City of Fae

“You’re her. She controls that.” Warren clutched my upper arm and shoved me toward the corner of the building. “Go! Don’t let anyone out. Do something important with your miserable existence, Alina.” He snarled, unfiltered rage and disgust burning in his eyes.

Fear spurred me on, and I ran. Whatever Reign was turning into, I had to warn those people. I made it as far as the hotel doors, when a horrifying howl surged through the night. The harsh wind barreled the hideous sound around the dock. I froze a few strides from glass doors and the brilliantly lit hotel interior. Fear crawled up my spine. The howl wasn’t of this world. Nothing real made that noise, not in London, only in nightmares. But even as I lied to myself, I heard its deep, even panting. Heard the click of claws on the dockside.

Reign couldn’t be a monster. He was too ethereal, too beautiful …

I saw it then, saw the reflected gleam of blood-red eyes in the glass. Lips pulled back over curved teeth the size of a forearm, and a growl rumbled like thunder, trembling the earth below my feet and rattling the hotel doors. Hot breaths burned my back. I kept my eyes ahead, on the reflection. Terror rooted me to the spot. It towered behind me. Eyes ablaze, maw open. I held its reflected gaze. It wouldn’t attack me. I was her, of the queen, and she controlled it. Recognition widened its blood-red eyes.

“Reign …” My voice came out as barely a whisper.

Its leathery ears lay flat against the huge misshapen skull. A growl thundered through its quivering mass of muscle.

“Sovereign!” Warren called from the dockside.

The hound whipped its head up. Streams of drool slid from snarling lips. It pinned its glare on the ancient fae, hunkered down, muscles bunching, and leaped. I spun in time to see the monster plow into Warren, clamp its jaws around him, before it plunged off the dockside into the water.

“No!” This couldn’t be happening. I sprinted to the edge and dropped to my knees, peering over the dockside into the dark waters. Bubbles broke the surface, but too soon they vanished. “Warren?” They would be okay. It was an accident. Reign didn’t mean to do this. It wasn’t his fault. “Reign?” They had to be okay. Any second now they’d surface, and it would all be some awful joke. But as the minutes ticked on, and the night air cooled, taking with it the scent of draíocht, it became clear they weren’t coming back.

I rocked back and hugged Reign’s coat to me. I had to call someone. The police. The FA. What am I going to tell them? A hound attacked an ancient fae and they’re both at the bottom of the dock? Only the FA would believe me, and they wanted me behind bars, unless Andrews had convinced them otherwise. Andrews would know what to do, but I couldn’t leave, not yet. They might still be okay. They had to be okay. Standing on trembling legs, I paced the water’s edge until the restaurant had closed and London slept.

Nobody surfaced.





Chapter Twenty-one


The unidentified body of a male fae was discovered at Victoria Docks this morning. Police are appealing for witnesses who may have been in the area between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. The Fae Authority has been informed. They’ve asked for anyone who might have seen the prominent rock star Sovereign dining with an unknown woman, to come forward. It is not thought Sovereign or the woman are suspects, at this stage. The death is being treated as accidental.

Accidental. There are no such things as accidents for the fae, Charmaine had said. At least I knew Reign was alive. Just one body found. Andrews skewed a glance my way, eyebrow raised, and used a remote to turn the volume on the TV down. “About that confession … ?”

I couldn’t shake the image of the hound. I’d only seen it clearly while reflected in the glass doors, but that had been bad enough. “The last Keeper is dead.” My words grumbled, voice dry. I sounded like I’d spent the night on the town, which I had, walking to Detective Andrews’s place.

“Warren.” Andrews confirmed.

Hunched on Andrews’s couch, legs drawn up, Reign’s coat draped around me, all I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep, but the memory of the hound stalked me. My mind refused to marry up the fact that the hound was Reign. Sweet, sexy, Sovereign. He’d told me he wasn’t what I thought. He told me over and over again. I knew he’d killed the other Keepers, at least I’d suspected as much. He said he didn’t have a choice. He’d told me he’d done terrible things. But, that hound … “The fae, all the fae … they aren’t what we think they are.” I tucked my chin into the collar of the coat. “They look gorgeous. All smiles, and charm …” I lifted my gaze to Andrews. “But they’re poison, Andrews. They’re monsters.” It seemed crazy, especially when surrounded by the normalcy of Andrews’s place. Somewhere inside, was I a monster too?

Andrews’s face said it all. This wasn’t a surprise, not for him. “And the queen has a date with Sovereign’s twenty thousand fans tomorrow.” Andrews tossed the TV remote onto his couch. “I told the FA everything. They said they had it in hand.” He raked his fingers through his hair and puffed out a sigh.