Peering at the thing, I let magic tingle through me, rising just enough to see visually what has been placed on it. The various types are unique through the lens of my Fae power, and I can see smoky demon darkness, colorful Fae sparkles, jewel-toned magic users, and oddly, a hint of golden deity power. I think the last one is a remnant, because it isn’t pulsing with freshness asthe others are. It might mean the next pieces of the puzzle have been cooked up by a demi.
“Great, a bloody puzzle, most likely,” I mutter to myself as I raise my hands. I don’t actuallyneedto use them for magic consistently, but mimicking the unraveling with them as I work will make for greater precision, I believe. Pulling apart the entwined strands and then removing the enchantment of my kind is the easiest and least risky version of this, so it’s what I’m going with.
“Does that mean you can’t do it?” Jasper asks impatiently. “If you can’t, we will need to recruit the Fae woman.”
I roll my eyes as I look at him. “This is well within my skill level, Eversore. I’m simply being cautious as it’s wrapped around magics that arenotmine, and I prefer not to set off alarms or cause us all to be cursed with some insane demon bullshit. That’s fair, yes?”
“He’s right, Jas,” the fox says as he fluffs his tails a little. “The strands are tightly wound, and if he’s able to extract his first, I bet the professor and Annie can work on the others. Right, guys?”
Iggy nods, looking thoughtful. “Yes, that sounds accurate, Zavida. I would feel good about working in tandem with Anton once the Fae magic is out of the mix. Two types at a time is about the limit of prudence, in my opinion. More is like asking for a bomb to go off without a protective suit.”
I don’t think that’s exactly it—but the human-ish magic users are far more cautious than the rest of us supes because their bodies are more frail.
Closing my eyes as the others discuss the merits of how they’ll work on their pieces, I focus on the Fae magic intertwined into the spell. It’s not of Daybreak, nor any of the other courts—at least, not exactly. I believe it has to be a hybrid, and one that was not raised within my realm. This magic has our innate species powers and signature, but it’s applied in ways we would not. Frowning, I infuse light into the strand, hoping to burn away the influence of whatever else this being is so I can simply undo their Fae energy.
“Are you sure you can do it, Li?” Slade whispers up at me.
I nod, keeping my eyes closed as I smile a little at him. “Yes, I can. But this is quite interesting—it’s not something I have seen before. The beings who activated the protections on this security certainly are all hybrids, I’d wager, because the Fae wielders were. I’m not familiar with this blend, either. That’s quite suspicious.”
“I’m curious whether it will be the same for the demonic strand,” Anton says from behind us. “We scoped out the magic before we fetched you, but did not inspect it. I am cautious, like you, Prince, and prefer not to end up with a duck beak or some painful hives.”
“That’s not even the worst that could happen… Lucas almost died from the Fae/mage/biological poison someone slipped into his water bottle,” Iggy says seriously. “If this ties into all of us, it’sverypossible that this lock has been cast by someone in the blended group who has access tomanytypes of magic as his poison was.”
The panda mutters, “That’s fucking great, man. We have the bullshit here coming up in a week or two—wethink—and now we have some multi-species hit squad traipsing around from realmto realm fucking with stuff? Does anyone have even a clue who this might be?”
Angelo looks up, waving his hand as he sighs. “My guess is people working for the presenters at the damn Apalachin. Tapping the criminal element in various realms to pull off things like this is a smart plan. They’re disposable and won’t be easily traced back to the people running this shit from on high.”
Slade frowns, but adds, “He’s right. Some of them, like my parents’ gang, are low level in that pecking order. The more powerful and hidden groups would be the ones slipping in and out of realms like this. My folks and their ilk are convinced they have awe-inspiring power, but it’s really locally focused. They don’t have the same reach, even in cities out of state.”
My brows furrow as I listen, but continue pushing my Daybreak heir-level energy into the damn strand. It’s not stronger than I am, but itiswell-constructed. Someone very knowledgeable trained this being, and they did it to make it as dangerous as possible. “The rebels from Faerie are definitely high-enough level to work between Faerie and the surface, possibly even here. They are large, shadowy, and mostly unidentified. TheHandhas been a blight for many, many centuries.”
“Interesting,” Jasper says. “I guarantee Darkstar and Gemini have been working on their shit for that long as well. Perhaps they too have been conspiring and working towards this quietly since… fuck, maybe even since the coup.”
“Maybe not since the coup, Jas, but I’d bet since being put here and on the surface,” Zavida counters. “They probably thought they’d be rewarded better for services during the war. Weren’t alotof demons kind of… shafted by our folks?”
“Yes.” Anton’s answer is firm, but simple and truthful. That much is obvious, and I appreciate his brevity. “Our parents were assholes to their enemies and allies alike. Their egos were out of control, as the whispers say.”
“Shocker,” Salem mumbles, and I almost lose focus to laugh.
Squinting as I finally get the dilution out of the sparkling magic of my kind, I sigh in relief. “I’ve got the extra… whatever… out, and it will only take a few more moments to remove the Fae portion. It’s not low-level work for certain, but it’s not the upper echelon, either. Skilled and functional, but not elegant. I can tell the caster was trained, but not formally.”
“That’s odd,” Iggy says, his voice full of curiosity. “Perhaps the person who did the training had formal training and teaches informally? That would make sense to me, but I’m not familiar enough with Faerie to know if my speculation is possible.”
I blink at the sudden humility from the stodgy academic, but nod. “It’s very possible in my lands. There are certainly those who stay in the wilds and don’t live in the towns and cities, and thus don’t educate their children formally. That’s often on purpose because they are not fond of the royals for—I hate to admit—valid reasons.”
“Your dad sucks, too. Aren’t we all blessed?” Jasper rumbles as he rakes his hands through his hair. “We’re all going to have a bitch of a time discovering the roots of this big-ass conspiracy with the royals everywhere being crooked as fuck, too.”
I chuckle, opening my eyes to look over my shoulder at him. “No shit. We have no idea how involved anyone is at this point. Might not be our parents, but definitely could be people in their employ that they’ve screwed over.”
The magic finally dissipates, and I let go of the remaining strands with a grunt of happiness. That brings all the attention in the room back as I turn to face them. Blowing out a long breath, I shake out my arms, and move away from where Angelo and Slade are sitting.
“That’s my part done. You’ll need to be cautious… It took a lot of time to remove the mysterious extra bit from the Fae magic, and I don’t know if it will be present in your respective strands as well. I couldn’t undo it until it was removed.”
Anton and Iggy nod, clearly digesting that information as they look at the lock again. Zavida walks over to me, his kind eyes meeting mine as he says, “Let me know when you are ready to go back, Prince. I'm happy to get you back to Lucas.”
My smile is grateful, but seeing my own efforts take this long has made me worried. “I’ll go soon, Zavida, but I think I should stay to watch Ignatius at least. Morgana would be upset if I left him to unravel that part on his own. He’s very capable, but I wish to support his efforts just in case.”
The professor looks at me with an annoyed but slightly pleased expression. I’m sure I offended him a tiny bit by suggesting he might struggle, but I tried to mitigate it as best I could. I am worried that he’ll have trouble, and I do not want another member of our family to be hurt in this realm. In fact, despite his bullshit, I don’t want him to be harmed at all, and I know my mate doesn’t, either.
