Author: Kalayna Price

“It’s okay, Caleb. He’s with me.”

Caleb only shook his head. “Do you know what is standing in my house?”

I looked over my shoulder at Falin. His eyes met mine, and the question was repeated in their icy depths.

Something inside him seemed to cry out, “Do you know me?” and wherever that small voice hid in him was a place filled with pain. It hurt to see. I knew voices like that. I had a voice like that. And I knew that whatever I said would be heard by that voice and would echo in that sad place.

But do I know who Falin is? I knew he was court fae, most likely winter court. I knew he had secrets. I also knew he’d saved my life more than once. That he was intense but could also be tender.

I backed up until my shoulders and back brushed his chest. He tensed behind me.

“I trust him,” I whispered and felt a startled breath jerk through him.

Then Falin’s hand moved to my waist, his touch tentative, unsure. I did my best not to flinch, both for his sake and for Caleb’s. I wasn’t sure of all the dynamics flowing through the room, but I knew Caleb was on the defensive. He was an independent fae with alliances to no court, no season.This was his territory, and Holly and I were his friends, his witches. I needed to prove to him that Falin meant no harm.

Caleb shook his head, his dark eyes hard. “Move away from him, Al. He’s bewitched you.”

“He hasn’t, Caleb. I promise.”

“No bit of tail ever comes between you and Prince Charming. He must have entranced you.”

“Prince Charming?” Falin asked, the question barely a whisper.

“What did you think PC stood for? Politically Correct?”

I answered without glancing back. To Caleb I asked, “What are you talking about? How did Falin come between me and PC? Why is he even down here?”

I realized something else was off. “And what happened to his cast?”

“The vet removed it. And he’s down here because someone had to take care of him while you were gone.”

“He was alone for only ten hours, Caleb.”

“Al, you disappeared on Saturday. It’s Wednesday.”

Chapter 24

I didn’t drop PC, but it was a near thing. Wednesday?

I’d lost three days?

“That can’t be true,” I whispered, and then shook my head. It couldn’t be false. Caleb can’t lie.

“Step away from him, Al. He’s charmed you.”

“No.” I lowered PC to the floor.“It wasn’t Falin. I was at the Eternal Bloom.”

“Holly checked the Bloom. You weren’t there.”

“VIP section.”

Caleb’s elongated jaw dropped. “Are you crazy? The VIP section is a pocket of Faerie.”

“Yeah, I figured that out.” What had the door guard said? It wasn’t that we couldn’t leave, but specifically that we couldn’t leave at that time.

“I suppose he took you there.” Caleb nodded at Falin.

“Actually,” Falin said, entering the conversation, “I tried to convince her not to go. Then I told her not to go without me, but she is stubborn.”

Caleb stared at him. Then his frown softened and morphed into something human. “Yeah, she’s pretty stubborn.”

And as though my stubbornness was a point they could bond on, the tension dissipated. Caleb’s eyes didn’t lose their distrust, but he nodded and walked back into his workroom, dismissing us.

He paused before reactivating his circle. “I reported you missing to the OMIH yesterday. You’ll need to contact them. I don’t suggest sharing where you’ve been.”

Great. I was a missing person. With a secret about Faerie.

———

Wednesday. Even after I made it back to my loft, it didn’t seem possible. Wednesday. The day of the Blood Moon.

And it was already late afternoon. We had to find Coleman before he unleashed whatever nightmare he was collecting souls to cast.

I used Falin’s phone to call Tamara and Holly while he showered. Both calls went to voice mail. I’d just updated my suspect list when Falin walked out of the bathroom, dressed but still towel-drying his hair.

“Last night Tommy said the lieutenant governor’s aide took him to the bar,” I said, looking up from the computer.And Lieutenant Governor Bartholomew was already my prime suspect for Coleman’s new body—Tommy’s story was a damning point against Bartholomew.

I was sure of it. “Bartholomew’s aide doesn’t meet the description of the body Coleman stole because she is, well, a she. I think Coleman, in Bartholomew’s body, found out I raised the shade. He had his aide talk Tommy into stealing the recording. Then the aide lured Tommy to the endless dance.”

Falin frowned and shook his head. “How did Coleman find out you were at the morgue?”

“Because of the—” I was going to say shooting, but that couldn’t have been it. The bullet had been spelled, so Coleman had to have known I was at the morgue.

To spell the gun and set the trap, he would have had to have been waiting for me to leave the building. I shook my head.

“Tommy is the one who told me you were raising Coleman’s shade,” Falin said as he sat down on the bed and slipped on his shoes. “Last night Tommy acted like he’d never seen me before. I’ve been with the department since two days after Coleman was shot. When I started, Bartholomew hadn’t been named lieutenant governor yet.”

I frowned. Tommy couldn’t have been at the Eternal Bloom for over two weeks. I’d seen him the day Casey hired me. It could have been Coleman glamoured to look like Tommy. That would explain why he acted so out of character. “Okay, Coleman wraps himself in glamour and becomes Tommy to watch his old body and make sure no one gets close to the truth.” Except I did. “So when he recognized me, he tattled to you, and then went outside to plan an ambush for when you kicked me out.”

It was a stretch, but the events did add up. Only one thing didn’t work. “You’re fae. How did you miss that Coleman was posing as Tommy?”

Falin frowned at me. “Coleman is a master at glamour. Even for fae, glamour isn’t always easy to detect or see through, once reality has accepted the illusion as true.”

“Oh.” I turned back to my suspect list. Bartholomew hadn’t been in the office yet; that meant the chief of staff Tommy had mentioned was Graham, my father’s squirrelly faced aide. I’d already cleared my father.

But we hadn’t cleared Graham.

He was the right age to meet Roy’s description, and had the right hair color. I knew from his conversation with my father that he’d reversed his opinion about Falin’s being assigned to the Coleman case. He’d been standing right next to my father when I’d felt Coleman’s darkness, and he’d left the dinner party directly after Bartholomew, giving him the opportunity to meet and murder Helena. The pieces fit. My heart tap-danced around my chest, pounding out little triumphant beats.

I knew whose body and identity Coleman had stolen.

I repeated the idea to Falin, and he punched in numbers on his phone before I finished my list.

“Hi, yes, this is Detective Andrews with Nekros City PD. I’d like to speak to Chief of Staff Tolver Graham,” he said. Then his face darkened in response to whatever the person on the other side of the line had said. He scowled as he hung up. “Graham left for the day. Supposedly he had a family emergency.”

The triumphant beats of my heart died. The next dull thud hurt, echoing in my chest. “He’s preparing for the ritual?”

“Probably.”

“Should we check the warehouse?” But even as I asked the question, I knew Coleman wasn’t going to return to the warehouse. Not now that the police had discovered it.

“I’ll call the station to learn what we missed while in Faerie and see who I can rally to help flush out Graham.”

I nodded. So, what do I do?

Where would Coleman go?

I pulled up a Web browser. Finding out what had happened during the past three days wasn’t a bad idea.

The news reported two more bodies. I assumed the first woman, Emily Greene, was the body Falin had been paged about Saturday before I went to the Eternal Bloom. The second body, Caitlin Sikes, was found Monday. I scanned the page. The article didn’t include much useful information. Both women were norms, though apparently Emily had recently begun taking a class on magic for the non– magically inclined.

That made six victims, seven including Sally. She who Sees knows the eyes’ empty look, and seven times she’ll know what it is he took. Seven was the number of souls in the Shadow Girl’s warning and the number the slaver had confirmed. But he hasn’t stolen seven. I’d helped free Helena’s soul—the gray man had collected her once the spell had been removed. A collector had probably also come for Sally, since her soul hadn’t been shielded and caged with glyphs. That meant Coleman had five out of his seven souls. If he hasn’t already killed again.

Falin’s phone snapped closed, and he snatched his holster and badge from the counter. I turned, ready to update him on what I’d learned. Then I saw his face.

“What happened?”

He looked at me, his eyes narrowed and his lips tight.

“I’ve been summoned to the chief of police’s office. Immediately.”

———

“Hey, Craft, we’ve been trying to reach you,” the desk sergeant called out as I entered Central Precinct’s main lobby.

I’d hitched a ride in with Falin, hoping to catch Tamara at the morgue before she left for the day. I needed to apologize for disappearing and let her know I was okay. I also planned to pump her for information. With Graham missing, our only chance of finding Coleman was to figure out where the ritual would be taking place.

Finding out as much as we could about his recent victims was our best chance for doing that.

I stopped at the desk and waved good-bye to Falin.