“It’s fine. I shouldn’t have said anything.” She twitched her suit jacket back into place. “For now, we need to—”

  “Take a break.”

  Taliyah shot me a cold look, but I pressed on and didn’t let myself waver. I had a point to make, and I was going to make it. “Listen,” I said, trying for a reasonable tone. “You’ve taken everyone’s statements, they’re still going over the crime scene, and there isn’t anything else that can be done right now. So, we should take a break while we can and… well, it sounds to me like maybe you need a, you know, a friend.”

  Taliyah scowled, and I could see the argument forming on her face, but I met her eyes and stared her down until she heaved an enormous sigh and nodded. “I guess we both need to head home and get some shuteye.”

  Although I knew she wasn’t going to sleep. And as to myself, I was already experiencing my second wind.

  My phone buzzed against my hip with a text from Roy. The text said he’d just dropped the Romanian vampires back at their house, since the sun was going to be rising soon. I hated the thought of them having to go back to the place where their daughter had been killed, but nowhere else was really suitable. Even if other vampires in town would have leant them daytime shelter, I doubted they’d want strangers intruding on their grief.

  I texted a quick response to Roy and told him to take care before slipping my cell away again.

  I couldn’t help them, not with their loss or their grief. But there was one thing I could do.

  “Come on,” I said as I stood. “I’ll drive.”

  “Where are we going?” Taliyah demanded immediately.

  “You’ll find out,” I answered.

  She breathed in deeply and then sighed, but made no motion to move. “It wouldn’t be very professional for me to go anywhere with you.”

  I frowned at her. “Am I considered a suspect in this case?”

  She frowned at me. “No, you’re not—you and Roy both have pretty credible alibis as to where you’d both been all evening,” she answered. “I checked them all.”

  “Then?”

  “Then what?”

  “Then what are we waiting for?”

  She gave me one last pointed look and then shook her head as she started forward and I ushered her out to my car.

  ***

  I brought Taliyah back to my place.

  Thank hell Angelo was off with his newest girlfriend for a few days. The last thing I needed was my roommate-slash-brother walking in on the conversation I was about to have with the police chief. It was going to be plenty tricky enough as it was.

  I made us both some coffee, and placed a pretty blue mug in front of Taliyah, along with the sugar and cream containers. She didn’t touch either of them, only gave me a suspicious looking squint. Or maybe that was just her usual police face, and I was just feeling guilty.

  “What’s this all about,” she asked, circling her finger in the air to indicate the coffee, the house, and us sitting at the table all with the same gesture.

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I have something I need to tell you, and it may be kind of a shock.”

  Yes, I’d decided to break the secrecy regarding her fate. I didn’t know why I thought that responsibility was now mine but I also couldn’t seem to walk away from it. I just wanted to somehow make Taliyah’s soon to be situation as easy to handle as I could. And yes, I was well aware I was breaking policy, but I felt it was worth the risk. Just what those risks were, I wasn’t fully sure.

  Taliyah’s face tightened, and she leaned forward over the table towards me. “If you left anything out of your report,” she growled. “Other than the obvious fornicating that the two of you were up to, I will personally kick your too-perfect ass straight through town.”

  “First of all,” I started as I leaned back in my chair and held my hands up in surrender. “Roy and I weren’t fornicating.”

  “Well, whatever you were doing.”

  “We were just… you know… getting a little frisky.”

  “The point still stands.”

  “Right.” I breathed in deeply and wondered if this was a mistake. Even though I was trying to help Taliyah, she wasn’t someone who was easy to help. “Anyway, I didn’t leave anything else out of the report, though I really do appreciate you not asking if Roy and I were getting frisky while we were in earshot of Viviana’s parents, for the record.” I flashed her a quick grin. “And thank you for the compliment to my ass.”

  Taliyah kept up her narrow-eyed look and drummed her nails against the table once.

  I sighed. Here it was. “I didn’t bring you here to talk to you about the crime, Taliyah. I needed to talk to you about… something else.”

  Smooth, Fifi. Real smooth.

  “Okay, what’s going on?” She eyed me narrowly, and I had the feeling she thought this was another police matter.

  “Um, it’s something that people in this town have been keeping from you though it’s not really their fault since… well, it’s really not our business to tell you what it is, but...”

  “Fifi, the point?”

  “Right, the point.” I breathed in deeply and then regretted this hairbrained notion in the first place. Who was I to break this news to her?

  I’m not sure how, but Taliyah managed to look even more suspicious. “So, there is a conspiracy in Haven Hollow, is that it?” she asked, shaking her head. “Cain was always going on about it, but he could never dig up anything definitive.” Then she narrowed her beautiful eyes at me. “What is it they’ve been hiding? Is there a cult in this town? Is that it? Because I will kick as much ass as I need to in order to learn the truth.” She bared her teeth, eyes gleaming an icy blue.

  “No, that’s not it.”

  “And why hasn’t anyone told me? Is it because they think I’m some clueless human? That I can’t handle the monster business that goes on in this town? Because if that’s what they think, they had better damn well think again.”

  By the end of her rant, Taliyah had half risen out of her chair, hands braced against my kitchen table, and I had to stand up and shove her back down again.

  “Breathe, Taliyah,” I told her firmly. “Drink your coffee and please just… listen.”

  When we were both sitting again, I gathered up all my courage, and hoped like hell I was doing the right thing. And there was a good half of me, maybe sixty percent of me, that didn’t think I was.

  “No one is keeping secrets from you because you’re human,” I told her. “They’re keeping the truth from you because you’re not human.”

  “Um, what?” she frowned up at me.

  “Just listen,” I said, offering her a smile. “It’s a lot to take in but you need to know it… all. You’ll find out for yourself in another five or so months, but all the changes you’ve been going through? They aren’t the result of anything you’ve been smearing on your skin or putting in your hair. This isn’t Poppy or Wanda’s magic going awry. This is your magic that’s starting to leak through. It won’t be held back much longer, Taliyah.”

  She’d gone pale, which was kind of a neat trick considering how white her skin was already. After another few seconds though, she gave a shaky little laugh. “Funny story, Fifi.” Then the laugh died on her lips. “What, were you worried I’d feel left out of the super-secret clubhouse?” Then she shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m not that fragile.”

  The coffee in her mug slopped a little as she pushed it away and stood up. “I’m ready to go home—I’ve had enough of today.”

  “Taliyah,” I started, but she shook her head.

  “No, I’m going to kiss my boys goodnight, and argue with my ex-husband on the phone before turning in. You can just put my honorary devil horns in the mail, or something.”

  She was at the door in three steps, and I knew if I let her walk out it, I wouldn’t get another chance. She’d deep dive into the river of denial until the snow fell and ripped it all away from her.

  I half-rose out of my seat and shouted after her. “Your middle name is Olwen! It’s not exactly one you find in a baby book is it? Did you ever ask where your parents got it from?”

  Taliyah froze like she’d been spelled. She glanced back over her shoulder at me, and I could see the fine tremors running through her body, even from several feet away.

  “How did you know?” she started.

  “We all know,” I answered. “Like I said, everyone in Haven Hollow knows what you are. So, I’ll ask you again… what did your parents say about your middle name?”

  She swallowed hard. “They said—” Her voice cracked on the second word, and she cleared her throat to try again. “They said they got it from a book of fairy tales, but they could never remember what the title of the particular fairy tale was.”

  My chair scraped against the tiles as I slowly stood and stepped towards her a little cautiously. Taliyah’s eyes were wide, showing white all the way around the blue of her irises. She looked like a wild creature ready to bolt, and if I wasn’t careful, she’d be out the door like a shot and my chance to fully explain would be gone.

  “Your parents didn’t get the name from a book, Taliyah.” I kept my voice low, trying for soothing. “Your real name is Olwen, and once the winter solstice rolls around, the spell holding back your Faerie power and knowledge is going to break. You’re going to need to be ready for that, and you need to warn your kids about it, too.”

  Whatever response I’d expected from Taliyah, more denial, anger, fear… I didn’t expect her to suddenly clutch at her head with a bitten off scream and then to collapse to her knees on my kitchen floor.

  Panic clawed its way up my throat, and I dropped down beside her and caught her before she fell the rest of the way to the floor. I could feel the shudders wracking through her body as I held her close to me, keeping her off the kitchen tile. She thrashed hard enough that I could barely hold on. It was like she was experiencing a full body convulsion, and she let out a scream that had panicked tears coming to my eyes.

  Oh, hell, what had I just done?

  I’d just wanted to warn her, to give her some time to adjust and brace for yet another life altering change, I hadn’t meant to hurt her or have her go into some sort of psychotic episode. Maybe telling her the truth unleashed something inside her and that’s why no one had told her yet—because they were afraid of her going ape shit.

  Which was exactly what she was doing right now—going ape shit on my kitchen floor.

  Frost crystalized on my windows, jagged fractals closing on the glass like a wolf crunching down hard. The air inside my home turned frigid as ice crawled across the floor, spreading out from Taliyah’s body like a halo of winter itself. Little flutters of snow started drifting through the air.

  I held Taliyah up with one arm, and with my breath fogging on the air and my hands shaking hard enough that it hurt, I grabbed my phone and frantically dialed Bea’s number.

  Chapter Ten

  By the time Bea made it to my place, Taliyah had stopped seizing and screaming, thank the gods.

  She’d just gone… blank, for lack of a better term. She was awake, and aware I was pretty sure, and yet somehow almost completely non-responsive.

  Somehow in the course of her fall and the thrashing she’d done on my kitchen floor, Taliyah’s clothes were now covered in coffee. After I’d gotten her as cleaned up as I could, she’d just kind of sat on my couch to stare at the blank television screen and ignored all of my nervous attempts at conversation. If she hadn’t been blinking regularly, and obviously breathing, I’d have thought she was dead. But, no, it just appeared she was catatonic.

  To say I regretted telling her the truth about what she was, or would become once December rolled around, was an understatement and then some.

  I tried to maintain some outward level of calm though, since freaking out wasn’t going to help Taliyah and might actually make things worse, but on the inside, I was nothing but one long panic siren.

  I’d just been trying to help! Taliyah was a good person. Sure, she was a hard ass, and she didn’t have a lot of patience, especially when she thought people were jerking her around. But she worked hard, and she did a lot for Haven Hollow, trying to keep everyone safe. And I just couldn’t bear to sit back and see the runaway train disaster coming, without trying to push her out of its path.

  But I’d messed up. Obviously. No one had told her the truth in what she was for good reason—because I’d clearly opened the door to something that hadn’t been ready to be revealed.

  I guessed it was like they said: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I’d just wanted to help, and instead, I was pretty sure I’d actually broken the newest Queen of Winter.

  I did my best to keep an eye on my silent guest while I mopped up the rest of the coffee in my kitchen. At least it gave me something to do while my thoughts ran wild.

  Would this start a war? Would Faeries invade the Hollow? Would someone use this as an opportunity to steal Olwen, er, Taliyah’s throne? What would happen to Taliyah? To her kids?

  I’d worked myself up to the point that when Bea knocked sharply on my door, I almost flew right out of my skin, like someone squeezing a tube of toothpaste too hard.

  Heart in my throat, I hurried over to the door to let my best friend inside. Bea was a tiny little thing, barely five feet tall, with a cap of blonde hair and huge green eyes. She wore her hair styled to hide her pointed ears, and usually a little coat or backpack to keep her wings out of sight, but she was no dainty little flower fairy. There was a lot of strength in Bea, and I could sure have used some of it at this exact moment.

  Bea’s usually laughing eyes were grave as she stepped into my foyer. “Where is she?”

  I moved aside wordlessly so Bea could see where Taliyah was still sitting motionlessly on my couch. Bea sucked in a shuddery breath and hurried into the living room.

  She dropped to her knees beside Taliyah, examining her closely. Taliyah’s eyes actually moved, tracking Bea’s path across the room, which made Bea brighten up considerably. She held her hand out, palm just shy of touching Taliyah’s skin, and closed her eyes, a little pucker forming between her brows.

  After a long moment of silence that made me want to start chewing my fingernails, Bea finally sat back on her haunches, her hands twisted in her lap.

  “Well, Olwen is definitely in there, so that’s something.” The back of Bea’s cardigan shivered, her wings underneath twitching nervously. “I think she’s just suffering from the backlash of the spell being broken too early.”

  “So, it was my fault?” I mean, I already knew it was my fault, but it’s one thing thinking as much to yourself and then hearing it confirmed by someone else.

  “Breaking a spell like that can be pretty traumatic to the brain,” Bea explained, giving me a little smile of understanding. “I mean, there was a reason Taliyah’s been hidden away all this time.”

  “I thought it was just so she was hidden from Janara,” I answered, remembering the awful queen who was after Taliyah’s throne. We’d managed to ensnare her and a few of her cronies in a Faerie ring inside the forest, but I knew the magic that imprisoned them wouldn’t last forever.

  “Well, it was to hide her from Janara for sure,” Bea said with a nod. “But it was also to keep her from finding out her destiny until she was ready to find it out.”

  “And then I went and botched that up big time,” I grumbled.

  Bea nodded but then gave me another understanding smile. “You were just trying to help her, Fifi. You didn’t realize what you were doing.” Then she took a deep breath. “But maybe the next time you want to help someone else, just give me a call first?”

  I nodded as I sighed. “I think my helping people days are over.” I clutched at my elbows, arms wrapped around myself, and tried not to let the guilt swallow me whole.

  Bea faced Taliyah again and reaching out, held her hand. “Olwen, I know you’re in there. I need you to come to the surface.”

  At Bea’s words, Taliyah sat up straight, and the first hint of emotion flickered across her increasingly perfect features for the first time since I’d told her what she was and inadvertently kicked off this whole mess. It was a relief to see, but a bit of a surprise too. I wasn’t sure what I expected from Olwen, the Fae Queen of Winter, but it wasn’t the near patented look of irritation that I usually saw on Taliyah’s face.

  “Taliyah,” she snapped. “My name is Taliyah.”

  Bea rocked back, blinking in confusion. She exchanged a glance with me, like she was expecting me to have some clue as to what was going on and why the new Fae queen was so snappish. I just shrugged as I looked back at her, just relieved that Taliyah was now talking. Hopefully that meant I wouldn’t have to explain to the police, Taliyah’s sons, and an entire court of Faerie that I’d managed to break their chief, mother, and queen, respectively, by trying to be nice.

  “Pardon?” Bea finally asked, weakly.

  Taliyah sat up so straight, it was like her spine had been replaced by a steel rod. She glared at us both, eyes like ice, and it was a little terrifying, but also familiar, and that was enough to almost make me start tearing up. This was turning out to be a horrible, stressful night.

  “My name,” she snapped like a drill sergeant. “Is Taliyah Morgan, damn it. I’ve spent almost half a century as Taliyah, and that’s how I’m planning to stay!” Her hand slashed through the air, eyes blazing and I was fairly sure she’d just been returned to herself. I couldn’t help but breathe out a sigh of relief.

  “Taliyah?” I started, just trying to make sure she really was feeling back to herself.

  She glared at me. “That’s right,” she insisted, eyes narrowed and mouth cemented into a tight, white line across her face. “And I’m not going to be anyone’s Faerie princess. I grew up in a family of cops. I grew up human! And I was taught that I have a choice in all things, no matter what.”

  Hmm, well in this case, I didn’t think she had much of a choice but unlike last time, this time I held my tongue. Meanwhile, Taliyah stood, and she wobbled like a newly born foal, knees not quite steady. Bea jumped to her feet, and I took a couple hasty steps forward so we could catch her if she fell, but Taliyah shot a look at us that caused us both to freeze in place.