Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Epilogue

Author’s Note

Want More?

Still Want more?

Also by Richard Amos

About the Author

Copyright © 2020 Richard Amos

All Rights Reserved

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Cover by Vanesa Garkova

One

Jake

“We really need to be somewhere, you know?” I told the tree creature thingy.

“You tried to kill me!” he protested in Dutch.

“For God’s sake! No, we didn’t. How many more times?”

Big night tonight and where were we? Stuck in the hands of a pod-born knob head who’d gone and mutated into a tree with big hands and a bad attitude.

Annoyingly, he was only about six-feet tall. Yes, he had a big bush for hair, was covered in pine-colored bark, and he had terrorized a hospital emergency department, but he was still pretty much mine and Dean’s height.

It was his long arms and big, people-catching hands that were the real problem—hands we were both stuck in the poxy grip of.

“You don’t call setting fire to me a murder attempt?” he yelled.

“It wasn’t real fire,” Dean added, struggling less against the wooden fingers gripping him than I did.

A flippin’ bird even landed on the thumb near my face, pecking at the solitary leaf sticking out of the bark that was now his skin.

“Liar!”

It wasn’t fire. It’d been a magical trap to make him think he was on fire. The plan was to keep him distracted by screaming the city down and get him with the other magical trap—one that’d put him in a frozen stasis.

Cruel, maybe, but he’d put a hole in the hospital wall just by tripping over a chair and falling into it.

The bloke’s name was Sem, and he was a complete liability, a danger to himself and others. There was no cure for pod-related transformations yet, but we could at least work to keep the streets safe as best we could—even if it meant freezing this guy’s backside.

Shouldn’t have eaten pod. Yep. He’d made a pod trifle with his friends. Of the four, he was the only one to live to tell the tale. The rest of them had died from melted insides.

Really nasty shit.

“You have no right to put your hands on me. I’ll go to the papers! I’ll ruin your agency for this!”

There was that bad, let’s call it snotty, attitude again. The idiot had been all indignant about us chasing him. Oh, never mind him being a walking disaster. Yep, that was fine. Put holes in everything. Yeah, no worries.

“Oh, shut your whining!” I retorted.

“What did you say?” He crushed me harder.

Arsehole.

Time to end this bollocks.

All ideas welcome, I told my brain. Whenever you’re ready…

I looked to Dean. He really was as cool as a cucumber, keeping his words to a minimum.

He was planning something.

Yay!

We’d chased Sem down to an old camping site on the opposite side of the Amsterdam-Rijn canal that flowed past Flevopark, confronting the git by the water’s edge. It was a sunny Friday afternoon, lovely blue skies, proper spring-like after yet another week of snow. I was waiting for something crazy to happen weather-wise. Since the pods had popped up, thanks to the supernatural council’s magical interference and general cocking things up by being shady knob heads, the weather’s behavior was often extreme—like the global snow incident.

A boat went past carrying some cargo. I couldn’t see the captain or whatever, and he or she were probably keeping their head down, sailing past and not getting involved.

Best way.

“I should squeeze the life out of you right now,” Sem said.

“Messy.” Come on, Dean.

“You’re not scared?”

“Erm, of course, we are. You think this is how we want to die? You think we actually want to die? I’d rather be at home with my feet up, spending some quality time with our daughter.”

“You’re a couple?”

“We are.”

“With a daughter?”

“Yep. I really want to be getting back to her right now.”

“What if this was her?” he asked.

Don’t go there… “But, it’s not.”

“But what if? What if she was suffering like me?”

“We don’t want to hurt you, Sem. But we have to stop you, to figure out a way for you to live your life.”

The freeze wouldn’t be permanent, and he hadn’t hurt anyone yet. Maybe me a little but I’d get over it unless he did it again. He might have to go to a sanctuary for pod-born—a revelation to us only three days ago. Apparently, a few had been built in Australia and the US to take on pod-born who couldn’t exist in cities, towns or whatever anymore. No one had known anything about their construction, being done in remote places, but now the whole world did.

There were a few frozen people in Amsterdam who would benefit from moving and being unfrozen, even if they were a long way from home. Good people in a fucked-up situation who deserved a shot at life.

“The sanctuary,” I said. “Maybe—”

Tighter grip. “No. I’m not going there. No!” He started to sob. “I just want to go back to my old life.”

Okay, I felt for him. Even if he and his mates were absolute pricks for doing what they did. They were victims. The thing with pods (crazy blobs of color that had caused merry hell around the world) was they’d got themselves a bit of a cult following. It was weird. Some people thought they could cure anything. Some thought they enhanced sexual pleasure, made a party a partaaayyy, or even made your plants grow better than any plant food or patience.

When would people learn? Pods were bad. Caused bad things to happen. Death or crazy transformation.

People. Ugh.

“I’m sorry,” I offered. “I really am, mate.”

“They’re dead.”

“I’m sorry.” His grip was loosening. Not enough for me to wiggle free, but it didn’t feel like my ribs were about to pop anymore.

“My fault. I made them… I thought it would be fun. I didn’t think… I read… I read things would be fun, that we’d all get the best trip of our lives.”

I didn’t bother giving him more of the cautionary tale speech. It didn’t mean anything now. He knew he’d seriously screwed up. What was the point in making him feel worse about it? Yep, he was on that descent into horrible grief. The way back up was a long way off. Everyone had their own path when it came to dealing with loss. Something in Sem’s eyes told me he was going into it a whole lot deeper than even he was expecting to.

Sometimes I just got these feelings about people when it came to loss. A relatable thing after the stuff I’d been through over the years, I guess.

“They were my everything, my family,” he added.

Maybe he wasn’t that much of an arsehole, just a complete douche of the highest degree when running his gob.

“I know what it’s like to lose people, to feel like the world has been turned upside down. It’s crap—really crap. And that’s just the start of it.”

He pulled me closer to him. Still couldn’t get free, though. “I wouldn’t want to take you away from your daughter.”

“I wouldn’t want to leave her.”

Sem turned his head to Dean. “Both of you. Even if you did try and burn me.”

“We don’t want to kill you,” I said.

He faced me again. “Only put me in one of those places.”

“You can’t live in the city anymore. There’s no cure for this.”

He let out a sigh, the leaf on this hand growing bigger. The bird was still there, pecking at it some more.

Okay, then.

“No cure…” he muttered.

“Not yet. Maybe things will change in the future.”

Four years of pods, not long until it was five. No solution. No way of getting rid of them. I lived in hope, we all did, that we’d find a way one day. But when four years go by, the hope wobbles a bit. God, so much magic had been thrown at them, and it’d failed every single time. There’d been one bloke from the council who’d used some potion on a pod. He ended up with pod backsplash to his face, his skin turning to fire. His head was an inferno, but it wouldn’t kill him, just burned and burned and burned, and he’d screamed in agony until someone put him out of his misery. I’d nearly puked reading about it.

Science didn’t seem to work either. Same went for weapons. Nothing worked to get rid of them.

“Amsterdam is my home,” Sem whispered.

“Maybe one day it can be again.” Dean was watching me, giving me the sign with his eyes that he was ready.

“I’m screwed.”

“Not necessarily.”

“I don’t want to leave my home.”

This was going to go around in circles. Thank God Dean had given me the eyes.

A flash of white burst through the hand holding Dean, revealing all the bones of Sem’s tree limb. Looked like he’d just been given an X-ray!

Sem yelped in pain, his fingers springing open. “What have you done?”

Dean moved quickly, rolling across the grass, scooping up the icicle thingy that was the freezing magic trap. Always made me laugh how plastic and fake it looked. Well, it was made of resin with some of Mila Young’s special potion stuff inside it, swishing around like liquid blue window cleaner.

My sexy fiancé was swift, slamming the trap into Sem’s right foot before he could yell again. Pale blue frost spread across his bark, across the hand that still help me, dusting the leaf. The bird flew off, tweeting how annoyed it was. It’d been having so much fun with that leaf.

Weirdo bird. Go find a worm or something!

Then the cold spread to me, freezing me down solid.

Crap! I knew this was going to happen.

I waited, completely sentient as Dean threw a potion vial at my head. I thawed, the hand thawed, and Dean tossed another potion. A stinger—which did exactly what it said on the tin. The newly thawed hand reacted to the sting by dropping me.

I hit the ground, tumbled forward, and landed onto my back, shivering from head to toe, my hair soaking wet.

“This sun feels good,” I breathed, catching my breath as Dean reapplied the freeze.

“It does, baby.”

“You ain’t on my chilly level right now, treacle.”

He laughed, coming to loom over me. “How are you doing down there?”

“Be a gent and help me up, would you?”

He took me by the hand, pulling me to my feet.

“What got you free?” I asked through chattering teeth.

He held up his hand, wiggling his right index finger. A gold ring with a small strip of blue stones. Bit like a hand buzzer but brought more of the ouch.

“Nice,” I said. “Thank God you had that on. Although I think I might’ve been getting to him.”

“Poor guy.” He made a call to our cop friend Lars. “Yes. Flevopark. Thanks.” He hung up. “Pick up is coming.”

“Excellent.”

The police had a unit for collecting creatures like this to take them to the appropriate storage facility. Seeing as he wasn’t going to an island prison, he would definitely be sent to a sanctuary now.

“Hey!”

I knew that voice. “Sonny?”

Sonny the Snake, English bloke and pain in my derriere, waved and jogged over. He was shirtless, showing off his scaly, serpentine chest, his rattlesnake tail swishing behind him.

His snake bits came from his own tangle with a pod.

“You shaved your hair off,” I said as he slowed on the approach.

He rubbed his really short buzz cut. “You like it?”

Be nice. “What’re you doing here?” That was as nice as I could do. I still wasn’t over him being a prick back at Christmas, but he had helped us out with the necromancer case and was gunning for some redemption.

I was learning to be tolerant.

“I was just hanging out, catching some rays,” he said. “This is a great place to do it.”

“Were you now?”

“Yeah. When was the last time you felt sun this good?”

He had me there—the shit bag. “Guess you saw what went down here?”

“I did. Glad you’re both okay.”

“Thanks.” Ah, no scathing comeback. Good for me.

“How have you both been?” he asked.

We hadn’t seen him since the necro incident.

“Good,” I answered coolly.

Dean was a lot warmer. “Can’t complain. You?”

He shrugged. “Trying to survive.”

You see, it was that stuff that got to me—him being homeless, vulnerable. He didn’t really have a place in the world or any friends. But then he’d handed me over to members of the Conclave (namely Tessa and her triplet sons—now dead). Yes, he’d made a horrible mistake that’d nearly got me killed, and they’d hurt him, threatened him to help them. Fine. But he still had to walk that path of redemption. Maybe a few paths before I could really forgive him.

I didn’t want to be bitter like that, but I always came back to Lou, our daughter. He could have left her without one of her fathers, and that didn’t sit well with me at all.

Couldn’t help feeling sorry for him, though.

His skin was flushed red from the sun. “Have you been eating, Sonny?”

His left, yellow, snake eye twitched as he scratched at his scruffy beard. “Not really. Get what I can.”

I dug in my pocket. There were some euros in there. I saw Dean doing the same.

“What do you have?” I asked my fiancé as he fished out coins.

“Six.”

“And I have four. Ten Euros altogether. Here.” I offered them to Sonny.

He backed off slightly. “No way. I don’t—”

“Can we not dance around this? Take the money and get some food in you. Come on. Don’t faff about.” He stepped forward and opened his hand. I dropped the coins into his palm. “If you need food, you come to us. Okay?”

“Jake…”

“Don’t go hungry. You hear me?”

“Thank you.” Were those tears in his eyes?

“No worries. You’re too bloody skinny. Now go and catch some more rays before it rains.”

He looked up at the sky. “Do you think it will?”

“I actually reckon the snow will be back to piss us all off. Go on. Go and eat and frazzle yourself some more. Do you have sun cream?” Suddenly, I was a saint. “If not, stop by the office tomorrow. We’ll give you some.”

He looked between us.

“You need to take care,” Dean said. “Eat and protect your skin.”

I swear, if Sonny was about to blubber and try and hug us, I’d freak out.

He didn’t. “Thank you both so much. You’re good to me.”

I shrugged. “If you say so.”

He nodded. “I hope you can forgive me one day. I really do. I like you two. You’ve given a shit when no one else did.”

I hadn’t expected that to get me right in the chest. “Make sure it’s decent food.”

He smiled, putting the coins in the pocket of his dirty trousers. “Thank you.”

Sonny walked away, coins jangling with every step.

Dean placed his arm across my shoulders. “That was really sweet of you.”

“Looks like I do have a soul after all.”

“Look at me, Jake.”

I did. “What?” I almost buckled under the scrutiny of his dark eyes.

“You definitely have a soul. And it’s beautiful.”

“Ah, you’ll make me blush.”

He leaned in and kissed me softly on the lips. “I’m so in love with that soul.”

Under the blissful sun, we made out by the river. Soft kisses and the odd fondle until Lars arrived to end our fun.

“Hallo, lovebirds,” Lars said. He was a big guy with red hair and a red beard that was becoming nothing short of epic.

“Hi,” I replied.

Evi slid out of the police car to join him— a fellow copper with auburn-hair and freckles on her fair skin that Lars went gooey over.

They were super-cute freckles.

She slid her hand into his.

I smiled. “Finally.”

She laughed. “Thought you’d like it.”

We’d been waiting ages for them to finally get together.

“Congratulations,” Dean said. “So happy for you. And like Jake said—finally!”

Lars laughed his big belly laugh, then focused on the job at hand. “Okay, let’s get this thing out of here before the sun turns me redder than I already am.”

* * *

“You look good,” Dean said from behind me, planting a nervous kiss on my neck. He wrapped his arms around my waist, watching me through the reflection of our bedroom mirror.

Evening time. I’d had my hair cut about an hour ago at our local barbershop, after Lars had taken Sem away, and was checking it for the umpteenth time. Having my hair done was such a bleedin’ chore. Still, it looked fine—short and neat and tidy. No floppiness here.

I chuckled at myself.

“What?” Dean asked, his chin resting on my shoulder.

“Private joke.”

“You can tell me.”

“No floppiness here,” I said.

He lifted his chin. “Sorry?”

“My hair. Not floppy, but the rest of me… Stupid joke in my head.”

He laughed lightly in that sexy way he did. “Keep them coming. They help.”

I rested my head on his, careful not to squish the dark quiff of his hair.

Tonight was the night Dean’s dad was coming to talk about the issue with our daughter.

Lou was a quarter fae being the daughter of half-fae Dean and Rachel, a human who was no longer with us. They’d had a drunken one-night stand back in Coldharbour before me and Dean had become a thing. Any fae power should have come out when Lou was a baby. She was coming up to five now in seven days (eek!), and a power had suddenly appeared back in February where she’d, well, frozen everyone apart from Dean and myself.

I could still see it—her head back, her mouth wide open in a silent scream. The image infected my dreams, bringing nightmares every other night. Dean too. She hadn’t done it again. Yet. But she would. She’d reacted to danger, and our lives were full of danger almost every single day. So Dean had written to his dad, a full-blooded fae who lived in Faerie, to come and help.

Dean hadn’t held up much hope—his dad sounded like a complete prick. But here we were, middle of March, and Lord Evander Gold was arriving in Amsterdam tonight for dinner at Voortreffelijk (Exquisite)—a posh restaurant just off Dam Square.

“You alright?” I asked Dean, my voice a soft whisper. I knew he was nervous. In fact, that was an understatement.

“Anticipation is killing me.”

I turned to kiss him. Every time his soft lips met mine, I melted a little bit more. God, I loved him so much.

“I’d like to say it’ll be okay.”

“You can, Jake.”

“I want it to be okay.”

“The fact he responded to the letter and has agreed to see me is a huge step. Believe me.”

God, I was dreading tonight. “What’s the time?”

He stepped back, looking so sexy in his tight black trousers, loafers, and black shirt open just enough to give me a yummy glimpse of his lightly sun-kissed flesh.

Be still, penis.

“Quarter past seven,” he answered, checking his watch.

“We should head out in a minute, then.”

He nodded. “I’ll meet you downstairs, sexy.” He came in for another kiss, gave my backside a light squeeze, and left our bedroom.

I turned back to the mirror. Teal tunic shirt, white jeans, and some teal brogues I paid way too much for. Yeah. I did look pretty decent. Once upon a time, in my short-lived modeling days, I was all about the fashion. A part of me always would be, but not as full-on anymore. Being a parent and a PIA (Paranormal Investigations Agent) had brushed that aside.

Sort of. It was always nice to make an effort, to enjoy clothes. Honey for the soul. If you liked honey, that is.

With one last check, I headed downstairs.

Lou was on one of the brown sofas in the living room, snuggled under a blue blanket with Sophie—next-door neighbor and awesome babysitter/tutor/witch. Her human husband, Luuk, was sat on the opposite sofa, scanning through the streaming service on the TV for a movie to watch. There was a pile of snacks on the coffee table too. A proper film fest was about to go down, and I had to go outside where all the bad things were.

Life had always been complicated, but now it’d really become tangled. The Conclave, a crazy religious group, were gunning to kill me at some point—or so they kept saying. The pods weren’t going anywhere, and Parker Smith thought of me as some kind of zoo animal. He’d murdered a whole bunch of goblins just for fun. Among other things. Add Elijah Hart being the head of the Conclave, potentially Parker’s twin or something else to the mix and, yep, complicated. But the one thing that bothered me more than anything else was the fae woman who’d come to Amsterdam, briefly kidnapping my daughter and taking something from her. It made no sense, and I had no idea why she’d done it.

When, not if, I found out who she was, she was a goner.

Being outside was where the danger was, taking me away from the haven of our home. Away from Lou. I hated being away from her. If I had my way, I’d never step foot out the door. But I couldn’t listen to those voices, and I wouldn’t. While there was a threat out there, I’d rise up to meet it head-on. For Lou, for Dean, for our future.

I wasn’t going down. No knob head was coming for my family or taking me away from them.

Not ever.

“You look lovely, Daddy,” Lou said to me.

“Aw, so do you, cutie pie.”

She giggled in her Jupiter pajamas. She was a seriously bright kid for her age, obsessed with all things space.

“Both handsome, handsome, handsome,” she added for me and her papa.

Dean leaned in to kiss her forehead, followed by me. She grinned then wiped at our kisses.

“You be a good girl,” Dean said.

“I will, Papa.”

He ruffled her hair, making her dark curls puff up. It didn’t take much.

I suppressed a chuckle. Her curls were all sorts of cute. Man, I just wanted to get on that sofa with her and watch movies with popcorn and hot chocolate.

Her face took on a serious expression. “Tomorrow, I meet grandad.”

I hesitated. Dinner tonight, then the big meet up tomorrow.

“You will,” Dean answered.

She smiled. “Have a nice dinner.”

Dean turned to me, radiating fear. “Ready to go?”

“I’ll call a taxi.”

“I’ll grab some weapons.” He left the room.

You couldn’t be too careful in this day and age. Even civilians packed a weapon of some description when leaving the house. Commonplace to see someone taking an ax to a picnic.

The only weapon I could actually touch was my trusty spear. Bulky, but practical for me. My body just refused everything else—a pesky residual effect from a former life.

“Good luck with Dean’s father,” Soph said, glowing in her bright orange pajamas, blonde hair tied up into a bun.

“Thanks. Is it too late to cancel?”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Dean added, returning to the room.

He handed me my wooden spear with gold pointy bits on both ends, sliding a dagger into a black scabbard on his left hip. When I touched the spear, white smoke came to life in my hand, drifting from my skin along the wood—part of that residual effect.

“Right,” I said. “Taxi.”

Two

Dean

Jake and I arrived at Voortreffelijk, entering the restaurant hand in hand. I nodded my thanks to the doorman, as the tall maître d' with a blonde bob and black dress came over.

“Goedenavond,” she greeted us. “Welcome to Voortreffelijk.”

“Hallo. Reservations for Tseng,” I replied in Dutch.

“Excellent. Please follow me.”

“Have our other party arrived?” I couldn’t see my dad anywhere, but I wanted to be sure.

“No, sir. You are both the first to arrive.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

She led us through the restaurant of terracotta stone flooring, rose gold walls, and a copper ceiling, past tables with elegantly dressed folk eating their equally elegant meals. The restaurant had some of the best seafood I’d ever had in my life.

We were seated at a table for four in the far corner of the restaurant. I’d asked for the table when making the reservations, not wanting to be in the center of the action with my dad around.

“Dank u,” I said to the maître d.

“You’re welcome. Your waiter will be with you momentarily. Please have a wonderful evening.”

“Cheers,” Jake offered.

On any other night, this table with its lit bronze candle, elegant cutlery, and white tablecloth, the dim lighting of the place setting the mood, things would have been romantic. In fact, we’d had a few romantic meals here when we’d had the chance to.

But this wasn’t going to be one of those evenings.

The waiter came over, taking our drink orders—Jake an orange juice, me a sparkling water. Neither of us drank alcohol.

When the waiter left, it was just Jake and me in our quiet corner. I savored the fleeting moment, staring into Jake’s striking blue eyes, never getting tired of the creamy complexion, those cheekbones, that lovely dark hair in its cute new hairstyle. The way his mouth twitched into the smallest of smiles when he caught me staring had me grinning.

I’d never felt so lucky in my life. My fiancé. The love of my life. Him and Louise, my heart. I couldn’t wait to marry him.

“What?” he asked softly.

“Nothing.” I reached across the table to take his hand. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

More staring, more shy smiles. We were so mushy at times.

“So, what you having tonight?” he asked.

“The sea bass, probably.”

“Ah, the old faithful.”

“Absolutely.” Honestly, I had zero appetite. My stomach was in knots.

Dad was coming.

The last time we’d spoken had been when Lou was a baby. An awkward conversation on the phone full of stilted conversation. I suppose it made a change from it all being about him. For once, he hadn’t droned on about himself—an amazing achievement.

Now he wanted to talk, to help, to meet the grandchild he’d been so nonchalant about.

This was for Louise. Not me. Not Dad. We needed help and my dad was the only person I could reach out to. Things over in Faerie were complicated nowadays, and I didn’t have many fae friends—only ones from the past I’d left there. Dad was my only hope. I hadn’t expected him to come through.

Credit where credit was due, I suppose.

Let’s see how the evening goes.

The waiter brought over our drinks, set to return for food orders when the guest of honor arrived.

Jake squeezed my hand. “You okay? Stupid question, I know.”

I nodded. “What about you?”

“I’m fine.”

“Food-wise?”

He bit his bottom lip in thought. “Don’t know. Might go for the steak. It’s been a while.”

You could always rely on talk of food to fill the minutes, to be a little bit distracting. It worked. I was actually thinking about a rump steak, then Jake’s rump, then mushrooms.

Mushrooms?

“Hello, sweetheart.” A loud, dramatic voice filled the restaurant.

A shiver went through me. Oh, God. He was here.

Jake sat up, looking behind me. My back was to the door. “Is he wearing gold fur?”

I turned to look over my shoulder. Yes, my dad was wearing gold fur—a gaudy and gleaming long fur coat of metallic gold you needed sunglasses to look at.

I let out a heavy sigh. “Here we go.”

“Good evening, everyone!” he bellowed.

I couldn’t look—

Wait…

I turned again, the golden coat so distracting she hadn’t registered on my radar. A woman in a purple, shoulder-less gown, a clutch purse in her hands, her raven hair falling about her sun-kissed shoulders in loose curls.

“Orla?” I said.

“Who’s Orla?” Jake asked.

I didn’t answer, watching her follow my dad this way, him nodding at the customers, doing his over-the-top charm offensive.

“Dean?” Jake’s voice came from a muffled place.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Orla. Talk about a blast from the past.

She caught me staring, her green eyes sparkling as she offered me a gentle smile.

What was she doing here?

My palms were sweaty as they approached, my dad’s dark eyes meeting mine on his final strides.

That was the only feature we shared—the same eye color. Other than that, I had the Singaporean looks of my mother. Nothing else pegged us as related. His skin was bronze from all the time he spent in the summer lands of Faerie, his hair long and sleek silver.

“My boy,” he announced as I got to my feet.

Always the fucking showman. “Hello, Father.”

“Father?” He roared with laughter, giving me two air kisses. “Call me Dad.”

“Okay, Dad.”

He was a big man, tall and muscular, a guy who enjoyed the company of many, many women. In fact, he was a cliché, a total bed-hopping man whore.

Deep breaths…

“And this must be Jake. Evander Gold.”

Jake was already by my side. “Nice to meet you.” They shook hands.

“Likewise.” He stepped back. “Yes, I can sort of see it.”

“What’s that?” Jake asked.

“What would break my son out of his lust for females.” He laughed heartily, stripping off his golden coat to reveal a white muscle top and tight black jeans.

Jake bristled beside me.

“Here.” He handed his coat to the waiter. “I’ve decided I don’t want to leave it on.” He turned to me. “It’s terribly cold on Earth. Apart from in here. Phew!”

I placed a hand on Jake’s lower back.

God, he was stewing. After all these years together, I could feel it as a physical heat, a fire ready to engulf. With my hand positioned where it was, that was me telling him to ignore this idiot.

But then I was rattled once again, as Orla came closer, my dad taking a seat.

Orla…

I moved my hand away from Jake, taking her soft hand in mine. “Been a long time.”

She smelled of flowers. Sweet pea? I didn’t know for sure. “It has.”

“You look stunning.”

“As do you,” she breathed.

Once upon a time, I’d been obsessed with this fae woman, the two of us—

“Hi, I’m Jake.” He brushed past me, shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

She offered a cool nod and took a seat by my father, green eyes sparkling beneath a canopy of long lashes.

Orla…

“Dean?” Jake’s voice sent a jolt through me.

“Y-yes?”

“Time to sit.”

“Oh, right.” I sat, feeling that rage radiating from Jake again.

Rage at Orla? No. He didn’t need to. Maybe I’d come across as some starry-eyed puppy. I wasn’t. I didn’t feel any sort of way about her anymore. Whatever we’d had was long buried. I was just shocked to see her. That was all. Yes, she was strikingly beautiful, but not in Jake’s league. He had my heart, my soul, my desire. No one else.

Still, her perfume was extremely overpowering. Something about it… So sweet, so Faerie.

A memory flared up, Orla and me sitting on a clifftop in the summer lands. Nighttime, fireflies, the waves, our music, our bodies…

“Good to see you, Son.”

I broke out of my head. “Y-you too, Dad.”

“Are you nervous?” He titled his head. “Of me?”

“No.” I licked my dry lips, Orla’s perfume suddenly too thick, too sickly sweet.

What was wrong with me?

“You’re nervous of Orla.” He laughed. “I think I am a little bit with that dress of hers.”

Orla smiled shyly, sat opposite Jake, who bristled once again.

That had me frowning in his honor. “Why would I be nervous of Orla?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “You look it.”

“Well, I’m not. I was just surprised to see her.” I shuffled closer to Jake, giving him reassurance.

Why did I need to do that? I never needed to before!

Get your head together!

“So, what are we drinking?” Dad asked. “Champagne? This is a family reunion, after all. What’s your tipple, Jake?”

“Orange juice,” Jake replied coolly.

“What? Why?” He pulled a face.

I sighed, shaking my head. “Jake doesn’t drink. Neither do I.”

“You’re kidding me?”

Orla rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so shocked, Evander. Not everyone drinks.”

My dad’s dark eyes bored into me. “Are you sure you’re my son?”

How to Hold your Tongue 101: Firstly, stay as calm as you can. You have to be relatively cool of head. I was, for the most part. I had buttons that could be pushed, but my rage switch was a lot more hidden than Jake’s. Secondly, with that cool head, you had to refrain from hurting the ego of an absolute arsehole of a man like Evander Gold when you needed him to solve a problem for you—or at least help as much as he could, seeing as you didn’t have a clue what to do and were failing your daughter every minute of the day by seeing a useless—

I hadn’t craved booze or cigarettes since I’d given them up four years ago. But in this moment, I was feeling all the cravings once again. My dad was a huge trigger.

So, yes. No insults, no reminding him he wasn’t any sort of father, that he had never been a presence in my life. He had no right to make any sort of comment, pass any judgment over me or Jake.

But to put him in his place could harm our chances at answers for Lou.

Useless man… Failing… Failing… Failing…

There went my mind again, kicking me in the guts with guilt on its boots.

This life is because of me… The danger, the darkness…. My guilt…

Stop…

“Dean?” A hand on mine on the table. Warm hand, loving hand, the most loving hand in existence.

Jake’s hand.

I turned to face him, a smile on his handsome face, a sparkle in those lovely blue eyes. Smiling. Not stewing. He understood the rules like me, knew how to play along to take advantage of a situation.

The fact my dad was here meant something, didn’t it? That he actually cared?

I couldn’t think about that right now.

“Are you okay?” Jake asked softly.

I nodded. “I’m fine. Sorry. Zoned out.”

He leaned in to kiss me—an act of love and defiance.

Good one, baby!

“Waiter!” Dad yelled, clicking his fingers.

I caught Orla watching me. Unnerving, chilly.

“How have you been?” I asked her. “What are you up to nowadays?”

Her answering smile thawed those brief seconds of discomfort. “I have some wonderful news to share with you. I know we haven’t spoken in a long time, but when your father told me he was coming to see you, I insisted I come too, to tell you this news as well as see you again. I’ve missed our friendship.”

It’d been more than a friendship. Friends with too many benefits…

“What is it?”

The waiter came over. My dad ordered champagne and two glasses. Good. He’d got the message.

“Wait for the drinks,” he said to Orla. “We’ll need to toast this.”

“Again.” She giggled.

“It’s definitely worth toasting a second time…and third and fourth and fifth…”

Three

Jake

Evander was giving me a sheepish look as the champagne arrived.

Knob.

He popped the bottle and poured for Orla and himself.

“I’m going to be the queen of Faerie,” Orla said, lifting her champagne flute and drinking the gold liquid at the same time as Evander.

I paused, the rim of my glass resting on my lips.

What the bloody hell?

“The queen?” Dean said.

There hadn’t been a monarch over that way since the last king fell in an attack on Autumn City. Thank fuck we didn’t live over there. Too complicated. Pretty, apparently, but it sounded like a headache. I had no intention of ever going over there.

“Blimey,” I muttered.

Orla didn’t look at me, full attention on Dean. “It’s a sure win,” she said. “All fingers point to me. Life has been unstable in Faerie for some time now without leadership. I offer a new era free from the past.”

“The old king wasn’t exactly a saint,” Dean replied.

“Very true,” she replied. “It’s time for a fresh start.”

“How did you get the squabbling to stop? More importantly, how did you get the fae to come to a decision on candidates? Who else is in the running?”

“Nonentities.”

How bloody rude!

“Completely true,” Evander said.

“With help from your father here, and my loyal supporters, I have the votes tied up.”

“That’s, what, three weeks away?” Dean asked.

The annual votes, nothing went anywhere. Dean kept an eye on those things.

“Yes.”

The waiter returned, taking orders, admiring Orla. I placed a hand on Dean’s thigh.

It took all my willpower not to give her the dirtiest look ever. That’d be mean. Really mean—the actions of a possessive bloke who didn’t let his other half have a past or any breathing room to live. That wasn’t me. I knew Dean had a past with women. Lou’s mum was a part of it. It didn’t bother me. Why would it? I wasn’t that guy. I didn’t want to be. Yet I couldn’t help but bristle every time I looked at this stunning fae woman.

Soon-to-be-queen.

Pretty and royalty.

Ah, bollocks.

Shut the fuck up!

“And you came all this way to tell me?” Dean asked.

“Yes,” Orla replied gently. “Are you unhappy I did?”

I ignored the eyelash-batting she directed at him.

“Not at all,” he replied. “I’m just surprised you thought of me.”

“I always think of you.”

Oh, hell, no! “So,” I said, a slight break in my voice, “what are your plans while you’re over here? You can’t just head home without taking in some sights.”

Orla brushed the top of her shoulders, leaning forward slightly. Was she pushing her boobs together?

All in my head. Had to put a foot down on the paranoia.

This wasn’t me.

“I’m not sure,” she said with a frosty air—like it was painful to speak to me.

Stop it!

“I worry about the pods,” she continued. “How do you live with them? They’re terrifying.”

“We just have to get on with it,” I answered.

“And that’s how you want to live your life, is it, Dean?”

Oh, don’t ask me.

That perfume of hers. Flowery. Dean had mentioned a dead flower stench when Lou had been briefly kidnapped by the fae woman in a green cloak. He’d said it was like she’d wanted him to know who she was.

Had Dean not noticed it?

I had to ask. Probably going to be a conversation killer but fuck it.

Orla was really watching Dean now, as if she was studying every single pore of his face.

“I have a question,” I said.

She glanced at me. “What is it?”

“Your perfume.”

That got her attention. “What about it?”

“I’ll just come out with it. Did you kidnap our daughter?” Gasps from the two fae. “You probably know all about it from the letter Dean sent him,” I gestured to the friggin’ papa fae. I was losing my cool.

“How dare you!” Evander barked.

“Don’t shout at him!” Dean snapped back. “He’s right. Whoever took Louise wanted me to know who she was.”

“And you think that’s me?” Ola questioned.

“We have to explore all avenues.”

“This is the first time we’ve seen one another in years, and that’s what you ask me?”

“Appalling behavior, Son. I thought you knew better than that.”

“Seriously?” Oh, crap. Here I went. “You want to act like father of the century? You? I’ve heard all about you. You’d rather party like you’re sixteen rather than even acknowledge the fact you have a son and a granddaughter.”

“Jake…”

I stopped at Dean’s voice, cooling off quickly. Shit. This was about Lou, and I’d possibly just driven them away.

Evander was on his feet. “I will not listen to this. Neither will Orla. I came here on good faith, to help you with your daughter. And what happens? Accusations! That’s what!”

People were watching. Man! Me and my big mouth!

“We’re leaving.”

“Dad—”

“No, Dean. I have never felt so unwelcome in my life.”

Damage control time. I got to my feet. “I’m really sorry. Please don’t go. I’m just worked up about this whole thing with Lou. I shouldn’t have snapped or pointed the finger at you, Orla.”

“No. You shouldn’t have,” Evander snapped, folding his arms dramatically.

Never mind you being rude about me and Dean. I didn’t go there. “I’m really sorry. Please stay. I’ll buy you another bottle of champagne if you like.”

Oh, did I feel dirty sucking up like this.

“Come on, Dad,” Dean added. “Don’t be so sensitive. Jake’s on edge. We both are. You can’t blame us for wanting to know the truth.”

Evander didn’t say a word, but he didn’t stomp off either. Good sign?

Orla placed a hand on his bicep. “Evander? Dean is right. I completely understand Jake saying that. I do.” She offered me a warm smile I didn’t like. “I’m not the woman you’re looking for.”

How to answer that?

“Then, do you know who could be behind it?” Dean asked. “Have you heard anything that might be able to help us?”

She shook her head, taking a seat again. “I wish I did. When Evander told me about what’d happened to Louise, I was horrified. You said she wanted you to know who she was? Do you have any enemies in Faerie?”

“Not that I know of.”

Evander was still standing, silent.

“It’s not like Dean frequents that realm,” I said.

Orla nodded. “Quite. All I can say is I’d like to offer my help in finding her.”

Humble pie, come to me. “Thank you.”

That was it for now. Fae were sneaky creatures. This life of mine had left me staying as vigilant to things as possible to all things.

Every fucker was suspect.

“Thank you,” Dean echoed me.

“Of course. I can tell you’re deeply worried. I would be too. Mark my words, when I’m queen, this woman will pay the highest price for this. We will find her, and we will help your daughter. At least, your father will.” She turned to Evander. “Because this is all about Louise and how you can help her. Your expertise is priceless in these matters.”

Dean had told me the same thing. When it came to fae magic, Evander had ways of digging into it, learning the magical mechanics, and figuring stuff out like no other fae. He was pretty famous for it but was never really called on to use his skills much.

And I’d gobbed off.

The prick had wound me up!

If this had been a few years ago, I probably would’ve headbutted him by now because that’s how I used to roll.

Would’ve been really bad, but also really funny.

More resistance from Evander.

“Yes,” Dean said, “Louise is all this should be about.”

We all waited, watching Evander.

He rolled his eyes. Man, what a drama queen. “Fine. I’ll stay. But I want two bottles for that, Jake.”

“Fine. Deal. And thank you. I really am sorry.”

Sort of.

He sat back down, clicking his fingers for the waiter, who scurried over to take the champagne order.

“So, tomorrow I meet this adorable little girl,” he said, removing a picture of her from his pocket. “I carry this everywhere with me.”

You do? Carrying a photo means fuck all when you can’t be bothered to come and visit. Dean’s mum does, and she lives in Singapore!

“We thought we’d do it at our house,” Dean said. “For dinner. You’re welcome, too, Orla.”

She was? “Of course,” I added.

“There will be plenty of food,” Dean carried on, giving my thigh a squeeze, “and we’d like to keep Louise in her own environment to make her feel as comfortable as possible.”

“Great idea,” Orla replied sweetly.

“What do you think, Dad?”

“I would like that,” Evander said, not wasting any time thinking about it. “A homecooked meal.”

And meeting your granddaughter, knob head!

“Will you be cooking, Son?” he asked, sipping his champagne.

“We both will.”

Evander gave me a smile that was supposed to be charming but came across as more of a smirk to me.

“Excellent,” the fae said. “I shall look forward to it. We both will.”

Orla nodded, and the waiter was summoned back to the table for the food orders.

* * *

Because I was a judgmental prat at times, I’d been expecting Orla to have a salad, then pick at it, taking annoyingly delicate nibbles—you know, not really wanting to eat and have herself look less than perfect.

She’d got herself a Quad Burger—four layers of beef, bun, loaded with onion rings, bacon, pickles, mayo, lettuce, tomato, and a side of coleslaw, fries, and corn on the cob.

Friggin’ hell! Well, that’d teach me for being a tosser.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she hoovered up the food. She noticed and winked. It was a sign of warmth.

Maybe I was being difficult for the sake of it. Not like I hadn’t been in the past. Still, I couldn’t quite shake the irritation. It wasn’t fair to say, I guess, but I just didn’t like her.

Evander talked about Faerie, all his shenanigans. He really, really enjoyed the company of women.

“Who knows how many sires I have wandering around the four lands.” He howled with laughter at his own joke.

That comment didn’t go down too well with Dean.

I sat there, barely said anything, but also did my best to laugh at jokes and be polite because these two were coming over tomorrow evening to meet my daughter. I’d already almost caused all-out war, so I had to stay cool.

Orla didn’t take her eyes off Dean, sharing more memories with him about their youth.

“Do you remember the old lady by the pond?”

“Yes. What did he call her?”

“Oldie Goldie.”

Dean chuckled. “That was it. What a miserable person she was.”

“Tell me about it. I hated her so much. Anyway, she isn’t Goldie Oldie anymore. She made herself a potion to restore her youth and ended up going too far. She’s now a baby, back in nappies, being looked after by a family member half her actual age in the spring lands.”

“You’re joking?”

“I’m not joking.”

Evander gave me a look. Smug, worthy of my fist meeting his nose.

And so the night went on like this, with Dean’s hand never leaving my thigh, but no one really talking to me.

Whatever.

Four

Dean

It was done. My father and Orla had returned to their hotel after observing a blue pod that’d appeared on the street outside of the restaurant.

“Horrible things,” Dad had said. “I’m so pleased they haven’t arrived in Faerie.”

“Yet,” Jake had added.

That’d been the finale of the night, all of us parting ways quickly.

Jake had been quiet the whole taxi ride home.

“Hey.” I took his arm as he placed a foot on our stoop steps.

He looked at me over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

My fiancé smiled, and it melted my heart. “I love you, too.”

“Are you okay?”

“Uh-huh.”

Okay. Talk later.

We went inside.

“She was as wonderful as always,” Sophie said, perched on a sofa with a paperback novel in her lap.

“Wicked,” Jake replied, sitting next to her with a sigh.

I sat on the opposite sofa.

Luuk had gone home.

“How did it go?” she asked.

It was my turn to sigh now. “My father hasn’t changed. Still arrogant, still in-your-face. But he seems keen to meet Louise, and he and I are meeting up tomorrow afternoon to discuss things regarding her abilities.”

Sophie was as worried as we were. She clasped her hands together to stop herself from shaking. “I hope everything will be okay.”

“So do we.”

Jake reached out and patted her shoulder. “It will be, Soph. Don’t worry. I really believe that.”

She smiled at him. “Yes. We have to remain positive, do we not?”

“We do.”

“Okay. Well, please keep me updated. I’ll wish you both a goodnight.”

We walked her to the kitchen, then saw her out through the back way we shared with her—a safe, secret connection between our houses.

When she was gone, I took Jake’s hand, caressing the engagement ring. “Want to talk, baby?”

“Okay.”

“You seem so sad.”

“I’m alright. Just being stupid.”

“About tonight? Don’t let either of them get to you.”

“She really fancies you.”

I shook my head. “She can fancy me all she wants. I only have eyes for you.”

“She’s super-hot.”

“Stop it.”

“And on the way to being queen. Talk about big prospects.”

I let go of his hand. “Do you think so less of me?”

His gorgeous cobalt eyes widened in horror. “What? No. I… I… Bollocks. I’m sorry. I’m a knob. I’m just… I don’t know. Tired.”

“Go and sit down, and I’ll make a cup of tea. Then we’ll talk. Okay?”

“Sounds good.”

I smacked him on the backside as he went to leave. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

He winked at me over his shoulder, suddenly brighter than he had been minutes ago.

* * *

“She was my first.”

“Right.” He sipped his tea, facing me on the other end of the sofa.

Okay, maybe not the best opening line to have. “Jake?”

“What?”

“You’re okay, right?”

“Of course. Go on.”

“We were friends as kids, had a thing for each other. You know how things go with horny teenagers and constant summer nights like there are in the summer lands.”

“I get it.”

“Wine and heat and hormones, and that was that. We slept together, under the stars.”

“Sounds romantic.”

“It was. But that doesn’t mean anything.”

“I know it doesn’t. I didn’t mean to sound snotty.”

I put my cup down on the coffee table. “That was then. This is now. I love you. I want you. All there is between Orla and I is a past. Memories. I’m not stupid, I know Dad brought her here to try and flaunt her beauty in front of me, make me see what I was supposedly missing.”

“She’s so pretty.”

“I know she is. Extremely.” I shuffled forward across the sofa. “But she’s got nothing on you.”

He blushed, crimson coming to his pale cheeks. “Stop. No way.”

“Erm, yes way. Just look at you.” I reached for his dark hair, running my fingers over it. “Love that hair.”

“Stop.”

My fingers moved down the side of face, across his stubbled cheek, over to his lips. “Perfect lips.”

“You’re really laying it on thick.”

I moved closer still. “Eyes I could drown in.” Closer. “A soul that is more beautiful than any sunrise, sunset, or—”

“I think I’m gonna puke,” he whispered.

“Give me that tea.” I took his cup and placed it on the table, then returned to the close proximity we’d just enjoyed. “Those lips.”

“You already said about the—”

I stole a kiss. Soft, with tongue, slow. His hands hooked around the back of my head, pulling me in deeper. I reached for his cock, stroking him through his jeans.

I broke this kiss. “I love this too.” I popped the top button. “How about I look after you right now? This has been a challenging evening, and I want to show you how much I appreciate you putting up with it.”

Our eyes locked together, he stroked my lips with his fingers. “It was challenging for you, too.”

“Maybe, but I really need to give you a blow job right now.”

A wicked grin spread across his handsome face. “I ain’t gonna say no to that.”

* * *

I came into his mouth, him having returned the favor, both of us naked on the living room floor. He kissed the top of my cock, rolled my Prince Albert piercing around with his tongue. Jake really loved that silver ring.

“Wow,” I breathed, “that was great.”

“Nice after-dinner treat.” He slid in next to me, and I wrapped my arm around him. “This is nice.”

“It is.”

“Thanks.”

“Thanks yourself.”

“I feel better now.”

“Good.”

That’s exactly what I wanted, to let him know I was his and he was mine. No one would ever break us. Maybe I was using sex as a weapon, but why not if it reassured him?

“What now?” he asked.

“You want to go again?”

“Nah. I’m too knackered. I meant, do you wanna go to bed, watch a movie?”

I sat up, enjoying the sight of his naked body spread out beside me. “A movie sounds good.”

He then sprang up, and I got a sweet, sweet eyeful of his perky backside. I stopped myself from lunging for it, burying my face in there.

Maybe later.

“Hot chocolate?” he asked, spotting me looking. “Oh. Gonna tell me how great back there is now?” He gave it a wiggle.

“Words cannot describe it, my love.”

“You’re really full of it tonight.” He came down, straddling my lap, grinding himself into my dick. “Maybe I’m not that knackered.”

We never got to the movie or the hot chocolate.

Five

Jake

Another sunny morning. Awesome. There was something about Saturday mornings being sunny that made me happy.

Fuck knows why. I was just a weirdo.

Sitting out in a chair in our small back garden of concrete and flower pots, I was enjoying my tea and a re-read of The Lord of the Rings, drinking my cuppa from my The Lord of the Rings mug Dean and Lou had got me—with the ring as the handle. I had two the same, and both were still intact. I’d broken several mugs, getting myself a bit of a reputation for being clumsy. I was determined to break the crockery curse.

It was half seven in the morning, and I was the only one up and at ‘em. Well, not at ‘em, but having a merry old time with my book and beverage.

I had to go into work today. Annoying, yes, but only for a few hours. I had some stuff I needed to go over, paperwork to sort out, and maybe even have a bloody dust. It was getting grim over in our offices.

“Morning, Daddy.”

My daughter shuffled outside, her dark curls wild, cute as a button as always.

“Hello, you. Did you sleep okay?” I put the book and mug down and took her onto my lap for cuddles, kissing the top of her head several times.

She yawned and giggled. “Silly, Daddy.”

“I am.”

She kissed my cheek and cuddled up tight. “Is Papa sleeping?”

“He is.”

“You working today.” A statement, not a question.

“I am. But I’m not leaving until ten, and Papa’s hanging around until twelve. Cool, right?”

“Yep. Then I meet Grandpa tonight.”

“Yes.” I refrained from gritting my teeth. “I’ll be home by three, and we can get things ready. You can help me with the food if you like.”

“I’d love that.”

“Me too, sugar plum.”

She sat up, frowning at me. “Sugar plum?”

“No? Don’t like that one?”

She pulled one of her yuck faces normally reserved for broccoli.

“Okay. How about my cutie pie of Lou-Lou sweetness?”

“That’s worse!”

“What’cha saying?” I tickled her belly.

“Daddy!”

“What’s going on out here?”

Dean stood in the doorway, bathed in morning light, also cute as a button in his black shorts and white T-shirt, bed hair such a contrast to his usual cool, bad-arse vibe.

God, I loved the shit out of him.

“Daddy tickled me, Papa.” Lou hiccupped.

“Oh no! Look what he’s done,” Dean declared. “The hiccups? We’ll have to scare them away now.”

“Do it!”

“What? I was joking.”

“You hide, and I’ll come and look for you, and you go boo!”

Dean crouched down to her level, the wriggling girl still on my lap. “How about I just give you morning kisses?”

She sighed. “Fine.” She presented her cheek.

He smothered her in them, setting her off again. “I need a pee.”

That had her out of my lap instantly. “Okay. Off to the loo with ya!”

She skipped inside.

“Close one,” I said.

My turn to get my morning kiss. “Hi.”

“Hi. I was thinking of making sausage and bacon baps this morning. How does that grab you?”

“Grabs me in all the right places.”

“Ooo, I like the sound of that.”

Sexy time and sleep had helped clear my head from last night. A bit. There was still that distrust lingering. Not of Dean, of Orla and his dad. I know the sex we’d had was his way of reassuring me there was sod all to worry about, but still. Orla had triggered alarm bells, even if they were in the background.

I’d kill for my man, for Lou. No question.

I got up. “Okay. Let me work my magic.”

“Can’t wait. Want some tea?”

“I won’t say no to another one.”

* * *

With my goodbyes all done, I cycled from my house on Blauwebeergracht, a stretch of canal near Keizersgracht, heading over to the offices of Jake & Dean Investigations on Oudezijds Achterburgwal—within the red-light district. I took it easy, eyeballs on high alert for any activity. Those poxy Ricci twins (part of the Conclave) liked to come with random attacks, though I hadn’t seen them for awhile. Plus, there was another real nasty piece of work, Izzie, who seemed to be Elijah Hart’s right-hand woman.

The Conclave was growing in numbers and even had a new HQ being built here in Amsterdam over in Beatrixpark. Great. Not only that, there were also rallies every week in different, busy parts of the city. Basically, bollocks being spouted, flyers handed out, and videos going up online every day about how magic and supernaturals were evil, along with everything else they labeled a sin (like being gay, for example). And that God’s way was the only way—also known as the Conclave being the only way seeing as they were the holiest of them all.

Not.

I still remembered the fucked-up prayer they’d had about me: Protect us in the presence of the Bringer of Doom, the evil one. His tongue is vicious, but we stand firm. The time for the blessed fire is near. He will burn, he will be cleansed from your garden like the demonic weed he is, and then the earth will be free of the pain he has wrought. Give us the strength to see this through.

Sounded super-fun. Couldn’t wait to get myself burned.

They’d have a hell of a time of it when they tried it. I wouldn’t go down easy, like trying to swallow a whole pineapple.

My trusty spear strapped to my back was reassuring, plus the belt of exploder potions around my waist.

Yep. Wasn’t going down easy. At. All.

The streets were dodgy as hell. Conclave, pod-born. All sorts.

“Holy shit!” I slammed on the brakes just before the turning onto Oudezijds Achterburgwal, almost going over the handlebars.

A man jogging close to me screamed.

There was a spider in the middle of the path. Not any old spider, but a pod spider. The size of a Labrador puppy, purple with red eyes, and what can only be described as a silk flag sticking out of its back on a shard of jagged bone.

Yep. Proper dodgy.

The man next to me cursed in Dutch, and the spider hissed, its eight legs twitching. Wait. Not eight. Ten. No. More than that.

Me and arachnids did not mix. Too many legs and eyes. Fine, they got rid of bugs and stuff. Back in the pod-free days, I lived in harmony-ish with them. As long as we didn’t come into contact, they could spin webs wherever they wanted. Out of sight, out of mind.

Not anymore. Not after that bloody incident, we’d had at home with an eight-legged wanker.

At least that one’d had eight legs!

“I see you have met my darling.” Full-on English accent. Male. Just spotted him sitting on a bench with his legs crossed. Tight jeans, muddy boots, no top, skin the milky silver of a spider’s web. Red eyes, a beard of web, plus the hair. Web. Oh, shit. His nose was a spinneret. An actual spinneret.

And his nipples.

Three spinnerets.

Fuck this morning.

I slowly got off the bike. “Your darling, huh?”

“Isn’t she gorgeous? I made her myself.”

Ugh. That had all sorts of mind-screwing implications. “You did? Great. Can’t say she’s the prettiest baby I’ve seen. But everyone says that about their kids, right? Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder.”

Pod-born. Man, there really was one born every minute.

Oh, look. Fangs to show me, seeing as I’d just pissed him off. “She is beautiful. Exquisite. It’s not her fault you can’t see that.”

The jogger had scarpered.

“You’re from the United Kingdom?” he questioned.

I kicked the bike stand out, wary of that ten-legged knob head eyeing me with its overload of eyeballs. “Yeah. London. You?”

“Winchester.”

“Nice place.”

“It is. Far more charming than the vulgarities of London.”

“Ah, that’s my hometown, mate. Mind your mouth.”

“I could say the same for you.”

“Okay. Right. What’s the plan here?”

“Plan?”

“You and your darling?”

“I was simply taking her out for a walk.”

“Were you now?”

“I am allowed to take my child into the fresh air.”

“For sure. Only, that child ain’t just any child, is it?”

The spider sprang onto the wall of a coffee shop, then shot a web at a passing bird. Lightning quick. It had the poor thing in its clutches in seconds—a silken parcel it snacked on loudly.

Gross.

“Cats eat birds,” he pointed out.

“I know. I’m not denying nature here. We live in a new world where nature’s been turned upside down. Change is change.” And it sucked hard. “But I need to know what you’re up to. You see, there’s been a few people try and be Billy Big Bollocks about things. Take over the city, spread across the word. That’s not just the one spider in your spider army, is it? Have we got to tangle now?”

Didn’t fancy getting caught up in the stickiness that would come out of those spinnerets.

His crimson eyes narrowed. “I was walking my child. My one and only child.”

Hmmm… “Really?”

“Yes, really. I have no spider army.”

I actually believed him. “I need to log this, though. I’m sorry. What if the spider needs more than a bird to eat? And what about you? What’s your pleasure?”

“I’m vegan.”

“Maybe once you were.”

“I am.”

“Okay. Don’t suppose I can take your name?” My PIA powers gave me the authority to record matters of concern, and I also had a license to slice if I needed to. Last resort stuff. The law allowed you to defend yourself since the pod crisis. Only if necessary, though. Obviously, there’d been some dickheads who’d taken it too far.

Always was.

“You’re making me feel like I’m some sort of criminal,” he protested.

The spider was done with the bird, dropping the package and scuttling back to her master.

“Come on, mate. You know the rules. I don’t make them. All pod-born need to make themselves known. If you don’t, you’ll make things worse for yourself.”

“I have no right to life?”

“Yeah, you do. Until you start killing people. Or try and take over Amsterdam. You know how it goes.”

“I do.”

Some pod-born tried to make a life for themselves with their new transformations. They didn’t want to be super-villains. Just wanted normality—as much of it as they could grab hold of.

Didn’t work out well for most of them, though.

Probably not a good idea to broker the idea of the sanctuary to him just yet. He did have the right to try and make it work first.

“William Craig.”

“That’s your name?”

“Yes.” He then told me his address. Wow. No spider fight! Phew!

Speaking of which, she was now resting on his shoulder. Polly want a, erm… I didn’t know how to finish that one.

“You’ll see, I’m already registered.”

Why couldn’t he have told me that in the first place? “Cool. Okay. Well, have a great day.”

“She won’t hurt anyone. She likes birds, rats, and maybe tiny dogs if the fancy strikes her.”

“Wh-what?”

“I’m joking.”

Not funny. “You better be.”

“Check my records. I’m an upstanding citizen. Always have been. You’ll also see I’m a vegan. I frequent a place over near Dam Square. I’m there every night for coconut curry. Do come and see for yourself.”

“That’s fine. I’ll leave you to it.” Both of them were making my skin crawl.

“Come on, Diana. Let’s enjoy the rest of our walk.”

Diana?

“Goodbye,” he said.

“Bye.”

Rather than taking a poodle for a stroll, it was now commonplace for someone to be seen out walking their ten-legged spider. Was that it?

Not that I saw many people walking poodles.

* * *

I arrived safely at work to find Cherry standing outside her window, currently closed for the morning.

Our offices were in a three-story building on the canal path, with the top two floors being our place, and the bottom Cherry’s window with the blue light (a sign for potential clients that she was a trans woman).

Next door to our building was covered in scaffolding still from the damage caused by an exploding wand that’d been fired at Dean and our Alchemist friend Mila Young.

A reminder of that awful case that’d ended so fucking tragically.

I didn’t want to think about it.

“Goedemorgen, Cherry. You okay?”

Sleek, red hair, narrow, fair features, I always thought Cherry looked pretty fragile. But she was much tougher than she looked. She had to be, doing what she did.

Cherry was dressed in a white hoody and tracksuit bottoms, looking worried.

“Hallo, Jake. Can we talk?” Her arms were wrapped around her as if she were cold.

“Sure. Come up.”

The front door was already open—a shared access hallway with the access door to her window on the left, the stairs up to Jake & Dean Investigations straight ahead. She followed me up, and I immediately put the kettle on, wincing at the chaos spread across the two desks belonging to me and my man, the shameful dust particles dancing in the sunlight streaming through the windows.

“Excuse the, erm, mess.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

The bottom floor was our main section for paperwork and dealing with clients, while upstairs was where we stored our potions, books, magical traps, and emptied our bladders.

If there were still goblins around, I’d hire one to help clean up. But they were all in hiding, not talking to anyone after that massacre. Didn’t blame them. Still, goblins made the best cleaners (even if they were expensive).

“Take a seat,” I directed her to Dean’s desk closest to the main door. His was the least messy. “You want some tea?”

“Yes, please.”

“Milk? Sugar?”

She nodded. “Both, please. Thank you.”

After whipping it up, I came and sat at Dean’s desk—his chair, Cherry in the client one. “What’s wrong?”

“I need your help. One of my friends is missing.”

“Oh? Who?”

“You know Melony?”

“Yeah. She’s missing?”

“For two days now.”

Melony was another woman who worked in the windows, working under a red light on the corner of the second right turning just north of this building.

“Have you called the police?” I asked.

“Yes. But all they’re doing is searching.” She sniffed. “I know that’s all they can do, but I’m so scared. You know, what with the abuse we’ve been getting from the Conclave.”

Vile abuse. Man, I hated those knobs. “So, her window isn’t a crime scene?”

“No. It’s clean. Unused. They did go to her apartment. I went with them as I have a key. But it was empty too.”

“Is there anywhere else you can think of she’d go?”

She shook her head. “No. She didn’t do anything but work and study.”

Melony was putting herself through university with the money she was making. “What about the uni?”

“They haven’t seen her.” Her eyes glistened. “I’m sorry, Jake. There’s not much else I can give you.”

“Don’t worry. Drink some tea. It’ll help.”

She took a tentative sip. “I can’t stand waiting around to hear from the police.”

“I get that. I’m happy to help. We’re always happy to help.”

“Thank you.”

“No worries. You sit there and let me make some calls, okay?”

“Thank—”

The mainline phone rang. “Hallo?” I answered.

“Jake? It’s Lars. Are you both there?”

“No. Just me. What’s up?”

“You free to come down to a murder scene?”

Oh, God. “Yeah. Where is it?”

“Oudekennissteeg.”

“What?” That was just up the road on the other side of the canal.

“We had a call half an hour ago. A tip. One of the window girls, we think. Can you come? It’s weird.”

Please don’t be Melony. “Sure. I’ll be there in five.” What was I supposed to say to Cherry?

“Thanks.” He hung up.

Dealing with weird was what we did, often helping out the police with the paranormal side of things—one of six PIA agencies in Amsterdam.

I really wished I’d stayed at home. “I need to pop out.” There was no way I was saying anything to Cherry yet.

“Okay. I need to go home anyway.”

“Stay and finish your tea.”

“I’m sorry. I’m too shaken. I just need to go home and sleep.”

“Okay. Get a cab. I’ll call one now.”

“It’s not far, Jake.”

“Please. It’s on me. Do it for me, yeah?”

“Are you worried?” The way she was looking at me almost had me blurting out about the dead body.

Oh, God. She’d see the police.

I went to the window, opened it and looked right. Yep. There they were, blue lights flashing.

Crap.

This wasn’t gonna work. “Shit.” I sighed and folded my arms. “I need to tell you something.”

“It was that phone call, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. That was Lars. You know Lars, right?”

“Melony…”

“I don’t know. They’ve found a body on Oudekennissteeg.”

“Oh, no.” Tears escaped her eyes. “Oh, please, no.”

I went to her, pulled her into a hug. “Let’s not jump to conclusions yet.” I smoothed her hair back. “Do you wanna wait here while I go over?”

“No. I-I need to come.”

“They won’t let you onto the scene.”

“Then I’ll wait outside the scene. I can’t go home, can’t be anywhere until I know.”

It would be a safe place for her to wait, what with cops being around. “Okay.” I needed to get over there.

I grabbed some stuff. We had a new magic detector, and another of Dean’s UV light gadgets that picked up on pod traces. I took those, popping them into a rucksack, and hurried outside with Cherry.

The scene up ahead was really starting to grab attention.

“Ready?” I said to my friend.

She nodded, and we quickly walked up the canal path, crossing over at the first bridge.

What a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning.

Six

Dean

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come?”

“No. Crack on with linking up with your dad. The sooner we know about Lou, the better.”

“Okay, baby. Keep me posted.”

“Will do. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

The call ended. What an awful way to start the morning. I sent silent hope out there for it not to be the body of Melony.

“Was that Daddy?” Louise asked, still in her pajamas.

“It was, darling. Busy morning.”

“Hope he gots plenty of tea.”

“Oh, he has. Daddy’s never short of tea, is he?”

She giggled. “That’s right.”

“Okay. Shall we get ready? Can’t sit around in our night clothes all morning, can we?”

I wanted to do just that. More than anything. To stay on the sofa and watch cartoons, listen to her talk about her obsession with all things space, maybe crack open that box of double chocolate cookies in the kitchen cupboard.

“Ten minutes,” I said, glued to the sofa.

I felt bad while Jake was out there in the thick of it, but there was nothing I could do right now. If he did need me, I’d be there in an instant.

This meeting with my dad was extremely important. First, we’d talk about Louise’s strange freezing power. Then he could see her for himself tonight. This meeting was what he wanted—some one-on-one time with me. I was as fine with that as I could be. He was calling the shots seeing as he had the potential to put our minds at rest about our daughter.

My mind wandered to Orla, how beautiful she looked, the memories she’d stirred up. They weren’t bad memories by any stretch. I was head-over-heels for her back then, but it was nothing more than a teenage infatuation. A first girlfriend. I’d never deny my memories, but it didn’t mean I wanted to relive them.

I could still smell her, that delicious perfume.

Delicious?

A twinge in my crotch, a sudden flood of warmth. I crossed my legs, my mouth going dry. An image of her in that dress from last night flashed before my eyes, her slowly peeling it off her glistening body.

I broke the image with a mental hammer, leaping off the sofa and striding to the kitchen.

“Papa?”

“Just getting some cookies.”

“Yay! Cookies!”

Pouring some water from the faucet into a glass, I leaned against the sink, gulping the liquid back.

What was that just then? Not me, that was for sure. Nothing but memories stirred up.

I blamed Dad for this. He knew this would happen.

But why? Why would it happen? I was with the love of my life, not interested in anyone else at all. Okay, so it was human nature to have your head turned by an attractive person. Not for me. I’d had girlfriends before Jake, never a boyfriend. Then he’d come along and awoken my heart. Saying I was smitten was an injustice. I was besotted, completely devoted. I just didn’t want to look anywhere else, think of anyone in that way but him. His body was all I needed for my desires, his soul for the journey through life.

“Don’t be a dick,” I said, and grabbed the cookies.

The sooner Orla and Dad were gone, the better.

* * *

I left Louise with Sophie and Luuk. They were having a tea party this afternoon with some of my daughter’s space teddies.

The meeting spot was Vondelpark in Amsterdam-Zuid (Amsterdam South), a green space by a pond. It was a pretty spot down there, and the perfect weather for a picnic.

A shame about the company.

It was surprising that my dad wanted a picnic. He was far more decadent than that, but it only showed what I knew. Plus, I had to play along with his indulgences.

I cycled over, bringing a multipack of paprika crisps and some fizzy drink with me. Dad had insisted everything was covered, but I couldn’t turn up with nothing.

There were fae guards scattered everywhere, ready to defend their charge to the death, in shorts, vests, whatever. The weather was warm, and they were playing the part of enjoying it along with everyone else. Blending in. One pair were even tossing a Frisbee back and forth.

Locking up my bike, I followed a path under trees that took me alongside the water, curving round a green decorated with sunbathers, more picnic people, and—

There she was. Orla. Dressed in a white summer dress, wearing a straw hat. Her raven hair billowed in the breeze. She was standing next to my dad, talking, not having noticed me a slight way away yet. I heard him laugh, stretched out on a deck chair under a white parasol, dressed in pink shorts and a gold vest, his silver hair tied up in a bun.

He spotted me, waved dramatically.

Here goes.

Food was spread out on a golden blanket, lavish golden plates laden with all manner of food from dates, to chicken, to pastries. So much of it. A sickening amount. A picnic basket bulged with yet more food over to the side.

Made what I’d brought look pitiful in the extreme.

“Hello, Son!” he boomed, standing up

I got dragged into a bear hug. “Hi, Dad.”

He slapped my back. “Good to see you again.”

There were three chairs around the blanket, each one with a parasol.

“Take a seat, Dean.”

“Hi,” Orla said. Her dress was sheer, and her perfume drifted into my nostrils.

“H-Hi.”

She smiled. “I hope you don’t mind me being here too.”

“That’s fine.”

“I didn’t want to be alone.”

I’m in hell. “Really, it’s fine.”

“Thank you.”

She sat down, leaving the chair between her and my father free for me.

Not a sandwich I wanted to be the filling of.

“Help yourself to whatever you like,” Dad said.

I was feeling hotter than I’d like, the back of my head on fire, and my stomach in knots. Over and over again, that perfume from Orla wafted over me.

Was it spelled? Trying to seduce me?

No. Never. Not her. She would never. She was kind.

You don’t know her.

I—

Another nose full, and I was grinning.

“I’d love some champagne,” I said.

“That’s my boy!” Dad bellowed.

Alcohol. I hadn’t touched it in years, dropping it for the sake of Jake. He was a recovering drug addict, off cocaine for years, as well as drink. He hadn’t wanted me to give drink up too, but I’d wanted to. For him. What did I need it for anyway? Nothing. And I didn’t miss it.

Until now.

The pop of a bottle, the fizz of the champagne. I watched it cascade into the flute, pale and golden, shimmering. Cold. Crisp.

I licked my lips.

“There you go.”

I took the proffered drink and took my first sip.

It was pure heaven.

“That’s good.” I took another sip, then breathed in the sweet scent of Orla in deep.

What was wrong with appreciating a pretty smell? That’s all it was. And what was wrong with a little drink?

I relaxed into the chair, yet felt slightly out of sorts. This wasn’t me. I shouldn’t be relaxed, shouldn’t be drinking or even eating. What mattered was Louise.

A hand on my arm.

Orla leaning over, touching me, her emerald eyes sparkling. “Wasn’t it a lovely night, last night?”

I watched her red lips curve into a smile, her eyelashes flutter, then came to my senses.

“I don’t want this.” I handed the glass back to my father. “I don’t drink. I’m not here to eat. I’m here to talk about my daughter.”

Fae trickery. You should never eat the food of a fae without caution or drink what they offer you. Being half-fae, I was kind of vulnerable if someone wanted me to be, if they really wanted to delve into the human side of me and take it for a spin. Generally, I was safer than a human, but not completely.

“Stop playing games.” I pulled my arm away from Orla. “And you can drop the perfume. Okay?”

She recoiled, hurt. “I’m sorry?”

“You’re doing something to me with it, aren’t you?”

“Are we going back to this?” Dad growled. “After we crossed over here and provided such wonderful food? I will not tolerate insolence from you or that man.”

“His name is Jake.”

Dad grunted. “He was extremely rude.”

“And so are you. You’re using trickery on me? Really?” The lingering taste of the champagne was toxic on my tongue, Orla’s perfume nothing more than stench now.

“Was it you?” I said to her. “The woman who took my daughter?”

She gasped. “I can’t believe this has come up again! I would never do a thing like that. Kidnap a child? Never. I promise you. And your daughter at that. Why would I want to hurt her?” She didn’t break her gaze from me, imploring me with her eyes. “Please, I need you to believe me. This is my first time in this realm, and I would never hurt you. I’m sorry about my perfume. It’s my favorite scent, but I know what it does to some folk. I’ll—”

“Enough!” Dad barked. I turned to face him, his face pure thunder. “For the sake of my granddaughter, I will not storm out of this realm and cut you off. I want to meet her, to form a relationship with you, Son. Believe me or not, it is true. I am here to repair the damage of the past, to wipe the slate clean.”

It was too dirty.

“But you cannot keep making these accusations, leveling this distrust at us,” he added. “Orla is here because she wanted to see you again. She knows you are in a relationship, and so do I. There is no greater plan here.” He sighed. “I can understand why you would think there is with the way things have been, from my behavior. I have never done anything to earn your trust, have I?”

I didn’t answer.

“But I want to.” He held up his hands. “We’re here, Dean, to help. Nothing more. Can we reset from last night?”

Humility from my father? He wanted my trust? What he deserved was my hate. Complete hate for never being there for me, for preferring parties and fucking to his family.

It was my turn to release a heavy sigh. What choice did I have? If I drove them away, I didn’t have anywhere else to go for help with Louise. What if her power reached deadly levels? What if it hurt her somehow?

I would never forgive myself.

“Okay. I’m sorry.”

“So am I,” Orla said. “My perfume made you drink. It’s all my fault. I’m so, so sorry. I won’t wear it again. I really didn’t think.” Her hand on my arm again. “Really, Dean. You have to believe me. I don’t want anything from you, but your friendship. I’m so delighted you’ve found happiness. Yes, I was surprised it was with a man, but I am happy for you. You seem to have a wonderful life. I’d like to be in it, even a small part. I truly would.”

I took half a minute to answer. “Let’s reset.”

“Excellent,” my dad said, mood shifted back to chirpiness. “I think we have orange juice somewhere.”

I opened my bag and presented the things I’d brought with me. “Nothing like this spread.” I dumped it on the blanket. “I’m not hungry or thirsty. Let’s talk.”

Dad, on other hand, took a date and also topped up his glass. “Very well. Talk.”

So I explained in more detail how Louise had frozen the people in the hospital, protecting Jake and me from the threat of Elijah Hart and his followers. We hadn’t been frozen. Dad knew the details, but it didn’t hurt to run over them again.

“That’s awful,” Orla said. “Poor little girl.”

“And then there’s the threat of this woman in green too.” I stood up, pacing. “What’s going on with my daughter? Why is this happening? What would anyone want with her?”

Fuck! I wanted to punch that tree.

“Dean…” Orla said, not adding anything further.

My dad stood up, crossing his hands behind his back and pacing too. I stopped, not wanting to mirror him. “It is commonplace, as you know, for a fae child to display their powers at birth. Not later on. But there is the condition of her quarter blood. However, that would mean her blood would be further diluted, that any power would be a simple trace magic more than actual skill. Perhaps the glowing of her hands. Hmmm…” He paced some more. “I have a theory, but I will need your permission to put it into action.”

“What is it?” I sat down.

He sat down too, sitting forward with his shoulders on his thighs. “Have you heard of the Weed of Tine?”

“The fire weed?”

“That’s right. A common weed but brewed correctly, it can reveal things that are hidden. It would take an alchemist of great skill to enact the correct process.”

“I know someone just like that. We can go and see her now. She won’t mind if it’s about Louise.”

“Excellent. But before we go, let me enjoy some of this marvelous chicken.”

I didn’t look at Orla the whole time my dad ate, scared to look because things that wanted to be thought were lingering on the edge of my mind.

No way was I letting them take shape.

Seven

Jake

Dark skin, pallid in death, her neck broken. Naked, a red rose painted crudely onto her stomach. There was no sign of any other injury aside from the twisted mess of her neck.

Poor Melony. She hadn’t been here for long, it looked like.

She was inside a red window. Another worker coming for the daytime shift found her. Lars, Evi, and the other coppers had cleared people out of the narrow street of red windows branching off from the main drag. While I was taken to the body, Evi stayed with Cherry outside the cordoned off zone.

First, I used the UV light to check for pod traces. Pod traces were notorious for vanishing quickly or lingering for a while.

But… Ding, ding, ding! The rose was pure pod, and there were other traces (shown as a nasty yellowish-brown) spattered across her body, even across her face.

How the hell had it taken that rose shape? They were normally smooth bumps.

Crap. Mutation? Beefing up?

Crap!

“Pod?” Lars asked.

“Yep. Best keep your distance.” That stood for me too.

Magic scanner next. There were two screens on the pebble-shaped device—a dial-in one, numbers in the other. The dial buzzed gently, which meant that was a middle danger reading. I stood back after the reading. Everyone did when I warned them there was a threat.

The numbers on the other screen gave a reading of ten. Which meant there was some high-level magic going on inside that rose too.

Crap again.

“What the hell is that?” I said to myself.

“We’ll get you a sample,” Lars said. “Let me put in a call to the council. They’ll send us someone to do this safely.”

There was no such thing, really, but he was right to be cautious. Simply taking a sample would be a stupid risk.

Did the rose just glitter? “Did you see that?”

“What?” Lars asked, scratching his thick red beard.

“The rose. It did something. There!”

A strange glittering, like light reflecting on, well, glitter. Plus, the rose looked like it was moving.

“Get back,” Lars said. “Everyone get back. Now!”

Black vines burst out of the rose, curling around Melony’s body, thorns bursting to life to pierce her flesh. Blood leaked out of her, and the vines spread until she was completely cocooned in the thorny mess.

“Oh, God!”

“Clear the area!” Lars barked.

One vine coiled upward, a dark spiral. A bud formed at the tip, quickly swelling and opening up into a rose about the size of a human head. Pure, intense red.

What the fuck?

It didn’t stop there.

“Are those…lips?”

Yes. There were lips in the face of the rose.

Just kept on getting better.

“Cretins!” The lips moved. A voice came from the rose, a blend of male and female. Bit like a robot but less fun.

Whoopee.

“Sin made right, a cleansing for a new world order. Roses where once there was dung. They will reach higher ground, be blessed in all things beyond the dirt and grime of this world. She is saved. The end is coming.”

The rose collapsed, the petals and vines crumpling to dust, just Melony’s body again, the rose still painted there, glittering as if nothing had happened.

“Shit,” I whispered.

Lars barked into his phone as I stood frozen to the spot, waiting for my brain to catch up.

* * *

Once the council had arrived, Melony was taken away securely. The rest of us had been shoved out of there for safety. In fact, the whole of Oudezijds Achterburgwal and the area of De Wallen had been blocked off. All businesses evacuated due to the magic bollocks, so I headed home on my bike, Lars promising to call me later about the autopsy when the council got in touch.

Pod and magic was so not a fun combo.

Evi had taken Cherry home.

This case had been ripped out of my hands, out of police’s. The council was on it, which didn’t mean sod all. They weren’t exactly the best anymore. Okay, they had better resources and stuff, but they’d caused this pod shit in the first place with their meddling.

Home was better than waiting at a morgue, sitting around in a clinical place when I could go and join Lou’s tea party with Sophie and Luuk.

I didn’t get very far.

The Ricci twins stepped into my path, along with Izzie—the scarred, pale, crazy bitch with a ponytail so scraped back it was in danger of taking her face off.

Conclave knob heads.

She was at the front, the twins slightly behind. They clearly didn’t want me peddling any further.

Both with dark hair, olive skin, and green eyes—both pure arseholes. The last time they’d caused drama, Mila Young had hit them with a boil-sprouting potion over in Spui. It’d been some awesomeness I’d missed out on.

“I see your boil problem’s gone,” I said. “Shame, I missed it.”

Izzie offered me a toxic sneer. “Don’t try and be clever.”

“What the fuck do you want?” I snapped back. “I’m not in the mood for your shit.” I drew my double-pointed spear, the golden tips glinting in the sunlight. “Unless you wanna tango. I’m up for that.”

“It’s almost time,” Elena Ricci proclaimed.

“For what? Lunch?”

“The end,” Izzie added.

Emilio Ricci giggled.

“Oh, right. You wanna burn me to death. By the way, do you have a date for that as I need to pop it on my calendar?”

Izzie took a step forward, totally unbothered by my weapon, and the white smoke curling around it. The twins were, though. They’d been knocked back too many times when they’d come for me or Dean. Basically understood pain would come bite them in the arse if they fucked with us.

Izzie needed to learn that lesson.

“Nothing would make me happier than kicking the shit out of you,” Izzie retorted. “But that’s not for me to do. There’s nothing anyone can do now until the time is right for the holy burning.”

“Bring it.”

“We will.”

“What’s the point of this, then? Just want to show me how scary you all are? Look closely. Can you see me shaking in my boots? No? No shakes? Ah, that’s because I don’t care. Oh, big scary religious crazies keep telling me they wanna burn me up. It’s my fault there’s pods everywhere and blah, blah, blah.”

Running my mouth was a defense mechanism that often got me in trouble—especially back in the day when my head was a lot hotter. But it also made me feel better. I was scared, completely bricking it over this wanting to burn me thing. The police and council had both questioned Elijah, his followers, even getting intel from the questioning of Conclave members from other cities. But there was nothing to go on but hearsay, zero in the way of evidence. I’d never been mentioned online or in print or recorded anywhere, just words, a prayer for my ears only. A few people had overheard it, yeah, but it didn’t hold up. Not that I wasn’t believed, just that evidence was a slippery bastard. Without it, there wasn’t anything anyone could do. The moment there was, things would change.

Sneaky bastards.

It was all free speech stuff—an excuse to be hateful. Going around spreading hate about anything that didn’t fit their agenda. That wasn’t an opinion. That was just pure evil.

The Conclave was being monitored. I mean, they were a threat to the world as we knew it. Even the police were scared of them.

“We just wanted to remind you that your days are numbered,” Izzie said, ignoring what I’d just said.

“Also known as being cunty. I don’t need reminding, cheers.”

“See you soon.”

I gripped my spear, holding back on going apeshit and skewering her and those twins with it. Just watched them leave, listening to them giggle as they vanished down a side street.

That was the first time I’d seen them in weeks, and that was it? A gentle reminder they weren’t giving up this whole holy fire thing?

Awesome. Loved hearing that.

I called Dean.

“Hey, baby,” he answered. “How are things over there?”

I explained everything to him about Melony and the rose thing.

“That’s horrible. And confusing.”

“I know.”

“You okay?”

“I will be. Just had a run-in with the Ricci Twins and Izzie.” Then I explained my encounter.

“Fucking bastards!” he raged. “Where are you? I’m coming to meet you.”

“I’m fine, I—”

“Where are you, Jake? I’m coming to meet you.”

“You’re with your dad. Don’t worry. I’m going home.”

“We’re going to Mila’s. Dad’s come up with something that might help.”

“At Mila’s?”

“A potential potion. Let me come and get you, and we’ll do this together.”

“Okay. I’m not far from home, though. Are you still in Vondelpark?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s too far for you to come. I—”

“I’m hanging up and calling a cab. I’ll pick you up, and then we’ll head to Mila’s. Okay?”

“There’s no need, treacle.”

“How close to home are you?”

“Literally a minute away. Don’t come rushing over here, Dean. It’s fine. You do what you need to do with Mila.”

“I won’t hang up until you get there.”

I wheeled my bike the short distance home with one hand.

“I’m speaking to Lars about this,” Dean said. “They can’t keep getting away with these threats.”

“Maybe I need to let them actually punch me or something. You know, leave a mark? Get them to do it in front of a camera. Then it’ll be free rein.”

“I don’t think so. If they lay a hand on you, they’re all dead. I’ll be locked away forever for mass murder.”

“That’s so hot.”

“What? Being a mass murderer?”

I arrived outside our house. “Yeah.”

“Twisted.”

“That fact you’d kill for me, dumb arse.”

He chuckled. “I know. I’m teasing.”

Hearing his voice was making me feel a lot better. “Thanks for talking.” I released a shaky breath.

“Always, baby.”

“Okay, I’m sticking it in the hole.”

“What?”

“The key. God, you’re so dirty.”

“You know it, baby.” I could picture his face, his eyebrow cocking, his tongue running over his lips.

Yummy.

“I’m inside.” Lou was next door having her tea party.

“Okay. Make some tea, relax.”

“Dean?”

“Yes, baby?”

“Stay on the line a bit longer?”

“You didn’t even need to ask.”

Eight

Dean

With Jake safely at home, and after half an hour of talking to him, a text response came through from Mila.

“Everything okay?” Orla asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” I pocketed the phone. At least the strength of her perfume had abated. “Mila says we can go over now.”

“Very well. My guards will escort us to Spui. I’m looking forward to meeting this Mila Young.”

The reality would be hard-hitting. Orla wouldn’t take to Mila’s curt ways.

“Then let’s be off.” Dad clicked his fingers, and minions scurried out of the trees, gathering up the picnic things.

What a life to never have to lift a finger.

It would be my idea of hell.

I followed Orla, with Dad still bossing his servants around, two fae guards up ahead.

“Thank you for believing me,” she said, glancing at me over her shoulder.

“That’s fine.”

“You’re not the same Dean Tseng from all those years ago. Why would you be? You’re not nineteen anymore.”

“We’re not. Listen, Orla. I’m sorry if I upset you. It really did feel like an ambush, like the two of you were plotting against me.”

“Why would we want to do that?”

“Overly suspicious, I guess.”

“And the comments your father made,” she added. “I did speak with him, warned him about the eggshells he’s walking on.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I meant what I said about wanting to be in your life. I do. I want to be your friend, to get to know you as this man you’ve become, as well as your family. Presumptuous, I know. You might not want me around. You have no reason to. But if you want to be friends, can we at least give it a try?”

She was so sweet, so soft when she spoke. Rattled too. My outburst had really hit hard. It was all over her face. The fact her perfume wasn’t doing anything now spoke volumes. A mistake on her part, seeing as it had some kind of effect she kept forgetting about.

A mistake…

Did she use that perfume to make her way to the forefront of taking the throne? To make sure she got those votes?

Was that unfair?

I didn’t fully trust her, but there was sincerity there, fake or not. Being friends as she wanted, it was a long shot. Extremely long. Still, giving someone the benefit of the doubt wasn’t beneath me. However, my family came first, so at the first hint of a problem from her, that would be it. Any more of that perfume and Mr. Nice Guy would be dead and buried.

I may have lost my head a little, perfume or not, but it wouldn’t happen again.

That stood for her and my father.

Assumptions were bad, but so was not being vigilant.

“Let’s just take it a day at a time,” I replied.

“I can’t ask for more than that.” She took hold of the skirt of her dress and twirled across the grass. As she danced, daisies sprang to life, where her feet touched, a gentle mist of pink fae magic swirling around them.

“You’ve still got it,” I said.

When we were nineteen and in love, kissing all over the summer realm, that was one of her tricks. Back then, it’d been one of many things to make me obsess over her.

I remembered the meadows, the daisies, the laughter, the carefree attitude we’d had. I’d never lived in Faerie properly, only visited to see my father. I didn’t see much of him, but I did Orla. Our friendship had lasted two years, culminating in that night, and a few weeks after, before I never stepped foot in Faerie again.

For me, Faerie was the worst place in the world. It reminded me of nothing but how useless my dad was, and there was so much political bullshit over there, hiding behind the beauty. I didn’t want a part of it. Maybe Orla would make things better as queen.

Good for her if she did.

* * *

Mila’s apartment in Spui was a treasure trove of potions, charms, and magical texts. She was the greatest alchemist I knew, a loyal friend, and someone I trusted implicitly.

Her potions helped with my extreme OCD, my guilt of the past. Sometimes I needed what Mila called her Charm Elixir to get me through the worst of the darkness.

“Hello, Dean. Others.” She stood at the center of her living room, dressed in a pink sari, golden bangles jangling on her brown arms almost up to her elbows. Her dark hair was piled on top of her head, threaded with gold beads.

“I am Orla Locke.” She extended a hand, which Mila took warily, saying nothing.

An instant distrust or just Mila being Mila?

“And I am Evander Gold. Dean’s father.” He didn’t offer her his hand. “What a splendid place this is.”

“Indeed.” She was unimpressed with his compliment. “Dean tells me you are here for your granddaughter, to solve the mystery of her ability.”

“Correct, my dear.”

“Don’t call me that.”

He laughed. “Noted. Anyway, do you know Weed of Tine?”

“I do. I have some here.”

“From your impressive stores, I guessed that. What I need for you to do is to brew it with Lavender and Milkwood, adding in ground black pepper.”

Mila crossed her arms. “Oh?”

“A four-hour brew, the heat constantly on high.”

“Thus, a high risk of burning or boiling down. Unless I add a stabilizer. I have just the thing.”

“Then, you are just the alchemist we need, Miss Young.”

“Mila. What exactly is it you want to do with this potion?”

He took a seat on a gold sofa without asking, which he admired with several loving strokes seeing as he practically worshipped gold things. “Brewing Weed of Tine in this way unlocks the properties of the plant, which will, in turn, unlock the mysteries surrounding Louise. When used by me, I will establish a connection between us and amplify my magic to see better. Since she is a quarter fae, I need this boost to clear any mists that would cloud me from examining what makes her tick. This isn’t the same as dealing with a full fae or even a half-fae like my son.” He sighed dramatically. “However, I am not skilled enough to brew the potion, and neither is anyone in Faerie who I know.”

“I am,” Mila announced without arrogance. “I have never heard of this formula before, though. I will be researching it first.”

He bowed like he was in the theater. “I’m pleased we don’t need to source someone outside of the city.”

The alchemist turned to me. “There is no charge for this one seeing as it is for the benefit of that delightful daughter of yours.”

“One I am excited to meet,” Dad added.

Mila didn’t spare him so much as a flick of her eyes. “I will bring the concoction to you once it’s done.”

“Thank you,” I replied. “I really appreciate this.”

“I’m happy to help. Now, if you would please excuse me.”

That was it. The end of our visit. Mila wouldn’t ask again, a woman of little patience for dilly-dallying.

I nodded. “See you later.” I turned to leave.

“A pleasure to have met you.” My dad couldn’t help himself. “Really. I’m pleased that my son has friends as skilled as you to help him out.”

Mila didn’t say a word, watched him and Orla, who’d kept her mouth shut. With another laugh from Dad, they finally got the message and followed me outside.

“She doesn’t seem happy,” Orla said, flipping her hair.

“It’s more about keeping things lean.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means she likes things to run without waffle and unnecessary extras. Her time is valuable.”

Orla tried to mask her irritation, failing miserably. “Time is precious to everyone.”

“Anyway, I’ll see you both at my house later.” My stomach flipped. It was coming, really here. He was going to meet Louise. “I’ll see you then.”

“Until later,” Dad responded, turned and swept off.

Irritation gone, Orla smiled sweetly. “Goodbye.”

“Bye.”

Another spike of distrust as I watched her walk away.

Nine

Jake

Food done and laid out on the coffee table—we’d gone for buffet-style instead of a proper meal—I perched at the edge of the sofa, biting my nails. Once a bad habit of mine, something really needed to get me worked up to have my fingers in my gob nowadays.

Like Evander coming here.

Fuck!

Lou was as calm as anything, looking through a book about Neptune. Proper chilled, completely unphased. Not like me about to crack.

Bloody Orla had been there at their stupid bollocking picnic, then went to Mila’s, hanging around like a fly around shit. Okay, Dean was more like honey, but she so wasn’t a bee.

Man, I needed to stop this with her. I mean, was I really shocked she’d be there too?

No.

At least Dean didn’t fully trust her, that this unease wasn’t me being a fruitcake and jealous dickhead.

Much.

Ugh.

Jealousy was a dirty thing. There was seriously no need for it at all, but there it was, a tiny beastie tapdancing on my heart.

Most of my insecurities were dead. I’m talking a long time six feet under. I wasn’t a mess anymore, hadn’t been for years. As scary as my time in Coldharbour was, it’d left me in a better place. I’d come out of it with new friends, the love of my life, and a daughter. The Jake Winter who’d been a model, crashed his career with drugs, lost his husband, dangled over the edge of oblivion, was this new guy. Me. Better. Stronger. Full of light instead of shadows. Glass full, jacked up on love.

I wasn’t sliding back to that shit. Jealousy had killed my marriage long before it’d actually fallen apart before Michael had cheated and been murdered. All in the past. Done. Moving on meant moving on.

No tumbling back.

I stood up, shaking out my hands.

I’m so much better than this.

Orla was nothing. A friend from way back.

Dean’s mine. There’s no reason for me to doubt that.

“Dick,” I mumbled.

“Heard that!” Lou squealed. “You know what to do, Daddy.”

Wow. Nothing ever got past her, did it? Over to the swear jar, I went. The bloody price had gone up to two euros a curse word.

I was gonna be bankrupt in a year.

Dean came into the room. Hair swept back, black jeans, red shirt, four buttons open to show off his sexy flesh in a sexy V-shape I wanted to give a sexy lick.

Bet Orla does too.

Fuck off!

At least I kept that inside.

“You look amazing,” I said.

He flashed me his pearly whites. “Thanks, baby. Does this shirt go with the jeans?”

“Of course.”

They’ll look better on the floor. Ha ha!

He nodded. “Looking sharp yourself.”

I really hated my hair. Too short, I’d decided. But the outfit was okay. I was pleased with it. These new jeans were awesome—black and white spatter pattern, along with a gray polo shirt with a metallic silver piping.

“Cheers,” I said. “But not as good as our little cutie here.”

Lou and her fave outfit—space-print jeans and matching jumper. She was a walking galaxy.

She giggled. “I’m the best.”

“You are, darling,” Dean said, sitting next to her.

“No kisses!” she yelled.

He backed off. “Sorry, forgot.”

“My hair’s rocking.”

Dean looked to me. She’d picked that up from yours truly.

I shrugged. “Well, it is.”

We’d got those curls to sit in pretty ringlets, actually tamed for once. Must’ve been magic because all we’d used was water and a hairbrush like always.

I loved her crazy barnet.

Lou giggled again and got back to her book.

Dean got up, and we went to the window together. Evander and Orla were due any minute now.

The real test for Orla would be the wards around our house. They’d know if she was a threat, ping her back from the door into the street.

Might be quite funny.

“You heard from Mila?” I asked.

“She’ll be here in twenty minutes.”

“Cool.”

He took both of my hands in his. “Relax. We’ve got this.”

“We always have, right?”

“Jake and Dean, still going strong.” He lifted my left hand and kissed the back of it. “Me and my baby.”

“You big softie.”

He lowered his voice. “Never soft around you.”

I chuckled. “Must be an uncomfortable existence you have.”

“It is.” His smile faded. “How’re you holding up after this morning?”

“I’m good. Cherry’s a mess. I called her, she said she’s with the mysterious Victor.”

“We really need to meet this guy,” he said. “At least she’s not alone.”

“Kind of wish she was crashing here.”

“I know.”

Victor was a client of Cherry’s she’d fallen for. Big time. She never stopped talking about him and how sad it made her that he still paid her for sex but treated her like they were lovers.

Maybe things had changed if she was at the Starleaf Hotel with him, in the penthouse. For proof, she’d taken a picture of herself in the swanky room. Not a fun selfie at all. She looked exhausted in the photo like she could sleep for a hundred years.

I’d just needed proof she was okay, and I’d called the hotel to clarify she was there too. All good.

She was my friend. I had to worry. I was still worried, now. What if Melony was the first kill of a new serial killer in Amsterdam? The whole red-light district had been shut down for the night, and council army troops were patrolling with the police. We’d been told to stay away from our offices until further notice.

Had magic helped that rose transform like that? Witch? Warlock? Alchemist? Fae? Those were the supes who could use magic on a big scale—necromancer magic was different.

What the hell did it all mean?

“Your pulse is racing, baby.” Dean traced my wrist with his thumb.

“Thinking about the autopsy, the rose.”

He kissed my hand again. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t there.”

“Don’t say that. You were on a more important mission.”

“I just like to be there.”

“You don’t have to be.”

“Can’t help it.”

“I know, my knight in shining armor.”

“And you tell me off for getting cheesy?”

“I’m a mild cheese. Like Edam. You’re full-on Stilton.”

He cocked a brow. “Right. I’m stinky cheese? Nice.”

“Oh, proper stinky.”

He looked to Lou. “Daddy thinks Papa stinks.”

“Sometimes.”

“What?”

I snorted. “See?”

“I don’t stink.”

“Just joking, Papa.”

“She hangs around you too much,” he said to me.

I kissed his hand now. “Ah, sorry. We’re picking on you. Actually, it makes a change as you normally both gang up on me, which is all sorts of rude.”

“Touché. I guess I got off lightly.”

“I fully embrace your Stilton ways.”

“Good to know.”

“Keep it coming. I’m the cracker to your cheese.”

“You’re crazy. Oh.”

That could only mean one poxy thing.

They were here.

* * *

As soon as the doorbell went, Lou sprang up and leaped into Dean’s arms, not saying a word.

The nerves had suddenly kicked in.

“Ready?” I asked her.

A small nod.

“Here we go.”

I went to answer the door, Dean following.

Three. Two. One.

“Hello there, Jake!”

There were fae guards on both sides of the canal, sentient and creepy, watching their future fae queen and Evander come up the steps to our house.

Evander was clad in gold again—jeans, jumper, proper ugly scarf. Orla was in a midnight blue ballgown, teemed with matching clutch.

Oh, excuse me for not rolling out the red carpet.

“Welcome,” I said, stepping aside.

Evander swept past me. “And this must be my gorgeous granddaughter! Hello, Louise. I’m Grandpa Evander.” She buried her face into Dean. “Aw, she’s so shy.”

“Hello, Jake,” Orla said. She smelled different today, that cloying perfume gone. She’d told Dean it would be.

An effort to change? Didn’t stop the hair on the back of my neck standing up.

The wards didn’t react. Let her come and shake my hand. Half of her was over the threshold, not sprawled on her arse on the canal path.

She wasn’t an enemy.

Maybe.

“Hi,” I said.

“Thank you for letting me come tonight.”

“No problem. Happy to have you.” What a fibber! “Come in.”

We went to the living room, settling down on the sofas. I flicked some music on and told our guests to help themselves to the food.

“What can I get you to drink? Sorry, there’s no alcohol. I did get non-boozy wine, though.”

Evander rolled his eyes. “Then what is the point?”

“Dad,” Dean warned.

“Fine. I’ll take some.”

“There’s lemonade,” I countered.

Anyone would think I’d said cat piss.

“Orla?”

“I’ll have the wine, please. Thank you, Jake.”

“No worries.”

Retreating to the kitchen would be a constant pattern for me tonight.

My phone buzzed—the personal one, not the work one we had for out of hours calls from clients. “Hallo?”

“Hallo, Jake.” It was Lars. “You won’t believe this, but the council has just emailed me over a report.”

“Wow. Didn’t think we’d see one for weeks, if ever.”

“Same. Anyway, it makes for interesting reading.”

“Oh?” I opened the bottle of non-alcoholic wine. “Spill.”

“The magic on Melony’s body was fae.”

I put the bottle down before I dropped it. “Fae?”

“I know.”

“A fae… Pod-born to go with it?”

“That sounds like a horrible combination, but a possibility.”

Bollocks. “So, what now? Are we still involved?”

“They don’t want you or Dean actively involved unless they explicitly say so. They’re happy to keep me informed on the case details but to report any future murders straight to them. That stands for you and Dean too. If you’re contacted by anyone about a similar case or come across anything, you must report it to the council immediately.”

“Kind of worrying, right?”

“Definitely. Promise me you will.”

“Absolutely. Don’t worry, mate. Not gonna be dicks about it.”

“Cool. Thank you. Anyway, I’ll let you get back to it. Say hi to Dean for me.”

“Will do. Say hi to Evi.”

As soon as I hung up, the doorbell rang.

I let Mila in.

“Hello, Jake.”

She was stunning in her lemon sari. Mila never wore a coat or jacket, even in winter. Bad for the aesthetics.

“How are you?” she asked.

“Not bad, thanks. You?”

“I still haven’t recovered from the misfortune of meeting that man.” She rolled her eyes.

I grinned. I wasn’t as close to Mila as Dean was, but it was nice to see us bond over something like the mutual ‘ugh’ that was Evander.

“Tell me about it,” I replied.

“Are they in the lounge?”

“Yeah. Go through. Can I get you a drink?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

I hurried to get the drinks, then went back to the living room.

I’d fill Dean in on the Melony update later.

Fae magic. Shit. How many alarm bells could one person have screaming in their mind?

Answer: A friggin’ million.

Mila handed a vial of black liquid to Evander, who made sure to hide it from Lou. He got up from sitting next to her and move around to the back of the sofa. She was too busy staring at Orla to notice any of it.

“I hear you enjoy things about space,” the fae woman said.

Lou slowly nodded.

“Can you tell me about it? I’m afraid I don’t really know much about space at all. I’d love to know more.”

Evander uncorked the vial. Black steam curled out of it, and his hands started to glow pink.

“I know the surface temperature of every planet,” Lou said.

“You do? What a clever girl. Can you tell me each one? Start with…oh. Help me out here. What’s the closest planet to the sun again?”

“Mercury.”

“That’s right. Can you start there and work your way through them?”

Lou looked to me from Dean’s lap, then to Dean, then nodded at Orla. “Mercury can get to eight-hundred-and forty-degrees Fahrenheit, or four-hundred and fifty Celsius.”

“Goodness. That is hot.”

Lou smiled. “But it can be chilly too. Can be minus two-hundred and seventy-five Fahrenheit, which is minus one-hundred and seventy Celsius.”

Man, my kid was one smart almost-five-year-old.

“So cold!” Orla said and shivered.

Lou giggled. “Yep. But it’s not the hottest planet. That’s Venus, even though that’s number two.”

“Really? Do explain.”

So she did, and I watched the black mist came toward her over Dean’s shoulder, snake around her head. A soft, orange glow gleamed through it as it made contact, then it disappeared.

Evander’s fae magic was still radiating from his hands, his eyes closed with concentration. What was he seeing? Oh, God. Let her be okay. Please let her be okay.

Five minutes later, it was done. Lou was still talking about the planets, spending a long-time telling Orla about her fave—Jupiter.

“Dean? Jake?” Evander said. “May I see your kitchen? You haven’t given me the tour yet.”

“Sure, Dad,” Dean answered.

“I’ll stay here,” I cut in.

No way was I leaving her alone with Orla.

Dean nodded and left with his father.

Mila was still in the room, silent, watching Orla with what could only be suspicion.

Ten

Dean

“Well, Son, the answer is simple. Her blood.”

I blinked at my father. “Her blood.”

“Yes. The dilution has resulted in the lateness of her power manifesting, and it is a freezing power which seems to be unstable.”

“Oh, no.”

“Don’t worry, we can fix that easily. She’ll need to drink a concoction of gealach leaf and dandelion. I’m sure your friend can whip some up for you. If she drinks that every day it will suppress her power.”

Suppress her power? Medicating my child essentially. “I need to speak to Jake about this.”

“Of course. But it’s the best course of action. If the wrong people see her use her gift, then things could be bad for her.”

He was right, yet giving her a potion every day felt wrong. “Is there any other way?”

“It will require some research.”

“No problem there. What about the thing this fae woman had taken? Did you see if anything was missing?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’ll keep looking.”

“Thanks.”

Damn. What had this woman taken?

He looked me up and down. “You really aren’t the man I was expecting to meet, do you know that?”

“I…don’t know what to say.”

“You’re a great man. I can see that.” Was that sadness in his dark eyes? “Better than me. A real father, a real man.”

“Dad, let’s not do this.”

“I have no right to say what I’m about to say, but I want to. You need to know, even if it means nothing to you.” He released a nervous breath, which was so surprising. “I’m proud of you.”

Talk about being whacked with the confusion stick. “Thanks.”

He rubbed the back of his head. His whole demeanor had shifted. This wasn’t Evander Gold standing in my kitchen, but a different creature. It was bizarre. “And I’m happy you have his home,” he added, “that you found someone who loves you. I…never had that. Maybe with your mother, but I wasn’t right for her. That’s watering it down some. I was wrong for her because I was wrong. I am wrong.” He stepped forward, imploring me with his eyes as if he was on the verge of saying something else.

“She’s wonderful, Dean,” Orla said as she joined us.

“She is,” I replied, turning to face her. That was the unreal father moment over.

“My darling girl!” Evander boomed. “Isn’t she just? I must return and see that adorable face.” He strode out of the kitchen.

“Is everything okay?” Orla asked when he was gone.

“Yes. Thank you.”

She came closer. “You have a lovely home here.”

“That’s very kind.”

Her eyes glittered. “I can sense the family energy. There’s a coziness here.”

“Jake would love to hear that.”

“I’m sure.” Another step forward, her hand caressing her bare throat. “I would love a home like this, but I think the palace is going to be so cold in comparison. So lonely.”

I stepped backward, looking away. “Right.”

“Oh. No. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Like what?”

She backed off now. “Like I was meaning, you know, that I wanted you.” She laughed. “Sorry. I’m just saying I’m jealous.”

“Jealous? You’re about to move into a palace and rule Faerie. You’re going to be queen.”

“But you have a family. I will have staff and guards and nothing more.”

“You’ll find the right man one day. I’m sure you’re not short of suitors.”

“Well, no. I suppose not. No one hasn’t fit yet.”

“When you least expect it, it’ll happen.”

“So, it’s said.” She stared at me through her long lashes.

“Anyway.” I turned my back on her. “I need a drink.”

Silence.

A glance over my shoulder told me she was gone.

* * *

Dad and Orla left an hour later, promising to be back for Louise’s birthday party next week. My daughter had relaxed by that time, happily chatting away to her grandfather and the future queen.

It had all gone a lot more smoothly than either of us could’ve anticipated.

Mila had left shortly after Dad and Orla, set to return tomorrow night to bring some of the mixture my dad had told me about. She called it Null.

Louise was sandwiched between us, snoring gently, the TV on low playing an animated fairytale.

“What a day,” Jake sighed. “Maybe we should hit the hay.”

“Great idea.” I put my arm over the back of the sofa, poked his ear. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“If it helps her, then yeah. I don’t like it, but your dad’s right. What if she attracts the wrong attention?” He shook his head. “Fuck.”

I could tell Louise was in a deep slumber by her not reacting to Jake’s cursing.

“Feels like we’re taking away a part of her,” he added.

“We can figure out something better to do later. I don’t want this being a permanent thing.”

“Good. It shouldn’t be.”

“Everything will be okay.”

As soon as I said that, a voice called Jake’s name from outside. An American voice.

“What the hell?” Jake was on his feet, opening the drawn curtains.

“Parker Smith.”

Eleven

Jake

“What the fuck do want?” I was in the open doorway behind the wards. They were flickering red at the evil bastard presence on the street.

“Hello there.” Parker. Short and stocky, fair, messy brown hair, glasses over brown eyes, and a perky vibe that grated on me big time.

It took every bloody piece of will not go down there and kick his teeth in.

“How’s things?” he asked.

“They were great until you showed your ugly mug.”

“Ah, I’m not that hideous, am I?”

“No, only a creepy stalking bastard like your twin. Elijah’s your twin, right? You need to help me out here.”

Dean was at my side after letting Soph and Luuk know what was going on. I heard them enter the house from the back way.

Parker smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m more interested in seeing you dead. And Elijah.”

“Maybe you’ll be lucky one day.”

“Fingers crossed.”

A few people walked past, cycled, giving Parker a wide berth, not stopping.

“This is only a flying visit. I’ve brought you a gift.”

Dean bristled. “Stick your gift up your arse. Get the fuck away from my family.”

Man, that was hot even though this was a dodgy situation. “What he said!”

“If you say so. But be sure to look in the water.”

He walked away, and I spotted the body floating in the canal. So did some bloke who yelled and fell off his bike.

I dashed down the steps, spear in hand, but Parker was gone. He had a really annoying habit of vanishing into thin air.

Stepping closer to the canal, I saw the body was a woman, floating on her front. There was a glow in the dark water, and the body rolled of its own accord.

Now with the woman on her back, I could clearly see the rose on her stomach.

The same thing happened as with Melony—the rose with the mouth, the same bloody words coming out of it.

“Sin made right, a cleansing for a new world order. Roses where once there was dung. They will reach higher ground, be blessed in all things beyond the dirt and grime of this world. She is saved. The end is coming.”

Holy shit, this was messed up.

Parker was the killer? Which meant he was fae.

That didn’t make sense.

What else was new?

A spider hopped out of the water.

Since when did spiders swim in canals?

Maybe that did…

Crap. William, the spider guy, was a lying bastard, and he’d hunted me down and was gonna send webs this way all because I slighted his stupid fucking daughter spider, Diana.

To think I’d checked him out and all had been fine and dandy—though getting my head around how he made his spider had messed with my head.

“This your friend?” Dean said.

“Don’t… Wait. That’s green.”

“What?”

“William’s was purple.”

A small man climbed out of the canal, laughing. Skin so red you’d think he was a lobster, hair made of silk, no clothes on, spinnerets at his nose and nipples just like William, plus an extra one on his cock.

I retched.

“What’s wrong?” the man said in Dutch. “Sickened to see such beauty?”

There were gills on his chest.

“William is a fool,” he added. “For not embracing his new gifts. But then he’s not as evolved as us, is he, Joseph?”

Christ! Even the green spider (Joseph) had gills—and was bigger than Diana.

“I’m not William.” Jets of silk fired from all four spinnerets, straight for me. I jumped to the side but got hit in the shoulder.

Wham! Fuck! That was some hardcore silk. They say spider silk is like steel in the insect world. Friggin’ felt like it! I hit the ground, shoulder screaming in pain, and was dragged across the concrete.

The air was normally blue when I was around, but when the green spider leaped on my chest, it was the brightest shade of sapphire.

Still, I had my spear and a desire not to get wrapped up as a snack and have those fangs, dripping with venom, pierce my skin.

I whacked the fucker, and it flew off. Simple.

Not.

The spider guy yanked me forward again as I tried to get up, bringing me to my knees.

“You prick!” I bellowed as his pet/kid/freak leaped at my face.

I never knew I could scream that loud or that high.

Dean was already in action. The exploder potion went off, and the spider guy’s grip on me was gone. Though some of his insides hit me in the face.

Joseph forgot me, hissed, reared, and charged for Dean, furious that its master now decorated the pavement like some grim Expressionist painting.

Dean was brutal with his fists and any weapon in them. Sometimes he wore knuckledusters, sometimes not. This time he has his dagger.

I watched the show, wiping body gunk off my face.

I’d shower for a billion years.

The spider was quick. Dean was quicker. He leaped through the air, missing a spray of silk. Before the twenty-legged (I counted) thing could react, Dean had sunk his dagger into its body. Eyes popped. It shrieked and hissed and tried to go for him, but Dean had already dropped an exploder.

He rushed at me, actually covered me protectively because he couldn’t help it with the hero stuff, and the spider blew apart.

Right near our bloody doorstep.

“You okay, baby?” He offered me a hand.

“I’m fine.” He helped me up. “What the hell?”

“A friend of William’s? Maybe a whole group of new spider pod-born?”

I shuddered. “Don’t say that.”

“I guess we have another case for the pile.” He checked me over. “It didn’t bite you?”

“No. Bloody shoulder hurts, though.”

He checked. “Nothing broken. Do you want to go have it seen to?”

“No, it’s cool. But I know who I’m calling tomorrow. William better have an explanation for me.”

“Come on, let’s get inside. I’ll call someone to clean this up and contact the council about the rose body.”

Another horrible thought came to me: What if the spider or the guy had had thousands of baby spiders inside it? Pop goes the body, out comes the offspring.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Twelve

Dean

Spider people. First of their kind outside of Ancient Lore.

Links on the Encyclopedia of Species (EOS) website, via the Paranormal Eyes VPN, took me to articles about Neith, the Ancient Egyptian Goddess associated with spiders, plus a piece on Dante’s Purgatorio, which I quickly remembered. I’d read The Divine Comedy when I was twelve.

A day of paperwork, also known as a headache, was waiting for us after what’d happened. The council wanted a report regarding Parker, the body, and the spider guy and his pet. So did the police. They’d hung around outside until midnight taking samples, asking questions, seeing if there were any witnesses.

There were, but I got the impression the interviewers were more concerned with Parker’s appearance and the body in the canal rather than the spider.

The body had been whisked away so fast, carried in a van, which Lars told me had ejector seats just in case the body starting leaking pod all over the place.

Where the poor woman, and Melony, were being stored was the big question.

Pods did eventually vanish at whatever time they saw fit to. They could last five minutes or five months. It was up to them. Where one vanished, more sprang up somewhere else in an endless contamination. They played by pod rules—rules no one understood whatsoever.

I held onto the hope of getting rid of them. I refused to believe the rest of time would be dominated by these damn colorful blobs of chaos.

Eating the last of my bacon and eggs, I took the plate downstairs. I hated eating in the office, but I was too engrossed in what I was doing research-wise. When that happened, I had to follow the thread until my mind had had enough.

Like now.

“Hey, Papa.” Lou was sat at the kitchen table, swinging her legs. “How’d it go?”

“Not bad, darling. Papa’s eyes hurt now, though.”

“Square eyes?”

I rinsed the plate. “Sorry?”

“Daddy told me all about getting square eyes if you watch too much TV or computer. That’s why I’m only having TV time when I need to. I’m scared of square eyes. I like my eyes this way.” She closed them and tapped them.

“Careful. Don’t poke them out. Where is Daddy?”

“He’s dusting.”

“Oh.”

“He was naughty, though. Said loads of bad words about how much dust there is. I heard him whispering.” There was a hilarious cunning to her tone. “I caught him. Eight euros.”

“Goodness. Hopefully, that taught him a lesson.”

“Hmmm… Maybe. One day.”

Done with the plate, I sat with her. “What you up to?” I could see what she was up to. Coloring, her empty breakfast plate pushed to the middle of the table. I just liked to hear her tell me all about it.

“Just chilling.”

“Nice to chill.”

“It is.”

She was coloring in Saturn to the exact shades it was usually depicted.

“Looking good.”

“Thanks, Papa.”

“How about going shopping today? Look for some more books to help you with those square eyes?”

“I’d love that, Papa.”

We needed a day out of the house together. “Maybe some lunch?”

“Yum. Yes, please!”

“Good. I’ll speak to Daddy and sort it out.”

“I can’t wait.”

As I stood up, she flung herself at me, gripping me tight around the waist. “Dank u.”

“You’re welcome, darling. We may as well enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.”

“That’s right.” She nodded and got back to Saturn.

I found Jake in the living room with a dusting cloth and polish. He was in his cleaning clothes—shorts and vest that were once white, now that weird gray that comes from over-washing. His face was beetroot even though the window was open, and there was a fan pointing directly at him as his wiped the mantlepiece.

“It’s bleedin’ roasting in here!” he complained.

I actually thought it was a bit on the chilly side. Best not to say that, though. “Do you want some water?”

“No. I’m good.” He stopped what he was doing. “How’d it go?”

“Nowhere. Yet. Need a break.”

“Bloody right, you do.”

“Thanks for breakfast, by the way. That was some good bacon.”

“Right? I’ll be going to that butcher again.”

“Listen, I was just saying to Louise about going shopping today. The three of us. Get some lunch, enjoy the nice weather.”

He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “Sounds lovely. I’m in.”

“Was it really that dusty?”

“It was bloody shocking. Came down this morning, the room was bathed in light and, well, you know what that means. Friggin’ sunshine showed us up, didn’t it?”

“You tackled it like a warrior. This place is gleaming.”

“And this is just the first room. Get ready for more sparkle.”

* * *

Later, books in hand from our favorite book shop, we decided to have lunch at a pub opposite the Stopera (home of the Dutch National Ballet and Opera). We sat outside, watching the city go by. The trams rang their bells, the cyclists too, people went to and fro, and the sun shimmered prettily on the Amstel river separating us from the Stopera.

Okay, so there was a green pod over on the bridge, but that wasn’t spoiling anyone’s fun.

“This is so lovely,” Jake said before having another mouthful of his brown bean soup. “I haven’t felt this chilled in ages.”

Lou was merrily chomping away on her chips, while I’d just polished off a steak.

Jake was right. The shopping had been fun, the walk had been needed. There were more pods around than usual, but again, it didn’t dampen the day. In fact, the whole city seemed to be in a good mood for once.

There was a lot to be said for sunshine.

“What shall we do next?” Lou asked.

“How about having a wander?” Jake suggested. “Look at the map and point at something.”

“I like that, Daddy.”

“Me too,” I agreed.

Jake’s happy face clouded over.

“What’s wrong, baby?”

I followed his gaze, and there they were, strutting together across the bridge, heading right this way with a gathering of fae guards in plain clothes behind them.

“Well, look who it is!” My dad cried, hurrying over. Today was another gold day, no other color on his body from head to toe.

Orla turned heads in a turquoise pantsuit and heels, phone cameras pointed at her as she came over. She certainly looked every part the movie star.

“Grandpa!” Dad scooped Louise up and swung her around.

What a turnaround from her trepidation yesterday. She giggled, and he laughed, and anyone watching would think this was such a wonderful family moment, that the grandpa and granddaughter had an amazing bond.

“Hello, you two,” Orla said pleasantly. “Gorgeous day, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Jake answered, not looking up.

Couldn’t we have one day without something happening? “What brings you both here?”

Dad put my daughter back in her seat. “We wanted to explore the city, see Rembrantplein. Have a drink or two. Partake in the coffee shops.” He winked. “Do you recommend anywhere?”

“Why would we?”

“Ah, yes. Apologies. You don’t have fun.”

“Dad!”

“Oh, lighten up, Son. I was only pulling your leg.” He bent down to Louise. “Silly daddy needs to stop being so serious.”

“Actually, he’s Papa,” Louise corrected. “Daddy is Daddy.” She pointed at Jake.

Dad quirked a brow. “Is that so? Well, silly Papa, then.”

“Papa’s not silly. Well, sometimes.”

I smiled. “Cheeky.”

He looked to Orla, who’s smile was trying too hard.

“Having a nice lunch?” she asked.

“Great,” came Jake’s clipped response.

“Excellent. Well, we shouldn’t stay and bother you. There seems to be a crowd gathering.”

“For you,” my father replied to Orla. “They think you’re a superstar.” He chuckled. “But you’re not a common celebrity. You’re a brighter star than that.”

“Oh, Evander. Stop it.” Her eyes met mine as they seemed to do every time we came in contact.

Unnerving, making me squirm, shuffle in my seat. Piercing, as if she was seeing into my heart.

All she would find was Jake and Louise. Nothing for her.

“Shall we?” Dad asked, noticing the locked stares.

She blinked. “Y-yes. Absolutely. Goodbye. Nice to see you.”

“Cannot wait for the big party next week.” Dad was overly loud. But it made my daughter laugh, and she got another spin with her grandfather.

“Bye,” Jake said.

“See you later,” I offered.

Orla turned and walked away. My dad bowed and followed, crying, “Such an adorable girl, that grandchild of mine.”

The army of gatherers followed behind the fae guards.

Apart from a group of girls hanging around our table.

“Do you know her?” the tall, blonde girl with body glitter on her fair face asked. “Gosh, she’s pretty. What’s her name? Is she fae? She looked fae. Like a princess. Ohmigod!” Without waiting for an answer, the group ran after her.

I turned to Jake. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. Bit of surprise.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.” I lowered my tone for Louise. I didn’t want to cloud her mind. That wasn’t fair. If Dad was genuinely going to start being in her life, who was I to stand in the way of her getting to know him? Unless, of course, I needed to.

Him being a grandparent was going to take time and effort from him and from me. I had to unlock the possibility properly because of the man I used to know. If he did to her what he’d done to me—be absent and unfeeling—then her little heart would break. I was over him, for the most part. It would be nice to start again, but I’d seen enough of life to not go jumping into hoping for certain things. When you haven’t had something, you don’t miss it not being there.

Now, though, the gate had been opened to Louise. I was regretting, in some ways, setting her up for hurt. Overprotective, yes, but I wanted to be her shield against the pains of the real world.

Always for her.

“Grandpa loves the gold,” our daughter said. “Too much.”

Jake laughed. “I’ll say, Lou. I’ll say. My fu-, erm, my poor eyes.”

She giggled, I laughed too, and the day was reset to the happy default.

Good. I was determined this would be a Sunday of nice.

* * *

We made our way down to Rembrantplein, more out of curiosity to see how much of a scene Dad and Orla were causing down there.

Just before we reached the end of the road leading into the heart of the action, a scream ripped through the day.

“What the hell was that?” Jake yelped.

Didn’t take long to find out.

Chaos in Rembrantplein.

A young woman running around the square, vomiting pods of many colors. Blue, then green, pink, yellow, and purple spew. She tripped, puking over a man who got too close. He screamed as the pod engulfed him, falling to the ground in a fit. She vomited on him again as the violence of his thrashing intensified.

Oh, no.

The woman crawled across the ground, begging for death. But people were too panicked, keeping out of her way, most of them too tangled up with morbid curiosity to run away.

I have to do something…

“We’re out of here,” Jake said. “Not this. Now with Lou here.”

She was too close to danger. Even if I was itching to get in there and help, walking away was the best thing to do with my daughter in tow.

It didn’t come naturally, though.

I hesitated.

“Dean? Come on.”

“I am. I am…”

“Help me!” the woman screamed.

My job was to help, to protect…

No. It wasn’t. Protect my family first. My job was to investigate, to help to solve cases, to try and make the world a better place.

“Dean!”

Make up for the past… How many more years was I going to put myself through this? My family? Myself? What if they ended up dead because of something I couldn’t change from back then? What if—

What if you walk away from the job?

I can’t do that!

“That’s it,” Jake proclaimed. “I’m going.” And he was, hurrying away, heading back up the road to the bridge crossing the Amstel—in the direction of Waterlooplein.

“Jake! Wait!” I ran to catch up with him. Louise was sobbing, watching me over his shoulder. “Baby! Wait.”

He paused.

“Don’t run off like that.”

His breathing was rapid and shallow.

He was terrified.

“I’m sorry….” He struggled with the words. “I have…to get…her home. She can’t see…this. I know you want to help, but not like this.”

Sirens. Blessed sirens. “You didn’t need to run like that.” I didn’t say it angrily. I know he panicked, and I rubbed his back as we continued to walk. “It’s okay, baby. It’ll be okay.” His body was a forest of trembling.

I stroked Louise’s head, gave her a kiss, reassured her too.

I hated seeing her cry.

“Your dad… Orla…” Jake said. “They were down there.”

I hadn’t seen any sign of them or the fae guards. The chaos had kicked off too quickly. Were they trapped in a coffee shop or bar? It would be the best place to be, heavily guarded or not. Spewing pod made that woman extremely dangerous. All it would take is for her vomit to hit you, and that would be the beginning of the ride.

“Louise first,” I said. “Come on. Let’s get—"

Outside of Waterlooplein Metro Station, there was Izzie and the twins. Elena Ricci was chewing gum, her brother sucking on a lollipop.

“Well, well, well,” Izzie said. “Here’s Jake and Dean, and over there is chaos. How funny. Follows you around.”

“Hilarious,” Jake retorted. As he went to move to the escalator, they moved to block him. “Don’t even try me.”

“Threats with your daughter in your arms?”

I stepped in front of my man. “As he said, don’t try it.”

Izzie looked behind me. “Why aren’t you jumping into action? What’s wrong, coward?”

I drew a deep breath. “Why don’t you go and have a look yourself?”

Her features were a lot more weasel-like than I’d realized. “You see what you’ve done to this world, Jake?”

“Yeah, keep on blaming me.”

We went to walk away, she ran at us.

I sprang into action, dagger out. “Come any closer, and I’ll cut your head off.”

She stopped, grinning. “I’d love nothing more for you to be out of the way when you’re banged up for taking my head.” She wiggled her brows. “Then Jake’s fully ripe for the plucking.”

“Speaking of plucking,” Jake jumped in, “maybe you need to lay off the eyebrows for a while. Give them a chance to grow back and actually have a shape. Please don’t tell me you pay someone to do that to you.”

He really couldn’t help himself. Still, it wiped the smile off her face.

“Joke all you want,” Elena countered. “Laugh, think you’re clever. The joke will be on you.”

“Yeah,” Emilio added. “And we’ll laugh forever over your corpse.”

Louise was wailing now.

“It’s okay,” Jake said soothingly. Again, he went to move away, and they moved with him.

“We’re not done talking,” Izzie said. “You can go when I say you can.”

That was it. They’d had enough airtime. “I’m counting to five,” I said, “and if you’re not gone, you’ll be hobbling away. Got it?”

She flashed her yellowed teeth. Reminded me of a Hyena. “The day is coming.”

“So you’ve said. Come on, baby.”

“Baby!” she shrieked. “He calls another man baby as if he is his wife. Disgusting. God said Adam and—”

It happened so quickly I wasn’t sure I was seeing it at first.

Fae guards came rushing into action, circling us and the entrance to the Metro station. Blocking any way out. Glowing pink hands, weapons drawn.

The twins gasped in unison

“What is this?” Izzie demanded. “Fae? Disgusting fae?”

“That would be correct.”

Orla.

A section of the wall of soldiers parted, and she walked through, coming to a stop by my side. She thrummed with power. Statuesque, regal.

Izzie spat on the ground. “Fae bitch.”

“Such aggression in front of a child.”

“It’s okay, Lou,” Jake said, smoothing Louise’s hair. Her sobs were soft now, her face fully buried into the safety of him.

Izzie spat again. “Mind your own business.”

“Actually, these people are my business. I won’t be going anywhere. However, I would suggest you make a sharp exit.”

“Why should I?”

Orla stepped forward, Izzie moving back with a sneer. “That hair of yours has so much grease on, I’m sure it would make a pretty fire.”

“What?”

“You heard me. If you persist on pursuing this route, I will make sure every road leads to pain.”

“Don’t threaten me, bitch. Who do you think you are?”

Her guards surged forward. The twins squeaked, and even the hard-faced Izzie cracked.

“Okay, okay.”

Surrender happens when a sword is inches away from your face.

“You win. For now. But—”

“Silence,” Orla warned. “We don’t want to hear your voice anymore. Is that clear? No voice, no face. I want you gone. Out of this city.”

Izzie glared at her, then me, saving her most sour look for Jake. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. It wasn’t like we didn’t know the Conclave spiel by now.

The three of them turned to leave, the guards backing off, parting to let them through.

They didn’t get very far. “You’re nothing but fae.” Izzie stopped, pausing. “Nothing. God doesn’t love you, but he does me.” She spun, pulled a gun. “I won’t be told to leave by the likes of you.” The twins pulled their guns too.

Not so much of a surrender.

The guards went to move.

“Can you move fast enough to stop all three of us?” Izzie yelled. “Try us! Move, and she dies, and so does Dean Tseng. Two fae for the price of one.”

I was staring into the barrel of her gun.

“We will end all of you. Jake Winter will die, and so will everyone he loves. The rot can’t spread. You’ll see. You’ll all see! We’re the power here. We’re—"

“Oh, shit!” Jake gasped.

Louise.

Her eyes were pure pink fae magic, her mouth open, her body frozen stiff. The same pink magic pulsed in her open palms.

Everyone was frozen but for me, Jake, and Orla.

“Her power…” Orla breathed. “This is her power.”

Fae guards, passersby, the Conclave scum, all of them statues.

My daughter… The last time the threat was too much, she’d done this. It’d spread further afield now. Even the vehicles on the road had stopped.

I seized the opportunity, taking the guns out of the enemy’s hands.

“Lou?” Jake said softly when it was done. “Come back to us, Lou. It’s okay.”

She slumped into a limp, snoring pile in his arms, her magic dropping.

“What…what happened?” Izzie groaned, grabbing her forehead.

The guards fell on her and the twins, dragging them away, kicking and screaming.

“You don’t have the authority!” Izzie wailed. “Where’s my gun? Help me! These fae are kidnapping us!”

No one moved to help them from what I saw.

Louise. Her power. My head was spinning.

A hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

It was Orla’s hand. “Thank you for scaring them off.” I stepped forward, her hand dropping away, then turned to face her.

Was that hurt on her face?

“Of course. What awful people,” she said.

“They are,” Jake added. “Thank you for the help.”

“Anytime. I almost don’t want to return to Faerie while they’re running around.”

Louise looked up, sniffling. “Grandpa?”

She was awake? Last time she’d had to sleep it off. I was rooted to the spot, watching her, still taking in the second display of her power.

He swept into the circle, arms outstretched. “You’re safe. Oh, thank goodness. What a terrible mess that was.” Jake solidified as he came close. “My poor Louise. Don’t worry, grandpa’s here now.”

Had he been frozen too? I hadn’t spotted him outside the circle.

Grandpa’s here now? What was that supposed to mean? That he was safety and comfort? Not us? That we wouldn’t have been able to deal with the situation without him and Orla to intervene?

Bastard! What an absolute bastard!

“Dean?” Orla asked. “What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing.”

Her eyes roamed to my balled fists. “It doesn’t look like it.”

“I’m fine.” Curb the anger. Don’t rise to things. Slap a smile on my face, straighten up. “Really. It’s Louise we should be worrying about.”

I went to my girl, kissed the top of her head. “We’re going home now, darling. Okay?”

“You’ll be escorted,” Orla said, clicking her fingers at the guards.

“There’s really—”

“I want to make sure my son and grandchild get home in one piece.” Dad’s voice was overpowering, dramatic as always, and serving the purpose of getting as much attention as he could.

It worked. The gathering crowds loved it.

* * *

In the name of manners, we let Dad and Orla inside for tea.

Two days in a row with their company.

Surprisingly, Jake had insisted.

So, we sat together in the living room. Jake and I were on one sofa, him ramrod straight, and them on the other facing us. Louise sat in Dad’s lap, completely calm with a book about Mars in her lap. Now and again, she’d interject to show him something interesting. He’d lap it up, taking a keen interest in every word.

When was the showman going to crumble?

“What happened to the pod-born?” Jake asked.

“One of my guards,” Orla said. “He put a sword through her head.”

“Oh, sh-, sugar.”

“It was the kindest thing to do. The man she vomited on too. He would’ve died anyway with the way he was thrashing around.”

“Awful,” Dad added.

Jake sighed. “Those people. The police will want to speak to you, maybe the council, if they decide to get involved.”

“Not a problem. Happy to help.”

“What about you two?” Dad asked.

“What?” I stepped in.

“This is a case right up your street, is it not? Will you be investigating?”

“If we’re asked to.”

Jake’s body language told a different story.

“Asked to?”

“Sometimes the council will assign cases to us, but I don’t think they will. They’re too preoccupied with the rose case.”

“Yes.” He scratched his chin. “Incredibly strange situation, isn’t it?”

Understatement of the year.

That was it for that kind of talk. Jake got up and declared it time for games and fun. Like he was possessed by something—the need to distract and have some family time.

Dad included.

This was too alien.

The rest of the afternoon went by in a flurry of laughter, board games, and Louise falling head over heels for her grandpa…

…and Orla not taking her eyes off me.

* * *

“Grandpa is so funny,” Louise said as I tucked her into bed.

Only now was she sleepy. Would she get stronger with each use of her power?

I kissed her forehead. “Night, night, darling.”

Dad had not been frozen. He’d seen everything for himself.

“I saw, Son,” he’d whispered. “It was incredible.” Nothing more, nothing helpful. Yet.

“Night, Papa. Night, Daddy.”

“Night, babes.” Jake was leaning against the doorframe. “Sleep tight.”

A big yawn, and she was already drifting off.

I left the door slightly ajar in case the nightmares came. Today’s incident hadn’t been mentioned again, and we’d had no phone calls about it. Didn’t mean she wouldn’t wake up screaming from nightmares, though. She had before.

“Wish we would’ve stayed at home now,” I said, completely defeated.

“Come here.” Jake held me, and I burst into tears. A sudden collapse of my defenses. I wrapped my arms around him, my face buried in the crook of his neck. “Don’t let me go.”

“I’m here, Dean. I’m here.”

The nights he’d held me like this, especially the early days when I couldn’t cope with the post-trauma of Coldharbour.

“Look what I’ve put her through. She shouldn’t be in situations where she needs to do that for us. Bad things like that should never ping on her radar.”

“You didn’t put her through anything,” Jake replied softly. “Don’t put this on yourself, okay? This was them, not you. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was frightened and… Yeah. We’ll find out more. We will. For now, she’s okay. Mila will have that potion ready soon.”

There was a delay in brewing the nulling stuff. Mila had texted me this morning, apologizing.

“She’s not okay,” I said. “She saw it. Bad things. The pod stuff, those fucking Conclave scum. All she ever does is see the badness of the world. Because of me. I dragged you both into this.”

“Let’s go to the bedroom. Don’t wanna wake Lou.”

With an arm around me, he guided me off the landing and to our bed.

“And now he’s here acting like the world’s greatest grandad, and I can’t stand it,” I blurted. “What am I going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

I sat forward, elbows resting on my thighs. “I don’t know. Just feel a mess.”

He kissed my cheek, rubbed my back. “Listen, this is a crazy time right now. Hell, it’s always a bloody crazy time. But your dad thing? Mental. I can only imagine what this is doing to you. You can talk to me about anything. You know that. Or we can sit here and say nothing. Maybe sleep. Whatever you wanna do. If you need alone time, well, I ain’t leaving you alone. But I’ll sit right next to you with my mouth shut and dive back into The Lord of the Rings. Maybe I can read to you.”

I turned my head to face his radiant blue eyes. “How many times are you going to reread it?”

“Well, I’ve planned it, so I do it once a year.”

“With all the books you keep buying?”

“Yeah. Like visiting an old friend for a hug.”

“That’s adorable.”

“I’m all about the adorable.” The tips of our noses met. “Seriously. Whatever you want.”

“Hold me.”

“Sure.”

I spread out on the bed, and he spooned me, holding tight until sleep came and took us away.

Jake Winter.

My harbor.

Thirteen

Jake

Monday again, and there’d been five more victims. All sex workers from the windows, all women with the rose painted on them. There was a manhunt for Parker Smith and Elijah Hart. The consensus was now that they were brothers working together and generally a pair of extreme wankers who may be killing these poor women. Possibly had a fae helping them out, magically manipulating pod to become those talking roses.

Extremely worrying.

At least Dean had woken up brighter this morning, Lou too. Refreshed from sleep, ready for another day.

My babies.

On the spider front, William was innocent of any involvement with the prick who’d exploded outside my house. William was the only one of the two spider people left. Globally it seemed. No trace anywhere else—Dean had looked, and I’d had a browse.

The two men didn’t know each other and only got acquainted because they’d been debating some shite about football one night in a pub. Both drunk, both not looking where they were going. Both fell into the same massive pod, with exploding bloke going further and falling into the canal the pod sat next to.

Fuck knows where the spider bit came into it. Pods worked how they worked—on a freaky level. And that’d been that. One guy who liked to walk his spider, the other a violent bastard who’d taken days to get out of my hair.

Ah, well. Worse things happened at sea.

Apparently.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Orla as I sat at my work desk—we were allowed back into Jake & Dean Investigations now.

Orla’d been all queenly and handed Izzie’s arse to her.

She’d helped us out. Defended us. Used her muscle.

For us.

And I’d been nothing but frosty to her this whole time. Was there something wrong with me? I mean, I still didn’t trust her. Even after that. The poxy niggling doubt wouldn’t let up at all.

Yeah, I was broken somewhere, right? Naturally rude? A complete knob head?

Niggle, niggle. Something not quite right.

Ugh. So bloody judgmental. Just because she looked better in heels than me.

God. That time I’d tried some stilettos on backstage at a runway gig in the modeling days. I was stoked, excited to get out onto the catwalk. Waiting around brought on that whole idle hands thing. I’d needed something to calm my nerves, so I’d tried on some heels. Had a lesson from one of the other models, tripped, and almost cracked my head open.

The designer proper screamed at me but bought me a cocktail afterward.

Dangerous things, but they’d looked so good with my outfit.

The buzzer went, booting me off memory lane.

I paused my research into fae magic and pods, not coming up with much on the Paranormal Eyes VPN that linked the two. Pushing away from my desk and not in the mood for new clients, I stood up, swigged the last of my tepid tea, and went to the window.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so negative towards the buzzer. Business was business, right?

Bollocks to business!

Dean was at that weird door with the Gaelic writing on it in Flevopark, the place where the candy-striped creature had made its nest back at Christmas time.

Ah, memories.

That door was still locked, still a mystery.

I froze at the window.

What. The. Fuck.

I rubbed my eyes. This wasn’t real. I was hallucinating. Must be dodgy milk in my cuppa or something. Had to be! Because there was no way that was who I thought it was standing on the street, pressing my buzzer again, three hot men with him. Seriously hot. Especially that guy with the long, dark hair, white vest showing off some major tattoo on his right side.

He looked up, spotting me, then tapped the shoulder of the bloke who looked like Dylan Rivers.

But it couldn’t be. No one ever saw much of the pop star and, as it turned out, the last siren in existence. He had a pretty low profile nowadays.

The maybe-Dylan looked up, offering me a smile and a wave.

I opened the window. “Hallo.”

“Hi there. You must be Jake Winter. My name is Dylan. May I come in? Make that all of us? I need to speak with you.”

Fuck me! It was him! “I, erm, I…” And so the starstruck crap came.

If Nay, one of my besties, were here, she’d probably faint. Actually, she would faint. I was on the verge myself.

“You’re Dylan Rivers,” I said stupidly as others started to notice him.

He wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. Slashed black jeans, rose gold shirt, and artfully crafted blonde hair did nothing to make him blend in. I think that was the point. His brown skin glistened with a gold sheen. Did he bathe in gold leaf or something?

His goldness was classier than Evander’s by a long way.

“Mr. Winter?”

“Ye-yes?”

“Can we come in?”

Cameras were flashing. Dylan even stopped to sign an autograph.

Okay. Better let him in. Recuse him and find out what the frig he was doing here.

* * *

I poured the last of the tea for my guests, my nerves settling to a gentle tremble. I’d bloody spilled all of the last pot I’d made over the floor. This fresh load fared better, actually getting into the tea-stained mugs. No fancy crap here, much to my shame.

“Thank you,” Dylan Rivers said, sat in the chair opposite me. He smelled of expensive cologne, green eyes practically emeralds.

Here in the offices of Jake & Dean Investigations.

Right. Here.

Two of the guys with him sat at Dean’s desk, while the bloke with the tattoos and long hair stood up, the mug looking too small for his big hands. His name was Seph. A kelpie. Muscles galore, olive skin, aquamarine eyes that screamed sex. The slender man with the red-gold hair was Andy, a fae from the summer lands of Faerie, with sun-kissed skin and green eyes. Opposite him on Dean’s desk was Pranay, a brown-skinned werewolf, just as muscular as the kelpie, with dark eyes and an amazing haircut—buzzed at the sides, long and swept back on top.

Now the introductions were over, and I’d calmed down a few degrees, I got down to it. “So, what brings you here?”

Dylan sipped his tea, placed the cup down, and crossed his legs, leaning back in his chair. “What can you tell me about Parker Smith?”

Wasn’t expecting that. “You know Parker Smith?”

“No. I have never crossed paths with this gentleman in my life, yet he decided it would be fun to send me a package containing chocolate pod truffles, which I received a month ago.”

“You what?”

“Yes. Artful chocolates. An absolute design triumph. They would have made any chocolatier proud. A bit too beautiful. Pranay smelled the pod straight away. Every truffle was laced with it, mutated by the pod to be pretty.”

I explained about the likely pod manipulation by fae magic.

“Interesting,” he said.

“Where did you receive the package?”

“In London. It had a postmark from Amsterdam. Circumstances slowed me down in coming here.” He didn’t elaborate.

“But why?”

“There’s more,” Andy added.

“Three days later, I received a letter.” Dylan reached into his pocket, pulling out a neatly folded piece of paper. “Same postmark. Here.” He handed it to me.

I unfolded the paper. There was the familiar scrawl of Parker Smith. He’d sent me a letter too—a big reveal moment where I’d wanted to put my fists through a wall.

I read it.

Dear Dylan,

Hello to you. My name is Parker Smith. I hope you have enjoyed the chocolates, or at least those closest to you have. If not, I am disappointed. You see, all of this has been in the name of research. What would happen if a siren came into contact with a pod? To a lesser extent, the other creatures in your household too. Isn’t that a fascinating idea? How long, I wonder, until I get to see the results?

Parker

“He’s a fucking fruitcake.” I told them about the slaughter of the goblins, about the Conclave and Elijah Hart, then showed them the letter he’d sent me.

“We saw there’s a hunt for them on the news,” Pranay added.

“I’ll rip the prick’s head off,” Seph added, his voice laced with a Spanish tone. “Both of them.”

“Yes, that would be wonderful,” Dylan said. “Strange times.” He sipped some more tea. “It looks like we’ll be stopping in the city for the next few days.”

Dylan Rivers was in Amsterdam! OMG! Nay was gonna die when I told her.

Keep it cool. “So, what hotel are you staying at?”

“Hotel Firefly. It is a charming place.”

“I know someone who got married there.”

He spotted my engagement ring. “Will you be doing the same soon?”

“I’d love to, but, you know, PIA stuff gets in the way.”

He placed a finger on his cheek, tapping it. “Yes, indeed. As much as I love Amsterdam, I would rather not be here and cannot stay long anyway due to certain circumstances I won’t divulge. I would rather be at home, with my feet up.”

“Have you retired?” I asked. “None of my business if you don’t want it to be.”

“You could say that.” He looked to the men in the room. “But retirement is supposed to be easy, isn’t it?”

“I don’t believe in easy anymore.”

“Quite. Well, we must be going. Please feel free to stop by anytime at the hotel or call me on this number. Ready?”

I grabbed a pen, and he told me the digits.

I had a direct line to Dylan Rivers! What a way to brighten up a Monday.

“We’ll get this bastard one way or another.” The pop star siren stood up. “I am extremely determined when it comes to revenge.”

I nodded. “I heard the story.”

“Indeed. It was lovely to meet you, Jake. We’ll be in contact.”

“Cool.” I shook his hand, then the hands of his men. “Thanks for stopping by. Nice to know people like you are on this too.”

When they were gone, stepping out into a circus of cameras, the office phone went wild with callers wanting to know about him. Press, fans, all sorts. In the end, I had to turn the ringer off just to think and revel in the fact a world-famous star had been right here, talking to me, and I had his number.

I mean, squee!

Time to call my man.

Fourteen

Dean

Whenever I came to these muddy tunnels beneath Flevopark, I’d set up my relatively new equipment I’d got online for reading magical locks. It was a series of gold cogs on a vertical pole with a small globe on top. A wire connected the globe to a handheld screen similar to a tablet. When the cogs turned, the globe generated electricity, which in turn generated a reading onto the device. A series of codes danced across the screen, telling me nothing. Jumbled words and letters in Gaelic, even numbers in random places. No rhyme or reason, not even an acronym.

This time, I didn’t need it, didn’t even need to bring it with me. Dad had rendered it useless.

“This is a prison,” he said, stroking the wood and the Gaelic letters.

I could read Gaelic. It was the original language of the fae.

‘The city between is closed.’

“A prison? But it says city.”

“They were cities, once. Not now.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I haven’t seen one in a long time. They were used to seal away evil fae, quite fashionable many years ago. A prison built behind the door which should never open, trapping the condemned in a sprawling city of endless torment and torture. The method was to hunt the prisoners every day, maim, and even kill them. Seeing as the magic within the prison didn’t allow the prisoner to die until it was broken or commanded to kill, the hunt could be repeated day after day. And the prisoner would forget with reset of the game. The prisoner’s desperation and fear really got the blood pumping. Not mine, these prison cities were before my time.”

“It was a sport,” I said.

“Yes. You could call it that. However, this method fell out of favor, seen as too expensive and complex. Also, the doors would move around too much. It was difficult to keep track of where the prison cities were. Sounds ridiculous, I know. They were either closed or shrunk down into something else to house the condemned. Mostly abolished, save a few. Nowadays, execution or being locked in the iron pits are preferred methods of punishment.”

This door had been driving me crazy since Christmas. “Can you tell what’s behind the door?”

He rested his head against the wood. “I can’t tell. You will need someone with access to open it.”

“And how do I speak to this someone?”

He patted me on the back. “Have no fear, Son. You’re in luck. A fae guard will be able to do it for you.”

“Any fae guard?”

“Oh, these aren’t any old guards. No. These are Orla’s guards, royal guards, specially selected folk with great skill and high ranking, and completely loyal to not letting bad things happen to the queen or slither out of closed doors. They would have the ability to check what’s inside.”

“Orla isn’t queen yet, and she has royal guards?”

“We told you her victory is guaranteed.”

Arrogant. “Oh.”

“Let me put in a call for you.”

I’d take a gift like this when handed to me. “Thanks.”

“Not a problem.”

As he made his call, my phone rang, and I answered to an extremely excited Jake. At first, I panicked, then shock hit me at the news of Dylan Rivers being in our place of business.

The Dylan Rivers.

The days just kept getting weirder.

* * *

A dark-skinned fae woman in human clothes arrived twenty minutes later, a sword strapped to her back.

She bowed to us. “Sirs, I am Cara, and I am at your service.”

“Hi, Cara,” Dad responded cheerfully. “Be a dear and help us with this door, would you.”

She approached, her head tilting to the side. “This is one of the old fae prisons.” She placed her hand on the wood. “It is empty of a prisoner.”

I stepped forward. “What?”

“The way has been opened before, releasing whoever was inside.” With her right index finger, she touched the wood, and the edges of the door ignited with pink, cooling to a gentle silver.

A click and the door popped open a crack. Cara pulled it the rest of the way.

Woodland, at night, waited over the threshold. Tall trees with a thick canopy blocking out most of the moonlight and stars, only traces of them getting through the tangle above. Shrubbery lined a grassy path that led down to a pond. Behind the water were more trees so thick there was no way through. That was the same on the left and right of the path too. There was only the path and the walls of trees.

“This really was shrunk down from being a city,” I said.

Dad nodded.

“The air stinks of rot,” Cara said, stepping inside. “This place is very old.”

She was right. It was faint, probably stronger for her full fae nose, but it definitely had the whiff of rotten potatoes and out of date milk. “Any idea who would’ve been in here?”

Cara headed down the path to the pond. I didn’t follow, wary of the door slamming closed behind me.

I watched her look into the water, then she came back. That water was dark, still, incredibly creepy.

“There is trickery here,” she said. “A prisoner powerful enough to manipulate the environment, to maybe even open the way to escape. To end the prisoner’s life, you must destroy the prison as it is tied to their lifeforce, though it will not be easy to do so here. You must find the source of the magic and break it. No simple burning will work, nor poisoning of the land. The prisoner was cunning with many secrets woven into the fabric of their existence, protecting the magic even. It will take some investigation to find the magic, yet it is breakable. I can have a team here to see if they can find the name of the prisoner. There is no guarantee, however.”

“Thank you,” I said. “That would be great.”

Orla coming here had been useful. Helpful. Not a bad thing.

“There you have it,” my father announced. “It will be dealt with. I have a meeting shortly that I must not be late for.”

“A meeting?”

“Very important meeting with a delightful human woman who knows how to use her hands.”

“You’re paying for—”

“A massage, Dean. Don’t let your mind drift into the gutter too much. Anyway, the windows are closed, remember. Not that they’re the only places to visits for such needs.”

I needed to be away from him fast. “Sure. Let’s go. Thanks again, Cara.”

“You’re welcome, sir.”

The first name that sprung to mind was Parker, then Elijah. There was fae magic on Melody’s body, along with the other victims.

Were they fae themselves? No outsourced fae help?

I’d head home and send a report to the council immediately.

Two prisoners cunning enough to trick a fae prison? Even protect its magic?

These were some dangerous fae, but why would Elijah be part of the Conclave, sending the message that he hated fae along with every other supernatural being? It made no sense.

“Come on, Dean,” Dad barked. “Time is of the essence here.”

“Go if you’re that desperate!” I snapped back but ended up leaving with him right then anyway.

* * *

Louise was with Sophie and Luuk at their house, doing her maths work, seeing as she was home educated like everyone else in the city and most other places around the world (the majority of schools were closed due to pods). I’d let Sophie know I was home and that I’d come over soon to pick her up.

No rush. She was having a movie break. Take my time. Their house was just as safe as ours, warded to the hilt. And right next door.

It was strange having the house to myself.

An hour after sending off my report, the doorbell rang.

Orla’s face was in the peephole.

I opened the door. “Orla?”

“Hi, Dean.”

“What’re you doing here? Where are your guards?”

“No one knows I’m here. I slipped out. I need to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“Can I come inside?

I hesitated. “I don’t—”

“And you still don’t trust me.”

“What do you want?”

“To talk. Please. I think I saw something from my hotel window.”

“Really? What?”

“I don’t know. A man watching. My guards didn’t find anything when I told them, so I came here.”

“Alone?”

“I know, I’m an idiot.”

“Come in.” I didn’t want to talk on the doorstep, and those dark clouds indicated rain.

“Thank you so much.”

For the second time, she passed through the wards of my home. Not an enemy. Twice the proof.

So, why was my stomach in knots over letting her inside?

Was it me? Something deeper?

No. Fucking. Way.

We went into the living room. I didn’t offer her a seat, nor did I sit down myself. “What can I do for you?”

“I’ll be going back to Faerie tomorrow.”

“Oh?”

“And I wanted to say goodbye.”

“Okay. Well, it was nice to see you again.”

A glint in her eyes. “I know you want me, Dean.”

“What. No—”

Perfume. It burst into the room, filling it up, cloying and toxic and beautiful all at once. It entered me through any means it could, locking me into a grip that made my cock grow hard in an instant.

A spell.

Shit.

Visions drowning my mind. Her naked body, me between her thighs, visions of us running through fields—her in a wedding dress, me in a suit.

“No…” I breathed.

“Yes, Dean. See it. Feel it. Take all of it. We can make it real. Things don’t have to be like this. We can be together, be a true family.”

“I have…I have a family.”

Her pregnant belly, me kissing the top of her head as we sat on a balcony at the Palace of Autumn.

Children. Loads of children running around our feet. We laughed and picked them up and ran with them and—

Jake. He was there. Sobbing. Watching on the fringes with Louise in his arms. Devastated by my betrayal, by losing me.

“I would never—”

“He can’t be yours, Dean. You can’t be his. We were destined to be together. You know that. You’ve always known that.”

“No…”

“Yes, Dean. You have been so lost without me, drifting into the arms of a man when you should be in my arms. You are not yourself. Come back to Faerie with me and come back to yourself.”

Wedding dress. Suit. Laughter. Cheer. My father so proud. Slow dancing. Kissing. Sex in the marital bed.

I pushed back. No. No sex with her. No laughter and fun and marriage and children. Not with her. Never with her.

“I’m not lost…” The perfume had me in a spin.

“You are, Dean.”

“No…”

“Yes… Come to me. Kiss me now. Be you.”

I took a tentative step toward her.

“Your cock throbs for me,” she said. “I see it, I sense it. It longs to bury itself inside me.” She moaned. “I want it, Dean. I want you inside me. Make me feel it. Come on. Hard. Tear off my clothes, take me right here, right now. Fuck me like—”

Jake. The first time we’d had sex. The time when I’d finally admitted my feelings for him, when I’d told him I’d loved him, when I thought I’d lost him—it all pounded my soul.

“No!” I cried, my voice a sonic boom.

She screamed, and I staggered backward, gasping for breath.

The fog of her perfume had cleared, Jake the breeze to blow it away to Hell.

I panted, staring at her. The hold was broken, dick soft, rage bubbling away.

Orla clutched her chest, eyes glistening, a deer caught in the headlights. “Dean, I—"

It took me a few seconds to get my words out. “So, this what this was all along? Try and seduce me with that scent you’re wearing?”

Her face contorted with disgust. Ah, there went the act. “A shame I have to stoop to such lengths now, isn’t it?”

“I knew it, even tried to give you the benefit of the doubt. Glad I didn’t fully. What was the plan, to have Jake walk in on us?”

She growled. “I would never have had to use fae tricks before, would I? And you would’ve never doubted my trust.”

“Are you listening to yourself?”

She slipped her hair off her shoulder. “You would rather have the touch of men.”

“One man.”

“Jake Winter.”

“Yes. He’s the love of my life.”

She looked at me as if I’d just stabbed her. “Is that so?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head. “You disappoint me, Dean.”

“Why? Because I don’t want you?”

“I’m going to be queen.”

“So you said. Good for you.”

She came closer.

I backed off.

“Are you afraid of me, Dean?”

“I think you should leave.”

“Power can be yours,” she said, “all of it. Think of it, think of what it would mean to be the consort to the queen.” She kept coming closer, and I kept backing away. “You and I, ruling Faerie, away from this place. We could bring your daughter too, start a new life, forget all of this nonsense with you and Jake.”

I paused, a darkness floating through me. “Nonsense?”

“I have nothing against any forms of love, but when it comes to you, I do. This isn’t the Dean Tseng I know. He would never give up all that he is for the love of a man. It’s ridiculous. Your head is full of fancy. Look at me and then look at Jake. He doesn’t compare. Not if you really look deep into your heart.”

“Get the fuck out of my house.”

It was her turn to back off. “Dean? Was that a threat? A threat against me?”

“You come into my house and spout that trash? Try and seduce me with some perfume? Shows what you think of me, how much respect you have. I’m never going to love anyone like I love Jake or throw away what we have for something you think I miss. My love for him is stronger than—”

“Don’t lecture me, Dean. If you want to be a fool, then so be it. Throw away the chance at power.” She tilted her head. “You stink of him, you know.”

“Get out.”

The front door opened. “Hey! I’m home.”

Jake.

“Dean?”

I turned as he appeared in the living room doorway.

“Orla?” he said. “Is everything okay?”

“No, it isn’t,” the fae woman said. “I’m leaving. But this isn’t the last you’ll see of me. Be warned, both of you.”

She swept past me, then pushed past Jake, leaving my house without a word.

“Rude!” he yelled. “What the hell was that about?”

I shook my head.

“And why does my living room stink of perfume?”

Fifteen

Jake

Trying to seduce my fiancé full-on this time. No more hiding behind sweetness and bullshit.

I knew she was up to something!

Oh, God. What if it’d worked? No. It wouldn’t.

Course it bloody wouldn’t!

What if it did, though? What if her spell or whatever it was dug so far into Dean, latching onto a piece of their past and yanking it all the way to the surface for one more ride around the block?

Oh, my God!

I was being ridiculous. Jealousy flaring up. For real? After everything we’d been through?

“I promise you, baby, I would never fall for it, no matter how hard she tried.”

What if you’re not strong enough?

Did I really think he was that weak?

Have a word with yourself, knob head! “I know. I’m just… Fuck…”

“I’ll call Mila to come and create a ward against her. I don’t know how she tricked them.”

“You don’t think… No.”

“What, baby?”

“You don’t think your dad’s in on her plan?”

“For me to be her consort?”

“Yeah. It would be really good for his social standing, right?”

He sighed. “I’d hate to think he’d stoop to that.”

“Yeah, well. His comments alone are enough for me to point the finger.”

Shadows passed across Dean’s face. “He’s done if he’s involved.”

I went to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Dean? Look at me.”

He did.

“I love you. I just want you to know that. Again.”

“I know, baby. I love you too.”

“But I really wanted you to know in case you thought I was mad at you. I’m not.”

“Good to know.” He smiled, those shadows fading.

“Seriously.” I kissed him gently on the lips. “You…” Resisted? “You…”

I didn’t know what to say, so I spoke with a whole different language.

My hand under the band of his jeans, then his underwear, wrapping around his stiff cock.

Stiff for who?

Get this shit out of your head!

He moaned into my mouth as I carried on kissing him, rubbing his hardness.

Sex again to fight off the traces of Orla? Right. That was healthy.

My head was scrambling, not wanting to have this jealousy, this need to use sex as a weapon against some bloody invading force. This was Dean. My Dean. He would never do anything to compromise what we had. I knew that! Jesus, did I know that.

But there I went, onto my knees, unbuttoning his jeans and yanking them down, releasing his dick from his blue boxers.

“Jake…”

I devoured him, working his shaft, taking him as deep into my mouth as I could, his piercing tickling the roof of my mouth. His was my cock to enjoy, no one else’s.

Mine.

Dean was mine.

I didn’t stop until he came down my throat, his hands in my hair, thrusting the last of his climax into me.

Was his orgasm from a combination of her and me?

Stop it!

I hated my brain sometimes. I actually wanted to cry, and I knew that was so bloody pathetic. Giving him a blowjob was always a fun moment, not wrapped up in some bullshit jealousy and desperation to leave my mark on him.

I’d already done that. Years ago.

“You know,” he breathed from above me, “we have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves.”

I stood up, taking off my T-shirt, popping the top bottom of my jeans. “Then, let’s roll.”

* * *

It was a quarter to five by the time I climbed onto Dean’s cock for the third time that afternoon. We’d fucked on the sofa, then the kitchen table. Now, we were on the bed.

“Oh, baby.”

I gave it to him as he stroked my dick, working him hard, grinding my hips at maximum pleasure speed. Hard. I wanted it hard. My crazy fears about Orla were burning away. Dean had come three times so far, and I was going for his fourth. Talk about overkill, but when we went for it, we fucking went for it.

I’d had a double orgasm myself. Third time yummy coming up!

“Jake, yes. Fuck, that feels good.”

“Give it to me,” I said.

He pumped, and I bounced, and together, we worked up yet more of a sweat until he climaxed inside me, and I exploded all over his scrummy chest.

I collapsed and stretched out on top of him, his arms wrapped around me, our sweaty bodies mingling.

“Wow,” I said. “That was so good.”

“So good,” he echoed. “I love you so much.”

Here came that taint again.

Was it all for me?

“You’re thinking about her,” he said.

“Huh?”

“That this is overcompensating.”

There was no point denying it. “I am. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I get it. But that was all for you. Not one trace of her. I mean it. I come for you.”

“So romantic.”

“Seriously, you were right not to trust her, and so was I. I should’ve seen through her.”

“You kind of did, though.” I pushed myself up, my hands planted on either side of his head. “Do you think she’ll be back?”

“We’ll be ready if she does.” He ran the back of his hand across my cheek. “I’ll call Dad in a bit. See what he knows.”

I lowered myself back down onto him, lost in his arms. “I’m sorry about the jealousy. I’m just…I’m a dick.”

“You’re human. That’s all. But who’s in this bed? You and me. Not her. She can rot for all I care.”

Was it sick to picture her face rotting with bugs crawling over her body?

Too much?

Bollocks to it. Made me feel better.

“You were in my head,” he whispered. “The whole time, breaking through her spell. You. Because you’re the other half of me, buried deep in my heart.”

I didn’t poke fun at him for being cheesy. I kissed him, pressed myself into him. This was love, and my heart swelled, fit to explode, reminding me that this was us against the world. Always had been since we’d connected, since we’d fallen for each other.

Nothing would ever break that.

Ever.

Not even death.

I’d make sure of it.

Sixteen

Dean

Wednesday night. The rain was really coming down at the same time all over the world.

Just like global the snowstorm we’d once had, now it was the rain’s turn.

Great.

These occurrences happened because of the pods and the magical damage the council had inflicted upon the world trying to cover up the existence of supernaturals, and also attempting to clear the pods away. It was believed that the continued pod presence amplified these extreme weather patterns.

There had to be a way to destroy them.

Regardless of the rain, it was a nice evening in a cloud of horror that’d descended over the city.

The total number of murders had jumped from seven to fifteen since Monday. All bodies of women who worked the windows of the red-light district, even though it’d been closed off. They’d been specifically targeted as being known to use the windows regularly. Most of the new victims had been attacked in their homes.

The press was calling them ‘The Divine Roses’, and Parker’s face had leaked into the public consciousness. Some outlets said it was Elijah, others the twin thing. Whatever the headline, they were always screaming and salacious, and the women were getting lost in the mix.

With Elijah missing, along with Parker, the Conclave had carried on regardless with their rallies. I’d watched one earlier online, a particularly nasty one spearheaded by the Ricci Twins and Izzie—who hadn’t made an appearance since our encounter with them the other day.

“Further supernatural regulations must be put in place,” Izzie’s vitriol had spewed. “Holy laws drawn up, not made by any corrupt government or the evil council. Their laws do not correlate with the truth, with the word of God and his love. Magic is sin, creatures born of it abominations. The pods are God’s punishment for what we have done, for allowing supernatural things to live, for letting the sinful flourish. What a world to see same-sex marriage, for our children to be shown such disgusting perversions to be natural.” That really made my blood boil when the crowd cheered their approval. “We have gone too far, and now we all suffer. But change is coming. You’ll see. A spark to ignite the world. We will rise above the tide of sin and cast our light upon the water. A new dawn is coming!” She’d thrusted her fist into the air, and the crowd had gone wild.

Disgusting. And that spark meant Jake.

The fae aspect had been left out of the news, though. Only the pod bit was running, plus the whole new dawn thing the roses spoke about whenever a body was found. The investigation was trying to find a link to the Conclave as a whole having an involvement, as those words sounded like them, but seeing as they hated magic and pods, it was proving difficult.

Jake popped his head into the living room while Louise and I watched a movie together.

“It’ll be about ten minutes now,” he said.

“Smells delicious.”

“Aw, cheers.”

The tension over Orla had lifted. Not that there was much there seeing as we both had an ingrained distrust of her, but it was still nice it was gone. And it was nice that our love had been flaunted in her face, a solid thing no one could ever take away.

Magical perfume or not.

Still, I was uneasy. What was her next move? I believed her when she said this wasn’t the end.

Was it her who’d come and taken something from my daughter? Had she lied about that?

If it had been her, she’d never have that crown on her head.

My dad had disappeared, which spoke volumes to me. He was in on it. Cara, the fae guard, had gone too, as had all the supposed help with the strange fae prison.

The door was left open, though, slightly ajar. I left it like that. Otherwise, I’d never get back in again. It wasn’t like anyone wandered into the tunnels, but I did make sure to hide the entrance each time I left.

There wasn’t much I could do about it right now, but everything pointed at Parker and Elijah being involved with that place.

After dinner, my research would continue.

“When is grandpa coming again?” Lou asked, eyes glued to the TV.

“I don’t know, darling. He’s gone home.”

“But he didn’t say bye.”

What did I say to that?

I had fallen slightly for my father’s bullshit. That moment he’d told me he was proud of me had snared me. As had the loving way he was with Louise. Hell, he even carried a picture of her around with him. That wasn’t just guff, I’d actually seen it.

“He might be back soon,” I said without conviction.

She didn’t notice that. “Hope so. He was funny. He promised to show me Faerie.”

Like I would ever let her go there.

“What about Orla, Papa?”

“She’s gone too.”

“Oh. She didn’t say bye, either. Maybe they’ll be here for my party on Friday.”

“Maybe, darling.” That was the best I could do.

I wanted to talk to her some more about the woman who’d briefly kidnapped her, but she’d told both of us enough already. If I started trying to link the mystery woman to Orla, then it would lead to suffering, sadness. I wasn’t putting my baby girl through any of that.

The dead flower perfume when my daughter had disappeared had been a sign, a way of telling me I knew her.

Was everything really that obvious? Nothing but a stupid game?

If it was Orla, then there was something she’d taken from Louise to get to me. But what? Dad had seen nothing missing when he’d looked. Was he lying?

The distrust hadn’t been enough. I never should’ve tolerated her or let her back in. I guess I’d fallen for her tricks no matter the resistance. She’d wormed her way in, tricked the wards, got close to my daughter. Got inside my home.

Guilt stung me as it always did. This was on me. If anything happened, it was because I’d fucked up. What if she’d killed Louise and Jake? What if she’d burned the house down, kidnapped them?

I tensed, hands gripping the edge of the sofa cushion, chest constricting.

Guilt was my worst enemy. I was getting better, really trying to keep the awful images of my dead family that haunted me sometimes at bay. They weren’t as frequent now, but this had been a trigger.

I kept my eyes open, stared straight ahead, watching the wall, listening to the movie and my daughter’s random commentary.

“But the crystal’s not in there!” she yelled.

Her favorite fantasy film about witches and a lost magical crystal.

Breathe. It’s okay. They’re here with you. Safe.

I did breathe. Slow and deep, never closing my eyes. Doing that would let the images run wild.

“Okay, you two!” Jake called. “Come and get it!”

“Yay!” Louise cheered and sprang off the sofa. “Come on, Papa!”

I let the sofa go, let my muscles relax. I’d done it. No images from that extreme form of my OCD had crept in. I was on my feet, heading for the kitchen to eat with my family.

My family.

Mine.

Safe in my home. Better wards up, the wet world locked outside. This was our haven, and no one would ever get inside again. That had been the rule, and it’d been relaxed for Dad and Orla.

There was no room for relaxation now.

Never again.

“It smells so good, Daddy,” Louise declared.

Macaroni and cheese was her favorite.

“You’re a right charmer, just like Papa.”

“That’s me,” she said. “Charm, charm, charm.”

I sat next to her. “Nice and cheesy.”

“You’re the best, Daddy,” Louise told Jake as he placed a bowl of salad onto the table.

“Sorry, but I have to do this.” He ruffled her hair, and she shrieked in protest. “You’re just too darn cute.”

She wrinkled her nose and waited as I cut into the food, serving her the gooey, cheesy wonder.

“Yum,” she said.

Louise had a great appetite which included her greens. Not broccoli, but most vegetables went down well with her.

Jake sat down on the other side of her. “Right. Let’s stuff ourselves silly.”

Seventeen

Dylan Rivers

A rather lovely, relaxing evening was brought to an abrupt ending when Pranay roared.

I sprung out of the bathtub, leaping across the bathroom and practically tearing the door off its hinges.

A man was standing in the center of the room, surrounded by my men, who were waiting to tear him apart.

“Parker,” I said, naked, dripping on the carpet, not caring in the least. “At last, we meet.”

His eyes roamed over my wet body. “How interesting.”

“My penis or my scales?”

“The latter. I have never seen a siren in the flesh before.”

“Interesting.” My eyes flicked to each of my men, all poised for battle. The television was on silent in the corner of the hotel suite’s living room.

Parker Smith wasn’t leaving this place alive.

“It seems you are a serial killer.” I strode over to armchair closest to me, sat, and crossed my legs. There was a bowl of fruit on a table beside me. I helped myself to a strawberry. “A killer who likes to paint roses.”

He smiled as my men moved to fan around me. “Do you believe everything you read in the newspaper?”

“Honey, I haven’t touched a newspaper in years.”

“I’d think someone like you would have your nose constantly buried in the pages to see what they were saying about you.”

I popped the strawberry in my mouth, chewed slowly, made him wait. “I’ve moved on.”

He didn’t say anything.

“What can I do for you?” I asked.

“Unless you want to try the chocolate again, nothing. I just wanted to see your face.”

“You haven’t seen it before?”

“Not this close.” He cast his eyes around the room. “Swanky.”

It was. Terracotta walls, plush champagne carpet, two bathrooms, two living rooms, three bedrooms with wonderfully large beds—it was slightly over the top, but a wonderfully welcoming hotel with a wonderful restaurant downstairs.

“All you wanted was to see me up close?”

“You can see my fist up close,” Pranay added. The werewolf was fit to shift and spill intestines.

“And my boots,” Andy added, his hands glowing with pink fae magic.

Seph rattled his kelpie chains in solidarity.

Parker laughed at that. “I didn’t come to fight, only warn.”

I straightened. “Warn?”

“Yes. A friendly warning to leave the city.”

“Oh, but you’re wrong to say that, Parker. You see, you’re the reason we’re here. You tried to poison me, us, with those pod-laced chocolates. For me, that’s a declaration of war.”

“War is a strong word, Dylan.”

“It is. A strong action, too.”

His smile was fading. “If you get in my way, I’ll destroy you.”

I stood. “Get in your way? What? Have we thrown a spanner in the works? How? Do tell. Oh, go on. Please! Spill.”

The smile was back. “Make sure you’re gone before the end of the week if you don’t want to suffer.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. “Please do talk to me about suffering. I know nothing about it.”

“You’ve been warned. All of you. There is no reason for you to be here, for us to be in touch again.”

“I see.”

“I’m done with you. There’s someone else I want.”

“Would that happen to be Jake Winter?”

His lips twitched. “I saw you went to see him. Did he tell you about the letter I sent him?”

“Another indication of your monstrous nature,” I retorted. “You and the other one who shares your face.”

His grin was devilish—in the wrong way. “Which of us is worse?”

“I wouldn’t want to choose.”

“Then I gather we’re done?”

“Done with what?”

“With everything. I’ll let the warning sink in.”

Here we were at last. “Oh, Parker. You really don’t know me at all.”

My siren song rose up in golden threads swirling around my body, the tune bouncing off the walls in melodious booms. I’d snag him and sing him to his death.

Seph let his chains fly, Andy and Pranay springing to action. They met air, crashing into one another.

“What the fuck!” Pranay roared.

“He’s gone,” Andy said softy.

Pranay rushed to the door, sticking his head out. “Not here.”

He wasn’t running down the street either when Andy went to look out of the window.

He’d just vanished into thin air. Jake had warned us about this irritating habit.

At that moment, the television caught my attention.

Breaking news.

I grabbed the remote and hit the volume button.

“Now isn’t this interesting?”

Words rolling across the bottom of the screen and coming out of the newsreader’s mouth.

Elijah Hart had been arrested.

Eighteen

Dean

After dinner, I was starting to feel better. Good food and the company of my family did that. As Jake washed up the dishes and Louise dove into the fantasy movie’s sequel, I headed up to the study to carry on with some more research.

There was a thread I’d picked up on last night about a massacre in the Faerie lands of Winter many, many years ago. It was a passing reference in a wider piece about the power of the winter lands, how the royal seat had once proposed to move from Autumn City to Winter City. The thing that’d caught my eye was the mention of the ‘two who hated enough to bring the smoke’ at the end of the short paragraph.

The eastern part of the city had been burned, so many fae killed, and there was nothing else about it in the heavy tome. I went online via the Paranormal Eyes VPN, accessing the notoriously glitchy Fae Findings website. Other than books, it was the only way of hunting down fae-related information. There were many records uploaded. Grainy images, damaged documents, often badly written with smudged ink—like the worst kind case of bad microfiche.

After an hour of searching, I found something. A poor image of the Winter city, but definitely what I wanted.

The picture showed the eastern side on fire, and there was text below it. More than a paragraph this time, written in Gaelic. The quality was awful, and it took me another half an hour to get the quality up to reading standard.

I really needed to read it. When I had a hunch, it wasn’t just a passing fancy.

“Wow,” I said.

The study door opened. “How’s it going?” Jake asked softly.

“Think I’ve found something.”

He came deeper into the room. “What is it?”

“Is Louise still movie bingeing?”

“She’s on number three now.”

That fantasy series was seven movies long.

“Told her that’s the last one for the night. I swear, I wanna strangle that friggin’ unicorn.”

“Same.”

He stood behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders. “What’ve you found?”

“See this?” I tapped the screen. “This is a story about two brothers who hated each other.”

“Go on.”

I took a swig of my lukewarm tea.

“Do you want a fresh one of those?” he asked.

“Yes, please. But after I tell you this.”

“No worries. Tell me the story.”

So I did. “Once upon a time, as it goes, there were two brothers going by the names of Oisin and Ronan Rós—twins. Rós is the Gaelic word for rose.”

“What the crap?”

“There’s more. So, these brothers were the best of friends until a girl came into their lives. Her name was Aoife, no surname I can see. She was dating them both at the same time. It wasn’t a secret, but the two of them started to resent one another, everything boiling over when she became pregnant.”

“That’d do it.”

I nodded. “They both claimed to be the father, of course, but there’s nothing about which one actually was. Their hate was so strong that they attacked each other with their magic, with weapons. Two powerful guys according to this. The birth of their daughter didn’t stop them. She was only a day old when the brothers went to war. So many people got themselves caught in the crossfire, and the entire eastern district of the city was wiped out. Along with Aoife. Oisin and Ronan were sentenced to never die, to be locked away together forever in the fae prison. Apparently, the authorities were too afraid to kill them outright because of how strong their magic was. After it was done, their daughter, nameless, vanished. Presumed dead in the fire, but her remains never found. This was three hundred years ago.”

“Blimey.”

“Yes.” I sat back in the chair, and Jake gave me a neck rub.

“Parker and Elijah.”

“Can only be them. Explains the fae magic on the pod roses, but not anything about their motives. Also, doesn’t tell us who let them out.”

“Maybe they let themselves out. Didn’t that guard say there was trickery in the prison?”

“She did,” I replied. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they figured out how to do it.”

“Now, we need to figure out how to destroy it.” Jake took his hands away. “There’s got to be a way. Maybe we could ask Dylan Rivers about it. He has that fae guy with him.”

“We should do that.” My phone started to buzz. “It’s Lars. Hallo?”

“Dean! Have you got the news on?” The policeman sounded flustered.

“No. Why?”

“We’ve just arrested Elijah Hart.”

* * *

Elijah Hart.

Paradigm of morality. Head of the Conclave.

Arsehole.

Fae.

Twin to Parker Smith.

The Rós brothers.

He’d been discovered singing in a red window. A passerby had heard him, not seeing him at first seeing as a curtain was drawn across the window due to the temporary closure. The police arrived quickly.

Behind the curtain were two dead women, bringing the total to seventeen, and a naked Elijah singing between them.

The news spread like wildfire.

Two hours after the arrest, we were sat in our kitchen with a laptop, linked into an interview room at the heavily guarded (by the council army) police station. The feed was granted to us to watch because of our unwanted affiliation with this scumbag.

He was being interviewed by Lars and Ana—a pale, blonde councilwoman Jake and I knew. There was some paperwork on the table, no lawyer present. There were five council soldiers with their wands ready to blast, and two police officers with guns trained on him.

“Interview of one Mr. Elijah Hart,” Lars said. “The time is 21:06. Mr. Hart has waived his right to legal representation.”

We had a bird’s eye view of the blue and gray room. Elijah was dressed in gray sweats, staring straight ahead, cold as ice. Nothing on his face indicated a shred of emotion. The clear difference between the two brothers was always in their demeanors. Parker was perky, Elijah a much colder man.

“Mr. Hart,” Ana began, “would you care to explain what happened? Why you were found naked with the two dead victims?”

He didn’t answer.

“Could you also explain why your fingerprints were found on their bodies, specifically on their necks?”

Still no answer.

The Conclave had gone silent, underground—which was alarming. What were they up to? Why weren’t they striking back for their leader?

“Do you have a brother, Mr. Hart? A brother by the name of Parker Smith? Has he been helping you kill these women?”

His lips were sealed.

Lars took a turn at questioning. “Is Parker Smith your brother? Is that his real name? Is your name really Elijah Hart?”

I’d emailed Lars over what I’d found about the fae twins—Oisin and Ronan.

“Is there anything you have to say?” Lars added.

Back to Ana. “The evidence is stacked against you. We have received information of your name. Are you Oisin or Ronan Rós?”

The bastard didn’t even blink, but he did speak. “That is none of your business.”

“On the contrary. I think you’ll find it is our business, as it is the business of—”

“Spare me the lecture, soldier. You cannot hold me. I serve a higher purpose and answer only to a greater power.”

“And who would that be, Mr. Hart?” Ana questioned.

Still no physical reaction. Only his lips were moving. “If you have to ask, you are corrupt with sin.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“And is that why you killed those women?”

Elijah’s eyes moved, locking to Ana. “It would be that easy, wouldn’t it? For me to tell you everything, to cut a vein and bleed my sins. You are hungry for confession, for an admission of guilt.”

Ana was unflappable. “The evidence practically screams your guilt, but please carry on.”

He was so unbothered, so cold. “I am without sin. I have been touched by His hand. I am the guiding light. The Conclave is the way to peace, to a better life.”

“What does that have to do with murdering those women?”

“Nothing.”

“You were found inside that window, naked. Your fingerprints are all over their bodies. Come on, Mr. Hart. Why not make this easy on yourself? On everyone? You killed them, and your brother’s been helping you. They’re his fingerprints on the other victims, right?”

No answer.

“You hate each other. We know the story. You hate each other, doomed to spend eternity in that woodland prison. I get you’d be mad if you ever broke out.” A pause. “Did you both break out? Were you released by someone else?”

Nothing.

“This is the end for you now. There’s no way out.”

The doorbell went.

“Who the hell is that?” Jake said, and got up.

I followed him, waiting at the kitchen door, pausing to keep one eye on the screen, the other on him as he went to look through the peephole.

“Oh. My. God.”

“What?”

“Dylan Rivers is at the door. And his crew.

“What?”

“You heard me right.” He opened the door.

“Hello again, Jake. How are you? Heard the news?”

“Erm, hi. Yes. Erm…”

“May we come in?”

I dashed over.

It really was him, standing under an umbrella with three men behind him, also under umbrellas.

Dylan Rivers beamed at me. “And you must be Dean. A pleasure to meet you. These are my companions Andy, Pranay, and Seph.”

“Hello.”

The street was empty. No cameras, no paparazzi. The rain pounded those umbrellas, bounced off the stoop’s steps.

“Well?” Dylan said. “Are you going to take us in out of this rain?”

I was too starstruck to speak.

“Erm…” Jake managed. He should’ve been cool now, seeing as he’d met him before.

Dylan pursed his lips.

“We would’ve been here earlier,” Andy, the fae guy with the red-gold hair interjected, “only we had to shake the paparazzi, take a long detour around the city, so we didn’t lead anyone here.”

The popstar nodded in agreement.

That seemed to jolt Jake into action. “Then you’d better get in here before the arseholes come calling.”

Dylan grinned. “Wonderful. Thank you so much.” He put down his umbrella and strode past me into the hallway. “What a lovely house. I love the location.”

“Thank you,” I replied. “Can I take your coat?”

“That’d be great.” He shrugged off the navy, almost-floor-length coat. “Horrible night out there.”

The others were inside now, the door closed. Our newly intensified wards let them pass. They’d let Orla pass, but these weren’t the same wards. Mila had increased their potency to a level that only just allowed the postman to come to the door.

“That’s some magic you got around this gaff,” Pranay, the werewolf declared. “Don’t blame you with that wanker running around.”

“Can’t be too careful,” Jake answered.

“Damn right.” Pranay slapped him on the back.

“Would anyone like a drink?” I asked, getting over my starry coma.

“Something hot, please,” Dylan replied.

The others agreed.

“Follow me into the kitchen.”

Amazingly, Louise hadn’t noticed the door had gone. When I popped my head into the living room, she was fully engrossed in her film, the annoying unicorn performing one of its many musical numbers.

We gathered in the kitchen, eyes immediately on the laptop screen.

“This is what we were coming here for,” Dylan said. “To talk about his arrest. You have a video link?”

Jake filled the kettle. “Perks of the job, I guess. Not that he’s saying anything. I mean, why would he?”

“Indeed. He paid us a visit tonight.”

“Elijah?” I questioned.

“The other one.”

“At the hotel?”

“Yes. Appeared in our suite, trying to threaten us to leave the city. I don’t respond kindly to threats. None of us do.”

A jangle of chains from Seph the kelpie.

Elijah was silent, still in the same position, no longer looking at Ana. He was staring into space without a care in the world.

Would the Conclave attack the police station to free their leader? They had force and strength to overwhelm the police, but with the council army there too, I couldn’t see anything other than a blood bath happening.

Something told me those bastards were smarter than that.

Jake made teas and coffees on request as we listened to the constant questioning. It was going nowhere, Ana and Lars trying to break Elijah but failing miserably. Still, there was the glaring evidence against him. That was something.

I explained the full story of the Rós twins and the fae prison to our guests.

“Maybe I should’ve called you straight away,” Jake said guiltily to Dylan. “I said I would.”

“Oh, don’t worry your handsome head about that.”

Jake’s cheeks flushed a little.

“I’d like to see this door,” Andy added.

“I can take you tomorrow if you like?” I suggested.

“Brilliant. What time?”

“Say eight? Is that too early?”

“No. That’s perfect.”

“I’m gonna check on Lou,” Jake said.

Dylan smiled. “I saw a little head in there. Cute. How old is she?”

“Four. Turning five on Friday.”

“Ooo! Soon-to-be birthday girl.”

“Dean!” Jake’s cry made my blood run cold.

“Oh, fuck!” Pranay barked. “Elijah’s gone!”

Two things hit me at once, but the first trumped the second. I burst into the living room to find Jake on his knees beside the sofa.

“She’s… Oh my God. Dean. She’s…”

Dead?

Nineteen

Jake

Not her.

Not my baby.

“Lou? Come on now. Wake up. Wake up!”

She was stone still, her lips blue, eyes wide and pupils dilated. I’d found her on her belly on the sofa. Bloody laughed at first with her hair all over the place. Looked like she’d worn herself out and conked out. When I’d touched her, she was ice.

Now she was in a hospital bed in the ICU, death in her eyes.

But she was breathing. Labored breaths. A pulse. The heart monitor beeped steadily.

Alive.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked helplessly, knowing there would be no answer yet. The doctors were still trying to figure it out. Her temperature was normal according to every test, and so was everything else. She was alive and healthy but basically stone.

Magical tests were ongoing.

It wasn’t the nulling stuff we’d given her that Mila had made. In fact, the doctor had said there was only a trace of it in her system, completely rejected by her body. And it wouldn’t do this to her anyway. It only nulled power.

Oh, God.

My heart wasn’t beating, the world slowing down. This wasn’t panic. This was my soul going through a shredder. The only thing keeping me from ripping the world apart was Dean’s hand in mine, my head on his shoulder.

“Our baby,” I whispered, helplessly watching her from her bedside in the private room. “Please wake up, Lou.”

Dean held me tighter, his eyes red raw from crying. I held him back, the two of us more helpless than we’d ever been in our lives.

Not our daughter.

Not our baby girl.

Through it all, I’d registered that Elijah had vanished from the police station. Now the hunt was back on, Dylan and his crew joining it.

I didn’t care, didn’t give two flying fucks about any of that now. To Hell with all of it. Let it burn, let the fucking world crash and crack and spin. This was worse than anything else. The greatest horror story.

Our daughter was…

Lost.

I started crying again. Then Dean followed. We did what we’d be doing the past hours we’d been here. Cried together. Waited for her to come back to us.

I thought I’d known heartbreak.

Man, had I been wrong.

* * *

Midnight.

The hours had blurred together. Sleep was nowhere near me. I sipped my tea, not wanting it, but Dean insisted I at least have some.

Tea didn’t mean anything. Nothing meant anything. We were zombies, going through the motions of existence, brains switched off, staggering towards hope a million miles away.

Her power? Was this her power?

Still no answers, still no way forward.

Until the door opened.

Rather than a doctor or nurse, a man stood there dripping wet. The rainstorm hadn’t let up anywhere on this planet. He was pale, wore a baseball cap, didn’t look out of the ordinary. Just a guy soaked to the skin.

It was never just a guy, was it?

“You,” Dean said, shooting to his feet. “You work for her.”

My turn to leap up. “What?”

“He’s one of Orla’s guards.”

I crushed the plastic cup, warm tea surging up and over my hand. “What the fuck do you want?”

“I come for him.” He pointed at Dean. “With a message from the queen-in-waiting.”

My fists were clenched so hard my bones begged for mercy.

“What message?” Dean demanded.

“If you want your daughter returned, you will come to Autumn City and make amends with her.”

Dean had to hold me back. I struggled, raging at the guard so loudly security and nurses burst into the room. I raged and screamed and cried and cursed and was dragged away, kicking, desperate to rip the fae’s head off.

“What’s that fucking bitch done to my daughter?”

* * *

Dean came to me about half an hour later. I was in a room guarded by security, slumped in a chair, sobbing. Calmed down? No. They’d given me something to stabilize me because I’d lost it big time.

“How can you be so calm?” I asked Dean as he crouched in front of me.

“I’m not, baby.”

“Sorry.”

“Why?”

“For saying that. You’ve always had the level head. I’m such a prick.”

He wiped at my tears with some tissue. “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit.” An unsteady sigh. “It was her. Orla. She did something to our girl. She’s the one.”

“I think she is.” His eyes swirled with shadow.

“I want her dead,” I said weakly.

He took my hands in his. “I have to go to Faerie. For Louise. It’s the only way this will end.”

“Dean…”

“We’ve got no choice now.”

“How…how will you make things right?”

“I don’t know. But I will.”

“What if she hurts you? Puts you under a spell?”

“Let her try.”

Hot tears ran wild again. “Dean… I can’t… She’ll… Oh, God. I can’t let you go. I can’t.”

“You can, baby. You have to. This is the only way to save our girl.”

Pain in my heart so deadly I was at the doors of death. “What if I never see you again?”

“Shhh…” He caught more tears, his own leaking from his beautiful eyes. “Don’t talk like that. You will see me again. We’re forever, you and I.”

“But she’s… Oh, God.”

“She won’t have our daughter, and she won’t have me. Believe me, Jake. No one fucks with my family.”

I pulled him to me, and we cried together again.

“I never want to let you go,” I whispered.

“No chance of that.”

He stood up. “There’s a convoy outside waiting to take me through the closest Faerie gate. They’ve improved their transport system, apparently, so the journey won’t be long to Autumn City. Should take three hours to get there, three hours back. Kind of.” Time passed differently here to over there.

If she lets you go. How was I supposed to let him walk away? “You armed?” I knew he would be, but it was my job to check.

He nodded, showing me his potion belt and dagger. “Not that I’ll get them into the palace.”

“Dean…”

“I’ll sort this, Jake. I promise.”

“I should go with you, but… I can’t leave her.”

“It’s okay. You’re forbidden to anyway. That’s the condition. Me. Only me.”

I sat forward and stood up. “If she lays one finger on you, then that’s the end of Faerie. I swear I’ll rip it apart.”

“I don’t doubt that, baby.”

* * *

I’d watched him leave from the hospital entrance, police and council guards surrounding me for my own protection. Before leaving, he’d arranged for some extra protection. There were more cops and council people with Lou and spread all over the hospital.

The fae guards had taken my baby away.

My other baby.

The other piece of my heart.

The whole city was on high alert after Elijah vanished. How many dead women would there be come morning?

I did care about the victims, but with Lou was still in this state, where no one could figure out what was wrong, and Dean gone, my priorities were with my family.

I knew what was wrong with Lou. Orla was wrong with her.

I did my best not to lose it. Raging like that again wouldn’t do me any good, and it’d tear me away from Lou’s bedside. There wasn’t anywhere else I wanted to be now. My body and mind were exhausted. Didn’t matter. I wasn’t closing my eyes until she said my name, made a sound, gave me all the signs of life.

Until then, this was me in this hospital room.

Waiting.

A knock at the door.

“Yes?”

Lars. “Sorry to bother you, Jake.”

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s some visitors here for you. They’re waiting outside the ICU. Cherry and Brem.”

“Brem?”

The officer scratched his red beard. “I know. He’s got everyone on edge.”

Brem was a vampire. A gang lord that no one could pin evidence to. Complete knob head. I’m talking fully rounded prick. He was the last person I wanted to see. But Cherry? With him?

I didn’t know what to do.

“Nurses won’t let them past the doors,” Lars added. “Neither will we.”

Just outside. Literally a few steps away. It was Cherry. Okay, and Brem. But Cherry. Alive. Not another victim. Plus, there would be wands pointed at Brem. Guaranteed. He wouldn’t wanna be vamp scrambled eggs.

“I’ll come out.”

“Okay.” He nodded, and I followed him into the corridor, walked the few feet towards the locked ICU doors. My feet were lead in my shoes, my legs pretty much disconnected. I moved, though. More from muscle memory than anything else.

I spotted Cherry first, a white bobble hat on her head, a burgundy coat. On her arm—a vampire. I should be calling Brem every name under the sun, but what was the point? Anyway, he’d helped us out, sort of, on the necromancer case, so things weren’t as bad as they’d been at Christmas.

Brem was pale with sharp cheekbones, his luxurious brown hair cut immaculately. He always looked expensive. He brushed the front of his violet suit, an air of menace about him, but also sadness.

The hell? Normally he was just a creepy prick.

Sadness?

There were wands pointed at him.

“Cherry?”

“Oh, Jake.” She let go of Brem and hugged me.

I hugged her back.

“How is she?”

I told her.

“This is awful. I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.” End of hug. “Is there anything I can do?”

“That hug was nice.” I tried to smile, but the mouth wouldn’t work

“My people have been watching the streets,” Brem said in his smooth tones. “Looking for these fae brothers.”

I faced him, nodded.

“We may have our differences, Mr. Winter, but one common ground we share is Cherry. I want her safe from harm, and these men have their deadly attentions turned her way.”

He always called me Mr. Winter. “Good to know.”

Cherry returned to him, their arms linking up.

“Are you Victor?” I asked.

They looked at each other, then Cherry back to me. Brem didn’t take his eyes away from her. Never thought I’d say it, but there was love in that vamp.

“Yes,” she answered meekly. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Victor.”

“Yes. I’m sorry for the secrets.”

Her and a vampire. A dangerous vampire.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Brem cut in. “Why is your friend with me? And why was I using the windows for sex in the first place when I can have whoever I want.”

“Erm…” Yeah, I kinda was thinking that.

“You don’t need to fear for your friend.”

Kept the gob shut.

“I promise.”

“I don’t know what to say.” My mind wasn’t in the right place to feel anything but numbness. I wanted to get back in there and be with my daughter. “As long as you’re both happy. As long as you look after her.”

“I will. No matter what. I cannot deny my love for her now. I have fallen hard. I would run into the sun for her.”

I looked behind me, to the corridor where Lars was still standing outside the room with my baby girl.

“We shouldn’t be here,” Brem said. “You need to be in there with her, not out here with us.”

My brain was too broken to process the kindness coming from the vamp. “Yeah.”

“I just wanted to come by,” Cherry added. “Do you need anything?”

“No. We’re fine.”

“Give my love to Dean.”

As far as they were concerned, Dean was here. “I will. Thanks for coming by. You take care. Stay safe.”

She nodded, and Brem put his arm around her. “Bye, Jake. If you need anything, call. Okay? I mean it.”

“Thanks.”

“We are at peace,” Brem said to me as they left.

I hurried back to Lou’s side, still numb, rejecting the new information.

“I’m here,” I whispered to my daughter.

Twenty

Dean

The autumn lands.

Traveling here used to be by horse outside the main cities (vehicles wouldn’t leave the limits of a city), or by sea. Air travel wasn’t really much of a thing in Faerie.

Until now.

I’d been expecting a three-hour ride judging by the new and improved horses that the residents of this realm now used to travel the roads, not this air chariot of gold pulled by a flying white horse. No wings, treading the air, sparks flying every time its hooves slammed down on nothing.

So many of them, carrying the other fae guards around me.

At least the journey would be quicker than expected.

It was daylight. Morning here.

Flanked by two guards inside the chariot, I held onto the edge, watching the land pass below me. I’d never seen it from this point of view. It was spectacular. Reds, golds, greens, a sea of autumnal trees, rivers, the palace always in the distance to remind me where I was going.

Autumn City. Amber buildings in different sizes, stone towers poking out of the cylinder building of the palace. It looked so different. There’d once been amber spires instead of those ugly towers—in the days before the city had sustained a brutal attack from a once brutal enemy. The whole place was muted compared to its grander days. The gulls still circled the top of the towers, though. A permanent feature.

To the west of the city was the Rose Sea (ironic much?), and behind the city were the iron pits.

The sooner I got home, the better.

It wasn’t long before we swooped down low, straight over the city walls, over the bustling streets, straight to the palace at the heart of it all.

A gate opened in the eastern side of the amber structure, the horse galloping inside to a stable. The cart landed with the tiniest bump on a gray stone floor, hay strewn across it. It came to a stop.

Quick. Easy.

Now for the hard part.

It was a wide stable with eight horses in their stalls with the runway part that was this stone floor cutting through the middle. The walls were gray, black wooden beams above my head. There was no amber glow behind the white ceiling, nothing hinting at the rest of the palace around the stable.

“This way,” the male guard on my left commanded.

There was a woman too, and she covered the back of me. They’d already confiscated my weapons long before we’d left Earth.

The other guards hadn’t come this way. How many of these airport horse stables were there?

I was led through a wooden door, down a dark stone corridor, only faintly lit but glowing pebbles in the ceiling. Down some stairs, another corridor, up some stairs, and then through a door.

It opened into a grand room of amber walls and silver walls, bare of any decoration. In fact, it looked like everything was in the middle of redecorating, but without the tools lying around. The floor was amber, too, the pillars, the ceiling.

On a golden dais in front of me was a red throne. Standing to the left was Orla. Behind her was my dad.

My jaw clenched at the sight of them.

More guards filled the room.

It really was a strange place. Big but not grand. Stuck somewhere between, like it didn’t know what type of room it wanted to be. Even the red throne was a drab object.

This wasn’t the original throne room of the former monarch.

Orla couldn’t sit on it, which was so satisfying. Not the queen yet, so no throne for her.

“Dean,” she said sickly sweetly.

Pink gown, hair tied up in an elegant knot, a diamond-laced net over it, a glass vial of glowing liquid at the end of a silver chain around her neck. She looked the part of royal, but all I saw was dog shit in fae form.

My golden-clad dad (what else was new?) only received the briefest of glances from me. Fuck him. If I looked too long, I’d try and break his neck.

“What the fuck have you done?” I demanded.

At my snarl, one of the guards shoved me forward. “Don’t speak to her like that.”

“It’s okay. It means nothing.” She stepped forward, beaming with triumph. “Unless he wants it to.”

“My daughter—”

“Is at my mercy, Dean.”

“It was you. You came and took her that day.”

“Yes. And you were too stupid to not pin it all on me. I left you a huge clue with the perfume. I thought you were supposed to solve mysteries. How did you not see this sooner?”

“It was all a game.”

“Well, obviously. I wanted you to know, as you figured out straight away. Only, not that it was me.” She shook her head. “So slow, aren’t you? The dead perfume still held my scent, hidden, teasing you. Even when we were face to face with me, you failed at my little game.”

And I hated myself for it. “Why?”

She crossed her arms. “Why? Why, he says. There are so many whys.”

“My daughter…”

“Is nothing more than a tool. For me, for the world, for those men.”

“Elijah… Parker…” What was going on?

“Dean…” Dad.

Orla snapped her fingers before he could say anything else. “Let me be clear about something before we begin. I know no amount of perfume will intoxicate you. Tragic that his cock has you in a spin.”

“His name is—”

“Hold your tongue. I don’t want his name said here.”

I played it carefully, keeping quiet. Louise was at stake here.

“As I was saying,” she continued, “this is how things will work. You will not be leaving this palace. Unless you want your daughter dead, of course. You see, I came and took a piece of her essence. Mine to do with as I will.”

The vial at her neck. That was Louise glowing in there. “How could you?”

“Quite easily, actually. I saw how distracted you were by that necromancy case, so I seized the opportunity.”

No reaction from me. Only on the inside. She’d get one when the time was right.

“I needed her essence as a back-up. I was right to take it, seeing as your mind has been clouded by him.” She shook her head. “I can’t let you go, Dean. Why should I? I wanted you then. I want you now. We can be so good together. I showed you how. All you need to do is open your heart?”

She’d lost her mind.

“So, I took what you loved as a bargaining tool. That was one part of her usefulness.”

“What was the other?” I asked.

She glanced over her shoulder to my silent father. “Your daughter is the key to the pod problem.”

Twenty-One

Jake

How was it Friday night? How had time passed so bloody fast? How was it Lou’s fifth birthday, and we were in the hospital? How was this not a day for celebrating?

Why was she not awake?

Soph and Luuk were with me. I didn’t want them out in the streets, but there was no stopping them coming here. They’d shown up not long after Cherry and Brem’s visit and hadn’t left.

They were amazing friends.

I was drifting on a dead sea. Nothing inside and out. Alone, even if there were people around me. My family was broken apart, out of my reach. There was sod all I could do but stand over my daughter and pray my fiancé wasn’t killed or put under some twisted spell and bound to that evil bitch forever.

I’d run out of tears. The rain was making up for it. Flood warnings globally, canals not quite spilling over into the streets yet. Holland’s flood defenses were top notch. For how long, I didn’t know. It wasn’t just pounding out there, it was a watery apocalypse.

“Well, hi.”

I yelped and leaped out of my seat, tripped over it, and almost smacked into Parker Smith.

“Oh, my God!” Luuk cried.

Jumping back, I tripped again, landing on my backside. “Fuck!”

The door flew open, Lars bounding in with his gun. “Freeze! Hands up!” he barked in Dutch, then English.

Parker put his hands up. “You got me.”

I was back on my feet, protecting my little girl. “What’re you doing in here?”

Council soldiers filled the room, wands ready to blast.

“Scary.” Parker was the least scared person in the room.

“Don’t move,” a council guy ordered.

Wands. Guns. Lou.

“Not in here,” I said.

“I’m happy to talk outside,” Parker replied. “Makes no difference to me.”

“Yeah, I bet. Well? Outside.” Lou was not being put in any kind of crossfire, but I resisted moving.

Couldn’t leave my girl.

Sensing that, Soph took my hand. “We’ll stay with her.”

I sighed heavily. “I can’t…” Parker’s smug face gave me a shot of adrenaline. “But I will. Thanks, Soph. Luuk.”

“Be safe, Jake,” Luuk said.

The soldiers and Lars marched Parker into the corridor, out of the ICU, and all the way outside.

They blocked off the entrance, made him stand out in the rain while they formed a tight circle around me, others guarding Lou.

The fucker could teleport. Him and Elijah. Major risk, but so was him meeting the explosive end of a wand in Lou’s room. He wouldn’t be quick enough to kidnap her, and I didn’t think he would. His interest was in me.

At least I had him outside.

“Well?” I asked.

He pushed his wet hair back. “I love the rain.”

“Good job, you do.”

“Funny. So, how you doing? I hear your daughter’s not well, and I saw your man heading off to Faerie. Did you have a fight?”

Prick. “Just say what you need to say.”

“Or do what I need to do?”

“Move and we shoot,” Lars warned.

“Okay, officer. Whatever you say.” A shit-eating grin followed. “As I said, Jake, I’ve been extremely interested in you ever since I heard about your time in Coldharbour. Fascinating story. Where has that left you, though? Power-wise? Muted, I’d say. It would’ve been amazing to have seen you in your full glory.”

You won’t say that when I shove my spear up your arse. It was strapped to my back. Dean had made sure we left the house armed even if we were screaming for our daughter.

“What’s the point of this shit?”

“As I said in my letter, I want to see what happens. You have the blood of a goddess. Who else can say that? There’s no creature like you in existence that I know of. But that’s also what makes this whole thing sad.”

“Sad?”

“Yes. Very sad. You don’t do anything. Twirl a smoking spear, investigate things, cook. How boring.”

“So fucking sorry.”

“You should be. Not to me, to yourself. It’s a straight-up tragedy.”

“No, that’d be the murders of those poor women, and the pod infestation. Also, you and your brother wandering around free. You’re never gonna be locked up, are you? How is anyone ever supposed to catch your arses?”

“I’ll let you figure that one out.”

Eyeroll commence. “You’re so boring. You know that, right? Change the friggin’ record. If you’re gonna do something, do it.” This was stupid talk. Really dangerous. But I was so over him, so over everything. I wanted my daughter back, for her to cry even, anything that meant she was safe and still here.

“What wasn’t boring, Jake, was the display from your daughter.”

My blood ran cold. “What?”

“Still bored?”

“You come anywhere near her and—”

“And you call me boring? Save the threats for another day. I’m still more interested in you for the time being.”

I turned and started to walk away, needing to be back by her side, my pulse racing a mile a minute.

Never should have left the room.

“I’m not done, Jake.”

“I a—”

He appeared before me.

The coppers and soldiers yelled and spun in surprise.

“Don’t fire!” Lars roared.

I was caught in the headlights.

“You—”

He cut me off. “I thought you wanted to talk.”

“Talking to you is the last thing I want.”

“You’re right. There’s nothing much to say now. Action is what’s needed.”

Oh, crap. Bad words from a knob like him.

“Part one,” he announced joyfully. That was the thing about him that made my skin crawl—his nice guy bullshit. “It’s time to release the roses.”

Twenty-Two

Dean

The wind had been knocked out of me.

“Good. I was hoping for that reaction,” Orla said. “Surprised?”

“But…how?”

“Care to explain, Evander?” she threw behind her.

“No!” I yelled. “I don’t want to hear your fucking voice.”

His shoulders slumped, and he looked away. Shame. At least, I hoped it was. Burning, debilitating shame.

Orla shrugged. “Don’t be too hard on him. He’s nothing but a pawn. Much like your daughter.”

“Tell me what the fuck you mean. Right now!”

She raised a hand to stop a guard from punching me for the disrespect. “Now, now. If you start being rude, I’ll give her a seizure. You don’t want that, do you? Writhing on the bed as he watches helplessly, your precious girl foaming at the mouth.”

I closed my eyes. I couldn’t stand her face.

“Look at me, Dean.”

All I could do was obey. “Please.”

“Please? You’re begging?”

“If that’s what it takes.”

“Well, no. It isn’t. What it will take is for you to stay here, which you will, and be with me. You will come around sooner or later, and we will fuck and have children of our own. Like I showed you.” She sighed. “You may hate me now, which hurts me like you wouldn’t believe, but it will fade. I know you feel things for me. You must do, still. What we had was special. And maybe Louise could come over here to live with us.”

Yes. She was insane. Desperate for something that didn’t exist. The way she remembered us wasn’t the same as I did.

“You will need time to think on this, though,” she added. “Time locked away. With a beautiful view, of course.”

“Tell me…”

“When I’m ready. There’s no rush. You’re here now. That’s what I wanted.”

“Then give back what you took, at least. Let her wake up.”

She started inching closer to me. “I said, there’s no rush.” She hurried the last few steps and slapped me hard across the face.

Pain bloomed behind my eyes, and I tasted blood.

“Do you see what you make me do, Dean?” She huffed. “The heart is an untamable beast. I wish I didn’t love you like this. I loathe this passion.” She stroked my face, and I flinched. “So afraid of me. I am not the monster here.” Her face contorted as if she were a monster. She raked her nails across my cheek. I felt the blood, hot, trickle down my face. “The monster is him.”

“Please, Orla.”

She pursed her lips, cast her eyes up and down me. “This weakness isn’t particularly attractive.” A click of her manicured fingers and guards surrounded us. “Take him to his suite.”

They grabbed me. I struggled. “Orla! No! You have me, now let my daughter wake up! Please! Orla!”

“I’ll be seeing you later,” she called as I was dragged away.

“Orla!”

Twenty-Three

Dylan Rivers

“I can smell him,” Pranay said, sniffing the air. “He was just here.”

“Then, he could be anywhere.” Following a creature with teleportation abilities like Parker Smith was extremely irritating. Particularly when the rain wouldn’t relent one iota.

A team of hunters in black, driving a black car, we stalked the streets, attracting no attention. Andy saw to that with his fae ability of making the eyes unsee what he wanted to hide, and the fact we blended in with the night.

The rain also helped keep people off the streets and out of the way.

We stayed together as one unit, not daring to separate for a single moment. We didn’t go about handing out opportunities to our enemies. That was for fools, and I didn’t make a habit of getting myself burned after a lifetime of it.

Flevopark. A tram stop where six small green pods glowed with their own light, lining one of the platforms. Rain battered my hood as I headed for a space beneath the flyover that became a bridge known as Amsterdamsebrug, the bridge crossing the Amsterdam-Rijn canal, following Pranay.

It was quiet here, the road above practically free of traffic.

“He isn’t lurking?” I asked the werewolf.

“Nothing. He’s pissed off somewhere else.”

“Then, we strike this fae prison now.”

“Do you think he suspects us doing this?” Andy said to my left.

“Let him suspect all he wants,” Seph added. “The prick. He’s going down. They’re both going down.”

Words I loved to hear.

Slowly, cautiously, we made our way, keeping under the shelter of the flyover and following it to the sections with mud and water and reeds which Dean had told us about. It was the fourth section along where we would find the entrance to the tunnels with the fae door.

There we would figure out a way to destroy the Rós bastards.

This was personal, and time was running out for my stay here. I had to see an end to them. Parker especially after the chocolates he’d sent. My heart ached at the possibility of the pain he could have inflicted on those I loved. They were my life.

All in the name of an experiment? To see what a pod would do to a siren? What an incredibly disturbed creature he was. Slaughtered goblins, manipulated Jake and Dean, made a nuisance of himself. So did his brother but from a religious (I use the term lightly) angle.

I was hoping to have destroyed them by now, but things had become so complicated with this fae aspect and those poor murdered women.

Their deaths would come. When I sought revenge, I got what I wanted.

The water was high here. The mud paths drowned. Apparently, these sections were linked by mud paths cutting through the water. Each pillar had an elevated section at the bottom you could walk around, then hop down into the muddy path cutting through the middle to get to the next pillar. Not now. Water lapped at the edge of the stone platform, close to surging over and claiming that too.

“Just like we thought,” Andy said. “Flooded.”

We reached the section with the tunnel entrance, Seph having used his chains to throw us across the water. It wasn’t as if we were afraid of mud and getting wet, but only a fool would risk getting a foot stuck in those pools of murk when absolutely unnecessary. Only battle the elements when you need to—as would be the case when I’d have to dive into the water to get to the tunnels.

Such fun!

“Flooding isn’t a problem,” I said, eyeing the dirty water, the surface dancing under the downpour.

“Swim?” Andy questioned.

I took his arm. “Andy, honey pie, you have a siren and a kelpie here.”

He didn’t like it but didn’t protest. They all knew there was no other way but to go down and face the risk. A muddy tunnel may cave in under such an onslaught of water. But the worst-case scenario was leaving the Rós twins alive. An impossible option.

This ended tonight. The magic of their prison kept them alive. It needed to be obliterated.

“Okay, this is the plan,” Pranay said. “Me and Andy will keep watch up here, but you ain’t going down there without some leverage. Seph, my man. That’s where you come in.”

Completely inappropriate, but I wanted to fuck him right in that moment. His baritone always drove me wild.

He winked at me.

I laughed lightly. Horny minds thought alike.

Seph tossed a chain to Pranay—a metallic safety line. The two of them were the physically strongest of us—muscle, muscle, and more muscle. “Hold tight.”

“I—”

Red lightning tore through the sky, dragging a gasp from my lungs. “What was that?”

A second burst came, then a devastating crack of thunder.

“There’s something in the air,” Andy said, scrutinizing the heavens. “Moving. Flying? Red…”

More lightning, five consecutive flashes, and something red made itself known up there. Five things. Ten… Did I just count seventeen? They spread across the sky in different directions with what looked like red sparks falling from them.

“Are they humans?” I said.

“They look like women,” Andy responded. “Naked.”

The figures lowered, two of them coming closer to our vicinity

“Roses,” Andy said. “They have roses.”

Once the two figures came close enough for my eyesight, I saw what Andy meant. They were naked, and there were roses on their chests. Like the victims that’d been murdered by Parker/Elijah.

“I don’t understand. “

Two heads in the sky turned this way, and they flew down together, tearing through the air, hair rippling behind them.

Red eyes, a red sheen to them, roses blazing scarlet.

“Be ready,” Seph growled, battle stance activated.

I called my siren song to the fringes. Would it work on these pod creatures?

I put a lid on the questions running through my mind. They could be answered later when the threat was neutralized. And they were a threat. No question. It wasn’t as if they were flying down with angry faces to come and discuss the appalling weather, was it?

They slammed on the brakes, coming to a halt several feet above our heads, floating and watching. Then the roses on their chests swelled, and droplets of red pod spilled out from the center of the petals into the water. Crimson shimmered across the surface, sent a glow down into the depths.

The women waited as red lighting ripped the sky again.

“Don’t,” I said to Seph as he stepped forward. “If you touch them, anything could happen to you.”

He growled and cursed in Spanish. I was there with him in his frustration, staring up at dead women ravaged by pod. This was no necromancy at work here, and they didn’t really look dead at all. Just floating and wingless, creatures with pure, cruel magic. Pod and fae power animating them in deadly synergy.

“The water…” Andy said. “We need to get out of here.”

The glow had spread, transforming the pool to a liquid a much brighter red than blood, reminding me of biblical rivers of blood.

Tendrils of red, like snakes, wriggled across the surface in all directions—over to the green spaces of Flevopark to the right of me, and climbing the pillars of the flyover. A car horn blared as a vehicle went along the road, brakes screeching, then the engine revving.

Pod… Spreading pod…

…coming this way.

Oh, dear.

Trapped. There was nowhere to run. The flooded muddy paths, the walls of the pillars, the concrete above our heads was compromised with the red. Wherever the red tendrils touched, blobs followed, morbid chains of pretty color spreading everywhere, inching closer to us.

Using my siren song would end up causing more harm than good, but I could see no other way out.

“What—”

Chains snaked around my waist, gripping me tight. Before I could get any further words out, I was lifted into the air by the kelpie’s deadly weapons/fabulous tools and tossed away with incredible force.

Though a shock, I didn’t scream but angled myself for a landing back at the tram spot. Seph had thrown me hard enough to get me clear of the spread.

I landed in a crouched, then sprung back to my feet, terrified for my men.

Andy came flying through the air next, landing in a roll.

“Please…” I whispered as I took hold of him. “Please let them make it.”

When Seph tossed Pranay, he would be left alone.

“Please…” I repeated. “Please, please…”

A burst of red in the place they stood, their shapes swallowed by it.

“No!” I screamed, lunging forward. “No! Pranay! Seph!”

“Dylan!” Andy cried, grabbing for me. “You can’t go back there!”

The red was weaving this way. The spread wouldn’t stop, would never end.

Parker Smith.

This had all started with Parker Smith and his wretched brother.

My world had been corrupted by him, by his evil. The bubble of my relatively peaceful existence fractured, leaking. Pranay and Seph were trapped, or worse.

Or worse.

Pranay. Seph.

Hurt.

Worse.

Worse could never happen.

I wouldn’t allow it.

There had to be something I could do. I wasn’t losing them. Not like this.

To hell with the risks to the surrounding environment my song would probably cause, to the chaos it may bring. I wasn’t leaving them to die or mutate.

Andy’s hands were lit up pink with his fae magic. Desperation in his face to find some way of getting to them. But he couldn’t. His power wouldn’t do that.

I had to—

A figure, large, coming right for us. Joined to another by a chain. Two large figures. Coming here.

Coming right here.

My breath hitched as the two of them landed, the ground almost shaking at the impact.

Pranay and Seph.

Alive.

“You’re all right,” I said, frozen to the spot. “You’re not hurt.”

“Thanks to this bloke.” Pranay slapped Seph’s back. “Remind me to marry those chains of yours.”

I looked back and forth at the drenched men who had no trace of pod upon them. They were okay. They were safe.

“You’re okay.” Tears pricked my eyes. “You’re okay.”

“None of us will be if we hang around here,” Pranay said.

No time for standing on ceremony.

I got ahold of myself. Time to go, not dwell on the loss that didn’t happen.

On the dash back to the car, a bird’s squark made me jolt to a stop. “What was that?”

There it was again. Not a squark but a quack.

A quack?

The car doors were flung open, and I was ushered inside.

“That was quacking, wasn’t it?”

“That’s how I heard it,” Andy said. “Let’s not hang around to find out. We’re no good dead.”

The red tendrils were inching closer by the second, the green pods on the tram stop platform flashing with excitement. Could pods sense other pods and get happy?

What a disturbing idea.

Pranay put in a call regarding the road above us, a warning to the authorities, but there didn’t seem to be much in the way of traffic anyway. We’d hear if there was because the pod was making its way across the bridge now. Any driver with good sense would see the big red warning light of the pods and not come this way.

Hopefully.

Some folk didn’t have much sense.

Another quack. Throaty, terrifying.

But no duck.

Seph got us moving quickly, tearing away from the tram stops and Flevopark.

The women were gone. I had no idea when they’d departed the scene, but their damage was done.

Was this the plan for them all along? Creatures of chaos?

Lightning in the sky again, forking as far as I could see.

There was a real sense of an ending to everything.

The bad sort of ending.

Apocalyptic…

Twenty-Four

Jake

Red lightning, a boom of thunder, and then a woman landed behind Parker.

It took a minute for my brain to catch up.

Melony. I was looking at Melony, the red rose throbbing on her chest, brilliantly red. No emotion on her face, but not dead. I’d faced reanimated dead things before, and Melony wasn’t like them. Yeah, she was both dead and reanimated, but this was something else.

Pod and fae shit going on.

“Stay back!” a soldier roared.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Parker proclaimed.

Dick!

“Fire!” someone yelled.

I hit the ground as the wands and guns went off, hands over my ears.

When it was done, there was nothing but a smoking hole where Parker had been standing, and another crack and flash of thunder and lightning.

“Jesus!” I wheezed, getting back to my feet. “What the hell?”

“Up there!”

Melony was hovering above us. No wings.

Fuck.

More wand and gun fire. These people knew enough to want her blown to smithereens. Serious shit was going down.

I needed to get back upstairs.

Melony was gone. Only for a few seconds, then back again. Her rose released red power, which looked like silly string. It streamed down and over us as another round of firing went off as a hand dragged me deeper into the hospital.

“Get away from here!” Lars ordered.

I was planning on it anyway.

I ran through the corridors as nurses and doctors watched with open mouths, scared out of their minds like the rest of the people in the corridors.

“What’s happening?”

“There’s something out there!”

“God, help us!”

The ceiling ahead of me came down, crushing a man and woman beneath the rubble. Dust and debris came rushing towards me, tearing down the corridor. I dove into the first door on my right.

“Fuck…” I gasped as a thick cloud went past, as the screaming really kicked off.

Screaming. Death. Chaos.

I was just feet away from the stairwell back to the ward my daughter’s room was on. I had to get back up there.

Returning to the corridor, I froze at the sight of a glaring red pod several feet away, three people inside it, not moving.

That was enough freezing for me. We were getting the hell out of here. I dashed into a stairwell, flying up the stairs as a boom shook the hospital, a crack running up the stairs, taking over me.

A crack filled with red.

I slammed into the wall, kept going. The crack widened. That was definitely pod in there, and it was spilling over the edges, making new worm-like parts that slithered towards me.

Bollocks!

I pushed on, reaching the floor I needed, slamming into the door. I tumbled into the corridor outside the ICU, crawled forward, and clambered to my feet, pushing past the council soldiers and coppers. My heart was a fucking roller coaster with too many loops and G-force, my body a paradox of hot sweat and cold fear.

The door was locked. Had to be, but it didn’t help my panic. I pounded hard. “Let me in!” I didn’t listen to the men and women around me. My mind focused on one thing only: Get Lou the fuck out of this hospital.

A police officer on the other side let me in. I charged past him, bursting into the room, collapsing to my knees when I saw she was okay—as okay as she could be. The room was untouched, and Soph and Luuk were there, and I couldn’t help but sob with relief.

“Jake!” Soph cried. “What’s going on?”

“There’s red lightning in the sky,” Luuk added, staring out of the window. “And pods… Pods spreading across the buildings.”

Getting to my feet, I spotted what he was talking about. Lines of red covering the building opposite the hospital, just like there’d been in that crack on the stairwell. It spread every which way, across the roads and paths, heading for the rest of the city. Blobs of color appeared along those lines, and three women flew above, blazing red roses on their chests, dripping pod energy, watching the chaos unfolding below.

And just like that, after living with the pods all this time, tension in the air every day because of the fuckers, the tide had not only turned but gone wild.

This was it. The days of true bloody insanity.

No time to faff around. “We have to get out of here.” I went to my daughter, disconnected her from the heart monitor and the other stuff. She was still breathing, still a statue. Didn’t matter that this was a hospital. It wasn’t the safest place for her anymore.

Had to get her out of the city. Home wouldn’t even be safe. Get her somewhere safer and wait for Dean to make Orla put things right. Then we’d plan our next move when we were together again.

Luuk yelped, and the window imploded. I threw myself over Lou to protect her against the spray of glass. Wind and rain roared inside, the sounds of terror from outside ringing in my ears.

There was something in here. I heard it gurgle.

Turning, I saw a man standing in the center of the room. A doctor, maybe. Covered in red pods, his hands needles, his one eye the cold metal disc of a stethoscope—red iris on a bed of chrome.

Pod-born. Quick transformation. That eye locked onto me.

Luuk scrambled away, his hair dusted with glass, face cut up. Soph ran to him, went down to him, then turned her focus onto the pod-born.

Soph was normally a calm, sunny person. It was rare to see her face be anything but serene. The kind of person that puts you at ease just by being in the room. Beneath that stuff was a witch ready to blow if she had to. Like now, when the blue magic flew from her finger tips, sending the doctor into the wall so hard his head broke through the stone, leaving him twitching and dangling, blood running down the wall from the hole he’d made.

Ouch.

Taking the respite handed to us by my awesome witch friend, I went to scoop up my daughter. Man, she was so cold.

“You okay, Luuk?” I asked loudly over the sound of the rain. Something went bang outside. It wasn’t thunder.

He nodded, able to walk.

“Let’s go.”

I threw the door open with one hand and turned right in the corridor instead of left this time. Outside the ICU doors was a vicious red blaze, and pod worms were already creeping into the ICU hallway.

“Everyone out!” I yelled at the people lingering. “Get out of the hospital!”

I knew that it was easier said than done. What about the people who couldn’t be moved easily, that were plugged into machines that breathed for them, or anything like that?

This is where I walked the line between wanting to help make the world a better place and what I was actually willing to do. With my daughter in my arms, yelling those words was the extent of the help I’d offer. My priority was Lou, not strangers. I wasn’t a superhero and never claimed to be. I was a dad who wanted to get his kid out of danger, protect her at all costs, even if it left me dead. She always had to be okay and alive and well and safe. Just like Dean, I wanted her sheltered from every single bad thing in this world. Unrealistic to keep her eyes closed. Fine. But I’d sure as hell do everything in my power to keep her heart beating. And if that meant abandoning this hospital to its fate, then so be it.

I wasn’t a monster. I didn’t want anyone in here to die or be hurt or transformed by pod, either. Of course not. But I had to go.

Past wards and wailing people, we reached a fire exit, the door open. There were people leaving by it, no pod stuff coming through it. Yet. Only the rain and wind.

“Come on.”

Stepping outside into the elements and onto the fire escape, I got the full show of what was going on.

The pod really was spreading over everything, and the women were spreading it from their roses, deadly angels in the sky around here, and across the city. The thunder and the red lightning continued.

First, Amsterdam, then the world?

The apocalypse had landed.

The Divine Roses was totally the wrong name for them.

I didn’t even get five steps down the fire escape, and Parker called out behind me. No way was I turning to look at him. Didn’t want to face him. The wanker wasn’t part of my mission.

“Where are you going, Jake?”

It wasn’t going to work.

“I don’t think so.” A shriek and wailing as someone fell.

Did Parker just throw someone off the stairs?

The thud below told me yes.

“You can run, Jake. But there’s nowhere to go. You’ve got to face what you are.”

What I was? Nice try. I wouldn’t be rattled easily. Tunnel vision now. Whatever bollocks he came out with, whatever he tried to do, it would be for fuck all.

I wasn’t stopping.

“Keep moving.” I didn’t need to tell my friends that because they kept on coming behind me.

We reached the bottom, Parker calling my name, again and again, making no move. My nerves were frayed by his non-moves. It wasn’t like him to not try something. There must be a surprise coming.

“Where’s your car?” I asked, catching sight of red worms creeping up the side of the hospital, spreading across the stairwell we’d just stepped off.

“Follow us,” Soph said, taking the lead.

The ground shook beneath my feet, loosened, cracked. My right foot was sucked into a hole, ankle twisting. I kept vertical, just, and held tight to Lou.

“Fuck!” I cried in pain.

I was stuck. Proper stuck.

“No!” Soph yelled. She and Luuk tried to pull my foot loose.

It wasn’t moving. At all. Not with the combined pulling from all of us, and not me on my own, not with the spells Soph was performing. I only sank deeper. And there was pod spreading this way.

There was only one thing to do. Man, did it call up a spiky ball of grief to my chest.

For her to live, I had to let her go.

“Take her, Soph.”

“What? Jake? No.”

“Please. You’ve gotta get her out of here. She’s can’t be here.”

“We can’t leave you!”

“Sophie,” Luuk said softly to his wife. His eyes met mine in understanding.

“Soph. Please. I ain’t getting out of here.”

“I’m not leaving you to die!”

“Then, we all do. I might not even die.” Maybe the pod would change me into some fucked up thing. “But she’s at risk. Please, Soph. I know I’m asking too much.”

Thunder cracked. A demonic shriek followed. In the distance, something with claws tore into a group of people.

Soph gasped, shaking as she looked on. “My God…”

“The city’s falling apart,” I said. “Please. You have to get out of here. Both of you and Lou. I’ll follow when I can.”

“What if you can’t?”

The thing with claws leaped at another person as they tried to run, ripping them apart.

“Soph. I’m begging you. Time’s running out.”

“Let me try again,” she said.

Another spell, another failure. I just wasn’t getting free.

“Soph…”

A rose woman flew above, dropping a pod close by. It splattered and took on the dome shape of a normal pod, tiny rivulets spreading outward seconds later.

Soph stared at me, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Please…”

She took Lou out of my arms. I sagged in relief. “You had better follow us, Jake. You better get out of there.”

“I will.”

She went to leave, then stopped, Luuk’s hand resting on her spine. “How am I supposed to walk away from you? I can’t leave you there stuck. There’s pod coming for you. No. I need a better spell. There’s no reason for this to keep failing. Something else is going on.”

“You’re right,” Parker Smith said from behind me.

Soph stepped back into her husband, both of their eyes wide with terror.

I glanced behind me. The knob head was smiling. “Should’ve known it was you.”

“Obvious, right?” he retorted.

I turned back to Soph. “Go.”

“Yes, go,” Parker added. “Because if you don’t, the girl dies right here. I have business with Jake now. And I’m a reasonable guy.”

The hell? He called this shit storm being reasonable?

“I’ll let you go,” he added. “But only if you run now. Five seconds and you all die. Okay? Countdown begins…now.”

They did run. Instantly. No hesitation, no looking back, carrying my girl away to safety.

I hoped.

I had to hope.

“Now, Jake.”

I went to twist to face him, but he walked around to face me.

“Let’s get down to business.”

“Why?” I asked. “Why did you do this? Why those women? What… What does this do? What’s the endgame?”

“You, Jake. You’re the endgame. Everything has always been about you.” He looked behind him. “Valiant move there to save your daughter.”

She’d have a good life with Soph and Luuk. I couldn’t ask for better people to be her parents.

I wanted to see her grow up, see what she became. There was a wide, open road for her to travel, and I was all set to wait on the sidelines to watch her journey take place.

I wouldn’t get that chance now.

Giving up, eh? Gonna stand by and get killed?

“I don’t get it,” I said. “Why those women?”

“My Divine Roses. Aren’t they great?”

“Answer me.”

“I don’t want to.” He clapped his hands together. A burst of fae magic came from him, and the ground broke open beneath me.

I didn’t fall far but did land hard on my side. Twisted ankle. Broken left arm, which had taken the impact. I clenched my teeth against the pain, a trembling groan released through them.

Fuck. This.

I rolled onto my back just clear of the hole above my head, the rain just missing my face. My spear dug into my spine, uncomfortably.

“That’s better,” Parker said. “Too many prying eyes.” He loomed over me.

With great pain, I managed to push myself up into a sitting position with my right hand, my legs stuck out in front of me. I slumped forward in agony, but at least I wasn’t on my back.

Now to get out of this dark hole.

I reached for my spear, fingers stroking the wood. No matter what, I had to draw it and fight this arsehole. Push through, stick it in his belly, and twist the shit out of it. Wouldn’t kill him, but I’d make sure it hurt good enough.

“Gonna gut you—"

“Oh, Jake. I wouldn’t touch that. Really.”

With a magician’s sleight of hand, a red thermos flask appeared in Parker’s right hand. “Did you know this is the best way to transport pod?”

Stopped me dead in my tracks.

Thermoset was regarded as safe by the crazies who collected the colorful goop. I didn’t tell him I knew that. Too busy shitting myself. Parker with a thermos of pod was not a good mix.

“What’re you doing?” I struggled,

“I think you’re ready for the final test now. This is going to be great. The climax is here. I’ve been looking forward to this moment for so long, trying to find the perfect scenario. What better time than this?”

What the frig did that mean?

He unscrewed the thermos lid and threw pod in my face.

Twenty-Five

Dean

A grand room of amber and gold walls, a four-poster bed of white, and a lush red carpet under my feet. Bookcases, a dressing table, balcony doors opened outward to a terrace overlooking the Rose Sea. The drapes billowed on the breeze as fresh, crisp autumn air drifted into the room.

I watched the waves, the horizon. It was a sunny day, the air thick with a fragrance I couldn’t place, but put it somewhere close to cinnamon.

Pounding on the door, screaming my lungs out, had achieved nothing. Only a sore throat and a thumping headache. There was no way out. I’d tried everything, even contemplating climbing for my freedom. But I was in a high point in one of the towers, nothing but a sheer drop below me into the city. The tower was too smooth to climb down.

I wasn’t dying to leave my daughter at the mercy of Orla.

So I watched the sea, trying to figure out a way to escape, feeling like a complete failure. A fool. I never should have contacted Dad.

He’d betrayed me. The bastard.

What was it about Louise that made her the key to the pods? How was that even possible?

Another hour passed before the bedroom door opened, Orla striding in wrapped in a white robe.

“Hello,” she said, joining me on the balcony.

I could throw her over the edge.

“How are you finding the room?”

I didn’t answer her.

“I know. It isn’t great. I loathe the amber. Too tied to the past. I am working on an overhaul of the entire look. You’ll see. In fact, you can help me with the colors if you like. Really have an input.”

“Orla. Please. Tell me what you know about my daughter.”

She looked across to the sea. “Do you know I dream of you most nights?” She shook her head. “I know you think I’m evil. Ridiculous. Insane. Maybe I am. But you did this to me. You wormed your way into my heart, and there is no cure for it. Only to have you near, to have you as mine.” She leaned over the balustrade.

Easy to push right now.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Why wouldn’t you want to live here, to witness each sunrise and sunset with this view?”

Still didn’t answer.

She was in her own world, anyway. “With me? Can you imagine it with me?”

“Orla…”

Tears. “Please don’t say it. Please don’t tell me you’d rather be with him.” She faced me. “How can he make you so happy? I don’t understand. What is it about him? Please don’t answer that. Actually, maybe I need to hear it to get a sense of it. Is there a spell he has you under? He has goddess blood, doesn’t he?”

She was right. Jake did have me under his spell, with me the willing guy who reveled in its magic.

“We could have everything, be the greatest couple to rule Faerie,” she said. “Is that not something you want? Think of the stories, the tales they would tell of the half-breed fae who rose to the top. You would inspire millions, be a voice for those out there who don’t feel good enough.”

Good enough? I didn’t care if I was seen as not worthy of being fae. My half-blood nature had never stopped me from getting what I wanted, but apparently, it was a bad thing for her and those who thought the way she did. Bigots on Earth, bigots here too.

And I didn’t care a damn about any of it. I just wanted to know what she knew about my daughter.

“Louise,” she finally said, “is special. “Her blood is your blood, connected to a greater power when she was in her mother’s womb. Now exposed to the world of pods. Your father and others believe her power isn’t really about the freezing, but connected to the world at large. The Weed of Tine revealed all to Evander, confirmed his suspicions. Yes, he lied to you. Louise’s power needs to be awakened fully to work, which, it seems, will somehow undo the pods. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?” She turned, so her back was resting on the balustrade. “I have forbidden your father from figuring out the spell to awaken that power, though.”

This was too much to take in. “Who are the others?”

“Now, Dean. Don’t be so greedy.”

I hid my fury. “I thought you liked my daughter.”

“I do. She’s sweet. But there are other things at play here.”

“Like what?”

“Hush now.” She came closer. “Don’t be troubled. I will keep Louise as she is for now. She’ll be fine. I can’t tell you anymore, so stop fishing.” A laugh and a wag of her finger. “Naughty boy. You have to be patient. Comply, and she will be safe.”

Louise was the key to the pods. And my father knew. He kept… He kept that from me.

He lied. All along, he knew this. Came into my life again and—

“I can see you’re hurt. I’ll leave you be for now. To cool off. I’ll be back with some food.”

Comply. Sell your own lie. “Orla?”

“Yes?”

“I’ll comply.”

My words surprised her. “As easy as that?”

“Yes.”

“What are you up to, Dean?”

“Trying to save my daughter.” Who might save the world…

“You would submit to me, to us? You’d give up everything because of—”

“My little girl.”

She rushed at me, grabbed my face, her nails digging into my skin. “Your little girl? Not for me? Not to see what life would be like with me?”

“My—”

She shoved me back, the balustrade digging into my spine. “Never for me, is it? Not Orla. No. Dean Tseng, the man sacrificing his happiness for his child. How admirable.” More tears. “It breaks my heart you would see me as punishment. Do you know how many men would kill to be in your position right now? Thousands. Millions! And all you see me as is some demon? You’re vile and cruel. This is about a new love, a second chance—for something better. For you, for me.”

I did something I rarely do, especially when it’s the worst thing to do.

I snapped.

“You’ll never have me or your pathetic dreams. What planet do you live on? How can you say you love me when you don’t even know me? You’re in love with a memory. That’s all it will ever be. Gone. You’re back there when I’m over here now. I love Jake, not you. And I’ll destroy you. Mark my words. No one comes for my family.”

Wrong move. She had Louise in the palm of her hand.

Idiot!

Yes, there was the grin of triumph. “Oh, Dean. Dear sweet Dean. Crossed the line then, didn’t you? Comply, he says. Liar. Pig. User.”

“Orla, I’m sorry.” Too late for that now.

“I bet you are.” She clapped her hands together. “Guard!”

A burly guy barreled into the room. “My Lady?”

“I want you to show Dean the thing.”

“With pleasure, My Lady.”

The guard came at me, his strength overpowering me quickly, and threw me off the balcony.

Twenty-Six

Jake

I collapsed onto my back, grabbing at my face as the pod made contact. It spread over me quickly, cold ooze getting under my clothes, into my hair, under my skin. Everywhere. Even my bones.

It sucked my breath away. It leeched at my energy. All I could do was lie there and wait for whatever was gonna come, what creature I was gonna be.

If I didn’t die.

But it felt…empty.

“The world is waiting with bated breath,” Parker said.

Correction: He was waiting with bated breath. He was the one who’d just lobbed pod in my face. He was the one who was fascinated with me, treated me like I was some experiment, thinking I was something I wasn’t. The goddess blood that was in me now was watered down to the point of nothing. Residual power. I wasn’t the weapon anymore. I was Jake. Not being able to touch weapons apart from the spear was just an aftereffect. Same as the white smoke that appeared every time I held my pointy friend.

Man, had this dick got it so wrong.

Now I was paying the price.

Unless he wasn’t wrong. Unless residual was all that was needed. Oh, shit! What if I was about to transform into some super hell beast and go stomping around the city?

That was it. He was right. He knew what he was doing, had planned this, and now I was about to be public enemy number one. The vessel of death and destruction. Jake 3.0. The final version. The version to end all versions. I’d have to be put down or locked up.

Oh, bollocks!

I waited for the change to take hold of me, for my body to do something, rolling onto my side. Dizzy. That was a sign, right? Dizziness. The first step.

The world wailed around me, and Parker waited. I waited.

There was pain, but nothing else.

“Nothing. You’re nothing.” He tapped me with his boot. “Weak.” The tap became a heavy kick in the ribs. “Get up! Get up and be the glorious creature I know you are!” Another kick. “This shouldn’t take so long. You should be up and about right now. Get up! Get up!”

I spat blood at him. “Bollocks… I ain’t doing shit for you.”

I braced myself for another kick. It didn’t come.

“Nothing…” he whispered. “He’s nothing. You’re supposed to be something, Jake Winter. Rise from the pod to be a god. Claim the Roses as your own, take them into war. But you’re…nothing. Sickly. Weak. Dying. Where is the goddess blood?”

“Why don’t you look up your arse?”

Man, my ribs hurt like crazy, my head a swamp, skin prickling with dull pain.

Fucking pods.

“Don’t try and be funny with me.”

No kick again. Blimey. Must have struck lucky.

“Please get up,” he said.

What the hell?

He laughed. “Oh, I get it. You’re playing around. Leaving me in suspense. I like it. Brilliant. You had me there. Well? Come on. Think I’ve had enough now. Get up and go. Show me what a pod god you are!” He roared with laughter, then roared in anger.

He wasn’t Parker anymore.

He was Elijah.

I rolled onto my back again, body really having a number done on it. There was bubbling under my skin. Actually bubbling. Ripples spreading up and down my arms, though the pain levels didn’t creep up. Stayed at that one note ache.

Nothing else. I wasn’t transforming. I was…dying. And had I just seen Parker change to Elijah? For real?

“What the…hell,” I said to the other twin.

“My brother is a fool. Look at the mess he’s made.”

Yeah. That was Elijah.

He turned back to Parker in a split second. “Don’t listen to what he says. He doesn’t know anything.”

Elijah again. Made my head spin.

The same body…

They were sharing the same friggin’ body!

Get up. My turn to order myself. Get up and run.

There was no way I was getting up. The tips of my fingers were shining with the same red as the pod, balls of crimson jelly on my fingernails.

I was fucked, but I had to try and do something. To get to Lou.

“To think I loved you once, brother.”

Parker again. “Get over it, Ronan!”

Ta-dah! There was the real name. Elijah was Ronan. Parker was Oisin.

The slip between faces was so fast.

A wave of sickness and bubbling at the same time dragged a sound out of me that had Elijah tilting his head like a curious dog.

“He’s fading.”

Parker. “Because he’s useless. He’s so disappointing. What a waste of my time this has been.” He looked up through the hole above as a terrifying boom added to the violent chorus beyond this bubble. “Oh, it looks like the Roses are going to Faerie.”

Elijah’s turn, the body spinning round, the face furious. “How could you do this to our daughter? You—”

Back to Parker. “Please, like I’m bothered about that sniveling brat. Probably not ours anyway. You know how much of a slut her mom was.”

Elijah. “Don’t speak of Aoife like that. I loved her! You loved her!”

Parker. “Look where that love got us.”

Daughter? What the hell? They’d had a daughter, yeah. But that was ages ago.

Poxy pod and body!

Elijah was back. “She freed us, and this is how you repay her?”

Parker. “Then why didn’t you stop me?”

Elijah. “You’re insane! Our daughter will be hurt!”

Parker. “What do you care?”

Elijah. “She is mine.”

Parker. “Ours. And she’ll only try and takeover. I don’t trust the bitch.”

Elijah. “How can you say that?”

Parker again, coughing and laughing at the same time. “Really? She’s the apple that doesn’t rot far from the tree. You’ve seen how unhinged she is. But your mind is polluted by Aoife. Let the Roses go over there. Let’s see what our daughter can do. And don’t play innocent. You knew I wanted to make these creatures, what my plans were. But you were too caught up in being some leader of some ridiculous church, too weak to actually have fun. You always were the feeble one. You’ll never change.”

Elijah. “I wanted better for us.”

Parker. “You think burning Jake makes things better?”

Elijah. “What if it does?”

Parker, shrugging. “You’re welcome to him. Burn him. He’s better off as kindle now anyway. Might be a mercy.” He stayed longer than he had, no quick shift back to his brother yet. “Like listening to that, did you?”

My lips were numb, my tongue too. I tried to speak. Failed.

“Plenty of answers for you that mean nothing now.” He crouched down, inspecting me but not touching me.

The knob head had been manipulating pod. I just couldn’t… This bloke should’ve been shot, him or Elijah, when the police had arrested him/them. No questions asked. Fuck the law. Fuck protocol. Pull gun, pop head. Done. Over. Then none of this would’ve happened.

Except, that was bullshit. These two weren’t any old perps, were they? Not simple target practice. A bullet wouldn’t do. The arseholes had lived for centuries, somehow got themselves glued together (oops), and the only way to kill them was to bring down that woodland prison.

Their daughter…

Why did I keep thinking about Orla?

Wait…

No. What a cock! How could I be such an idiot?

The Roses. Pods. Faerie. Parker said they were heading over there.

Dean was in Faerie.

I struggled, trying to force my body to move, to overcome the effects of the pod. Talk about a losing game.

Was I dying?

“Such a shame.” Parker was still present. “You’re the most disappointing failed experiment I’ve ever had. This was supposed to be the crowning moment of everything. That stuff you heard about the Roses and you? I really believed you would take control, transform into a god, and use them as your army. Who knows what you would’ve done? That red pod I threw at you? Infused with my magic the same way as the Roses.” He grinned. “Yes, pod-fae infusion. Amazing, isn’t it? I’m so proud of my creations, but you…” He shook his head.

As amazing as cat sick. No verbal comeback for me. My tongue was a fat slug now.

The sounds of the chaos still cracked and crashed out there.

“The world is failing, Jake. There is no way to stop it now. The pod apocalypse has come. The Roses will spread beyond Amsterdam. They are unstoppable, untamable.” He sighed. “This is the end for you now, Jake. You’ve left me no choice but to hand you over to my brother and his church. They will burn you. Today is the day. The Spring Equinox. Had to be today. Don’t ask me why. I don’t care. It wasn’t happening on my watch, but now that you have failed me, your protection is gone. Goodbye, my bitter disappointment.”

My fingers were gnarled, throbbing with what I could only guess was arthritic pain or something like it.

I was changing, my bones shifting, my skin a mass of ripples.

Elijah was back, pulling a phone from his pocket. “I have waited a long time for this. God has aligned the stars, especially for this day. We waited, we endured so much, and now we are here.” He turned his back on me. “Hello? Yes. It is time. I have Jake Winter with me. Send transport immediately. But be prepared. He is contaminated.” He hung up and turned back around. “Here we are, Jake. At the moment I promised you. Just don’t die yet.”

It was supposed to be Lou’s birthday.

Twenty-Seven

Dean

Before I hit the ground, there was a jolt in my falling speed, then I landed on my hands and knees.

Back on the balcony.

Ignoring the sharp pain from the impact, I jumped up, spinning to make sure this was real, that it wasn’t some attempt from my brain to trick me, to lull me into death easily.

Orla was there, and the guard who’d thrown me was walking away.

Orla giggled. “Yes, you’re really here, Dean. That was simply a demonstration of how trapped you are. There’s no way out and no way to throw me over the edge. The door is the same. You step out, you step back in. I think of everything. I really have you by the balls.”

You wish. My knees and hands ached, but I was ready to fight. I’d no choice but to come here, but I’d arrived in Faerie with no leverage. Just because she said she would put Louise back to normal again didn’t mean it came with a time frame. It came on her terms and with my behavior towards her. The more I stroked her ego, the quicker the time would pass.

No more losing my cool.

This was going to be tricky. She’d tried to seduce me, so did I now throw that back at her? Trick her? Make her think I was falling for her? Not straight away. It would have to be over the course of a week. Stay here, work on her, soften her, get under her skin even more than I already was.

It made me feel dirty but also determined. If this was the way to get my daughter out of her frozen state, then so be it.

Then I’d deal with the rest of the issue with Louise and the pods.

“So don’t start thinking you can throw me over the edge because it will only end in tears for you,” Orla added. “It would break my heart too.”

I watched her. That smile, that winning aura. She really had won in her head. But I wasn’t a man to roll over and be stomped on. I was alive and ready for action.

Time to slip on the meek face. “I’m sorry.”

“You are?”

“Yes. I’ll comply. I’ll behave.”

“You said that before.”

“I needed to be taught a lesson. I’m really sorry, Orla.”

She took a moment to answer. “I’m glad you now see sense. Apparently. You’d better not be lying.”

“I’m not.” I looked behind her. “It is a lovely view.”

“Finally, you agree.”

I sighed, went to the balustrade to lean on it, making myself look all brooding.

“Oh, Dean. Don’t be so glum. This is the beginning of something beautiful. A cleansing, a new awakening for you. I can feel it.”

You feel wrong. I didn’t speak. Silent sadness now. Warming up later. Sell the lie. Grabbing that thing around her neck that held Louise’s essence would be at the top of my list when I found a way to break out.

Play it smart. Be patient.

My time would come.

“Can you believe that one day this will all be mine?” She swept her hand across the view. “Everything. Mine. There is so much work to do, so much change to make. I keep saying change, don’t I?” Some of that perfume wafted from her. “I could make this change so much easier. Consume you with this scent, take you in that bed right now. I wonder how long you can hold out until you succumb and stick your cock inside me.” She giggled again—a grating sound. “Sorry, that was too coarse.” She placed a hand on my back. “I’m sorry, Dean. I won’t be so smutty from now on. You’re just so sexy. I can’t help it. But I know that won’t win your heart, and neither will talking about him. All I can do is show you, open my heart to you. Win you authentically. No tricks, nothing but truth. I want it to be real, and I want you to have your daughter back.”

There were others linked to this, to Louise and her power. More strings being pulled in the background, and everything pointed at Parker and Elijah.

What was Orla’s connection to them?

I needed to talk to Dad, even if it made my stomach churn. He’d tell me. I’d make sure of it.

“Dean?” she said softly.

“Yes?”

“I’d really like it if you’d join me for dinner tonight. I know you probably want to be left alone, but maybe we can have a nice sit-down and a conversation. Calm. No drama.”

Step one. “Okay.”

She cupped my chin. “I’ll turn that frown upside down. Just wait and see, Dean. Everything is going to be—”

A huge explosion shook the palace. Orla shrieked, and I staggered back.

It’d come from above, not within the walls. In the distance. The direction I’d come into Faerie from.

The bedroom door burst open. That same guard who’d thrown me ran onto the balcony. “My Lady! The borders! Something has broken through the Faerie portals!”

A second blast, this time in the sky. Thunder like I’d never heard it before. Dark clouds quickly rolled across the day, more thunder cracking, the sky blazing with red lightning.

“What’s happening?” Orla said quite softly for someone who’d just been shrieking.

There was noise in the city streets below, the sound of war horns. Soldiers were pouring out of the city gates, chariots taking to the air, heading in the direction of the portals.

Faerie under attack? From Earth?

“Stay here, My Lady,” the guard said. “You’ll be safe. We will protect you.”

Four figures flew through the clouds, heading straight for the palace.

Orla moved to stand next to me, gazing up at the strangeness. “I’m afraid, Dean.”

Good. I didn’t speak, keeping my attention on the sky. Were they… No. That couldn’t be right.

“Dean?”

“What?”

“They’re women, aren’t they? Naked women. With…. Roses? Are there roses on their skin?”

Red light on their chests, glowing brightly.

The dead women.

Pod and fae magic.

“Oh, no.”

Pod gushed from the roses, red streams spilling over the lands. Even from this height, I saw it strike the grass and start to spread in thin lines across the ground.

“We need to get out of here, Orla.”

“Those bastards!” she yelled. “They’re betraying me? They’re actually betraying me when I let them out?”

My head snapped around. “What did you just say?”

“Oh, fuck it. Who cares now? Those two? Parker and Elijah? Should I say, Oisin and Ronan. They’re my fathers. At least one of them is. It’s confusing. The results are always inconclusive, so I call them both Dad.”

“You’re… The daughter? Aoife’s daughter? How is that possible?”

“Doesn’t matter now. They screwed me over. Let’s go. Everything has changed. I have some men to castrate.”

She led the way through the bedroom as the sky roared with thunder. She flung the door open and stomped into the corridor. There were four guards waiting there.

“My Lady?” one of them questioned.

“This way,” she told them all.

Two guards took point, two in the rear, moving without question.

As we hurried along, she spoke. “Bastards! We had a deal. Just wait until I get my hands on them. They’ll wish I never freed them from that damn place.”

Movement behind me, a yell. I turned to see a rose woman flying down the corridor, coming straight for us at great speed.

She dodged the guards’ swords and poured pod over them. They wailed as they went down, throwing a fit on the floor as the pod aggressively consumed them.

“My Lady!” a man called.

I ducked and rolled, leaking red pod missing me by inches. The guards tried to defend Orla but got doused in red.

“Get away!” Orla yelled, hands glowing pink.

The woman grabbed her by the hair, lifted her up to the ceiling.

“No!” Orla screamed. “Let me go! Let me go! Dean!”

Pod was dripping from the rose all over the amber carpet, slithering in all directions, climbing the walls, making its way to me and away from me. Blobs appeared, some bigger than others.

Shit!

“Dean!”

The woman tossed Orla to the ground, and she landed face-first in a pod. It didn’t swallow her whole head but smothered her face. Upon impact, the necklace broke, the vial bouncing across the floor, stopping centimeters away from a small pod river.

My daughter’s essence.

The pod woman turned her attention to me, making a grab. I jumped back, then rolled forward, scooping up the vial as I came out of the roll, hopped over the pods, and darted down the corridor.

I burst through the doorway I remembered being dragged up here through. A stairwell was there, and I charged down it, back in the direction I’d been taken. Back to the throne room.

It was empty, save for one man standing at the center.

“Dad.”

He was holding a sword. “Son.”

“Dad.”

He knew.

He was in on it.

“Deannnnnnn…”

Orla.

“Oh, Deany….”

“No…” Dad gasped, looking behind me.

Orla was transformed, along with her guards. They were all covered in red boils, dragging their bodies across the ground. Weak. Pathetic, but their faces dripped with menace as well as pod.

The rose woman wasn’t with them from what I could see.

“Deannnn… Oh, Dean. I’m coming to get you…”

She sounded like she was off her face on drugs. Her speech slurred. She pawed at the ground in desperation, trying her best to get to me.

Her guards moaned around her.

“Kiss me, Dean. Come and be mineeeeeeee…”

Orla. Daughter of evil fae. Not who I thought she was. Remnant of a long-dead past.

Taker of what was mine.

She’d come into my city and affected my life. Scared my baby girl. Tried to destroy everything I loved, everything I’d built. As crazy as her fathers.

Icy rage took over, the kind free of hesitation. “Dad?”

“Yes, Son?”

“Give me that sword.”

I listened to him hurry over, placing the hilt in my hand.

“Deannnn…” Orla lifted her head, her hand opening and closing, reaching for me. “Oh, Deany. Here comes my Deany. He’s mine, and no one else can have him.” She started to sing. “All mine, never Jake’s, because he doesn’t deserve him. Kill the Jake. Kill the Jake. Take the Dean. Take the De—”

I drove the blade into her skull. She convulsed, then died, a pool of blood spreading from beneath her face.

The guards moaned some more, pawing at her, coming for me. One by one, they met the same fate as their queen.

Dead.

She was dead.

I turned to face my dad. “You.” I pointed the sword at him. “You knew. You helped. You came and caused pain and disruption. This is on you just as much as her.”

“Son, I—”

Something dripped from the high ceiling. There was a hole burning in there, and the drips were red. Pod was leaking through.

No time. Had to leave.

“Dean! Look out!” Dad cried.

The rose woman, or at least one of them, soared at me from across the throne room, and I braced myself. This had to work. Timing was everything. She was leaking pod everywhere.

Three. Two. One.

I sliced upwards and cut her head off, diving to the side after the cleave. The sword flew out of my hands, clanging on the floor somewhere over to my right.

Her head bounced and rolled to a stop, body smacking into the wall with a sickening thud, then tumbled on top of Orla and the dead guards.

She was only one, though.

“Son! We have to go. I can get you out!”

The hole in the ceiling widened to a gaping maw, a waterfall of red cascading down, thunder shaking the palace.

“Dean! Come on!”

There was no other choice left if I wanted to live.

I followed him.

Twenty-Eight

Jake

Fished out of the hole by some men in balaclavas, my body swollen and covered in pods, barely breathing, feeling nothing now. Not even that dull pain. It was amazing I could still see, still smell and hear the city as I was transported in a wooden sleigh attached to the back of a van, dragged slowly through the streets with Elijah in there with me. Out of sight. He was behind my head, sat in the front of the two-seater sleigh while I was laid in the back one. My view was the sky and the lightning and the pod worms crawling across the buildings I passed.

The city had gone to shit in the blink of an eye. Now and again, the Roses would fly over, drop pod, or some new pod-born would zip through the sky. Everything was a chorus of death and devastation.

And the rain had stopped. Probably thought it was being upstaged now.

At least when they burned me, I wouldn’t feel any pain. Hopefully. Maybe I’d kick the bucket before we got to wherever it was we were going.

I’d given up. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but there was no way out of this now. I knew my body, and it was dying, shutting down. There was no cure for pod, and I was one of the unlucky ones. I wasn’t gonna be a Sonny the Snake, or a tree creature. Not like that was lucky, but I was heading for the death. My life was over. I’d never see Lou grow up now, or finally marry Dean.

Everything was over.

“Not much longer now,” Elijah said in his soft voice. He sighed heavily. “My foolish brother and his experiments. I knew he would fail, that there would be nothing but this chaos. But this is what he wanted, wasn’t it? An apocalypse, but with you at the helm. Never mind. It is good for the world that I’m here. That the Conclave is here. We will end this, not some child.”

What the hell did that mean?

He didn’t elaborate. “And those attempts to frame me by forcing our shared body to be me and naked with those two women he killed. It was all a game to him. Fun. Turn public eyes towards me and the Conclave. Kill women of lust and sin. He could have used anyone to be his Roses, but he chose them because of their sin, because it would be fun to cast suspicion at the Conclave. Wouldn’t that be a Conclave thing to do? After all, we had made them face their shame.”

Yeah, one sick piece of shit. He made me so fucking angry.

“Parker always had to try and torment me, to stir the pot. I told him not to, but he was always tougher than me. He’ll never be told no, so I let him play his games, made a deal that if he failed, it would be the holy way. This is the only way.” A pause. “I mean everything I say, Jake. I loathe magic. Look at what it has done to me and now doing to this city. And it will spread if we don’t cleanse the sin, go back to where it all began. You. This is on you. Now is the time for you to pay the price, for me to clean up your mess, along with the mess of my brother.” He laughed. “Did you enjoy that story, Jake? Did it surprise you? Make you want to dig deeper?”

Not really. The stuff about the child was weird, really bugging me.

“One day, I will be free from him and him from me. Then we will see who remains. I only hope my darling is safe from his chaos.”

Darling?

“You have no idea how hard it is to live in a sinful body like this, Jake. But your burning will set me free. The catalyst of hope. You should be proud to be doing something worthwhile with the last moments of your existence. I’m sure you’ll burn in Hell, but won’t it be wonderful to take the knowledge of saving the world with you?”

I wished he’d shut the fuck up.

“I would imagine that’s not true,” he added. “You don’t care about the world. If you did, you wouldn’t have done what you did.”

What? Save it once before?

“Alas, you’re selfish and corrupt. There is no forgiveness for you. I hope the flames hurt.”

I’d encountered some unhinged arseholes in my time, but this bloke really took the biscuit and smashed it into a million pieces.

* * *

Dam Square. Outside Royal Palace.

The dark building had no pod worms running through it yet, only two purple pods. A structure had been built in front of it—a massive pyre, ready for me, made of wood and books, and whatever else went up well. My head was flopped at a right angle to drink it all in as the thunder boomed ominously, carrying on without the rain.

There were people gathered in a circle around the pyre holding candles. No pole to strap me to? Wasn’t that the way burnings were supposed to go down? The damned (me) tied to a pole, and then all the crap at the bottom set alight. Done. Watch things get toasty.

Circumstances were different here. I was pod. The sleigh was wooden.

My questions were being answered as I went along, dragged over to the pyre, then up onto the top of the mound.

Too infected to tie to a pole.

“There,” Elijah said. Couldn’t see him—not that I was complaining. “Now, you’re ready.” I heard him move away.

This was it.

I’m sorry, Lou.

I’m sorry, Dean.

I don’t know what to do. There’s no way out.

Two faces appeared in my eyeline.

The Ricci Twins.

“Time to die!” Elena screeched.

“We told you! We told you!” Emilio added.

“Mother will be so proud.”

“And avenged.” Emilio loomed in closer. “Nothing but pain for you now.” He stepped back, and the pair of them laughed their heads off.

Shame that wasn’t literally laughing their skulls from their necks.

I was expecting Izzie, but she didn’t put in an appearance to come and add to the Ricci bollocks.

After about a half-minute of listening to that laughing, they were gone from my sight. My eyes were grateful.

I sent a silent prayer for Lou to be safe with Soph and Luuk, for Dean, for all my friends and family. Let them live. Let me get out of this shit alive.

“Friends!” Elijah bellowed. “Time is of the essence.” Thunderclaps punctuated his words. “We gather here on our consecrated ground on the Spring Equinox—God’s chosen day. Finally, we are here to burn away the rot that is Jake Winter. Prepare for a new dawn!” Cheers went up. “Let us not delay. The pod is inching closer, the so-called Divine Roses hungry for destruction.”

One flew over as if hearing him, droplets of red splashing from the rose. Fuck knows where it landed, but a few people yelled.

“Now! Burn him! Ignite the pyre with your flames! Let us end this!”

From the corner of my eye, I saw the people come forward and toss their candles.

Man, this really was it.

Fuck.

Let it be bloody quick!

They started singing.

Insane! They were all fucking crackers!

A crackle, a glow of fire. Yeah, it was really happening.

This was wrong, though. All this was gonna do was fry me, not clear the world of pods, and it definitely wasn’t about to make supernatural creatures go away, for magic to fall. That’s not how it worked, and that wasn’t how God worked—if you believed in a higher power. I sat on the fence, but to me, if there was a supreme being in charge, they wouldn’t endorse this kind of hate. I just refused to accept that.

But it didn’t matter what I thought now. I was doomed. Death by fire or death by pod, and I knew which direction I was heading in.

The singing went on, Elijah’s voice the loudest, the glow of the fire getting brighter. Soon I’d be that glow, that brightest star on the friggin’ tree.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Was that Brem’s voice?

“I’d like to second that.”

Dylan Rivers?

“Get away from here!” Elijah roared. “You will not break the dawn!”

“Hun, that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing,” Dylan countered.

“Yeah!”

Sonny? What the frig?

“Don’t let them live!”

Something heavy hit the sleigh, jangling.

Chains.

Everything went crazy after that.

Twenty-Nine

Dylan Rivers

A vampire with his arm around a woman stood with us as we faced the Conclave.

Seph made the first move, wrapping his chains around that brown sleigh holding poor Jake. I tried not to be distracted by the mess he had become, riddled with pod, unrecognizable.

Destroy first. Take care of him later.

The kelpie dragged the sleigh out of the fire, and I called upon my song to enchant, my companions surging forward to meet the charge of the Conclave as my song rose. This use of power would give me the worst hangover tomorrow. Using the song always did, and always would. I didn’t have to use it so much these days.

It would be worth it, though.

I took pleasure in Seph snapping the neck of a charging man as he dragged Jake out of the fray, enjoyed witnessing the vampire tearing into the neck of a vicious woman who tried to attack him with a knife. The woman he’d had his arm around was right behind him, her own blade held high in a trembling hand.

Pranay shifted into the black wolf, protecting me, with Andy beside me too with his throwing stars. No one could or would get close.

There wasn’t much I could do for the city, but I could certainly stop this travesty.

Golden magic swirled around me in glorious ribbons, drifting towards the people, the melody building to its crescendo. Ready to snare. They couldn’t run. They wouldn’t be allowed to run.

Their time was done.

“Dylan Rivers!” Elijah was now Parker. Oh. Interesting. The same body.

I smiled at the bastard’s cry. “Hello, there.”

“This is…” He was back to Elijah. “You will not stop this! The world is not yours to corrupt.”

“Oh, do be quiet.”

The song was done, now an explosive sound, and the ribbons darted for each member of this foul church who was still breathing.

Mine.

They stopped, swaying on their feet, all eyes on me. Huge smiles on their faces, lost in the bliss of my melody.

The fire had quickly reached full blaze. Thank goodness Jake was safe…from burning to death at least.

And there was no sign of Elijah/Parker.

“Hello, everyone,” I said. “You now belong to me.”

“We love you,” they replied gently together. “We love the siren.”

“I know you do. Now listen. I want each of you to walk to the fire and throw yourselves in. I want you to burn. Oh, and be sure to drag the bodies of your dead friends with you.”

This was extreme. I could have them sit and wait to be arrested rather than die. This was slaughter. But who would arrest them? Where would they go and be held? The city was in chaos.

One by one, the Conclave members did as they were bid. They burned silently, seeing as they were enchanted to do so. Happy to turn to a crisp as their master commanded.

“The entire Conclave will burn now,” I whispered. “This is only the beginning.”

Thirty

Dean

Dad led me through corridors where pod leaked through the ceiling. It became an obstacle course—jumping out of the way with split-second reactions, side-stepping a swollen red blob.

“Son!”

A crack split the corridor in two, dividing us. Liquid red spilled over the sides, rushing towards me, towards him. The moment it touched my boots, I’d be tainted.

I wouldn’t give it a chance.

Backing up, I burst into a run, making a leap at the last moment, grabbing the elaborate light fixture above my head—one made of jagged edges and curved, amber-tinged glass. It strained under my weight, squeaked as I built up enough of a swing to get me over the danger filling up the hallway.

“Dean!”

What was Dad doing acting like he cared if I got out? He was part of this, complicit in harming Louise. Because that’s what it was. Harmful. He was supposed to be her grandfather, but what’d I expected? Miracles? Evander Gold was always one thing overall—a selfish prick.

Hate later. Fight now.

With enough momentum, I released and landed in a forward roll just beyond the liquid pod. Not stopping, I ran, Dad keeping up.

“Left!” he instructed.

So we went left and carried on navigating the corridors, waiting for a rose woman to spring out and unleash pod on us. Thunder kept cracking, the foundations of the palace trembling.

It was the end of the world.

Finally, we came to another large stable with no ceiling. The roof had been torn off, and all but two of the stalls were empty. One with a terrified horse, the other with a dead one covered in the shimmering boils that were red pods.

The living, white horse was saddled up, two dead guards on the ground outside its stall twitching, clearly preparing to get out there.

“I thought this would be the best stable,” Dad said.

Through the broken wooden doors leading outside, the view wasn’t the sea but an expanse of the autumn lands stretching further east.

One of the guards groaned and pushed himself onto his knees. His head split down the middle, revealing a mass of glowing red inside—no brain or bone in sight.

The red mass slid upward, changing shape outside of the gap in the head, rippling into what looked to be a clawed hand.

Dad had the sword now. He drove it into the man’s heart first, then sliced through his neck.

“To be safe,” he said, then stabbed the unmoving man several times before he took the guard’s head off too.

Not the place to worry about overkill.

“Get down!” Dad hissed.

We dropped as two rose women flew overhead, dripping more red. It struck the hay bales and the ground a few feet away from me.

“If it hits that horse, there’s no way out,” he said. “We need to go now. It’ll fly, but we have to be quick and careful.”

How fast did the rose women fly compared to the horse? There was only one way to find out, and only once shot at this.

It started to rain. Not heavy, more of an annoying light drizzle. But those storm clouds were thickening, darkening, and the thunder and red lightning wasn’t relenting.

This would spread across Faerie and was probably doing the same back home.

I needed to get back to my family. I had the vial with Louise’s essence. As much as I hated to admit it, I needed my dad to come with me. If what Orla had said was true, yet again, I needed to call upon his help.

“On the horse,” I ordered.

The horse was resistant at first. I completely understood its terror, its helplessness being trapped in the stall. But part of my power was to soothe, to manipulate emotion, and ease suffering. Mainly on humans. Hadn’t used it on a horse in a long while. It did work, though, and the creature was soon happy enough to take both our weight in the saddle.

I took the reins, my dad holding onto me. My flesh crawled at his presence. Thousands of feet would be too close, never mind sharing a horse.

Endure it for now…

At me snapping the reins, the horse charged, pounding the hay-strew ground to the other end of the stable. It scraped a hoof across the ground, then shot forward in takeoff, gaining height as soon as its hooves met the air.

As soon as we were out in the open, we got the attention I’d been expecting.

“Come on!” I commanded, lowering myself forward.

The rose women came up alongside us, silent, two on either side. That was the creepiest thing about them. Usually, the creatures we faced would shriek or make some noise. Even if it was just a grunt. These didn’t make a single sound. Their facial expressions were fixed, glacial death, and I was sure they didn’t blink.

Machines of destruction. Perfect vessels to destroy, to spread chaos. It reeked of Parker Smith. That’s exactly what he liked to do.

Another tore upward, cutting us off.

I’d ridden horses before in my youth. It’d been a while, but it all came back to me in an instant as if I’d never been out of the loop. Plus, this horse was incredibly intuitive. A symbiotic relationship was forming with each passing second. The two of us connected in the desperation to get out of here.

Dad held on tight as the horse picked up even more speed, shot downward, the ground rising up quick. The rose women followed, and the horse went back up, me encouraging every move, being the eyes when the rose women moved in for the attack.

The trick was to keep above them, which wasn’t so easy when there were now six of them coming at us from all directions.

So many near misses, so many hairpin turns. Distance gained, distance lost when we had to double back and go up to get clear.

It was too risky to use the sword at the speed we were going.

Both hands inside the car, please. Hold on tight because here comes the big dipper.

My stomach lurched as we made another vertical plunge. That really was something else. Frightening, kind of thrilling. There was so much adrenaline spiking inside me I was overwhelmed. Still, it was a keeping me going through the terror, fueling my determination.

Dad and I didn’t have fae power with bangs and booms. Our skills would be useless on the rose women. Speed was all we had.

The horse was faster than our chasers, but there were more of them, and they had pod to leak. The risk of getting sprayed was slowing us down, hindering us from getting a straight flight path to the portal.

“Hold out for me,” I whispered to the horse. Soothing. Reassuring. “Don’t give up.”

If it did, it was goodnight.

* * *

“We’re almost there,” I said more to myself than Dad or the horse.

After an eternity of ducking and diving, plunging and soaring, we’d evaded the rose women and got close to the same portal I’d been taken into Faerie through.

I’m coming, Louise.

I’m coming, baby.

The final stretch. One more charge and—

When the single rose woman popped up into our trajectory, there wasn’t enough time to get out of the way. The horse crashed into her, shrieking as it spun out of control, plummeting to the ground in a frenzy of spinning as I held on for dear life, my dad’s fingers digging into my sides.

Thirty-One

Jake

Fading.

Life slipping through my fingers.

Not moving.

Fading.

Voices telling me to hold on. Be strong. Help was coming.

No help.

Fading.

No cure.

Fading.

Grip on life weak.

Fading.

Didn’t want this. Had too much life to live.

Fading.

Life wasn’t mine anymore. Nope. Stolen. Taken away. Not mine.

Fading.

Dying.

Dying…

Thirty-Two

Dean

The horse gained its footing on the ground with a heavy landing and charged forward. Didn’t collapse, tumble, or throw us. Finally, I could breathe again after spinning towards the ground, holding on for dear life, my life flashing before my eyes, hoping fate would smile down on us.

Once again, she had.

No time to take it all in. The horse launched back into the air, tearing through the shimmering air that was the portal back to Earth as the rose women continued their pursuit. They wouldn’t stop until we shook them.

“Come on!” I cried. “Let’s lose these things!”

The portal spat us out on the Earth side, into the skies of Amsterdam.

Home.

Our pursuers hadn’t followed from what I could see, but there were more here, raining pod down on the city.

Screams, noises from nightmares, and a whole load of horror drifted up to my ears along with the constant crack of the thunder. The heavy rain had stopped, but that deluge had been nothing in comparison to the devastation I was looking down on.

My breath caught in my chest again.

Amsterdam. Not my city anymore. The canals were scarlet, the buildings covered in red fissures, smoke rising from various points.

The Divine Roses had taken over.

Pod was everywhere.

“Oh, God.”

The horse swept across the city, me steering her in the direction of the hospital. But I could see from my position what’d become of it.

Rubble. Burning. Sitting in a lake of red.

“Louise… Jake…”

No. They weren’t in there. Jake would’ve got her and himself out somewhere safe.

I headed for our house, which was smothered in red, as was Sophie and Luuk’s. My heart was about to shatter. It would’ve if I let it, but I denied it. Of course, they wouldn’t be in the house. Not with this going on. I gave Jake so much more credit than that. He was strong and capable and enterprising. Now I had to follow him, track him down—or even find a phone. Mine was gone. Chances of finding one or making contact right now were zero.

You have to think better than that!

We swept over Jake & Dean Investigations, where pod-born ran up and down the canal paths. People with swollen heads hurried along. One woman had been turned into a half-snail creature with those thin tentacle eyes and a shell on her back, but still with legs. A man with a crow’s head was chasing her.

How was this going to be put right?

Dead Jake and Louise, their bodies broken, twisted, rotting. Drowning in pods. Burned. Dead. The loves of my life dead. Gone. Failed.

I slumped forward as my mind was overcome with grief, flashing those torturous images at me. Hope began to drain away because of my fucked-up imagination, the crippling taint I couldn’t quite escape.

Flowers of pain bloomed in my soul. Spiritual and physical agony, loss raking and clawing through me, hooking me with festered talons, longing for a failure.

“Dean!”

My family wasn’t dead. They couldn’t be dead. This was my mind. Not real. They weren’t allowed to die because I needed them.

I felt myself slump forward, not in control of my body anymore.

“They can’t be gone…”

“Dean! They’re coming! They’re coming!”

Dad? Was that Dad?

“I just want to hold them…”

“Dean!” Movement, pressure on my back. Sliding to the side, locked in between flesh. Man and horse, head resting on a mane of white hair.

Sliding.

Tears ran free. I knew what was happening, fully aware of losing the grip on myself and the horse, but also far away from any sense of reason. I’d seen them dead. Combined with the mess of the city, I couldn’t hold back my fear.

“Because of me…” I said. “Because of me, they’re gone. We could have been somewhere else, somewhere remote and away from all of it. Never any need to be these people. PIAs? My fault. Whatever happened to peace?”

“Dean!”

“Jake deserves a better man, Louise, a better father. I’m just like you. Useless. Should’ve never shared my fucking seed.”

I lost it, wailing in grief I didn’t need to be drowning in. But it’d been triggered, and the images wouldn’t stop in their unrelenting ravaging.

Thirty-Three

Jake

How was I still alive, still breathing, still able to see? Yeah, no more feeling, paralyzed from head to toe. I could blink, feel my lungs working, but that was it.

Maybe this was the transformation—leaving me like this. Maybe I was wrong about dying.

Still seemed like a shutdown, though. Like this was the final piece of land before the wide-open abyss.

Ugh. The universe was so mean sometimes.

I was being moved somewhere. My mind kept drifting to happier times when I wasn’t this hot mess of dying.

Back to Dean and Lou. Happy times on the sofa with hot chocolate and big fantasy novels. Cuddling up together as a family watching movies. Going to the park. Enjoying the sunshine on those days the weather wasn’t a wanker. Christmas. Easter chocolate. The kiss of Dean’s lips, Lou telling me about Jupiter’s moons. Bedtime with the love of my life. Lazy mornings, which didn’t happen often. Cooking dinner for them because I loved to feed their faces. Everything good and great. Small, big, all of it. I’d cut my fucking liver out with a rusty blade to get it back, to have even five more minutes with them.

Just five minutes.

I wanna say goodbye.

Thirty-Four

Dean

An hour passed before I registered we weren’t outside, but in relative darkness, apart from the light of a candle. I was awake the whole time, but not really. Lost awake, I guess you could call it.

“Dean?” A hundred times he’d said my name.

This was the first time I answered. “What?”

“Finally! Are you all right?”

I blinked, my eyes burning and exhausted, my mind empty. “Where are we?”

“I got us away, got us to this shelter.”

The candlelight was the only light. Everything else was shadow. “Where?”

“Amsterdam Centraal. A shop inside it. Some kind people helped me carry you here. The grounds surrounding it are in a horrendous way, but this is the best place to be for the moment. We have this temporary window of opportunity to take a pause now. Amazingly, the station is completely untouched for the time being.”

Inside the train station? No memory of that.

“We’ve been in Faerie for four hours Earth time,” he said.

“Four hours?”

“Yes, Son. The man in charge of this operation here said we’re heading out soon to a safer place. He’s pod-born, but not like the creatures being made by the Roses. After all, their power is infused with unstable fae magic, so the transformations are more haphazard than normal.”

“You know a lot about pods?”

“I do. I know too much about many things, Son.”

Bastard. “Who was this man?”

“He said his name was Sonny and that he knew you.”

“Sonny?”

“Yes. A snake-ish thing. Extremely helpful. He wants to move west and try to get to Schiphol Airport.”

“Why the hell would he want to do that? Pods love planes.”

“I don’t know. That’s what he said.”

“I’m not going anywhere until I find Jake and Louise.”

“And I’ll be with you.”

Cockroach.

“Where’s the horse?” I asked.

He sighed. “Had to leave her behind. She bolted as I tried to lead her into the tunnels. Your soothing presence was broken. I’m sorry, Son.”

For the horse? For everything?

I was in a sitting position on the floor, my back resting against a wall. The air was cloying, too warm, and there was no sign of red. No pod.

Yet.

“I don’t know how we got away from those women,” Dad said. “But we managed it against all odds.” He leaned forward, the light accentuating handsome features I wanted to tear apart.

“We have to go,” I said, looking away.

“Not yet. We have to wait.”

“I’m not waiting. I’m getting out of here.”

“Dean?” Sonny’s voice, then a flame coming to life to reveal his grubby face and snake eyes.

“Hi.”

“You alright?”

“I will be when I find my family.”

“That’s what I came to tell you. They’ve just turned up.”

I was on my feet instantly. “Where are they?”

He blocked my path.

“Move now or die, Sonny.”

“Dean… It’s Jake. I’m so sorry.”

* * *

This wasn’t real.

Jake was in the center of this ring of people, his body glowing with red pod. He was resting on a wooden sleigh which had been dragged here by Seph and his chains, barely recognizable under all the boils and the swelling of his flesh.

My beautiful Jake.

Dylan and his companions, Brem, Cherry, Sonny, Sophie, and Luuk. Dad. A few strangers. There were others in the other shops next door to this one, crowded together in terror.

I didn’t give a shit.

My family was broken.

“Daddy? Papa?” Louise said weakly after agonizing moments of silence. I went to her.

All I’d been doing was alternating between the two of them, speaking reassurances, kissing her forehead after the contents of the vial had been poured into her mouth, the missing piece of her slithering back into her in a silky cloud of milk. Her color had returned, warmth too. A deep intake of breath and gentle snoring followed.

I wasn’t able to kiss Jake.

I fell by her side. “I’m here.” I wanted to hug her, but she was weak. Instead, I smoothed the curly hair from her forehead.

Louise was wrapped in a blanket, spread out on a bed made of coats. “Papa.”

I took her tiny hand. “I’m here, darling. You’re okay.”

“Where…where did I go?”

What did I tell her? “You’re here now.”

Yes, here waiting for a miracle my dad was about to reveal.

First, he came to greet his granddaughter.

“Grandpa…” Louise whispered. “Hi.”

“How are you, my treasure?” He didn’t crouch, didn’t dare come close. I’d hurt him if he did.

“The spell?” I said.

“Yes. Of course.” He backed off.

“Papa? Where’s Daddy?”

A stab in my heart. “He’s…he’s here. He’ll come and give you a big kiss in a minute.”

“Okay…Papa.” She closed her eyes. “Just resting.”

“You rest. Sophie and Luuk are here.”

“Hallo, Sophie and Luuk,” she said softly, not opening her eyes.

The lie about Jake was ashes on my tongue. But she couldn’t know, couldn’t see him like that.

“Luuk will be right here while I talk to grandpa.”

“Okay…” She was falling back into sleep.

Sophie was needed in this discussion too.

We moved to the other side of the shop where my dad held court and began to explain the last slice of hope we had now the world was going to Hell in that handbasket so often cited.

“I have the spell, and I think we have enough energy here to make it happen. A witch, a siren, two full-blooded fae, a half-fae.”

I was positioned to have Jake and Louise in my eyeline.

“At least, I hope we can make this happen,” Dad added.

“It has to work,” Dylan responded. “If this is true about Louise, then she is all we have left.”

My poor girl. “What will it do to her?”

“Exhaust her, I would imagine,” Dad said.

“Will it hurt her?”

“I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t think so. It may have the consequences of a great power usage.”

“That’s reassuring.” I folded my arms. “I’m expected to put her through this when I don’t know what’ll happen? She’s been through so much already. What if I lose her? And I know I’m losing Jake if we don’t try this. But—”

“Son—”

“Don’t even try it, Dad. Because of you, we’re here. You were part of it. So don’t try to placate me, okay? I don’t want your comfort.”

He didn’t push me. “I’ve seen her power, and it’s great. But it is not made up of things to harm.”

“Explain.”

“There is no unstable core. Unstable power is evident from fractures in the essence of a fae’s power. Louise doesn’t have those fractures.”

“But you did tell me before that it was unstable, right?”

“That was to…to—”

“Cover up your lies. I know.”

Again, he didn’t try and say anything about it. He knew better. “It radiates an energy of stopping, of cold. That’s her freezing power, but at the heart of it are the contributions of her environment. It is, from what I can see, anti-pod. Her blood, your blood, the time she was exposed to divine power when she was in her mother’s womb, all of these things have contributed to form this magic. It was fae to begin with, nothing but a diluted trace within her that has grown with time.”

“Weed of Tine is amazing stuff.”

“It is.”

I really wanted to punch him.

“In the growing of this power, it has latched onto the conditions of her existence. Environment can contribute to a lot of things when it comes to magic.” He folded his hands behind his back. “This power of hers froze threats against those she loves, like she demonstrated, but awakening its deeper capabilities will go further.”

“Destroy the pod?” Pranay, the werewolf, asked.

“I really do think that. But there is a risk it won’t work, that it will be nothing more than a stronger freezing power. Dean, as soon as you say, I will begin.”

“What do you need from the rest of us?” Sophie asked.

“I need you all to join hands. Dylan. Andy. Dean. Me. You, Sophie.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

He removed a small piece of parchment from his pocket. “This,” he said, “is the words of the spell to release Louise’s full potential. Early Gaelic. They must be spoken by me, when we are all joined, in a specific rhythm. They will draw on our collective energy.”

My stomach flipped. Was I really going to put my daughter through this? What choice was there? Do nothing, lose Jake, and have nothing left of the world. Sooner or later, this train station would be overwhelmed by pod or by pod-born. And then it would move across the world.

Nowhere would be safe.

This decision burned me from the inside out.

There was only one option.

“Let’s do it before something nasty comes knocking.” Chaos still rang outside, the thunder still booming. Amsterdam Centraal wasn’t the last building standing, from what I’d seen before my meltdown, but it was swimming in a small pond. If the surrounding area was heavily damaged, it wouldn’t be long before the tide turned.

I linked hands with Sophie and Andy, moving away from my dad. Having his skin on mine was a repellent idea.

Dad held Dylan’s hand and had one free. We were a chain, not a circle like I’d been expecting.

“I will now speak the words,” Dad said. “Be ready.”

As soon as the words left his lips, my body erupted in vibrations, like I was sitting on a particularly aggressive washing machine. My teeth chattered, brain rattling in my skull.

“G-g-goodness m-m-me…” Dylan said.

Our joined hands sparked different colors. Pink, blue, gold, pulses of light shooting back and forth along our chain.

“Do not break the chain,” Dad ordered. “It is imperative to stay joined together until the magic is released. Let it rise.”

Along with the heavy vibrations, my energy was being drawn out of me, passed down the line, traveling back through me again with other things attached to it.

Back and forth, back and forth.

“No!” Parker’s shout almost broke the chain.

Couldn’t see him. He was behind me.

“Rats!” he bellowed. “Sneaky rats! I’ll end you! We’ll end you!”

“Jake Winter will burn.” Elijah’s voice.

Dylan had told me about the two-in-one surprise of the brothers.

The wolf, the kelpie, the vampire—they sprang into action. Sonny too, and the strangers.

Why was Brem here?

As long as he was on our side, right now, I didn’t care.

“Fuck you!” Pranay growled.

“Don’t break the chain!” Dad cried.

Fighting broke out. Dangerously close. Shouting, the howl of a wolf, the jangling of the kelpie’s chains, and the smashing of glass as the power built inside me, inside all of us who were linked.

“Burn him!” That wasn’t Elijah. Izzie? More Conclave had come to see a job done and avenge their friends.

“We will burn him!”

“Kill the girl!”

Luuk and Cherry were with my daughter, holding weapons. No one had slipped through to them yet, or Jake. Parker/Elijah did, but vanished quickly after the kelpie chains snapped at them.

“Just a little bit longer!” Dad yelled.

“Burn him!”

“Kill the girl!”

“Kill Jake Winter!”

I longed to break free and kill them for saying those things. To obliterate any piece of shit who thought they could come and threaten my family.

I held on.

“No!” Parker this time. “We can’t let these people win! Kill them! Kill them all!”

It sounded like everyone hiding in the train station had jumped into the fight.

Parker appeared again next to my daughter, grabbing Cherry by her hair. She twisted to stamp on his foot, and he vanished yet again just before a kelpie chain snagged him.

Seconds later, he was back. Grinning. “Yes! That’s it! Spread it everywhere!”

People screamed. The Roses. They were here and—

The power exploded out of us, throwing us across the room. I smacked into the wall, fell forward onto my knees as a rose woman dashed around me, pod spilling from her rose.

Louise screamed, and it shook the ground.

“No!” Parker roared.

Everything was swallowed in a blinding white light.

Thirty-Five

Jake

The last thing I saw after my daughter’s scream was snow falling. Indoors.

Okay, then.

It wasn’t cold, not anything. But it froze. It touched my body and quickly made the world stop.

THREE HOURS LATER

Thirty-Six

Dean

The purest white snow I’d ever seen smothered the city. It had no temperature, no texture. Touching it was like touching air, and it’d fallen for three hours before settling, bathed in the light of the moon.

No more rain, no clouds in the starry sky because the snow hadn’t come from any. Inky black and stars scattered everywhere. No more Divine Roses, pod engulfed and lost in white.

So I was told. I wouldn’t leave the shop, Louise now asleep next to me. A deep, deep sleep after what she’d just done.

Jake was buried under the snow, only his mouth and nose exposed for him to take his gentle breaths.

Sonny was the same, being pod-born too, I figured.

“I’m here, baby.” I wanted to touch Jake so badly.

Was he healing? Had this really worked?

I was drifting, lost without his voice, waiting, longing.

“I think it will take time,” Dad said behind me as I knelt beside the mound of white that was my fiancé. “Give it time.”

Dad.

I stood and turned to face him. “Talk. Now.”

“Sorry?”

“Tell me everything.”

Parker/Elijah were missing, the hunt on. The city was coming to terms with this strange event. Everything was, well, unknown. Dylan Rivers and his companions were out to try again with the woodland prison.

When Dad’s eyes met mine, I saw guilt. Rather than struggle for something to say, the words flew out of him. “The Rós brothers knew about Louise, wanted her soul taken away to stop her because of the first time she showed her skill. They sensed greatness and didn’t want it to interfere with their plans. Parker for his Jake-led apocalypse, which I didn’t know about, I swear, and Elijah for –”

“Burning Jake,” I finished for him.

“Yes. Dean. I’m sorry. I didn’t want—”

“Don’t say her name to me.”

“Don’t you want to know about her being their daughter?”

“What’s to know? She was their daughter. Found out how to live a long life.”

“Terrible magic involving the blood of young fae over the centuries to stay alive, to help her grow into the girl you knew, then into the woman you encountered.”

Deep breaths. “Did you know who she was when we were younger?”

“No. Only recently.” He shook his head and took an imploring step forward. “Son, I’m so, so sorry. Deeper than you can imagine. I was a fool, desperate. The money had dried up, and I was losing my social standing. Those things were all I had, all I’d ever achieved. I know that is a terrible thing to say, but my life was crumbling. Selfish, yes. But I couldn’t lose my life. Orla threw me a lifeline, and it spun out of control.” He shook his head again. “I’ve acted so terribly. I never wanted to hurt anyone.”

I’d had enough. “Don’t insult me with your pathetic excuses, you piece of shit. You went along with this, and that’s all I need to know about you now. Had me thinking we could be something else, that we could have a relationship. The only thing stopping me from killing you is this.” I gestured to the snow, to Jake and Louise. “You came good in the end when you could’ve run away. I’m grateful for that and always will be.”

“Dean…”

“But I never want to see your face again.”

I meant every word of it. The gratitude would be eternal. This was because of him, and he’d helped me escape the palace.

“Dean. Please. I—”

“Goodbye, Dad.”

“Son. Let me make it up to you. Let me…” He fell to his knees. “Let me beg your forgiveness. Please. I can’t stand this. I have to be in her life.”

I had to give it to him that, despite being a total bastard, he had the ability to reach a part of me I thought I’d blocked off a long time ago. A part of me that wanted him to be my dad.

Would I be able to forgive him?

“I said goodbye, Dad.”

Tears ran down his cheeks. “Son. Please. I love you. Let me make this better.”

I turned my back.

He didn’t say another word. I listened to him, eventually, get up and walk away.

Thirty-Seven

Dylan Rivers

What a messy, tricky maneuver to get through the tunnels at Flevopark. Seph and I chained together and also chained to Andy and Pranay above.

The tunnels were choked with water, but that water stopped at the edge of an open door—a wall of liquid unable to break through into the woodland that waited there, held back a protective magic.

That same magic let us through. It didn’t offer much in the way of resistance to our bodies. In fact, I could sense vulnerability within it, which was pleasing in the context of our mission.

Together we landed on grass, dripping with mud and water.

“That was unpleasant,” I said.

Seph chuckled. “I’ll say.”

The woodland was beautiful, too fancy a prison for that pair of destructive brothers.

I’m sure being stuck here together drove them to the furthest reaches of insanity, even more crazy than they already were.

Literally trapped together, fused into one body.

I didn’t need to know how that’d happened. It was time to destroy this place and undo them. I’d been expecting them to be waiting here for us to arrive. Over by the pond, the two of them fighting for dominance as they tried to kill us.

Or give me poisoned chocolate again.

“Shall we?” I said.

We searched the trees, which went nowhere, and every inch of this place until the pond was the only thing left.

A calm, black pool.

“There are secrets in there,” I said.

“Can you sense something?” Seph asked.

“No.”

“Oh.”

“I was just speculating.”

It’d seemed too obvious to look here first. That was a wrong assumption to have made. I jotted down a mental note to start from the most obvious point from now on and work backward from there.

Hopefully, there would be no next time.

“Let me feel around,” Seph said.

Ooo, I liked the sound of that.

Ahem.

He dipped a chain into the water, just a few inches first…

…not like him.

Ha!

No. I had to be serious here.

So, he dipped his chain in and lowered it further. I waited for a while, constantly glancing back at the door where the floodwater pooled beyond. Not that those brothers would use the door, seeing as they could teleport, but it made me feel better.

Seph pulled the chain back out. “It’s deep. Really deep.”

“It isn’t that deep, actually.”

I spun, Seph at the same time. Elijah/Parker was standing there.

Presenting as Elijah.

A broken man.

“We’re ending you now,” I seethed.

“Please do. The plug is in there waiting. That’s how this prison magic breaks. Always there, always untouchable. A torture device that is now my salvation. End this.”

“By literally pulling the plug?” Seph questioned.

“My daughter is dead. This madness needs to end.”

“A change of heart?” I said. “Why?”

“My daughter is dead.”

“Right. And how does Parker feel about this?”

“I’m holding him back. You must hurry.”

His face flickered, trying to change.

“Why should we trust you?”

“Because there is nothing left. I don’t want to live while my daughter doesn’t.” He grunted. “No! You will no come out! I will fight you with every ounce of strength I have left!”

Scary. “You don’t deserve salvation.”

“Are you God?” he asked.

“You seemed to think you were.”

“No, Oisin! Stay back! This ends now!” He wasn’t going to talk anymore, too busy battling the other occupant of that body.

I turned to Seph. “How deep did you say it was?”

“Not deep!” Elijah cried. “A trick. Reach in…reach in and grab.”

The ideal situation was to leave them suffering, tormenting one another, crippled by guilt at losing Orla. Locked in here again for the next three centuries.

The problem was, there was no guarantee they would stay put.

Death it was.

I went to reach into the pond, but Seph beat me to it. He always had to be the gentleman.

I’d reward him later.

It really was as simple as pulling a plug. He felt around, elbow deep, grunted, and pulled out a rubber stopper the size of a football.

Elijah broke into laughter as the water became a whirlpool that expanded, sucking the woodland down into a vortex as if it were liquid paint, everything melting and dragged to oblivion. Including that body of brothers.

Elijah laughing, Parker screaming.

Thankfully, we were burped back into the floodwater, the door slamming closed behind us and vanishing, nothing left there but the muddy wall of the tunnel.

We swam back up to the surface, greeting the fae and the werewolf in victory.

“That was it?” Pranay said. “A fucking stopper in a pond?”

“Funny, isn’t it?” I replied. “But the most important thing is they’re gone. The world can breathe a sigh of relief in that respect.” I shivered. “I take that back. The most important thing is a hot bath and a hot chocolate.”

Andy’s left eyebrow cocked. “Hot chocolate? Since when did you drink that?”

“When we went to visit Jake and Dean’s home, Jake offered it to us, remember?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“I’ve been in the mood for some ever since. With cream and marshmallows.”

Pranay threw an arm around me. “Sounds like heaven to me.”

THREE MONTHS LATER

Epilogue

Jake

After three months, I’d sat up again.

All that guff about the world changing had been spot on. Big change.

The pods were gone.

That snow Lou had brought on had frozen everything pod, including the pod-born (like me). For three months, the snow had stayed, and the city waited. No, the flippin’ world had waited. During the wait, Amsterdam had been locked down, and still was. No way in, no way out. Bit scary, but it was needed.

When the snow had vanished, the pods were gone. I was alive and pod-free. Sonny was too. The pair of us had sat up together in that shop in Amsterdam Centraal, held in stasis until we came to. Untouched because we couldn’t be moved until the moment we were…

…cured.

I’d never forget Dean’s tears. Mine. Lou’s. We huddled tight for a long, long time in that shop, not wanting to let go.

We’d made it. Safe. The Rós brothers gone. Apocalypse averted. Well, at least that one. Who knew what was down the road?

Dean told me off for thinking like that. He was so right. No more being grim.

Lou had been tested after the whole freezing thing. There wasn’t a trace of magic left in her. A one-shot thing in Amsterdam. Which got people wondering if there were more kids out there, or not even kids, who could do the same. With that whole environment influencing magic thing, which made my brain hurt, the chances were high of others having the same power. So the hunt was on at finding those who might be able to cure other places across the world of the pods.

Interesting times ahead. Really interesting. The best part was that for the first time since the pods had come, there was some real hope they’d piss off.

Actual, real hope.

Until that day came, Amsterdam was locked down. For safety, to keep pod infections out, and to protect the residents from a mob descending upon it. Lou had become even more famous than Dylan Rivers, who’d managed to leave the city before lockdown.

Because of the unwanted fame, we’d been moved to a secret location on the coast in North Holland, our closest neighbors miles away. We were protected, hidden from everyone. No one knew where we were. Internet and phones were magically cloaked from outside interference. A proper sealing away for our own safety. No one was getting to us, though the sting in the tail was no physical contact with loved ones. Thank God for the internet.

The Conclave had run out of steam fast, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still a danger. One consolation was Izzie’s body had been found floating in a canal. Not fun for the person who found her in three pieces, but always brilliant news.

Good riddance.

Also, the Ricci Twins had gone up in flames under the spell of Dylan’s siren song.

Again, good fucking riddance.

We even found out that Giles McGregor, the once head of the Conclave, had been dead since Christmas. I’d just thought Elijah had taken over, McGregor ousted, as happened a lot with those bastards. They seemed to change leaders like hot dinners. Nope, the rotting corpses of him and his wife were found a couple of days after Elijah and Parker were no more.

One more good riddance for those arseholes.

Despite the circumstances and my near-death experience, I was pretty at ease with life.

Apart from now, right at this moment. My nerves were in a right state as I waited in my bedroom, the whole of our new house done up in wedding garb.

Today was the day I was marrying the love of my life.

Blimey!

In honor of Lou, we went for white roses, white suits for us, and a cute white dress for her.

Mila was marrying us because she was ordained to apparently. Her place hadn’t been touched by the pod chaos, still the same treasure trove of alchemy it always was.

Getting married virtually. It was just us and Lou in the flesh, everyone else would be on screens.

It was gonna be weird.

“You look amazing babe,” Naomi (Nay) said from the laptop screen—one of many screens set up around the house.

Right now, there was one pointed at me as I finished knotting my tie in the bedroom, Dean downstairs sorting himself out. We were leaving what we looked like in our suits as a surprise to each other. You know, for the cuteness factor. It was a little slice of not seeing your soon-to-be husband before the big day.

“You so do, mate.” That was Greg agreeing. The pair of them had linked up in Brussels, had been heading to Amsterdam to surprise me and Dean with a visit before all the shit went down. Gutted I couldn’t give my besties some big, squishy hugs again. It’d been so long, and I missed them so bloody much.

Even though our lives had taken us in different directions, they were my people. We were forever bonded by our past experiences.

I loved them so hard.

I smiled at their faces. Naomi’s hair was currently long and sleek, and newly bleached blonde. And she had the best tan ever. Lucky!

Greg’s hair was cut and faded to perfection, sunlight shimmering across his dark skin on the beautiful day they were having over in the capital city of Belgium.

Today was a beautiful day all round.

“Thanks, you two.”

“How’s Dean feeling?” Nay asked.

“Didn’t break a sweat this morning when he went off to hide from me.”

“Typical Dean,” Greg said.

“I think this whole thing is too damn cute,” Nay added. “I really do.”

“Thanks. You’re both looking proper dapper yourselves, by the way.”

Suited and booted in navy: Greg. Amazing baby blue gown and fascinator: Nay.

“Ah, ya charmer,” Greg said.

We chatted about various things like food and nice stuff, a little bit about world events. Anything outside the bubble I was living in didn’t touch me now. And this was a proper bubble, even if we were cut off from things and it hurt sometimes. Really couldn’t deny the hurt. Still, it was what it was.

The PIA part of my life was over. Okay, maybe not totally over. Being so final about things would get me nowhere. Who knew where we’d end up? What I did know was that, for now, Jake & Dean Investigations was closed for business.

Me and Dean’d had a long chat about things.

“You holding up okay, mate?” Greg asked.

He didn’t mean the wedding. He meant the situation, and he checked in on us pretty much every day to see we weren’t going nuts. So did Nay. Not just ‘cos they’d once been my literal former guardians, like Dean, but because they were both amazing people.

I kept the tears back. “Yeah, I’m alright, even if I am bricking it.”

“Totally understandable.”

“I was a bit emosh this morning about stuff. Second guessing this whole wedding lark. I wanted you all here in person. But what if it’s ages before we can do that?”

“Why should you wait?” Nay said. “You both deserve to be happy, and this is a first for me. Never done a virtual wedding before.” She nodded. “I knew your wedding would be different.”

I smiled. “Thanks, Nay.”

“Things will change, Jake. I promise.”

I knew that. This was only for now, to protect us and Lou from nut jobs. Her safety was more important than anything else.

“Thank God we live in the age of the internet,” I proclaimed.

“Amen, Jakey!” Greg boomed.

We all laughed. They sure knew how to make me feel better.

“I’m nervous myself,” Nay announced. “Can’t stop peeing.”

“Dylan?” I asked, knowing it was a huge yes.

“I can’t believe you saw him in the flesh. Ugh. So not fair.”

“You’ll see him…virtually.”

“Yeah, yeah. Oh, shit. The bladder is calling. One moment boys!”

“How’s Bliss?” I asked Greg. She was his werewolf girlfriend. She was signing on later, couldn’t travel with Greg for work reasons, so she was back at their home in Greece.

Sam, Nay’s girlfriend and bad-arse troll, had popped in earlier on the screen to say hi, and was now laughing in the background about Nay’s bladder.

“Told you it’s a peanut!” she bellowed.

Greg chuckled, then gave me his best nervous face. A good nervous. Kind of shy but happy.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“Jake… She’s… She’s pregnant.”

The warm and fuzzies tickled me like crazy. “What? No way! Oh my God! Greg! No way! Congratulations. I’m so happy for you. So fucking happy! Is that why she can’t travel?”

“Oh, no. She really needed to stick around for work. She ain’t happy about it. Work, not the baby.”

“When is she due?”

“10th December.”

“Oh, Greg. Blimey. I’m gonna start blubbing.”

“Me too, mate.” He wiped at his glistening eyes.

“What’s all the shouting about?” Nay asked, returning.

Greg dropped the awesome news once again.

* * *

After Greg and Nay signed off to chat to Dean, the snowy white-haired man that was my dad was there on the screen, along with my twin sister Jessica—who had the same dark hair and blue eyes as me. Both glammed up, Jessica in a bottle green suit that really set off her eyes, and Dad a sharp black suit with a bowtie.

Calling in from East London.

“I’m so proud of you, Son.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“I am. Seriously. So, so proud. Every fucking day.” He covered his mouth. “My little doughnut ain’t there, is she? I can’t afford the fine.”

Jessica laughed. “You deserve to be fined, Dad!”

“Don’t,” I said, “I’ve lost a fortune. She’s with Dean, don’t worry.”

“I can’t believe you’re getting married,” Jessica said.

“What, again?”

“Don’t be daft!” she protested. “That’s not what I mean. I just, it feels so amazing, so weird.”

“You think my wedding’s weird?”

“Stop putting words in my mouth!”

“You called it weird.” I loved teasing her.

“If only I could slap you! I meant just after everything you’ve been through, after… All that shit with you getting infected by pod, that Orla woman… Fuck. I’m not making sense. Wasn’t like I thought you were gonna die…” She released a shuddery breath. “Oh, God. I’m sorry, Jake.”

“It’s okay, Jess.”

“I shouldn’t be saying this on your big day. I’m sorry. What am I even saying?”

“You tell me, sis.”

“I’m glad there’s finally some light after the dark. That’s what I mean.”

“I like that,” I replied.

“It’s so lovely.” Jessica’s voice quivered.

“You’ll ruin your makeup if you go,” I warned.

“Oh, shut up, knobhead,” she clapped back, following it up with a soft laugh.

“Really good job Lou ain’t here with us,” I said.

Dad laughed his joyful laugh that I loved so much.

“I love you, Jake,” Jessica said.

“I love you too.”

“Love you, Son. More than you’ll ever know.”

“Love you too, Dad.”

Blimey! I was on the verge of tears again!

* * *

Dean

“If you want him to be there, that’s your prerogative.”

My mum’s dark, gray-streaked hair was tied up in a bun, and she was wearing white as she faced me on the screen, sitting in her living room in Singapore.

We’d been talking about Dad and how I was letting him attend the wedding. He was back in this realm, in some Parisian hotel with a laptop.

“I gave him a list of rules,” I replied to her.

“As you should.”

I don’t even know why I was bothering with him, but there was a constant niggling sensation when it came to that man. Like I couldn’t quite cut the strings forever.

If only I could. But it wasn’t just about me now. I had Louise to consider, and she missed him. He’d left a big impression on her. How could I destroy that?

I wouldn’t. It would be cruel.

Mum smiled at me. “My handsome boy in white. Marrying the love of his life.”

“Thank you.”

“I am looking forward to watching this immensely.”

My stomach was in knots. “I’m so nervous.”

“It is to be expected, but you have no reason to be nervous. This man is your heart, your everything. Enjoy this moment. He is yours, you are his.”

She was so, so right.

* * *

Jake

On the screens: Mila, Soph and Luuk, my dad and sister, Dean’s mum, Cherry and Brem (the vampire being there was weird), Sonny, Nay and Greg, even Mr. Douglas, who we rarely heard from. Dylan and his crew too—he’d promised to sing for us, and Nay was fangirling all over the place.

So many faces of the people we loved on the screens (Sonny and Brem…hmm. Well, they’d ended up being allies, so, maybe not love, but yeah). Evander was in attendance too. He was told to keep quiet. If he said a word, Dean would cut his connection. But he was there, watching, and I think Dean was happy to have him, even if the two of them had a long, long way to go in terms of having a relationship.

Whatever Dean wanted to do, I was with him all the way.

We’d have to see what happened.

Virtual stuff aside, our people were with us, and that’s what mattered. We wanted them to see us slide those rings on each other’s fingers, declare our love in this ceremony in a house on the coast.

Sunlight caressed Dean, forming a halo of gold on his dark hair.

My Dean.

My heart.

Mila was wrapping it up from her screen.

“Jake? Do you take Dean to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

I looked into his eyes, falling into dark pools. “I do.”

His smiled widened.

“Dean?” Mila said. “Do you take Jake to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do.”

Boyfriend. Fiancé. Now my husband. My partner in life.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“Love you too, treacle.”

He laughed, and we sealed the deal with a kiss.

The cheers from the virtual guests were so loud they almost blew up the speakers.

* * *

Dean

In the dead of night, as we lay in bed together, the sound of the waves drifting into our bedroom through the open window, moonlight painting our naked bodies, I kissed him again on his beautiful lips after we’d made love for the first time as a married couple.

He smiled up at me, his hand in my hair. “Thanks, husband.”

“Always love kissing you, husband,” I responded.

We moved so we were curled up together, on our sides, foreheads touching. The curtains billowed in the breeze, their hems licking at the bed.

“You and me,” I said. “Forever.”

He traced the side of my face with a finger. “You’ve got that right.”

The End

Author’s Note

Dear Reader,

I want to thank you so, so much for reading Jake and Dean’s story. It has been so much fun writing them again after Coldharbour Chronicles began, but the time has come for me to let the guys rest. I think they’ve earned it. Who knows, they might pop up again in the future for more adventures, but for now, it’s goodbye.

To stay in the loop with all the latest news, come join my Facebook Reader Group (Richie’s Round Table). There you will find updates, giveaways and good old chit chat (and cake).

You can also follow me on Bookbub, my Facebook page, and subscribe to my Free Newsletter if you fancy doing so.

Want More?

If you want more Jake and Dean, check out Winter Rising, the first book in Coldharbour Chronicles, where the guys first met:

Click the image above or HERE to be taken to your Amazon store.

Still Want more?

Want to know more about Dylan Rivers? Be sure to check out the first book in the Dylan Rivers Chronicles—Siren’s Debt:

Click the image above or HERE to be taken to your Amazon store.

Also by Richard Amos

Coldharbour Chronicles

Winter Rising

Winter Shadows

Winter Fire

Winter Blood

Winter Twilight

Dylan Rivers Chronicles

Siren’s Debt

Siren’s Call

Siren’s Heart

Siren’s Destiny

Jake and Dean Investigations

The Christmas Bones

The Charms of Death

The Divine Roses

Four Moons

First Moon

Chaos Moon

Dead Moon

Silver Moon

Fallen Fire

Reborn

Requiem (January 22nd 2021)

About the Author

Richard Amos is an author from England who is constantly lost in the worlds he writes about, and the ones in the queue yet to be written. He also has more books in his house than anything else and is never without a book (and chocolate) in his hands when he's not writing. He's a proud nerd who loves to dance. Hard. 

In a former life, he was definitely a merman.

Richard writes kick-ass Fantasy and Urban Fantasy with gay male protagonists, all with good doses of action, adventure, and romance.