“As powerful as you are and as happy as I am to have Marin’s daughter training here, you would do well to remember thatyouare a student here, Norah Oliver. AndIam the Head Instructor of this Academy. As such, you should not be sneaking around and investigating things that are none of yourconcern.”
My eyebrows shot to the top of my forehead. “None of my concern? An instructor got murdered here last night. Brutally. I’m pretty sure that’s the concern of every instructor and changeling who call this place theirhome.”
“And so you came running straight to your Redcap friend to launch an investigation without even checking to see what I, the actual head of this place, planned to do aboutit.”
“Whatdoyou plan to do about it, Alwyn?” I asked, fisting my hands by my sides. “Track down a random Redcap and slaughter her without any confirmation that she was in control of her actions? Without even being one hundred percent certain that she was involved in the first place? Whoever did this wrote ‘murderer’ on the floor. That doesn’t sound like a random Redcap attack tome.”
Alwyn’s steady gaze met mine, and the skin around her jaw rippled as she clenched her teeth together. Something about the way she stood before me with confidence and power radiating off her skin, it made her seem ten times taller than she truly was. But I wouldn’t back down. Yes, she was the leader of this place, but I wasn’t a mere changeling. I’d fought for this realm. I’d gone up against one of the most dangerous Autumn fae alive—at the time. And I’dwon.
“Very well. Have it your way, Norah,” Alwyn said in a dangerous voice that sent shivers along my skin. “This should be a good test for you. You will take the lead on this investigation. Find out who murdered Boyd and bring her—or him—to me.Iwill decide what to do from there, whether that be imprisonment or physical punishment or somethingelse.”
I knew what thatsomething elsewouldbe.
Execution.
Alwyn took one step closer, her eyes boring into mine. She was so close that I could smell the hint of orange on her breath. “This is a chance for you to prove were your loyalties lie. With the Academy and with the realm. Or with…others.” Her eyes flicked to Bree at that. Anger and irritation flared up within me, but Alwyn continued before I could make a retort. “If you do this for me, I can give you one thing I know you want. An item that will keep your step-father away from your human caretaker.Forever.”
* * *
Ibracedmy arms on the windowsill and stared out at the rolling hills that surrounded the Academy. Alwyn had just dangled an irresistible carrot in front of my face, and she knew it. How long had she been holding on to this leverage? And how the hell could she be cruel enough to use it againstme?
My heart ached with the desire to reach out and grasp it with everything within me. I needed it. Whatever it was. But I couldn’t throw someone else to the wolves in order to getit.
“What could she possibly have to take down your asshole step-dad?” Bree asked from where she perched like a cat on the arm of her sofa. Finn leaned against the wall beside the door, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched me glare out the window as if I could find my answers in the cloud-studded sky. Liam had vanished after Alwyn’s little speech. He would fill Rourke and Kael in on what hadtranspired.
“Hell if I know,” I muttered. “Some kind ofweapon?”
“It’ll be information,” Finn said with a flash of a smile. “That’s her specialty. She used to be a spy, you know. She gathers up information like a rat and stores it away, just waiting for the perfect moment to use it. To be honest, I’m a bit surprised she’d choose this situation for something quite so big. As horrible as Boyd’s death was, it is a fairly isolated incident. She’s acting as though finding his killer affects the fate of the entirerealm.”
I blew out a hot breath. “Well, I’ll investigate. I’ll find out who did this. But I know it wasn’t Bree’s friend, not unless she was controlled. There’s no reason she would have done it. Murders need motive. I can’t see what hers wouldbe.”
Finn paused, flicking his gaze toward Bree. “Unfortunately, this Shai you speak of would have a motive. You keep asking me about Boyd, Norah. I don’t much about him, but I do know one thing. Before joining the Academy, he was a member of the team of Hunters who tracked down Redcaps. He would find them and kill them. So, you see, there is a reason why she would want to see his blood on theground.”
Chapter Four
The six ofus gathered together outside of the Academy for the hunt, though I knew Bree wouldn’t want to call it anything of the sort. Liam collected the horses from the stables while Finn and I filled Rourke and Kael in on the plan. It was simple really. We would follow Bree’s directions to the Redcap hideout, find Shai, talk to her, and determine whether or not she was involved in Boyd’s death. And we wouldnotbring her back to the Academy unless we were certain she wasguilty.
Even though it was midday, the sky was a gray as twilight. Thick clouds hid the autumn sun from view, their bloated bellies full of rain. It hadn’t stormed for several weeks, but the sky threatened it all the same, and the wind whipped my loose hair around my face. Shivering, I pulled the golden cloak around my shoulders, but it did nothing to push out the uneasy chill from mybones.
Kael looked dark, mysterious, and powerful in his own billowing cloak, and his was a black as deep as the darkest of nights. He turned toward Bree, searching her face. Out of all my instructors, he would understand her plight the best. His own blood roared with the blood of the beast. “How far along is your friend in her transformation from human tobeast?”
“I’m not sure,” Bree admitted with a frown. “She’s a lot stronger than I was, and she’s held it off pretty well. I think she found her way to Otherworld a couple of months before Idid.”
“You may need to accept that she’s lost control,” Rourke said in that matter-of-fact way of his. “And if she has, we’ll have to take herin.”
Bree fisted her hands and propped them on her hips. “Would someone who is out of control take the time to write some kind of message on the floor? That seems purposeful to me. Like whoever killed Boyd planned the whole thing and came to the Academy with that intention in mind. Revenge, of some sort. It doesn’t sound like a wild attack by abeast.”
“She’s not wrong,” I said. “If an out-of-control Redcap attacked the Academy, there would have been far more chaos. And far moredamage.”
Far moredeaths.
“Perhaps.” Rourke pursed his lips. He didn’t look particularly convinced, and I understood why, even if I didn’t agree. Bree’s friend looked guilty as hell from where I was standing. I just had to hope, for her sake, there was more going on than met the eye. I’d promised Bree that we wouldn’t take her back to the Academy unless we were certain she was guilty, but there was nothing I could do if she’d actually committed thecrime.
Once we’d mounted the horses, the six of us began the long trek across the rolling hills, following Bree’s directions. As much as I wished we could use my travelling magic to blink us away from the Academy and straight to wherever Shai was hiding, we couldn’t. After Queen Viola’s attacks against the courts, a heavy dose of magical restrictions had fallen across Otherworld. Every court had sealed their borders, casting wards that prevented anything but travel by foot. Alwyn had taken it upon herself to do the same to the free territories. Even though this part of the realm wasn’t under anyone’s command, she’d still sealed it off,too.
Bree warned us that it would be a long journey, one that would require a stop along the way. We’d set off from the Academy at mid-day, and it didn’t take long for the sun to disappear behind the horizon. As the night began to deepen, Rourke led us away from the hills and deep into the trees where we set up camp in a small clearing that was hidden away from pryingeyes.
“Right,” Rourke said while Liam used his Summer magic to get a small fire going. “We’re in the middle of the free territory, which means there are threats all around us. The Wilde Fae often roam these lands at night, though they prefer the fields to the dense forest. Still, we need to be alert. We’ll need to take turns keeping watch. Who would like to gofirst?”
