Chapter 19
I stared at the closed door, still breathless from the prospect of a kiss that hadn’t even happened. PC, misunderstanding my fascination with the door, trotted over, sat, and waited to go out. When I just stood there, he whined and pawed at the wood.
I scooped him up.“You’re the only steady man I need in my life—right, PC?”
He wagged his plumed tail and licked my chin. He felt feverishly hot in my arms. Is the consumption of my soul making me cold?
I didn’t know. I didn’t even have anyone I could ask.
I looked down at my dog, and he licked my chin again, then looked pointedly at the door.
“All right. A walk,” I said.
His tail went into high speed at the w-a-l-k word, and I grabbed his leash. He charged out the door, doing his best to drag me down the stairs, but PC’s seven pounds of enthusiasm weren’t enough to accomplish the task.
At the base of the stairs, he stopped to sniff Fred, the cat gargoyal.
“Don’t you let that thing wiz on me,” the statue warned, its telepathic voice conveying alarm not evident on the snarling stone features.
I picked up PC before he could hike his leg. “Sorry, Fred. I didn’t know you were so close to the stairs.”
“The Sleagh Maith has visited you.” Fred’s voice wasn’t alarmed now. It was just stating a fact. The fact happened to be that fae had been to my house. And not just any fae. No, a member of the Sleagh Maith, the good people, who from what Caleb had told me were typically court fae.
He could mean Falin, or … My stomach lurched, and not in the fluttery, awkward but excited way it had a few minutes ago. I glanced at the street, afraid I’d see a large white van headed for me, but the road was empty. The reporters had finally moved on to other stories, so for the first time in several days, the sidewalk in front of the house was clear. “When were the fae here?”
Fred didn’t answer.
“I’ll let PC pee on you.” To mark my point, I lowered the wiggling dog toward the ground.
“While you’re away, I miss cream.”
The gargoyle’s disapproval was obvious in my head, and I frowned at it.
It wasn’t making sense. I hadn’t been away, and I’d added milk to the saucer on the porch just last night. I waited, but Fred didn’t say anything else. Gargoyles had a reputation for being precognitive. Maybe he means I’m going away … I didn’t foresee a vacation in my near future. My mind drifted back to the fae in the van, and I shuddered.
“Come on, PC. Let’s get this walk over quick.”
I turned, heading for the backyard, and Fred’s voice touched my mind again. “You must See under the Blood Moon. You must know what you See is true.”
I whirled around. “What does that mean?”
Fred didn’t answer.
“Dammit. What’s the Blood Moon?” The thorn fae had mentioned the Blood Moon and nightmares in the golden halls. She’d called it a warning from the Shadow Girl. Then she’d recited a verse—a verse that didn’t make sense.
I glared at the gargoyle. I was sick of cryptic messages.
It was time to find some answers.
———
Falin returned at eleven, his eyes weary and his hair mussed as though he’d been running his hands through it. He tossed a white paper bag on the counter as soon as he walked in, and then kicked his shoes off by the door.
“You hungry?” He nodded toward the bag.
“I’m about to go to lunch,” I reminded him. “What did you learn about Sally?”
He didn’t answer but walked over and pulled a hoagie out of the bag. He unwrapped the silver foil on the Philly cheesesteak sub, and my mouth watered. I watched him take a bite of the sub, knowing my lunch wasn’t going to be half as good. The Eternal Bloom was a bar with a very short order grill. Fries and hamburgers were about the extent of what I could expect real-food-wise.
I peeked in the bag. There was another silver-wrapped hoagie inside. Maybe if I just eat half of it and then order fries when I meet Ashen … As I pulled out the sub I noticed Falin grinning at me from behind his hoagie. I ignored him and enjoyed the food.
“So, as good as this sub is, it’s not going to distract me. What did you learn about Sally?”
“I just got back from the station, Alex. Let me eat my lunch.” He walked over to the fridge. “You want a soda?”
No, I didn’t want one of his sodas that was in my fridge. I wanted him to answer my question or get out of my house. I wrapped the uneaten part of lunch and woke my laptop back up. If he wasn’t going to tell me what he’d learned, I was going back to my research.
“The next full moon is next Wednesday,” I said without looking up. Falin made a noise that didn’t indicate whether he was listening or just enjoying his food. I continued.
“There will be a full lunar eclipse. The moon will turn red.”
He still didn’t say anything.
“I think that’s the Blood Moon in the warning. But what are the golden halls?” The statehouse? “Ghost girls could be exactly what it says: female ghosts. Or it could be grave witches.” But the full first line of the verse was “A ghost girl of blood is worth treasure in silver chains,” so if “ghost girl” referred to grave witches, what did it mean to be “of blood”? Flesh and blood, maybe? As in living? I frowned. The second half of that line was darker: “and if she is a fool, by commands she’ll know my pains.” Was that a threat from the Shadow Girl?
Falin walked over and glanced at the document on my screen. “Have you been working on that riddle since I left?”
“Mostly, yeah.” After I’d found out about the lunar eclipse, I’d thought I might have a chance of decoding the verse. All I’d done was give myself a headache.
He leaned forward and put one hand on my back as he read. “Golden Halls would be the high court in faerie.”
I blinked. “Seriously?” I jotted it down. If the golden halls in the line “The Golden Halls are ruled by a nightmare on the morrow” referred to the high court of faerie, I was even more confused why the Shadow Girl—whoever she was—would tell me in a verse. Unless it’s about Coleman’s ritual. Is whatever he’s doing going to threaten faerie? But again, why tell me?
The second line was the most intelligible: “She who Sees knows the eyes’ empty look.” Death and the fae had both used “See” to refer to seeing through glamour.
“And seven times she’ll know what it is he took.” If “he” referred to Coleman, I knew what he was taking: souls.
“The last half of the second line could mean seven victims,” I said. Of course, there was no guarantee the verse had anything to do with the spell—or with anything.
It could be nonsense.
Falin frowned at me and stepped back. “There was a trace of dark magic on Sally’s body.”
“Tamara sensed it?”
He shook his head. I frowned. Tamara hadn’t been able to feel the spell in the scratches on my shoulder, either. If the soul-consuming spell had killed Sally, why had it worked so fast? I’d been infected for four days.
She’d died after only one.
“What—” Falin cut off as his phone buzzed, alerting him to a text message. He pulled the phone from his belt and flipped it open. “I have to go. Don’t go to the Eternal Bloom without me.”
I glanced at the clock. It was already eleven thirty.
“What’s going on?”
“They found another body.”
———
I hesitated as I climbed out of Holly’s car where it idled in front of Eternal Bloom.“Do you want to come in and have a drink before you go?”
Holly shook her head. “Big case landed on my desk yesterday. I’m doing research for the DA, and I’m slammed, but I’ll see you tonight. Have fun.”
I closed the door, because short of begging her to come with me, I had nothing more to say. Now that I was standing outside the Eternal Bloom, I was seriously wishing someone else was going in with me. But I was here, I was going in, and I was going to learn what Ashen knew about fae glyphs. I hitched my purse higher on my shoulder and marched up the steps.
Beyond the main door was a small receiving room—too small, as the bouncer on duty was a troll. He stooped despite the nine-foot ceiling, his knuckles dragging the floor beside his bare blue feet.
“Please check all iron items,” he said, his deep voice booming in the confined space.
I considered what I had on me. My car keys might have contained iron, but they’d been stolen with the car.
I had the dagger on me, but it was fae-wrought, so not iron, and the troll hadn’t said anything about checking weapons.
“No iron,” I said, smiling.
He nodded his large hairless head. “Please sign ledger.”
I looked around. No ledger. I did remember there being a podium the last time I came here. The troll watched me and frowned, his two lower tusks protruding.
He shuffled to the side.
Right. That ledger. The one behind the troll. I scratched my name in the book, overly aware of the large fae breathing down my neck.
“Al-lex Ca-raft,” the troll read aloud. He looked at a clipboard. “You have VIP status.”
He shuffled some more and indicated a door I hadn’t even known was in the room. I frowned.
“No, I don’t,” I said, but the troll only gave me a confused look. “I’m not a VIP here.” Or at least, I didn’t think I wanted to be.
The troll scratched the top of his head with a finger as thick around as my wrist. “Alex Craft. VIP.”
“No, I’m not. Let me in the public part of the bar.”
The troll frowned harder. He looked from the door, to his clipboard, to the ledger, and then back to the clipboard.
He shook his head.
Okay, then. It looked as if I was standing Ashen up. I didn’t like my sudden elevation to VIP. I was getting the hell out of the Eternal Bloom.
I shoved the main door open, storming out of the bar—and plowed straight into someone.
I jumped back. “I’m so sorry; I—”
“No, please forgive me, Miss Craft, for keeping you waiting.” Ashen bowed from the waist. “I am unfamiliar with these streets. I did not mean to be so tardy.”
Of course, if I run over someone, it would have to be my date.
“You’re not late. I just got here myself,” I said, and then immediately regretted it as he smiled and motioned to the door.
“Should we find a table?”
“I, uh …” I glanced back at the bar. “Honestly, I’m having a bit of trouble with the bouncer. Why don’t we eat somewhere else?”
“The bouncer? We’ll see about that.” He pulled out his wallet and wrapped his arm through mine. “I find the green speaks to fae as well as it does humans.”
“Please check all iron items,” the troll said as Ashen pulled open the door.
“No iron on me, my good fae,” he said, and pressed a twenty into the troll’s huge palm. “My lady friend and I would like a quiet spot in which to speak. That won’t be a problem, right?”
The troll cocked his huge head to the side.
“See,” Ashen whispered. Then he pulled me through the very door I’d been avoiding, leading me into the VIP area of the Eternal Bloom.