by Ann Denton
“Is it too brown nosey to say you know everything about this city?”
She tilts her head. “A little. But I will tell you—we know what it’s like to be human. To rise from nothing. To be the bottom of the magical pyramid. And every year, we help those who are nothing become something more.”
She’s being vague. And annoyingly deep. I swallow a sigh, trying not to get frustrated.
I toss out Becca’s theory to see if it holds any water. It’s the best I’ve got right now.
“So, would helping others rise up include helping out fae who maybe … lost all their powers and were exiled?”
Her eyes sparkle. “Why, yes. It might.”
Way to go Becca! Maybe I won’t totally kill her. Immediately, anyway. Okay. Okay, what to ask next?
“Is there anything you could tell me about a fae who lost his powers and came to you for help?”
Her posture stiffens. “I can’t speak about anyone in particular. I can say that not everyone is grateful for the help they receive from us. Many use it for their own ends. Some take our generosity for granted. Take more than they are given.”
“Someone stole from you?”
She presses her lips together and I can tell she’s wording the next answer carefully. “Our poor dear humans. We keep lots of sugar on hand for them. To help with blood loss.”
“Any spelled concentrations of sugar?”
“That would be a good idea, wouldn’t it?”
“But, how would someone get into the gala? And the hospital?”
Cookie leans forward. “I can’t do all your work for you, Ms. Fox. What I can tell you, is that many people emerge from our doors with entirely new lives. New identities even.”
“So this fae has a new identity?” I lean back in my chair. “A fake name.”
“People who get new identities often take on such things. Fake names and identities. New looks. But even with all that, it’s a struggle to survive. When you have so little magic and others have everything.”
“Um, just want to point out, you get super-speed, eternal life, and are like way strong. I would not count you on the bottom end of the spectrum.”
“That’s true. It must be much harder for a fae with no powers, who’s just starting out, and has only their two hands to work with in a city full of magic.”
Ah shit. I know who it is.
I turn to Cookie.
“Can someone give me a ride to the hospital?”
Chapter 19
Cookie’s driver insists on tossing like five strings of black lights around my neck. He thinks my spelled costume is hella funny.
“What’s more in line with Halloween than freaking people out? Just wish I could drive you by the frickin’ troll orgy first. See those bastards squirm.”
Thankfully, he drives me straight to the hospital. And for whatever reason, my chicken leg sees fit to transform itself back to human. Thank goodness.
I pull my phone out of my boobs. (What? Where else can you keep a phone when you have on a body suit?) I text Darrell to let him know what’s going on. He texts back saying he’ll meet me at the hospital.
When we arrive, I’m surprised to see so many cops still around.
Petey’s on the first floor watching the doors. As soon as I show up, he’s at my side.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“Four fae are missing,” he replies. “We’re doing a search of the building.” He pulls out his phone and shoots off a text.
My gut sinks. “Do you know who?”
He shakes his head. “Nah. Going up for the briefing now. We all just got called in. Search party’s gotta be better than being a vamp at a troll orgy. Now, that was uncomfortable.” Petey eyes my costume. “What happened to you?”
I glance down. There’s a stake on my torso again, but the suit is ripped and flapping around my right leg. Some of my chicken feathers have caught on the flaps. My right foot is bare. “I’m a Halloween prank gone wrong.”
Petey just accepts that answer, which proves how weird I am to the other cadets. Awesome.
We ride the elevator together in silence. I try texting my mom and Rain to make sure they left the hospital, but there’s no signal. As soon as we step off, I try calling. I don’t want them getting wind of this and getting in the way.
Bennett appears at my side and grabs the phone out of my hands. “Your mom and Rain are gone.”
I turn to look at him. “You sent them home—” I’m about to hug him in gratitude.
But he holds up a hand. “No. They’re two of the four fae missing. Jackson Rock’s gone, too. Along with another fae who worked for the Portalport. She was here visiting Jackson.”
I feel hollow. Is that a thing? My family—the last of my family—is gone. My annoying, intrusive, witchy mother and the sister who blows hot and cold with each change of the wind, are gone. I’m alone.
“He took them?”
Bennett cocks his brow. “He? You know who did this?”
“The janitor. Bruce Parker. It has to be him.”
“You have proof?”
“I—” Cookie’s word is not gonna go down well. “He’s fae. But he works two jobs. He’s a janitor. Has zero magic and … that’s not even a real fae name. Bruce Parker. Sounds like some comic book.”
Bennett’s eyes narrow. “We need evidence.”
“I’ll find it when we catch him.”
Bennett shakes his head and puts a hand on my upper arm. “Lyon, I’m gonna have Petey take you home. We’ll find your family.”
“No!”
“You’re emotionally involved. You’re compromised.”
“I don’t give a rat’s patoot! You can’t make me sit around while the only family I have left might be sucked dry and murdered!”
The fire lights up in Bennett’s eyes. “I can. And I will.”
He gestures to Petey. “Take her outta here.”
Bennett turns his back on me.
He might as well have set a flaming torch to me. Any thoughts I’ve had about reuniting with him fizzle. What the eff? He’s gonna leave me now? Turn away? With my mom and sister—I slide down the wall to the floor as I realize … he’s only doing what I’ve asked him to do.
I told him to leave me alone.
Petey gives me a moment, then prods me to my feet. “Here, I’ll help you—” he holds out a hand.
I punch him hard, in the face.
Part of my brain is like WTF, Ly? Assaulting a police officer? But the other part of me, the part that’s a rabid animal right now, is like—you have to find a way to get away from the super-fast vamp.
Before Petey can recover, I kick him in the balls. Then I step back into the elevator. I press four.
“Sorry, Petey. Nothing personal,” I call out, as the elevator doors slide closed.
As soon as the doors part, I book it. Bennett’s gonna be on the lookout for me. I have to move fast.
I have my phone to my ear in half a second, calling Sarah Snow.
“Yes, dear?” she answers.
“Where’s the selkie’s coat now?”
“Oh, well, last time she moved it, it was on the roof of that kraken tank. Seems like a foolish—”
“Thanks.” I end the call before she can start a conversation. I zoom past the nurse’s station, searching for my target. If there’s one person who knows every hiding spot in this hospital, it’s a selkie who’s intent on hiding her coat.
Nurse Nasty steps out of a patient room into the hallway in front of me. I skid to a stop in front of her.
“I need you to help me search this hospital!”
“I need you to step back and let me do my job.”
She steps forward and she’s so massive, I have no choice but to backpedal. “I said I need help!”
“I don’t care what you need. I have a job to do and I’m down staff because they are idiots who’d rather party on a holiday than save lives. I knew when Melanie gave me that bottle of fire soda, it was a bribe. Neve
r even got to drink it—”
“Wait. Melanie’s not here? Your NQN?”
“Nope. There’s always one on Halloween.”
“She gave you soda?”
Nancy just rolls her eyes at me and starts to stomp off. I have to run to catch up with her.
“Wait! What happened to the soda?”
Nancy whirls on me. “Same thing that happens with everything else good in my life! Alvin took it. That little creep!”
“Alvin? But I thought you were bound to the other one.”
“Zanno? Yeah. He’d come down here to meet with me.”
“He do that a lot?”
“Yeah. Didn’t want anyone to see me at his place, right? Too arrogant for that.”
“So, that day, Alvin was with him?”
“They were going to some fancy event together. Entitled shits. He just walked up and plucked the bottle out of my hands. Melanie saw the whole thing.”
“Did you watch them drink it? Throw it in the trash?”
“I have to get back to work.”
Melanie. Melanie. We’ve always worked from the assumption someone got into the gala. But what if they didn’t? What if Alvin and Zanno were poisoned before? I grab Nancy’s arm.
“What are you doing?” her fist rises.
“I think that soda was spiked. They ended up in the hospital the next day, didn’t they?”
“You think Melanie was trying to poison me?”
I wave off her fury. My mind is too busy focusing on the case. “What languages did Melanie speak?”
“I dunno. Dead ones. Who uses Ancient Greek? Or Aramaic?”
“Did she speak Egyptian?”
“That’s not a language.”
“Whatever. Did she speak it?”
“Probably. Fits with all her other stuff.”
“But she’s a dwarf. Why would she learn human languages? Ancient ones? They only live to like five hundred.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
I think back to Darrell’s costume. He was able to look completely human. Not like a mummy at all. Effing hell. I’m an idiot! “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“I don’t have time to go search the hospital with you—but she was always doing inventories. Obsessed with them.”
I meet Nancy’s eyes. “Thank you. I think I know where she might have taken everyone until she can teleport them all out.”
“Where?” Nancy yells after me as I sprint to the emergency stairs.
I don’t answer her, but as I shove the door open I yell back. “Good luck getting that kraken to eat your coat!”
Her jaw drops. “How’d you—”
I point down at my stomach. The paint has turned into a grey blob.
“You’re scared of your coat. You put it in the kraken tank yourself to get rid of it, right? Better not to have it than to let someone like Zanno get it again.”
“I—I—”
“Call Bennett French, head investigator, and tell him about our conversation. All of it. Tell him Melanie’s the killer.”
“But—”
“Gotta go.”
I launch myself down the stairs. I’ve got a fake dwarf to cut down to size.
Chapter 20
I race to the first floor, to that supply closet where Melanie was doing ‘inventory.’
I stumble into Bruce Parker on the way.
“Whoa! Where’s the fire?”
“Have you seen that NQN, Melanie?”
“Yeah, she said she was re-counting sheets or something—”
“Find a cop, send them to that closet!” I shout as I round a corner.
I see the closet. The door is cracked. I yank it open. And suddenly feel blinded.
There are stacks and stacks of sheets folded in front of me. But the sheets are glowing. I yank one off the shelf and open it. Hieroglyphics glow on the sheet as I hold them near my black light necklaces. The symbols fade outside the glow of the necklaces. I trace the hieroglyphics. They’re slightly wet. A little sticky.
I look around. It’s silent in the closet. No one else is here. Melanie’s gone.
But I see a stick, carved and pointed. I touch the end and my finger comes away gooey. Glowing. But when I toss the necklaces around the back of my neck, the glow fades. I stick my tongue out and taste the goop.
Ew!
Laundry detergent. Clear laundry detergent. Made into hieroglyphic spells on the sheets. I look back at the shelf. There are hundreds of sheets there. She’s been creating these the entire time she’s worked here. Practicing. Experimenting. She’s been planning. She? Or should I say he? Because right now, I highly suspect Melanie is actually Flood, the fae who was stripped of powers.
I pull out my phone and livestream an explanation of the glowing sheets on Frightbook. I tag Seena and Becca and Darrell, hoping they’ll see this on their phones and come down here. I strip off my blacklight necklaces. I won’t need them anymore.
Because I’m about to do something crazy.
Something nuts.
Something I might not come back from.
But I have to save my family.
I drop the stick and think for a second. If I were a fae who’d ticked off the vamps of the city, where would I go?
I close my eyes and clench my fists.
“I’m lost where my mother and sister are … at the troll orgy.”
It feels like a hook stabs my stomach and yanks me through space and time. My right leg, of course, burns like a mother.
I stumble and fall to my knees at the edge of the pumpkin patch. For once, my right leg has not turned completely chicken. Feathers dot my thigh, but that’s all.
I look up. Huge, four-foot-tall pumpkins surround me. I hear trolls chanting in the distance. I hear a couple grunting nearby. Not looking that way. Thank goodness I didn’t end up right on top of them. A little way away, near a tree line, I see five figures. Three have wings. Bingo.
I creep along through the pumpkins, staying low.
When I get close, I can see Jackson, Rain, my mother. Iron cuffs restrain them. Their clothing has been replaced with sheets. I can’t see the hieroglyphics from here, but I’m sure they are there. I’ve never seen my mother or sister look so pale.
Another fae has collapsed on the ground. Her eyes are closed and her hand twitches weakly. Standing over her is a tall man I’ve never seen before, who’s got hieroglyphics branded on his skin. Those symbols glow as he touches the face of the fae on the ground.
“Melanie!” I yell.
(What? Am I supposed to have a better plan than that?)
The branded fae starts, turns, spots me, and stands.
I decide there’s no more point in crouching. I stand up and glare into the black, deadened eyes of Flood.
He smiles and gives a small nod, as if in greeting. Then he goes to turn back to the fae on the ground. Dismissing my challenge.
Nothing ticks me off more than people thinking I’m nothing just because I don’t have much power.
Fury fuels my actions and before I can think it through, I scream. “My mother, sister, Flood and I are lost at the Sandman Fountain!”
The hook strikes again.
We all stumble as we land. The scales have appeared on my right leg.
I glance up and see Flood’s pissed.
I skitter backward. My blood’s rushing through my veins. Adrenaline is pumping so hard, I feel like I’m staring over a cliff. Dizzy.
A fireball flies toward me.
I dive behind the fountain. “Fudge!”
I hide behind a dancing elf. Dammit! I came to the ley line so my mom and sister would have access to their powers. Why didn’t Rain put that out?
Another fireball sends me crawling away on my knees.
“Come out, Ms. Fox,” Flood speaks softly. “You’ve been holding out on me. I didn’t realize you had teleportation powers.”
Ha! Teleportation! I wish. I just lose things. People. Weapons. Wait …
; I duck a third fireball that’s so hot it turns some of the falling sand into glass that shatters on the bottom of the fountain.
Wait… if I can lose weapons and people … are powers a weapon?
I mutter, “You’ve lost your firepower.”
The chicken leg pops out.
I peek over the edge of the fountain. Flood stands there, hands extended. I tense, ready to pop back behind the stone when he flames me. Nothing happens. He pushes he arms forward again. Still nothing.
Holy mother of goats!
It feels like the wind just got knocked out of me. I don’t know why, because I’m the one that did the power stripping. I think I’m in shock.
“Lyon!” my sister screams. I scramble up, fighting the chicken leg.
Flood has grabbed her neck and his hieroglyphics are glowing again.
Rain gives an inhuman screech.
“No!” I yell. I try to run but fall flat on my face.
My sister’s about to die. The knowledge floods my body. And I can’t even think straight.
“Lyon, the cuffs!” Mom screams. “Come undo the cuffs!”
“My mom and sister have lost their cuffs,” I mutter.
I hear a clank of iron. And suddenly lightning cracks through the air like a whip. It smacks Flood.
He jerks and spasms. His hands release Rain. She rips off the sheet with the hieroglyphics. (It’s not fair. Why don’t I look like that in my underwear?)
Rain turns toward him but he shoots into the sky. Crap!
“Flood’s lost his flying powers!” I scream up at the darkness.
A body comes careening back to earth like a bullet.
Rain holds up her hands. Water condenses from the air and Flood lands in a pool that hovers midair. I hear him choke.
Rain evaporates the pool with a flick of her hand. And I watch Flood’s face shrivel.
My mother hits him with lightning again.
I see the edge of Flood’s hieroglyphics start to glow. Can he feed off the magic in the air? Like Darrell?
“Stop!” I yell to my mom and sister. “He can—”
Flood starts to teleport. His hand disappears.
“You’ve lost all your powers!” I mutter. For the first time in my life, I can feel magic rush through me. It’s like bouncing, nervous energy. Like static electricity. Like … the buzz from that first glass of wine. All of that combined.
