Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
“People are disgusting,” I announced half an hour later.
“If you think this is bad, imagine all the things people knowingly do,” Marnie said ominously.
Moira’s nose wrinkled. “I do not want to know.”
I frowned at my pencil. “I’m not putting this back in my purse. It’s seen some things.”
We were left with three tiny piles of hair. Some we couldn’t identify at all. Some was Tess’s, some was mine, and two short strands were blond enough to give us hope that they belonged to Lou.
“Where’s yours?” I asked.
Moira shrugged. “I don’t grow hair,” she said.
I gaped at her. “Anywhere?”
“I have what I had when my immortality switched on. That’s all.”
“Oh man. You can never get laser hair removal, can you?”
Moira flashed a grin, the first one I’d seen since this mess started. “I’d shaved the morning of. Fortunately.”
“Imagine if you’d let the bush go free. You’d have to hope the 70s came back into style. Forever cursed by style trends.”
“Ladies,” Marnie drawled disapprovingly. “We have more important things to focus on.”
Twila cleared her throat, but I didn’t miss the sparkle in her eye.
“I can cut it,” Moira quickly added. “But it’s back within 24 hours.”
“There is a God,” I said.
Marnie snorted. “Trouble magnets.”
She swiped the rest of the bowls and moved them. Twila picked up the rest of the sorted debris and floated it to another table, then focused on what was left.
“If this works, it will lead you to this person’s current location.”
“But if it’s not his, we’ll find someone else, I assume.”
“Yes. Depending on who it is, they may sense they’re being tracked, but there’s no way to know until you arrive.” Marnie’s gaze flicked to Moira. “Do you know how powerful this being is?”
We both shook our heads.
“Very well.” She raised her hands over the pile and closed her eyes. “Let us begin.”
We left with a small silken bag holding a blue glowing ball and a promise to fulfill a favor of their choosing at an undetermined time. As loath as I was to hand out favors without strict parameters, we didn’t have much of a choice.
“Maybe we should have narrowed the tracking spell to Tess,” Moira said quietly as we piled into my car and pulled into traffic.
“If this doesn’t work, we will. I want to know if he has her first. Plus, I want to see what he’s up to.
Tess can handle herself.” I believed the words, and Tess had shown me how powerful she was before, but I still couldn’t shake my sense of unease.
Why would Lou want a banshee he’d never seen before?
Or had he seen her?
Or, even worse, was this all a weird fluke and he’d shown up on purpose under the guise of a magic blip.
That last theory sounded bonkers, but strange things had happened over the last few months, strange enough to make me believe just about anything.
The bag held a steady glow as we drove, brightening when we were on the right track, dimming when we’d either passed a turn or gone too far down a street.
For twenty minutes we drove around in what felt like circles until the bag pulsed twice and warmed just as we passed a small, nondescript house behind the busiest area of Joy Springs.
Lights blazed from the porch and inside the house and music pumped through the streets. Someone was hosting a party, a big one from the number of cars in the driveway and crowded along both sides of the street.
We slowed the vehicle to a crawl and passed by, Moira craning her head to scan all the people milling around. “I recognize a few people, but there’s no one we know well. Most are locals.”
“Lou’s made some new friends, it appears.”
Moira leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, I don’t like it.”
“We don’t have to like it. We just need to find our banshee.”
“Pull around and park a couple of blocks away. Maybe we can talk to some people and find out if Tess is here before Lou spots us.”
As plans went, it wasn’t a bad one, but I had a bad feeling Tess wasn’t here unless Lou was holding her somewhere, away from other people. A locked room, maybe a basement.
The question was, why would he do something like that and what did he want from Tess?
If he even had her at all.
We drove a couple of blocks down and parked on the street, making sure we locked our doors before starting down the street.
Our breath made steam clouds in the frigid air. When we arrived at the house, a few people waved and smiled. Moira got out way more than I did, so the odds were they recognized her before me.
Moira headed over, shoving her hands in her coat pockets. I followed behind and let her charm them.
The first was a handsome young man with light brown eyes covered with wire spectacles and messy hair. He looked like a young scholar at a party he was being held hostage at. “Moira.” He held out a hand. “I’m surprised to see you here.”
They shook as Moira gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Tess finally managed to drag me out of the house. You haven’t seen her around, have you? I might be a little early.”
The man’s brow furrowed. “Tess?” He slowly shook his head. “I’m sorry. I haven’t been inside yet, so she might be in there. She hasn’t been outside yet.”
“I’ll check inside in a few minutes. I see a few other people I know.”
The man glanced at me. When Moira didn’t introduce us, he rolled his eyes and stuck his hand out again. “Martin,” he said. “I run a bookshop downtown. You’re the florist, right?”
“That’s right.” We shook, and I was surprised to feel callouses on the palm of his hand. Martin was more than a bookseller, wasn’t he?
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you outside the shop.”
It took everything I had not to bristle. Yes, I was not very social. No, it was not polite to point it out. “What can I say,” I said with a sheepish smile, “it’s hard to deny the comforts of home.”
To my surprise, Martin’s eyes lit up. “I agree! One of my friends dragged me out tonight. He said there’s a new guy in town that has access to some rare tomes I might be interested in.”
He rolled his eyes. “Unfortunately, I have yet to see my friend or the tomes, so I’m not sure I’ll be here much longer.”
Moira was fidgeting and jerking her head toward the door. “Me neither. I won’t stay too long once we find Tess.” I thumbed at Moira. “She’s the real party animal among us.”
Moira rolled her eyes. “Well, let’s find her so we can get this old lady home.” She looped her arm through mine and tugged. “Nice to see you again, Martin.”
“You, too,” he said, but his eyes lingered on me as she dragged me away.
“Martin has the hots for you,” Moira said with an amused hiss when we were far enough away to keep him from hearing our conversation.
“Martin would be a fool to act on that,” I said quietly. “Caelan wouldn’t take kindly to anyone flirting with me.”
Moira glanced at me. “Are you okay with his influence on you?”
I blinked. “What does that mean?”
Moira shook her head. “He has eyes everywhere. If someone steps an inch over the line, he’s going to know about it.”
“I have no plans to step over the line.”
Moira snorted. “I know you won’t, but you’re a hot little commodity, and once word gets out about who your daddy is, you’re going to have man meat beating down your door.”
“If you remember, that has already happened.”
Moira’s grin held a sharp edge. “Yes, and have you noticed how abruptly that stopped?”
My steps halted. “What do you mean by that?”
She tugged me forward again. “You’re a smart girl. It’ll come to you.”
We stepped into the house, me slightly behind Moira. The vampire stopped abruptly, and I bumped into her back with an oof.
“My gods,” Moira murmured.
I peeked over her shoulder and was stunned into silence. All I could do was stand there for a long moment gawking before I leaned away and poked my head outside, my gaze taking in the dimension of the porch which wrapped around the house.
Then I leaned back inside and shook my head. “Fae magic,” I said quietly.
“Powerful fae magic,” she agreed.
Who or what had come through that portal? I shut the door behind us with a soft click. The music pounding from outside wasn’t the same as inside. This music was softer, sultrier, holding a hypnotic beat that made me want to sway my hips.
And wasn’t that curious?
Moira found my hand and squeezed. “Glamour magic,” she hissed. “Be careful.”
She didn’t let go, and I didn’t protest. A press of bodies surrounded us, most unbothered by our presence, others who didn’t even notice we were there.
Some had their eyes closed and danced in place, their mouths open in ecstasy. Whatever was happening to them disturbed me on a cellular level.
I might be a fae, but I hated glamour magic. Such power could make you feel anything. Horror or excitement, pleasure or pain, it didn’t matter. You could walk through a living dream and become a king or queen, a tyrant or a savior. Rich or poor, a movie star or a pauper, anything was possible.
I only wanted to be myself, Evie. Nothing else.
As far-fetched as it sounded, after my ride in the World Tree, I’d stopped wanting anything other than what was best for me.
My friends and family loved me, and I loved them.
Those were what made me rich, not gold coins spilling into my palms from a trickster’s hands.
Unfortunately, my father had all but stopped our training sessions lately, perhaps to punish me for being difficult, as he liked to say. I knew some of what I could do, but most of it pertained to the natural world, nothing that could help me if I let the magic sweep me under.
We walked through the press of bodies, some human, some fae, a shifter here and there which would make Caelan extremely unhappy if he found out about it, and some tinges of unfamiliar magic—neither fae nor shifter nor witch or water creature.
My gaze swept the room, looking for anything I could focus on.
“There,” I said quietly, pulling Moira toward a familiar muscular figure dressed in familiar armor.