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“All good,” I echoed. “Except that guy—please take him into custody. There’s no one officially watching him. He could technically get away if he woke up.” I again pointed to the unconscious and very bruised fae.
Pat squinted as the sun finally topped the tree line, shedding light on the Cloisters. “Yeah, I don’t think that’ll be a problem, but you’re not wrong.Juggernaut! Take the fae into custody—cuff ’em, too. We don’t want him using magic once…whatever it is you all need comes back online.”
He jogged over to the fae, beckoning for a few other task force members to join him.
Meanwhile, Joy kicked open the door of a second police cruiser, brandishing a briefcase. She shielded her eyes with her hand as she peered across the parking lot, visibly relaxing when she saw me. She waved, then turned to an unmarked car that pulled up and rolled their window down. “It’s fine,” she called to the car. “They’ll have to give a report to City Hall about this anyway, you may as well take notes. Get out here.”
Two humans piled out of the car, and it took me a moment to realize that—between their cellphones that they were using like recorders and the large camera one of them toted—they were human reporters.
If they’re reporters, that means Joy is essentially forcing supernaturals to tell humans about elves, too. That’s way safer for Calor Villa—if the Curia Cloisters thought they could cover their existence up, they might be tempted to do some nasty things.
The last bit of adrenaline that was making me feel prickly left, and I let my shoulders sag with my relief.
I love my family. So much.
Noctus—now that he no longer had a sword pointed at him—stepped closer to me. “So it seems our timeline of revealing ourselves to the public has just drastically been moved up.”
I slid my hand into his, threading our fingers together. “It’s okay,” I said. “We’ve got Pat and Joy. This might not be the PR campaign we were hoping for, but they’ll help us make the best of it.”
“No kidding. I have a feeling the two of you are going to turn out as right as rain.” The Paragon shuffled up to us, eyeing first Pat and then Joy with alarm. “And we think humans aren’t to be feared. Pah! They’re terrifying! How did your sister evenknowany reporters?”
“She works for City Hall,” I said. “So she interacts with the local reporters a lot.”
“We are lucky both of your siblings arrived when they did,” Noctus said. “Charon called Pat, but we intended for him to find you fleeing the area.” He glanced down at me. “He doesn’t seem surprised to see you here.”
Warmth bubbled in my chest. “Pat said he and Joy would trust my choices. I guess they meant it.”
“Regardless, I’m glad they came,” the Paragon said. “Once I realized we were going to live through this debacle, I knew things were going to be dicey for you elves. I’m sorry about the lack of preparation, but it’ll all turn out.”
“Yes,” Noctus agreed.
“Oh, and if you were wondering, we’ve got video footage of everything. The Cloisters boosted their security measures after all the fun and games of last year, including putting cameras everywhere.” The Paragon gestured to the tree line, probably pointing to some of the hidden cameras. “You’ll be credited for what you did, and if I have anything to say about it, we’ll send some clips to the human news channels.”
“That is very kind of you, Paragon,” I said, choosing my words carefully so I didn’t thank him.
The Paragon grunted. “Well, you two are alright. And you did end up getting me the lead I wanted, so I might as well throw my weight around a bit to help you. But mark my words, don’t let Empress Leila figure out how loaded you are, Noctus. She’ll make a case to add elves onto the Regional Committee of Magic and bring you in under the Cloisters umbrella just so she can get the region to tap your funds.”
“That wouldn’t be the worst thing for your public image,” Joy said, stepping into the conversation with a smile. “Hello, Paragon, Noctus. Chloe!”
I let go of Noctus’s hand so I could step into Joy’s hug.
“I was so scared when Pat told me—I’m glad you’re okay.” She squeezed me tight, then stepped back, scrutinizing me from my head to my feet. Once assured I was fine, she smiled. “And I’m so proud of you! Once we’re through this you’ll have to tell me the whole story: I just know you pulled a weapon and saved everyone.”
“How’d you hear about it?” I asked.
“Pat texted me updates. One of his people here in the Cloisters was keeping him apprised of what was happening.” Joy said.
“Mm, what did I say? Terrifying,” the Paragon said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have a fae to question. And wake up, it would seem.” He swept off, heading inside. He had to duck around a few staff members who were emerging with buckets of water and scrub brushes—since no one besides Noctus and myself could access their magic, it seemed they were going to get scrubbing at the blood the old fashioned way.
“Okay.” Joy clapped her hands together. “You haven’t officially hired me on, but I took the opportunity to reach out to some human reporters to make sure this gets covered the way we want it to. It will take them about ten or fifteen minutes to do some interviews and figure out what happened here, so we have that long to craft a statement about elves and how they saved Magiford.”
“Chloe actually saved Magiford,” Noctus said.
“Yes, I am aware of that, and I’m counting on that—we’re going to use the angle that you two are bonded to solidly attach her to the idea of elves,” Joy said. “Any objections?”
Noctus and I shook our heads.
“Do you really think this will work?” I asked Joy.
