20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

I pulled my magic up from my stomach and reached out first to Farrier. I looped him easily enough but his wolf wasn't there to do the same to.

I closed my eyes and looked with my magic rather than my physical vision. Desperately I hummed ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' as I searched for the man's wolf. There! There was a tendril, like a silver contrail left by an aeroplane.

I followed it, plunging away from my body as I reached out to the wolf. He wasn't alone but with many others: the Great Pack. Mindful of the price if I spoke to the Great Pack, I silently looped my magic around him alone and gently tugged him back to Farrier. Since I wasn't using the Great Pack's magic to speak to them but my own piping skills, surely that meant that a wolf's soul wouldn't be forfeit ?

Nervously I closed the loop around Farrier and the wolf, tying it off with my best girl-guide knots. I opened my eyes and swore a little as an itch started on my skin. I'd used too much magic. That wasn't ideal; I had guests and now really wasn't the time for an overnight stay at Rosie's.

Farrier's mouth was still hanging open but it snapped shut as tears suddenly filled his eyes. He closed them whilst he spoke to his wolf properly for the first time in his life.

I reached out a hand to Esme and gave her a full body cuddle. We were so lucky to have our relationship, to have been able to speak to each other from the beginning. I couldn't imagine being reft from her, even after our recent disagreements. Poor Farrier. To be a werewolf yet to be stuck in Common forever without his wolf? I shuddered; it was the stuff of nightmares.

Finally, he opened his eyes and they were shining. ‘Thank you,' he breathed. ‘This is the greatest gift you could ever have given me. If the Domini do find me, we'll die happy.'

‘They won't find you from me,' I vowed.

‘You don't know their strength,' he warned. ‘They've existed for centuries, pulling strings from behind a curtain.'

‘Why not just seize power?' I asked. ‘Why let the Connection have the final say?'

He snorted. ‘The Connection can be steered in the direction the Domini want. This way the Domini have no responsibility, no one to answer to. If they came out in the open, their atrocities would spark outrage. People would rise up against them as they would against any dictatorship. Sometimes it takes years but eventually the regimes are toppled. This way, no one knows to topple the Domini. Far better to lurk in the shadows like the cowards they are.'

‘What's their agenda?' Greg asked.

Farrier shrugged. ‘Wealth, power. I suppose those things come hand in hand. They believe that they should have more of both, no matter how much they already have.'

I leaned forward. ‘So do you know the identity of any of them?'

He nodded slowly. ‘I suspect a few of them, but one I know for sure.'

‘How?'

‘He was the one who was sent to kill me,' he said drily. ‘He left me for dead but a loner found me and saved my life. He stitched me up and dragged me to the witches, who sent me here to their little safe haven.'

‘The witches?' I said, startled. ‘They run this place?'

‘Yeah, it was set up centuries ago but it really came into its own with the advent of the Connection. If you make a powerful enemy and death is on the cards, you can run away to the circus. You have to stay in the Common but you're safe.'

‘Does Amber know about this place?' I asked curiously.

He snorted. ‘Does she know about it? She runs the whole thing!'

Now it was my mouth that dropped open. I loved Amber, but I often thought what I didn't know about my reserved friend could fill a whole grimoire. As I closed my mouth, I wondered if raising the whole circus thing with her would get me into trouble. Probably so: secret circuses wouldn't stay that way if I blabbed about them. I wondered what other secrets Amber was withholding from me.

Farrier continued. ‘It was Amber DeLea's mum who healed me and sent me here. It's my job now to look out for those who are lost.'

I realised that he was a good man, and God knows I needed more of them in my life. ‘Come back with me,' I said impulsively. ‘We'll protect you. Come back, Farrier, and be a werewolf.'

He sat back and closed his eyes. ‘You don't know how tempted I am,' he whispered. ‘I would love nothing better than to come with you, but my time here isn't done. The next ringmaster isn't ready. '

‘You've got your eye on someone?' Greg asked.

‘An ogre, actually. He's a good man but he's only been here a couple of years. He's not ready to take over. Not yet.'

‘And you're not ready to leave,' I asserted.

‘An astute observation, my Queen. I'm like a prisoner, too used to the walls around me.' He patted the caravan's flimsy walls. ‘I'm institutionalised.' His smile was bitter.

‘The offer stands,' I said finally. ‘When you're ready.'

He nodded but his eyes told me he didn't think he'd ever be ready. ‘Let me tell you about the Domini and then you'd best be on your way. I have a show starting soon.'

‘Of course.'

‘Do you have any suspects?' he asked. ‘I'm just asking out of curiosity.'

‘Larsden and Ramsay – and maybe Aitken,' Greg listed.

‘I'd say you're on the nose with Larsden and Ramsay.' Farrier looked impressed. ‘They were on my suspects' list. But as far as I know, Aitken is just an ordinary asshole. I don't doubt he'd accept an invitation if one landed on his door, but to my knowledge he isn't one of them. He's a garden-variety twat.'

‘So who else?' I asked, praying that Larsden and Ramsay weren't the only ones he knew about.

‘Look to key positions of power,' he suggested. ‘For example, the one I know for sure – the man who tried to kill me – was Kearns.'

Kearns, the speaker of the werewolf Council? I groaned. ‘Oh, come on. Not Kearns. He's the one guy that likes me.'

‘I imagine he's practising a bit of "keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer",' Farrier observed.

‘Quite possibly,' I conceded. I stood, for a moment I wanted to hold my hand out to Farrier before I remembered that wasn't the done thing. Instead, I pressed a hand to my heart. ‘Thank you for your help. My honour to meet you.'

He stood, and returned the gesture, giving me a deeper bow than I would have expected. ‘You're welcome. I wish you the best of luck.'

I squelched down the urge to say, ‘We'd need it'.

Farrier watched us leave, eyes cooly assessing as we climbed out of his caravan.

‘Kearns told Abberdon to challenge you,' Greg pointed out grimly.

‘Yes, but he said it was because Abberdon was a threat to me and he hoped I would eliminate him,' I said weakly. Dammit: it did sound implausible now that I said it out loud.

‘Kearns is in our home,' Greg growled.

We should destroy him, Esme agreed.

I grimaced. ‘This isn't the best timing, but I'm as itchy as hell. I need to go to Common to recharge.'

Greg swore, clearly torn between heading home to deal with Kearns or staying and protecting me whilst I was in the Common realm.

I licked my lips. ‘Kearns thinks he's flying under the radar. As far as he knows, he and Debbie are our honoured guests. Besides, we need to find some way of stopping him from killing himself before he's questioned properly.'

‘Bastion,' Greg grunted. ‘We get Bastion there while we question Kearns and he can coax the bastard not to kill himself.'

I looked at him. ‘You're a genius.'

‘I have my moments. I'll message Bastion and in the meantime we'll go to Rosie's.'

‘What about the pack?' I asked worriedly. ‘We can't just leave a threat walking around unchecked. And Tristan, Finley and Ethan are already at Rosie's.'

‘We clue in Archie and Liam,' Greg suggested.

I brightened suddenly. ‘Oh my God, yes. We were worrying about a Domini mole in the pack but Kearns was one of the Council members that stayed late during the whole rose and mantelpiece debacle. If Kearns is Domini then we've found our mole.'

‘There could be others,' Greg cautioned, ‘but Archie and Liam have shown their trustworthiness over and over again. I say we bring them up to speed and tell them to go and make nice with Debbie and Kearns, ostensibly because they've just arrived. Archie and Liam can stick to them like glue under the guise of good hospitality.'

‘You're right,' I agreed. ‘Do it. You fill them in while I drive us to Rosie's.' And once we were there, it was time for a certain discussion between Greg and me that I couldn't put off any longer.

God help me, it was time to talk about my feelings.