Page 13 of Wicked Deeds

She’d seemed happy enough to add Gráinne to the roster, claiming it was easier to have two of them working outside the realm to train me and Pinky and help the Cestis see if they could hunt down stray afrit. I pretended to believe her, but the other reason—the one no one was talking about and that I didn’t really want to think about too hard—was that I’d potentially made an enemy of Lord Usuriel. Fae weren’t supposed to interfere with humans, but Usuriel hadn’t struck me as a rule follower.

And Cerridwen hadn’t invited me back into the realm yet.

Which I assumed meant she was still trying to calm things down and didn’t want to risk my safety. The thought of Lord Usuriel on the warpath made me more than happy to have an extra s’ealg oiche on my team.

The Lord of the Nichtkin scared me.

We found Callum sitting out back, sipping tea out of one of Lizzie’s sparkly pink ‘Unicorns are real’ mugs. The matching teapot was sitting on my cheap wooden outdoor table. Somehow, despite the wonky table and the silly mug, Callum, dressed in a white linen shirt and dark jeans, managed to exude elegance.

He nodded a greeting as we came down the steps. “That was fast.”

“Not much traffic.” Lizzie dragged the chair next to Callum’s away from the table, sat and turned her face up to the sun, eyes squeezed shut.

Clearly she needed a moment.

My neighbor’s dog, Ted, realizing Lizzie and I were home, started barking eagerly from behind the fence. I went over, climbed up the rail to say hello. He wagged his tail as I rubbed his ears but started barking again when I stopped. He was still wary of Callum, which Callum didn’t seem to take personally.

Ted pointed his nose in Callum’s direction and barked again.

“I know, I know. He can do things you don’t approve of. But he’s fine.” I rubbed his ears again, appreciating the simplicity of a happy dog that wasn’t a Fae creature.

But I couldn’t use Ted as an excuse for too long. I heard Lizzie yawn behind me. The faster we got this over with, the faster she could get some sleep. I lowered myself down from the fence and joined Lizzie and Callum, wishing we’d stopped in the kitchen to make coffee. The steam drifting from Callum’s teapot smelled like mint and something I didn’t quite recognize. I doubted it contained caffeine.

“There were no gaps in the wards?” Callum asked Lizzie.

She shook her head. “No. Any idea how it got in?”

“They are curious creatures,” Callum said. “And some are resistant to certain forms of magic.”

“So they can really just walk through the wards? Even your wards?” I asked.

The s’ealg oiche fought demons. Their skills at warding were second to none, according to the information I’d found in the Cestis’s Archives. And Callum himself.

“They can get around many things,” Callum said. “We are not entirely sure how. It’s a secret they do not care to share.”

“So you’re telling me anyone could slip a creature into my backyard at any time?” I asked.

Callum shrugged. “The bigger question is how it got out of the realm. They can get through wards, but the door is another matter.”

“Did it say anything when Gráinne brought it back?”

“Not that I’ve heard. Which means it wouldn’t talk to Cerridwen and probably comes from a territory that isn’t necessarily friendly.”

Like Usuriel’s. “She wouldn’t hurt it, would she?”

He shook his head. “No. It didn’t harm anyone, and it isn’t one of ours. She marked it with a charm that should stop it getting through the door again and sent it out of her territory. It can make its own way home. Maybe it slipped through behind someone who didn’t notice. Creatures will get out from time to time.”

The back of my neck prickled. The last time a creature had slipped out of the door, it had been a bruadhsiu, a nightwalker. A nightmare creature feeding on people’s dreams and draining their life force.

We’d killed it in the end, but not before it had done some killing of its own. Damon’s driver, Boyd, had nearly been one of its victims. And we’d never figured out how it had made it through the door.

The nixlings were nothing like nightwalkers, but I’d still prefer it if the Fae could make sure nothing got through their door without permission.

“But it’s more likely someone let it out, right? Do you think someone was trying to send a message?” I asked. “You know, ‘hey, look, we know where you live’.”

Callum grimaced. “Perhaps.”

Was he being diplomatic? It seemed the most likely scenario to me. The Fae were supposed to stay unseen in San Francisco. It was part of the contract they had with the Cestis. They couldn’t harm humans, and they were not allowed to show their true forms if they did get permission to leave the realm. And one day soon, the restrictions on the door would lift. After all, it had been over a year since it had been reestablished, and it seemed to be stable.

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