Faerie Blood: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Changeling Chronicles Book 1) (14 page)

“Yeah. Unfortunately, I’m all out of blood for tracking spells.”
That’s enough, Ivy.
“Never mind. You were saying you always have to deal with people coming here and asking questions. Do you ever leave this place?”

“I live here,” he said, indicating the open conservatory.

“Wait, this is your house?” I stared around at the fancy furnishings. Damn. From outside, I’d guessed the place had at least twenty rooms. Maybe more. Surely too many for one person. “You live alone?”

“I inherited the house from my parents.”

“Really? So they’re dead?”

“They were killed fighting the Sidhe in the invasion.”

Well, crap. I didn’t know what to say.
I’m sorry
wouldn’t cut it, seeing as it’d come out insincerely. “But you only became leader of the mages last year, right?”

“The house has been open to all mages since my father’s time,” he said. “This was originally a place of shelter before the invasion. Mages often aren’t able to easily hide their abilities the way witches can, and have the potential to be a danger both to themselves and to each other. Safe houses like this were set up to alleviate the risk.”

Oh. I’d assumed the mages were exclusionary because they thought themselves on a higher tier than anyone else in the supernatural community—admittedly, the mages had done nothing to mitigate that assumption until recently.

“So there are others here?”

“Not at the moment. Aside from yourself, Wanda and Quentin. I think you scared Ralph away.”

“I wasn’t that bad. He does look like a faerie. No teenage boy has skin that clear.”

Lord Colton looked at me with amusement in his eyes. “You’re a menace,” he said. “He’s quarter-blooded—three quarters human, one quarter faerie. He never met his faerie ancestors. His mage side came out on top, as it usually does.”

“That can happen? You’re partly shifter… right? I saw during the fight with the hellhounds.”

His expression was unreadable. “Quarter-blooded, yes.”

Hmm. Again, I kept forgetting what Henry had said… that the Mage Lord’s shifter blood belonged to the most powerful branch of shapeshifter. Right now, I couldn’t tell. Then again, most shifters were indistinguishable from normal humans, at least until they transformed. Though
normal
wouldn’t be the first word that came to mind when I thought about Vance Colton.

“Er. I know a family of shifters,” I said. “They live in the upstairs flat. That’s why I wondered.” I didn’t quite have the courage to mention Henry had sniffed him out. I wanted to keep the Mage Lord as far away from my home life as humanly possible.

He tilted his head. “You live near shifter territory, don’t you?”

“Yes. Do you have family over there?”

He paused before saying, “Not that I talk to on a regular basis. Are you faerie-blooded?”

The question was so unexpected, I gaped at him for a good thirty seconds. Alarm rang through me.
What did I do?
Had I given myself away? I hadn’t—at least, I thought not—but why the hell would he ask
are you faerie-blooded
like it was as ordinary as asking,
is it raining outside?

Clenching my sweaty hands at my sides, I said, “No. Why?”

“The changeling called you a faerie.”

“More like a faerie killer.” Come on. I wasn’t unattractive, but even quarter-blooded fey looked more faerie than human, if his security guard proved anything. “I’m not a faerie.”

He couldn’t see my magic. But his stare burned through me, and I looked away from his eyes.
Don’t go there.
As Mage Lord, he had grounds to be suspicious of me. I was lucky the question hadn’t come up sooner.

To change the subject, I asked, “What about the missing kids, then? Got any other leads?”

“Have you?”

I hesitated. I wanted to go it alone. This crap was way too dangerous to drag Isabel into, and she was the only person I’d trust to walk with me into the faeries’ territory. If I was forced to leave my weapons behind again, though, it wouldn’t hurt to have someone with me who could grab a sword out of nowhere.

“After setting the kelpie loose, one of them took pity on me and said they saw this ‘Lady of the Tree’ walking around,” I said. “Apparently she hardly leaves her own territory, so it might be a sign of a power shift. Or something. It’s all I’ve got, anyway.”

“Whereabouts?” he asked.

“Pleasance Park.”

He nodded. “Very well. I’ll see to my clients, and then we’ll leave.”

And that was that. With nothing better to do, I walked back to the entrance, where Wanda still waited in the reception area.

“Hey,” she said. “Is the Mage Lord finally dealing with those people?"

“Yes, he is,” I said. “Are they really asking for favours, or is he just trying to get out of work?”

“I think he wants to prioritise the missing person’s case,” she said. “He hates that we’ve made no progress at all. It makes us look bad.”

“I’m the one who originally signed up to investigate,” I said. “And I haven’t got too far either.”

Aside from some useless clues and a sore ankle, I had nothing. And it bugged the hell out of me. I was good at my job. Not least thanks to Isabel’s spells. They always worked. And there were lives at stake. Not only had I messed up, I’d let three changelings escape and potentially put my job in jeopardy. Worry for the missing kids aside, my future looked like a line of dominoes ready to collapse. If I failed the case, more kids would be taken. Whoever was behind the kidnappings would walk free. I’d lose my job, and Isabel and I would lose our flat and become homeless.

Yeah. Things were as bleak as the underside of a troll’s foot.

“What’s he like to work with?” I asked Wanda, to take my mind off my own failings.

“Lord Colton? He’s good at his job.”

“I mean, personally,” I said. “I was under the impression you didn’t work with witches, yet he hired me for this case.” I also wanted to ask if he regularly spoke to business partners the way he’d spoken to me.

“For him to take a personal interest means he thinks the entire magical and supernatural community may be affected,” she said.

“Really?” I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering the way he and the necromancer had almost blown up at one another. It still didn’t explain his personal interest in the case—and in me. “I thought he only dealt with cases people paid him for.”

“Technically, the money goes to our Guild. This case, though… it’s odd. I’ve never seen him go to this much trouble before.”

Hmm. “This is a rarity? Doesn’t he deal with magical cases personally?”

“As many as he can, but one person can’t be in seven places at once. I get the impression he
would
be,
if he could. He has a protective streak a mile wide, and he dislikes sending his people into danger.”

That, I hadn’t expected. “Seriously?”

She nodded. “Why is that a surprise?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. You guys always struck me as…” Self-centred. Exclusionary. Probably not a good idea to use either of those terms. “I mean, he’s not exactly the friendliest of people. He and the leader of the necromancers got into an argument. Does that happen often?”

“Every other Tuesday,” she said. “I joke, but the necromancers are awful people. All they care about is watching the veil, not this realm. The faeries could invade again and they’d lock themselves in their own basement and look the other way.”

Huh? “They did that last time?”

“Essentially. When it became clear some serious cleaning up was needed, the Mage Lords persuaded them to come out and help. I was young at the time, so I don’t remember.”

“So you’re a mage, then?” I asked, to take my mind off the sudden surge of anger that lanced through me. The necromancers had looked the other way while my parents died.

“Yes, I’m a frost mage apprentice.” She smiled. “I’m told you’re a talented witch.”

“Who told you that? Drake?” I doubted it—he’d never seen me use magic. But the mages’ leader had shown me nothing but disrespect.

“Lord Colton, of course. He said your tracking spell’s the best he’s seen.”

Oh. Figures.
“My friend made it,” I said. “Didn’t think the guy handed out compliments. He seems to strongly dislike me.” Judging by the way he’d instantly accused me of foul play when he’d found out I’d covered up those spells I’d taken from the Swansons’ house, anyway.

Unless he showed different sides of himself to different people. Which made him dangerous. Untrustworthy.

Intriguing,
some part of me said. I paid it no notice.

“Are you ready?” asked a deep voice behind me. Lord Colton. The people he’d been speaking to had presumably left through another exit, because the three of us were alone in the reception area.

“Yeah.” I glanced at Wanda, but she didn’t seem cowed by the Mage Lord. So I guess he didn’t intimidate his staff if they could speak openly to me about him.
Right. If we get a chance to talk later, I have a few more questions.

“I haven’t heard back from any of the others patrolling the town,” he said. “I suppose we’d better follow your lead, since it’s the best we’ve got.”

“Way to give me a backhanded compliment,” I said, rolling my eyes.

He shrugged. “You yourself said it’s an unlikely source. I’ve sent a mage ahead to scout, so he’ll let us know if the coast is clear.”

I eyed him. “Probably won’t be, if you show up wearing that fancy coat. Every faerie in town will know something big’s happening.”

He frowned. “I’ll leave the coat behind.”

I grinned. Score one for me.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lord Colton joined me at the door within five minutes. Even unarmed and without his coat, he still looked irritatingly authoritative. I had to face it: we’d draw attention wherever we went. I wore a torn-up pair of jeans and a long-sleeved top stained to the elbows in what had once been redcap entrails—a souvenir from my second least favourite job. The Mage Lord, on the other hand, had attempted to dress casually in plain black, but his clothes were obviously tailored and expensive-looking.

“You’re staring,” he said. “Do I meet your approval?”

“If you’re asking for fashion advice, I’m not your girl.” I indicated my torn-up, stained clothes. “Does everything you wear come with a dirt-repelling charm?”

“Quentin usually puts one on to stop me from leaving mud on the carpet.”

“Ah.” I looked away, because apparently I couldn’t trust my eyes to stop lingering on the way his shirt showed off his muscled arms and broad shoulders. “Right. Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

“I’m flattered that you’re so delighted to spend time with me.”

“Please. You give yourself too much credit. As I said, I’m using you as a backup system should things get ugly out there.”

“Are you always this polite to your colleagues?” he inquired.

“Nah, you made it onto my special list.”
And you’re one to talk.
I clamped my mouth shut and pushed open the door.

One of the mages’ black cars had already pulled up outside the gates. I didn’t recognise the driver this time around. Lord Colton climbed into the front, leaving me alone in the back.

“Where’s Drake?” I asked as the car rumbled to life.

“Patrolling,” he said. “We’ve got everyone on the lookout for those changelings.”

Damn. The changelings… They’d been taken. But by whom? And why? Someone had put a spell on them to stop them talking, but it didn’t mean someone smarter than me couldn’t get the information out of them. The person who’d taken them might have been the one who set them free in the first place. Just to clean up loose ends.

Unease prickled up my spine. Maybe I ought to have asked Isabel to come along. She was the best at tracking, after all. Hell, if I’d asked Isabel to help me find the first changeling rather than running off with the mage, she might have been able to find a way to get answers from it herself. There were certainly ways of extracting information or even undoing spells like that tongue-tying charm. Though if a Sidhe had done it, maybe not. Faerie and witch magic were different entities. One wouldn’t necessarily counteract the other.

“You look like you’re thinking hard,” Lord Colton said from the front. Must have seen my reflection in the wing mirror.

“Trying to work out what possible traps we might run into,” I said.

“Pleasance Park isn’t listed as belonging to a particular group,” he said. “It’s more or less abandoned, actually.”

“Makes sense that the faeries stepped in, then,” I said. Faeries flocked to places where nature had reclaimed the land from humans. After the war, there was no shortage of such areas. One reason I preferred the city to the countryside. But faeries, as I’d learned the hard way, adapted easily—certainly better than humans would have adapted to living in
their
realm. Then again, faeries were immortal.