“Hey, Jade!” She waved to me with her pen, before writing something in the crossword.
I set my backpack down on the bench next to her. “Hi, Sunshine. How was your shift?” I opened my locker, then stripped off the bulky cable knit sweater that made my top layer, revealing my thin, insulated vest, long-sleeved moisture wicking shirt, and base layer of a short-sleeved shirt.
“Great! It was thankfully way less exciting after your squad dragged everyone from the fight in.”
“If it was less exciting, why are you still here? You started ridiculously early today,” I asked. Sunshine hadn’t bothered to go home today after reporting the fae; she’d stayed in and started her day.
“A fae got busted for illegally selling potions to humans, so I had to test her entire batch to grade how potent they were. It took me all afternoon, until my regular shift ended, so I decided I’d hang around so I could say hello to you.” Sunshine’s smile warmed me from the inside out as she grinned at me.
I put on the long-sleeved shirt of my task force uniform, testing the snug buttons around my cuffs. The test was for the safety of my vampire teammates and because Considine had tugged on them a few times, which made me nervous. “That sounds like your kind of fun.”
Sunshine glanced back down at her newspaper. “Absolutely! I like bagging rats who think they can prey on humans—oh! I got to see Queen Darina when she came to pay the fine for the release of her fae. She was furious! I thought she was going to crack her teeth with how hard she was clenching them. It was great—I was so sad you missed it!”
I laughed as I removed my sneakers and tucked them into my locker, swapping them for my special boots. “Did King Forgought show up?”
“Nope.” Sunshine filled another spot on the crossword puzzle. “I think he’s trying to scrape together the funds. That Court has done some seriously stupid stuff in the past year; he’s got to be almost out of money. It’s probably why Queen Darina is going for him—she thinks he’s a weak target.”
I left on the pair of black leggings I was wearing and slipped on my uniform’s navy-blue trousers over it—one of my favorite things about the colder weather was that I could have extra padding. I just had to be careful I didn’t wear anything that hindered my movements. Consequently, my winter uniform was a size bigger than my summer uniform. “Tricky. Your family is safe despite all this succession fighting, right?”
“Oh yeah.” Sunshine folded up her completed crossword, restoring the newspaper to its regular shape. “We’re part of the Day Court. We had some tense years, but order has been restored, and our King has never been better.”
I have no idea what she’s talking about. Maybe I should learn more about fae politics—so I can be a better friend. Though I bet it would help my work life, too.
I pulled my belt from my locker. “Good.” I slipped it through the belt loops, then glanced at Sunshine, frowning when I saw the bold headlines.
Black Ice on Bayview Bridge Causes Accident.
Bayview Bridge… it took me a moment to place the name on my mental map of the city, but when I did, I sharply inhaled: it was the bridge I’d seen before dawn, the one with all the humans tottering around it.
“Accident on the bridge?” I asked.
“Hmm?” Sunshine blinked at me, then looked down at the newspaper in her hands. “Yeah—there was black ice on a bridge in a human residential neighborhood this morning because of the low temperatures. No one got hurt, but the ice stuck around well past dawn, when it should have melted. The meddling House Tellier showed up eventually and melted it with magical fire.”
I tested to make sure my extra pouches, cuffs, and the other items on my belt were secure. “We apprehended the fae in a park near that bridge,” I said. “I saw some people on it when I went to get the car.”
“What did Sarge say when you reported it to him?” Sunshine asked.
I’d grabbed my holster from my locker, but I paused to look back at Sunshine, confused. “How did you know I told him?”
“Because it’s you,” Sunshine said. “You’re meticulous. You wouldn’t see something like that and leave it. So, what did he say?”
“He had me do a drive by on the way home, and the people were gone.” I buckled my holster into place on my shoulder. “I didn’t think much of it—though in hindsight I maybe should have stopped the car and checked for magic, except we had the brownie and fae noble from the fight sitting in the back seat, so I’m not sure that would have been the responsible thing to do, either.”
“Well, as I said, no one got hurt.” Sunshine studied the article, her brown eyes solemn. “Though there was some vehicle damage. The worst part about it is that House Tellier got the chance to play hero. Again.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Even if we ignore the fire at the library they likely started, all their heroics are too convenient. This is the…” I paused, trying to add up all the instances. There’s been the library, and this case of black ice, but before then I’d witnessed them put out the fireworks mishap that they had sponsored, and there was that article in the newspaper about how they’d helped in the storm. “Fourth time. They’ve been heroes four times—that we know of. That’s way too many. They should have been hauled before the Wizard Council by now for using magic in front of humans that often, even if they did it to save people.”
“All the instances must not be getting reported—which is possible since there’s no way the Telliers are self-reporting to the Cloisters when they’re on such poor terms with House Medeis.” Sunshine thoughtfully tapped the article. “Do you think this might be your in?”
“My what?”
“Your in. Your way to open another investigation on House Tellier since the Wizard Council closed the library case.”
I squeezed my gloves. “Maybe…” I said, slowly. “I could head out to the bridge during patrol. If they started—or were at least somehow involved—in the library fire, it’s possible they might have set up a few of their other chances for heroism.”
“That sounds likely. House Tellier isn’t known for doing anything that would benefit others.” Sunshine tossed the shiny curtain her brown hair made over her shoulder. “They are very unpopular here at the Cloisters. If the Wizard Council wasn’t so desperate to maintain their numbers, they would have slapped the Telliers down by now.”
The Tellier wizards are unpopular…but I’ve seen them with a lot of supernaturals. What’s up with that?
There was the werewolf in the parking lot the day I’d gone running and Connor had babysat my stuff, and I’d seen a Tellier wizard with a vampire back in September.