Chapter Eight

Bailey stood amidst the silence, arms folded across her chest. No one moved, breathed, blinked. She shrugged her shoulders, tossed her hand in the air.

“I’m going to get dressed. I would suggest you all do the same. Silas, I need you with me. I need to know about the corpses.” She turned on her heel, striding from the room without a glance backward.

Her insides rolled with an anxiety she refused to show. She needed to be alone when her mask cracked and crumbled around her feet. She would allow herself a good cry, and then do what she needed to do.

There had been no other recourse, and eventually the fae princes would acknowledge that. She had to have their power at her back, they were the most respected and feared Sidhe in Faerie. Gemma was already loyal to her. She had to force their loyalty as well, otherwise it would make her task more difficult.

She understood the oath she had been forced to take during the ritual. A blood oath at that. Her fingers traced the scar on her shoulder again as she made her way up the main staircase. She could not afford to appear weak to the fae. As a Halfling, she would not be respected if she attempted searching through Faerie for whoever had worked in conjunction with her grandfather’s murderers. Apparently all three of them.

She could feel Silas making his way behind her. She had an extra awareness to her now. Like her consciousness was vaster than the body it was contained in.

The wild fae magick pumped through her and right now she was riding the high. The portal whispered in the back of her mind, feeding bits of information from eons into all her peripheral senses. It was strange, almost irritating. Like an insect buzzing around her head. Hopefully with time that would ease, and she would acclimate to it.

She entered her room and started grabbing clothes out of the closet. Silas followed her, hovering in the doorway, his face taut. “B, what did you do?”

“I thought it was quite obvious.” She didn’t turn from her task, making sure she had comfortable clothes, easy to travel in.

“Well, from my perspective, B…” Silas was angry. His voice was tight, barely controlled. “It appeared you were having a blast equal parts seducing and binding the Lordlings.”

“I suppose that would be correct. See, obvious.”

“Now is not a time for a smartass answer. Why?”

“Because, I have an oath to fulfill, a duty to my grandfather, my people. The portal told me it wasn’t just relegated to this Clan, Silas. There is something at work in Faerie, and I have been tasked with getting to the bottom of it.”

“You’re going to Faerie?!” Silas sagged against the doorway, the shock of her statement almost too much to handle after the display earlier.

“Of course I am. Everything begins and ends in Faerie.” She turned and pulled a knapsack out of the back of her closet. She hadn’t used it since graduating school. It was dusty, worn. She began shoving her clothes into it haphazardly. “I need you to stay here and keep the Clan running.”

“Like hell I will.” Silas snarled. “The elders can handle it. You’re not going to go into Faerie by yourself with three very pissed off Lordlings.”

“I’ll have Gemma with me.”

“I won’t budge on this. You can’t force me like you could those Lordlings. You’ll leave and I’ll just follow.” He stalked into the room and turned her by his shoulders to him, shaking her. She could feel the gathering of his magick. He was going to use his ability to inject magick into his words.

It was a rare magick, the gift of gilded tongue. She’d watched him use it on Jonas more than a few times. With the extra sense of the portal, she realized she could easily negate it. But, perhaps she was like Jonas more than she wanted to admit to herself.

It was almost charming, the fact he thought he could use any magick against her now. She had the entirety of the wild fae spilling through the portal running through her veins now. And, if she was going to be honest with herself, she did want him with her. It was his fight too.

“Fine.” She replied before he had even began speaking. “You can join us. But I need you to make sure that the Elders are aware of our journey. We don’t know how long we’ll be gone, and as you know, time runs odd in Faerie.” She picked up an oversized sweater and a pair of jeans from the bed. “I’m going to change, I need you to tell me everything you know about those three men.”

She stalked into the bathroom, pulling the door to so she could still hear him. She undressed quickly.

“They are fringe members of the clan, as far as I’m aware. They kept to themselves. As with everyone, they have had their turns at the guard shack. I don’t know much beyond that.” His voice was muffled through the door.

“I want to know why they murdered Jonas.”

“There’s something that strikes me as odd about that.” Silas mused. “The illness that stole his strength didn’t make any sense. It was nothing like we’d ever seen before. And then there was the murder itself. Jonas was not going to survive much longer in his state, so why stab him? The only thing about both of these facts that coincide is the fact his illness was only apparent as soon as you were gone for some time, and his murder when you came back. That leads me to believe it’s more about you, and not Jonas.”

She threw open the door to the bathroom. She had picked out her most comfortable outfit, and had quickly braided her hair.

“Family makes us stronger. You know that. It’s why we choose to live in villages by ourselves, safe from most outsiders. To keep our magick strong. Do you reckon it could be a literal thing? Like when I left, since I’m Jonas’ only remaining family with the closest tie to him, I took the strength that would have helped him fight the illness? And when I returned, it was only a matter of time before Jonas’ magick would have recovered enough to allow him to recover as well?”

“It doesn’t really affect the Sidhe that way.” Silas shrugged.

“Right, but we’re not quite Sidhe, are we? We’re half human. We have existed in Clans, near the portals for so long, what if the wild fae magick has imbued our own fae magick and made us so intrinsically different from Faerie, that we’re not even really of the Sidhe anymore?” She had read a lot in her time in Hawaii, especially new research into DNA markers for hereditary traits. Medical journals were her kryptonite.

“Our own fae race?” Silas pursed his lips in thought. “That would make sense, really. We still manifest our magick in different forms of gifts though. Like the Sidhe.”

“True, but bear with me. If we were our own race, bound to the Portals, serving as the task force for the Sidhe on this side…maybe someone somewhere is not happy with their lot. It wouldn’t be the first time someone started a revolution. And we have the access to everyone that crosses, so it wouldn’t be hard for a full blood fae to fan the flames of discontent, especially if sowing discord is their gift.”

“The issue is the end-game. Halflings are the only people that stand between humans and fae.”

Bailey snapped her fingers, a thought crossing her mind that made the most sense. “Trafficking. Hasn’t the news been inundated with missing persons recently?”

Silas nodded slowly. “But humans do some awful things to their own kind.”

“Every race has people that do awful things to each other.” She spread her hands. “Goblins love Sidhe flesh as much as Human. And Jonas was murdered by his own people. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that this is all to setup for a new order to control the portals. One a little more inclined for the black market trade of human flesh, however that may present itself.”

There was a weariness that seeped to Bailey’s core. The vacant eyes of the women kept in dark, dank basements stared back at her from her memories. They had deserved better. Full lives. Happiness. Not to be murdered. Even if they were still breathing, the darker fae had murdered them just as much as if they had slit their throats. There would never be life in those women again.

It was that weariness that also sparked her anger. She had become complacent. She had tired of her life of rescuing unwitting humans, with no real thanks. She viewed her job as just as bad as those she was destroying, but there was an honor in her work.

“I have to apprise the elders and get my stuff together. I’ll meet you at the portal in 30, okay?” Silas strode from the room at her nod. She threw on her socks and shoes and padded through the house.

So much had happened in the last thirty six hours that she didn’t even feel like the same selfish person that had flounced into the house just a day and a half before. Of course, that’s because she was literally a different person.

The wild fae magick curled inside her, wrapping around her own like an old friend. She had more perspective on her life and lost the most important person in it. But she would make it right, even if it meant she would have to close the portals with them still on the other side.