The Grimm Files Collection Boxed Set

by Selene Charles

  We were not in Hel when we stepped out this time but in a land of glittering rolling gold hills with birds wheeling in the air and winking like molten metal. Trees, homes, the pathway, and even the massive twenty-thousand-acre mansion were made entirely of gold.

  It was Midas’s safe place where he could come and not be forced to wear his gloves, where he could touch whatever he wanted and not worry about killing any of it.

  Demons, of course, were immune to his cursed hands, which was probably why he paid them a king’s ransom to guard both him and his home.

  Hatter and I slowly walked along the golden-bricked path toward his gilded mansion.

  Neither of us spoke. It wasn’t safe to discuss an active investigation out in the open if we could help it, especially not in a place we suspected could have a conspirator running free.

  “How do we—” Hatter began, and I sniffed.

  “Oh, he knows we’re here already.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  I pointed to the sky, not even needing to look up to know what I’d find. I’d always been fascinated as a little girl by the angelic and strange beings that floated above. Composed of nothing but pure radiant light, they were mostly just wisps of lambent color, but every so often if you looked hard enough, you’d catch a glimpse of their true shape. They were always guarding the king’s skies, alerting him to any potential threats.

  I’d never realized how dangerous those beings were until the day I’d seen them become a massive swirling funnel of death and chaos, ripping and clawing at the screaming human trapped within their cyclone until there was nothing left but silence.

  There’d not been a trace of him behind when they’d finished with him. He’d simply been gone, as though he’d never been at all. I was still haunted by nightmares from it.

  “Are those sylphs?”

  I nodded. “Indeed.”

  Hatter shuddered. “Who in the devil would keep those nasty fae on payroll?”

  “Aw, c’mon, they’re not so bad. Quite cuddly when they care to be,” I teased him.

  Then I turned to my right, and there he was, dressed in the clothing not of a king but of a regular man, barefooted, and hanging onto a golden basket nearly filled with golden apples. Midas’s hands were completely exposed. In this setting, he seemed younger somehow, freer, as though the burdens of kingship weren’t his—at least, not here.

  He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. “My sylphs alerted me. I was in the orchard, picking the first crops of the season. Though I can’t claim surprise, either. I expected you’d be showing up sooner rather than later.”

  He sounded reconciled, and I knew my hunch had been right. Midas had been withholding information from us.

  The informal setting, the lack of pomposity typically associated with royals—all of it was calculated on Midas’s part to help put Maddox and me at ease, but it was also part of who he truly was as well. Midas hadn’t been born privileged. In fact, he’d been a layman in his previous life. The golden touch was what had literally created his kingdom from dust. No one knew what had caused him to become the “golden king,” only that he had become one of the most formidable royals in all the hundred realms.

  “You’re not surprised,” I repeated to him. “So if you’re not surprised, why didn’t you come down to our office sooner? Why wait?”

  “C’mon, Elle, you already know how difficult that endeavor is for me. The mobs I have to deal with.” He shook his head as he pursed his lips. He wasn’t lying—Midas attracted a mob just about anywhere he went unless he oversaw all aspects of his outings. It was part and parcel of the curse he’d been handed. He was a man who could create wealth from nothing, and in a lot of people’s eyes, it was wrong of him to hoard such a gift when there were so many in such desperate need.

  I knew Midas donated to charity, but as he’d always said, no matter how much he did, it was never enough. Somebody somewhere always thought he could and should do more.

  I shrugged. “So you already know why I’m here then?”

  “I can imagine.” He sighed deeply. “You think me complicit in what occurred at my gala.” It wasn’t a question, and I didn’t treat it as one.

  “Wouldn’t you? We captured Hook. He’s told us everything.”

  His blond eyebrows furrowed, blue eyes looking soft and sorrowful. “Was the enchantment reversed then? Was it a Slasher mole?”

  “You know I can’t talk about an active investigation with you.”

  “Of course.” He grinned affably. “It was just a shock seeing him wear the face of someone we both knew and loved.”

  It had been no secret, Midas’s great esteem and affection for my fiancé. Midas considered himself pansexual, fluid in who he developed an attraction to. He didn’t see gender so much as the individual. It had been a great pain to him when Hook had taken up with me, and I’d been sorry for it, always knowing that the very man responsible for introducing me to the greatest love of my life had felt similarly and also broken in the end because of it. It was why I’d kept my distance from Midas for so many years. Not because I hadn’t cared for him but because I knew that for him, seeing Hook and me together was always agonizing.

  Hook’s identity wasn’t pertinent to the case. I shook my head. “It wasn’t an enchantment, Midas. It was him. It is Hook. He lives.”

  All the blood suddenly leached from his face, and he stared at me with his large golden eyes. I could read the questions scrolling through his head, caught flashes of agony and desire, but then his softly rounded jaw clenched, and he murmured, “I see. So h-he,” he stuttered, “he was the one responsible for telling you that your invitation was no coincidence?”

  Sensitive to the fact that he’d need to process Hook’s reappearance the same as I was—which I wasn’t doing a bang up job of, considering I was currently suppressing my emotions with spells—I gently grabbed his shoulder.

  Blinking, he stared into my face. “What really happened, Midas?”

  He swallowed hard several times and cleared his throat before he spoke. “It happened a week before the gala. I was approached by missive from a dear friend of mine in the province over. He spoke of my hosting a ball to help cheer me up. I’ve been very blue for a few years now, as I’m sure you know.”

  I expelled a slow breath. I’d not been the only one to suffer, but my pain had been so great I’d been unable to see beyond myself to the plight of others. For a moment, I could see him caught up in the memories in his head. But as a second ticked by, and then one more, I gently cleared my throat. He blinked, glanced at me, and gave himself a small shake.

  “A ball was what he suggested, and naturally, the thought did appeal greatly to me. He spoke of making sure I was safe since Slasher activity was on the rise and I’d be a prime target. He also began to speak of your father.”

  I frowned. “My father? Who did you say your friend was?”

  He shrugged. “I hadn’t, but it’s not some dark secret. It is Lord Humpty.”

  “As in Humpty Dumpty?” Maddox rolled in his deep accent.

  Midas flicked a glance at him. “Some call him that, yes. But he is my companion and has been for many years. Due to his condition and mine, we share an understanding, you see. He isn’t the great love of my life, but I am not his, either. I respect him, though, and I would ask that you both do the same.”

  My eyebrows lifted high onto my forehead. “So that’s who you meant to introduce us to that night?”

  “My deepest apologies,” Maddox said. “I did not mean offense.”

  Midas shrugged off Maddox’s apology. “Yes, though you know how that went. Anyway, it is of no importance. I’m sure if you asked him, he’d corroborate my story.”

  “Speaking of that night, ever learn how it was that you were so infiltrated by the Slashers?”

  Midas shook his head slowly. “None. Infuriating to be in the dark that way, but I cannot account for how they did that. The only way in, literally, was through an invitation
, and I would never have invited them. Not any of them.” He blew out a heavy breath.

  I nodded, taking an infinitesimal step back. “Just one more question, King, if I may.”

  “You’re always welcome to ask me anything, Arielle.” He looked tired, his skin sallow, his gaze shaken.

  “Did Lord Humpty actually know my father? And more to the point, what exactly was it that he wrote to you when he mentioned King Triton?”

  “I’m not certain of just how well they knew one another. But Humpty owned the largest fleet of cargo ships in all the hundred realms. Because of that, he was familiar with many of the lords and kings of the waterways, and considering Triton is king over all hundred realms waters, it stands to reason that he knew him reasonably well. As to what he said exactly”—he rolled his wrist elegantly—“he simply said that he’d been speaking to the great king as of late and that he sensed a disquietude in him, a restless unease, then he mused that possibly it could be because of you. After all, all have heard of your case in Wonderland. Quite daring, that.”

  Titiana had also mentioned my father the other day. Was it possible that he was really speaking of me to others? But that didn’t seem likely. He was never an open man, especially not with people he wasn’t even close to. I shook my head. “The fact that you’d even believe my father could care about me makes me want to laugh. But the fact that Hook mentioned it was no coincidence I’d been invited to your gala definitely gives me pause. By any chance, have you the letter Lord Humpty wrote?”

  He sighed. “I do not. It was just a note. I didn’t think it all that valuable or worth saving.”

  “We understand.” Maddox dipped his head. Midas thinned his lips.

  “I do wish I could have been more help to you, Detective Elle,” he said with a soft curve of his lips, sincerity printed all over his handsome face, “and though I’m sure you must hear it often, I was not aware of any sort of conspiracy until after the fact. When I received yet another missive from Humpty, a day later.”

  I’d been about to ask him how it was that he’d known of the supposed conspiracy. “And?”

  He shrugged. “He seemed upset. Told me he’d done wrong. That he wanted to confess to me that he was grateful you were well and that he was so sorry for whatever role he’d been forced to play in this charade.”

  “That’s what he said?” Maddox stepped forward, into my line of sight. “Forced? That was the word exactly?”

  “Indeed. And that letter, I do have, Detectives. If you’d care to see it.”

  “Of course.”

  He set down his basket of apples then turned and led us to the back of his massive golden castle and through a hidden doorway in a maze of hedgerows. Our footsteps sounded nearly deafening in the spiraling golden staircase.

  As one might imagine, every square inch of Midas’s home was gold, from the ceilings to the floors, to the walls, and even the framed artwork and the suits of armor that had been placed out on display.

  I trailed my finger along the cool, shining surface as we walked up what felt like an eternity of steps, oddly drawn to the slick metal, even as I found it just the slightest bit gauche too.

  “This is my private entryway. Few know of it, only my most trusted advisors.” Midas spoke over his shoulder to us. “I’ve never had chance to use it for its actual constructed design, an escape route should I ever find myself under attack.” He chuckled lightly. “Though anyone would be a fool to try, considering I have a small army of high-caste demon warriors at my disposal. My private office is just around this corner now.”

  True to his word, we finally stopped our eternal climb, and I knew we had to be easily several stories high. The heavy door to his office moved on silent hinges when he pushed it open.

  Unlike the rest of the castle, Midas’s room was a study in understated elegance. And there wasn’t a bit of gold in here.

  There were bookshelves loaded with leather-bound tomes, a desk that had a pewter-colored cage resting on it, and two gorgeously plumed finches singing merrily within, green and orange with bright-yellow tail feathers. They hopped around wildly when Midas approached.

  He murmured tenderly under his breath as he slipped on his leather gloves that he clearly always kept on him and pulled open a desk drawer to extract a small tin.

  “The note is on my desk. As you can see, I’ve only just received it. In fact, I hadn’t even had a chance to respond to Humpty’s request to meet up tonight. I’m rather torn on what to do, to be honest.” He popped open the tin and pulled out two hopping bright-green crickets and proceeded to feed them to his birds.

  Candlelight played lovingly around the room. It felt very much like Midas’s true living space. There were books opened everywhere, reams of thick paper, ink, and quills. Even a couple of robes were strewn over the back of his plush and elegant couch.

  Maddox and I read the note together. Midas had related its contents nearly word for word to us.

  I picked up the note with the very edge of my dress, careful not to transfer my fingerprints onto it, and turned it over to study the wax seal. It was the crest of the Ainsley clan, that of a knight’s helmet sitting atop a shield bearing a Maltese cross. It was definitely Lord Humpty’s.

  “We’ll be needing to keep this as evidence, have it brushed for prints, whatnot,” I said to him.

  “Of course.” Midas, who’d pulled one of his finches from its cage, was gently rubbing its head with two of his fingers. “You should also know—though I vow to you that I’m merely telling you this because I want you to trust in my transparency with your department—I was asked by Lord Humpty many months ago to help him with a delicate matter.”

  I frowned. Hatter tipped his chin.

  “And that was?” I prompted him.

  Midas groaned. “You must know that I loathe the very notion of speaking of money. I find the endeavor to be so gauche. That said, Lord Humpty was having some difficulty making back a loan he’d taken out against his fleet. He did not tell me why he’d taken the loan, only that he had. I assumed the loan was to your father, but that is only an assumption. Either way, I did enchant several rum barrels’ worth of sands for him. I’ve heard tell of golden sands being found recently, much at my own gala, and I do not honestly know what to make of this or whether it is even my sands. But…” He inhaled deeply. “I thought it worth mentioning at the very least.”

  So neat. That was my first thought. That explanation ticked all the boxes and was so very neatly done. Midas had just introduced enough reasonable doubt that even if he were involved further, without the proof, he’d never be indicted. He was an old friend of mine, but I’d always known he was a clever man.

  Whether that was proof of innocence or not, even if we somehow traced him to the golden sands, he’d just given himself the perfect out. Even I couldn’t argue with his rationale.

  “Interesting,” I murmured softly.

  He shrugged. “I just thought you should know. Now, is there anything more I can do for you? Tea? Cookies? I was just about to take my repast.”

  I knew a dismissal when I heard one.

  “No, we really need to be going. Thank you, and if we have any further questions— ”

  “Then you know where to find me,” he said, smile stiff. “And… and should you see Hook, tell him that I’m glad he is well. And that he was missed.”

  I reached over and clasped Midas by the shoulder. I’d gone over there so certain that Midas had played more of a key role in what had taken place with the gala, but as was usual when I got around him, it was impossible to think anything but kind thoughts about him. I still wasn’t sure that he wasn’t guilty of more, but I couldn’t prove it either way.

  He took my hand in his gloved ones, brought my knuckles to his lips, and dropped a gentle kiss upon them. “It is truly a shame that such terrible tidings were what brought us together. Don’t let this be in vain. Visit me more, girl. I rather enjoyed our quiet nights spent together.”

  I wasn’t prone
to hugging. Not in the slightest. But Midas had always been more of a father figure to me than my own father. Leaning on tiptoe, I gave him a hard but swift squeeze.

  He went stiff for half a moment, not used to touching others or being touched in return. With his gloves, on he was perfectly safe, but that didn’t stop others from fearing him regardless. He patted me twice then cleared his throat.

  “If you do see Humpty, tell him that I’ll accept his invitation for dinner, would you?”

  “Of course.” Hatter held out his hand to him.

  Midas, looking suddenly shy but also pleased, took Maddox’s hand, and they swiftly shook on it.

  Swiping my key card through the air, I opened a transdimensional tunnel, and Maddox and I didn’t speak again until we were safely ensconced within.

  “Do you believe him?” we both asked at once.

  Hatter scrubbed at his bristled jaw with his long, elegant fingers. “I think I do, or he’s a very clever liar.”

  I snorted. “He is clever. Do not doubt it. His cursed hands aren’t the only reason why he’s reigned as long as he has. What he did was a stroke of genius, really, owning up to his part in all of this but only just enough to keep him innocent in the eyes of the law. Especially a law that is inclined to always let royalty walk. Still, I don’t think he was as deeply entrenched as I suspect Lord Humpty was. Did you see Midas’s shock upon learning of Hook’s return? As good as he is, that was definitely real emotion we saw there.”

  I felt Maddox’s studious look upon my face, and I shrugged. “I’m fine. Really. The spells are doing a wonderful job of keeping me quite levelheaded about all of this.”

  “And when it wears off?”

  I laughed. “Then I’ll just take more.”

  “You can’t remain drugged forever, Elle. At some point, you’ll have to confront this.”

  I clenched my jaw, feeling the tiniest bit annoyed, which let me know the spell was already starting to wear off.

  He sighed and quickly switched the subject. “Lord Humpty’s then?”