“Since he couldn’t capture someone from the club, he found his mark elsewhere. You say it was close to the Burlesque A Go-Go?” I asked.

  Yutani nodded. “Four blocks away. And it happened after midnight, so it happened after you chased him off from the club.”

  “Damn,” I said. “I thought we were saving somebody from the club, and he just went somewhere else to find another victim. Light Fae again?”

  “Yep. Looks like he’s got a definite focus on them. Do you think it’s just one? From what you know about them?”

  “If there’s more than one, we may have to take them one at a time because gollywyppers won’t rat each other out,” I said. “If we catch him and you tried to question him, he’ll keep his mouth shut. Even under torture. The gollywyppers are a dangerous race.”

  “Well, that doesn’t bode well. How will we know if there are more in the area? I mean, once we catch this guy, how long before we know if there are more around?”

  “Not long, I think. But there’s no real way to know. So if there are more around and we have the first one in custody, I’m sorry to say we’ll have to wait for more deaths. But it’s important not just to focus on Light Fae victims. Gollywyppers will go after any source that offers them life energy. Even though the Light Fae are their meals of choice, so to speak, they’re perfectly happy draining energy off humans or shifters or anybody else.” I reached down to check the laces on my boots. They were still laced up, but one was untied so I retied the bow.

  “Who’s the victim this time?” Raven asked.

  Yutani consulted his phone. “It looks like a victim is Light Fae, male, young—he would be in his early twenties if he were human. When he didn’t report back from his shift, his sergeant became worried. They scoured his route, and found Hanover—the guy’s name – outside the back of a bakery that he had been checking out. It looks like he had been on his way back to the car, so the ME thinks he died shortly after midnight.”

  “Sergeant?” Raven asked, scowling.

  “Yeah,” Yutani said. “Hanover was a cop. Now the whole force is up in arms and demanding that something be done. If we don’t find the killer soon, you know some vigilante will go out and drum up someone who they think fits the bill,” Yutani said. “The mayor confided in me that Light Fae officers are calling in sick. They’re afraid. Névé has actually had to put out an order that all police officers calling in sick must report to a doctor for a note, because she’s had complaints.”

  I let out a sigh. “May he rest with his ancestors. Is there anything to tie Hanover with the club?”

  “No, but the bakery is near the location where one of the first victims was found.”

  “It can’t be coincidence,” I said. “Not when the deaths are so similar. So we either have a gollywypper who travels between Seattle and the Eastside, or we have more than one trolling the area.” Pausing, I thought for a moment. “You say you gave Wager the license of the car we saw at the club?”

  “Yeah. He, Talia, and Wendy are on the way in. They’ll be here shortly. We’ll go check out the address associated with the car.” Yutani turned to Raven and Kipa. “Want to go with us?”

  Raven nodded. “Sure, we can help. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve dived into a case.”

  Kipa stood. “Shall we get over to Raven’s house—” He stopped. “I mean, the office?”

  As we gathered our things and prepared to leave, I hoped that we weren’t heading out on a wild goose chase. The last thing we needed was the local politicians and the police department breathing down our back.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  By the time we got to the office, Wager, Wendy, and Talia were there. Wager and Talia went into a flurry of hugs with Kipa and Raven, while Wendy started a pot of coffee and I set out the box of doughnuts we had stopped to buy.

  When we were all gathered around the table, Raven looked around wistfully. “I love Kalevala,” she said, “but I do miss my house. And Raj misses his television.”

  “The new office building is almost done, so you can have your house back soon,” Yutani said. “So Herne asked you to move back for a while?”

  “Well, he asked Kipa. But we don’t want to long-distance the relationship. So, I’m taking a leave of absence from my studies and we’ll come back until we see how things shake out because of the dragons. Hopefully, I won’t be sidelined too long. I’m learning so much,” she said.

  I wasn’t clear on what they were talking about but figured that she would fill me in later. We needed to keep all eyes on the goal right now.

  Wager pulled out his tablet and brought up a file. “Okay, everybody sync your tablets. I’m going to drop you the information I found.” He waited until we were all open to receiving files, then pressed a few buttons and boom, the files transferred via Bluetooth.

  As we opened them up, I stared at the picture of the Harbor Villa Marina. There were a number of boats in the slips. It was up on the north end of Lake Washington, near Lake Forest Park, halfway between the Eastside and Seattle. A small parking lot sat next to the marina, and several cars were parked there.

  “A marina?” Yutani asked.

  “Yeah, see the car in the far right corner? That’s the car connected with the license plate. It’s registered to one…let’s see…Jaimie Fairdrake. Ever heard of him?” Wager asked.

  None of us knew the name.

  “Well, I looked him up and turns out he originally lived in Navane. He’s Light Fae, but he left the city to live on the water. He has no close family—they all live in the original Navane over in Annwn. The thing is, nobody’s heard from him in about four months. I dug into the guy’s info, and it looks like he’s being reported to credit agencies for not paying his bills. The power got turned off to his houseboat. I haven’t had much time to dig deep, though.”

  “What about the marina slip for his boat? Is he behind on rent?” Yutani asked.

  Wager shook his head. “I called the manager before coming over here. When he moved in eight months ago, Jaimie paid for an entire year. However, the manager did say he hadn’t seen Jaimie around for a few months. He did try to check on him when the power bill reverted to the marina’s account, and he left a message. The next day there was money to cover the arrears, and the electricity had been turned back on in Jaimie’s name. So Warrant—the manager—assumed that everything was fine.”

  “So let’s say four months ago something happened to Jaimie. If he hasn’t been heard from since then—” Yutani started to say, but Talia was right on his heels.

  “I’m already looking up the dates of the murders, both in Seattle and on the Eastside.” She scrolled through the information on her screen. “Here we go. The first murder was in Seattle, and it occurred back in early January. About a month after Jaimie was last seen.”

  “So what if the gollywypper killed Jaimie first, then set up camp in his houseboat? He’s parked between Seattle and the Eastside, so he can go in either direction.” I tried to remember everything I knew about the creatures. “They aren’t necessarily diurnal or nocturnal, which accounts for the murders taking place at varying times of the day, but at night it’s easier to keep cover. Darkness makes for a good cloak.”

  “Shall we head out there and take a look?” Yutani asked.

  “I’ll stay here to field things,” Talia said, standing. “Meanwhile, let’s check the news about the dragons.” She held out the remote to the wall-mounted television and turned it on.

  The local news anchor looked like she hadn’t slept in a couple of days. She was in midsentence when Talia turned up the volume.

  “This morning there was a report about another dragon attack near Mount Rainier. Two gold dragons took down a search and rescue helicopter with four men aboard. The crew was searching for a hiker lost in Mount Rainier National Park. It appears the Dragonni were hiding out in the area near where the search and rescue team was hunting for the lost hiker. They attacked the helicopter from midair. All four men aboard are presumed dead, and their names are being withheld until their families are notified. Reports say one of the dragons perished in the attack as well. Pierce County officials are calling it a tragic accident. The other dragon escaped. While helicopters don’t usually have black boxes, this one reportedly did, and until searchers find it, we won’t know the actual order of events.”

  The screen showed the wreckage—from a distance—of the helicopter. The great dragon’s body was lying near it, twisted and crumpled. It was about two times larger than the helicopter, and judging by the scorch marks on the ground and the burned-out shell of the copter, it looked like more than gasoline had been at play.

  “That’s bad,” Talia said, slowly setting down the remote.

  “You can say that again,” Yutani said. “Worse and worse. How many dragons do you think have returned to the Forgotten Kingdom? And will they stay there? They have to be in shock given they’ve just found out they can be killed after all. And will they mount some sort of retaliation against Gaia?”

  “Good luck to them,” Kipa said. “Nobody can do anything to Gaia. Well, they can weaken her by pummeling the planet, as humanity has done for the past…how many thousand years? But even then, the planet lives on and adapts. Species may come and go, humans will eventually die out, but until the sun turns into a red giant, the planet will continue to exist. We’re talking billions of years. Gaia will change and evolve too, as her actual body does, by extension, but nobody can really touch her.”

  “So it’s useless for them to attack Gaia, and they can’t kill the gods since the gods are still immortal, but the dragons are not. That means, they may come back with a vengeance if they decide to place the blame on humans,” Raven said.

  “I don’t think they will—Typhon and Echidna are both in stasis. The dragons have made themselves unwelcome. At first people were delighted for the novelty, but then they began forcing their way onto the United Council and destroying buildings and that wore out their welcome very fast.” Kipa stood, pacing around the room. “I know there’s nothing we can do about it now, but I’d suggest that we—the Wild Hunt, that is—disassociate itself with the dragons sooner rather than later. I know you like Ashera but—”

  “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” Talia said. “Ashera disassociated herself with us tout de suite. She was appalled that we knew about the plan and supported it.”

  “I feel kind of bad about that,” Raven said. “She did save my life when Pandora had me trussed up like a hog on butchering day.” She pressed her lips together. “Does this mean Pandora will be on the road to war, as well?”

  “That’s hard to say,” Yutani said, watching as Kipa moved to wrap his arm around Raven’s shoulders. She leaned against the gorgeous god’s shoulder, and I could feel the energy crackle between them. Oh yeah, they were a bonded pair, all right. And their energy was delicious—I could practically taste their passion from where I sat. It made me want to drink chi off both of them.

  “Shall we adjourn and head over to check out Jaimie’s houseboat?” Wager said. “Should we all go?”

  “I think so,” Yutani said. “Talia can run things from here. Where’s Viktor, by the way?” He looked around, frowning.

  Talia laughed. “I almost forgot he was back. Let me check.” She pulled out her phone and texted him. A moment later, she snorted. “As I suspected. He went out with a couple of his old buddies last night and got hammered. He’ll be in this afternoon.”

  “No, tell him to wait for tomorrow. I don’t want a drunken half-ogre lurching around,” Yutani said, but I could tell he was happy to have his buddy back.

  We headed out to Yutani’s Ford Expedition. Raven stared at it, shaking her head.

  “This really brings it home that Ember and Herne are over in Annwn. I remember riding around in Herne’s car toward all sorts of dangers.” She shrugged, looking wistful. “I’m going to miss them.”

  Yutani glanced at her. “Did you hear the news yet? She’s pregnant with triplets.”

  And with that livening up the conversation, we piled into the car, Wendy and Wager in the back, Kipa and Raven in the second row of seats, and I rode shotgun with Yutani.

  The drive to the Harbor Villa Marina didn’t take long, given it was Sunday morning and early enough that most people were still sleeping or eating brunch. We took Juanita Drive north to where it turned into 68th Avenue NE. From there, we turned west onto NE 175th Street, and that led directly to the marina, which was on a sideroad still considered part of 175th.

  The traffic was light, and the morning had dawned clear and chilly. The weather here was reminiscent of the weather back in Foynes, so it wasn’t much of a system shock. I stared out the window as we sped along, thinking about how much my life had changed in the past few months. In the past few years, really, but all of a sudden, it had gone from bleak to sunny again. We turned left, driving through the parking lot toward the marina.

  “Should we park a little ways away? We don’t want to be seen all heading toward the boat—not if he’s still in there. And let’s look through the parking lot to find the car, first.” Raven glanced at me. “What do you think?”

  “That’s a good idea,” I said. “The last thing we want is for him to spot us. Gollywyppers are fast, and there are so many buildings and trees around the area that he could easily escape without us being able to find him.”

  We found the car, so we decided we’d have to move in fast and strong, in order to prevent the gollywypper from escaping.

  The parking lot led to a pier that was easily three blocks long. It ran east–west, and along the south edge, Lake Washington took over. Four long docks stretched out into the lake off of the pier, each containing two rows of slips, one on each side of each dock. Each row of slips could contain fifteen boats, for a total of 120 boats in the marina.

  “Which dock and slip is Jaimie’s houseboat in?” Kipa asked.

  “Dock 3, Slip 15—so the end one on the third dock,” Wager said.

  I was near enough to Wager that I sensed another energy riding below that of fear and adrenaline. It was akin to the regret I’d felt from Yutani when he talked about Raven. Puzzled, I glanced over at Raven, who was keeping pace with me, wondering whether Wager also had a case of unrequited longing. But the next moment, I returned my gaze to the dock when Yutani quickly turned onto the third dock and began racing toward the end boat.

  “Lyrical, you stay outside. We don’t want him to be able to feed on you,” Yutani said over his shoulder.

  I obliged and dropped to the back of the pack.

  As we approached the boat, Yutani and Kipa sped up, leaving the rest of us in their dust. I stopped, decided to watch the water in case—oh hell.

  Sure enough, as they neared the houseboat, there was a splash behind it. Without thinking, I shed my leather jacket and boots and took a running nosedive off the edge of the dock, swimming toward the sounds of splashing. I could swim like a dream and when I was younger, I had even trained for combat in the water. By the time I got to where I’d heard the noise, the gollywypper was only halfway to the next dock. So that was his plan, huh?

  I sped up, slicing through the icy water with my strong strokes. As I began to catch up to him, I heard sounds from the docks and saw that half of the team was headed toward the opposite dock to catch him as he came out of the water.

  Trouble was, gollywyppers were also good swimmers, and he could easily bypass the next pier for the one after that. I knew he wasn’t strong enough to make it deep into the lake, which was one factor to our favor. I poured on the effort, keeping him in my sight. The icy waters were taking their toll on me, but I was far less affected than a human, or any other type of Fae save for my own: the Water Fae who were born to depths and had an affinity for the element.

  He knew I was after him—he kept glancing over his shoulder as I began to gain traction. A moment later, I was within reach of him. I knew only one way to keep him from escaping. I loosened my dagger Harmony and carrying it between my teeth, kicked myself close enough to reach his legs.

  I didn’t waste any time, I pulled the dagger out of my teeth with one hand as I grabbed his foot with the other and landed a clean, long gash through his jeans, along his hamstring. He screamed as blood poured into the water. I kept hold of his leg as he tried to kick me away. But the gash was long enough and deep enough that he couldn’t do much but flounder.

  At that moment, Kipa dove into the water and grabbed him under the arms, dragging him to the edge of the pier where the others helped to pull our gollywypper onto the deck. I recognized him as the man who had been following Talia and me in the parking lot, and his energy signature matched the one I’d felt in the club.

  “This is him,” I said.

  As Yutani helped me scramble my way onto the deck, Raven put a temporary stop to the blood flowing from the man’s leg. I shivered in the cold. While I could handle cold water for a while, the chill did eventually affect me.

  We were about to head back to the parking lot when a terrible screech echoed overhead.

  As I turned, I spotted a pair of dragons near the parking lot, circling each other in the air. One was blue—one of the Celestial Wanderers—and the other was red—one of the Luminous Warriors. The red dragon was attacking the blue, and they were wing-beating the hell out of each other.

  “Oh crap,” Yutani said. “I don’t think any of us thought about this.”

  “What do you mean?” Raven asked, staring up at the fray.

  “The dragons turning on each other. But it makes sense. The Luminous Warriors would love to eliminate the Mountain Dreamers and the Celestial Wanderers, who try to keep them from pillaging and looting.”

  “We need to get to our car now and get the hell out of here,” Kipa said. “I’ll carry the prisoner. Run!”