Chapter 1
My time had finally come. After seven rejections, one basement escapade, and a couple of horrifying Fae beasts, I was standing in front of the Magical Artifacts Retrieval and Research Institute. In person, and not through G-maps street view.
And I even had a job waiting for me.
My grin was so wide, people kept some extra distance as they walked past. I would’ve cackled, but artifact hunters did not cackle. I wished I could immortalize the moment, but since humanity at large had no clue the Fae were real and their artifacts and part-Fae descendants had been let loose among its population, it generally wasn’t a good idea to bring attention to things like the Institute’s building. I didn’t want to start my first day on the wrong foot by taking a selfie.
The Institute was an ordinary red-brick office building stuck in a row of storefronts. Three stories of apparent boredom that filled my chest with so much warmth, I began to sweat under my jacket—one of Mom’s best. Sweatshirts, she had told me firmly, did not make good impressions on first days.
But what if I was called into some dusty basement, or attic, or—my eyes had turned dreamy—had to dig up some long-lost artifact treasure while fighting Fae creatures, I had argued.
Her response? “Jackets come off, Maddie.”
Hard to argue with that one.
I took the steps up to the entrance of the building, feeling like I was about to burst with joy. I wasn’t a stranger to first days—until two weeks ago I had worked for a temporary job agency—but never before had I felt such rightness and contentment.
The feeling of rightness stayed as I went down the main hallway, admiring the lack of decor and the cream-colored walls, and found the room marked as Reception. It persisted as I waited at the empty counter, leaning in to spy through the open door on the side, and peaked when I announced loudly that I was here and then choked a giggle of excitement.
Alas, the contentment did not endure.
“What do you mean he hasn’t finished the paperwork yet and I don’t have a job?” I asked, swaying between irritation and disbelief. We were in the side room now. Victor Reed—the Institute’s second in command as far as I could tell and long-time sufferer of my application-related calls—had ushered me inside. “Where is he? He promised.”
Victor grimaced and shook his head. The hint of worry in his expression took me aback.
“Victor?” Unease unfurled in the pit of my stomach. “Where’s Aidan?”
He rubbed his mouth while he assessed me. Seemingly coming to a decision, he gave me a grave look.
“We don’t know. He’s been missing for a week.”
My mouth hung open. I stared back. “Missing?” Aidan hadn’t looked like the kind of man who simply took off without notice. “Haven’t you searched for him?”
Victor offered me a lovely reaaally arch of his eyebrows—he must’ve learned that from Aidan. At the reminder, my stomach twisted.
“What case was he working on?” I asked. “Maybe I can help with the search.”
“I can’t tell you that, Maddie.”
“Why not?”
“It’s Institute’s business.”
Really, would it have killed Aidan to sign my papers the day after his promise instead of waiting until the last minute? “I’m basically part of the Institute. Are you sure he didn’t sign whatever, and it’s just lying on his desk instead of being filed? Does he have a tablet? Maybe he signed it online.”
“Sorry, Maddie, if it’s not official, my hands are tied.”
“Even if I can help?”
“I can see you’re eager, but do you have any experience in tracking people?”
If by tracking people he meant running after them because they “forgot” to pay for their purchases at the various stores where I had worked, sure. I didn’t think he would take that as assurance, though. “If he was investigating something dangerous or in the black market, people might be more willing to talk to someone unaffiliated with the Institute, right?”
He considered this for a few moments then shook his head. “Sorry, can’t do. I’ll have to contact the Council if he’s still missing in a few days, and they’ll send someone to oversee us until they decide what to do.” He grimaced. “If they find anything inappropriate going on, they might clean house. Can’t risk it.”
I checked the corners of the ceiling. More cream color and an old stain. “It’s not like there are cameras in here,” I whispered. “Just tell me, and nobody else needs to know.”
Victor patted my shoulder. “Sorry, Maddie. I’ll let you know about the job as soon as I can.”
What a perfect example of “letting you down easy.” In a heartbeat, I saw my dreams crumble, saw myself going back to Joe and asking to be added back to his temp job roster. Saw myself filling out that damn Institute application form an eighth time. Saw myself walking out of this building that already felt like home and never coming back in again.
“You’re good now, right?” I heard Victor say while I played out the rest of my life in my head—temp jobs, blackmailing Kane the Jerk II for information about artifacts I might find before the Institute, offering whoever took over the Institute the same deal I had Aidan—an artifact for a job.
Another twist of my stomach. Swallowing became awfully hard.
“Maddie? I got things to do.”
I nodded vaguely and heard him leave the room. For some reason, all these plans of how to go about getting a job at the Institute—again—didn’t fill me with the unbridled optimism and excitement they usually did. They left me drowning in dread.
And then I realized, in a big eureka moment that made me tilt my head as if ready to feel the warmth from the opening heavens, that I was giving up. And artifact hunters did not give up.
Soaking in my renewed energy, I ignored the exit leading back to the reception desk and chose the second door in the room. It took me deeper into the main hallway, which I took as a good sign.
I had no intention of leaving the building. Not yet, anyway.
Since Aidan was missing, I would remind everyone that I was born to find Fae artifacts by tracking him down.
He might not be an artifact, but he had plenty of Fae blood in his veins. During our basement adventures, I had tried to figure out how much of a part Fae he was, but Aidan had an excellent knack for refusing to answer questions. A gift, really. You could say mine was the exact opposite.
There were three other doors in the hallway before the stairs and an old elevator in the back. I pressed my ear against the first door but heard nothing. Same with the second. At the third, I heard a muffled voice that sounded masculine. I couldn’t tell if that was Victor, but I decided not to chance it and took the stairs.
What were they going to do if they caught me, fire me? Hah.
The second floor was a repeat of the first—a hallway and more rooms, except most of the doors up here were open. I peeked into the first room and found a neat, empty office space with a window opening into the next building’s close wall.
“Can I help you?” came from behind me.
I spun, my most winning smile pasted on my face. A woman sat behind a desk in the office room across the hallway, the upper half of her face peeking over her monitor. The Institute’s web page had no list of employees except for Aidan being listed as the director, and no photos whatsoever, so I was at a disadvantage. It’s hard to make people warm up to you when you have no clue who they are.
Still, I hadn’t sporadically worked retail for nothing.
“Hi,” I said brightly, walking inside her office with purpose. I extended my hand, nearly knocking her monitor over. “I’m Maddie Dover. I’m supposed to start today.”
The woman rested her elbows on the desk and steepled her fingers. “Is that so?”
“Yup. I was sent up here.” By past me. “To get a look around.” And find out more about Aidan. “And meet the team.” Because surely Aidan must’ve told someone what he was working on. Since she was looking at my extended arm like it was a demonic tentacle, I retracted it smoothly. “What’s your name?”
“Lopez.”
I studied the room. Unlike the other office, this one was brimming with books and folders and signs of humanity. It even had a corkboard on one wall. Unfortunately, it had nothing pinned on it. “Will you show me around?”
“No.”
I nodded as if in agreement. “Of course, you must be very busy. Aidan—uh, Mr. Greaves—said things usually are, and not to expect to be coddled.” He had said no such thing, but he had definitely been thinking it whenever he looked at me.
Lopez reached for the mouse, never taking her eyes from me. I wondered if she was triggering some kind of alarm system. Beware, annoying hunter-wannabe loose in the building.
“Do you know what they’ll have me working on?”
“No.”
“Hey,” I exclaimed. “Think they’ll pair us up?”
That was enough to get a reaction out of her. The reaction was to concentrate on her monitor and ignore me. I mentally rubbed my hands together. Perfect.
“Can I look around?” I asked, taking a couple of backward steps toward the door.
“Go back downstairs.”
Since that wasn’t a no, and since the first law of the world of Fae was to be very precise with your wording, I took that as an opportunity to grow into my new role and snoop around.
“Great, thanks!” I stepped into the hallway and approached the next open door. Another office with the same type of desk and computer. This one had a lot less stuff lying around but still showed signs of human habitation. Sadly, there were no plaques on the doors or walls to indicate who owned each room.
I ignored the room and the one opposite and focused on the ones at the end of the hallway, the ones with the big windows opening onto the street. If Aidan’s office was on this floor, it had to be one of these. The one on the left, to be precise. The door was closed, the handle rattled but didn’t turn, and there were about five wards drenching the wood with magic.
The wards didn’t bother me. Once I found Aidan, he wouldn’t care I had broken into his office—I would definitely make him promise to not care about it before freeing him—so the only problem was the locked part. I examined the lock; it appeared simple enough.
Checking to make sure I was still alone in the hallway, I tried the credit card trick. Shockingly, it didn’t work.
I weighed my options. Using the Fae hound to smash right through the door would cause too much ruckus. Not to mention that a second floor was possibly too far from Fae land for him to be able to show up.
Yes, I had a huge Fae hound at my beck at call. I had named him Greenie and I wasn’t completely sure it was a he, but I wasn’t about to go checking.
Ever since acquiring him a couple of weeks ago during our battle with the soulless Fae, I had refrained from calling on Greenie too much, even if he was often hovering just out of sight. For all that I’d seemingly ignored Aidan’s lectures about using artifacts, it wasn’t smart to keep using a Fae anything when you didn’t know what the exchange would take from you.
Fae magic always came at a cost.
As of now, I had absolutely no idea what the price was for owning and using a Fae hound.
Retracing my steps, I peeked back into Lopez’s office.
Her typing speed didn’t change. “You’re still here.”
She didn't sound surprised, and I was glad she already knew me so well. Future teammates ought to know each other well. “Greaves’s office is locked.”
“Shocking.”
“Do you know what he was working on before he disappeared?”
Clack, clack, clack went the keyboard. “Researching artifacts.”
“Do you think he was searching for the Collector?”
She gave me a sharp glance. “You know about the Collector?”
Hell, I had worked for the Collector. Except at the time he had been Sullivan, of Proctor & Sullivan Accounting Services, and I had been unaware of his secret persona as a collector of dangerous black market Fae artifacts. Apparently, Aidan hadn’t told others of my involvement in discovering the Collector’s true identity down in the Bowels of Hell.
“Hmm-hmm. I could be useful, you know,” I said matter-of-factly. “I have contacts in the artifact world.” One. And he had stabbed me in the back. I seriously needed to make new friends in the business. “I can help.”
“Maddie!” came from an outraged Victor now emerging from the stairs.
Lopez’s mouth twitched at the corner. The clack-clacking resumed. “The Collector sounds right.”
I gave her a thumbs up she didn’t see and turned to Victor, who hadn’t dragged me to the stairs but was instead pointing sternly in their direction. “Out. Now.”
I saluted and trotted back to the first floor and then out the main entrance.
Time to get working on finding my grumpy Fae-human artifact. And I knew just where to start.
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