Chapter One
Anya
“I need to show you something.”
I looked up from my crystal weather globe and saw Karina standing in my solarium. Karina, my lover’s sister. Karina, the only living walker in Scotland or anywhere else, for that matter. Karina, the only one I knew of who’d bested the Seelie, a host of Greek gods, and, most impressively, my mother. I wondered if someday she’d best me.
“All right.” I stood, and took her hand. Then, we blinked to a murder scene.
“Gods below, what happened here?” We were standing in a human bedroom, and the occupant of the bed had gone to their final slumber. The bed, once hung with pale silk curtains, was soaked in the same red that splashed the walls and stained the carpet. Whoever was in that bed had not gone quietly.
“Where are we? Who is that?” I stepped back from the bed and saw Karina’s partner, Robert Kirk, the gallowglass himself, leaning on the doorframe. “Did you kill this person?”
“No,” he replied. “As for where we are, we’re in Crail. This is my home.”
Memories of the last time I’d been in Crail flooded my mind. Christopher and I had been searching for clues about a weather anomaly, and we’d found—
“Nicnevin,” I gasped, clapping my hand over my mouth. Nicnevin had been in hiding in Robert and Karina’s home, and had been the source of the weather anomaly.
Had been.
She wasn’t the source of anything now.
This was Robert and Karina’s bedroom. This was the last place I’d seen Nicnevin alive.
“What happened?” I reached toward the body, my fingers straining toward Nicnevin’s rosy gold hair that I’d always admired, though I had never admitted that to anyone. No longer was her hair the rich hue of sunsets and ripe peaches. Now, it was the dirty red of an abattoir.
“We don’t know,” Karina replied. “Robert and I came here to tell Nicnevin to get out of hiding and go back to the Seelie Court, and we found her.” Karina paused, her throat working. “I called Chris, and he said you needed to know as soon as possible. And here we are.”
“Yes. Here we are.” I paced around the perimeter of the bed and back again. She was dead from all angles. “Christopher and I saw her—spoke to her—only three days ago.”
“And that was the last time ye set eyes on her?” Robert asked.
“Are you accusing me of murder?” I demanded.
“Do not put words in me mouth,” he snapped. “I’ve a dead woman in me bed. It’s my right to be askin’ questions.”
I glared at Robert, insolent man that he was, but he was correct. “I won’t insult your intelligence by asking who wanted
Nicnevin dead,” I began; that list was long, indeed. “Who could have accomplished this?”
“Any number of beings,” Robert replied. “Accordin’ to Christopher, he told one o’ the fuath that Nicnevin was holed up here. Those beasts whisper amongst themselves, and anyone willin’ to take the time can learn to listen.”
Da heard the old ones whispering from beneath. “Do we think it was Crom? He is the most likely suspect.”
“Is he?” Robert countered. “From what I was told o’ the battle between ye and him, he may already think he won.”
An image of my Da being consumed whole by Crom’s massive head flitted behind my eyes. “Well and so, Crom is my main focus now, as is finding my Da.”
Karina touched my hand. “Have you learned anything about where Bod might be?”
“No,” I whispered, ignoring the pressure behind my eyes, the pain like shards of glass in my throat. “Neither I nor Mum can find a single trace of him.”
Karina’s gentle touch became her fingers grasping mine. “We’ll find him. I promise.”
And what if there’s nothing left to find but a body? I’d asked Mum that exact question. Her response was that if nothing more remained of the Bodach than his corpse, she would drag it to the center of Elphame and light the biggest funeral pyre anyone in any world has ever seen.
I didn’t want a pyre. I wanted my Da.
“We will,” I said. Based on Karina’s frown, I didn’t sound all that convincing. “We will,” I repeated. “As for Nicnevin, there’s nothing more we can do for her, except find out who did this.”
“Aye,” Robert said. “Can ye freeze her for a time?”
“You want to preserve the body?”
“Only for a day or so. We do need to get the workmen handling the repairs paid and let go, and I do no’ want them askin’ questions I’d rather no’ answer. There is also the matter o’ relocatin’ the wights.”
“I will bring them to the Unseelie Court,” I said. Before Maelgwyn ruled the Unseelie he was the Summer King, and the wights had tended his gardens. I imagine them returning to him would be a homecoming for all involved. Maelgwyn was also my true father, a fact that until recently had been hidden from all but my mother and my da. My live had become so interconnected it was tangled up in knots.
I shook my head, then I spied a cradle in the corner of the room. “Where is Faith?”
“In Glasgow,” Karina replied. “Chris is watching her.”
“We should go to them.” I raised my hand, and a thick layer of ice grew around Nicnevin’s corpse. “Whoever did this to Nicnevin is not one to be trifled with. I don’t want to leave our vulnerable unprotected.” The body dealt with, I glanced around the room. “Is there anything from here I can help you bring to the flat?”
“I’ll no’ have items tainted by death near me bairn, no’ if I can help it,” Robert said, then he wrapped his arm around
Karina’s shoulders. “As far as I’m concerned it can all burn.”
I tightened my grip on Karina’s hand and made ready to blink to Glasgow. “Then burn it shall.”
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