Lies Ripped Open (24 page)

“Rune-marked chains, I’m glad he’s under the watch of Jack. He deserves it.”

“No runes. It wasn’t until I picked them up that I realized what I was looking at. There’s something about fae that not many people know. A dark fae and a light fae cancel one another out. If they come into contact, even from a few inches away, they nullify one another. Would you like to guess what’s inside that chain?”

“A fae?” he said with a nervous laugh.

“Sort of. It’s the hair of a light fae. I’ve seen these kinds of chains before; a blacksmith in Camelot makes them. One who several friends of mine spent a lot of time around as children. He once taught me about these. So, as long as that chain is near you, you’re pretty much a human with some occasionally serious facial issues and wings. And I’m not sure if you’ve ever been told this, but translucent wings aren’t scary.”

“What do you want?”

“Where is Felix?”

“Whitechapel. You want the address?”

I didn’t even bother to try and hide the shock.

“What? I give you the address, you rush over there and get yourself killed. Hopefully that gives me enough time to scarper, because I don’t want to be the person Jack gets mad at. Jack killed a werelion because he fucked up. No magic, no
powers
, just knives. We weren’t meant to let people know we aren’t human, and the werelion bit some girl. So, yes, I’d really rather not be found having fucked up. Actually if you could kill my comrade, that would help. I could just tell Jack that he’s the one who blabbed it all. Where is he anyway?”

“Indisposed. You’re a Reaver?”

“Yes. I am a Reaver. Was BOA, took the Harbinger exam, and then wallop, no longer capable of becoming a Harbinger.
Apparently
it’s my temperament. In my unconscious state I murdered a bunch of people. Shame it wasn’t real.”

“Must have been a real heartbreaker.”

“You have no idea. I saw your name downstairs. Thirteen years old, eh? That’s pretty evil. I assume it worked, because you’re still with Avalon, and you’re not dribbling every oth
er word.”

“What do you know about it?” I demanded.

“Nothing. I guess you want to find Felix and ask him. I guess, if you’re nice and all, Jack might give you some time together. Probably not, though.
He’s
not very nice.”

“So, you and your partner downstairs, along with Jack and a fourth man, were Jack the Ripper?”

“There were five of us before the werelion was killed. But yes, we were Jack the Ripper. Well, him and about half a dozen other murderers. I guess you heard me downstairs. That buffoon I came in with started writing shit on walls, and hacking at the women. Two in one night, taking pieces of them, he wanted to make a name for himself.”

“And this fourth man sent the kidney to the police?”

He nodded. “His name is Enfield. He’s . . . he’s a wrong ’en. I’ve met some seriously deranged individuals in my life—hell, one of them entered this house with me—but Enfield, he’s a
different
level of twisted.”

“Tell me about Jack.”

“Jack’s in charge. He’s our captain . . . of sorts. The one with me tonight thought it funny to use Jack as the name of the murderer. Jack was livid, I thought he was going to kill the stupid bastard, but he didn’t . . . obviously. He’s not a man to cross.”

“Who attacked me in the alley in Whitechapel? They wrote
From Hell
on my forehead. It would have been a few days ago, they killed two SOA agents.”

“Oh shit, they killed Avalon agents? Wait a second, mate, that wasn’t in the deal. That’s why you’re looking for us? I thought you were just mad because we left too many bodies around. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

“Who did it?”

“Enfield. He’s the only one fucking crazy enough.”

I’d known it couldn’t have been either the man in the chair or the one Fiona was currently talking to, both were the wrong size and neither had the same resonance about them as the murderer in the alley. “What are Jack and Enfield?”

“Sorcerers, both of them. Never seen Enfield use anything but knives though. As for Jack, no idea what magic he can use apart from fire.”

“How many did
you
kill?”

“What, this time? Four or five. Got some nice souls for Arthur to feed on. You do know we’re giving these to Merlin, that he’s approved this?”

I nodded.

“Made you sad to know that the big guy was allowing the murder of innocents? At first it was hard to get my head around too, but you soon get used to it. You’re just cutting away the chaff so that the wheat can grow strong or something like that. Who gives a shit if a bunch of whores, homeless, and lowlifes
vanish
? That’s why everyone was so angry with the idiot for drawing attention to things.”

I grabbed a pen and paper from the table. “The address where Felix is.”

He told me without needing to be asked again.

“If this is wrong—”

“You’ll kill me?” he chuckled. “It’s right, I swear. You’re going to die a horrible death for getting involved.”

“Who killed Baker?”

“Baker? Oh, that was all Enfield. He knew that Baker was going to get found out sooner or later. He decided to keep watch on things, just in case. We threatened Felix too, made him give you up. The second you all turned up, Baker was a dead man. Enfield used you to deal with the troll. He’s crazy as a box of cats, but he’s not stupid.”

“Doesn’t matter how crazy or smart he is, he’ll be dead soon enough.”

“You think you’re going to kill Enfield. Mate, unless you
happen
to have the Hellequin in your pocket, you’ve got no chance.”

I smiled, and ignored his taunt. He had no way of knowing I used to go by that name. No one did. I had buried it long ago, but it still resurfaced every now and then, usually with some more fantastical tale attached to it. Hellequin was the boogeyman for the Avalon world. I was surprised people still remembered it, or that it had continued to grow in mythology.

“We’ll see. What did you drug the trolls with?”

“Jorōgumo venom,” he said. “Perfect venom for trolls. Give it to anyone else and it kills them slowly, give it to trolls and they fall asleep for a few hours. Felix betrayed you, you know that, yes? He betrayed you because we took the troll’s kid. He agreed to help us if we brought the ugly little shit home. We had to drug the trolls to get close to them, but Jack didn’t want to have a troll about the place, so we brought him home. We’re nice like that.”

“You kidnapped a child, threatened its life, and you also have a jorōgumo? Quite the list of accolades to add to the murder of innocent people.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know about us owning the spider thing. I’ve never seen one, which is a good thing; because they’re nasty bastards I’ve heard.”

He’d heard right.

Fiona appeared in the doorway covered in blood. “I got an address.” She passed me a piece of paper; the address was the same as the man in the chair had offered.

“Well, it’s nice to know you were telling the truth.”

“Of course, like I said this is the quickest way for you do ge
t dead.”

Fiona walked around the back of the man. “And this is the quickest way for you.” She rammed the blade into the top of the fae’s skull. “Told your friend he was going to die. You die too.”

When the fae was dead, Fiona went to the kitchen to wash her hands. I followed and stood a little away from her.

“You got a problem with what I did?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Just surprised.”

“I’m undercover SOA; we have to do a lot of nasty things that surprise people.”

“Did yours tell you about Jack and Enfield?”

Fiona scrubbed her hands and then set about drying them. “Yep. We’re going to need Diana and Alan. Enfield sounds like a real problem.”

“They’re both problems.”

Fiona threw the towel into the sink. “Let’s go eliminate our problems, then. You can carry him; I just got my hands clean.”

I carried the body of the fae down to the basement, laying it next to his murderous friend while Fiona threw file after file around the room, until the basement was awash with pieces o
f paper.

When she was done, Fiona passed me the file that contained my name. “You should keep this. Take it to Merlin. Maybe he can give you some answers.”

“Are you sure about burning all this?” I asked.

“Felix has information on Avalon employees. If it ever got into anyone else’s hands, there would be pandemonium. We can’t risk it. Jack will have to give us the answers we need. He knows who was involved with these Reavers.”

“I don’t think Jack will be too forthcoming.”

“Then Felix will have to be alive when we’ve finished dealing with Jack and Enfield.” She removed several of the files from the remaining cabinet and passed them to me. “Hopefully something in there will help. It’s just too dangerous to leave it as is. Too dangerous to leave this house here at all. Felix knows too much.”

“You’re not going to kill him,” I said.

“My orders are to keep Avalon safe. Felix goes against those. You should have killed him when you were sent to.”

I shrugged. “Maybe, but he’s not going to die now either. I’m not going to help further the Reavers’ aims by removing one of their obstacles.”

Fiona’s eyes never wavered from mine. “Fine, I didn’t want to kill him anyway. I’m not in the habit of killing people who haven’t deserved it. But we’ll have to think of something else. He’ll need to be hidden, and hidden very, very well. Also, these files still need to go.”

I grabbed a few more of the files and carried them up toward the house. “I’ll see you outside,” I called back. I found a large box in Felix’s study, and piled the files inside. The office, like most of the house, was devoid of anything that looked personal, but I managed to bust open Felix’s safe and remove the money and other items from inside it. One of which was a drawing of Felix and a young child on some old paper. It had been framed some time ago.

Before I left, I also took the light fae chains from the floor. The blacksmith had long since died, and it felt unfair to destroy something so rare. By the time I was done, two large boxes were stashed by the front door, almost breaking from what they
contained
.

“Are you planning on moving house for him?” Fiona asked as she re-emerged from the basement and saw the boxes.

“Grab one,” I said ignoring her comment. “We’ll dump them on the coach.”

“Felix can never come back here. Not now.”

“I know, but I’m not going to punish him for going against Merlin.”

Fiona picked up the box and dropped a few items from a nearby table into it. “I’m not without empathy for him.”

We opened the door and found half a dozen wood trolls staring back at us.

“Where is Felix?” the largest troll asked, his massive head far too close to my own for me to be comfortable.

“People took him,” I told them “Two of them are in the basement dead. The basement is on fire. We’re going to go find Felix. But he can’t come back here.”

Another troll took the box from me, while a third did the same with the one that Fiona was carrying.

“We’ll keep it all safe,” the largest troll told us. He glanced behind me. “How long before the house burns down?”

“I don’t know,” Fiona admitted.

The large troll motioned for both of us to leave the house, which we did quickly. And then several of the trolls went into the house.

“We’ll make sure Felix’s things are safe. Come get them from us when you find him.”

“And if they’ve killed him?” I asked.

“Are you going to try to save him?”

“Yes,” I told him.

“Then we’ll give them to you. I’m sorry about your coach driver, we got here too late.” He turned and entered the house.

“I’m sorry your child was taken,” I said. “Did they bring him back unharmed?”

The troll beside me pointed at a small wood troll sitting on the lap of a large female. “He is fine. Shaken, but okay.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

Fiona and I walked to the coach, and found the driver dead. His throat had been cut. Fiona helped bundle his body into the rear of the coach before she sat up front with me.

“Do you have a plan?” Fiona asked.

“We find Alan and Diana, and then we go get Felix back, killing anyone who gets in the way.”

“Not before we’ve had some answers though.”

“Oh, by the time we’re done with them, they’ll be falling over one another to give us whatever we want.”

Fiona and I took the coach back to the safe house in
Whitechapel
, which turned out to be empty. Even though it was dark, there were still plenty of people out and about, so removing the body from the coach would have been a very public affair. Instead, we moved the coach to the patch of grass where Alan and I had been attacked only a few days earlier. This time there were no maniacs about, so we left the horses in peace and removed the body, dumping it in the carriage, where the darkness ensured it couldn’t be seen even from a short distance away.

Returning to the house, we decided to wait for Alan and Diana to come back and went inside. Fiona went upstairs and changed her clothes, putting on a pair of dark trousers and white shirt. She tied her hair up into a bun and put a hat on it.