Chapter Twelve
Taliyah
I just stared.
And stared some more.
God, this couldn’t be happening. Not today. Not after everything I’d gone through to get to this point.
Any yet, there she was, hunched over the table at the coven house, scanning the photos in the folder with horrified fascination. How the hell had she gotten to it? I’d left it in the warded fire safe Maverick had bought me for Christmas. Or Yule, as he called it. Nothing short of a rhino should have been able to crack it. But the pictures were still fanned out over the maple wood surface of the dining room table in all their grisly glory, out in public for anyone to see.
My first thought was that Maverick must have undone the wards and decided to consult her without my knowledge or approval. I banished that idea almost as soon as it formed. Maverick was many things, but disloyal to me wasn’t one of them. I’d seen him face down high witches and winter queens alike to see that the people he loved came home safe and whole.
He wouldn’t have shown the pictures to Astrid for two reasons: one, he hadn’t okayed a consult with me, the lead investigator on the case. And two, he was absurdly protective of his little sister, though she’d proven she could handle herself. Mav wouldn’t have subjected her to bloody reminders of what could have happened to her if Valserak hadn’t decided to blood her, instead of leaving her corpse to rot. Which meant she had to have taken it through some kind of faerie sorcery I had yet to encounter.
Astrid’s already bloodless face blanched bone white when she spied me lurking in the kitchen doorway. She tried to shove the papers and photos back into the manila folder without success. All she managed to do was fold the toxicology and autopsy reports into failed origami. She quivered with tension, her copper hair starting to glow like fiber optics as her magic rose with her stress.
“I... uh... this isn’t what it looks like, I swear.”
“No?” I began coolly. “Because it looks like you took advantage of my absence to rifle through my personal files. Unless you’re cleverly concealing a belated birthday card underneath that mess, I think it’s exactly what it looks like.”
Astrid chewed her bottom lip, careful of her fangs. It made her look younger than the eternally nineteen-year-old girl she appeared to be. A hint of panic flashed across her face when she heard Rook and William entering the house after me. Ah, to be young and in love again. I hadn’t hung my hopes and dreams on a man for years, too jaded by Jonathan’s numerous betrayals to trust that someone would stick around. Rook did seem to love Astrid back, so maybe they’d turn out alright.
If I didn’t give in to my urge to turn Mav’s sister into a popsicle, that is. I could feel the winter inside me, an arctic gale longing to rip free of my body and tear through the house, ripping appliances from the wall before plunging the entire house into a sub-zero wasteland of snow and ice. Normally, when I felt like this, I went to Poppy’s. There was a lake miles from her property where I could let loose. But leaving meant giving Astrid more time with the files, and she’d already seen enough.
“Give that to me,” I said, and could hear the howling wind in my voice. Astrid shrank back as though it had been a shout.
“I...”
“Now,” I snapped, a burst of winter escaping with the command.
Frost coated the floor and crept up the legs of her chair, coating her Converse sneakers in a layer of rime. She stared down at them, alarmed, before returning her apprehensive gaze to my face. Whatever she saw there seemed to frighten her because she closed the folder carefully before extending it in a shaking hand.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I could tell something was up. I felt Mav’s rage before you guys, uh...”
Oh, God. I’d forgotten in my haste to get Maverick out of the police station that we were entering a home where half a dozen skilled women could read auras. If Astrid had been paying close attention to us, had she felt...
Nope. I was not going down that line of thought. It could only end badly.
Astrid continued babbling justifications as I fought back the urge to blush. “And you got your winter on recently. Reading other nobles’ auras has been Fox’s recent homework for me. I knew something was wrong with you too... Then you both started asking about faerie weapons that can kill us, and I thought maybe there was something I needed to know. If Haven Hollow or my family is in danger I want to know. I can help.”
If it were any other case, I might have let her. The sentiment was sweet but badly timed. Astrid was smarter than most people realized. She was quieter than some of her witchy compatriots, with a keen sense of observation, and a strong sense of justice. Maybe, if she’d grown old enough, she could have become a good detective. Now she’d look utterly out of place in most stakeouts.
The urge to flash freeze the entire kitchen flickered like a tiny ember in my chest and died a quiet death. I was the adult in the room, and I thought I knew what was going on here.
“It’s not the knife meant for Fox,” I said quietly, pulling out a chair so I could sit next to her at the table. “You’re safe, Astrid. I’m not trying to keep something from you that could get you killed.”
Because that was exactly what Aurea had done to Astrid. Swept vital information under the rug because of the political optics, just the way she was doing with me. Vivian’s death had more political impact than the disappearance of a minor fae in the grand scheme of things, but it wasn’t an excuse. If Blood Rose hadn’t been allowed to become a festering pot of resentment and barely repressed bloodlust, Astrid would still be a witch. If the establishment had done its job, hell if it had even warned people, maybe she would still have a pulse. No wonder she’d gone looking for evidence. Everything she’d been through thus far told her she had to work on her own if she wanted to see any justice in the world.
Astrid relaxed into her chair... for a second. Then her mind supplied the obvious conclusion to my thought and her gray eyes went round.
“It’s the blade meant for you.”
“Yes,” I answered.
Astrid waved her hand over the bulging folder, dusting it with autumn leaves as her emotions rose once more. I grimaced. I hated cleaning that stuff up. Fox always blew debris everywhere, leaving a room messier than when he arrived.
“Was this Janara’s doing? Was this one of her prisoners? It looks like a cell.”
It was an easy lie. Something I could tell her to get her off my back. Janara wanted me dead, and she’d never shied away from killing extraneous personnel. But lying to Astrid was wrong. She’d been through enough. And if something happened to me, people deserved to know the truth.
“No, it’s not Janara’s blade.”
Astrid frowned. “Then?”
“The knife is currently in Aurea Grimsbane’s possession. She stole it from Janara.”
A snarl ripped through the air just behind me and I turned in time to see Rook stalk into the room. He would have cut a more impressive figure if he’d been taller and covered in muscle. He was still damn scary as he was, dark eyes practically flaming with hatred at the mention of Aurea’s name. Astrid wasn’t the only one who had beef with the headmistress. The years of abuse Rook had suffered at the establishment’s hands made Astrid’s conflict look like a minor tiff.
“She did what? ”
I winced. I hadn’t meant to drag either of them into this. And it was now rapidly getting out of hand. This situation had to be handled now before it spiraled out of control.
“Aurea Grimsbane approached me to solve a murder at Blood Rose,” I said in as calm a tone as I could manage. It was difficult with all the ears in the house. Maybe the witches wouldn’t catch what I’d just said, but the vampires would. And the more people in on the secret, the greater the chance someone would leak the news. Then there’d be no stopping the frenzy.
“Blackmailed, you mean,” Rook spat. “I know how that witch operates. She took the knife to force your hand. This is punishment for interfering at her school, isn’t it? Of all the selfish, egotistical...”
He trailed off into muttered obscenities. A petty part of me wanted to wave pom poms and cheer the slander. Aurea Grimsbane deserved that and more. But if I let him build up a head of steam, he might do something stupid, like call his father. That would spell disaster for my family.
“I’m not happy with her, but I understand why she did it,” I began, but Rook didn’t let me finish.
“If she didn’t give a damn about the faeries, she shouldn’t start pretending to give a shit now. Let me guess. It’s a witch who was killed? That’s why she cares. Only the precious witches merit any time or attention,” he sneered.
“It is a witch,” I confirmed. “And she was killed by a vampire. I think you know what that means.”
That succeeded in shutting him up. He swayed a little and had to be steadied by Astrid’s arm around his waist. Rook had been a hostage for years, roped in to keep the families from tearing each other apart. If witch blood was ever spilled, Rook’s life was forfeit, even if he had nothing to do with the killing. He’d been released from that obligation recently, but the fear still had to be there.
“A blood war,” he said quietly. “It will kick off another blood war.”
Astrid worried her lip with her fangs, wincing when she wasn’t careful enough. Her tongue swept out to catch a few ruby droplets before the cut sealed itself.
“I’m not rooting for a war but...” She glanced between us. “Why hasn’t one kicked off? Isn’t this the sort of thing that would do it?”
I’d been wondering that myself. Why hadn’t Aurea Grimsbane gone on the warpath when she had every right under the law to do so? Someone had struck a blow not only to her heart but to her power as well by destroying her heir.
“Because I think she knows something we don’t,” I answered. “Perhaps with the faerie courts already in turmoil, she can’t count on allies that could help her win the war. Or perhaps it looks like a less defensible position now that she knows faeries can be turned. Magic alone wouldn’t be enough to gain the upper hand anymore.”
Or maybe she’s too tired and defeated and doesn’t want the fight, a small voice in my head supplied. What would you do if it were Sean and Charlie?
That thought was so hideous that I refused to even entertain it. Anyone who even thought about hurting my kids would find themselves buried under an avalanche. And that was only if I was feeling merciful that day. There were a few creative uses of icicles I could find if I was really feeling vengeful.
“You might as well tell us the whole truth,” Rook continued. “You know we’ll investigate regardless.”
I bit back a groan. They would, too. Their merry little foursome hadn’t been able to keep their noses in their textbooks where they belonged. When presented with a dangerous mystery, they’d eschew all reason and charge in with all the confidence of youth. Or the arrogance of age, in Rook’s case. The point was that they’d get themselves hurt or killed. And I couldn’t put Astrid in that kind of danger again.
“The victim was Vivian,” I said with a sigh.
“Oh, shit,” Astrid said.
I nodded. “Vivian is Jane Doe. She appears to have been drugged and drained of blood. The tests for sexual assault were negative, thankfully, but she was beaten before she died. The bite radius suggests a male perpetrator, but that’s not a guarantee. Aurea wants this dealt with quickly and quietly. If I don’t play her game, she’s going to use the knife and damn the consequences. I don’t think she’s operating on all cylinders at the moment.”
Rook took a step back, face going blank for a moment. I didn’t think that the statement computed for him. Vivian Grimsbane of the unstoppable sharp tongue was gone, killed by one of his kind. Not one of his classmates, thank God, but still a vampire.
“I don’t want you running to your dad,” I said, aiming the warning at him this time. “That’s exactly the sort of thing Aurea wanted to avoid when she brought the case to me.”
“He deserves to know,” Rook argued.
“He does,” I answered with a nod. “But my kids are on the line, so don’t test me on this. I will freeze you in a block of ice and shove you into Roy’s industrial freezer if that’s what I have to do to keep them safe. You don’t have to breathe, so I doubt it would kill you, but I’m not gonna cry over any frostbite you get.”
It was an empty threat. I wouldn’t turn him into an ice cube. Though I might seal them into a house together with a layer of impenetrable ice and wards to keep Astrid from escaping. Let them be snowed in together for a weekend and see what happened.
Rook’s jaw worked a few times. I doubted anyone but Astrid ordered him around. A hostage he might have been, but he was still the son of one of the most powerful vampires in Europe. He cast a surreptitious glance at Astrid. She looked pale, probably realizing that my death would also drag Maverick down with me. That seemed to clinch it for him.
“I’ll stay quiet,” he said. “But only as long as you’re on the case, Taliyah. If something happens to you, I’m looking into it.”
I took a deep breath, desperately wishing it would settle my stomach. Fear had knotted my guts like balloon animals, and I was afraid one wrong move would break me.
“If something happens to me, I’d want you to look into it.”