Chapter 6
Six
Ten minutes later, after jerry-rigging my optical illusion, and after Nick figured out how to tie the coffin to the back of my car, we were towing the body behind us.
“You’d better not get pulled over,” Nick said.
Since I was driving twenty miles an hour in an area where the speed limit was forty-five, it wasn’t impossible to assume some overzealous cop could pull me over and search me for drugs, but I didn’t want to risk going any faster.
We had to figure out what to do with the body, and we had to do it fast.
“Are we going to make it to your house?” Nick asked.
I shook my head. “It’s too far away. I think we just need to go to a park. I can try to get us to the Far Realm from there.”
Glancing at his phone, Nick said, “Turn left here.”
I followed his directions until we were at a small neighborhood park. It was nearly empty when I turned off my engine.
“If we’re going to drop this body in the Far Realm,” I said. “We’d need to at least give Jerome a heads up. After all, it is his grandfather.”
I called the number Jerome had given me, and when I explained the situation, he audibly sighed in relief.
“That’s great,” he said. “I wasn’t looking forward to figuring out how to store him. Can you imagine if I brought a girl home, and she happened to see a dead body in my spare room? Serial killer alert. So you’ll just bill me?”
“Yeah,” I said, “I’ll bill you. You don’t want to say goodbye or…”
“No, no,” he said. “He died way before I was born, so I’ve only ever known him as the dead body in grandma’s storage closet. You are way more efficient than your Yelp reviews say you are.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly. “I’ll talk to you later.”
I hung up and shrugged at Nick.
“So we’re going to the Far Realm?” Nick asked.
“I am,” I said. “Or I’ll just open a portal and shove the body through.”
My leg jiggled, and I drummed my fingers against it.
“Parker, you have done this before, right?”
“Kind of,” I said. “I can do it.”
There was more confidence in my words than I actually felt. Although I’d taken a position in the fae courts as the neutral arbiter they called the Windrose, I’d never actually come to them before. The monarchs always managed to find me, even when I didn’t want to be found.
We opened our doors and retrieved the body. Luckily Nick’s spellwork was impeccable, and the coffin hadn’t fallen on the ground as it had been dragged behind us like a kid being pulled on a skateboard.
I chose a corner of the park that was surrounded by tall trees. No one was around.
With a wave of my hand, I released the illusion on the coffin, then I placed my hand on the shroud. The magic in it called to the Far Realm.
It sounded like a song, usually sung in chorus, being sung by a lone singer. It was as though it was missing sounds, missing the other voices that would make it whole.
The last time I had used my powers to travel any distance, it had been in desperation.
I’d also known exactly where I was going: the interior of a murderer’s office.
This time I knew I was going to the Spring Court, but I’d never been there before.
I was half tempted to drop the body off with the Summer Court, but that would make a mess I would have to fix.
Desperate, I focused on the music.
If this was a soloist searching for her choir, then the rest of the chorus had to be somewhere. I reached out with my magic, pressing as far as I knew how. I didn’t feel my magic slip through the realms so much as my awareness exploded when I reached the Far Realm.
All at once, I heard a symphony of sound, all different songs sung at once, yet somehow not discordant. In the distance, the rest of the chorus sang.
Now came the tricky part. Keeping my focus on the music, I grabbed hold of the coffin and pushed it forward as I stepped into the Far Realm. When I opened my eyes, we were in a large room, one I was unfamiliar with.
Around us, fae gaped. Raising my hand, I gave a brief wave.
Nick was beside me, and terror clawed up my throat. He was in the Far Realm. What was he doing with me? It should’ve just been me and the coffin that came through. I would’ve been safe.
But I couldn’t let any of that emotion show. The fae would eat my fear and make it all come true.
“This wouldn’t be the Spring Court, would it?” I asked.
“Windrose,” the Spring Queen said, addressing me by my title. She sat on a dais, and I realized the surrounding fae were all her courtiers. “This is unexpected.”
“I have a fae I am returning to your custody,” I said. “Do you accept him?”
The Spring Queen rose and approached, her ladies-in-waiting trailing behind her. When she reached the coffin, she drew back the shroud and looked down. A small smile graced her lips.
“I do,” she said. “It has been too long since I have seen him. He left our court because of love, yet our affection for him remains.”
Her sharp eyes rose, and she examined Nick. I was suddenly aware that no matter how good my glamour was, he was a human in the Far Realm. Every moment we stayed, his life was in danger.
“And who is this?” the Spring Queen asked. “I do not believe I have met you before.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Just a friend of mine. We’ll be going now.”
I turned, but the portal we’d used to get to the Far Realm had disappeared as soon as I’d let the magic go.
I wanted to swear, but that would give away my cards in the middle of a high-stakes poker game.
If there was anyone I didn’t want to know about my weaknesses, it was any of the four fae monarchs.
“Are you sure you won’t stay?” the Spring Queen asked. It wasn’t a question. “My kingdom has many pleasures to offer.”
She was standing in front of Nick, her hands trapping his face.
Her skin was rose colored with the slight sheen of an eggshell.
I felt the temptation coming off her in waves.
It was as though she was projecting an image of what life would be like in the Spring Court: endless picnics, flowers always in bloom, years and years of pleasure.
No human could resist that. Anyone would jump at the chance to live where their only responsibility was to themselves.
“Your Majesty honors me,” Nick said, “but I can’t stay.”
“You can,” the Spring Queen said.
“I can’t.” It was obvious to the queen that Nick was a human. His voice gave him away. “My loyalty belongs to someone else.”
With an amused smile, the queen turned to me even as she addressed Nick. “Does it?”
“As ever, you are generous with your hospitality, Queen Celandine.” I nodded at her. “Will you allow us to go on our way?”
The words weren’t a threat, but they were the threat of a threat. Let us go, or I’ll have to make this an issue.
“The Windrose is always busy,” the Spring Queen said. “Let us do you the honor of returning you to your home.”
With one hand, she sketched a large rectangle in the air. It burst open, revealing the park we had just been in. Suspicious, I glanced at her, but her expression was mild, innocent. She shouldn’t know exactly where we’d been.
I nodded again and pushed Nick through first.
“What was that?” I said when the portal closed. “You weren’t supposed to follow me.”
“I wasn’t going to let you go into the Far Realm by yourself. Especially since you didn’t know what you were doing.”
“I’m the Windrose!” I said. While my position within the fae courts was more sticky than powerful, it still meant that I held more sway with the fae monarchs than anyone else in the courts. “I would’ve been fine! You…”
“Hey,” Nick said. “I knew you were going to keep me safe.”
His utter faith in me made something in my stomach clench. No one should believe in me like that. I wasn’t that trustworthy.
Sirens sounded in the distance. Nick tilted his head. “You might want to take this off. I think someone called the cops about a couple of fae in the park.”
“The only way this day could get better is if we got arrested,” I muttered.
With a deep breath, I drew the magic back into myself, the glamours slipping away. It was just in time because a black-and-white police cruiser screeched into the park, followed by a couple of sedans.
“You don’t think that’s—” I said.
Tate shoved open his door and strode toward the two of us. His face was drawn tight and turning pink from anger.
“I swear to whatever god you worship, King,” Tate said. “You’d better have a good explanation or…”
“There were fae here,” I blurted. “We got a tipoff and got here just in time to prevent them from taking a baby.”
Tate swore. “We haven’t had a changeling in… five years?”
He narrowed his eyes at us and gestured for the cops to sweep the area. “Well, good. The paperwork on a changeling is horrendous. Still, King, I’m adding two extra days to your vacation.”
Nick’s face fell. It was like he was a kid who’d just been told his parents had taken his puppy to live in a farm in upstate. “Two full days? Or—”
“Now it’s three days,” Tate said. “We don’t need any statements on this one. I don’t want to give the public another reason to panic. We’ll just say that we got here, and we didn’t see any fae. So keep tight lips on this one.”
I gave Tate a casual salute. “You know, technically, you can’t order me around unless you’re paying me…”
“Get out of here,” Tate growled, placing a toothpick between his teeth. “A changeling…”
Nick and I headed back to the car.
“Do you think he bought it?” I asked.
“Probably,” Nick said.
“You don’t have a problem lying to your boss?”
The look Nick gave me said he did have a problem lying to his boss, but the telling him the truth would only make both our lives more complicated. I would have to tell Tate I was fae and the Windrose on top of that.
“At least he didn’t send you to Fiji,” I said.
Nick was looking straight ahead when he said, “Take me home, Parker. And, maybe, put your glamour back on.”
All my blood went south as I thought of all the different things we could do with the rest of Nick’s leave.
“Now that’s an order I can get behind,” I said, gunning the engine.
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