Burning Bright (Ivy Granger) (13 page)

I ignored the fatigue that had been slowly chipping away at
me and headed into the church, suddenly determined to keep this city, and
everyone in it, safe.  I had to find a way to survive in order to protect them
all. I couldn’t count on anyone else to do that for me.  I wasn’t willing to
take that risk.

“S
o there’s
nothing in there that can help Jinx and we’re no closer to finding Kaye,” I
said, scowling at the priest.

“We’ve only done a cursory search,” Father Michael said.  He
blinked, giving me an owlish look from behind his reading glasses, and waved
his long, thin hands over the books and scrolls stacked on his desk.  “With
time, I’m sure I can learn of a way to break the connection between this
incubus and your friend Jinx.”

We were seated in his cramped office in the back of the
church.  At the priest’s suggestion we’d called The Emporium, but there was
still no word from Kaye.  That little tidbit set my teeth on edge, but I tried
not to grump at Arachne over speakerphone.  It’s not like it was the kid’s
fault that Kaye had gone missing.

With no leads on Kaye, we’d moved on to Jinx’s incubus
problem.  Father Michael had been eager to pull out a pile of dusty tomes
relating to incubi behavior, but none of the books gave any hint as to how to
break the incubus’ hold on my friend.  The priest wanted more time to pour over
the books in his extensive library, but I shook my head.

“Sorry, padre, time isn’t a luxury we have,” I said, holding
up my phone.

Jinx had forced me to upgrade to a new smartphone a few months
ago.  I was still getting used to all the new features, but one thing I knew
how to do was check the news.  While Father Michael had clucked over ancient
manuscripts, I’d scanned the local headlines—and it wasn’t pretty.

According to the news, fires were springing up all over
Harborsmouth.  There must be dozens of the demons at large to cause this much
chaos.  It was obvious that the fire imps were no longer content with a little
public vandalism, and they were moving into residential neighborhoods where
damage could equate to lives lost.

So far most of the fires were small, but the damage was
escalating and at this rate things could get out of hand fast.  Something as
trivial as a sea breeze coming off the harbor could turn a contained fire into
an uncontrollable blaze, destroying homes, taking lives, and giving the vampire
master of the city a reason to bleed me dry.

The priest read the headline, let out a chirp of surprise,
and crossed himself.

“We must save the city,” he said.

I ground my teeth and let out a frustrated growl.  The fire
imps had to be stopped, but first we needed a plan.  Otherwise we’d be chasing
our tails.

I tilted my head back to stare at the ceiling.  I knew from
past visits that the wooden beams that arched above me were carved with a
pattern of flowers and vines, but today my eyes stared up unseeing.  My
attention turned inward as I mulled over the problem of how to control the fire
imps who were setting fire to the city.  Each time I felt close to a solution,
it slipped just out of my reach.

“There’s two damned many of them,” I said.  “No offense,
Father.”

“No offense taken,” he said benevolently.

Apparently, the priest was feeling gracious.  Last time I
swore inside his church, he threatened to have Galliel dunk me in the baptismal
font.

I stroked Galliel’s head in my lap, struggling to come up
with a workable plan to take down the fire imps.  Usually the unicorn’s
presence brought me a great sense of peace and happiness, but I was too keyed
up with worry.  I bit the inside of my cheek, stifling a scream of frustration. 
It had been bad enough when the imps were targeting businesses down on the
waterfront, but now they were burning down people’s homes.

“If only we could get them all in one place,” I said.

I jumped as Arachne’s voice came through the desk phone’s
speakers.  I’d forgotten she was still there.  Thankfully, the unicorn in my
lap kept me from toppling over backward.

“Um, I might know a way to get the fire imps to gather
together,” Arachne said.

“How?” Father Michael and I asked in unison.

Ceff leaned forward and Galliel lifted his head.  I gently
bit my lip and held my breath.  Mab’s bones, we needed a break in this case. 
Please,
please, please
be something we could use.

Arachne spoke rapidly, reminding me that we were hanging our
hopes on a teenage kid.

“There’s this artifact and it holds demons, or at least it
did, and I think it could again…” she said.

“How do we acquire this artifact?” Ceff asked.

Yeah, that was a damn good question.  I’d already sucked
down an entire carafe of coffee that I’d nabbed from the church’s kitchen, but
the caffeine wasn’t working its usual magic.  The more time that went by
without fulfilling my end of the faerie bargain, the worse it would get.  A
long journey to retrieve a lost artifact, no matter how useful, was definitely
off the menu.

“It’s, um, here,” she said.

“Are you saying that you actually have it, there at the
shop?” I asked.

“Well, yeah, duh,” she said.  I could almost hear the kid
rolling her eyes.  “That’s why I brought it up in the first place.”

I exchanged a look with Ceff and Father Michael.  The priest
sat on the edge of his chair, licking his lips.  Ceff just scratched his jaw
and shrugged.

“And Kaye just left this thing out for the taking?” I asked.

Because that didn’t sound like the witch I knew.  The Emporium
may look like the holy smorgasbord of occult objects, but most of the stuff for
sale in the shop was harmless trinkets.  The real arcane items were locked up
in the cupboards of Kaye’s spell kitchen or secreted away behind her office
door.  Last I knew, that office was off limits to Arachne, and for good
reason—there was some powerful shit in there.

“It’s a l-l-long story,” she said.

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” I said.

I wanted to tell the kid to spill the beans—she was
obviously hiding something—but I didn’t want to risk an argument over the
phone.  Like it or not, Arachne was the one maintaining the spell circle around
Jinx—the circle that was keeping my friend alive.  I’d get my answers from the
young witch, that was for damn sure, but it would just have to wait until we
were face to face.  I couldn’t risk her storming out of The Emporium and
leaving Jinx on her own.

I wished, not for the first time today, that Kaye would
return from who knows where.  I’d come to rely on the crafty, old witch.

“I would like to see this artifact,” Father Michael said,
fingers twitching greedily.

Yeah, of course he would.  The guy was obsessed with arcane
lore and anything related to demons was like porn to the priest.

“I can send a pic to Ivy’s phone,” Arachne said.

“A pick?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

“A picture,” I said.

“Ah, I will never live long enough to understand the lingo
these days,” he said.

“Neither will I,” Ceff muttered.

I grinned, that last comment striking me as funny, seeing as
it came from the lips of an immortal.

“Here,” I said, holding out my phone so the priest could see
the screen.  I narrowed my eyes at his fingers darting toward my phone.  “Just
don’t touch it.”

The priest held his hands to his chest and nodded, eyes
already glued to the picture that Arachne had sent.  The artifact was small,
about the size of a tea cup—a proper tea cup, not the head-sized troughs I
drank my coffee out of—and resembled a gold censer, the kind of incense burner
used in church services.

“But even with the ability to lure the foul creatures to one
location, where could we possibly send them?” Ceff asked.  “It is not as though
we can set the creatures loose on one neighborhood.  An entire city block could
burn to the ground if the imps were brought together.”

“Do not plan evil against your neighbor, who dwells
trustingly beside you,” Father Michael said, quoting the bible.

“Yes, not even the grindylow deserve such a plague of pests,”
Ceff said, nodding.  “I would not wish those imps on any of my neighbors, would
you?”

A grin tugged at my lips, the beginnings of a plan forming. 
Warmth radiated through my body and I let out an evil laugh.

“Oh yeah, I would,” I said.

In fact, I could think of more than one neighbor I’d like to
sick the nasty, little pyromaniacal demons on.  Let the fire fiends burn up a
nest of dusty vamps?  Yeah, that was tempting.  But there was the problem of
getting past my bargain with Gaius.  Thankfully, I didn’t even have to worry
about circumventing my agreement with the master of the city.  The vamps
wouldn’t be the target, not this time.

I had an even better idea.

If my ruse of only temporarily killing Kaye worked (and,
granted, that was a big IF), then I’d be back in The Green Lady’s favor—and
able to enter her territory.  But I had a bad feeling that the glaistig would
find a way to retain control over Jinx, and thus me.  I needed a backup plan,
and figured that a horde of fire imps would come in handy when she
double-crossed me.

If I wanted to be sure of Jinx’s safety, I’d have to find a
way to convince the incubus to break his hold on my friend, one way or
another.  But I wasn’t naïve enough to think that I could just waltz onto the
carnival grounds and strike up a chat with the incubus.  We needed a
distraction capable of keeping The Green Lady busy long enough to make contact
with her incubus.

That’s where the fire imps come in.  I’d enter The Green
Lady’s territory, bringing Arachne’s magic artifact with me.  If the artifact
worked the way it should, the fire imps would follow, giving the incubus and I
time for a little chat.

Of course, it wasn’t a perfect plan.  I’d be relying on a
lot of shit to go my way, but just knowing there was a possibility of success
sent a jolt of energy though my body.

“You would send those fire fiends to one of your neighbors?”
Father Michael asked, recoiling.

“Yes, I would,” I said.  “They’ll be a gift to The Green
Lady, a reminder not to mess with my friends.”

“You publicly claimed Jinx as your vassal,” Ceff said,
nodding.  “You are within your rights to fight for her safety, and to seek
recompense.”

“Cool, kick that faerie queen’s ass!” Arachne piped in.

Galliel chuffed into my hand.  I guess we were all in agreement,
all except for the priest.  Father Michael’s fingers danced over the documents
on his desk, his head bobbing nervously.

I stayed quiet, waiting for the priest to work it out.  It
couldn’t be easy for the man.  He may have a loose interpretation of some
church doctrine, or he never would have stolen all those artifacts and
documents from the Vatican archives, but that didn’t mean he was morally
bankrupt.  He believed in turning the other cheek and loving your enemies.  Thankfully,
he loved his parishioners more.

“I will not watch my flock burn,” he said.  “I will do what
I can to help, but on one condition.”

I nodded.

“You will not lead the demon spawn onto carnival grounds
during opening hours,” he said.

“Agreed,” I said.

I felt the bargain settle onto my shoulders, but that was
one promise I wouldn’t have to worry about trying to break.  There was no way
I’d pick a fight with The Green Lady when the amusement park was open for
business.  I may act like a cold hearted bitch, but I wasn’t okay with collateral
damage.

A battle when the carnival grounds were filled with innocent
human families was just asking for casualties.  I’d wait until after hours to
strike.  In fact, I hoped that I could keep most of the carnival fae themselves
from getting hurt.  If we led the fire imps to The Green Lady’s pavilion, and
away from the worker’s sleeping quarters, then maybe we could pull this off in
a way that I could live with.  Saving the day without accumulating a shit ton
of guilt would be nice for a change.

“Ceff, do you think some of your people would be willing to
help keep the fires from spreading to the tents where the carnival fae live?” I
asked.

“My people cannot cross into The Green Lady’s territory,” he
said, rubbing his chin.  “But yes, we could help.  Direct magic would be
blocked, I’m certain of that, but we could remain outside her territory and send
water in the direction of the tents.”

“Good, then that’s settled,” I said.

I turned back to Father Michael.  I knew he preferred a
world of black and white, but he’d spent enough time in our world to know that
nothing involving the fae was that simple.  It was all shades of grey.  Those
of us good guys had to try to keep shit from getting too dark—it was the best
we could do.  I just hoped the priest saw it that way.  I bit my lip and held
my breath.

“I will continue my research,” he said grudgingly.  He
looked longingly at the artifact on my cell phone’s screen until I picked up
the phone and put it away.  Research was the priest’s strong suit, but I knew
he’d rather be chasing demons and getting his grubby mitts on that artifact.  Yeah,
it was all about shades of grey—even the priest’s soul wasn’t lily white.  “I
will let you know if I discover anything that will help you save your friend.”

“Thank you, Father,” I said.

Reluctantly, I pushed Galliel’s head from my lap and stood.

“I’ll see you later,” I said, ruffling the unicorn’s mane. 
“You too, Arachne.”

A squeak escaped the phone on Father Michael’s desk.  Yeah,
I hadn’t forgotten about paying the kid a visit.

“Bye!” Arachne said, and hung up.

Father Michael replaced the phone on the cradle and sighed. 
His gaunt face looked pale, paler than usual, all hard lines and angles in the
low light of his desk lamp.  He remained stooped over his desk, but his eyes
came up to meet my gaze, and I didn’t like what I saw there.  Not one bit.