Page 5 of Secrets of the Frostbound Cottage

Orla continued. ‘They want us to remain hidden.’ She hesitated. ‘Elves are taught to keep themselves to themselves, to live in strictly elven societies.’ I guessed that explained why I hadn’t seen any in Witchlight Cove. ‘But I couldn’t stay there. I couldn’t just go on with my life like everything was fine. You understand that, right?’

Tears welled in her eyes again. ‘I couldn’t do nothing. My parentsneedme. I know it.’

My heart ached with sympathy. Yes, I understood; if there’d been any chance I could have got my parents back, I’d have taken it. Unfortunately, that hadn’t been an option for me.

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I think that’s enough for now. I just have one last question.’ It had been bugging me since I’d let her in. ‘How did you find me? When you said I was meant to help you – did someone tell you about me?’

The only person who came to mind was someone from the magical world: Yanni, my forsaken best-friend’s grandmother, and the local Chief Inspector at the station in Witchlight Cove. Yanni was a formidable bear-shifter and an excellent tracker, but if Orla had gone to her first why wouldn't Yanni have helped her rather than sending her to me?

The way Orla was chewing on the inside of her cheek made me suspect Yanni had nothing to do with it; the elf was worried she wouldn’t be believed. ‘The trees,’ she said, eventually with a shrug. ‘I asked them to help me. I asked them, and I did what they said.’

My eyebrows shot up. ‘The trees?’ I said blankly.

‘Yes.’

‘They speak to you?’

‘It’s more like a feeling. I knew I had to come to London – that was my first step. After that, it was just following the feeling. I was guided to the cedar tree you have outside.’

A smile warmed her face for the first time since she’d entered the room. It was as if, for a moment, she wasn’t thinking about her parents. ‘It knew what type of person you were, that you would help me. And I knew I could trust its judgement.’

I brushed self-consciously at my trousers. Apparently nothing screams ‘trustworthy’ like a woman with coffee-stained jeans and a wilting cactus on her desk.

To a non-magical person, what she was saying would probably have made her sound like a complete weirdo; it even sounded a little outlandish to me. But when you’d seen your mother heal your best friend’s broken nose with a potion, or watched an old woman you trusted transform into a giant bear in front of you, your perception of what was normal shifted dramatically.

Still, her comment had raised more questions than answers. ‘If the trees can guide you like that, why didn’t they guide you straight to your parents?’ I asked.

Her smile dropped. ‘I’m not sure. Maybe they don’t think I can find them on my own. Maybe the elders are right and whatever happened to my parents is a danger to all elves, so the trees didn’t want me to go alone.’

That made sense. Orla was slight, waif-like. I couldn’t imagine her holding her own when she was in a queue for coffee, let aloneagainst some powerful sorcerer or shifter. Just the thought of facing a powerful sorcerer had fear racing through me as harshly as Orla’s fear had done a few moments ago.

‘You will help me, won’t you?’ she asked. ‘My parents… They have money if you—’

I pushed aside my own fear. ‘I’ll help you,’ I promised. The last thing I wanted her to think was that I was taking the job because of money. That wasn’t how I worked. Sure, it helped with rent and everything, but this girl’s situation was bigger than that.

Her relief and gratitude flooded from her body so strongly that it nearly stole my breath. Thankfully it also pushed away the last vestiges of my own crippling fear. Relief and gratitude were far better emotions to be flooded by, and I gratefully let them buoy me up.

‘Thank you. Thank you!’ She beamed at me and surged to her feet. ‘When do we leave? We’ll need to go to Little Rollright, right? Are we going now?’

‘Wedon’t go anywhere,’ I said firmly. ‘I’ll go on my own. I can’t risk whatever may have happened to your parents happening to you. It may well be an elven issue.’

Her face fell and she slumped back down on the sofa, but she didn’t protest. I respected that about her; too many kids did whatever they wanted, regardless of the consequences. I’d once seen a teen try to out-drink a centaur. The centaur was fine – the teen? Not so much. This time, though, the consequences would be on my head so I wasn’t letting a damned thing happen to Orla, not on my watch.

Unfortunately, hers wasn’t the only case I had on and I didn’t want to let Rowena down. So much for thinking I had nothing interesting to do tonight other than watch hours of mind-numbing CCTV.

‘You’ll have to wait for me to get back. Get some rest, okay?’ I told her. ‘Do you have somewhere you can go?’

Orla chewed on her lip thoughtfully. ‘I saw a lovely park when I was walking here. The trees were beautiful. I could sleep beneath one of those.’

It was against my rules to let clients know where I lived – but she was already right here. What I was about to say went even more against my rules, but there was no way I would let her sleep in a London park. That would be a recipe for disaster; I couldn’t havehergo missing as well.

‘You can stay here,’ I said gruffly, before I could change my mind.

‘Really?’ Her eyes lit up.

‘Yes, absolutely.’

As she glanced around, her attention landed on the plants scattered around the room. Most had wilted, several had brown leaves and one was now nothing more than a stick in a pot. ‘Thank you,’ she said warmly. ‘I’m sure there’ll be plenty to keep me busy.’

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