Page 15 of Shadow Dreaming

“Are you on duty again tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I am.” He turned to me. “You’re Penelope’s best friend, aren’t you? She talks a lot about you.” He smiled.

“I am,” I said. “Kyann Sarasan, at your service.”

He took my hand and shook it. “Duran Willowcrest, at yours.”

“Well, we know that Brim Fire hasn’t been out here. Maybe they don’t know where to find this portal,” Penn said. “Benny could have been wrong.”

“I’ve got Carson looking into things on the dark web. We’ll see what he has to say,” I said. “Anyway, I feel a little better.” For some reason, actually seeing the portal made me feel better. “But what happens if someone comes here and walks between the trees?”

“We have spells set up to scare them away, and we can usually prevent them from getting this far in the first place. Also, it’s rare that the portal can be activated on its own. You haven’t noticed because you’re not fully human, but most humans find this area seriously spooky.” Duran glanced at the sky. “It’s going to pour in a moment. You two should head back to your car, and I’m going to retreat into my shelter.”

“Are you warm enough in there?” I asked.

“Warm and dry, and watching a movie on my tablet,” he said, smiling. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I’ll check with you later,” Penn said. She motioned to me and we turned, heading back to the car. Sure enough, the moment we reached the car, the skies opened and it began to pour.

As I buckled my seatbelt, I turned to Penn. “I feel a little better. I won’t even claim to understand how this portal systems works, but it sounds like the Crystal Court is doing its best to keep everything in order. Any government would do well to work with the witches when it comes to something like magical portals.”

“You’d think…but nobody ever said the Coalition has a lot of common sense when it comes to certain issues,” Penn said.

“Duran seems nice,” I ventured. “But he seems young.”

“You’d think they’d make me the senior portal keeper, given I’m older than Duran. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but I really feel like my position in the Crystal Court’s been compromised. I honestly feel like I can’t do anything right for them.” Penn’s voice sounded phlegmy.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Can you ask anybody?”

She shook her head. “The people I’ve been friendliest with seem to have backed off. They don’t talk to me much anymore.”

I put the car into gear, turned on the heater, and headed for Chicken Chicken, where Penn and I picked up a bucket of chicken, a tub of mashed potatoes and one of gravy, and a tub of mac ‘n cheese before we curled up at home for a night of takeout and TV.

CHAPTER FIVE

The next day broke with partially overcast skies. At least, by the time we reached Merry’s house, I had secured a promise from Penn that she would do her best to get us access to one of the portals leading into the world of Fae to eject the coxigans. That would give them a fighting chance, given they’d be in their own dimension, and it would solve our issue. It occurred to me that we should make an arrangement with PortalWatch to use their system when needed, in exchange for helping them in some way.

Merry lived in a neighborhood that wasn’t fancy, but was a definite step up from Lower Seattle. The house was a split-level, on a decent sized lot for being in the city, and it looked older but well-kept. It was painted yellow with mahogany trim, and the house itself had a comfortable feeling to it. A chain-link fence surrounded the lot, and next door on one side was a smaller, older home that also looked well-tended.

On the other side was an empty lot. There had once been a house there, but it had apparently burned to the ground, leaving an empty foundation. Even now I could see charred timbers in the empty pit that had most likely been a basement. There was something there, I could feel it even this far away, and whatever it was, it wasn’t friendly. When I thought about walking over there to look at it, I felt repelled, like something was trying to prevent me from doing so.

“What happened to your neighbor?” I asked, pointing to the foundation. The sun had come out, peeking between the clouds, and while the ground was wet, we lucked out in that we weren’t expecting rain until late in the day.

Merry glanced in the direction I was pointing. “That house burned down a few years ago. One of the owners died in the fire—the husband—and the wife has never been back. She walked away, leaving the house in ruins. I heard that she was so traumatized that she ended up taking her life a few months later.

“How tragic,” I said, turning to look at the ruins again. “I wonder…” It occurred to me that either the husband was still tethered there in spirit, or maybe the wife had returned, so traumatized that her spirit couldn’t let go. Either way, it made me sad.

“Where are the coxigans?” Orik asked.

He had come with Dante and me to check out the situation.

Merry motioned for us to follow her. Today, she was dressed to walk around the yard, wearing a pair of slightly too-large cargo pants, a tight tank top, and tie belt. She still looked like a model, even wearing a pair of flats. I could tell, though, that she was athletic as hell, and could probably wrestle Dante to the ground. Wolf shifters were strong—stronger than most shifter groups—and I wouldn’t want to try to take her on, even though I was part demon.

We followed her around to the back yard, and there, near an old oak tree, I could see the coxigans. They made no attempt to hide themselves. There were more than a dozen there. This wasn’t going to be easy. The red one flew over and buzzed my head, and suddenly, I felt a zap as it reached out with what looked like a tiny trident and poked me on the forehead. It flew off before I could swat it.

“Hey, you little prick!” I reached up and wiped the drops of blood off my brow. “Okay, now it’s personal.”

“They do that to me all the time. I can’t even mow the back yard anymore.” Merry frowned. “Do you want a bandage? I’d offer you antibiotic ointment but mine’s specifically made for shifters and I don’t know if it would affect you.”

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