Page 3

Chapter Three

While Damon made coffee, I did a lap of the house, running my hands along the walls and inspecting the wards for weak spots. Nothing. The wards were intact. After all, the nixling hadn’t managed to get inside the house. Not that it had tried.

Gráinne had said something about some nixlings being able to get around wards. Did other lesser Fae share that talent?

Damn. I hoped not. Even without the photo of Jack and my mom, some of the creatures we’d encountered in Usuriel’s territory were enough to give me nightmares.

Nope . If I thought about that, I’d never sleep again. And if it was a common ability, surely Cerridwen or Callum would have mentioned it by now.

So I was going to be all Pollyanna and assume the house was secure.

One less thing to worry about, unless Mitch’s team came to a different conclusion. Knowing Mitch, there’d be at least one extra guard taking a shift in the garden for the rest of the night.

Normally Damon’s team monitored the house from a neighboring property he also owned. They did patrols, but there were no permanent gate guards as such. Damon always said he didn’t want to feel like he was living in a prison, but having more of his team on hand was one of the conditions Mitch had set after Jack had taken Damon. Along with more bodyguards for Damon. I had one when I went anywhere by myself as well. Which was still weird, but one of those things I’d had to accept was part of life with my favorite billionaire.

I didn’t try checking the wards along the boundary fences. I wasn’t keen on going into the garden alone. Better to wait for Mitch and Maia Lin, my bodyguard, who no doubt would accompany him. She was the strongest witch in the security team.

I slurped coffee—willing the caffeine to push some clarity back into my brain—pondering my next move. It should be to call Cassandra and let her know what had happened.

I didn’t want to disturb her but, as head of the Cestis, she needed to know there’d been a rogue Fae creature in the city.

The last time that had happened, it had been a bruadhsiu —a nightwalker—and people had died. The nixling was not the same level of threat but, still, another breach of the door—if that was what it turned out to be—was Cestis business. So, as much as it was tempting to ask Madge to route me through to her message service rather than calling her directly, I put on my big-girl pants and went to make the call.

I carried my coffee out to my office, but nearly spilled it when the call notification on my datapad chimed before I could even pick it up.

Cassandra’s name flashed on the screen. Great, she’d heard the news. Which saved me a call, but I wondered if it had been Mitch or Gráinne who’d spilled the beans. Possibly both.

“Cassandra, hi,” I said. “You heard?”

“Yes,” she said dryly. The image of her on my screen shifted as she covered her yawn with a hand and settled back into her chair, her large golden brown eyes alert. Her silvery hair was pulled back in a bun that was messier than usual, but that was the only sign she’d just been woken. She had on a crisp cotton shirt in a vivid shade of red. No taking vidcalls in her pajamas for Cassandra. At least my gym clothes weren’t sweaty.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” Cassandra asked.

“I’m going to assume you already know there was a nixling. But there’s not much to tell. Other than it being here, nothing happened.”

“Define ‘nothing’.”

“No one’s hurt or bleeding, and nothing’s on fire.”

When had that become my standard of something being an emergency or not? I drank more coffee, trying to drive away the sudden chill in my stomach. When had I reached the point where random magical creatures didn’t faze me unless they were actively trying to hurt someone or wreak havoc in some obvious way?

Cassandra grunted. “Hmm. But it did get inside the grounds?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’ve checked the wards on the house and they seem fine. But I haven’t had time to look around outside yet. I wanted to wait for Mitch and Maia. Safety in numbers and all. Gráinne said something about some of them getting through wards easily. So there might be nothing to find.”

“Let’s hope not. And where is the creature now?”

I did the math after checking the time. By my estimation, Gráinne should be back at the Berkeley Rose Garden where the door to the Fae realm was hidden. At this time of night, traffic should be light, and it’d been thirty minutes or so since she’d left.

“I would imagine nearly back to the door, if they’re not inside already,” I said. “I called Callum. Callum called Gráinne. Gráinne came and grabbed the critter.” Fae pest control. Of a kind. Not that the nixlings were pests, as far as I knew. Callum and Gráinne had been friendly with the one we’d encountered in Cerridwen’s territory. They weren’t like afrits, which were the cockroaches of the demon world. If cockroaches were amenable to following orders, had magic and were able to, you know, kill people.

“It didn’t put up a fight?”

“No.”

“Does she know why it was there?”

I shrugged. “She talked to it—it seems they have that same telepathy thing Gráinne and Callum can do, but I couldn’t hear it. It wasn’t being cooperative. She said she didn’t think it was from Cerridwen’s territory.”

“That’s not concerning at all,” Cassandra said, shaking her head

“Don’t panic. Gráinne said they’re found in a few territories, and, you know, if they’re like cats, maybe it got curious and let itself out the door.”

“Did Gráinne think that was likely?”

“No,” I admitted, “and neither do I. I mean, if it was curious about a source of power it was feeling, then your house is much closer to the Rose Garden than Damon’s.”

“Exactly. Did she happen to mention if nixlings live in you-know-who’s territory?”

Cassandra, I had noticed, didn’t like saying Lord Usuriel’s name out loud any more than I did.

“She did,” I said, “and they do, but that doesn’t mean this one does.” I was trying to be optimistic. It was hard. There were probably other Fae Elders who didn’t like the idea of a witch who’d fought with a demon and survived, but Usuriel was the only one I’d tangled with in person.

“I guess we’ll see,” Cassandra said. “But for now, let Maia and the others inspect the wards. If they don’t find anything wrong, I’ll send Lizzie or Zee in the morning, just to be safe. If they give the all clear, we’ll have to assume the creature got through them without damaging them. If there is an issue, call me back.”

“I will,” I agreed, somewhat relieved she wasn’t going to charge straight over here. Yay. I wouldn’t have to deal with a grumpy witch on top of a grumpy Head of Security and a grumpy Damon. That made me happy. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I was still trying for that optimism thing. It didn’t always come naturally to me.

“Let’s hope so,” Cassandra said. She hung up before I could, and I carried my coffee back to the kitchen, where Damon was drinking his and watching the feed of the front gate on a holoscreen.

I was refilling my coffee when the gate swung open, a Riley Arts security Jeep drove through, and Mitch, Maia and two other members of the security team climbed out of it.

“The cavalry’s here,” I said, jerking my head at the image on the house-comp screen.

“Well, I think Gráinne was the cavalry.” Damon said, “But let’s see what Mitch has to say.”

“He’ll probably want me to check the wards again with Maia or whoever he brings.”

Damon shrugged. He’d pulled an old Righteous sweatshirt over his T-shirt, but it wasn’t doing much to hide the fact that he’d been woken up in the middle of the night and wasn’t happy about it. “I would imagine so. I can’t be much help in that department. I’ll stay inside.” He gestured at the datapad on the counter. “I’ve got Madge analyzing the non-magical security data. She says she didn’t note any glitches, but I asked her to run it all again. So I can keep doing that while you do your—” He wriggled his fingers in a ‘you know, magical stuff’ gesture.

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t actually wriggle my fingers.”

He grinned. “I know. But I don’t know the correct gestures for checking a ward.”

All the more reason for him to stay inside. Him not arguing about it was a relief. It might even improve Mitch’s guaranteed-to-be-cranky mood. Usually he had to try to argue for Damon to be sensible when there were unexpected magical adventures, but it seemed today Damon wouldn’t need encouraging.

I finished my coffee and was contemplating whether I wanted to eat something to soak up some of the caffeine and give me some hope of sleeping once Mitch was satisfied all was well.

“Mitch and the team are here, Damon.” Madge’s calm tone interrupted my contemplation of the contents of the refrigerator.

I closed the door and waited as the team made their way inside.

Mitch practically marched into the kitchen. The severe black of the Riley Arts security uniform emphasized his ex-military posture. He ran a hand over his short more-gray-than-red sandy hair and regarded me with somewhat exasperated blue eyes before he muttered a gruff “Hello, Maggie.”

Maia Lin stood behind him, seeming more amused than annoyed. Dark haired and dark eyed, she was much more cheerful than her boss. Though no less effective at her job. Jake Kennedy stood beside her, all tall, brown-haired muscle. His gray eyes also looked entertained as Mitch rapid-fired a plan in which Maia and I would focus on the wards while he and Jake rewatched the feeds of the ‘incident’ and then I’d answer questions.

I found myself back out in the garden, moving somewhat warily around the walls, but despite Maia and me doing our best, we didn’t find any holes in the wards.

Whatever the nixling had done to get in, it hadn’t damaged anything.

When we went back inside Mitch made me tell him what had happened in minute detail. I’d been expecting the questions and answered them as quickly as I could.

Damon confirmed his part, and I decided to see if I could make a strategic retreat while the team reviewed the security recordings. Maia had already started testing the house wards, repeating the checks I’d already done.

They didn’t need me. They all knew what they were looking for in the recordings and I didn’t feel like answering the same questions all over again. Mitch was a stickler for detail and could find ten different ways to ask a question when he was in a mood. And while he was fond of me, and had accepted I was likely a permanent fixture in Damon’s life, the magical problems that trailed in my wake did tend to put Mitch in a mood.

I retreated to my office, staring at the screen on my desk comp. I could try to work, but doubted I’d manage anything actually productive. But I didn’t want to end up staring at the damn photograph again. Instead I pulled up a vidstream, scanning through idly for some entertainment that might take my mind off everything.

The list of offerings didn’t really appeal. I was saved when the little light above Aubrey’s name in my chat list blinked on, meaning that she’d just logged on.

The system clock showed nearly two a.m. So, nine a.m. or near enough in London.

Sometimes time zones were convenient rather than annoying.

I sent her a ‘hey, you free’ message. Aubrey and I weren’t friends, but we had been talking regularly since Damon and I had returned from the UK. I wanted to know how Gwen Jones, the tanai we’d helped return from the realm, was adapting back to life in the human world. Poor kid had no family and I knew how it felt to feel unwanted. Also, I was trying to at least get one of the UK Cestis to like me. Damon wanted to digitize their Archive, the same way he was ours. Establishing friendly relations might help.

To my surprise, Aubrey replied almost immediately.

Good morning, Maggie.

I could hear her clipped British accent in my head as the words flashed up.

You’re up late. Is something wrong?

No, nothing.

I didn’t need the Cestis on two continents worrying about nixlings gone astray.

Something I can help you with then?

Just working late. Damon had a thing. I saw you come online so I thought I’d check in on Gwen. How’s she doing?

Gwen was something of a mystery. Her father was human, but he hadn’t raised her. Once the Cestis had her back in London and started digging into her background, identifying him was proving challenging.

She didn’t know her Fae mother. She’d never acknowledged her and Gwen had no idea who she was. She hadn’t learned she was tanai until she’d finished school.

She’d been raised by a woman she thought was her aunt until she was ten, when she was packed off to boarding school and only saw her ‘aunt’ during vacations. She’d grown up thinking her father and mother had died in an accident.

When she turned eighteen, her aunt had turned up at the school, handed her an envelope full of information, including bank accounts set up for her, and informed Gwen that she wasn’t really her aunt, that she’d been paid to care for her until she was an adult, and that Gwen was now on her own.

Understandably, Gwen had gone a bit off the rails after learning the truth. She’d started her university degree, but met some tanai on campus who recognized her as one of them—another bombshell—and it seemed she’d followed one of them into the realm, perhaps drawn by the thought of finding her mother.

Which she never had. Gwen’s Fae parent hadn’t chosen to acknowledge her and no one knew who she was. I didn’t know if that was part of the reason why Gwen had wanted to come home, but from what I could gather, it hadn’t made Gwen’s time in the realm any easier.

So there was no one to help her get used to being out of the realm again. The Cestis were looking for her dad, but it turned out the name on her birth certificate was fake. At least, the Cestis hadn’t been able to identify anyone with that name who’d been alive at the time Gwen was born.

My datapad pinged again with a vidcall request. Aubrey wanted to talk face to face.

Unlike me, she was wide awake and perfectly groomed. She had on a white silk shirt with pearls at her ears. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a perfectly sleek updo and her makeup was immaculate.

I ran a hand over my own hair, hoping there wasn’t a stray leaf or anything stuck in it after getting too close and personal with some of the bushes along the boundaries to get to the wards.

Aubrey’s mouth curved briefly in a smile, amusement flashing in her icy blue-gray eyes, but she didn’t comment.

“Hi,” I said again. “Sorry to interrupt your morning.”

She dismissed this idea with an elegant wave of her hand. “I was just getting started. It’s no trouble.”

As the youngest member of the UK Cestis, I knew she had a schedule as tight as Damon’s most days, so I took this with an enormous grain of salt. I didn’t want to take up too much of her time.

“So. Gwen. Any news?” I asked.

Aubrey shrugged. “I’m not sure. She’s quiet. We got her access to her bank accounts back, so that’s helpful. She doesn’t have to worry about money. Whoever her parents were, they at least left her financially secure.”

Which didn’t make up for the part where they’d rejected and/or abandoned her, but money was better than no money if you were left on your own with no family.

“She’s still talking to the healers,” Aubrey continued. “Therapy. She says it’s helping.”

Something Gwen had resisted at first, but the Cestis had made it a condition of them continuing to help her. I imagined Aubrey would love to be a fly on the wall for those conversations but no self-respecting healer would reveal anything about their patients without consent. Same as a human psychologist. With the usual exceptions for being worried about crimes or self-harm, but I didn’t think Gwen was a criminal mastermind. While she’d had something of a rough time in the realm, she—from what Aubrey had told me—hadn’t shown any signs of wanting to do something stupid.

“And we’ve been looking at some university options, but she hasn’t made any decisions yet,” Aubrey continued.

“What was she studying?” I asked.

Aubrey actually smiled. “Believe it or not, she was doing a technology and media degree. Intending to major in VR game design.”

“That’s interesting.” I kept my face neutral. Was Aubrey hoping that Damon might be able to help? He could probably place a call and get anyone admitted to any VR degree in the world.

Righteous sponsored what was now considered the world standard program right here in California at UC. It was where my sometimes-intern, all-the-time-computer-genius friend, Yoshi Liebfield, was studying.

I just didn’t know if Damon wanted anything to do with anyone so recently connected with the Fae and Lord Usuriel. And after the nixling, it wasn’t the night to ask.

I also didn’t like asking him to pull strings and avoided it where humanly possible. There were enough people in his life who only saw him as someone who could do things for them. My goal was to never be one of them.

To be the person he could just be Damon with.

Aubrey was waiting for me to continue.

“Do you think that’s what she still wants to do?” I asked, keeping my tone neutral. I didn’t want to offer any encouragement.

Aubrey shrugged again. “I’m not sure. She’s still adjusting. She’d have to make up her mind fast to start in September. It might be easier for her to take a job somewhere for a year while she gets her feet back under her.”

It was a sensible idea. After all, Gwen’s first attempt at university had ended with her vanishing into the realm. Though, that might be unfair. Maybe after getting free of the realm she was going to be focused on making sure her life went where she wanted it to this time. “Has she been hanging out with any tanai?”

“No. I offered to introduce her to some of the smaller families here in London, but she refused. Perhaps it’s just as well. Better for her to avoid the Fae for a time, while she settles in. The tanai here are much more connected with their Fae than yours in San Francisco.”

True. Though that was starting to change, according to Pinky. Now that the door to the realm in Berkeley had opened again, some of the tanai who had left when the Fae did were starting to make noises about coming back. Which was making those who’d stayed behind nervous. But San Francisco was a big city. Room enough for both kinds of tanai. I hoped.

“I can understand her staying away from them. She’s probably had enough Fae for now.”

Behind me, I could still hear Mitch’s team moving around the house. I’d drawn the blinds when I’d retreated to my office, not wanting to see them prowling around the gardens, probably checking the wards all over again.

I knew it was sensible, but it was also irritating. Sure, they had more experience than me, but I knew the wards around Damon’s house as well as anyone. I hadn’t found any holes, Maia hadn’t found any holes, and I doubted anyone else Mitch cared to task with checking would.

He could just accept that, for now, the emergency was over and send everyone home so we could all go to bed. But doing things the easy way was not in Mitch’s DNA. Not when it came to keeping Damon safe.

Which I couldn’t be annoyed with him about.

I stifled a yawn, focused back on Aubrey. “Do we know if she has magic?” I asked.

“She has an aura. She looks like a tanai to me, but if she has any power, she is being tight-lipped about how she might use it.”

“Well, I guess it’s up to her.” It was her decision whether or not to embrace her power. Fae magic didn’t work the same way as a witch’s. Witches who weren’t taught to use their power could have unpredictable results, but there were tanai who ignored their magic quite happily. And Gwen’s couldn’t have caused her any problems when she was younger because she hadn’t learned she was tanai until she got to university.

But if Gwen had no interest in magic, that was one less thing to worry about. Her Fae heritage might make it tricky if she decided to go back to studying VR. She’d need a chip eventually and not all tanai could tolerate them. My friend, Pinky Andretti, also a tanai, had one, but she was lucky. Iron didn’t bother her at all.

“Yes,” Aubrey agreed. “And if she doesn’t want anything to do with Fae, it’s probably just as well if she’s happy to leave any magic she may have learned there behind.” She tucked a strand of hair that had dared to break free from her bun back behind her ear and straightened. Shifting back into Cestis mode. Hopefully preparing to get on with her day rather than drop some Cestis bombshell on me.

“Well, keep me posted if there’s anything you think I need to know.” I stopped myself from offering any more help. The Cestis had managed the magical affairs of the United Kingdom for centuries without any assistance. Gwen wasn’t the first tanai they’d helped return from the realm. She wouldn’t be the last. If Aubrey wanted our help, she’d ask.

Aubrey smiled. “I will. Say hello to Damon for me.”

“Sure.” I paused. “Any decision yet on your Archives?” Damon would ask, if I told him I’d been talking to Aubrey.

Aubrey shook her head. “No. We had a few things come up in the last few weeks along with helping with Gwen, so we haven’t had time to talk about it as a group, but it’s on the agenda for our next official meeting, which is at the end of next week. We’ll discuss it then.”

“Do you think they’ll go for it?”

Aubrey pursed her lips, considering. “Ralph, I think, can see the benefits of the idea, though he has his reservations. The others, well, they’re harder to read. They play their cards close to their chests. The biggest sticking point will be Leo. He’s a bit of a stickler for tradition. And I’m sure Isolde will have legal questions about how the information will remain protected.”

“Cassandra had her doubts, too. I’m sure she’d be happy to speak to them if you think it would help.”

“Yes, I’m keeping that in mind.” She hesitated. “But…”

“Let me guess, a vote of confidence from someone over here is not necessarily going to be helpful?”

“Relations between Cestis can get complicated.”

I nodded. I understood. Aubrey had been frosty enough herself when I’d first met her when she’d come to learn about how the Cestis here were embracing tech in the name of efficiency. “I hope you can get them to see the benefits. It would make it easier for the Cestis to help each other. Leaving aside how much they actually want to cooperate.”

It would be much easier if I could log in to the UK Cestis Archives and access their massive collection, which was far older and more extensive than the ones Cassandra maintained beneath her house. For one thing I wouldn’t be waiting on Ralph to dig up more information on Lord Usuriel, I could have found it for myself.

Aubrey nodded, glancing down off-screen. “I’m doing my best. Now, I’m sorry, Maggie, but I have a meeting shortly and you should probably go to bed.”

“Yes. I should.” Footsteps still clomped up and down the corridor beyond my office. Sleep wouldn’t be happening as long as Mitch and the team were still doing their thing. But that wasn’t Aubrey’s problem. “Talk to you soon,” I said.

Aubrey nodded and ended the call.

Leaving me to contemplate nixlings and Fae and Usuriel. And that damned photo.