Ineeded a win of some sort. It had been two weeks of nonstop sixteen-hour days. One upside was that there had been no other attacks against thePaxin the last two weeks. Things were starting to return to normal in St. Louis. We buried the dead in emotional ceremonies. I didn’t think I’d cried so much in decades. One of the things I loved most about thePaxwas that showing emotions wasn’t considered a lack of machismo bullshit that helped no one. I was getting used to being able to show a softer side of myself to the public, and then we were threatened with all this tumbling down around us. I hadn’t completely reverted to the Adaela of my past, and no one was judging me for who I fought hard to become.
My mind kept wandering back to murdering two men. I’d seen the video, and I knew without a doubt that it was self-defense, but I couldn’t imagine why instead of subduing them, I’d just outright murdered their asses. The fact that the cameras didn’t have clear audio in this day and age was a travesty. I didn’t think we’d ever know for sure what was said that night. The Unseelie Faction, after learning about what I’d done, had decided to wait until we had more information before theywent further with a punishment. We didn’t believe in jail, but we believed in community action. I’d leave it up to my faction members to decide what action I would be required to take.
Daedalus and Loki spent a lot of time working to get my mind off things—whether that was sparring with me in the gym so I could start relearning my skills, or drinking at the tavern down the road from The Sanctuary to distract ourselves from the pandemonium happening at thePax.When we were at the bar, I never once got blackout drunk again. My friends kept a close eye on me, even though one of those nights, I’d had about as much to drink as the night I’d met Vada.
I also focused on my people. I spent a lot of time with each group of beasties under my umbrella, making sure they had what they needed to feel secure. The red caps were my primary focus, since they were out for blood. I promised them that they would be the first to know when we found any clues.
The other factions weren’t faring much better. We had the Elves probing throughout the different realms to glean what information they could. They were the only faction who had open invites pretty much anywhere they wanted to go. When they left Alfhame, it wasn’t as refugees. They left amicably to try to live not as hidden folk, but as a class with power of their own. We checked in to the Elves, since some beings suspected they might have been behind the security breach. They weren’t. They wanted thePaxto work as much as the next being.
The Elves hadn’t found anything yet. It’d only been two weeks, and the culprits likely had decades to plan their attack. Every faction had their best people researching all avenues available to us. But this case was going cold, and I knew with the stolen Pandora’s Box, that something was going to be coming our way. I was keeping that card close to my chest, but I needed to tell someone. I just had no clue how they’d react to it.
I thought of Vada. I thought of the possibility that she wasmy fated mate, and that we probably had a lot to talk about. If I could trust her not to break my heart and trust, then I could tell her about Pandora’s Box. The only other person who knew about it was my ex, who was dead by my hand. I shook off the thought, like I’d done so often lately.
Much of my time was spent with our portal magic users over by the Arch. Famously, it was built as the gateway to the Midwest. Little did humans know, at the time of its completion in 1965, that it was the perfect location for the largest ley line in the world, inadvertently making it the largest portal on Earth. Its position next to the Mississippi River, major highways, and next to the natural caves that inhabited the entirety of the St. Louis area made it a major thoroughfare for the humans, but it also made it easier for the different factions to use it to make their way to Earth. While there had always been magical beings on Earth, the Arch also made it so that humans could travel inter-dimensionally. Humans now were conceiving generations of children in Underhill, in the Demon and Vampire realms, and everywhere else. They did not live like we did, and before thePax, traveling to other realms was next to impossible.
Overall, the last two weeks had been the longest of my life. We were running out of options to figure this out before someone else inevitably died. I was ready to go door-to-door and personally interrogate all 3 million people who lived within the wards of St. Louis, and grill the US government while I was at it. I was laying my head down on my desk, trying not to fall asleep, as a text popped in.
Vada:
Hey, sweet girl.
Me:
Hi, bb . What are you up to?
Vada:
Up to my eyeballs in getting up to speed with everything Demon Faction. Missing you. Dinner tonight?
Me:
That sounds great actually. Did you have anything in mind?
Vada:
Nothing in particular.
Me:
I know of a great spot in Tower Grove. Want to meet at your place around 7:30?
Vada:
Sounds great. See you soon.
I decided it was time to go home early. I was back to not getting anything done, and I needed a nap if Vada and I weregoing out later. I stopped to grab coffee on the short drive home from the shop we visited last month when everything went to shit. I ordered an iced lavender latte with a double shot of espresso to go, hoping that it would help kick me in the ass enough to get motivated to get shit done around the house before my nap. I snorted. I wished that caffeine worked on me as it did humans. I would go home, open a book, and read five pages before conking out.
I was waiting for my coffee to be made, leaning up against a wall out of the way, when Samael walked up to me. He was sober, which made me smile inwardly. His posture held stress, fine lines around his eyes indicative of the seriousness of his demeanor, as if the last few weeks had been heavily weighing on him. He was dressed up today in a tailored blue suit with thin white pinstripes, a very light lavender button-down, and a gold tie. His loafers were tan, and he wore them with no socks. It was dapper—something Samael never was in recent memory. He even had his short, dark hair slicked back and his thick beard neatly trimmed. Even through the beard, you could see the dimples underneath. His bright blue eyes were clear and even twinkling.
“Samael, fancy meeting you here,” I said.
“Adaela. I was sort of hoping I would catch you here.” He wrung his hands nervously, then adjusted his tie. He continued fidgeting as if he hadn’t worn one in a long time.
“Is that so? Are you following me?” I laughed.
His eyes twinkled. “No, not really. I just know you frequent this place, and a little birdy told me you left thePaxearly today.”
“What are you all dressed up for? You look nice, by the way,” I said, giving him another once over.
