I crossed my arms over my chest, careful of my injured wrist. My wounds were healing fast, a benefit of Kaye’s magic and my fae blood, but the puncture sites on my wrist and side still ached. I really should be resting.
“Okay, fine,” she said. “I’ll stop asking about the details of your steamy, hot, fae sexcapades if you agree to come out and celebrate.”
I groaned and tossed my hands in the air.
“Okay, I’ll go celebrate, but not tonight,” I said. “I have plans with Ceff later, and tomorrow I have some unfinished business I need to take care of.”
“I’m sure you two have plans,” she said. Jinx waggled her eyebrows. “I can wait until after the honeymoon phase, if it doesn’t take too long. How about this weekend?”
“It’s a date,” I said. “Ceff has to return to the sea soon. Just a few more days and you’ll have your roommate back.”
“Good, I was starting to think I’d created a monster,” she said. “When I suggested you hook up with Ceff, I had no idea that meant an all-night light show and the need to reinforce the freaking floor. I’m seriously considering calling a contractor. We don’t want you two falling in on our clients.”
Jinx tapped her foot and gave the floor a significant look. We lived in the loft directly above Private Eye. Maybe we should call a contractor. My fae abilities were awakening rapidly and a newly realized perk was an increase in speed and strength—speed and strength that may someday rival Ceff’s. If Ceff continued spending time in our loft, we could do some serious damage. My bed crashing through into the office below could be bad for business, not to mention embarrassing.
“Go ahead and get a quote to reinforce the floor to my bedroom…and the bathroom,” I said. I felt my ears going red and fidgeted with my gloves. “You said we brought in good money on our last case. Dip into my share for the repair work.”
“Will do,” she said. “Anything else?”
“Yes, um, sorry about the light show,” I said. “I still haven’t figured out how to control my wisp abilities, but I’m working on it.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “If you start glowing when we go out clubbing, I’ll just tell everyone that you’re rockin’ the latest glow-in-the-dark body paint.”
Apparently, even the threat of me being sentenced to death for public glowing wouldn’t stop my friend from dragging me out to the clubs this weekend. I sighed and pulled myself to my feet. I waved sleepily to Jinx, loped across the floor to my bedroom, and crawled into bed.
The pillow smelled like Ceff and I smiled, warmth spreading through my body. I relaxed, sinking into the blankets. If I closed my eyes, I could pretend he was still here with me. Light shone through my eyelids and I sighed. I’d forgotten to turn off the bedside lamp.
I opened my eyes and reached for the lamp, but the light wasn’t on. The illumination was coming from me.
I needed to find my father. I planned to check in with Sir Torn and my new cat sidhe allies tomorrow, but I assumed Torn would have contacted me if he’d learned anything new. I’d hoped his network of spies would turn up something, but, according to Torn, my father’s trail went cold in Fukushima.
The wisps from the cemetery had spread the word that their princess was in town. Now I received daily visits from the beautiful, glowing orbs, but I hadn’t found a way to question them about my father. I wished I could communicate with my wisp brethren, but so far their language eluded me.
That left one person who might be able to help me locate my father.
Chapter 30
I woke the next morning eager to make some inquiries into my father’s whereabouts. Torn may be looking into the matter, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t start my own investigation.
I slid out from under the sheets, careful not to disturb Ceff who slept on the bed beside me. His arm was thrown up over his head and his face was relaxed. The poor guy was exhausted; let him sleep.
Ceff had returned at nightfall as promised. His eyes had been red-rimmed and puffy, but when I asked how he was feeling, he smiled. He had said his goodbyes to Melusine and was ready to begin anew, with me.
I covered Ceff with a blanket and turned away from the bed. I grabbed my gear and an armful of clothes and tiptoed into the bathroom. I showered and dressed quickly, eager to get today’s errands out of the way.
I pulled on jeans and a long-sleeved thermal top with sewn in thumb holes that kept my sleeves safely tucked inside my gloves. After Melusine’s pet snake managed to slither against my naked wrist, I’d decided to order more shirts with the added thumb hole as insurance against unwanted visions. I added a black hoodie, leather jacket, and gloves. I immediately started to sweat, but figured the added protection outweighed the discomfort.
Next, I pulled on my boots, strapped on both throwing knives, and added a dagger in my boot. I tied my hair back out of my face and stuck a polished, wooden stake into the messy bun.
I looked fierce. I wasn’t exactly dressed for a mother-daughter reunion, but the weapons and armor set me at ease. At the moment, staying calm was more important than impressing my mother. If I started glowing on the way to her house, I’d risk execution.
Tugging the hood up over my head, I slipped out of the apartment. I didn’t have a lot of options for getting out to the burbs. I don’t drive and taxis give me the willies, so it was either take the bus or walk. With a fresh lamia bite in my side, I chose the bus.
I caught the Route 7 metro bus at a stop on Congress Street. At this time of the morning the outgoing bus was nearly empty. Commuters were pouring into the city on their way to work. No one except me and the bus driver were headed out to the suburbs.
I hunched down in the front seat and watched the city slip away. Brick, stone, and concrete were replaced with trees and picket fences. On the outskirts of town, I got off the bus and walked the mile to the house I’d grown up in.
I stopped on the street outside the familiar gray and white house with gingerbread trim. I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets and scanned the property for hints of the loving place I’d seen in my unlocked memories.
This was the place where it all began. My parents, my real mother and father, had been happy here once upon a time. But my father had made a deal with the devil, and lost. Burdened with carrying a cursed lantern, my father had bespelled both me and my mother in an effort to keep us safe.
I just hoped she still remembered him.
The spell cast on my mind had chained my memories, keeping my father’s existence a secret. But that spell had begun to fall apart, exposing my past. Kaye speculated that this was due to the fact that memory spells are more effective on child minds. As I grew into adulthood, the spell began to unravel and the memories surfaced.
Kaye suspected that any memory spell cast on my mother would only have been temporary. My witch friend claimed that a geis had likely been placed on my mother forbidding her from ever speaking of my father. If that was true, I’d have to get creative if I wanted answers to my questions.
I set my jaw and walked steadily toward the house. My boots crunched as I strode up the gravel drive. My stepfather’s car was gone, but my mother’s car was parked beside his tool shed. The shed, and the garbage cans lined up against it, raised gooseflesh on my arms. This was the place I’d had my first vision. Taking the lid off the Pandora’s Box of my psychic gift hadn’t been pretty. That moment when my psychic gift reared its ugly head was akin to an earthquake; it shook my world apart. Even now, long after the dust has settled, I’m rocked by the aftershocks of that day.
I swallowed hard and gave the shed a wide berth. I didn’t need to start glowing in front of the neighbors. I climbed the front steps of the house and onto the wooden porch. I took a calming breath and pressed the doorbell with a gloved finger. I still had a key to the front door, but letting myself in didn’t feel right. This hadn’t been my
