Page 6

6

Vincent

I didn’t sleep, too wound up and too sure that I wouldn’t like the answers I found when searching for information about the bartender.

Her name was Luna Pierce.

That couldn’t be a coincidence.

I might not be well acquainted with all the old fae families of Sandrin, but I generally knew who they were and the family members.

Darius Pierce did not have children.

He didn’t have a partner.

It was only him and his mother currently residing in Pierce House.

His father was in the north somewhere on some family business.

The name Luna Pierce was unfamiliar, but I was determined to find out who she was.

Something like a strong gust blowing over rough water circled in my chest, as if my wind was determined to remind me of her beauty.

The fact that she was beautiful was now irrelevant.

My magic disagreed, as it usually did, but with her, its outbursts were…

more.

I was used to my wind partnering with me in more tasks than another old fae might care for, but usually, I could control when that happened.

It had slipped its leash twice with her last night.

I might have found her attractive, even by fae standards, but if she was my ticket to gathering intel on Darius Pierce, that had to be my priority.

My wind surged as if to question why she would help me.

I hadn’t sorted out all the details yet, but I would start with figuring out who she was to him.

While that happened, thoughts of her beauty needed to be off the table.

That’s how I ended up in the Central Circle at the records office when they opened the following morning.

Other than Compass Lake, this was the only place I could think to investigate the members of each fae court and their relations.

The austere building was white stone, like many of those in Sandrin, and three stories, like the newspaper office.

The third floor was the governor’s office, while the first two held records of all humans and fae in the city.

Its real draw was the fae court records.

I needed access to the Norden Court list.

From there, I could look up the Pierce family and place the mysterious Luna.

I only needed access to the records.

They weren’t strictly private.

Court affiliation was technically optional, although anyone who understood the fae would find that statement laughable.

Either way, the humans considered it public information, and the fae, well, we expected anyone who mattered to know already.

This meant the records were open to anyone with a valid inquiry.

I wasn’t sure my reason was valid, per se, but I was confident I could come up with an acceptable query.

“May I help you?” the woman behind the desk in the large entrance hall asked as I approached.

My fabricated story spilled from my lips before I could think twice.

“I met someone last night and only caught her surname. I know she’s of the Norden Court, though. I hoped to review the court records and find her name. ”

Her heavy dose of side-eye said my story was weak, but the rules were in my favor.

She waved her hand, and another man strode forward from the back of the room.

“Take Mister...” She paused, waiting for my name.

“Andiveron,” I offered.

“Take Mr. Andiveron to the fae court records room. Make sure he signs in.”

I couldn’t believe it was that easy.

The associate walked me up a flight of stairs into a large room filled with thick wooden tables and shelves of books.

He pointed toward four giant tomes in the center.

I didn’t need further explanation to understand there was one book for each fae court.

“Sign here.” He held out a much smaller book at the room’s entrance.

I did.

Since they’d granted me access, there was no reason not to follow the rules.

“I’ll sit here.” He pointed to the chair.

“Only those four books are public. Everything else in the room requires a better reason than I met someone .”

At least I knew where we stood.

The rule was fine with me.

I had no interest in the other documents.

My focus was solely on the woman I’d met last night and her relation to Darius Pierce.

My wind slid along my arm as if to ask Is that really your only interest in her?

Of course it was.

I flipped through the pages.

She may have complimented my wind, but she’d still thrown a drink in my face.

My only interest in her was for my feature story.

I needed a source.

It was too good an opportunity to pass if she was related to Darius Pierce.

The book was organized by surname.

It looked like the newest court members were at the bottom of the page by the dates.

Alphabetical order was at least attempted for the surnames.

But with the recent influx of half-fae and mixed-fae joining courts, some order had been lost.

Better late than never , I thought.

My wind flipped the page in agreement.

The Pierce page was easy to find, the family having been included since the beginning of the courts.

Laid out like a family tree, the document listed parents and children back to the creation of the fae.

As I scanned the page, my gaze snagged on Darius’s name.

He didn’t appear to have siblings or children.

He was lowest on the Pierce family page and he had to be at least a hundred.

His parents were listed above him, and their siblings were in the same row.

I doubted she was older than Darius and there was no way she was more than two generations of fae back.

Her temper had flared multiple times in our short acquaintance.

The emotions streaking plainly across her face told me she couldn’t be older than me.

A consistent calm, often considered devoid of emotion, was a trait of older fae.

One my parents often reminded me that I, or more aptly my wind, was lacking.

Luna hadn’t seemed shy with her words, and her face was even more expressive.

My lip curved as I remembered the smirk she’d given me when offering the backhanded compliment about my wind.

It swirled inside me like it remembered, too.

I shook away the memory to focus.

There was no Luna Pierce on this page.

Where was she?

The other woman had called her Luna Pierce.

I know I’d heard it.

Luna’s water magic hadn’t been ostentatious, but it had been obvious once I saw it for what it was.

She had to be in this court record.

“Excuse me,” I called to the gentlemen waiting by the door.

“Any reason why someone wouldn’t be on the family page in this document?”

The man tilted his head like he considered this a trick question.

“If they weren’t part of the Norden Court?”

I sighed.

“Besides that. I know she was of the Norden Court. As I said, I have her surname. ”

“Maybe she didn’t want to be associated with the family in question.”

I blinked, staring dumbly.

“Is that…allowed?”

“Of course,” he replied.

“That list is a voluntary declaration of court association. It’s not a detailed family record.”

Not having realized this, I considered updating my own Osten record.

This is not the time, I thought, even as my wind swirled with excitement, flipping the cover of the Osten Court book.

I shook my head, focusing on the Norden book.

“Where would those names go? The ones not associated with a specific family.”

He pointed to the book.

“Flip to the end. They’re usually listed there.”

I thanked him as my wind flipped the pages, ready to work backward.

The entry I was looking for was there at the bottom—Luna Pierce was the most recent addition to the Norden Court.

My fingers grazed the page, circling her name.

Luna was young, but she obviously wasn’t a recent birth.

For an adult fae, there was only one reason to add yourself to the court listing now.

If you hadn’t been previously allowed.

Luna Pierce was half-fae.

Things started falling into place with that revelation.

She’d been upset with her father last night.

A father who, according to her surname and where she listed herself in this book, she didn’t claim as her own.

Her father was either Darius or Darius’s father, Klein.

My wind blew in short, pointed blasts against my temple as if tapping to say You can’t use this.

Something in my chest constricted as I realized what this meant.

It was more than names on paper.

Luna, the bright and confident fae I’d met last night.

The one I was almost jealous of because it seemed she knew her place in this city.

Half her family had ignored her, likely up until very recently.

Did she have any human family, or was she essentially an orphan?

Even as I thought it, I knew my wind, acting as my conscience, was right.

I couldn’t ask her to investigate a family that had disowned her.

Rationally, she wouldn’t even have access to the information I needed.

They didn’t disown her, did they?

She said her father was the one she was angry at.

I couldn’t decide whose side my conscience was on, but it had a point.

How bad of terms could they be on if she’d seen him yesterday?

Of course, her overreaction to my words, and me in general—even if I’d been a little rude—didn’t speak of a happy encounter.

I was more confused than ever as I left the records room and headed into the stairwell.

The attendant didn’t bother to see me out.

I weighed my options as I walked.

Luna was my only lead.

I had to try, right?

What kind of journalist would I be if I gave up without asking?

I’d be honest with her.

She could say no if she didn’t want to participate.

My mental spiral was interrupted by another set of voices in the stairwell above me.

“You’ve made your position clear,” a stern feminine voice echoed more loudly than I was sure she intended.

“Not clear enough if you’ve still taken no action,” replied a deeper, more masculine voice.

I froze.

That voice was familiar, like I’d heard it before.

I couldn’t be sure if my imagination was playing tricks on me or if I was indeed this lucky, but it sounded like the voice I’d listened to repeatedly in the memory stone from Patricia.

I would bet anything that Darius Pierce was speaking a floor above me.

“I will take action in my own time,” the feminine voice said.

“I don’t appreciate your persistence. ”

The human governor’s voice had been harder to hear in the memory stone, but the floor above was her office.

I needed to hear more.

“That only means you have someone on the opposite side being as persistent as me. And you’re still not sure which of us to listen to.”

I ducked and took silent steps up the staircase to the landing.

They shouldn’t be able to see me from this angle.

I only needed to peer around the short wall to glimpse them.

Without much thought, I risked it, popping my head around the corner.

The man’s back was to me, his arm resting along the railing, only the back of his head visible as he stared at the woman.

I was sure it was Darius, though.

The woman was a little to the left in the stairwell, her pinched expression clearly visible, though thankfully it was locked on Darius, not scanning the stairwell for eavesdroppers.

I recognized her face immediately from a recent speech I’d attended.

“I am taking the time to research the impacts on this city, as is my duty. A magic school is no small matter,” Marion Smith, the human governor, said.

I sucked in a breath, unable to believe the conversation I’d stumbled onto.

“I agree.” His voice grew louder, and I knew he’d changed the direction of his face.

I chanced another glance.

This time, I could see his profile as he looked over the railing.

It was absolutely Darius Pierce, and he looked as frustrated as the governor.

“Glad to hear it. Now, please leave. I have your contributions. You will hear when I’ve made a decision.”

He laughed.

“And I thought it was the fae who were supposed to be controlling.”

“You’ve been doing it longer, but that doesn’t mean you own the skill. Not everything is about you.”

Darius pressed his lips into a thin line and turned to leave.

I needed to get out of there.

I stayed low and returned to the second-floor door, opening it loudly as if I were only now entering the stairwell.

I began the descent as if I had nothing to hide and hadn’t been listening to their private conversation.

Darius didn’t catch up to me as I left.

I slipped my hands into my pockets, tucking in to the flow of people on the street, and headed for the paper office.

This matter was more confusing than I’d anticipated.

I hadn’t heard anything that asserted guilt, but I couldn’t deny that the conversation echoed Patricia’s tip.

My thoughts returned to Luna.

If she was half-fae, this whole thing impacted her more than I’d initially realized.

She’d gone through the work of adding herself to the Norden Court records, which meant, on some level, she wanted to be acknowledged for her magic.

She wouldn’t have grown up with the resources a school like the one proposed could provide.

If anything, she deserved an opinion on her family’s alleged involvement.

I had a list of excuses to justify what I’d already decided.

My wind ruffled my hair as if to point out You just want to see her again.

Maybe it was the way her hair caught the moonlight.

Maybe it was because no one had made me feel like an ass like that in a long time.

All I knew was that I couldn’t stop thinking about her, and it wasn’t only because of her surname.