Faerie Blood: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Changeling Chronicles Book 1) (20 page)

So much for leaving his pretentious attitude behind.

“Vance,” I said pointedly, but he reacted like I hadn’t spoken. “We were discussing how you volunteered to help me deal with this particularly difficult case.”

“I see.” For a moment, I thought I’d pushed too far. Then he smirked. “Did you include the part where I saved you from bleeding to death?”

Oh, he had to go there. “And the part where you got buried in a spider web?”

Isabel’s eyes bugged out. Her face said,
I didn’t know you were on such familiar terms.

“I asked the necromancers about the factory, since we encountered undead there,” he said, snapping back into professional mode. “He said nobody’s raised anything recently. But undead can’t survive in the state we found them in for long. Days at most.”

“Then he’s lying,” I said. With the whole
nearly bleeding to death
thing, I’d forgotten about the zombies.

“I agree, and that’s why I’ve sent people to follow him,” said Vance, surprising me.

“But why would a necromancer be involved with the faeries?”

That made zero sense. It was as unlikely as a troll joining a community project.

“I intend to find out,” said Vance. “As for the necromancers, we will be meeting with them after their monthly summit tomorrow. That should give me the opportunity to find out if anyone has been dealing in forbidden magic.”

“The necromancers are supposed to stop that from happening,” said Isabel. “They protect the veil. If they’ve gone rogue, they’re supposed to be expelled from the Guild. It’s in their sacred oath.”

“Clearly not sacred, then,” I said.

“No, it’s true,” said Vance. “After the war, the necromancers had to do more than the Mage Lords to clear up the aftermath. I believe it’s the only time they’ve taken on any responsibility.”

Sounded about right.

“By sealing all the spirits who died in the invasion, according to someone I asked,” said Isabel. “I’ll give you two some peace, okay? I need to tidy away this spell.” She moved to start clearing the floor.

“Every necromancer in the region is a member of the Guild, right?” I asked Vance. “What about half-necromancers? Do they always have the gift?”

“Sometimes,” said Vance. “It doesn’t tend to be dominant in family lines, unlike the blood of a mage.”

“Hmm. Still has nothing to do with faeries, though. Unless… I don’t know. Winter magic feeds on death, and necromancers have no shortage of corpses, but… I can’t see the connection.”

“Especially as faeries are immortal,” Vance reminded me. “But the Lady of the Tree said she wanted her immortality back.”

“From Faerie,” I said. “They wouldn’t need a necromancer. I don’t think even
they
can stop someone from dying permanently.”

“Exactly.” He frowned. “I have mages patrolling every inch of necromancer territory, looking out for trouble. They’re not happy with me.”

“Tough shit,” I said. “Should’ve thought of that before they made everyone suspect them.”

“They care nothing for their reputation,” said Vance. “As for the half-blood faeries,
they
refused to allow me to send anyone into their territory.”

“Be glad they did. I nearly got eaten by a kelpie when I went in there.”

“Can half-bloods lie? I know pure faeries can’t.”

“Yeah, they can. They aren’t bound by Faerie’s rules here. Even the Lady of the Tree lied to us. Unless we seriously misinterpreted the words.
You can find the children there…
but she also said they weren’t in this realm anymore. Which is impossible.”

How could someone have opened a way to Faerie without magic along the Ley Line going haywire?

Vance studied me. “You think someone opened a door back to Faerie.”

“I can’t think of another way to interpret her words,” I said. “But—it’s impossible. Faerie magic alone isn’t enough to open a way back. The half-bloods dream of escaping this realm, but they can’t. The invasion was the only time anyone’s done it.”

“Summer and Winter each opened a gate along the Ley line, is my understanding.” Vance’s phone buzzed. “I’ll answer this.”

He stood, pressing the phone to his ear. “What happened?” he asked the person on the other end.

From his tone, I could tell this wasn’t a friendly social call.

“I have to leave.” He switched his phone off. “Two of my mages disappeared near the factory.”

My heart plummeted. “Damn.”

“Don’t leave the house.”

Before I could blink, he’d strode to the door, opened it and vanished. I turned to Isabel in disbelief. She didn’t look shocked, so she couldn’t have seen him disappear into thin air.

“Don’t leave the house.
Unbelievable.” I stared after him, but he didn’t come back.

“Well, he said two people did go missing.”

I sank onto the sofa. “Two miles away. I’m not going to ground myself because he said so.”

“What you said about the Ley Line got me thinking,” she said. “I might be able to mark it on a map. That factory… it’s outside the town, right?”

I nodded.

Isabel walked over and reached behind the sofa, pulling out a dusty map. “We used this in our first coven meeting. It marks all the key points.”

“Key points?”

“Places on the line where magic is particularly strong.” She unfurled the map and placed a paperweight on top of it to hold it still. “The first thing I learned when I joined the coven was not to attempt a spell at a key point. Magic’s too potent there. And there’s something in the necromancy code, too. I think the veil’s particularly thin there.” She indicated several spots on the line across the centre of the page.

“So spirits can cross over easier there?” I paused. “Faerie magic’s stronger at those points, too. That’s got to be our connection. I’ll tell Vance—”

A crashing noise made me jump. Erwin the piskie flew through the room, shrieking. “Bad faerie!”

“What the hell?”

Isabel leaped to her feet. “Someone’s attacking our wards.”

I joined her, grabbing my sword. Damn. I hadn’t left a trail of blood outside, had I?

Underneath the window, a sudden blast of fire scorched the flowerbeds near the ward line.

“Whoa,” I said.

“Hey!” Isabel shouted. “Those are rare herbs, you bastard.”

And she grabbed a handful of spells from the table, activating one with a swift movement. Purple light spilled out and enveloped the room, accompanied by a tremendous bang like a firework. High-pitched screams reached my ears, and several tall, twig-like figures appeared outside the window.

I
knew
it was the faeries.

Fire imps are an anomaly. Summer doesn’t like them because they’re deadly to all plant life. Winter, the land of ice, isn’t terribly enamoured with them either. I’m not sure where they came from—hell, maybe they were in the grey area of Faerie before the exiles. Nobody ever handed me a definitive guide to Faerie. I had to figure out most of it on my own.

But none of them had ever attacked me at home before. I took pains to make sure that never happened. Ever.

I struck out for the door, Irene in one hand and one of Isabel’s explosive spells in the other. Those particular spells were reserved for the two of us, on the reasonable grounds that most non magic users did a good job running into magical accidents without having access to the witch equivalent of a firework.

Sharp little hands stabbed at me the instant I opened the door. I sliced with my blade, decapitating the fire imp. How the hell did it get so close to the house with so many wards active?

Fire sparked all over the lawn, burning holes in the grass, and I dodged a ball of whirling flame. Isabel leaped up and threw a counter-spell, a wave of water that drenched both of us. The imps scrambled back, dripping wet, baring their teeth.

Another flowerbed went up in flames, and Isabel just about lost her shit. She threw an explosive spell at three of the imps. Bits of twig flew everywhere, and I had exactly five seconds of total astonishment at her aggressiveness before an imp landed on my head, hands stabbing at my eyes.

“Fuck off,” I snarled, grabbing at it. With the faerie dangling from my hand, I cut its throat with my blade. I tossed it aside, pushing my now sopping wet ponytail aside.

Two more imps appeared from the shadows and threw fire at us. The ward just in front of the house, which was supposed to activate in defence, remained dead. Isabel’s eyes went wide.

As for me, I called the faerie magic.

I leaped in front of Isabel, blue light flaring around my non-sword-hand. The light spread, forming a barrier, and the fire harmlessly glanced off the blue shield now surrounding both of us.
You don’t get to hurt her.
I’d kill them all first.

I joined Isabel in hurling another explosive at the faeries. They scattered, screaming, and I ran at them, the faerie magic making my reactions much faster than usual. Fast enough to catch every one. I flung a final explosive at the last imp as it reached the gate, and the resulting blast knocked into the ward at the fence with a ringing noise.
That
one still functioned. But what had stopped the others working?

Isabel walked over to me. “Whoa. You’re fast. I didn’t see you grab a speed enhancer.”

I said nothing, a heavy measure of guilt settling over me, that Vance Colton knew more about my abilities than Isabel did.
Not only that, they’d attacked our home. Even set the garden on fire.
Bloody faeries.
Next time, I’d make damn sure there were more than wards outside to stop them. Not to mention the iron… which, now I looked, had disappeared. Like someone had deactivated it. I stared.

“How the hell did they know where to find me?” I asked aloud, though I could guess. I’d made enough enemies over the years. This, however, felt—recent. Calculated. “And who took out our defences?” I walked over to the place where a ring of iron had circled the garden. Sure, it
might
have been the landlord, but…

“No clue.” Isabel bent over the now-defunct ward. “I can use a tracking spell and see if anyone’s messed with this.”

“Good idea.”

We returned to the house, trepidation building by the second. Only a powerful magic user could deactivate a ward, and we only used the best. Nothing was a perfect defence, of course—especially against the faeries. But fire imps were stupid. They couldn’t have taken the wards down themselves.

Isabel picked up one of the tracking spells from the coffee table and took it outside. I stood by the gate, watching the road, as she activated it by the ward. A circle spread out and lines appeared within, a series of glyphs in blue light.

Isabel swore as the light gleamed on her arms. “I don’t believe it.”

“Who was it?”

“Larsen,” she said. “The trail leads back to the mercenary guild.”

My boss. He’d tried to kill us.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I wanted to confront Larsen alone first thing the next morning, but as per usual, Vance Colton put a wrench in my plans. I woke to a rapping on the door and groaned as the impact of the past twenty-four hours hit me like a rampaging troll.

“All right, all right!” I snapped at no one in particular as the house shook under another knock. I dressed in ten seconds and grabbed my sword in case another faerie contingent arrived to attack me. “Chill the hell out, Vance.”

“When did you end up on first name terms, anyway?” asked Isabel, passing by with a mug of steaming hot chocolate in her hands.

“When we both nearly died,” I said. I wasn’t mentally present today. Small wonder when my boss had tried to kill me. And I had no idea why. All my phone calls went through to voicemail. I’d planned to storm over there today, but not hiding behind Lord Colton.

“What is it?” I asked as I opened the front door.

“Not a morning person?” Vance was as unruffled as ever, while I both looked and felt like shit. I’d taken a fair beating yesterday. Even the healing spell hadn’t got rid of all my bruises. And I’d stayed up late trying to get through to Larsen and helping Isabel set up more tracking spells to find the changeling.

“A bunch of faeries tried to torch my house,” I said. “Knocked the wards out. You didn’t see anything odd outside yesterday, did you?”

He frowned. “No. Who did it?”

I hesitated. He knew too much already. The last thing I needed was to give him more ammunition. More reasons to depend on him. I glanced over my shoulder to find Isabel had retreated into her room, leaving me alone with Vance. Traitor.

“Fire imps got my address somehow.” I evaded the question. “They torched Isabel’s flowerbeds. Did you find those two mages?”

“No.”

Funny how he could pack so much meaning into one word. Specifically,
No, but I’m going to find who’s responsible and eviscerate them.