Realm of Mirrors (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 3) (2 page)

I was still horrified at what I’d done to save the werewolves and humans they’d captured to experiment on, and I wasn’t anywhere near ready to jump back into the supernatural fray. But here I was, making a surprise visit to a Seelie prince.

“I’ve explained this already,” Taeral said. “It is the new moon. We cannot afford to wait another month—we must know what he’s done to you.”

“Right.” I’d gotten that much, at least. Fae magic was tied to the moon. Every Fae had a spark, a certain capacity for magic, and once that was used up they needed moonlight to recharge. I had a slight advantage there because of the moonstone. The pendant I always wore, which had come to me under strange circumstances, was a kind of battery for storing moonlight that I could tap into when my spark ran low. “So you think this guy’s going to try using magic against us,” I said.

“Aye, I do.” Taeral stared ahead without expression. “But in this realm at least, no Fae can kill another when the moon hides it face.”

“Jesus, you think he’ll try to
kill
us?”

Taeral shrugged. “He is, allegedly, a Seelie prince. We cannot risk believing he won’t.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. Cobalt had seemed like such a nice guy when he gave me the tattoos. He’d done it all for free, over multiple sessions, once I’d gotten enough nerve to explain why I wanted them—to cover the scars.

The process had taken weeks. Because I had a lot of scars.

“Okay, let me get this straight,” I said. “If there’s no moon, then no one can kill us?”

“No
Fae
can.” Taeral frowned slightly. “This restriction does not apply to humans.”

“Oh.” So much for being safe from Milus Dei for a few days a month.

Sadie, who’d pulled ahead of us a bit and crossed the next side street, stopped and waited at the curb. “You said the address is 542, right?” she said as we caught up.

“Yeah, why?”

“Because we already passed 540 back there. And this is 544.”

I frowned, glanced at the building just ahead, and saw 544 on the window of the door. “What the hell?”

“There was no 542,” she said.

I shook my head. “There has to be,” I said, doubling back across the side street.

For some reason, the first building on the block was further away than it looked. Walking toward it made my head swim a little. But when I reached the door, the numbers above it read 540.

I turned to find Taeral and Sadie approaching, both with uneasy looks. “Maybe your captain friend gave you the wrong address,” Sadie said. “I mean, there just isn’t a 542 here.”

“Actually, there is,” Taeral said slowly. “The place is warded.”

“It’s what?”

“Warded. There are protection spells here…against the Unseelie,” he said. “A kind of camouflage that prevents us from finding the entrance.”

“Hold on. I’m not Unseelie,” Sadie said. “So why can’t I see it?”

“Because it is our proximity that triggers the spell.” He put a hand on my arm. “Move back, Gideon,” he said. “Sadie, stay where you are.”

I frowned and started backing up. “How do we know when we’re far enough away?”

“We’ll know.”

Sadie watched us warily. “Um, Taeral? Are these spells going to do something…weird to me?”

“No,
a’ghreal
,” he said with a faint smile. “You are perfectly safe.”

“All right.” She didn’t sound convinced.

We’d gotten two or three buildings away when Sadie started to shimmer.

I stopped to glare at Taeral. “You said it wouldn’t do anything to her.”

“It hasn’t,” he said. “What you are seeing is your perception, because the spell affects you. Not her. Now, move away.”

“Fine.” I shuffled back another few steps.

Sadie blurred, and then vanished.

Okat, that wasn’t nothing. “Where the hell is she?” I said.

“Holy shit!”

Sadie’s voice sounded like it was traveling through a tunnel, and it kind of creeped me out to hear it coming from the empty sidewalk in front of us. I could still see the cross street beyond, and the buildings on the other side. “Guys, there’s a building here,” she said. “It…wasn’t here before. There’s a door, but no address numbers on it.”

“That is the place.” Taeral started forward again.

I followed him and watched Sadie pop back into existence, staring open-mouthed at the exposed side of building 540. “It just stopped being there,” she said as she turned to look at us. “And it wasn’t like disappearing. I can’t explain it. The building wasn’t there, then it was, and then it…wasn’t again.”

“Great,” I said. “So how do we get in?”

Taeral looked at the place where the building should’ve been, even though there wasn’t enough room for another building. “I can break the wards,” he said. “I’ll not exhaust my spark doing it, but I will not be at full power. And obviously this Cobalt means us harm, if he’s warded against the Unseelie.”

“I’m not sure about that,” I said. “Besides, we have to take the chance, right?”

“Right,” Sadie said. “And if it comes down to it, I’ve got my luna-ball.”

“Uh, let’s try to avoid going wolf in the middle of Manhattan.”

She snorted. “Do you really think I’d do it unless I had to?”

“Enough,” Taeral said abruptly. “I’ll handle the wards. And we’ll all be prepared to do what is necessary.”

I sighed. “Fine. Go for it.”

Taeral faced the building that wasn’t there, closed his eyes and held out his metal arm. He murmured something I could only hear enough to know the words were Fae—and pale blue light glowed from the runes etched into his hand and arm. The air in front of him shimmered, the way Sadie had when we backed away.

And then the building…was.

C
HAPTER 2

“O
kay. How in the hell did he hide a whole building?”

I couldn’t stop staring. The two-story brick structure that wasn’t there a minute ago was nothing like The Grotto I’d been to. The only windows were on the second floor, and the door was a solid, dull green metal with a push bar instead of a knob. There were no words or numbers anywhere on the place, and nothing to indicate this was a tattoo shop.

No wonder the NYPD was suspicious. This place had shady written all over it—I half expected some bouncer with biceps the size of my head to step out and demand the secret password.

“He’d not hidden it from everyone. Just the Unseelie,” Taeral said. “That requires less power than a complete warding. But still, it is no simple spell.”

“So I guess he’s pretty powerful.”

“Aye. If the rumors are true.”

“Well, let’s find out,” Sadie said as she walked up to the door and pushed the bar. Nothing happened. “Er. It’s locked,” she said.

“Then I’ll unlock it.” Taeral moved for the entrance.

 “Whoa, hold it,” I said. “Maybe they’re not open right now.”

He stared at me. “And?”

“Look, it’s one thing to take apart a bunch of spells. But if we just unlock the door and walk in, we’re breaking and entering.”

“So?”

I sighed. “One of those things is just a really bad idea. The other one is illegal. Besides, if the place is closed, that means no one’s here anyway.” I stepped up next to Sadie. “Let’s try this first, okay?” I said, and knocked on the door.

Nothing happened. After a minute or so, I knocked harder.

“This is pointless,” Taeral snapped. “Let me—”

“Wait. I hear something in there,” Sadie said. “Footsteps.”

“I don’t hear anything,” I said.

She rolled her eyes. “Werewolf. Enhanced senses. Remember?”

“Oh, right.”

Then I did hear something faint, like footsteps. There was a pause, a click, and the door opened a few inches. One bleary brown eye peered out. “Sorry. We’re not buying, and we don’t need Jesus, thanks,” a male voice said, just before the door started closing.

The voice sounded a little familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

“Hold on,” I said quickly. “I’m looking for Cobalt, and I’m not selling anything. Including Jesus.”

The door paused and the gap widened slowly, revealing a man with light brown hair, a whisper of stubble and a puzzled frown, with a coffee mug clutched in his free hand. So much for familiar. I’d never seen him before, and he definitely wasn’t Cobalt—who was tall, dark-haired, and had quite a few tattoos and piercings. I wasn’t that great at sensing Others yet, but this guy seemed human. “Do you have an appointment with him?” the man said.

“Uh, no. But he did some work for me, and I had a few questions about it.”

“Well, he doesn’t open until four. He’s here, but I don’t know…” The man leaned aside to look at Sadie, and then Taeral. His expression grew guarded, and he glanced at something off to the side. Then he frowned. “You’re not welcome in this house.”

“Huh?”

Before I could react any further, something pushed against me. For a second I thought it was the brown-haired man, but he hadn’t moved.

Then my feet actually slid back on the sidewalk about half an inch. And I couldn’t go forward at all.

It took me a few seconds to figure it out. There was some kind of magic law that said no Fae could enter the property of another Fae if they weren’t wanted. We’d had this problem with Reun, the Seelie noble who was now staying with us at the Castle—another long story. Taeral hadn’t exactly been open to his presence at first, with good reason, so he told him he wasn’t welcome. And Reun physically couldn’t come back into the place until Taeral invited him.

“How—you are not Fae,” Taeral said.

“No, but you are.” The man stared evenly at him. “And this is my house as much as Cobalt’s, so the Law still holds.”

“You know of the Laws?”

“All right. That’s it.” Sadie bumped me in passing and brushed right past the man into the place, almost spilling his coffee. “Thing is, I’m not Fae,” she said. “And you need to invite my friends inside, because they have to talk to Cobalt. Right now.”

The man blinked rapidly and stared at her. “Um. You’re trespassing?” he said. “Look, for humans I just call the cops.”

She gave him the sweet smile I knew well—the one that said she was about to go off in the exact opposite way that smile suggested. “I’m not human, either.”

“Okay. Everybody just…stop.” I held back a groan. Sadie probably wouldn’t go wolf just to prove a point—but probably was not the same as definitely. And any minute now, Taeral was going to start being his normal, threatening self. “Look,” I said to the guy in the doorway. “You know about the Fae, so I guess I can explain this to you. Cobalt—”

“You know nothing about this human,” Taeral snarled. “Do not trust him.”

I closed my eyes briefly. I could almost read his mind—he was worried because the Fae couldn’t kill each other without moonlight, but humans could. Any human with knowledge of the Fae might be a threat. But I didn’t sense anything dangerous from this guy, and I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Something Taeral couldn’t do. “Trust
me
, all right?” I said to him. “Just give me a minute.”

Taeral relented. A little.

I would’ve been upset with him, but there was another reason he was like this. Fae had to keep their promises, or they’d die—and he’d promised to protect me. Letting me get hurt could literally kill him. So, I’d just have to hope I could reason with this guy…or Taeral would. Only he’d use not so much ‘reasoning’ as ‘violent persuasion.’

“Anyway,” I said. “Cobalt did some tattoos for me, a long time ago. And I just found out they’re not exactly normal tattoos. Know what I mean?”

“Uh…no,” the man said.

I let out a frustrated breath. “They’re magic. But I didn’t ask for magic tattoos, and I have no idea what they are or what they do.”

He looked almost startled. “Are you sure? I mean, that really doesn’t sound like something Cobalt would do,” he said. “Maybe you’ve got the wrong guy.”

“Oh, aye,” Taeral said. “Surely we’re seeking some other bastard Seelie prince who owns a tattoo shop and calls himself Cobalt.”

I just about choked trying not to laugh.

After a long pause, the man said, “All right. I guess maybe you’d better talk to him.”

“Good idea,” Sadie said.

“My name’s Will, by the way,” he said, moving back from the door. “And you are?”

“Gideon. That’s Sadie, and Taeral,” I said.

“Well, I’m not sure how nice it is to meet you yet. I’ll let you know once I finish my coffee. We’re night people around here.” He flashed a half-smile. “Come in, Gideon. Taeral.”

The vague pressure I’d almost stopped noticing vanished, and we walked inside.

C
HAPTER 3