Chapter 9 Jesper #2
Rune’s facial structure was sharper. Instead of golden eyes, she had brown, and her hair wasn’t green anymore; it was a light auburn. She didn’t look like my mate, but the bond made it clear that she was.
Their disguises shimmered faintly at the edges of the mirror feed, but supernaturals and fae alike wore glamours to avoid being spotted at the market. Nobody actually cared enough to look deeper.
The only difference was that fae could glamour without the use of enchantments.
Rune’s magic burned against mine through the bond, faint from her being in the fae realm, but steady. That was the first problem I found with being both her commanding agent and her mate…I could never turn my anxiety for her safety off.
“They’re holding steady,” Tobias murmured. “Rune’s pretty good at being glamoured.”
I nodded, eyes locked on her figure as she brushed past a stand selling phoenix tears in crystal vials. “She won’t slip. She has the same discipline as your pops.”
Tobias snorted. “Yeah, right.”
Cassie murmured into her comms, “We’re approaching the trade sector. Looks like low-tier contraband…they have powdered basilisk bones, bottled siren tears, and elemental relics from the fae.”
Rune’s voice followed, soft and measured, “But the high-value items that they won’t disclose are moving underground. Look at the entry point ahead.”
I shifted, narrowing my eyes. On the mirror’s surface, a large fissure was opened in the ground near the heart of the market. A carved archway of stone stood at its edge, guarded by two fire fae who looked more like mercenaries than merchants.
How predictable.
Cassie continued, “They’re using the earth magic for transport tunnels. Smart since it shields them by fae law.”
Slater huffed, his eyes bright red as he saw through Snakey and Rune’s manifestation. “That pit’s not on any official fae maps. Correct me if I’m wrong. I’d bet my left nipple that it’s a black-market sublayer.”
“Why always your nipple?” Tobias muttered.
Slater shrugged.
Rune hesitated at the edge of the crowd. I could feel her tension like static under my skin through our bond.
“Stay out of it,” Cassie warned. “We’re here to listen, not act.”
Rune’s gaze followed a group of glamoured figures descending into the fissure through an earth vein. “Draconic magic,” she muttered.
“Yes,” Cassie agreed. “We are noting this.”
Dimitri’s fingers brushed hers. “Are you noting it?”
“Hmm?” She blinked up at Dimitri in his glamour and nodded. “Right.” She stumbled as she bumped into someone.
The mirror feed zoomed automatically to show an earth fae woman with pointed ears, moss-green roots that went pale green at the ends where it reached her shoulders, and eyes that glowed like wet emeralds.
She seemed elegant, young, and deceptively harmless.
I recognized her immediately as Briar Thistledown.
She was the daughter of the Thistledown merchants, old earth fae money.
But they were good folk. I’d worked with her father in the past on a mission.
Her hand brushed Rune’s dress pocket, slipping a sliver of carved wood into it.
My enforcers shifted nervously, waiting for my call.
“Pull them out,” I ordered. “We’ve got what we need.”
“How can you be sure?” Zuko asked lazily from the ground next to us.
“Because I know that fae’s father. If she slipped Rune something, it’ll have the intel we came for,” I stated.
Cassie and Bradley acknowledged me and moved Rune and Dimitri back toward the portal.
The fae portal pulsed, and they stepped back into the Apex Capital. The forest around the portal, Fae’s Blessings, shimmered with living magic, and the light filtered through leaves that sparkled like emerald glass.
When they stepped through, I guided my squad to the wayfaer portal.
The Supernatural Council had placed them near each fae portal for easier transport now that the council had officially rolled them out to the public.
Anyone could use them now, and it was quite the technological advancement for the supernaturals of Kalista.
We were silent as we made our way back to the academy and to the library, where we entered a study room I had reserved for my squad. The mentees looked unsettled, but my squad understood that I needed quiet as I mulled over the events of the mission.
Once the door was locked and everyone was seated at the table, I cleared my throat. “Well done. Each mission gets a memorandum. I want a full written account from everyone who was inside or providing support. Observations, inconsistencies, and magical readings. Email them to me before sunrise.”
Zuko groaned. “Homework already?”
“Yes,” I said. “Welcome to fieldwork. Starting with Rune, what did the note you were passed say?”
“If you want the truth, meet me at the fae portal within the forest we created for you. Fae’s Blessings under the moon,” she repeated as she slid the sliver of wood toward me.
The words that had been carved into it pulsed faintly with green light.
“It was passed to her by a merchant’s daughter,” I added. “Earth fae, probably connected to the trade. She claims she has information, and I know her father happens to be of good faith. We will meet at Fae’s Blessings forest as the note requests.”
April leaned forward. “We’re actually going to meet her?”
“Yes,” I said, giving her a disapproving stare.
“Rune and Cassie will make contact since the note was passed to Rune specifically. The rest of us will stay just outside the grove. April, Tobias, Kyle, Jesse, and myself will be on overwatch. Enforcers need to stay mobile. We intervene if things go wrong.”
Eleanor frowned. “That soon?”
I nodded. “Welcome to agency life. Missions come in waves, and during the waves, you don’t rest.”
A few soft laughs rippled through the group, easing the tension slightly.
“Go,” I said finally. “Get some rest. Set alarms. We regroup here before sunset.”
The room began to clear.
Rune stayed seated, her fingers brushing the message. Her expression was distant.
“Koa,” I said as he sat next to her.
“Yeah?” He frowned.
When the door shut, only Rune and my brother-mates remained.
I exhaled, running a hand over my face. The fae portal shimmered in my mind again and the way the faint echo of Rune’s heartbeat threaded through the bond. Even in the fae realm, I had felt her.
It put me at ease for this mission.
But for now, I had to tell Koa about his father.