Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
“A war over a pawn?” the dragon crooned. “I don’t think so. I think your masters will say they did not know what you were doing and wash their hands of you.”
Digging deep, I found that well of magic, the one I’d used when Jeffrey threatened to break the contract. It flowed through me and my words dripped with the power of whatever made up fae magic. Promises, contracts, charisma, whatever it was, rolled through my voice as I spoke.
“I am the Windrose. There are no masters I cleave to. And as the balance between the four courts, I promise you if I die, the war that will roil this world will take everything you hold dear, Jimena Torres, dragon of old.”
She shot up, the predator in her recognizing an equal power. The three wolves moved towards us, but she held up a hand, and they stilled.
“How do you know my name?” she asked, hands curled into claws, red scales growing up her forearms.
The truth was, I had no idea how I knew her name. But I didn’t want to reveal that whatever had come with the promotion to Windrose was new to me, too. So I did what I did best. I lied.
“I’m the Windrose. My powers are more than some fae courtier’s.”
Her eyes narrowed, the dark slit of her iris going paper thin. “A new Windrose? Since when?”
“Since the same person who killed your wolves killed him. We’re allies in this.”
Someone thumped against the door and Dieter pushed his way through. He snarled, “What’s going on? He should be dead. Torres said she’d kill him.”
With the beefy werewolves in the way, Torres was short enough he hadn’t seen her. At Dieter’s aggression, her entire body gave a reptilian shiver, and she gestured for her pack to make room. They practically flung themselves out of the way.
“You’d tell me what to do?” she spat at Dieter, her tongue flicking out and back. “With my own pack?”
Dieter took a half step back, his hands going up. “No, no. It’s just Malik had him delivered to you, so I wanted to make sure you weren’t having any problems. Ferro’s tricky, he can convince anyone of anything. He’s fae.”
He said the last like a trump card and I frowned. Dieter shouldn’t know that. Malik didn’t even know that, and he had a much better reason to suspect me than Dieter.
“Malik can wait.” Torres pointed at him, the curled finger of her claws making the gesture into a threat of disembowelment.
“He’s not speaking for Malik,” I said. “Whatever else he told you, you have to know that’s a lie.”
“You shut your lying mouth or I’ll rip out your tongue,” Dieter said, his chest going wide as he took a step towards me.
Torres’s hand slammed into his chest, her claws drawing blood as she shoved him backward. He hit the wall, his head snapping back, and then he surged forward, a growl contorting his face.
“You’re in my territory,” she said. “Behave or I’ll show you what I do to werewolves who piss me off.”
She spun back to me. “Explain. Quickly.”
As Dieter grumbled, held back by two of the werewolves in the room, my mind raced. Dieter shouldn’t know I was a fae. If he did, then was he tracking Acacia for the same reason? Because she was fae?
“Malik doesn’t trust him,” I said. “He’s trying to prove Malik isn’t worthy and take his spot as alpha, but he’s not strong enough to do it in combat.”
“I’ve met Malik,” Torres agreed. “He’d be good in a fight.”
“So, I’ll bet you talked to Malik when the whole wolf killing went down,” I said. “And he said he was looking into it. He’d find the killer.”
Torres’s eyes flickered between human and reptile, and she crossed her arms. I noticed her hands had shifted back to human, and I had to assume that was good for me. If she wasn’t turning into a dragon right this second, then at least I had a chance of convincing her I was telling the truth.
“And then a few days, maybe a week or two later, Dieter shows up and says he’s come from Malik and he’s there to help, and you think he’s an idiot,” I continued. “But you don’t want to offend Malik, because good neighbors are hard to find for packs in the same city, so you let him stay.”
Torres said, “Close. He came a few days ago.”
I grinned. “Because that’s when Dieter couldn’t convince Malik to off me. So he thought, ‘hey, you know who’s violent and will kill whoever I point her at? One of the five dragons.’”
“He’s lying,” Dieter said. “Malik said this guy was the killer. He used his fae magic to kill the other wolves without leaving a mark.”
“Who’re you going to believe?” I asked. “The Windrose, or some beta who’s trying to steal the job from his alpha?”
“You don’t have any proof you’re the Windrose. He is in Malik’s pack.” With a glance at her pack mates, Torres’s chair was righted, and she took a seat in it, appearing like one of the fae monarchs I’d just met with.
“True,” I said. “That’s true. And maybe I know your name because I was stalking you, ready to kill you next. But I think I’ve finally figured out why Dieter is so eager to have me killed.”
I smirked at him. “See, I thought it was all about the fact that it’d be hard to keep your position once it came to light you were cheating on your SoPa girlfriend with a Five Dragons member.
But that wasn’t it at all, was it? You just figured if I had photos of you and your girl-on-the-side, maybe I had pictures of you with someone else. ”
Dieter’s eyes narrowed and his chest bulged as he gnashed his teeth together. “I don’t know why you’re letting him lie to you.”
“Quiet,” Torres ordered.
“You figured I had a picture of you with the killer. Now, maybe I didn’t know anything, or maybe I did. Maybe, depending on how long I’d been tracking you, I saw you give him Acacia Clarke. Maybe even Tim Powell. Because it was them or you, wasn’t it?” The pieces fit.
Dieter, who bristled at Malik’s control, would never accept some human giving him orders unless there was a very good reason.
But Mark Woolworth, alchemist professor of Magical Studies, had discovered old spellwork and used it to suck the magic from incubi, werewolves, and whoever else he wanted to.
He’d probably had Dieter’s head on the chopping block until Dieter convinced him he could find Woolworth a sweeter prey.
That prey being the fae living in San Amaro. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine Dieter hadn’t even known we were fae, just that we smelled different. Woolworth, clearly the smarter of the two, had been the one to figure out why. The pieces clicked together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Dieter wasn’t following Acacia because Woolworth wanted to keep her quiet. He was following her so he could feed Woolworth his next meal. The only part that didn’t make sense was why he hadn’t tried to send Woolworth after me.
“What I don’t get is why you didn’t give me to the killer,” I said. “I mean, that would have solved the problem for you, wouldn’t it?”
Torres’s eyes crinkled in the corner, like she was smirking. “Not the problem of his leadership. If he delivered you, the pack would be his. Even if he delivered you to us, he might gain Five Dragons’ support for his coup.”
Nodding, I said, “Or, maybe he even has you kill me and then comes back a few days later and reveals it was Malik behind it all along.”
“Not the brightest of plans,” Torres said. “But about what I’d expect from a SoPa member.”
Dieter’s eyes were wide, and he was looking between us. “Why are you believing him? He’s lying.”
At the curl of her finger, the werewolves brought Dieter closer to Torres. She jerked her chin, and they kicked out his knees so he collapsed down hard on the concrete floor. He snarled, but between the two of them, they kept him subdued.
“There’s a simple way to tell,” she said. “I propose a contract, Windrose.”
My suspicions grew, my stomach knotting even as the magic in my blood stirred. Contracts were where the fae lived.
“What contract?”
“You agree to deliver the killer to us, in exchange for your life.” She turned to address Dieter. “If he can’t agree to it, then maybe he’s lying. Maybe you’re right and this insignificant pawn brought down a member of my pack and your alpha.”
Dieter was beginning to smirk. I puzzled through why. Malik must have made it common knowledge what I’d promised him. It was impossible to deliver the killer to two people. Bowing out of the contract would give Torres a reason to kill me.
“Or you could just call Malik,” I suggested. “And ask him if Dieter is here as his representative, or if he’s here because he’s a lying snake.”
Torres flicked out her reptilian tongue again and said, “Snakes are no more prone to lying than fae, fool.”
Still, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed. The phone rang once, and I heard a tinny voice on the other end.
“Alpha, is Dieter here as your representative?” Torres said without any introduction.
A massive explosion took out the refrigerator wall closest to me and cut off whatever Malik said. The concrete the fridge was built into seemed to crumble into its elements, and the rebar melted. And it was all in a perfect circle.
Nick.
Nick stepped through, gun in his hand, badge swinging from a chain around his neck. “SAPD. Get down!”
Torres, who’d flinched back from the initial noise and light, was already half shifted and she gestured with her other hand for her pack to attack Nick.
He threw down a fine white powder and it formed a perfect circle around me.
He was in his suit pants and a black t-shirt, and he’d covered every inch of his skin in alchemy circles.
“Can you get out?” he asked.
The attacking wolves slammed into the barrier created by the powder, but as more of them poured into the room, summoned by the guy with the earbud, I saw cracks form.
Torres was stalking behind them. Her eyes narrowed as she barked orders I couldn’t hear.
The barrier seemed to muffle sound, and it gave loud electrical snaps whenever a wolf hit it.
“No,” I said. “What are you doing here?”
“Talk later,” Nick said, muttering a spell under his breath.
He slapped his hand to the rope on my wrists and it slithered apart, a neat cut slicing the knot open.
He did the same with my other wrist and ankles.
By the time he got to the rope binding my chest, I could see the circle he’d drawn on his palm was cracked and fading, the magic he’d poured into it breaking apart the spell.
“I got it.” I scrabbled with the knot. After a moment, I gave up and debated slamming the chair back to break it, but Nick handed me a long knife he’d pulled out of what seemed to be thin air.
It slid through the ropes like butter just in time for me to meet the first wave of wolves who crashed through Nick’s barrier.
They went for Nick first, which made sense because he was the one with all the impressive firepower, but he held them off, slapping at a spell on his bicep that exploded out, shoving them back until they crashed outside the circle again. He firmed up the circle with a second toss of powder.
Narrowing my eyes, I said, “Are all these non-lethal?”
I tried to be quiet, but Nick rolled his eyes. “I’m not cleared to even be here, Parker. I’m not going to lose my badge for killing civilians when there are other options.”
“Okay,” I said. “Glad we’re going to have to get out of here without killing everyone. What’s your plan?”
“I figured once you were free you could do that thing, the slap-yourself thing, and we could walk out of here,” he said. “Or like a pied-piper thing. Whatever works.”
“Are you kidding me? You thought I’d use some fae magic I don’t even have to get us out of here? I am planning all future rescues, Nicholas King.”
“You can’t do the hit-yourself thing?”
“What gift have I given these wolves, other than a new window into their torture chamber?” I gestured to the hole in the wall behind me.
Nick swore and brought his gun up again. “What’re we going to do?”
The concrete was malleable, but I wasn’t sure I could do a big enough area to get all of them, and it was only eight inches deep or so. But I could feel something else. The water, I realized.
When Nick took out the wall, he’d broken a few pipes, and they were spraying water all over the sidewalk. It took only a little energy to convince them to spray into the fridge. I examined Nick’s arms.
“Is any of that electricity?” I asked.
“Why?” His eyes narrowed.
“It’ll be non-lethal,” I promised. And it probably would, too. Wolves heal quickly.
“Yes, I have electricity.” He slapped a hand on his shoulder and I saw one of his circles power up.
“Give me a second,” I said.
“Not too long,” he warned. “Or I’m going to get electrocuted. Good luck getting out of here if you have to drag me.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll leave you behind. Every man for himself.”
Nick cracked a smile. “Next time, I’ll bring the handcuffs. Can’t leave me behind if we’re cuffed together.”
Kneeling low, I closed my eyes and began singing to the water. You can talk to it, sure, but water is, by nature, social. It puddles, it looks for itself. And, for some reason, when it gets together, it sings. Do not ask me why.
I crooned to it, and convinced it that it should avoid me and Nick, and all it needed was enough to lap around the ankles of the surrounding wolves. Just enough to soak their socks, their shoes, anything it could get into. I hummed about how it would get electricity if it did it well enough.
The water answered. I saw the wolves shifting and swearing as the water continued pouring in, and they sloshed through it, their mouths moving even though I couldn’t hear them because of the barrier.
“Now,” I said. “There.”
Nick was sweating, his forehead a shining as he spoke his spell, extending his arm to where I’d pointed.
“Is this going to work?” he asked between words.
“Probably.”
Sighing, he said a word that caused his entire body to twitch and a lightning bolt slithered down his arm almost too fast to see, landing in the middle of the assembled wolves.