I stared at the covered body, bewilderment coursing through me. “I don’t know what happened. He texted me a little while ago. How could he have had a life-ending altercation in a couple of minutes, on the front porch? If there had been a fight, we would have heard it!”

  Yutani shook his head, then he grabbed my hand and pulled me away. “Walk around the yard—it will help.”

  I obeyed, but halfway to the old oak in the front yard, I dropped to the ground. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t do either. All I could do was blankly stare at Rake’s body beneath the sheet, and run potential scenarios through my mind. I leaned forward, resting on my elbows and knees, trying to sort out what the hell had happened. It wasn’t like he’d had a heart attack. He’d been murdered and it had happened on our doorstep.

  A few minutes later, Raven and Kipa arrived—they lived the closest. Raven took one look at the covered form, then draped her arm around my shoulders and walked me back into the house, carefully skirting Rake’s body. She sat me down on the sofa and went in the kitchen to make some herbal tea. By the time she pressed a mug of honey lemon chamomile tea in my hand, Herne had arrived, along with Akron.

  “Yutani said that you were expecting Rake for dinner?” Herne asked, sitting beside me.

  I nodded, unable to comprehend what had just happened. “Not exactly for dinner, but he was supposed to get here right about when it was ready. He always had a good appetite so I made more than I thought we could eat so Rake could join us.” The tea had helped brace me, and though I was still in shock, I had calmed down some. “Why would anybody do this?”

  “We need to find out if he had any enemies. Maybe they followed him and decided this would be the right time to take him out. After all, he’s one of the Ante-Fae.”

  “So?” Raven said, hands on her hips as she glared at him.

  “So, you know that a lot of the Ante-Fae are good at making enemies.” Turning back to me, Herne asked, “What do you know about Rake? What have you learned about him?”

  I worried my lip. “To be honest, not that much. We were mainly fuckbuddies. I liked him—he was fun and caring and good-natured. I know he volunteered at the nearby game park because he had a way with animals. And he was the type of man who brings you soup when you’re sick. If he had enemies, I don’t know who they are. Vixen might. They knew Rake better than I did.”

  “Let me call Vixen and ask,” Raven said. She patted me on the shoulder and moved off to one side, pulling out her phone.

  Akron entered the house and walked over to face Herne. “Well, the blade itself didn’t kill him. In fact, it missed his heart. While it did do serious damage, we think—”

  A scream from outside alerted us and Akron raced for the door, Herne right behind him. I jumped up to follow.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  One of Akron’s workers was on the ground, sprawled out on his back, glassy eyes staring at the sky. The other members of the team had gathered around him, leaving Rake’s corpse half-examined. The dead team member was holding the dagger that had been in Rake’s chest. A finger of his glove was torn, and some of Rake’s blood—at least it looked like his blood—was on the man’s hand.

  “What the hell?” Akron stared down at the man, then cautiously knelt beside him. “What happened to Gerry?”

  One of the other workers, a woman who looked Dark Fae, sobbed as she dropped to her knees beside Akron. “He was pulling the dagger out of the victim’s body when…he screamed and went into convulsions and…less than a minute later, he…died.”

  “All right. I have no idea what happened to him, but we’re declaring this a hazmat area until we know why both Rake and Gerry died.” He pulled out his phone and punched a number, and then spoke softly into it. His officers, meanwhile, began taping off the yard. They motioned for Yutani, Herne, and me to go inside. After we entered the house, Akron slammed the door behind us.

  “What’s happening?” Raven asked, trying to peek out the window.

  “They’re declaring this a hazardous area. One of the techs was extracting the dagger from Rake’s chest when he—the tech—went into seizures and then died. He was holding the dagger.” Herne crossed his arms, watching out the front window. “I wonder…”

  “We can’t stay here. I left Raj alone,” Raven said.

  “If you have to stay, is there someone you can call to take care of him?” I asked. Raj was her adorable but massive gargoyle. The creature was sweet, but a little scary, and seemed to think he was an intelligent dog. He loved TV and Cheetos and being a couch potato.

  “Yeah, I can call Apollo. He’d do it, even though he’s not supposed to be talking to me.” Raven pulled out her phone. She held it to her ear. “Hey, Apollo? Can you go check on Raj and stay with him for a little bit? I’m held up over at Yutani’s right now and can’t get home for a little while… Right, he hasn’t had dinner. Two cans of his favorite cat food, and one small bowl of chips for TV. I hope to be home before bedtime, but I’ll call as soon as I can to let you know… Thanks, dude.”

  “He can do it?” Kipa asked, sliding his arm around her waist. They made a striking couple, all right. Kipa was swarthy and built, and Raven was goth-gorgeous and curvy.

  “Yeah, he can. So that’s taken care of.”

  “That reminds me. I’m hungry,” I said, feeling hollow. I still couldn’t believe that Rake was dead and somehow, it felt like a massively bad joke someone was playing on me. “We have a casserole if anyone else needs food.”

  Herne, Raven, and Kipa declined. I fixed a couple plates for Yutani and me. As we sat down on the sofa to eat, we could hear Akron’s crew moving around outside on the porch. Outside the window, they were erecting a massive plastic tarp. They were tenting the house?

  “What are they doing?” I asked.

  “In case there’s some pathogen in the air, they’re trying to contain it until they figure out what killed Gerry.” Herne rolled his eyes. “I understand why they have to, but I did not plan on being stuck here for any length of time. Not that the company isn’t great but…”

  “But we have work to do,” I said.

  “Exactly.” He shrugged, then headed into the kitchen, returning with a plate of the mac and cheese. “Who is this guy, again? Rake?”

  “My date,” I said. “He works with Vixen, and is…was…one of the Ante-Fae. We weren’t serious or anything like that—more playmates—but he was a good guy. I can’t for the life of me think of any reason why someone would want to kill him.”

  “People have hidden lives we know nothing about, but why whoever murdered him would take him out on Yutani’s doorstep is a mystery.” Herne sat down near us, forking into the food.

  “How’s Ember?” Raven said, turning away from the window.

  “Very pregnant and very bossy. I wasn’t around when my daughter Danielle was born. I didn’t even know I was a father till a few years ago. But I want to be there when Ember has our children. Three daughters…I’m outnumbered for sure!” His eyes gleamed. It was easy to see how pleased he was. “Danielle’s going to take a leave of absence from Themiscyra for a month and come over to Annwn. She wants to meet her little sisters and see our home.”

  “You have an older daughter?” I asked.

  “Danielle, yes. Long ago I was dating an Amazon, and she got pregnant and didn’t tell me. I found out a few years back about her. Danielle’s living on Themiscyra now, training with the Amazons, and her mother’s washed her hands of both of us. I’m her sole parental figure now, though the leader of her division on the island stands in as a mother figure.” Herne polished off his dinner. “This is delicious. Who made it?”

  It felt so odd, talking about family and food while my date was lying on the front steps, dead. But it was better than silence.

  “Yutani and I both did. How does Ember feel about Danielle?” It was none of my business, but it seemed like something that might cause some dissension.

  “They get along well. Now. When they first met it wasn’t good, I have to admit.” Herne rolled his eyes. “When you talk about extended families, you only have to look as far as the gods. Also…dysfunctional. And extremes rule. That’s one reason Ember and I are discussing where to raise our girls. We have the castle, but where will give them the best chance to grow up with the responsibility and ethics we have chosen for our family? We have yet to decide.”

  I yawned. I was suddenly exhausted. “I think I need a nap,” I said, standing. “If you’ll all excuse me…”

  “Go ahead. We’ll wake you if Akron makes any important discoveries.” Raven waved me off.

  I retreated to my bedroom. I was tired, but I also had a headache from hell, and I was starting to feel claustrophobic. Too many people, too much chaos, and we were being cocooned within the house. There was too much hammering at my brain. I wasn’t sure what was bringing on the headache, but it reminded me of long ago, when I’d approached the Cruharach. I’d managed to go through the rite-of-passage ordeal with flying colors, but the days leading up to it had almost blindsided me in terms of headaches and psychic clutter.

  Shutting the door to my room, I breathed a sign of relief and dropped to my bed. I stripped off my corset and jeans, sliding into a short sleepshirt that came down to my thighs. I washed off my makeup and then stretched out on my bed, turning on an ambient light that was a pale yellow, and I practiced the breathing exercises that kept me calm when I was starting to approach a panic attack. Images of Rake, lying there dead, crowded my mind so I decided to focus on therapy to block them out.

  What would Sejun be like, I wondered. What would therapy be like? I wasn’t looking forward to sessions where I embraced my “inner child”—none of that set well with me. My inner child was fine. My mother and father had treated me well, if sternly, and I’d grown up loved, if not understood. Being kidnapped by Kilnakarn had happened when I was fully adult, and so my inner child felt no trauma. It was my adult-assed self that had been traumatized and tortured.

  After a few minutes of staring at the ceiling, I padded over to my window and looked outside to see plastic coating my windows. Great, so I couldn’t even open the window. They’d better figure out what we were dealing with before I went a little nuts and ripped a hole in the plastic shroud.

  Once again, needing a calm night, I found the packet of herbal sleep aids I’d bought off of a street vendor and popped one in my mouth. I didn’t take them often, but when I needed them, they helped me slide into dreamless slumber.

  As the sedative began to take effect, I slid under the comforter on my bed. Life was all too unpredictable, but then again, so was I.

  “Lyrical? Wake up. Lyrical, come on, wake up.” As I opened my eyes, Raven was sitting on the bed, shaking my shoulder. “It’s important.”

  “What—what happened? What’s going on?” I rubbed my eyes, squinting to see the clock. I had bought a blue alarm clock that glowed in the dark and was shaped like a frog. It was cute and it worked wonders even in dim light. It was four-thirty in the morning. I’d been out since eight p.m.

  “Akron found out what killed Rake and Gerry, and you’re going to want to hear this.” She handed me my robe as I slipped out of bed and I shrugged into it, still groggy. That was the one thing wrong with the sedative. It left me hungover for a while after I woke up.

  Rubbing my eyes, I followed her into the living room. Everybody was still there, including Akron. He and Herne were talking in hushed whispers. I trudged over to the sofa and sat down, crossing my legs beneath me and pulling a throw over my knees.

  “I’m glad you slept. You looked out of it,” Yutani said.

  “I was.” I yawned. “So, tell me, what’s going down?” I yawned again, covering my mouth. I regretted taking the sedative because it left me so cloudy.

  “Akron got the toxicology results,” Herne said.

  “Toxicology? Was Rake poisoned?”

  “Not exactly,” Akron said. “He and Gerry died due to a venomous paste made from the irukandji jellyfish. It’s the deadliest jellyfish in the world that we know of, and somebody concentrated the venom from its tentacles and made a paste out of it, which they spread on the dagger used to kill Rake. It looks like when Gerry pulled the dagger out of the body, he got some of the paste on his arm. It was enough to kill him.”

  I stared at him. Jellyfish venom? Who the hell would use jellyfish venom as a poison? And then, I read the room. “No…you don’t think…”

  “The dagger bears a crest. We checked it out,” Herne said, his face grave. “Kilnakarn’s crest.”

  It was as though a dagger pierced my own heart. I let out a little cry and jumped up. “No, it can’t be. He can’t be here. It has to be a mistake. Please, tell me that it’s a mistake!” I held his gaze, pleading for a reprieve.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “But it’s either Kilnakarn, or someone trying to frighten you. Can you think of anybody who might play a cruel joke on you?”

  I thought for a moment, reaching for answers. “What about the coyote shifters? They came after me the other night. They said they were paid by somebody.” If it was them, then I was safe. I could handle coyote shifters. If it was Kilnakarn, I was screwed.

  Yutani shook his head. “Coyote shifters are greedy. They’d take a bribe any time.”

  “How the hell did he find me? Why is he here and not back in Ireland?” I burst into a frenzied panic, trying to figure out what to do next. “I have to get away—I have to escape before he finds me. I can’t let him catch me again.”

  “He won’t,” Yutani said, immediately putting his arms around my shoulders and walking me to the sofa. “We won’t let that happen.”

  “Yutani’s right,” Herne said. “We’re more than a match for a mere Kelpie, and I’m not about to let that perverted piece of trash get his hands on you. So, calm your fears. But we need to find him and take him out so this can’t happen again.”

  “Won’t that start a war between you and the Light Fae?” I asked. Most Water Fae like the Leannan Sidhe were Light Fae. The Kelpies were an exception. The terms “Light” and “Dark” didn’t signify “good” and “evil.”

  “My wife is a goddess of the Fae, remember. And so is my mother. I think between the two of them they can put a stop to any protests.” His expression was grim, set in stone, and I began to understand just what it was like to work for this man. He wasn’t ruthless, exactly, but Herne got what Herne wanted and he was used to people coming around to his way of thinking.

  I stood in the center of the room with everybody staring at me. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say,” I said, shivering. “I’m freezing.”

  “Come on, you need more sleep,” Raven said, taking me by the shoulders. “You sleep and I’ll sit beside you for a while. You don’t have to worry at all. Okay?”

  I shrugged, feeling helpless, like I was falling down a dark hole, and at the bottom waited the worst enemy I could imagine. I wasn’t sure if the bungee cord attached to my ankle would hold. But Raven turned me in the direction of my bedroom and I let her steer me back to bed. She crawled in beside me and curled up next to me, a comforting presence.

  Still drowsy from the effects of the sedative, I yawned and closed my eyes, praying that I wouldn’t have nightmares of my captivity. And luckily for me, Raven’s presence kept the bad dreams at bay.

  When I woke, it was already nine-thirty and light was shining through the window. I was alone in bed, but Raven was sitting in the chair, reading. She put down her e-reader and smiled as I sat up and yawned.

  “I’m glad to see you slept well,” she said.

  “I can’t believe I got back to sleep,” I said, the reality of the night before crashing in. “I’m late for work,” I added, glancing at the clock.

  “Don’t worry about that. Yutani’s downstairs, waiting for you. He wanted to follow you in to the office today. Kipa and I’ll drive you over to the portal so you can make your appointment with Sejun this afternoon.” She handed me a towel. “You want a shower?”

  It occurred to me that they had already taken my life under control.

  On one hand, it irked me. I didn’t like anybody controlling what I did. But on the other hand, logically, I knew I needed help. I wouldn’t be able to defeat Kilnakarn alone—if I could even find him before he found me. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could take him on myself. And if I kept imagining him behind every post, behind the wheel of every car, hiding in the closet of every house or building I walked into, then I’d end up paranoid and probably hurt myself in the process.

  “Yeah, thanks,” I said, taking the towel and tucking my hair into a shower cap. “Can you find me jeans and a tank top? I’ll need a bra and panties, too.” I often went commando, but now, the idea of extra layers between my vaj and anybody nearby felt comforting. The brand on my inner thigh seemed all too vivid as I stood in the shower.

  I lathered up and rinsed off, and the water washed away some of my grogginess. As I padded back into the bedroom naked, Raven was sitting on the bed with my clothes.

  She stared at me for a moment, then quietly asked, “What’s that scar on your thigh?”

  I closed my eyes. Eventually someone was going to notice and ask about it, and I might as well get over my humiliation. “Kilnakarn branded me.”

  Raven blanched, but calmly handed me my underwear. “I think the Elves can remove that.”

  I continued to dress. “How long did it take you to get over what Pandora did to you?”

  “Ask me again in a decade,” she said. “I haven’t gotten over it. Sejun explained to me that I’ll always carry those memories. But as I said before, he helped remove the emotional triggers that played into them. When I think about all those events now, I don’t tense up. I don’t panic anymore, or act out. They’re…like I’m watching from a great distance. I know they happened to me and they’ll forever be a part of my experience, and sometimes I still cry about it, but they no longer inform my actions.”