One day, I might need to face Brother again. “We aren’t dealing with vampires,” I said.
I handed Ellie the truck keys. She jostled her backpack and picked up the bag she’d filled with Maura’s cast-off winter clothes. “I’ll put these in Bloodyhood,” she said.
She opened the front door and a puff of cold air blew into the entry.
Sal wanted to know why I’d left the door open.
“How are we going to deal with this?” I muttered. How to prove to my axe that Ellie wasn’t the threat here? I had no idea what to do.
I hoisted my two bags and followed Ellie out. We tucked all the bags behind the passenger seat. “I’m going to put you in your pocket. Okay?” I asked Sal. She liked to ride in the cab. Usually. “Unless you want to be out in the cold.”
Sal did her version of a sniff. I was clearly prioritizing the helpful fae magic.
“I’m not going to leave you behind.”
The helpful fae magic was close again. It made her tingle, which she didn’t like, but she carried no fear.
That bit of understanding extended to all things: Sal feared nothing and no one. She was my Salvation.
There had to be some way to rein in her possessiveness. At this point, I suspected simply giving her to Akeyla wouldn’t work.
I tucked my jealous axe into her pocket. “We’re going to the hospital,” I said. “You’ll be fine.”
Ellie shook her head and waited next to the door.
Sal sniffed again.
Ellie hopped into the passenger side and closed the door as I walked around and got in to drive.
My phone rang.
“Where have you been, son?” Arne’s angry voice boomed into my ear. I pulled the phone away and mouthed Arne as I got into the truck.
“I…” I grunted. Damned concealments. I put the phone on speaker.
“Never mind.” Arne said it with such speed I suspected he knew why I couldn’t say. “The wolves are sleeping off the run.” After a Samhain full moon run, the wolves would likely sleep all day, not so much because they wanted to, but because that’s what the magic demanded. Gerard and Remy would be awake and available by early evening. Axlam, too, though I hoped that after her injuries inside St. Martin’s evil wolf magic, both her pack and the elves would make her rest another day.
“All’s well, wolf-wise?” I asked, just to make sure.
“Other than Lennart pulling in Ed in the middle of the blizzard, yes.” The annoyance in his voice was neither surprising nor all that harsh. Lennart would be on the receiving end of a lecture about mundane safety during wolf runs, and Arne would be on the receiving end of words from Ed about the safety of his daughter. All of which was likely necessary.
“Tell him Sophia’s touched,” Ellie said.
“Sophia’s touched,” I said. “I saw the magic.” A lie, since Ellie hadn’t yet shown me any photos of Sophia and I hadn’t seen any unaccounted-for magic when the kids came to help Axlam.
“Later,” Arne snapped. He loudly exhaled. “If Rose’s notebook grants you more of those magic-showing photos, please share.”
Ellie twisted her head as if to say See, he knows. “Tell him about those dryads.”
Arne sniffed as if, maybe, some of what Ellie said made it across the phone connection.
“We had fae visitors,” I said. “Dryads came to speak to the trees.”
Arne inhaled. “Fae? Now?” He exhaled. “They smell blood in the water,” he muttered. “Damned prissy sharks.”
“That’s not very nice.” Ellie pointed at the phone. “Maniacal and manipulative fae is a stereotype.” She frowned. “Not all of us are prissy.”
From behind the seat, Sal sent out a wave of understanding that felt very much like an ironic but we have a helpful fae magic friend to me.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, happy that my girlfriend could not hear my jealous axe’s derisive comment.
“Did you say they Lorax-ed you?” Arne asked. “Oak sharks, those dryads,” he muttered again.
In the two-hundred-plus years of my life in Alfheim, I had never before heard an elf become so Americanized as to verbize a proper noun. “They came to ask the trees questions,” I said.
I swear I could hear Arne rubbing his face. “How many?”
“Two,” I said. “They were in full armor. They were sucking up information about the magical events last night.”
“They’re offended. Samhain is important to them.” He sighed. “Halfway between the equinox and the solstice is important to all magicals.” he said.
And we’d just suffered major Samhain-adjacent events: St. Martin’s wolf, even the entirety of the episode with Brother and the vampires were themselves part of something bigger.
Like tornadoes in a hurricane.
The phone clicked. Arne was pacing an acoustic floor, probably a tiled hallway at the hospital. “They were… opaque… weren’t they?”
“Yes.” Quite opaque. “Lots of slight-of-hand and turning of phrases.”
Arne hmphed much like my axe. “Fae,” he said. “Wonderful.”
Ellie blinked. “I took pictures after they left, King Odinsson,” she said as if to quell his annoyance.
Arne sighed. “Listen, Frank,” he said. “That little shit St. Martin snapped several of my wife’s ribs. She has internal injuries requiring observation and recuperation. Fae poking around won’t help handle the aftermath.”
Part of me wasn’t surprised, while another part wished Dagrun had trusted me more. “It wasn’t a genie, Arne,” I said. “Or fae.”
Ellie shook her head. “It was wolf magic, sir. Strong wolf magic. I was worried about the kids when it showed up at Frank’s place.”
I swear I heard Arne kick something. “We know it wasn’t a real djinn. Dag will be home in two or three days. When she’s healed enough, we’ll discuss this at The Hall.”
The elven healers were keeping her for multiple days? How bad were her injuries? “She hid her wounds from me, Arne. If I’d known—”
“If you’d known, she still would have
