Author: Kalayna Price

How was I supposed to respond to that? Thankfully, before I had to come up with something to say, he continued.

“Okay, Ms. Craft, did you see what happened?”

“Not exactly.”

The officer’s lips twitched. “That was a yes or no question.”

“I was around the corner, so I only heard the impact,” I said and the officer, who had been poised to write down my statement, lowered his pen. I hurried on. “But he wouldn’t have killed himself. His wife is pregnant. With a son. He was very excited about it.”

“You knew the jumper?”

Jumper? Oh, didn’t that sound like he’d already made up his mind. Of course, I was one to talk. I’d come to the same conclusion before hearing the ghost’s diatribe.

“Ms. Craft, I asked if you knew the man.”

I winced. “Uh, not exactly.”

His smile faded. “Either you knew the man or you didn’t because if you’d raised a shade and questioned him, I’m pretty sure someone here would have mentioned that fact.”

Crap. I glanced at Rianna. Her eyes no longer glowed, and I had no idea how much of the ghost’s one-sided altercation with the eyewitnesses she’d seen. She tilted her head to the side and shrugged, which didn’t tell me anything.

I took a deep breath and let it out again before saying, “His soul didn’t transition properly. So—”

“Our dead guy left a ghost,” the officer finished for me. “And the ghost swears he didn’t jump.”

Okay, I was impressed. Despite the OMIH’s attempts to educate the public on different kinds of magic, grave magic was too rare for most people to bother learning the details. Academy trained wyrd witches knew the difference between shades and ghosts, but your average witchy witch didn’t—even those trained at prestigious spellcasting schools. I gave him an appraising look. He was thirty tops and, judging by the fact he wore several charms and at least two rings holding raw Aetheric energy, was a witch. If he was wyrd, I couldn’t spot any of the telltale signs of an ability burning out one of his senses.

“I’m impressed.” Credit where credit’s due, and all that. Him knowing the difference also saved me a lot of time trying to explain the difference.

The smile was back and he gave me a careless one shoulder shrug. “I try.”

Right.

Someone in the crowd cleared his throat, and the officer snapped to attention, his gaze locking on his pad and the last note he’d taken.

“So you talked to his ghost. Did he tell you his name?”

And back to the case. Thank goodness. Except as I thought about it, I realized out of all the pleading and ranting the ghost did, he never once mentioned his or his widow’s name.

“I can ask,” I said, turning toward where I’d last seen the ghost. He wasn’t there. “Uh, I think he followed his body.”

The officer closed his notepad. “Well, then, guess we’ll have to solve this one with good old-fashioned police work.” He winked. “We should go out for a drink sometime.”

“Take him up on the offer,” Rianna whispered, nudging me. “He’s a cute one.”

Was he? I would have called him average, but then, both Death and Falin set the bar pretty high when it came to looks. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a reputation among the boys in blue—I’d taken more than a few home with me after working a case. But I wasn’t interested in Officer…I glanced at his nameplate…Larid.

“I have to pass,” I told him and he had the gall to look shocked. Geez, is my rep that bad? I hadn’t slept with that many of the cops. Hell, I hadn’t slept with anyone in over two months.

When he turned on his regulation polished heels and walked away, Rianna turned to me. “I closed my shields as soon as the cops arrived. Did the ghost really deny jumping?”

“Vehemently.” I recounted the ghost’s reactions to the witness statements.

“Huh,” she said, a slow smile spreading across her face. “I have an idea.”

She jogged after the officer. I caught a flash of light reflecting off something she pulled out of her purse, but didn’t realize it was the business cardholder I’d just given her until she passed one of the cards to him. They spoke for a moment or two more before she headed back to where I stood, gaping at her.

“Did you just ask him out?” At a crime scene?

“Don’t be silly,” she said, snapping closed the clasp on her purse. “I simply asked him to pass our card on to the widow and let her know that we know her husband’s death wasn’t suicide, and that Tongues for the Dead is willing to prove it.”

I blinked at her. “You didn’t.” But I had no doubt that was exactly what she’d done.

Rianna smiled a smile so mischievous, it looked exactly like the ones she used to flash me back in academy. Those typically came right before she suggested we test out a school-banned spell, like turning soda into whisky. Without her smile slipping an inch she said, “Hey, we’ve expanded the business. We need to get the word out, right?”

“Right?” I said, but even I heard the uncertainty in the word. Handing out business cards at crime scenes reeked of sleazy, like a talking dead version of ambulance chasing lawyers. But she did have a point about needing the business. That didn’t mean I had to agree. At least, not until I saw if it worked. “Let’s get out of here. If we don’t make it to the Bloom soon, Holly will probably eat the doorman.”

* * *

“Caleb’s going to kill me,” I said as Holly pulled her car to a stop in front of the house we shared.

Since Rianna had parked my car in an overnight garage near the Eternal Bloom, there should have been more than enough room for Holly to pull into the driveway, but tonight the drive was full. Three sleek black vehicles surrounded the car that belonged to Caleb, our third housemate and landlord.

I’d seen those cars before. They belonged to the Fae Investigation Bureau. Which meant the house was being raided.

Again.

“We could keep driving,” Holly suggested, letting the car idle instead of putting it in park.

A tempting idea. Except if Caleb found out he’d be livid. Actually make that more livid than he likely already was. Besides, if the FIB were here…Falin probably is too.

I shook my head and pushed open my door before Holly had time to cut the ignition. Climbing out of the car was a relief, the balmy September air soothing my exposed skin, which tingled from the amount of metal in the vehicle. It wasn’t a fae friendly car.

I started toward the side of the house, where a staircase led to a private entrance to my one room loft above the garage. I’d made it only halfway across the lawn when the front door opened.

“Alex,” Caleb yelled, his voice echoing off the houses on the quiet suburban street.

I cringed but turned dutifully toward my friend and landlord. “Another raid?”

He marched down the front steps, thrusting a tri-folded bundle of pages at me. His normally tanned-looking skin had a slightly green tinge to it, his glamour slipping under his anger. “They’re looking for the Sword of Frozen Silence this time. That artifact has been missing for half a millennia.” He took a deep breath. “This is harassment.”

I plucked the search warrant from his fist and passed it to Holly—she was the lawyer after all. She studied it, scanning the small printed text. All I needed to see was the signet stamp. It had been endorsed by the Winter Queen herself. Even if the warrant wasn’t legit, there wasn’t a higher authority in Nekros’s fae population. And the fae policed themselves.

“Is she trying to irritate us into submission?”

“Not us. You.” Caleb’s eyes bled to black as he glanced over his shoulder at his defiled sanctuary of a house. “What did you turn down this time?”

“A feast held in my honor.” I studied the scuff on the toe of my boot. “It would have been tonight. Caleb, I’m—”

His head snapped around, his sharp look stopping me from apologizing—we both knew better. That didn’t make me feel any less guilty.

“You need to pick a court or declare yourself independent, or this is never going to stop,” he said, and I looked away. “There is a revelry on the equinox. Go to it. See Faerie at the height of its magic. Choose and make this stop.”

It wasn’t that easy and we both knew it. If I picked any court other than Winter, I’d have to leave Nekros as this was currently the Winter Queen’s territory. If I declared myself independent, there was nothing to prevent her from continuing to harass me. Still, he was right about one thing, I couldn’t put off choosing forever.

I was saved from the overworn argument by the front door of the house opening and a man stepping into the doorway. The near dusk hid his features from my bad eyes, but the light from the house poured out from behind him, outlining a very familiar sleek but muscular body that his tailored suit accented perfectly and making his loose blond hair glimmer. My heart stalled, my breath catching.

Falin.

As if trying to make up for that lost beat, my pulse sped up, my heart fluttering in an attempt to escape my chest. I took a step forward, toward the house, before catching myself—and Caleb’s dark glare.

“I can’t stay here and watch them tear apart my house, again.” Caleb’s teeth were green now too, his fae-mien almost completely revealed. He glanced at his car. His blocked car.

“I’ll give you a ride,” Holly said, holding up her keys.

Caleb had as much trouble with Holly’s car as I did, more if he couldn’t get his glamour back up to protect him from the iron and steel, so it said a lot when he nodded and marched toward her vehicle.

“You coming?” Holly asked.

I glanced from Caleb to the figure in the doorway. “I, uh…I should probably walk PC.”

“Yeah, you’re thinking about your dog right now,” Holly said, shaking her head. “I don’t know if this is tragically romantic or just pathetic, but it’s your heartbreak.”