Chapter 14 #2
“Well, she was one of only two fae in the whole province, so I made it my job to keep tabs on her. We’re Irish.
The little village my Mam came from, it was on the cusp of Faerie.
Everyone she knew had experiences with them, her included.
Few ended happy. They killed my Da when I was a baby.
He wasn’t even part of their petty squabble, only in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mam had learned a trick or two, though. She figured out how to keep her people safe from them.
Never expected to encounter them all the way over here, but she was prepared.
Except, your mother gave mine an oath to do no harm here, without needing to be coerced.
She went further than that even. She swore to use her knowledge to help whenever she could, brought elixirs to the sick and everything.
Passed it off as being a powerful mage.”
Kit smiled sadly, but I was still reeling. “She was out doing that the night she died. She tucked me in before she went.”
“You’re not as surprised as I expected you to be,” Meggie said. “How come?”
That was a goddamn good question. Because I was skeptical down to my shoes.
Kit fidgeted, then rubbed the back of his neck.
“She used to sing us these songs. About the fae. They were just stories… I half-forgot them. But being back in Halifax, it’s like echoes keep coming back to me.
Piece by piece. And I can see them playing out like magic.
Only it didn’t feel like any magic I’ve been around since.
There was this one she sang at bedtime about a fae falling in love with a human mage, leaving her world and family behind so she could keep him.
I don’t know, something about the pain and joy in her voice when she sang it, I’m starting to think it was her story. ”
“Kit,” I said, wanting to be the voice of reason here. “Wouldn’t you know if you were fae? Wouldn’t there be some sign?”
Meggie let out a chiding sound. “Like, say, magic he never learned how to control because no one taught him right?”
I ducked my head closer to Kit’s ear and said, “You can’t be buying this.”
When I pulled back to look at his face, Kit’s eyes begged me to understand. “With the warding on the door… and my magic. And I have a perfect sense for outright lies. I always have. I thought—well—it’s instinct, but I’m never, ever wrong. That’s not normal, is it?”
“Sure sounds like fae magic to me,” Meggie said fake casually. “Ted wouldn’t talk about his. Said it was embarrassing.”
“It is,” Kit defended, anger creeping into his tone.
“When every mage you know can access their magic and you can’t.
We thought we were defective. And it’s not like we were raised fae.
Our magic didn’t start manifesting until after our mother was buried for years.
So, you hate fae? That has nothing to do with us. ”
“Look,” I said. “We’re here about Mary-Alice and Ted’s disappearance, not ancestry or magic. When’s the last time you saw either of them?”
“What’s it matter?” Her tone was flat. “We don’t have anything to do with wherever those two ended up.”
Even knowing Elsie was dead, my mum had knelt in the snow on the edge of the pond and worked a spell in a biting rainstorm to retrieve her body.
I couldn’t help spitting, “Don’t you care at all what happened?”
“You think I don’t got people looking for them? You think I don’t got a price on Ted’s head if my guys find him hiding somewhere without my girl? They’re all armed with cold iron bullets, too, just in case the regular kind don’t work on him.”
Kit flinched, and I took a deep breath to calm down.
I knew better than to snap at someone I needed information from, but between Elsie’s loss and the last case I’d worked, it was hard to remind myself that people grieved differently.
Just like Mum, Sarah’s mother had sobbed her heart out into my collar, so the contrast to Meggie was stark.
“Of course, you care. You’re her mother,” Kit said, recovering faster than I’d have guessed.
He even used a compassionate tone I wished I could manage with Meggie.
“So give us something to work with. This is August North. He’s an ace PI, a mage who works missing persons cases.
Have your fellas check him out if you want, I’m sure you have contacts within the RCMP and HPD.
But give us something. Help me find them safe. ”
Meggie stared Kit down again, long and intense, and then she sighed.
“Kid, if I had something to give you, I’d have found them myself.
A mage isn’t gonna be able to help you. I gave Mary-Alice a charm that prevents anyone from tracking her or anyone with her.
Made it myself with a fae-crafted necklace your mother gave mine, and trust me, neither of you can break it.
Even I can’t. I wanted it to be torture proof.
“So you wasted a trip down here. I haven’t seen Mary-Alice in a month. She had a fight with her sister and hasn’t been back since. And we stay away from her nice little house in her nice little neighbourhood. Don’t want to drag our messes to her front door, you know?”
“What kind of messes?” I asked. Maybe there was a link between their disappearance and O’Shea’s after all.
“Mounties looking to find a weak link, shut us down. The rare fae here and there who’s showed up to visit the other one living in the city.
They don’t like anyone knowing what they’re up to.
Though I only seen one of them in the last twenty years, it ain’t something I want following her.
Plus we’ve got competitors. So, messes. We keep them away. ”
Kit chewed his lip red, and I wanted to reach out and tug the flesh from between his teeth, so he’d stop hurting himself. “Any particular Mountie or competitor? Or what about the fae? Could it have found out about Ted?”
Meggie gave a shake of her head. “We already asked our competitors some pointed questions. I’m not typically inclined to believe a single damn word out of their mouths, but they were telling the truth when they said they weren’t involved.
If they did it, they’d have been ransoming her or they’d have used her as a bargaining chip.
As for the fae, I doubt it. He’s a creature of habit.
Likes his lifestyle lavish, and he likes control, pretty much same as almost all the fae I’ve met.
And they like to think pesky humans are beneath them.
The one in town is a piece of work, but he can’t do anything to hurt the people of this city without them threatening him first. My own mother tricked him into that deal, rest her soul.
You think Ted or Mary-Alice could be a threat to him? ”
Unlikely.
“What about the Mounties?” I prompted.
“We can’t exactly go after them to find out, can we? Far as I know, they’ve got their hands full. They haven’t even raided us in ages. If someone’s looking close enough to try and go through Mary-Alice, they’re staying well under our notice.”
Disgust I was trying to conceal leaked into my voice. “Anyone here ever want to hurt her?”
Meggie’s black look gave me pause. “You think I’d keep anyone around who did?”
Maybe, but I wasn’t going to admit it. I’d done my digging on the O’Sheas and they kept some grim company. I hadn’t thought well of Meggie before this meeting, and I wasn’t sure I thought any better of her now. Even if she might have answers to questions about the fae Kit hadn’t thought of yet.
“The band’s about to start,” Meggie said finally, clearly finished with our little interrogation. “Might as well stay, have a drink, dance a bit. I've got nothing else for you.”
She walked away, headed for her table.
Scoffing, I rubbed the back of my neck. “Let’s get out of here.”
Kit turned his head toward me and leaned close enough to whisper in my ear and still be heard over the plinking sounds of the band warming up with their guitar and fiddle.
The stubble on my cheek rasped against his clean-shaven skin, and I fought a shiver at the warm puff of his breath.
“We can’t go yet. Those women sitting with Meggie are friends of mine.
They can take care of themselves, but I’d rather not leave them here. ”
“What the hell are friends of yours doing with Meggie?”
The band started up proper now, launching into a jaunty tune. More couples were slowly making their way to the bit of space in front of the stage that served as a dance floor.
“They came to visit and overheard our telephone call,” he answered, glancing at them with a mixture of fondness and exasperation. “I didn’t think they’d show up tonight, but that’s my fault. When Marion’s prying information out of you, it’s hard not to give it up.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question,” I pointed out, curious about them despite myself.
“It sort of does,” Kit said, faintly amused. “They have experience gathering intelligence, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Marion thought she’d save me the trouble by getting everything we required prior to our arrival. She was probably getting Meggie to talk all about her family.”
They’d been spies? “Okay, well, what should we do?”
He pulled back and grinned at me, the same one he’d always gotten when one of our brothers had dared him to do something dangerous. “We’re going to ask them to dance. You ask the blonde, Marion. She won’t drop you with an improvised spell for asking, unlike Agnes. Who probably wouldn’t but could.”
Warily, I asked, “Sure, and then what?”
“We act like we charmed them enough to leave with us, obviously.”
“Obviously,” I echoed, dryly. As if I’d ever charmed anyone into leaving anywhere with me before.
I let Kit lead, and almost smiled at the sheer confidence he put on display as he asked the brunette for a dance.
She rolled her eyes but obliged. When it was my turn to ask, Marion didn’t even make me say anything; she bounced to her feet and reached for my hand.
I let out a sigh of relief I hoped wasn’t audible over the music.
“You must be the infamous August North,” Marion said, once we were dancing, my left hand holding her right, and our other hands at respectful positions on one another’s waists. “Breaker of hearts. Shatterer of young men.”
Controlling my surprised reaction to the news Kit had not only told his friend about me, but that he’d told her about us, I offered her an awkward smile. “Sort of an exaggeration, using the plural when I only ever broke one heart.”
She levelled me with an unimpressed look. “Hmm.”
“Apparently, you’re Marion, keeper of Kit’s secrets.”
As I spun her, she grinned. “Well, he’s keeper of mine too, so it's only fair.”
“Is this the part where you threaten to wear my guts as garters if I hurt him again?”
Laughing, she threw back her head, and even I could tell she was gorgeous. “How did you know?” she asked when she recovered. “I even rehearsed how I’d say it.”
“Intuition, I guess.” I spun her, and her dress flared out before I brought her close again. “You don’t have to worry. I’m only here to help Kit find Ted and Mary-Alice. Then we’ll go back to being history.”
The look she gave called me a liar.
“Who says that’s not the way you’d break his heart?”
There was no answer for that. Or for the complicated stab of pain in my chest.
By the time we managed to leave the club, I was breathless and sweatier than I’d like in the cool of the night.
On the drive to the hotel Kit directed me to, he tried to convince his friends not to do anything dangerous for him again, but they weren’t having any of it.
There was a lot of “you know what we used to do” and “we’re perfectly capable” and somewhere along the way, Kit ended up the one apologizing.
My own head was left spinning, and I wasn’t even a participant in the conversation.
Parked out front of the Lovely house after, I tightened my knuckles on the wheel, no longer able to hold in the envy eating me up. “I don’t know how you do it.”
Kit looked over, startled. “Do what?”
“Get everyone to give stuff up to you. Even hardened criminals spill their secrets at your say so. I hafta work a lot harder than that to pry the truth out of someone like Meggie.”
“She would’ve told you if I hadn’t been there,” Kit disagreed. “She wasn’t lying when she said she cared. She might not show it, but she loves Mary-Alice, and she’s torn up.”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure I could’ve kept my cool without you. All I saw was a mother who didn’t give a damn. You saw through it. You’ve always been so good at really seeing people, making them feel understood. Is that some kind of fae magic too?”
His cheeks pinked dark enough it was visible in the streetlight, and he stared out the passenger window.
“I don’t know. I always thought it was luck.
Just like telling lies from truth, but maybe it is a kind of magic too.
It feels like instinct, mostly. I can hardly be credited for having instincts. ”
Did he always downplay his skills like that? In my memories Kit was cocky and sure of everything he’d done. Everything he would do. How much of that had been boyhood bravado... and how much of it had I accidentally killed?
“Nah, it's more than that. You're a damn fine investigator. You always impressed me, Kit. And that’s not down to any type of magic. It’s you.”
Kit still didn't look at me. He nodded tightly and opened the door. “Too bad it didn’t get us anything useful. If you find anything else out let me know.” His defeated tone matched his slumped shoulders.
I wished like hell there was a way to give him hope, but I couldn't lie. We were running out of avenues of inquiry fast.
He watched me through the open door, hurt in his expression. I wanted to erase it, only I lacked the softer touch needed. The divide between us was massive, and my brand of helping definitely hadn’t cut it the night before last. At a loss, I promised, “I'll let you know as soon as I've got a line.”
Nodding again, Kit stepped back and shut the door. And I had to watch him walk away from me all over again. Almost as disappointed in me as he’d been all those years ago.