Page 27 of Kiss of Smoke

He looked at me, then at the tree, his eyes going to the corpse below.

I hadn’t thought it possible for Jack to grow any more pale, but he did. He just stared at Tanaquill for a moment, then vanished again.

I whirled around as shouts grew louder behind me, and saw a large Gentry Fae push his way past several Garda.

They linked arms and caught him, holding him back, but his eyes narrowed as he strained to see past them.

His mouth dropped open as he stared at the dead princess, and the Garda shoved him back towards the crowd.

But not fast enough.

“It’s true!” I heard him shouting. “The princess is dead!”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I grabbed a Garda by the arm and pointed to the badge on my chest. Beans chose that exact moment to poke his head out of my collar, and the Garda looked nonplussed for a moment at the sight of the cat until she took in the Left Hand badge.

“Goodfellow is coming. Keep everyone back, and keep them away from humans.” I shook her a little to make my point. “Got it? Send out the word. Fae and mortalsmustbe separated right now.”

The Garda Fae nodded, already speaking into a radio. I caught the words, “Orders of the Left Hand,” as I turned away.

But it was going to be an impossible order. I already knew that, and honestly, I was at a loss as to what to do next.

It seemed that all we really could do was ride out the chaos.

I took a deep breath, trying to exhale all my doubts and worries.

What would Robin do next? I had no idea of the protocol behind examining the body of a royal Seelie Fae.

Inhale, exhale. Okay. Titania would not want her daughter’s body to be on display for everyone to gawk at. The princess deserved dignity in death.

“Gwyn, can I have your jacket?” I asked.

He’d pulled the bike to one side of Tanaquill, blocking the sight of her from the right. That was one good thing, at least.

He caught my drift immediately, peeling off his large jacket and draping it gently over Tanaquill. With the handprint hidden, the disorientating sensation that she was just sleeping only felt more intense.

Something touched my arm, and I almost jumped out of my skin. Oriande looked at me, her face bloodless.

"Don’t you dare try to film her like this,” I snapped, but she held up a placating hand.

“We’ve got a camera,” she said, holding out a small disposable camera. “For…for crime scene photos.”

I took it, feeling out of body as I did so. I supposed while Robin was tied up at Acionna Harbor, making sure the evidence was documented would fall to me.

“Oak!” she snapped. “Bring the background.”

Her cameraman rushed over, carrying a folded white sheet. As I watched, he unfolded it, handing one end to Gwyn, and they lifted it to create another barrier around Tanaquill. At least she was now mostly hidden from the gawkers, and I could take the pictures in peace.

I approached her, gently lifting the jacket aside to reveal her chest, and snapped several photos. My hands were trembling slightly, and I hoped the pictures wouldn’t turn out blurry.

It dawned on me as I worked that I seemed to have suddenly gotten over my fear and nausea of dead bodies. The urge to throw up felt like a distant memory. It was almost like working on an oversized doll.

Maybe it was just the shock at losing yet another member of the royal family in broad daylight.

Or maybe I’d just seen too damn many dead bodies lately.

I pushed aside a lock of shiny gold hair, revealing the match to the earring that was now in Titania’s possession, and snapped another picture. Her other earlobe was torn, but now there would be no way of knowing if she’d done it herself or not.

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