Jack’s magic was in place, arranged to her liking, and Io was definitely invisible. She was walking along the wet street without a shadow, even though there was a bright orange sunset behind her and her shade should be stretched out twice her height before her silent feet. Supposedly she was inaudible and unsmellable, too—so if she didn’t smack into someone, she was completely unfindable. She should be safe.
Unless someone in town had a counterspell and used it on her.
Her world had changed from yesterday. What she’d seen beneath Goblin Town had made her more nervous and untrusting, and she was therefore more aware of her surroundings. She eyed cars parked along the street, and was relieved when they were appropriately empty. Her eyes grew more restless as she neared downtown and her gaze moved
from vehicles to dusty windows and then dark doorways looking for movement.
She wouldn’t be alone for long. The sun was nearly gone from the sky. The manhole covers would be popping open soon and the more human-looking goblins would be creeping out to take up their night jobs. Tourists would begin pouring through the gates looking for a party. Junkies would crawl out of their holes and be looking for things too.
Jack had elected to go for her clothes—probably so there was no chance of Io having a run-in with Xanthe and spilling her guts in a fit of dutifulness. That meant Io was loaded up with all hers and Jack’s custom-built magic, and it was making her nerves hum. She didn’t plan on using any of it on Zayn, but it was reassuring to know that she could if necessary.
Io sighed. She didn’t like it, but Zayn had been moved from the list of reluctant allies to one of unknowns. He wasn’t actually an enemy, but he and she weren’t exactly on the same team anymore. Unless she could convert him to her way of thinking, get him to understand where the real danger was. It would be a hard sell, because Zayn was not a loner when it came to making decisions. He liked the security of an organization behind him.
Io arrived at The Madhouse just as the doors were opening, and eased inside as soon as the way was clear. She still didn’t like the place. Even without the full compliment of patrons and their awful din, the
fractured mirror wall gave back a kaleidoscope of ugly images. The lighting was not kind to fey eyes.
She slipped into the restroom behind a cocktail waitress and waited in a corner until the woman was gone.
Once she could hear the reassuring babble of excited voices and the start of SEXXX’s atonal wailing, Io let go of the invisibility spell and checked herself in the mirror: spiky hair, black leather, contacts hiding the blue of her eyes. She was ready.
“Time to go,” she muttered.
Taking a last deep breath of relatively clean air, she pulled open the door and waded into the club. Once again, something other than oxygen was floating in the air, and it prickled her skin and nerves.
Zayn was already on the dance floor and busy scanning the room as he slithered about with a petite female goblin. Io didn’t like the way the goblin moved. Her head would draw back with each beat, just like a snake preparing to strike. Her scalp drew back with each head bob, too, taking the rest of the skin with it so her lip peeled back and her pointed teeth were exposed.
Io shuddered, wondering how Zayn could stand to touch the creature.
Zayn spotted Io at once and began moving his partner toward her. Io let herself slide into the arterial rhythm that thumped her ears and bopped her way over to her annoyed ex-partner. She kept far away from the snake-mouthed female.
“Hey, baby,” she said loudly, not giving Zayn a chance to speak. She was careful not to look into the girl goblin’s eyes, not wanting to know if the pupils were actually slitted. “I hear there’s a big party tonight at Forty Shades of Green. Maybe I’ll see you there.”
“If there’s a big party, you can count on it,” he answered, smiling with his teeth but not his eyes. “Don’t get caught in the bathroom again. I’d hate to have to come rescue you in there.”
The message was clear. Io nodded and then began dancing her way toward the exit. She wanted out before Hille or Toc saw her and decided it was time to invite her down for another party in Glashtin’s office.
Once outside the club, Io found a dark alley and quickly pulled the invisibility spell back over her. She waited until Zayn emerged from the club and then followed him back up the street to the small jazz club, Forty Shades of Green. Like all goblin nightclubs, this one had been decorated by someone with a severe shortage of taste and an exaggerated dislike for bright lighting. The best that could be said about the place was that it wasn’t as loud as it might have been.
She let Zayn choose a table, back from the stage, but not so distant as to attract attention. He ordered a drink and then started scanning the patrons. His face was pleasantly blank but his posture suggested
irritation. Io waited until the small foyer was empty and then again cast off her invisibility.
Zayn’s surprised look told her that Jack’s revved up spell was truly effective. Zayn wouldn’t have been able to see her under the magic cloak, but with his own enhanced powers he should have sensed that she was there.
“Hi. Mind if I join you?” she asked, easing herself into a chair without waiting for an answer.
“Where have you been?” he demanded, dropping his voice. “Xanthe’s been looking all over for you. And Hille Bingels wants another date.”
“I’ve been busy doing my job.” Io’s voice was unusually cold, and she wondered if she had picked up some of Jack’s power of intimidation.
Zayn blinked and sat back, suggesting that he was wondering the same thing. “Look, if you’re having a personal party with Jack Frost then you should let Xanthe know. She’s worried about you.”
“I am letting her know. Through you. Xanthe and I won’t be talking directly again until this mission is over.”
Zayn blinked. “Why?”
Io thought about mentioning that she would be staying in Goblin Town, but changed her mind. Jack’s precautions didn’t look so paranoid to her after last night. Before then, the Labyrinth had just been a word, a place that wasn’t real. Now she knew just how real and dangerous it was. Too much was riding on her mission to take chances with idealism.
“You might ask Xanthe that,” she said instead. “She and Jack have a personal history—and Jack isn’t inclined to chat about it, except to say he doesn’t want me near her. Maybe Xanthe will be more talkative.”
Zayn frowned. “Does it matter that they were involved?”
“That’s unanswerable. It might matter a great deal—at least to me. I was the one sent to climb into Jack’s hip pocket, after all. She could have told me a bit about the wolf before throwing me to him.”
Zayn shook his head, automatically denying wrongdoing on Xanthe’s part, but he didn’t look happy with the news. “Where are the other ticks? I can’t find them.”
Io didn’t know, either. She was willing to bet that Jack had moved them somewhere shielded, though. “They’re safe enough. I’m keeping them alive in case I need them.”
“You should have them on you. We might need—”
“Zayn, you want ticks, you get your own. I’m done hosting parasites. Only if you do let them tick you, watch what Ferris does when you aren’t looking. He stuck a big one on my back that he didn’t tell me about. Jack had to cut it out and then burn the wound closed.”
Zayn blinked again. “He burned you?” He looked appalled. Feys did not use fire on other feys. Ever.
“Yep. It hurt like hell, too.”
The waitress arrived with Zayn’s drink and asked Io if she’d like anything. Though she didn’t care for beer, she ordered something German that came in a bottle, requesting that it remain sealed until it came to the table. When the waitress looked surprised, Io smiled and said she wanted to try her new bottle-opening spell.
Satisfied with the answer, the goblin server retreated.
“Those extra arms must come in handy in this line of work,” Io said conversationally, when Zayn failed to initiate conversation.
“You’ve changed,” Zayn finally said, looking troubled. He asked diffidently, “Has Jack done something else to you? I can feel his magic all over you.”
Io shrugged. “Jack’s my problem. We have something else larger to worry about.”
“The jewel?”
Io shook her head and sighed. “Zayn, I am only going to try to tell you this once, so please try hard to listen and not make any judgments about my story until I’m done.”
“Okay. But wait until the girl brings your drink.” He was beginning to look freaked.
Io stared at him. “Why are you with H.U.G.? I mean, I know what happened to your brother. But have you thought about why H.U.G. took us in?” she asked.
“Because it is illegal to discriminate against people with handicaps,” he said flippantly. Like many
feys, he was grateful for the Supreme Court’s legal protection, but also annoyed that his basic biology should be considered a handicap. He was annoyed that the few physical manifestations of his heritage—in his case, fractal eyes and very pointed ears—he had to hide under long hair and hats if he wished to pass for human.
“Like H.U.G. cares about legalities. Get real, Zayn. We should have asked ourselves this question long ago.”
The waitress returned. Io smiled a bit and thanked the goblin who put her beer on the table. She made a show of using one of the spells she had pickpocketed and blasted the bottle cap off with the force of a rocket. It stuck itself into the acoustical tile ceiling.
People at nearby tables applauded.
“Geez! Let’s just call for a spotlight,” Zayn muttered.
“Relax. This is what tourists are supposed to do.”
“What are you going to do about Hille?” Zayn asked, his voice again lowered once everyone had looked away. He still sounded disgruntled. “She’s been asking for you all over the place.”
“Nothing.”
“What?” Now he looked shocked. “But we need to follow her!”
“No, we don’t. Here’s the thing,” Io explained, lowering her voice as far as she could and still be heard. “The situation is much worse here than I was told. I’ve been down in the hive—”
“The what?” He looked bewildered.
“The Labyrinth. Jack and I went down last night—”
“Are you nuts! You’ve had no combat training—”
“For the goddess’s sake, shut up! Geez, Zayn, are you retarded?” she hissed, losing her temper. “What did you think would happen when Xanthe threw me at Jack? Of course I’ve gone down with him—and I don’t mean that in any sexual sense, though that was clearly what our boss expected of me.”
“Io—”
“Now, I am telling you that things are
bad
down there. There are acres upon acres of goblin fruit just waiting to be harvested. And I am asking myself what they have been feeding these plants that they could have a crop this late in the fall. You probably should be asking some of these questions, too.”
Zayn began to look troubled. But when he spoke it was to address the lesser of problems. “They shouldn’t have sent you in, Io. I was against it. You aren’t ready for this, not trained to read the facts and make useful assessments. And Jack Frost is—”
“Jack Frost is glad to be back and ready to be out with his babe,” Jack said, slipping into the chair next to Io. He leaned over and kissed her, easing the steel-fist spell out of her before she could even think to protest the extraction. “Got your clothes all packed, babe, so you don’t have to borrow my shirt again.”
“Thanks,” Io muttered, trying to hide how disturbing his kiss had been, even without any intent at hanky-panky on his part.
Zayn stared at them, completely unnerved. For the second time that night, someone had sneaked up on him without his detecting their presence, and he didn’t like it.
“Nice to see you again, Zayn. But I think we have to be going. Places to go, people to see,” Jack said, his smile colder than the ice in Zayn’s glass.
“Okay,” Io agreed, deciding that she wasn’t going to get anywhere with Zayn that night. He was too much the obedient soldier and needed time to move through proper channels. She stood up. “Tell Xanthe that I’m fine and doing just what I should be.”
“Where are you staying?” her ex-partner asked, rising to his feet as Io and Jack did.
“Sorry, my address isn’t fixed,” Io answered. Knowing it would outrage him, she still suggested, “You can leave a message for me in the bathroom here—if you feel comfortable sneaking into the women’s john. Put it in a plastic bag and leave it taped under the tank.”
“Why not the men’s?” Zayn asked, clearly peeved. “If you have a cloaking spell, you could retrieve it there.”
Io shook her head. She didn’t explain that the spell was Jack’s. “Men’s bathrooms are disgusting. I’m not touching anything in there.”
Jack threw back his head and laughed. Normally Io liked the sound, but tonight it grated her ears like breaking glass. Something had happened to piss him off. Getting him away from Zayn seemed like a really good idea.
“Time to go,” she said to both men.
“Lead the way, babe,” Jack answered, dropping a possessive arm around her shoulder.
Io resisted the urge to look back at Zayn as they left the club.
“What happened out there?” she asked, once they were out in the street and moving away from the bright lights of the downtown area. Jack didn’t drop his arm, and she didn’t ask him to.
“Our problems have potentially gotten a whole lot bigger.”
Io used a troll word, and this time Jack didn’t bother to tease her.
“What now?” she asked.
“It looks like Xanthe may be in cahoots with the goblins,” he said bluntly.
“What?” Io was stunned and, for one moment, disbelieving. She twisted to look up at Jack, unconsciously using the truth spell. “How? Why?”
Jack shook his head at her.
“Untrusting little fey,” he said, obviously feeling the magical probe. “I wouldn’t lie to you about this.”
“Sorry,” Io muttered, reeling the spell in.
“Xanthe has a kid sister who has disappeared. Rumor on the force is the kid is living in Goblin Town,
an honored guest of our favorite goblin. He’s kindly making sure that she gets a generous supply of what she craves and all the partying she can handle.”