wounds had rubbed against the material. Her jaw was already healing, and if I hadn’t known it had been broken less than six hours ago, I wouldn’t have noticed the slight off-centeredness.

  I stared at her for a long minute. Then I put my keys on the kitchen island and moved to the refrigerator to get a Coke.

  “Are you okay? I’d have healed you if you’d waited.”

  She made a sound somewhere between a huff and a snort. I took it to mean she felt fine and didn’t require—or desire—assistance.

  “So,” I said, pulling out a bright red can of soda. “We need to talk.”

  Tension slithered through the room. Scath didn’t move a muscle, but her stillness spoke louder than words. I kept my attention on my drink, focusing on cracking it open, taking that first, burning sip. Scath hated talking. She particularly hated answering questions. And our relationship had improved drastically when I’d stopped trying to make her answer me.

  But biting Liam had changed things. I needed to know what she’d done to him. I had to be able to tell him what she’d done, so he could decide how much to explain to his pack.

  Scath must have come to the same conclusion. She spared a brief glance at Peasblossom as she flew to the top of the refrigerator, risking getting lost in dust bunnies to dig into an emergency bag of fun-sized candy bars I kept there. The pixie’s wings twitched, and I sensed she was trying not to look at Scath.

  I let my thoughts percolate as Scath stretched out her front legs, squeezing her eyes shut as she started to shift. A shiver ran over her body as she fought her way back to human form, filling the air with wet popping sounds and the spine-chilling crack of bones shifting and reforming. Not for the first time, I wondered if her natural form was a cat, and her human form was the alternate. Her preference was certainly clear enough.

  I gave her a few moments to compose herself, regain her breath. She put her hand to her jaw, opening and closing her mouth a few times. The bone made a muffled clicking sound, but seemed in working order.

  “When you bit Liam,” I said quietly, getting straight to the point, “it wasn’t just a bite.”

  Scath blinked, forcing her green eyes to focus on me. “No.” She closed her eyes, dragged in another deep breath before opening them.
“Can’t talk about it.”

  Of course not.

  It was fine though, I’d expected that answer.

  “There’s a geas on the Unseelie Court. Isn’t there?” I asked.

  Scath’s gaze bored into mine. “You’ll find there’s a certain period of time no one will speak of. Small, but significant.”

  “Would I be correct in assuming that this event and the inability to speak of it applies only to members of a certain age?” I asked.

  “Obviously those who weren’t born at the time would not know of it,” Scath said evenly. “Since those who were there can’t speak of it.”

  “Makes sense.” I took another sip of my soda. “Raphael and Luna are older. So is Morgan.”

  Scath didn’t remark on that. But if she’d had a tail in this form, it would be twitching.

  “I don’t know Raphael very well,” I added,” but it seems to me that both he and his sister are warriors of some repute.”

  “A fair assessment,” Scath agreed.

  “Strange then that Raphael refrained not only from attacking you, but from defending himself when you attacked him. Almost as if he wanted you to bite him.” I met her eyes.

  One of Scath’s bare shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. Peasblossom dropped the candy bar she was holding. The half-eaten chocolate bar hit the kitchen floor with a dull thud. Neither Scath nor I turned to look at her.

  “He shot you in the leg earlier,” I continued. “It’s harder for you to use your claws when you need your good leg to stand. Sort of makes it more likely you’ll have to bite him.”

  “That’s a bold assumption,” Scath argued. “What makes you think he was aiming for my leg? That’s not an easy target—not compared to the rest of me.”

  “Maybe not for someone with less skill than a warrior sidhe who refers to his house as Valhalla,” I pointed out.

  “It’s still a guess.”

  “Is it?”

  She hesitated, tilting her head to the side. I knew that look. She was thinking of what she’d say, feeling for whether or not her answer would trigger the magic that kept her from speaking of whatever had happened. I left her to consider her answer and focused my attention on the room’s other occupant.