Chapter 2

An hour later,invested with a jury-rigged plan, I headed for the grocery store.

I was halfway through shopping when I realized I was bored. I’d been off work for a couple of months. I had started writing a book about my experiences, but at heart, I preferred writing articles. I thought about starting a blog, which I was still playing around with, but that wouldn’t take up all my time. And I wasn’t geared to be a housewife.

My phone alerted me and I paused in the baking aisle to see who was texting me. It was Tally, my sister-in-law.

Since Ari had turned her back on me, Tally and I’d grown closer. At first, I thought I might be trying to prove that I was safe to be around with if you had children, but Tally and I had always gotten along, and the longer we hung out, the closer we were growing. I genuinely enjoyed spending time with her. She wasn’t my BFF, not like Ari had been, but we had formed a comfortable friendship over the past few months. That made Killian happy, too, so it was a win-win-win situation.

january, do you and killian still want to get together for game night? i need to know so i can call a babysitter.

why hire a babysitter? bring the twins with you. killian loves his nieces to pieces. ha, there’s my inner poet coming out. I snorted as I texted back.

you know we love that you guys watch victoria and leanna for us, but i want a night away from the babies. so i hate to disappoint you, but it’s going to just be us!

no problem. what do you want for dinner? i thought i might make lasagna.

les loves your cooking—and so do i. i don’t care if we eat shoe leather as long as i don’t have to cook it, but lasagna sounds fantastic. see you tomorrow night at around seven, Talley said.

I grinned at the phone. Tally loved being a mother, but she wasn’t ready to give up her everyday life to play nursemaid, and she wanted to find a job outside the house. They couldn’t afford a nanny, though, so when Serena and William—Killian and Tally’s parents—offered to move to Moonshadow Bay to help out with the grandkids, we all pitched in with house-hunting and found the perfect house for them. They had just closed on it and moved in. There had been no difficulties because they had bought my old home and were now our new neighbors.

“Are you sure you want them next door?” Killian had asked. “I know you all get along, but…”

“But nothing. They want to be in town to help your sister, and I hate seeing my house sit empty. I never thought I’d sell it, but given they agreed to let me make the first offer if they ever want to sell it, I’m fine.” I paused, then added, “You don’t know how good it feels to have family next door, even if they’re technically not my blood. I know I have Rowan and Aunt Teran, but your parents treat me like one of their own. They treat me like I matter, and I’m so grateful for that.”

“If you don’t mind, I think it would be great.” Killian had been so happy that I worried it might not work out—that maybe something would happen to disrupt everything. But Serena and William had lived next door for a month now and everything had been fine. Serena was taking a sabbatical from working to watch after the grandchildren, and William had expanded his business. He was an accountant, and while he had lost some of his clients by moving, he had also added a number of new ones.

I slid my phone back in my purse and added a box of lasagna noodles to the cart. I already had the makings for sauce at home, and I just needed more ricotta and some mozzarella. I thought about dessert for a moment and decided on lemon poundcake with a blueberry compote.

After adding a cake mix to the cart—I didn’t usually make pound cake and I wanted it to turn out right—I stopped in the frozen foods aisle for berries. We still had a few months till berry season and, after eating the ones grown locally, it was hard to buy imported ones. They always had that leathery feel blueberries get when they were a little too old. So frozen was a good way to go, and would make a delicious compote.

I finished the shopping, then headed home, thinking about Meagan. It didn’t surprise me that she was involved in sports—she was the dean of women’s sports at a local college—because she was more brawn than brain. Oh, she was smart enough, but her first instincts were to go the blunt, direct route. And that was true of most bear shifters. They were direct and honest, and you knew up front what they wanted from you.

As I arrived home and put away the groceries, I noticed something out back. There was something hanging on the gate that separated the two houses. We’d left the gate up when I agreed to sell, to give some semblance of privacy. I’d also insisted on keeping half the lot—the back half that buttressed the Mystic Wood. Given neither of Killian’s parents were only marginally interested in gardening, they had willingly given up the extra quarter acre in exchange for a reduction in price.

I put away the frozen foods then headed outside, squinting as a ray of sunlight hit my eyes. The weather in western Washington dithered in May, sometimes deciding we were on our way to summer, sometimes deciding to return to the blustery chill of spring. Today, we were getting the warmth. I stopped by the side gate where I saw a red sparkling ribbon tied to the post. I knew what that meant.

I glanced back at the house. The stove was off, and the door was shut to keep the cats in, so I untied the ribbon and headed toward the back of the lot. There, a bench sat at the trailhead leading into the Mystic Wood. The woodland sparkled with magic, and odd and sometimes dangerous creatures made their home within the boundaries. In the past few years, I’d come to know the woodland a lot better, but that only made me keep my guard up even more. Not all monsters wore frightening guises, and some of the most charming were more than willing to feed on grown witch women.

But I knew who had left the red ribbon. If it was tied on the gate, it meant Rebecca the imp wanted to talk to me. If I tied it on the bench by the trailhead, it meant I needed to talk to her. That we’d managed to come as far as we had astonished me. I’d always assumed she’d been trying to kill me when I was a child, but recently I’d figured out that she’d been trying to keep me from harm—to keep me safe from darker creatures lurking within the Mystic Woods.

I sat on the bench by the trailhead and waited. A moment later, Rebecca peered out of the thicket. She looked like a golden-haired ten-year-old girl, so perfect that she couldn’t be human. Rebecca was a minor demon—an imp—but we’d come to a meeting of the minds and while I wouldn’t say we were friends, we were the next best thing. Allies.

“Hey, what’s up?” We hadn’t talked in several weeks, but that wasn’t uncommon. Usually, Rebecca contacted me when something odd happened, or if there was danger around. Whenever I got a message that she wanted to see me, I spent my time waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“I have a message for you.” She looked so serious that it took me aback. Rebecca usually started with some semblance of small talk—hello, how are you, or whatnot. That she dove right in didn’t bode well.

“What is it? From whom?” It wasn’t like we ran in the same social circles with mutual friends.

“I bear a message from Briar, the Overking.”

Briar? Crap.Briar was one of the Overkings, or as we knew them—the Fae. And the Fae were not to be trifled with. They could be cruel and vicious, and the last thing anybody wanted was a run-in with them. And I owed him a favor.

I could feel the color draining out of my face. “What does he want?”

“I don’t know—I wasn’t about to ask,” Rebecca said. She handed me a large envelope that felt like it was made out of handmade paper, like papyrus. It was sealed with some sort of waxen seal to keep it closed. With one look, I could tell that it hadn’t been tampered with.

I stared at the envelope in my hand, dreading opening it. “I wonder what would happen if I just ignored it.”

Rebecca let out a little hiss. “Don’t even think it. The last person you want angry at you is one of the Overkings. They’re not even from my sphere, but I know better than to cross them. There’s a reason the Woodlings don’t revolt against their slavery. The Overkings have little in the way of compassion, and they’re arrogant because they’re so powerful—not because they just think they are.” She hesitated, then said, “Do you want me to open it for you?”

I flipped the envelope over. On the front, in a spidery scrawl, it read: Ms. January Jaxson. “I guess…no. I got myself into this situation. It’s up to me to deal with the fallout. But can you stay while I open it?”

“Of course,” Rebecca said, gingerly sitting on the bench near me. She didn’t like being touched.

“Thanks,” I said. I took a deep breath, then decided to rip the bandage off. I broke the wax seal and slid the folded pages out of the envelope. As I opened them, the feel of magic surrounded me. The Fae were powerful and they mirrored the energy coming from the Mystic Wood. I scanned the first page, reading the thin, coiling words aloud:

“January: I am calling in your debt. You will attend to this matter to the best of your ability. I need you to keep this quiet—you may ask your friends for help, in fact, I expect you’ll need to, but this is not something for public knowledge. You are not to tell your grandmother or any other member of the Court Magika. There are some delicate deliberations taking place between the Overkings and the Court Magika, and this could disrupt the balance of those negotiations.

“One of our sub-Fae has escaped the dungeons. A sluagh is loose in the Mystic Wood, and he’s good at hiding. The sluagh is dangerous, and he must be destroyed before he begins terrorizing Moonshadow Bay. We attempted to track him, but he’s managed to enter your world. This means we can’t go about at will to find him, because we will be noticed if we show up in your village.

“He’s an energy eater, and a murderer. He’s killed in the past—at least fourteen victims—when he last escaped. We fear he’ll up his body count, and we can’t afford this to be a stumbling block in negotiations with the Witchblood Queen and our King. This could end our negotiations and send us back to the cold war days when Fae and witchblood were at odds. So do what you can, track him down, and destroy him. We need you to maintain the balance.

“You will report to me on Sunday noon with any progress you have made. Come to the fork in the trail and take the portal crossroads at midday.—Briar”

I stared at the letter. “Crap. I can’t believe he wants me to take on this creature. I can’t imagine how difficult this is going to be. I can’t do it by myself, but he insists that I don’t tell Rowan.”

“Your grandmother would be obligated to tell the Court about it. I’m surprised you aren’t expected to do the same.”

“Technically, I suppose I should, since I belong to the Crystal Cauldron, but I can see how the Fae would blur lines on this. I don’t even know what a sluagh is, let alone how to destroy one.” I leaned back against the bench. “What should I do? If I don’t obey, I’ll be breaking my promise to him and that would be very, very bad, from what I understand.”

“It would be, yes. I suggest you talk to your coworkers and enlist their help.” Rebecca glanced warily at the trail. “Whatever you do, don’t ignore this. You do not want the Overkings on your bad side. Briar isn’t just some lower-echelon peasant in the Fae society. He has power, and he’s smart. And if you cross him, he’ll never stop hunting you.”

I shivered. The day was still warm, but now it felt cold and lonely.

“All right, I’ll contact him. Do you know what a sluagh is?”

Rebecca thought for a moment. “I know the name. I know they’re dangerous. I’m not sure what they look like—they’re sub-Fae so they won’t look human, and they’re also strong and capable of tearing apart a grown man.”

That didn’t sound good.

I grimaced. “All right. I’ll meet him on Sunday.” I paused, then said, “Can I talk to you about something that worries me?” I didn’t expect that she’d have a heart to heart with me, but I couldn’t find enough first-hand information with the Fae in all the studies I’d done. There were some people who worked with them, but most of them kept the Fae’s secrets to themselves.

“What is it?” Rebecca looked curious.

I didn’t exactly trust her, but I had enough interactions with her that I was certain she wouldn’t lie to me. She might not answer, but she had nothing to gain by being dishonest.

“When I met him last summer, Briar was…mesmerizing. I need to know how to ward myself against that. If I can’t talk to Rowan about this, then I’m not sure what to do.” I blushed. What I wanted to say was that Briar seemed to have the ability to turn me on, and I didn’t want anything to happen because of that. I trusted myself, but I didn’t trust him.

Rebecca smiled slyly, disconcerting on the face of what seemed like a lovely young girl. But her eyes—they belied her impish nature. “I see. Yes, I know what you’re talking about. Luckily, the Fae guiles don’t work on demons like me. My advice is that you wear iron hidden on your body, and that you work on a mental shield that can block him from getting into your mind. Or you can just drink mugwort and peppermint tea, and that should help.”

I nodded. The Fae hated iron, I knew that much. “Won’t I antagonize him if I wear something with iron in it?”

“Probably, but it will keep him from touching you. But he won’t know if you drink the tea, and it will help guard against his magnetism. That will keep him from getting into your mind, and it’s probably stronger than the iron itself.” She stood. “I’ve delivered my message.”

“What did he promise you in return for doing so? I’m curious.” When we wanted to encourage or thank Rebecca for her help, Killian barbecued up a rack of ribs and she devoured them. But I wondered what the Fae could offer her.

Rebecca paused, then looked over her shoulder at me. “My life. I may not answer to him, but even I’m not stupid enough to refuse to play messenger. And so, I live another day.” She vanished into the forest just as the clouds rolled over, blocking out the sun.

I glanced at the sky as I headed back to my house. We weren’t due for rain, but the clouds were a perfect foil to my hope that the next few weeks—or months—would be free of stress and worry. Frowning, I shut the door behind me, and not even the cats zooming by, chasing each other, could make me smile.