“I still have that missing person’s case and the cheating spouse.”
Sterling grimaced. Neither of us liked those kinds of cases. More times than not, a cheating spouse case didn’t end well. It was one thing to suspect your spouse of infidelity and another to have proof of it. And missing people had a way of staying gone or returning in a different condition than when they left.
“I’ll speak to Reginald about the Agency. I’m not sure how I can smooth over leveling the building.”
“About that –”
“If you apologize again, I’m docking your pay.”
“Well, there’s no reason why I can’t work my cases and stop by the Sisterhood. Are you okay with me taking that on? One of us should find out about their shadows and see if they know about what we saw. Is Betty still at the Agency?”
“I left her with Rufus.”
I’d need to stop by the Pawn Shop on the way.
“Do you know how to get back to the earthly realm?”
We’d both temporarily forgotten that small, but crucial detail. Sterling swore.
“Guess we have no choice except to wait on Lochlan,” he said.
By the time Lochlan returned, it was hours later, and I was steaming mad. We’d lost a whole day. None of the lengthy list of things we needed to do had gotten done, let alone started. If Jennica hadn’t been able to talk with the trees, we’d still have a gaping hole in the living room wall. She managed to get them to uproot and move into a living wall, their branches intertwined tightly together – forming a barrier.
Lochlan brought him another fae with. The stranger’s hair was shaved on the side and the rest was bunched into long dreadlocks. The dreads were decorated with pieces of silver and leather bands woven into them. He was as tall as Lochlan. He also had an angry-looking, jagged scar across his eye, adding a savageness to his baby blues, which were the only things soft about him.
There were runes tattooed over every exposed inch of his skin. And even without seeing the runes, even a non-magic user could feel the magic pouring out of him. This was a man that you couldn’t help but notice. He wasn’t handsome so much as he was what I’d consider magnetic. He drew you in and you wanted to bask in his presence.
“This is Elon. He’s the fae I mentioned before. He’ll stay with us and help with security,” said Lochlan.
Elon stood ramrod straight and carried himself like a warrior – with an economy of movement and poised wariness. I had no doubt that he could spring to action in our defense within seconds. He examined the rest of us with his hard and dead eyes. Lochlan brought a killer to us.
“He will also train Callie, Zander, and Jennica.”
“Who said we want to be trained?” asked Zander.
“It’s not optional. You’re trespassing on fae land. It’s only a matter of time before you are found out by the Seelie,” said Elon.
“I have every intention of securing the approval,” said Lochlan.
“Are you saying that we’ve been in fae lands for two days and we don’t have permission to be here. What the hell? I can understand to some degree not telling us where we are, but you said this was a safe place. Why didn’t you make sure it was okay for us to be here?” I asked.
“I’ll fix it,” said Lochlan.
He turned to me, his eyes pleading for understanding. I stared into his slate-colored eyes. They reminded me of the sky before a storm. Flashing beautiful eyes my way isn’t going to get him out of trouble. It was beyond sloppy and downright dangerous to be here without him getting it properly authorized and approved.
“I see the demi fixed the wall,” said Elon, who pointed to the makeshift wall.
“So, you told him that I’m a demi?” asked Callie.
“That’s obvious and you managed to tap into fae land’s magic to fix it, so there may be some hope for you. We start training in the morning,” said Elon in a tone of voice that allowed for no arguing. It was a stern command. With his arms crossed and a frown on his face, none of his future trainees were going to argue.
They were in for a world of pain. Elon looked like a harsh task master and would put them through the paces during training.
“I don’t work for you,” said Jennica, who tried to sound brave, but failed. She trembled and appeared to be on the edge of tears. She pointed to Sterling, “And I don’t work for him, so can I be excluded?”
“That may be true, but if you leave the safety of this house, you’ll be killed or worse. If that is your wish, the door is that way,” said Elon.
Jennica sputtered, but didn’t say another word. Part of me wanted to laugh, but the other part wanted to fight him for talking to her like that.
“So it’s all settled then. Elon let me show you to your room,” said Lochlan.
We stayed quiet until Lochlan and Elon went upstairs.
Lochlan came back down.
“We have a conversation to finish. I know I disappeared, but if I didn’t think all of you could handle fixing a wall, then I wouldn’t have left,” said Lochlan.
“This conversation should have happened hours ago, but we were in fae lands with no way of leaving,” I said.
“So, you’d have left Zander and Callie?”
“No, yes, I don’t mean it the way it sounds. Sterling would have been here and kept them safe.”
“The best solution was getting extra help. You refused Sterling’s offer. I wasn’t going to let you have a chance to refuse the extra security I could get.”
“It’s fine. We were safe and I’d have smelled the Crimson Fiend if he was near,” said Sterling. “But I think I have a solution for how we can divide up these tasks.”
“Let’s hear it,” said
