Page 39 of Alec

“They must have been cornered here.” She pointed to the threshold, which had the same scratchy streaks on it as in the passage.

“Stand back, my lady.” When she moved away Rory lifted one foot and kicked in the door, which fell apart as it hit the floor.

Inside the chamber stood the laundress and her maids, the latter huddled behind her. All had been frozen in the exact same way as the chatelaine and head chambermaid, their skin glassed over as if they had been caught in an ice storm. Ava moved the torch she carried around to check the shadowed corners before she went and touched two fingers to the women’s necks.

“They’re all still alive.” She bent and looked at the laundress’s expression, which appeared ferocious, and gently eased a long, sharp dagger out of the woman’s fingers. “She tried to protect her girls.”

“They’re as daughters to her.” He crouched by the hearth and put his head inside, tilting it so he could look inside the chimney. He heard Ava make an odd sound and pulled back, turning to see her trying to free herself from a patch of ice on the floor. “My lady.”

She reached for him, and he seized her, prying her foot from her boot before he fled the room with her. Behind him he heard something like ice cracking and kept running until he and Ava reached the bottom of the tower stairs.

He placed her on her feet. “What did thus to you?”

“It was a beetle made of ice. I saw it crawling toward me, and tried to stomp on it. Then I couldn’t lift my foot again.” She bent down and touched her toes. “I’m still a little numb, but it’s wearing off. If you hadn’t grabbed me I think I’d be frozen like the others. Thank you, Rory.”

“I must block off these stairs to keep the golachs from leaving the tower.” He beckoned to the guards he saw approaching. “One of you take Lady Ava to our lord. The rest of you, help me build a barricade.”

“Those things are fast. Be careful,” Ava told him before she left.

Bodach watched Olivia and Alec McKeran hugging each other, and waited to see if they would progress to something more entertaining to watch. A few moments later the war master left, and the surveyor began unpacking her things, a smile still on her lips.

“You couldn’t just get down to it, could you? Idiot girl. I will have to force things again.” He made a disgusted sound and with a wave of his hand removed the image from his window scroll. “Show me my matriarch.”

The parchment swirled with colors before they flattened out into an image of the tower room where the first enchanted insect had flown. It still sat wedged on the ledge of the arrow slit, but it had grown to a monstrous size. Its icy body had reached the stones on either side, which now looked cracked. It bulged, growing a little larger as a duplicate of itself emerged from its back, separated itself, and then flew off.

“You’re working so hard for me, my frigid friend.” He rubbed his thumb over the image of the matriarch beetle.

A sound from above made Bodach return upstairs. From behind the illusion that covered the landing he saw one of the police officers who had been with Jack Riley, this time in civilian clothing. He carried a flashlight in one hand and a pistol in the other, and looked around as if expecting to be attacked. A few mortals with strong wills had an annoying ability to resist his magic, and this one could be that sort—or something else entirely.

“Why are you here?” Bodach asked, enjoying the way the ghostly echo of his voice made the cop jump.

“Step out where I can see you,” the mortal ordered.

When his back was turned Bodach walked through the illusion, striding quickly up to the cop and disarming him easily. The gun went skittering into the shadows as the mortal turned and tried to hit him with the flashlight.

“Really? You are that much of an idiot?” Bodach said after swatting away the light, grabbing him by the throat and walking him back to slam him against the nearest wall. “Why did you return? Are you one of those irritating do-gooder types?”

The cop made a strangled sound, but when he eased his grip he gasped out, “I can help you. Give you protection.”

Surprised, Bodach released him. “Why would you do that?” He glared at the cop. “If this is about that stunted little mortal female–”

“I’m unwanted, like you.” The mortal rubbed his throat. “My master left me here to rot.”

He stretched out his hand to dispel the glamor that shielded the cop’s true appearance, and when it fell he smirked. “Ah, you’re a changeling. Not a very pretty one, either. Tell me your true name.”

“Clagden.” The tall, spindly-limbed Fae bared his jagged teeth. “The mortal I replaced now lives in Elphyne in complete luxury, coddled and protected by my master, while I have had to scratch out a place for myself here in this stupid skin. What did you do with that girl?”

“None of your business.” Bodach walked around him as his glamour encased him, inspecting his guise. It was rather good; enough to fool even him at a casual distance. “Why do you care?”

“I’d like a little time with her.” Clagden’s expression turned famished.

Such hunger meant he did something with females to either feed or amuse himself, another dark Fae trait. But which order did he belong to? “Are you really employed as a cop?”

“Yes. Criminals can give me what I need through their dreams, and no one cares if they die in their sleep. I’ve used so many in the past there’s an entire prison cemetery filled with their corpses.” The changeling grinned at him. “If you will take me as your servant, I swear that I shall serve you faithfully. All I ask is a turn with the females you use.”

That told him all he needed to know about the exiled Fae. “You’re a phobos goblin. You wield nightmares so you can eat the fear of the slumbering.”

“And you would starve me,” Clagden said, nodding.