by Jayne Hawke
I stepped back into the pack house and swung the folder away to my left as Elijah tried to take it out of my hand.
“I took the phone call, I get first look at the file,” I said before I stuck my tongue out.
Opening up the file, I found thick sheets of paper with neat black handwriting on them. The fae had access to the best tech in the world. Why on Earth were they handwriting things? I peered at it a little more closely and realised it was printed, just in a perfectly legible chicken-scratch font that seemed to mimic actual pen strokes. The fae were weird. For all I knew they had some sort of automatic calligraphy device somewhere set to ‘vaguely unimpressive’.
There wasn’t much in there. Photos showed charred shells of buildings. Some notes, the first of which unhelpfully explained that they couldn’t find any magical signatures or traces there. The first thought of its being humans who had a grudge against the fae was looking the most logical, but we couldn’t rule out magic users yet. A magic user could have used non-magical means to frame someone or to hide themselves. We needed more information before we jumped to conclusions.
I’d almost made it to the kitchen with Elijah reading over my shoulder before Liam took the photos from the file.
“The firemen think that the fires started in the centre of the building,” Liam said.
“What does that mean?” Rex asked.
The pack had been abuzz since news had come in that the lord had hired us for a job. Jess kept talking about fire with a creepy level of reverence. I was beginning to think that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have candles around her, let alone have her investigating arson.
“Well, they had confidence that they could get out in time. They might also have wanted to watch the fire grow before they had to leave,” Liam said.
“Did the fire start with the body?” I asked.
“No body in the first two,” Liam said.
I frowned and skimmed the rest of the notes. He was right. So had the person set the first two fires as practise to see how they’d go? Was the body even connected to the fires?
“Do they have anything about when the body was placed in the building for the fire?” I asked.
“You’re the one with the notes,” Liam said.
Elijah took the notes from me impatiently.
“They don’t know if the body was there when the fire was set. It’s thoroughly charred, but they couldn’t find any accelerant on it, magic or otherwise. No magical signature or accelerant anywhere.”
“If there was no accelerant, then it started normally? Like an electrical fire or something?” Jess asked.
“The buildings were empty with no hook up to the electrical grid, but that’s what it would suggest, yes,” Elijah said.
I didn’t point out that hoping for an electrical fire to start on command was less arson and more wishing upon a star even if the place had been connected to the grid.
“Any signs of homeless people? Elementals?” I asked.
“Wouldn’t elementals have left a magical signature behind?” Liam asked.
I rocked my hand back and forth, realizing as I did that I was picking up Liam’s mannerisms.
“It’s really complicated. If you consider something like an ifrit an elemental, then yes. If you’re looking at the beings that are pure elemental magic, then they have such a deep control over said magic they leave no trace,” I said.
There were arguments about whether beings like the ifrit who were deeply tied to their element were elementals due to the tie, or whether it was only beings who were effectively formed of that element. The argument had never interested me, but the distinction was occasionally meaningful for investigations.
“So we could be looking at a pure fire elemental? A creature, being, made of pure fire?” Liam asked.
“It’s worth considering,” I said.
“Phoenix?” Elijah asked.
“Unlikely. They’re more protector types. Still, we can ask around see if anyone’s heard anything,” I said.
The likelihood of a phoenix making it into the city without our hearing about it was slim to none. Phoenixes were rare. Their fire and feathers went for six figures, and that was for a small taste. It’s said that there used to be far more phoenixes in the world, but something happened. No one’s sure what. Conspiracy theorists think that an underground group worked to try and wipe them out. People don’t like anything that can kill them with the blink of an eye.
“Phoenix witch? Aren’t they supposed to be dangerous?” Liam asked.
“They’re still witches. They’d leave a signature behind,” I said
“Artifact? Spell? We’ve dealt with witches that don’t leave a signature before,” Elijah said.
I rubbed my temples. I hated these early stages where every idea just made the list of possibilities longer. It felt like moving in the wrong direction. Setting the notes down on the table, I tried to pull my thoughts together.
“Ok, so the buildings were in run-down areas with no residential buildings or criminal activity, meaning they’re basically pre-Fall ghost towns. That’s probably intentional; no people means no witnesses. That speaks to someone who knows the city. We can mark off outsiders,” I said.
“We need to start looking around for sales of artifacts related to fire and magic removal,” Elijah said.
“Is there any way we can get details on the dead fae? He might offer up some clues about what’s going on here,” I said, wondering why the notes hadn’t included that to begin with.
“I know a couple of people in the court. I’ll see if I can get a name,” Jess said.
I must’ve made a face as she said it. The court fae were notorious for not dealing with the likes of us if they had any choice.
“What? I look great in a little dress, and some of them like things a little wild.”
That was an image I never wanted in my head.
“Get what you can,” Elijah said.
Arsonists weren’t something I’d seen much of. I knew how to handle a thief or a murderer, but fire bugs were something else entirely. I’d heard that they were closer to drug addicts, they needed to see and feel the fire. We needed to figure out what had started this particular arsonist. Why now?
I slowly looked over the photos the fae had provided, trying to see if there were any small clues there. The first building had been a small run-down office building, a square block of grey. It was now a tangle of metal beams and what only very vaguely resembled charred furniture. The soot left shadowy echoes on the remaining scraps of wall showing where the fire had reached upwards and arced over the ceiling. It must have been insanely hot in there.
A glance at the notes showed that the firemen had been notified by someone several blocks over when they saw the fire and smoke. That meant the pyro might have had a good while to get their fix. Yet the next building went up only a few days later.
If it was pure arson, they were escalating at a horrendous rate, and the body in the latest building suggested they were turning to murder to fulfil their need. I silently hoped for a more familiar motive. Political murders were bread and butter for the fae, but they didn’t happen for their own sake which made them more controlled, more trackable, and less likely to turn Brighton into a disaster zone.
That said, it would have been nice for fae bullshit to happen on their own plane for a change.
Four
Rex had put on some show about American bounty hunters travelling through the territories solving crimes. They were always pristine with beautifully applied make-up, never a drop of blood on their very tailored clothes, and the women all wore stilettos. Everywhere. It wasn’t what you’d call realistic.
“What? They have a few episodes with arsonists on here. It might help us figure out a fresh angle,” Rex said.
I was reticent to place my faith in a TV show, but it would give me an hour to think. I’d sent a text to Lucy to see if she’d heard anything about a pyro starting up for some reason. She’d calmed down and r
eturned to town shortly after we settled things with the jaguars. I’d expected her to be a bit shamefaced about her overreaction, but I should’ve known better. As far as she was concerned, she was the only smart one in the whole situation.
I felt like everything would fall into place if we could figure out what had started this whole thing. There had to be a trigger, a change in the pyro’s life that took them from candles and bonfires to buildings and murder.
Elijah wrapped his arm around my shoulders and held me close. I curled up into him and allowed my mind to wander. There was a chance my subconscious would piece something together. At least, there would have been if my subconscious hadn’t been obsessed with repeating What if this is a test from the goddess? every time I started to relax. I still had no idea what she might want from me, or when. The gods’ methods were confusing and often dangerous; there was nothing to say she’d be any sort of exception.
Liam had put the photos onto his laptop and was using some software to check for small details someone might have missed. Jess had disappeared to go and speak to her court connection, and that left me with Elijah and Rex. The gruff second in command had been less of a prick over the past couple of weeks. I wondered if he was finally coming around to the idea that I wasn’t planning on breaking Elijah’s heart and absconding with his fortune.
A few uselessly unrealistic episodes later, Liam interrupted.
“There is a weird symbol carved into the wall on two of these buildings. I can’t quite make it out, though, and the computer is struggling. Give me an hour or so.”
That wasn’t what I’d been expecting, but I wasn’t going to turn down a clue. The fact there was a body made me twitchy. Being burnt to death was an awful way to go, and the lord would be pissed if fae started being turned to a crisp regularly; I had no doubt he’d place the blame for that firmly on our shoulders. I was pretty attached to the pack house and territory. I didn’t want to try and move.
Castor had always ensured that we had new identities and whatever we needed to move with ten minutes’ notice. The pack made any such moves far more difficult, but I found that I didn’t mind. Much. The company and security they provided was worth not being able to disappear.
I hadn’t left the Isles, but America sounded like it had a lot of potential for fun. The beings and creatures over there were very different, as it was a god-touched land. Fae were present, but in nowhere near the same numbers or power. The divine animals were beyond bizarre, and even the native monsters were fascinating in a horrible kind of way. Ever since I was little I’d wanted to see a wendigo, although age and experience had tempered the desire somewhat on account of the death. They were rarely seen, even after the Fall, but I’d pored over every account of them I could find as a kid. They were terrifying beasts with stag antlers protruding from a morphed face. The exact appearance changed depending on the specific bloodline they were born into, as the theory went, although some more outlandish witness accounts gave the impression that each one looked different to different people. They were incredibly intelligent, able to open locked doors without touching the locks, break through magical security without disturbing the wards, and see through illusions without effort. Once they had someone’s scent, they didn’t give until one or both were killed. The only way to kill them was to set them on fire, and some had it that even then it was a little hit and miss.
“Lily? You with us?” Elijah asked as he gently squeezed my shoulder.
“Did Rex crack the case?”
“No, we wanted to know if you want pizza or shepherd’s pie for dinner.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. Did he know me at all?
“Pizza it is,” Elijah said with a smirk.
“I thought you’d learnt nothing for a moment there,” I said.
He snorted.
“I do happen to pay attention to your... preferences.”
I looked up into his caramel eyes and found myself smiling as sinful images filled my mind.
Five
Jess flopped down on the couch, having taken the time to change into a pale pink onesie complete with bunny ears. Just when I thought I was beginning to understand the cougar shifter, she pulled something like that. I mean, cat ears, sure, but bunny was uncharted territory.
“Well, that was exhausting,” she declared.
“No details, please,” I said.
She rolled her eyes.
“He didn’t have anything good enough for that. He did, however, have something interesting to say.”
“We’re dying of suspense over here,” Elijah said drily.
Jess made herself more comfortable. Elijah grew increasingly tense as he watched her.
“You really shouldn’t grit your teeth that hard. You might break something,” Jess said.
“Spit it out already, cat,” Elijah growled.
Working for the lord was a huge deal. The excitement was wearing off as the reality and weight of the situation really sank in.
“We’re not the only ones the case.”
I groaned.
“Seriously? Why? Why do clients waste their money and hire someone to compete with us? I’m starting to get offended,” I said.
“The other group are Varehn and his crew. They were hired for a bet. The court’s all got money on who’ll win, the fae or the non-fae. I hear Varehn’s been given permission - and has even been encouraged - to kill us.”
I rolled my eyes. And this was why dealing with the court was a pain in the ass. Nothing was ever simple. It was all politics and games. When you grew as old and powerful as they did, especially when combined with their sociopathy, you ended up with bullshit like this.
Varehn and his trio of hunters usually only worked for the court and high-born fae. They were all sidhe, and by all reports good at what they did. Part of me relished the challenge of taking him down.
“So we kill them first,” Rex said.
“Too much political risk. We can’t kill them unless it’s in self-defence. The court would have our hides,” Elijah said.
And that was why I didn’t deal with politics.
“We can set up an accident. They could run into my knife. He could run into it ten times,” Liam said.
“Or maybe I could slip arsenic in his drink. You know some men just can’t hold their arsenic,” Jess said.
“It could be argued that we had artistic differences. They see themselves as alive, and we see them as dead,” Elijah added.
“I’m sorry, did you all just quote Cell Block Tango...?” I asked.
I would never have put any of them down as musical fans, but there we were.
Elijah grinned at me unrepentantly. It would seem that the man had hidden depths.
“Does that mean we’d have to kill them while singing and dancing?” Rex asked gruffly.
“Oh, now you’re talking! I could wear sequins!” Jess said.
“No, we are not going to be known as the singing, dancing assassins. I’m not doing it. This is where I put my foot down,” I said.
Jess pouted. She crossed her arms and gave me the unblinking cat stare. I wasn’t going to budge on this. I didn’t mind a musical or a pantomime every now and again, but there wasn’t a chance in Hel that I was going to don some ridiculous costume and sing my way through killing the fae.
“No,” I said firmly.
Jess rolled her eyes and sighed melodramatically.
“Don’t you get bored of just, ya know, killing people? Normally?”
I thought back over the things we’d encountered over the past couple of months. The hexagon of death, the elemental constructs, the alligator thing with the knee teeth.
“No, I’d actually be quite happy with a nice, quick, easy stabbing right about now.”
“I found out what the weird symbol was connected to,” Liam said in a blatant change of topic.
“We’re all ears,” Elijah said.
“Phoenix.”
“The place? The creature? Give us something to work wit
h here,” I said.
“It looks to be either a call to a phoenix, or a symbol of reverence and worship,” Liam said.
That wasn’t the most ridiculous thing I’d heard for a fire bug. Nothing burned quite like phoenix fire, after all.
“So are these fires a form of worship?” Elijah asked.
“Maybe. I’m not entirely sure. The stuff around phoenixes is complicated, and a lot of it’s hidden. After they tried to wipe out both phoenixes and phoenix witches for being too dangerous, a lot of information was lost,” Liam said.
I hadn’t thought that there was any solid evidence that’d been what had happened. The last I knew, that was just a conspiracy theory. The fox did have access to a lot of hidden information, though, such as the Knight database. No one was supposed to be able to access that. The Knights were a coven of highly trained combat witches who travelled around the world in pairs righting the wrongs done to innocents. It sounded pretty cool. There had been times when I’d wished that I’d been born a knight instead.
“What’s with people wiping entire species and bloodlines out?” Jess asked.
There were far too many cases of beings and types of witches being eradicated because people were scared of them. I’d read somewhere that there was once a bloodline of planes walking witches who were capable to pulling magic from any plane bar the god plane. People were terrified of the power they could wield and wiped out the entire bloodline. Some people whispered that they were taken out because they were created by a goddess who subsequently fell, and the gods didn’t want her having any chance of returning to the god plane.
The more I thought on gods, the more I didn’t want to be tied to one in any form or fashion. It could be time to add a couple notches to my hunt for a way to break free of the goddess. Castor had gently pushed me away from that particular knowledge hunt, but he was gone, and I could feel time ticking by. I was going to need every advantage I could get in whatever was coming. Figuring out how to kill her wasn’t going well, but there was still hope of freeing myself of her some other way.
