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“He did what you al do—looked out for the others. He saw you were in danger and he acted to save you. You’d do the same for him. Any of you guys would have done the same thing if it had been him the stake was aiming for.”
“Be that as it may, this has to stop. Listen, I’m going to get someone out here to stay with Camil e because I know damned wel she’s not going home, and she’d be useless there. And then I’m headed out. I’ve stil got a long time til morning and I’ve got a bargain to strike.”
Before she could answer, I turned and hurried back to Camil e. I pul ed out my cel phone when I realized she hadn’t cal ed Tril ian yet, and dialed home. Delilah came on the line.
“Camil e needs Tril ian here. And I think you should come, too. I have to take care of something.
Hurry it up. Vanzir wil be there to stay with Iris and Maggie. Shade should hang around the house, too. I know we have the guards now, but I just don’t trust somebody outside the family to watch over our loved ones.”
I quickly fil ed her in on Morio’s condition, and she was off the phone and out the door before I could say another word. I motioned to Chase.
“Can you stay with Camil e while I take off? Delilah and Tril ian wil be here soon, and I have business to attend to. This fucking crap with the ghosts has got to stop. I’ve got a lead on how to take care of it.” Without waiting for his reply, I headed out the door.
As I pul ed out of the parking lot, the snow had let up and now a clear patch through the sky was il uminated by stars, glistening down on the silent cover of snow that blanketed the city. I was struck by the intense beauty of the pristine vista, and it occurred to me that Seattle was a city of extremes: beauty and terror, danger and passion, life and death. And we were al just along for the ride.
I stopped at an al -night diner, pul ing in to the far edge of their lot, to put in a cal to Ivana Krask.
Whoever she was, whatever she was, no longer mattered. The only thing that I cared about was that Roman said she could help.
On the fourth ring she answered, her voice creaky like bare tree limbs rubbing together on a cold autumn night. “Menol y, so you now cal me?”
“Ivana Krask?”
“Yes, my dear. I’ve been waiting for your cal .”
“How did you know it was me?”
“Cal er ID, my dear. That and I don’t get many cal s. Not in many years.”
“Oh right . . . but you sounded like you were expecting my cal .” Suspicion was my right-hand man and I wasn’t about to let him run away.
Ivana laughed. “Roman cal ed me, dear, and told me to mind my p’s and q’s with you. So I shal .”
But even through the promise of her words, I heard something I hadn’t in a long, long, time. The sound of Elder Fae blood that hearkened back through thousands of years. The Elder Fae, the Wild Fae, were far more primal than Fae like Bluebel , a dryad now living on Smoky’s land, and more feral than Wisteria, the floraed we’d captured and final y managed to kil after she escaped from Queen Asteria.
Just by the tone of her voice I knew she was one of the Elders, the creatures from legend and lore that were so far from human nature they could never assimilate within the modern world: the Bog Man and Black Annis, the Bean Sidhe and Iron Jack. And Horse-Trol and Sleeping Uncle, the Washer Woman and the Flower Maiden . . . al throw-backs to a time in history when my father’s people had been living in smal vil ages and humans were just a blip on the map.
The Elder Fae hadn’t died out, but they were increasingly relegated to smal er areas, to high mountains and distant swamps and crumbling old castles and streams high in the mountains. But even though they were retreating in the face of the modern world, they were far, far more powerful and terrifying than most FBHs ever dreamed.
And Ivana Krask, whatever she might be, held the energy of the Elder Fae in her voice.
“I want to strike a bargain.”
“Roman mentioned you might. I might fancy a plump child or two to whet my appetite—it’s been so long since I’ve had bright flesh, you know.” She broke into a weathered laugh. “But to strike the bargain, we must meet. I make no deals over the phone. I wil see you first.”
Steeling my nerves—I was afraid of few things, but Ivana Krask was apparently one of them—I agreed to meet her. She set the place in Cedar Fal s Park, on the edge of Bel es-Faire, in an hour. I hung up, wondering what the fuck I was getting myself into.
Cedar Fal s Park was a welcome relief from the park in the Greenbelt Park District where I’d found the body. There was no sense, that I could notice, of ghosts or spirits here. Or if there were, they were keeping their mists to themselves. I found the bench that Ivana had indicated and gingerly sat on the edge, brushing the snow away.
As I waited, listening to the soft hoot of an owl cal ing through the trees, I had the feeling something was watching me. I slowly turned just in time to see a faint shadow on the edge of the tree line. I waited—no way in hel was I headed into the woods to meet one of the Elder Fae. She could come to me.
And then, the figure began to move. At first, I thought she was hunched over, some old woman beneath a bonnet and shawl and a crazy-ass patterned dress, with a basket on her arm. But the shadow blinked and was five feet closer. Only now she stood erect, and I could only see a dark cloak surrounding her shoulders. Another blink and a swirl of colors, a sickly green and dark purple, shimmered within the silhouette. Blink. She moved twenty feet without me noticing. As if we were in some movie filmed back in the days before the talkies, she jerked toward me.
Blink. She was beside me.
Slowly, I stood and stared at the woman. She was squat. My height at best, but I had the feeling her real height was far tal er. I gazed at the bony hand that reached out from the depths of the cloak and merely nodded. Not such a good idea to shake hands. She could claim I’d made a silent deal. The Elder Fae were bril iant about manipulating oaths and vows.
“Ivana Krask?”
