Faerie Magic (4 page)

“I think you’re exaggerating a little.”

“I’m the only person who can set foot in the place without dying,” I muttered. “And even that’s not a guarantee.”

Sure, I had my faerie magic, but it didn’t mean my survival odds were any higher. I liked my body parts the way they were, thanks.

On the whole, this was not how I’d hoped to start the weekend.

CHAPTER THREE

Two hours, later, after delivering a stack of paperwork to the clean-up guild and managing to avoid Larsen in the process by sneaking in and out through the back door, I rode the bus down to 15 Oak Drive, home of the mages.

Or one mage in particular. It still blew my mind that the huge mansion belonged to a single person. The hedges surrounding the place took up as much room as three regular houses, while the gardens appeared to stretch on for miles. I tried and failed to count the windows as I waited outside the wrought-iron gate, hoping the doorman wouldn’t be who I thought it would.

“You,” said a lilting voice.

Oh, crap. Typical. Ralph the quarter-faerie glared at me from the shadows, his bright blue eyes narrowed. His too-pretty-to-be-human face wouldn’t have looked out of place on the cover of an old-world magazine, if he wasn’t scowling like I’d brought a dead rat with me.

“You,” I said back. “I have an audience with the Mage Lord.” I was tempted to ask if
he
knew what went down in half-blood district, but as far as I knew, Ralph had spurned his faerie heritage. Thinking about it, I didn’t know anyone else who had. Most half-faeries worshipped their non-human parents who’d left them here to fend for themselves.

“Does the Mage Lord know you’re here, dressed like… that?” He looked me up and down, taking in my tattered jeans and bloodstained coat.

“Yes,” I said, through gritted teeth. Generally, Ralph was either trying to stab me or insult me, and I was in the mood for neither. “As I said, I have an invite. Technically, I work here.”

“You don’t.” Ralph moved to bar the way. “We don’t let hedge witch scum in here.”

Did he
want
me to punch him in the nose? I moved until we stood eye to eye. “If the mages’ standards have slipped enough to let the likes of
you
in, then—”

His fist flew at my face. I effortlessly dodged—apparently, he hadn’t inherited a faerie’s inhuman speed—and grabbed his fist in my hand, twisting hard. He yelped as his wrist threatened to break under the strain. My fighting methods tended towards
hit them until they stop moving
rather than a particular style,
but I knew how to bring on the pain.

Ralph’s eyes went wide and his free hand dropped to his side. “What the hell—is that
magic?”

Blue light flared up around my hands, resting above my arms like a freaking halo.

Shit.

“Ivy Lane.”

I dropped Ralph’s hand like it burned me. He made a faint whimpering sound and scrambled away, but the look he shot me was one of disgust and—fear?

Shit. Shit. He’d seen the faerie magic react to my anger. Apparently, being quarter-blooded meant he still had the Sight.

Vance sighed. “Are you arguing with my doorman again?” The gate lay open behind him, and I gladly scooted inside. I considered telling him I’d exposed myself to his guard, but decided against it. Ralph didn’t scare me, but I really didn’t want word about my faerie magic spreading amongst the mages.

“Ivy, if you’re going to work here, you need to stop antagonising Ralph.”

“He started it,” I said. “Seriously. Every time, it’s been him who threw the bait.”

“Then you shouldn’t rise to it.”

“Yes, oh wise master,” I muttered. My heart beat too fast, and traitorous wisps of blue magic clung to my skin. No wonder even Ralph had seen it. I might as well be wearing a neon shirt that told every faerie in the vicinity I was a human with faerie magic.

On cue, a small figure ran into the hall. Quentin, Vance’s brownie assistant. He glared at me, too.

“No, I’m not covered in blood this time,” I said.
Quit staring.

“Give it five minutes,” said Vance.

“Ha ha.” I rolled my eyes. “What, do you have a faerie lying in wait to ambush me?”

“No, but I do have the contract you requested. Though I wouldn’t put it past you not to end up cutting your finger on it.”

“Very funny.” I looked away, determined not to let him see my reluctant amusement. Now I remembered why I liked the guy. Too bad he’d done enough to piss me off lately I’d be keeping him at arm’s length.

Vance led the way into his office. As promised, a straightforward document lay on the desk. I signed beneath Vance’s illegible scribble of a signature.

“You could have left a message here,” said Vance. “It’d have reached me eventually.”

“Eventually?” I raised an eyebrow. “I stood outside the gate for an hour in the pouring rain, and no one showed up. Was I supposed to sit there all week? I have to pay rent somehow. I hadn’t even signed a contract with you at the time. You might have vanished off the face of the earth for all I knew.”

“I should have explained the situation before I left.”

“Guess we were preoccupied.”

I meant with the faeries, and the whole
nearly dying
scenario, but… well. We hadn’t done much talking afterwards, either. The gleam in his eyes told me the same thought had crossed his mind, but I refused to acknowledge it.

“Did you require a handbook?” he asked.

“Actually, yes,” I said. “You can take the piss out of me all you like, but even Larsen made the regulations clear on the first day.”

A shadow fell over his face at the mention of the name. “You took another job from him?”

“No. He told me to look into half-blood territory. You showed up five minutes later, so there was no need to.” I glared at him. “Don’t you dare judge me. You’ve never been desperate enough to take any job that comes your way, have you? Larsen might be an asshole, but at least he gave me enough work to keep a roof over my head. That’s more than a lot of people in my position can say.”

“I did apologise to you. I’ll be sure to let you know when I’m leaving town in future.”

I looked away. “Okay. Can we get this ill-advised trip into faerie territory over with, then?”

“If you like.” Vance put the paper on the desk, and it vanished into thin air. He wasn’t even showing off, he seemed to do it on reflex. “I won’t be able to come inside with you.”

And he wouldn’t be able to help me if I exposed my magic again. It was too much to hope to avoid confrontation. Faeries were contentious on a good day.

An awkward silence spread between us as we walked down the hall. I guessed he’d meant he’d walk up to the door to half-blood territory with me. Which meant finding more ways to
not
talk about what had happened before he’d left. I licked my lips, trying not to remember how good he tasted when he kissed me.

“So did all the other mages in this part of town leave?” I asked him.

“Most of them. The council called for a meeting of every mage in the region to discuss the murder.” There was a tightness to his voice. “The situation proved difficult to resolve. We all nominated candidates who might take up the new position as the leader of the region’s mages. Stability is essential in times like these.”

“And nobody knows who might have done it?”

A whisper of cold air brushed against my back, accompanying the threat hanging in the air like an imminent storm.

“There aren’t any suspects. Yet. But we know a half-faerie did it. Their blood was found at the scene.”

“Faeries never think they need to obey human laws.”

“Perhaps not,” he said softly, “but I doubt anyone but a powerful Sidhe can outdo a Mage Lord.”

Good point.
He’d single-handedly scared every single faerie in half-blood district into stopping their fight. How could anyone casually murder someone on the same level?

“How was he killed?” I asked, unable to restrain my curiosity any longer.

Vance said, “He was stabbed. The weapon wasn’t found at the scene.”

Damn. “Iron? That’d rule out faeries. Half-bloods can’t handle iron even in small amounts.”

“We aren’t sure yet,” he said. “But there’s a chance I might get called out of the city again if new developments are made.”

“Oh. Okay.” It seemed wrong to complain about drawing the short straw job-wise when his colleague had been
murdered.
Another uncomfortable silence descended, and the chilling atmosphere surrounding the Mage Lord followed us down the path and outside the gates to the manor. Ralph glared at me from beside the entrance again, but didn’t make any more snide remarks when he saw who accompanied me.

“When will the other mages come back?” I asked Vance, once we were out of earshot. “I’m kind of lost on how this whole hierarchy works. There are… five Mage Lords, right? I only know you and Drake.”

“There are five per branch, yes,” said Vance. “Only master mages—the highest level—qualify to apply to join the council.”

“Master mages. Is that ranked on ability or what?”

“Experience,” said Vance. “Most mages are junior level. As for novices, we’re running shorter than ever. That’s why it’s essential to work with the other mage guilds, to ensure we have enough new mages recruited.”

“You have to be born with a gift, right?” I asked.

“Without exception,” said Vance. “Each new mage is given specialist training from a master with the same gift, or a similar one.”

“So you’re a master mage. You make the rules?” I turned this information over in my head. Who had trained him? As far as I knew, nobody else had the same space-bending ability Vance did.

“For this district, yes,” he said. “That means it’s up to me to oversee all use of magic. I meet weekly with the various witch covens, but it’s not my job to police what people do in their own homes. And there’s never been a clear law when it comes to half-bloods. Mostly because humans can’t
see
faerie magic.”

Oh, boy. Here we go.
“Yes, I can see it, and no, it doesn’t mean I can single-handedly police them. I’d rather tag rogue trolls than go on faerie-policing duty. They aren’t exactly enamoured with me at the moment.”

“There have been injuries, attacks, in my district, due to their magic. I’m sure you understand the dilemma this puts me in.”

“Fine,” I ground out. “You’ve got yourself a deal. I’ll poke around. But I expect compensation. I’ve nearly died in their territory enough times. Larsen might not have given me an incentive to risk my neck, but you promised I’d get compensation if one of them bites my foot off.”

“I’d hope you’d be able to avoid such a scenario. Like I said, I’ll be on call.” But if I didn’t know better, there was a hint of worry in his tone. Great. Even the Mage Lord was concerned I’d get attacked. I squashed the warmth that rose inside me at the thought. I needed to be on top of my game today if I was going to talk to the half-faeries.

“You’d better be,” I said. “Don’t make me regret agreeing to work with you again.”

“You’ll never regret it.”

The arrogant ass. Worse, he was probably right.

Half-blood territory was considerably quieter than the last time I’d been here, but I hesitated by the gates, squinting to see if there’d been any new disturbances. By the looks of things, Summer had turned up the heat, and sun beams lit up the grass and flowerbeds inside.

I turned to Vance, but he’d disappeared.
Damn.

A rustling sounded. I instinctively rested my hand on the hilt of my sword. Irene was strapped to my waist, and I didn’t intend to remove her to go into the faeries’ territory. I’d made that mistake before. Wisps of faerie magic drifted in the air. Not from me, but from the whole area. The half-faeries had carved out their territory by putting a big-ass spell over it. I sure as hell hadn’t expected to spend the weekend hovering around outside the half-bloods’ hedge, hoping a fire imp wouldn’t appear and torch my eyebrows off.

“Yes?” said a clipped voice. A six-foot tall, gorgeous elven warrior
melted
out of the hedge. I stared a moment. He wore a full set of armour—though made of something other than metal—and I felt like I’d walked into a convention for medieval cosplay. His silver hair was feathery soft and so straight it looked as though he’d ironed it flat.

“You’re Ivy Lane.”

“Yes…” Damn. Who’d told him my name?

“You’re the one who closed the veil.”

Shit. Maybe I do have a reputation.

“I had help.” I reminded myself not to say anything that’d get me kicked out. Vance had a point… someone died here. The half-bloods policed themselves, but I’d never heard of any homicides on their territory. Admittedly, I did my best to avoid this part of town. “I’m here to talk about the death that occurred here yesterday, on behalf of the Mage Lords.”