I clutched Hol y’s amulet tight as my trembling fingers threatened to fumble it to the ground. “So, what now?”
Death moved closer to me, wrapping his arm around my waist, which earned him a frown from his companions. Not that he seemed to care. “Now we try to figure out where the accomplice wil go next. We have to find him, or her, before the ritual is attempted again. And hopeful y before any more of these”—he hiked his thumb at the copper disk—“are created.”
I agreed. There must have been thirty souls in that construct. Where was the reaper col ecting the souls? He had to be reaping in more than just Nekros—we’d had a lot of unexplained deaths, but not that many.
I frowned at the disk. “Are you thinking the accomplice is a witch who can work glamour or a fae who can craft spel s?”
They looked at each other and shook their heads. Yeah, okay, the accomplice was a big mystery. I’d never heard of a human who could use glamour. Of course, even those fae who could use Aetheric energy—like Caleb—couldn’t create a jumble of spel s like those contained in the disk.
So a real y, real y rare something, who had found a relic that al owed interaction across planes. I gnawed at my lower lip. Occam’s razor said the simplest solution was typical y
right. So maybe we’re not looking for one accomplice who can use multiple types of magic, but two accomplices.
I fidgeted with the amulet in my hand. There was more than just Hol y’s magic woven into it. Tamara’s was also present. As a gift last year, Tamara had charmed al of Hol y’s favorite pieces of jewelry with a spel that would al but prevent her from losing them. She could not only track the amulet, but the charm made the amulet actively try to return to Hol y by urging whoever found it in Hol y’s return to Hol y by urging whoever found it in Hol y’s direction. I could feel the charm, and it was active, but it wasn’t urging me anywhere. That meant Hol y was either dead— unacceptable—warded, or otherwise out of the spel ’s range.
Possibly somewhere like Faerie. The glamour, the archaic runes, the location of the lost col ector— everything keeps pointing back to Faerie.
“If we assume the accomplice is a witch, and judging by the runes she’s using, a very old one, we are most likely looking for a changeling.” I glanced at the sky. We were far enough from the city that the light didn’t reach here, so for as far as I could see, everything was inky darkness speckled with hundreds of pricks of light. I had no idea how much time had passed, but it felt late, or early, depending on your perspective. “Rianna told me that the magic of Faerie protects changelings except during sunrise and sunset. If changelings are caught out of Faerie during those times, al their years catch up to them. We can’t be more than a few hours from dawn. The changeling is probably heading back so he or she isn’t caught by dawn.”
Which meant I was going to Faerie.
Decision made, I colected PC and waited for the FIB to arrive. The gray man and the raver left, but Death waited with me. I sat on the bridge, leaning against his shoulder.
“Wake up, Alex,” he said, shaking me gently.
I pried my eyes open. Agent Nori, her suit as crisp as if she’d just finished starching it, strol ed across the bridge. I pushed to my feet, resituating PC in my purse as I stood.
“Miss Craft,” she said, hitting al the consonants hard.
“As I’m sure you’ve heard, I have a warrant for your arrest.”
“But you aren’t real y arresting me, are you? Because I haven’t done anything.”
haven’t done anything.”
She frowned, her eyes cutting to the side as if judging who was in hearing range. “No. I’m not. You’re being taken to Faerie for your own protection.”
“Great. Then let’s go.”
The look she gave me was torn between suspicion that I was pul ing a trick and the possibility that I was an idiot. I seriously hoped I wasn’t the latter.
The accomplice was acting in Nekros, and the only door to Faerie led to the winter court. Rianna had demonstrated that it was possible to not belong to a court and stil use its door, but I was hoping I’d find the accomplice in the winter court. I was also hoping that going wil ingly would earn me some favor. Yeah, lots of hoping and not a lot of facts, but I had to work with what I had. I wished Falin were here. He knew Faerie, and he would know the best way to search for the accomplice—and Hol y—once I got there.
“What’s with the dog?” Nori asked as she opened the back door of her sedan.
“Long story.” I slid across the seat, Death fol owing me. I fel asleep on the drive and felt no better for the rest when Death woke me. The steps of the Eternal Bloom loomed outside the passenger-side window. I swal owed the dread crawling up my throat and clutched PC a little tighter.
“Please check—Oh, hel o, Agent Nori,” the Bloom’s bouncer, who appeared to be either a faun or a satyr, given the hooves evident under his loose pants, said as we entered. He stepped aside, leaving the path to the VIP