Did I have a choice? There were other courts. Other rulers. My bargain with the queen wasn’t complete so I wasn’t bound to inform her if I went to another court. Maybe some other ruler would let me become independent. But what will I have to trade to them? I wouldn’t know until I tried.
The queen’s eyes narrowed, obviously reading the resolve on my face. She sighed. “At least come back to Faerie with me. You’ll fade slower there,” she said, and then something else occurred to her, and she smiled, the curl of her lips sly. “And in Faerie you still have a chance to complete your side of the bargain. Help me find this killer, and I will be bound to grant your status.”
She had a point. Maybe even a good point. But what good would blundering around Faerie really do for me? My grave magic, while neither offensive or defensive, was the one power I was really good at, and I had no access to it in Faerie. My witchy spell casting was dismal at best, my sensitivity to magic didn’t do a lot in a land where almost none of the residents could channel Aetheric energy, and I didn’t understand my planeweaving abilities—or the planes in Faerie for that matter—well enough for it to be helpful. I’d be like a child blundering around in a world I didn’t fully understand. What chance did I have there to find the alchemist?
But what chance did I stand here?
“How many Sleagh Maith are in the winter court?” I asked.
“Too many to remand all to my dungeons for questioning.”
And the fact she’d considered that a possible option was exactly why I had no intention of joining the winter court.
I rubbed my temples with a finger and thumb. I wasn’t sure when my head had started hurting, but the headache was to the point of pounding now. I needed some sleep, and a clear head. But first I had to get to Tamara’s rehearsal dinner. I wasn’t late yet, but I would be soon, and I definitely didn’t want to chance passing through the door to Faerie again. I might miss the wedding entirely if it decided to act up and spit me out in the middle of next week. Maybe I’d go back to Faerie to search and ask some questions after the wedding. If I couldn’t find any other solution to my court problem, I might have no other choice.
“I’ll consider it. But not tonight,” I said, and the queen’s smile faltered.
“Fine.” The heel of her shoe clicked on the ground, accenting the word. Then she turned to Falin. “Accompany her. If she gets too weak, carry her back to Faerie if you have to. If my planeweaver fades, I’ll be very disappointed. The rest of you, let’s go.”
Falin nodded without a word and passed the knapsack of bones to Ryese. He grimaced, taking the straps with two fingers and holding the bag away at arm’s distance, but he followed his aunt. The rest of the council fell in step behind them. The queen cast one more appraising gaze my way, then turned on her heel and bustled out of the garage. Maybe it was a display of power, or maybe it was just her irritation getting the better of her, but a trail of snow flurries followed in her wake. Despite the warm autumn night, they clung to the cement several seconds before finally giving up and melting into wet dots.
The small procession had already turned the corner before I looked away. Falin said nothing, but walked back to his car, slid in, and then popped the passenger door open for me. I stared at it.
Guess I have an uninvited houseguest a little while longer.
? ? ?
Roy, my self-appointed ghostly sidekick, was in my apartment when we arrived home. He’d apparently been pushing Scrabble pieces around on the counter for quite some time because he had several completed words. That might not sound like such a feat, but when you don’t exist on the mortal plane, manipulating objects that do takes quite a bit of energy and concentration. He looked up when I entered, his thick-framed glasses sliding down his shimmering nose.
“I was in the office this afternoon but nobody was—” He cut off, his mouth dropping open and a Scrabble tile falling from his fingers. I didn’t have to guess too hard on why.
Icelynne had followed me home.
I would have rather she hadn’t, but hey, I already had one ghost hanging around, why not two? Also, I felt bad for her. She had spent most of the drive to my house crying in the backseat.
“Alex, who and what is that?” Roy asked, shoving his fists into his faded jeans and backing up several steps. As a whole, ghosts tend toward a solitary existence. They are remanent traces of their own will, empowered by energy. When that energy runs low, some ghosts have a bad habit of cannibalizing their fellow spirits.
“Roy meet Icelynne, and vice versa,” I said as explanation of who. I pointedly ignored the “what” part of his question.
“Uh, hello,” Icelynne said. She wasn’t exactly hiding behind me, but it was a near thing.
Roy didn’t reply. He just stared. He usually had perpetually bad posture, moping around with slumped shoulders, but he was standing at his full height now, his dingy flannel shirt swaying in an unfelt breeze rolling through the land of the dead. I wasn’t sure if he was getting ready to run or rush her.