Page 17 of Faerie Trials

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Warning bells pealed in my head at the sight until finally the memory returned full force.

I’ll rip your arms from your sockets if you don’t get out of my way. And you can count on that, little halfling!

My mind circled back to my run-in with the wolf shifter boy, the one who earlier had threatened to tear me limb from limb in the exact way we found the corpse tonight. I shook my head.

Couldhehave done this?

He’d certainly been angry enough, and all I’d done to him was stand slightly in his way. He had enough unresolved aggression to be a very likely suspect.

My gut swirled. Yup, he’d been angry enough to kill; it was obvious on his face. My eyes did a quick survey of the corpse and I inwardly groaned. The whole of me went hot. It took everything I had not to empty the contents of my stomach right there on the ground. Maybe this was my super power, I tried to reason with myself. Maybe my super power was finding dead bodies. Someone had to do it, right?

Not something I wanted to be known for, though.

I held an arm out on instinct to keep Bronwen in place or else she might contaminate the area. “Stay back. You don’t want to step in anything.”

I had to give Bronwen credit. She didn’t scream. Instead the two of us clustered together staring at blood so bright against the soft white snow.

“Tavi, listen.” Bronwen’s voice was shaky. “You stand watch over the body, make sure no one else sees it.”

My eyes narrowed. “Why? Are you going somewhere?”

“I have to go alert the leading council of the Claw & Fang. They’ll want to come immediately before law enforcement gets here, and we—” She broke off, taking a deep breath and keeping her focus over her shoulder. “We have to make sure no one intercepts the communication. It has to be delivered in person.”

“You’re leaving me alone with a dead body.” I wondered if she saw anything wrong with that picture.

“You don’t seem too bothered. Besides, you have a stomach of steel.” With her back turned to me, she quickly shifted into crow form and darted out into the night before I had a chance to ask her to stay.

I let my head drop back on my shoulders, running my hand through my hair with a groan. I understood why she had to go. To protect ourselves, the members of the society discouraged anything less than direct conversation between members. Electronic communications could be tracked, Selene had told me, even with a spell designed to wipe devices clean. Telepathic communication was also discouraged because those mental waves could be intercepted. So we relied mostly on person to person contact to better ensure our safety.

There I stood,again, watching over a dismembered body, with her blood rapidly cooling in the snow, her arms and legs several feet away, wondering how I’d gone from one bad situation to another. Never in my life had I seen as much carnage as I had since running away from my uncle’s house.

What was the saying? Out of the frying pan and into the fire? I’d skipped the frying pan to dive head first into an inferno, still trying to convince myself I was okay.

Part of me wondered if this kind of bad luck had something to do with the violence of my parents’ deaths. Did the energy of their murders trail me, plaguing me? Would it be this way for the rest of my life, as though I were some kind of herald or harbinger of death?

I avoided looking at the dead woman as much as possible. The smell, on the other hand…no way to escape the smell, not with my sensitive shifter senses. Pressing a hand over my mouth and nose did nothing to dispel the stench.

I hadn’t known what to expect when we set out on patrol tonight but it was certainly not another murder. Slowly I turned my attention to the body, the dark red hair draped over the woman’s head and blowing in the late December wind.

My knees grew weaker the longer I focused on her hair. The color was flawless. Similar to mine yet richer and deeper.

Bronwen returned shortly with Selene and another one of the leading council members, a slight man named Buzz with two sets of curved horns twisting out of his head, a curling lizard tail, and narrow yellow pupils.

Selene placed her arm around me and drew me close in a hug. “You did well,” she whispered. “You held your own.”

I didn’t want her compliments. I didn’t want any of this, although the hug…I’d take the hug.

“The weather made it easy to spot, and easy to keep hidden. There really isn’t anyone out at this time of night. Well, except for our killer,” I added when I took a step back.

Buzz bent closer to examine the dead woman. His tail flicked. “We’re going to need the rest of the team out here to clean up before the local officials get wind of it,” he said in a reed-thin voice. “We don’t want the castle guards to find her before we’re done. Or find us along with her.”

“I’m on it.” Bronwen jumped to attention and once more took off in her crow form.

“There’s no sign of a struggle,” Buzz said, swearing. “She went down easily enough. Probably had the element of surprise on their side, the murderous bastard.”

“How could someone in their half form surprise a full-blood Fae?” I asked quietly. “I don’t understand.” Or the better question:Whywould anyone do this?

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