Page 18 of Faerie Trials

Selene moved to stand at Buzz’s side as he cautiously probed the body for clues, her heels sinking in the snow. I focused toward the flowers instead.

“This is someone who does not abide by any code of ethics. It’s not for us to figure out why, but rather who is doing the crimes. And to stop them before they do this again.”

I dared a glance at Buzz, who was still bent over the prone form on the ground, then looked away again. I gestured for Selene to step closer. Her instincts were razor-sharp, I knew from experience, and she regarded me with narrowed eyes.

“You know something, don’t you?” she began straight away.

“Less aknowand more like something strange happened to me and I’m not sure what to make of it.”

I told her about the guy I’d run into, or rather, the guy who had run into me at the halfling academy. Then launched into an explanation about the half-shifter bullies at my old school. The ones who had killed countless people to get to theAugundaeImperium.

The same artifact now in the possession of a very nasty doomsday prepping witch.

I cringed at the thick sounds of Buzz maneuvering flesh and bone for clues. I’d hunted animals through the woods during a routine shift before, but this…this level of barely contained violence was something else.

“I’m saying it’s a little suspicious,” I reasoned. “And a little too strange to write it off as a coincidence. I mean, what are the odds of another half-wolf being at the halfling academy at the same time I was? And running into me?”

Buzz and Selene shared a look.

“You left those half-shifters boys on the other side of the portal, though,” Selene clarified. “Yes?”

“That doesn’t mean they weren’t able to find a way in,” Buzz argued. “More and more shifters are crossing the border these days thanks to—”

Selene cut him off with a look.

“The boy I saw yesterday wasn’t familiar to me and he didn’t have the same smell as the others.Theywere brothers, pack. This one didn’t smell like anyone I’d met before, although he had the same bad energy.”

Still, Buzz looked grim. His lizard tail flicked behind him again in agitation. “Plenty of half-shifters come through to Faerie by one means or another,” he told me. “And not all of them are looking to start a new life. Some of them are tainted, looking to destroy this world as they did their own. For nefarious purposes.”

Selene agreed. “I hesitated to tell you this because I didn’t want you scared, Tavi, but part of our duty with the Claw & Fang is to find these rogue half-shifters and exterminate them.”

“We prefer to say we eliminate the threat,” Buzz corrected with a look over his shoulder at the flapping of wings.

Bronwen arriving with the cleanup crew cavalry.

“There’s a threat?” I asked.

A shadow flickered in his eyes when he turned to me again. “Tavi, there’salwaysa threat. There are also folks like those in the Claw & Fang who have sworn to protect our people rather than sow chaos.”

I didn’t want to think about it. Even now, having seen more death than most people, I didn’t want to think about the boogie man beneath the bed. I’d made an oath to the society, sure…but did the oath cover hunting down rogue halflings?

The two of us were dismissed the moment Selene had the area under control.

“You two are free to go.” She gazed between us and flashed a sharp smile. “You did good work tonight.”

“How was this good work?” Bronwen countered. “We were too late.”

“Your quick thinking and action might give us precious clues to solve this thing before we lose another full-blood, or before the king’s guards can sweep this under the rug. Now go home to bed. You’ve been through enough tonight. Hey.” Serene snapped her fingers in Bronwen’s face. “Keep your wits about you. Keep your senses sharp. There are terrible things out there, worse than this dead woman. Things prowling the night, ready to devour you. Keep that in mind on your walk home.”

The warning was meant more for pale-faced Bronwen than for me. Somehow I got my mouth working again and blurted out, “She’s shaken. It’s natural. Can you blame her?”

Selene flexed her fingers as though her own claws would soon slip out from beneath her dusky flesh. “Cowardice doesn’t suit her, she’ll see soon enough.”

I wasn’t sad to be sent on my way. Honestly, my bed and I had a date I didn’t want to miss.

“Was this the first body you’d seen?” I asked Bronwen.

Shadows flickered in her eyes as she nodded. “Yes. I’m afraid I’ve lived a pretty sheltered life despite the move across worlds.”

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