12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Ailin

W hat the actual fuck?

Seriously. What the actual fuck?

I stared in astonishment, feeling like I walked onto a movie set or something.

In the middle of the room there was a large conveyor belt with a ton of Christmas decorations being moved along it. At the end of the belt, there were a bunch of delivery boxes.

And all around the belt and boxes were a shit-ton of… elves.

Little guys with pointy ears. They were even wearing Christmas colors with little hats on their heads.

Was I… hallucinating or something?

I blinked.

Nope, they were still there.

But… this couldn’t be real, right?

Christmas elves… weren’t a real thing, were they?

I rubbed my eyes.

And nope, they were still there.

What in the ever-loving fuck is this?

“What the fuck is this?” Seb asked in a hushed voice. “Santa’s Evil Workshop?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but I honestly had no words for him. It was easy for me to read the magic the elves were using, so it was clear to me that they were cursing each of the decorations or toys that passed over the conveyor belt, then packing them up into boxes and sending them on their way.

Santa’s evil workshop, indeed.

After a few seconds, I nodded. “It looks like it.”

All the elves were staring at us with terrified expressions, and I didn’t know why, but I just couldn’t imagine them at the heart of this horror-fest of Christmas decor. Maybe their small statures, rosy cheeks, button noses, huge eyes, and cuteness were getting to me, but seriously, I couldn’t believe they were cursing toys for kids and decorations for people who celebrated Christmas. That was ridiculous.

Elves were generally good guys, weren’t they? They didn’t have a mean bone in their bodies, did they?

But… just because I’d known some good elves in the past didn’t mean all elves were good. That was just dumb. All types of creatures had good and evil among them.

I had so many spells floating around me, ready to attack and take down the baddies, but these guys were just… standing there. They weren’t running. They weren’t attacking. They didn’t even look like they were ready to defend themselves against me.

I dropped my spells because I didn’t want to scare them more than they already were.

Which was… unfair after everything they’d done to people the past few days. They sort of deserved to be terrified, didn’t they?

I heard Seb’s voice in my head say, “They don’t feel evil. What the hell?”

“I don’t know, baby.”

Alec said, “Let’s get these guys in restraints or shields so we can clear the building and interview them.”

“Right.”

Seb and I—and all of our kids—began throwing shields over the top of each and every elf. There were so many that we had to group them under the shields, but that was fine since they couldn’t escape.

Not that they seemed inclined to.

Not a single one of them tried to run from us, not even when it was clear we were apprehending them.

Most of them were hunched into themselves or holding onto other elves for comfort. They looked as if we were the bad guys who’d come in to destroy them all.

If they were so bold as to curse so many things and send them off into the world, why the hell were they cowering now? What the fuck was going on?

These were not the evil criminals we were expecting to find.

While we grouped the elves together and moved them all to one side of the factory, other BCA agents cleared the rest of the building, coming up empty.

Toby and Hiro worked together to clear the office that was on an upper level, overlooking the conveyor belt, and Hiro called down to me, “Ailin, you might wanna come up ‘ere. There’s lots of paperwork, so you might find somethin’.”

“Thanks, Hiro,” Seb said for me, and I gave our son-in-law a nod.

So once all the elves were secure, I headed up there to search the place. Seb came with me, and the two of us started rifling through the many, many books and papers that were strewn about. Honestly, it looked like it’d been ransacked before we’d even gotten here.

“This is… weird.” Seb sighed and rubbed his face.

“Weird how?” I picked up another piece of paper and sighed because it was a water bill and was addressed to Merry Marketplace. There wasn’t an actual name anywhere. Everything was addressed to the business, even the letters we found.

Very unhelpful.

Seb huffed out a frustrated breath. “Those… elves—are they really elves? I… I didn’t think tiny elves like that existed. I’ve never seen them before.”

“They’re elves.” I discarded yet another piece of useless paper. “I’ve only seen them one other time when I was a kid, and my dad told me that most elves like to stay in Faela. Something about the way our magic here feels against their skin or something—I can’t remember. But anyway, yeah. They’re elves, but I’m not surprised you haven’t seen them before. They’re rare here, and I’m not sure if there are any living on the Pink Isle either.”

The Pink Isle was the island we always visited when we went to Faela, the land of the fae. Hence all the pink when we traveled through Basil’s portal.

Seb scratched his nose, meeting my eyes. “Hm. So that makes this even stranger. They’re so rare, don’t like being here, and yet, they attack everyone? That just… doesn’t seem right. I don’t feel like I’m getting anything malicious from them.”

I sighed. “I don’t either. But, Seb, you saw what they were doing, right? They were putting curses on the decorations on the conveyor belt. We literally caught them red-handed.”

He made a noncommittal noise and glanced through the window down to the floor where all the elves were.

I glanced down as well and frowned. Now some of the elves were crying.

For fuck’s sake, I wasn’t supposed to feel sorry for the damn creatures that’d been terrorizing the city for days.

Fuck .

My nostrils flared, and I went back to digging through paperwork.

Seb kissed my cheek randomly as he walked past me, and it made me smile a tiny bit. He was so sweet, and the fact that he’d done that while we were at work was pretty rare. He hated public displays of affection when we were working. He always maintained this we’re at work and need to be professional attitude. Which I got, but sometimes it was fun messing with him.

The fact that he’d kissed my cheek while we were in the middle of a case in some random factory, working with a ton of other BCA agents was possibly a sign that he wanted something.

“What do you want?”

Seb looked at me with raised eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

I huffed. “You just willingly did some PDA at work , so… what do you want?”

“I wanted to kiss your cheek, that’s all.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He rolled his eyes. “You can believe anything you want, but that doesn’t change the truth.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You want something.”

He looked at the ceiling and let out the most dramatic exasperated breath I’d ever heard. “God forbid I do something nice.”

“Hm.”

“Ailin Talamh Ellwood, if I wanted something, I’d simply tell you. Why the hell would I need to kiss your cheek first, you weirdo?”

I shrugged. “Dunno. That’s why I’m asking you.”

“I don’t want anything.”

“Sure you don’t.”

“Oh my god. Ailin.”

“Mother of All. Sebastian.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I just wanted to kiss your cheek.”

“Uh-huh.”

He let out a frustrated growl. “For fuck’s sake, A.”

I couldn’t help it, I grinned.

His eyes narrowed. “What the hell? Were you messing with me?”

“I had to find something fun to do while we went through paperwork hell.”

He flipped me off and turned away, ignoring me.

A small laugh came out, and I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders from behind since he was sitting. I kissed the top of his head. “I love you.”

He grunted.

“I love you so, so much.”

He grunted again.

“I love you more than anything else in the world.”

He stayed silent.

I almost snorted at the stubborn man. “I love you so much, I think I’m going to hug you for the rest of the day. You won’t be able to go anywhere without me right on your ass.”

“You fucking will not be doing that.”

I laughed and bent down to kiss his temple.

He sighed, long and loud and dramatic. “I love you too.”

I snorted, gave him one more head kiss, and released him before turning back to the desk.

A few minutes later, Alec appeared at the door with his hands on his hips, looking irritated. “Can you come talk to the elves? I need someone that can try different languages. I asked them a few questions, and they stared at me like I had three heads.”

“Sure.” I put the papers I was holding down. “There isn’t anything in this office anyway.”

He sighed. “Figures. I’ll have a few techs come take a look as well.”

I gave him a nod and followed him out the door. Seb came with us, probably because he was curious about these elves and why they’d turned this place into Santa’s Evil Workshop.

All of the little guys were now gathered in a group and underneath one large shield, so I supposed we were doing a group interview first. We’d have to do individual ones back at the BCA headquarters.

I stood in front of the group, staring at them for a long minute before I asked, “Why the hell are you cursing things and sending them to unsuspecting families?” When I got no response, I repeated the question in Fae’lee, which I figured they spoke.

All of them looked even more terrified than when I first came over. They were exchanging glances with each other and huddling closer to one another. It took over thirty seconds for one brave elf with big green eyes and brown hair to come forward and speak in Fae’lee. “We have no choice, sir.”

My brow furrowed at that. That sounded like a bullshit excuse if I ever heard one.

“Maybe you should give them the benefit of the doubt,” Seb said through our bond.

I glanced at him. “Really? You’re buying this bullshit?”

He shrugged and ran his teeth over his bottom lip. “Honestly, I kinda am. I told you before that I don’t sense any malice from them, and that still stands.” He waited a beat, and when I didn’t respond, he added, “At least hear them out.”

I grumbled under my breath. “Fine.” Out loud, I asked in Fae’lee, “Why? What’s forcing you to do this?”

The elf bit his lip, his huge eyes darting between Seb, Alec, and me. It took a long time for him to answer. “Our master.”

It took a few seconds for that to sink in, and when it did, I wanted to explode. “Who’s your master? Where is he?” The elf shrank back, and I realized I’d growled the words out and my magic was angrily whipping around me. More calmly, I said, “No one’s going to hurt you, okay? But I need you to tell me who your master is. Please.”

He shook his head. “Can’t say.”

“Please. We’ll help you get away from him.”

“Can’t say… want to, but can’t.”

I stared at him for a beat and tried my best to rein in my anger. I wasn’t angry at the elves; it wasn’t their fault. I was angry at whoever had enslaved them. I wanted to ring that person’s neck.

“Can you tell me your name?”

He nodded. “Rilitar Shacan.”

I knew Alec would already have people looking up the guy now that we had at least one name. Hopefully the rest would be as easy to get.

To the elf, I said, “I’m Ailin Ellwood, and this is my viramore, Sebastian Ellwood.”

He nodded and put his hand over his heart in a greeting of respect. Huh.

“Are you under a compulsion?” I asked the little guy.

He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out, and when he tried to talk a second time, he started gagging. He grabbed his throat and bent over, trying to catch his breath.

Shit . Clearly the compulsion or spell wouldn’t allow him to talk about it.

I grimaced and was going to ask Basil to let me through his shield to help, but a few of the other elves helped the poor guy.

After they made sure he was okay, another elf with bright blue eyes and blonde hair came forward and said, “We can’t help you. We’re sorry.” She looked terrified of my response.

“It’s okay. I’m going to figure this out. What’s your name?”

“Nimeroni Aratris, sir.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Ailin.” I turned to Seb. “You were right.”

“Wow. You’re even admitting it.”

I rolled my eyes and grunted.

“Told you. Thanks for hearing them out, A.”

I waved that off and looked back at all the little elves, then cringed as I thought of something. “Is this master going to come after you when he realizes we stopped your little setup here?”

Nimeroni winced. “Yes. He won’t let us go easily.”

I turned to Alec. “What the hell are we going to do with them? They’re in danger. We need a safe place to take them.” To Seb, I added, “And who the fuck is behind this? How are we here, and we still don’t have a fucking answer?”

“I don’t know, but we’re closer to one, right? We… we have to be.”

I sure as shit hoped so.