Chapter 7
SEVEN
Tairen’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. Her mouth opened, but no words came out.
I’d already stepped partially between her and Ari, preparing to intervene, when Faris glanced towards the front door and called out, “We’re closed for the night. Come back tomorrow.”
I looked over my shoulder. A woman stood in the doorway. She was probably in her thirties, with dark brown skin and short dark hair, and her eyes were darting from one side of the room to the other—taking in the damages before resting on Hugh.
As I watched, she took a deep breath—as if for courage—and then another step into the room.
“Is this The Portal?” she asked in a surprisingly steady voice.
Kira turned, sniffed the air surreptitiously and then moved towards the newcomer. “It is,” she said, and I sensed caution in her reply. “Who told you to come here?”
Faris began muttering under his breath, and I suddenly realized what was bothering them.
The newcomer was human.
The door had been left standing open, so she’d been able to see straight through the glamour that typically concealed the truth of what happened inside The Portal’s front windows.
“I asked around,” the woman said, folding her arms over her chest as if to protect herself.
Or possibly just to keep them from shaking.
“Neighbors and friends. I’ve got nothing against Idrians.
Everyone I know is good people. But two nights ago, my sixteen-year-old son went missing.
Right out of his bedroom, at night. I called the police.
They did their investigation and said there was no way anyone could have taken him.
Everything was locked, nothing was disturbed, so he’s been labelled a runaway.
They put out a BOLO, promised to check with his friends. But I know he didn’t just leave.”
Oh, this was not good. Disappearance with no explanation… Humans had been blaming that on magic for centuries, even before they shared this planet with over a dozen magical races.
“I’m sorry your son is missing,” Faris said steadily. “But what does it have to do with us?”
“The police say they’re going to keep looking, but I know the truth. If they think a crime was committed using magic, they’ll refuse to investigate. Make excuses and claim there’s no evidence. But word is that someone here… might be willing to help.”
One of Faris’s bushy eyebrows rose slowly. “And who might that someone be? Did your source tell you who to ask for?”
I shut my eyes. Don’t let it be me… Don’t let it be me…
“Someone named Raine.”
Well, crap.
Who on earth could be going around giving my name to humans as an answer to all their magical problems? I didn’t think anyone hated me that much. Except maybe Blake Masterson, but he was also more likely to have done the kidnapping than want me to solve it.
So who else was out there throwing my name around?
Thanks to my dramatic announcement during the Symposium in October, quite a few Idrians now knew of my background, and many of those considered me to be a criminal in violation of their laws. And thanks to our confrontation with Kes’s kidnappers, they also knew I was fairly powerful.
So maybe the better question was not actually who, but why. Why send this woman to me? Because they believed I would help her—one human to another? Or because they were hoping the attention or the attempt would cause me harm?
There was a third option—that the entire thing had been done on purpose.
The same person might have first perpetrated a crime that could only have been accomplished by magic, and then set the humans on my trail.
Because they wanted me involved. Wanted The Portal exposed to human eyes.
Wanted conflict between humans and Idrians…
No. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Shouldn’t assume that Blake was behind every obstacle we encountered. Not without proof, at least. But in order to get that proof…
“Please,” the woman said simply. “No one believes me. They all say my son just took off. But he wouldn’t do that.
He’s a good kid who wants to grow up and be a game designer.
And he’s not into anything illegal. I’m his mother, and I would know.
Something is wrong, and if it’s magic, I can’t find him on my own. ”
Right or wrong, I needed to know who had done this. Needed to find out whether I had a new enemy, or whether this was Blake’s latest avenue of attack.
And also, whoever had set me up had done so very effectively. I couldn’t turn my back on a woman whose child was missing, any more than I could ignore the pleas of a human whose life had been turned upside down by magic.
Resigned to the foolishness of my own stubborn heart, I took a single step forward. “I’m Raine. What’s your name?”
“Monique,” she told me, eyeing me up and down as if wondering whether she’d gotten a rather bad bargain.
“And your son’s name?”
“Jeremiah.”
“All right, Monique. I’ll help you. Under one condition.”
Her eyes narrowed for a moment. “What is it?”
Even if I was fool enough to get involved, at the very least, I could protect Faris’s business and his customers. “You have to swear that you’ll never come here again. That you won’t talk about this place or bring other humans here.”
She nodded slowly. “Fair enough. What do you charge?”
Charge?
I shook my head. “I’m not some kind of investigator, Monique.
Or a mercenary. So I can’t promise you anything.
I just know how it feels when someone you care about disappears.
I know what it’s like to have no one willing to help.
And I’ve experienced the helplessness of being surrounded by powers you don’t understand.
You don’t owe me anything except an open mind, even if you don’t like what I find. ”
Her nod was swift and decisive. “Agreed. I swear I won’t say anything or give your name to anyone else. Now, when can you come?”
I groaned internally and glanced over at Faris. Thankfully, my boss looked only mildly grumpy and already resigned to my idiocy.
“No reason to hang around here,” he returned with a shrug. “Just be back for your normal hours tomorrow.”
A sudden thought struck me, and I looked over at Kira. She, too, had been raised as a human. And she could use a distraction from wondering whether her mate was safe and her wedding was ever going to happen.
“Care to join me?”
Her face lit up. “Yes, please!” She glanced at her mother. “Is it okay if we catch up tomorrow? Do you two have a place to stay?”
Tairen huffed without looking actually angry. “The Skirvin, as usual. Are you available to join us for breakfast, or do you have other plans?”
“Breakfast it is.” Kira hesitated, then squared her shoulders, walked straight up to the former dragon queen, and gave her an awkward hug. “It really is good to see you”—her lips quirked into an almost evil grin—“Grandma.”
Tairen froze. I wasn’t sure whether it was from the hug or the “Grandma,” but it took about three seconds for her to recover sufficiently to place stiff arms around her daughter’s shoulders in return.
“I’m happy to see you as well. Be careful. And remember… you still have enemies. Do not let your guard down, and do not hesitate to call if you are in trouble.”
Kira winked. “It’s nothing Raine and I can’t handle. You can save your safety lectures for big brother Callum. I suspect he probably needs them more than I do right now.”
“Yes,” Tairen muttered. “It seems that perhaps he does.”
It took about ten minutes before we were ready to set out. I texted Kes that Ari was teleporting home, then hugged her and watched as she disappeared, wondering whether real sprite parents would be doing a better job than I was.
Then I was taken aback all over again when Skye returned the black envelope containing my summons from the Shapeshifter Court.
I’d forgotten about it in all the excitement—and now wished I could tear it to pieces and set it on fire—but it wasn’t like I could do anything about that dilemma before I talked to Callum.
So instead of venting my frustration, I tucked the card into my back pocket and nodded my thanks to the dragon queen.
“It was nice to meet you,” I said, and to my surprise, I actually meant it.
Maybe the dragons were still judging me. And maybe they didn’t think I was good enough for Callum, but at least they hadn’t rejected me outright. As first meetings went, it could probably have been worse.
“Same.” Skye’s friendly smile seemed entirely genuine. “I think you’re going to be good for this family. And”—she bent closer to murmur in my ear—“a perfect match for my cousin and his soft heart.”
Her words were kind, but they reminded me forcefully of the obstacles still remaining between me and Callum.
Maybe his family didn’t hate me—and I just knew he was going to gloat when he found out he’d been right about that—but the Shapeshifter Court still loomed large as a barrier we would need to overcome.
If Callum’s people couldn’t accept me, our bond would never truly work. Because I would never ask him to abandon his position for me, nor would he ever permit them to shun his mate.
But that was a problem for another day.
“I hope you rest well,” I told Skye. “Will we see each other again before you leave town?”
“Count on it,” she said with a wink, before grabbing her aunt’s arm and tugging her out the door.
If there was just one thing I knew about looking for missing people, it was that time was critical, so after I thanked Hugh, apologized to Faris, and grabbed my coat, I nodded to Monique and followed her out onto the sidewalk.
“My car is this way,” she said, pointing north down Oklahoma Avenue, but I declined politely. I was absolutely not about to get into a car with someone I’d just met.
“Give us an address,” I requested instead. “We’ll be right behind you.”
I wasn’t sure she believed me, but she gave me an address in Mesta Park. It wasn’t far from Twenty-third Street, and I saw Kira’s eyes narrow as she typed it into her phone.