Page 39 of Suspicions on the Stage
I’d be worried about the effects, but none of us have a problem with his melodies—a fact I’m studiouslyignoringthe meaning of. Growling in irritation, I let my dragon come forth a bit, using the electricity sparkling over my skin to try my own homing device for whatever this shit is. It hasn’t worked yet, but I have to figure this out. We don’t know who or what was here, what they did, and if it will trail the bear back to our home base.
Liam will lose his fucking marbles if Morgana gets hurt because we weren’t thorough.
Speaking of the prince, he’s in full Fae form—something he doesn’t do often on this side of the Veil—stalking around the room as he mutters various spells to himself. My best friend is beside himself because together, we’re apowerhouseof magic and supe energy, yet this damn whatever is eluding us. If that can happen to those as old as Li and me, plus the heir to an insanely skilled mage line, the heir to a gang of ancient shifters, and someone with Lucas’ bloodline? What chance do we have of keeping anyone safe when this shit comes for us with greater force?
“Kas, I just don’t sense supe magic or power here. I don’t understand,” Liam snarls as he stomps around. He rarely loses his temper, but this definitely has his back up. “It’s like something carefully erased whatever trail was here, but left just the teeniest hint of presence… on purpose?”
“Yes, I think it was purposeful,” I agree. “It wanted us to know it was here, but not be able to source it. This is a taunt, plain and simple. If we give it credence when we leave this building,though, the perpetrator wins. I assume that’s their game—psychological warfare.”
“Dude, there’s no way we can pretend this didn’t happen when we get home. Morgana will want to know what kept us, and we promised not to hold shit back.” The stubborn youngster gives me a challenging look, and I chuckle.
“I’m not asking anyone to hold this back from her. What Iamsaying is that we need to appear unaffected until we’re in the magically locked space we created. Whoever or whatever did this is playing a different game than the one who framed you for murder. That was overt, and this covert. This player is hoping to get into our heads and live rent free. We can’t allow it.”
“Oh, I get it. Like trash talk on the ice, right?” Lucas says as he climbs onto a chair and looks into one of the light wellsagain.
The poor kid thinks if he keeps looking, he’ll find something he missed, but I don’t think he’s right. All he’ll accomplish is making himselfmoreirritated, which will make leaving with an air of nonchalance difficult. “Yes, exactly like that, but subtler. And truthfully, they are accomplishing their task because here we are, tearing our hair, trying to find their little trap. The key is not showing that frustration and worry in our bodies, faces, or discussion when we exit this damn place.”
“Kaspar, it will be fine,” Li mutters as he continues to walk the living area with a focused expression. “They can handle it.”
Ignatius pauses his window inspection again, shaking his head. “That’s true, but this is ridiculous. Never in my life have I encountered so many unidentifiable, unexplainable things until I met you people. The odds are astronomical that it keeps happening, right? They have to be tied together, but I don’t evenknow which of the hundreds of colleagues I have around the world to query because we can’t even surmise which species this shit is coming from.”
The professor has a point—I can’t tap my sources, either, because I don’t know who to ask.
“I can’t ask Nana, either. I mean, what do I say? There’s no finger to point or evidence to submit to some fucking specialist. We’ve been left withnothing, especially because the fucking Keystone Cops here got ahold of LaMount’s body. There’s no way they didn’t contaminate it, so having her pull strings won’t do a damn thing—that’s what Thorne says, anyway.”
Slade’s humming ceases and he turns to look at us sheepishly. “Our idea of finding a unicorn shifter went sideways when my family pulled their shit. Sorry about that, guys. We’ll have to search via another route.”
“Kaspar can help with that. He should be able to use his contacts at home to get a list of known sparkly shifters from our realm. Right, Kas?” Liam finally stops pacing, his expression hopeful and I grin.
Finally, something I can actually accomplish without feeling like an idiot when I come up empty.
After the prince’s idea,the two of us could finally convince the others to pack up all of Lucas’s things and head back to Morgana’s. With all the cars, we could get almost everything, so his movers won’t have much to handle tomorrow, and by the time we got to the house, I was anxious to get working on mytask. Liam was quiet until we got there, but as soon as we got out, he made a beeline for the door. The others followed suit, and I was left to heft the shit from our SUV to the porch.
I don’t really mind because I have places to be, but it stings knowing they’re all excited to see their mate.
But I don’t have that by choice, and I refuse to let wistful feelings affect my ability to function. What happened with Angeline didn’t fall at my feet, but I cannot seem to get past it. It’s been so long, but my heart went to stone afterward and this situation—well, it strokes a chord. I trust Liam with my life, and I know he would never hurt me, but sharing a mate after that mess? I just don’t think I can make that leap; I haven’t had more than one-night stands since Angeline fled our combined fury to exile in her home court.
“That didn’t help diplomatic relations with them, either,” I muse as I take the last piece of the bear’s crap from our vehicle and hop back into the driver’s seat. “But that bitch fucked around and eventually, she found out.”
Pulling out of the drive, I head down the tree-lined street and towards the exit from campus. I need to get away from the more genteel atmosphere of the pretentious university and deeper into the city to find the right people to snoop about for the unicorn shifter. Their rarity makes them difficult to source, and the price will be high, but Li isn’t remotely concerned about that. What he doesn’t want is our fathers getting wind of problems on this side. That’s why I’mnotusing the contacts in Faerie like he said at the dorm, but finding other ones unconnected to our homeland.
The drive to Howl isn’t long and since the sun is setting, the employees will be setting up for the night shows. I haven’t beenhere for a bit, even before Liam got involved with Morgana, but it’s a good mix of elite supes and low-end clientele that sneak in to peddle their illegal wares. The variety shows performed by many supes and out-of-town visitors draw a good crowd, even on weeknights, and I’m hoping to run into some of the shadier folks who frequent the bar.
I’m not with Liam tonight, so I have to blend better and keep the attention off of me, though.
I head into a parking garage, avoiding the valet stand, and drive to the top level of the structure. Clubs like Howl use magic to keep their upper crust guests’ vehicles safe, and that would create a trail. Since I didn’t tell Li where I was going so he wouldn’t insist on coming along, doing anything that reveals who I really am is counterproductive.
After I park, I rifle through the center console to find one of my alternate IDs. I keep a stock of these in various places while we’re in the human realm because they’re cheap and easy to buy, unlike at home. Sneaking around in Faerie requires a fuck ton more prep than it does here, even in the supe community. All I need to do is flash one of these, and their inspections will verify the human part of the ID, then the flimsy Society markings that say I’m part of whichever rich family I’m spoofing tonight.
I look at one ID, squinting at the text to commit to memory:AlainMoreau, of the damn near ancient Moreau family. They’re French dragons, and the living members of their clan are known for being aloof and unapproachable. I chose their line for that exact reason—people won’t ask me a lot of questions and the name will get me in the door easily. Opening my wallet, I pull out my real credentials and stow them in the be-spelled console, then put the fake ID in the slot.
“Okay. I just need to find the gnomes or the Kitsuné dealers. They’re my best bets for getting leads on the horned idiots. If I can do that without being made by some rich dick, we’ll be good.”
Before I get out, my phone buzzes and I look at it in annoyance. Of course it’s the prince, and he’s having a hissy about my leaving without coming inside. I can’t focus on whatever he’s worried about—and I guarantee it’s his mate snarking about my manners—because I’m actually going to solve one of our damn problems. Everyone will get over my rudeness if I can bring back a win, especially since we haven’t had one in a while.
Freeing the siren and the orc don’t count—those were easy pickings, and we had help for the second.
No, we’ve been plagued by bullshit from the second we went to the West Coast and I am determined to get this one fucking thing off of our list if it kills me. Looking in the mirror to make sure I’m still presentable, I verify everything one last time and pocket my phone without responding to Liam.
