Page 47 of Faerie Trials

“You weren’t afraid?”

They stared at me as though the act would get me to spill everything. Except they didn’t know what I’d been through, and they didn’t know how hard I’d worked to get here. My lips thinned. “I was afraid, yes. But Juno sounded like she needed help. I overcame my fear in order to help her.”

“And did you know the creature you came upon is believed to be the one behind multiple attacks on young full-blood Fae women?”

I knew it so deeply the knowledge would cut me from the inside out. But I didn’t tell them anything.

The officers took me through a long series of questions, wanting to know every detail of the encounter from the clothes I wore to what Juno and I said to each other at the hospital.

I saw their faces. They didn’t like what I had to say. And I knew if I reached out to their minds, I’d have my answers. Fear kept me rooted in my chair.

“I find it odd, Miss Alderidge, how you’ve been in Faerie less than a year and you somehow find yourself embroiled in yet another case of extreme violence. Let us not forget what happened to you last summer during the Solstice Carnival.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call what happened the other night a violent incident,” I hedged.

“Still, fascinating. Odd and…fascinating. No matter what is going on you manage to insert yourself into the uproar. Don’t you think it’s fascinating, Claribel?”

“Oh, infinitely fascinating, Rooker,” the woman agreed with a nod.

Finally, names.

It didn’t matter if I knew what to call them or not. My nausea continued to beat at me the longer I stayed in the small room, because I knew without a doubt they thought I had something to do with the attack. They thought I knew more about it than I let on. False on one count, true on the other.

I gripped the sides of my chair to hold steady. “Why don’t you look at the Halfling Academy students?” I finally blurted out. “Some of them might not be what you think.”

The two officers shared a look. “What are you getting at, Tavi?”

“I’m saying people have secrets. Maybe instead of badgering me, you could find the real person responsible.”

I thought about the aggressive young half-shifter who’d knocked me into the wall, threatening to dismember me. How was he not a suspect?

Finally, the door to the hall opened and another officer for the bureau, I assumed, called the others away. He didn’t look at me, and I didn’t like the way he kept his eyes averted.

Claribel finally nodded toward me. “We don’t have any further questions for you at this time, Miss Alderidge. However…” She paused. “There are more questions than answers in this case. The details are not adding up. And my gut tells meyouare the lynchpin.”

18

The bureau officers were not done with me. Not by a long shot. They let me go with an order to stay close (or face the consequences) and a promise they would see me again soon.

I believed them on both counts.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” I asked Juno as we squared off in her office. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Don’t be silly, Tavi. I’m absolutely fine. I heal fast.”

Her face was a bloodless mask and even to me she looked small and tired, her eyes dark. If she were human then what she’d gone through might have warranted a longer stay in the hospital. Although she never got into the details of her wounds, I knew they were bad. The creature had thrown her around and knocked a few things loose.

Luckily, like me, she knitted back together quickly.

I shook my head, remembering the way the shifter loomed over me while I was on my back. Definitely bigger than a bear in his halfling warrior form. One of these days, if I could muster up the courage, I’d talk to Onyx about the form. And how one shifted into it.

My gaze fixed on Juno. “I’m glad you heal fast, but I have something to ask you.” I let my hands hang limp at my sides, unwilling to engage yet, unwilling to do anything except try to stifle the sick feeling in my gut.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“I was pulled from school by cops today.” I’d missed my first two classes thanks to their interrogation. My teachers were not happy with me. “They didn’t look like cops, of course. They said they were investigators from the Faerie Bureau of Investigation or something like that. They took me to a building downtown and they really seem to think I had something to do with the attack on you. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” I asked. “I’ve never heard of this bureau before.”

Twin butterflies held Juno’s hair in place at the sides. One of them fluttered its wings and she didn’t bat an eye at the motion, holding up her hand to stop me. “Hold on, wait a minute.Whopulled you out of school? You really don’t need to be missing classes.”

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