Page 22

The new arrival was of average height, average build, and average hair color, something I hadn’t appreciated until I saw it for myself.

I made a mental note to apologize to Emma for doubting her description of this guy.

The only notable thing about him was the gray cape flapping over his shoulders, despite the absence of wind.

He was so bland, in fact, that it seemed almost deliberate, as though, like Horst, he put on an invisible mask every day that shielded his true self from curious eyes.

And then, as if to prove me right, he stepped forward and everything about him shifted. The nondescript figure that had been right in front of me shimmered and dissolved, leaving behind a tall, thin man with a face as sharp as a knife blade. His pupils were black slits, more reptilian than human.

He’s not human, I realized.

“Where is my brooch, Piper?”

Horst had whirled around at the newcomer’s sudden entrance, his body tense, but now he relaxed, rocking back on his heels. “Dirchan! Long time no see. How’ve you been?”

“Missing my brooch. Where is it?”

“Oh, come on, Dirch. I don’t see you for ages, and you storm in here demanding a silly piece of jewelry?

Tell you what—why don’t we sit down and have some cupcakes, and we can get all caught up.

This place makes amazing cupcakes. Have you tried them?

” He turned to look at me. “Glory, why don’t you go grab us some cupcakes and coffee.

Dirch, you still using oat milk in your coffee? ”

His tone was light, but his eyes were deadly serious as they met mine. The message was clear: He wanted me to run.

But, like, not until I was out of sight of this creepy guy.

“Enough!” Dirchan snapped. “Your mortal friend will not be going anywhere until you give me back what you stole from me.”

“Stole?” Horst slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “You wound me, Dirch. I merely borrowed a trinket from a friend. I would never steal from you.”

Dirchan’s lips twisted in a sneer of disbelief. “It was not a trinket, as you say, and you will return it at once.”

Quill rubbed her hands together. “Would you like my help now, puppy?”

“Stay out of this,” he said. To Dirchan, he said, “I have it back at my place. If you want to come with me, we can get it now.”

Dirchan’s eyes flashed, and his body began to grow distorted, stretching and lengthening.

Oh, he really wasn’t human.

I heard a squeak and looked over at the rat cage, where all fifteen rats were staring at the figure that now loomed over Horst. It was hard to be sure from this distance, and they were, you know, rodents so not super expressive, but if a rat could be said to look terrified, then these rats looked terrified.

And it wasn’t hard to see why. Because Dirchan wasn’t just fae.

He was some kind of shapeshifting fae. And at that moment, he had shifted into a snake.

A giant snake with a gray hood spreading out from either side of its face, and cruel intelligence glinting in its slitted eyes.

“I’ve given you all the chances you’re going to get, Piper,” he hissed.

“Dirch, let’s just talk about this.” Horst was taking small side steps, and I realized he was trying to put himself between the immense serpent and me.

“We are talking,” the snake said in the same creepy, stomach-churning voice I’d heard on the phone. “My mother was the most important person in the world to me.”

“I know, and I’m sorry I borrowed the brooch. But when you said it was a very powerful magical object, you failed to mention that it had been made from your mother’s ashes.”

I closed my eyes. Horst had told me he travels around procuring—usually through illegal means—magical objects that he then uses to try to restore the kobolds to their true form.

What he plans to do with the kids once they are back to being human, he couldn’t say.

But that was what he used magical objects for.

Not just used. Used up . That was what he had told me, anyway.

And it appeared he’d used up the wrong object.

“I will have my mother back, Piper, or I will take the most important person in the world to you.”

I opened my eyes to find the snake’s gaze pinning me in place. I was only able to tear my eyes away when Horst grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me, hard. “Run, Glory!” he said. “Go, now!”

But there was no time. The snake struck out, not with its mouth but with its tail, batting Horst out of the way before curling nimbly around my neck and lifting me to the ceiling, where I dangled, feet kicking helplessly.

“Dirchan, you can’t do this!” Horst shouted, grabbing for what he could reach of the snake’s body.

“I want my mother back,” Dirchan said, his voice raspy with anger and malice and what sounded a bit like grief. If he hadn’t been in the process of choking the life out of me at that moment, I would have felt sorry for him.

Horst pulled his pipes from his pocket and started to play, but Dirchan merely laughed as he used a coil of his snaky body to send the pipes flying.

“That may work on rats and kobolds, Piper, but I’m immune to your pathetic piping.

Now, get me my mother, or I will squeeze the life out of this puny human. ”

Quill chose that moment to get to her feet, stretching her back as though she had just finished watching a long movie. “Well, puppy, it looks like you have this well in hand.”

I was pretty sure my face was turning purple. It certainly felt purple.

This was the second time since I’d met the Pied Piper that I’d found myself being strangled by some paranormal creature.

Something to discuss with Roger. If I survived.

And after I sent him that glitter bomb.

Horst looked around him, his face frantic even through the haze that fuzzed my vision. “Glory, hold on! I’ll...I’ll think of something.” But from the way his voice broke at the end, I had a feeling he didn’t have much of a something to think up.

And then, as the world started to go black around the edges, I heard him say, “Okay, Quill. Please. I need your help. Save her. I’ll do anything.”

I would rather die than owe her something . That was what he’d said earlier.

“Why, this is a surprise,” Quill said, her voice a study in feigned shock. “You want my help, puppy? I thought—”

“Quill, she’s dying!”

The Unseelie queen’s mouth curled in displeasure, probably annoyed that she wasn’t going to get to toy with Horst for as long as she wanted. But she fluffed the skirts of her dress and wiggled her fingers as though some impressive magic was about to happen.

“Mortal, I do hope you’re not dead yet. I’m going to need you to throw me what you have in your pocket.”

What I had in my pocket? The pressure around my throat was lessening, and I had a feeling that was more because I was losing consciousness and not because Dirchan was having a change of heart. My hands brushed numbly at my pockets. There it was—the brooch Bathsheba had found for me.

But it was just an ordinary brooch. It certainly didn’t have the ashes of this shapeshifting creature’s mother embedded in it. It was just an onyx stone surrounded by silver scrollwork, just as Horst had described. There was no magic there.

If that was Quill’s plan, I was as good as dead.

“Mortal, I don’t have all day,” Quill said testily, holding out her hand below me. “And frankly, you look like you don’t have more than a minute or two left, so chop-chop.”

My fingers struggled to follow my brain’s commands, but I managed to reach into my pocket and pull out the very ordinary, very non-magical brooch. I was in no shape to toss it to Quill. The best I could do was let it slip from my fingers and hope she caught it.

Her hand moved faster than I would have imagined possible—or maybe I was at the point where I was just seeing things—closing over the brooch before it could hit the ground.

“I don’t feel my mother here,” Dirchan rumbled. “What trick are you trying to pull, Piper?”

“You don’t feel your mother because your idiot friend put a cloaking spell on it,” Quill said. “Just give me a moment to remove it.”

Her lips moved, and I could feel a trickle of frigid air rising from her closed fist. There was a flash of light in a truly stomach-churning shade of purple, and then she opened her hand. “Here you go, puppy,” she said, tossing him the brooch.

“Dirchan,” Horst shouted. “I have your brooch. Let Glory go immediately or I will destroy it for good.”

The snake unloosed its coils without warning, and I would have fallen gracelessly to the floor had I not been caught in a strong pair of arms.

Unfortunately, they were Quill’s and not Horst’s, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Quill looked like she felt the same way, dumping me onto my feet as quickly as she could. “You owe me for that one, too, mortal,” she said.

I sucked in a lungful of air, rubbing at the raw skin of my throat. “I didn’t ask you to catch me,” I said. “So I can’t owe you anything.” I wasn’t sure how the fine print of fae interactions went, I had to assume there were rules.

She sighed. “It was worth a try,” she said, brushing her dress to remove whatever mortal cooties she thought I carried.

Dirchan, meanwhile, shrank back to his human form so quickly I could almost believe I’d imagined that he had been a snake.

He snatched the brooch from Horst’s fingers, his face blurring between his true knife-edge form and the bland mask I’m pretty sure he wore most of the time.

“Mommy,” he whispered, bringing the brooch up to his cheek.

Where he snuggled it .

Horst’s face was still pale, but he was rapidly sliding back into his normal self. “So, Dirch, we’re all good then?”

Dirchan’s face snapped back to his haughty, cruel persona, and he fastened the brooch carefully onto the collar of his cape.

“Steal from me again, Piper, and there is nothing that can save you.” Then he spun on one heel and stalked out of the cat area.

I heard a door slam, and the air itself brightened as the shapeshifting monster walked out of our lives.