Page 15 of Skulk of Foxes
Cravat Man, minus the cravat he’d been wearing the last time I’d met him. His shirt was open at the neck and he looked dishevelled. Him and me both. I grimaced; he’d been with Viburna when I’d first met her. I strained my brain to remember his name. It was the least I could do.
‘Opulus,’ Morgan sighed. ‘She…’
It wasn’t fair that Morgan had to deliver the bad news. ‘She’s dead,’ I finished for him. Let Opulus despise me for being the messenger; I reckoned Morgan needed a break.
Rather than get angry, however, Opulus seemed to diminish right in front of my eyes. His body sank into itself. I grabbed a chair and held it out for him. Barely noticing, he collapsed into it.
A murmur of shock rippled across the room. ‘How?’ someone asked. ‘Was it because of what happened outside? With the sky and the…’
I shook my head. ‘It was Rubus. Rubus killed her.’
The horror on the assembled faces was clear to see. ‘The bastard!’
‘How dare he!’
‘We have to do something!’
From the back of the bar, there was a loud cough and Finn’s hulking figure appeared. I hadn’t spotted the Redcap before now; considering his size, staying out of sight was no mean feat for him. ‘So now you’re upset?’ he enquired, his voice trembling with rage. ‘It wasn’t a problem when he killed my brother but now he’s killed one of yours, you’ve decided you have to act?’
‘The big man with the cauliflower ears makes a very valid point,’ I said.
There was an angry hiss in my direction from one of the assembled Fey. ‘Like you can talk. You worked for him! She could be a spy, Morganus! Get her out of here!’
Morgan rubbed his hand across his eyes. ‘She’s one of us. Leave her be.’
‘One of us? Did you see what happened with the sky? With the animals? It’s not natural. I bet she had something to do with that.’
I glared at my accuser then I drew myself up. ‘I wasn’t born with enough middle fingers to let you lot know how I feel about you right now. You’ve all been burying your heads in the sand and hoping Rubus would go away. At least I’ve been trying to do something about him. You want to blame me for all this? Go ahead. I deserve a lot of your censure. But complaining about me now isn’t going to help matters. You’ve had ten years to do something about him. Some of you,’ I glared, ‘took his damned pixie dust and just smiled politely.’
‘Yousold us that damned pixie dust!’ a brave voice yelled.
I put my hands on my hips. ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘I did. Not that I remember doing so. But you could have said no. You’re like a bunch of witches, whispering and plotting and doing nothing. It’s always someone else’s responsibility to sort things out. It’s someone else’s fault and someone else should smooth things over so that your lives are made better. It’s notyourfault we’re trapped here. It’s notyourfault that Rubus is a fucking arsebadger. But maybe it’s your responsibility to do something about it. We’re all faeries here. By not acting sooner weallhave a hand in this. Stop worrying about who’s to blame and start thinking about what we can do about it. You’ve had plenty of warning. As Finn said, his brother was killed by Rubus just as callously as Viburna. Where were you when that happened? He might not be Fey but he’s still one of us! Quit your cackling or get out of here.’
Finn’s jaw dropped open. Julie clapped. Several others turned to Morgan as if waiting for him to tell me off and send me to my room without supper.
He looked at me, a glimmer of a smile in his eyes. ‘Madrona’s right,’ he said. ‘Unless you have any bright ideas about what we can do to bring down Rubus then you can all piss off. We have more important things to worry about than your egos.’
I nodded happily. ‘There’s not enough room in here for another ego besides mine.’
Morgan growled under his breath, ‘Don’t push it, Maddy.’
I shrugged; I was only being honest.
‘It’s not safe outside. Have you seen what’s been happening?’ Paeonia pointed towards the muted television screen. ‘It’s chaos out there!’
‘In case it escaped your attention, we’ve just been outside,’ Morgan pointed out. ‘Whatever that was, it’s passed now. Go home. Think about what we can do to stop Rubus. Otherwise,’ his voice hardened, ‘don’t get in our way.’
‘Harsh,’ I murmured. Then I grinned. ‘But fair.’
Morgan obviously garnered considerably more respect than I did. One by one, the crowd of Fey started to disperse. They went slowly at first, as if they still didn’t believe him about it being safe to leave, then more quickly when they realised that it was. Before long, there was only a handful of us left.
Julie smacked her lips. ‘I need a drink.’
Vandrake also licked his lips but he was a recovering drug addict. I didn’t think swapping one substance for another, regardless of the circumstances, was a good idea.
Jodie sighed. ‘More gin? Haven’t you had enough already?’
‘Not gin.’ Julie grimaced. ‘To be honest, I’m feeling very strange. I need some blood.’
