Chapter 02

My mind raced as I tried to process everything the malk had said.

That Bianca wanted me dead was no surprise. Almost two years prior, I'd attended a function at her mansion as the local White Council representative. Things had gone poorly, and I'd had to fight my way out of the trap the vampire had ensnared me in.

The fall-out of that encounter had been catastrophic to my life. My girlfriend Susan Rodriguez had been captured by the vampires, which had led myself and two others to make a desperate attempt to save her and another girl named Justine. It had been a long shot, but we'd dared to hope that luck would be on our side.

The attempt had failed miserably.

At the end of the day, Justine was dead. So was Susan, in a sense; she'd been turned by the vampires, becoming one them. I'd nearly been killed myself, but had left Bianca's mansion under my own power, deciding to forgo the vengeance owed in favor of preserving peace between the White Council and the Red Court.

That decision had haunted me ever since.

It didn't take long for Bianca to send surveillance footage from the party to the White Council. The video was grainy, but you could clearly make out yours truly as I fought the massed horde of vampires that Bianca had gathered to her. When I'd grown desperate, I'd unleashed a storm of fire unlike anything I'd cast before.

I had no way of proving that the victims had all been vampires. The autopsies had confirmed mortals had been present, but were inconclusive as to whether they'd died before or after the fight. If the Council had bothered to ask, I would have told them that the vampires had been feeding on their doped up cattle before things had gone south. That the dead mortals hadn't been slain by my magic.

But they didn't ask. Instead, they'd declared me a warlock, and I'd spent eight months on the run.

It'd only been the previous June when I finally found a way out from their crooked form of justice. While working for the Sidhe on an internal matter between their Courts, I'd been offered the position of Winter Knight. If I accepted, I'd be out of both the Council's and Bianca reach. Neither would dare leave a contract out on Winter's hit-man.

Not to mention that I'd made a powerful enemy in the form of Queen Titania. Accepting the mantle was the only way I could hope to survive what she'd be throwing my way.

So I did what I had to, to survive.

Only now it seemed Bianca had found a new way to see me dead.

"Why now?" I asked, my voice almost a growl as I tried to rein in the rage that swelled up within me. The mantle was powerful, but it was dangerous. If I let it have too much control, things got out of hand real quick.

"One of the Red Court's Lords has decided to put an end to the matter," Grimalkin informed me.

"Who?"

"Duke Paolo Ortega," the malk said. "He is Bianca's sponsor, and has considerable pull within the Red Court. The Margravine has been seeking support among her fellows to declare war on Winter for harboring you."

"Wait, what?" I said, twisting around again. "Why the hell would they go to war with Winter?"

"Because you are now part of the Winter Court, Lord Knight," Grimalkin purred, his smile curling up into something more condescending. "The Council avoided just such a fate by removing you from their membership. But when Mother Winter bestowed the title of Knight upon you, she put Winter in a vulnerable position."

"But the party was long before I joined Winter," I explained. "The Sidhe had nothing to do with it."

That wasn't technically true. My fairy godmother had been involved in those events, and had all but put me in the tenuous position I'd found myself in. But Lea hadn't violated any rules as far as I was aware; she'd helped me escape the party, but her excuse had been that she was attempting to remove me before the hostess met a gruesome fate.

"And yet now our Queen finds herself in an awkward position," Grimalkin said with a slight shake of his whiskered head. "She cannot afford to have the Accords blatantly violated, especially by her own Knight. And she cannot afford to enter into a war with the Red Court; not while we remain in conflict with Summer."

I grimaced, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

When I'd killed Aurora, the previous Summer Lady, she'd been trying to put an end to the Cold War that had existed between the two Sidhe Courts since they'd been formed. While noble, her actions had been foolishly dangerous.

She'd partially succeeded in her attempt. While she hadn't sacrificed the power of the Summer Knight, she did manage to pass some of her own through the stone table and into Winter. I'd prevented her from giving over all of her power, which was the only thing that had spared the world from a frigid end.

Even the limited amount that had passed between the Courts had caused havoc with the world's climate. A cold snap in the middle of summer had destroyed crops across the globe, which had led to dozens of small wars springing up among nations threatened with hunger. Those with stockpiles faired better, but no-one had been unaffected.

While mortal society had finally started pulling itself back from the brink of chaos, the Sidhe had not. With the balance of power between the Courts upended, Summer had set about trying to reclaim their power however they could. Skirmishes had broken out amongst them and the Wild Fae, the factions of Faerie not affiliated with either Court. If they could regain power without facing Winter directly, all the better.

Only, Winter had reacted in kind, aiding those in the Wild when they could. The Unseelie were determined to maintain its advantage over the more cheerful Seelie court. Which, of course, had made the last eight months a very dark and very dangerous time in Faery. Which in turn had kept the Winter Knight very busy.

From what I'd seen of Mab, she was inclined to settle matters, and allow Summer to regain some of their lost power, as long as Winter lost nothing. But the old crone, Mother Winter herself, had been invigorated by the influx of power. And she had no sympathy for Summer or for humanity.

But with that conflict ongoing, there was no way Winter could allow itself to be drawn in to a fight with the Reds.

"So who am I dueling?" I asked, realizing there would be no escaping my fate.

"Ortega himself," Grimalkin replied. "He and his contingent have already arrived in Chicago, and will meet with you and your second once the intermediary has arrived."

I turned back. "Who's to be judge and jury?"

"The Archive," the malk replied.

That drew a frown from me. I'd been involved in a couple duels since becoming Winter Knight, but I'd never worked with that intermediary. "I thought the Archive was some repository of mortal knowledge?"

"She is," Grimalkin confirmed. "And she is quite powerful because of it."

"Knowledge is power, and all that. So she's got clout," I surmised. "Enough to take care of me should I be found guilty."

"Oh, most assuredly, Lord Knight," the malk said with entirely too much glee.

"Watch it, kitty," I growled back. "Or I'll tell the chambermaids at Arctis Tor not to clean your litter box."

That earned me an annoyed ear twitch.

"So who's to be my second?" I asked, feeling smug about landing a blow against the annoying creature, no matter how petty. The malk liked me about as much as Mab did, which was to say not at all. But at least he made no effort at disguising his opinion. I could respect that.

Grimalkin's grin returned. "That is up to you. But be for-warned, it shall be no-one in service to Winter."

"What?" I said, twisting around again. "You've got to be kidding me."

The malk shrugged with a disaffected air. "The Queen must distance herself from the matter. As such, none of her subjects shall be involved." Grimalkin's eyes narrowed as his grin grew. "In short, you caused this mess on your own; so shall you finish it."

Before I could reply, the malk disappeared, leaving me gaping into an empty back seat.

"That back stabbing bitch," I growled. My fist bounced off the steering wheel, the drive-shaft groaning under the force of the blow. I'd hit it harder than I'd intended, the mantle fueling my strength in my rage.

Thankful that the old jeep didn't have airbags that would have registered a collision, I started up the engine, and made my way home, all while trying to figure out what I'd do.


It didn't take me long to journey from Goose Island to the Gold Coast, where my townhouse was located.

When I'd been on the run from the Council, I'd briefly left Chicago, trying to lose the wardens in the wide open countryside of America. But it hadn't taken me long to realize that I'd made a mistake. Out there, everyone was a stranger that might be hunting me in a landscape I didn't know. At least in Chicago I'd known the town, which gave me a shot at staying a step ahead of the wardens. I'd returned post-haste, and avoided those hunting me for as long as it took.

After becoming the Winter Knight, I'd decided to remain in Chicago for the same reason. By then I'd made a casual alliance with the Streetwolves. It was the same gang that I had once feuded with, but it had become something new once Sía had taken over. I wasn't a fan of all of their methods, but I'd begun to realize that the world was a hard place that needed a stern hand at times. Sía's people offered that, as well as an option outside of the local crime boss that ruled the city.

Upon my return to mortal society in Chicago, I'd been inclined to return to my old apartment in the basement of Ms. Spunkelcrief's house. But the Winter Lady, as the Queen operating closest to the mortal world, insisted that the Winter Knight could not live in a hovel. Frustrated, but unwilling to argue the point, I'd let Maeve make arrangements.

I should have suspected that her help would be both sweet and vicious, just like her.

My townhouse was more than I could have ever asked for. It sat on its own plot of land in the Gold Coast, which was the high end neighborhood of Chicago. The building was surrounded by trees on each side that almost completely hid it from view, offering me both privacy and space in the middle of the city.

The grounds were immaculate, with a white pebble driveway leading past well kept hedges. An extensive garden in the back contained winding paths that ran beside shaped topiaries and marble statues.

The house itself might as well have been a mansion. It had more bedrooms and baths than I could ever put to use, and a formal dining room and living area that were still all but empty. It even had a basement that was perfect for using as my lab.

As Maeve had presented me with the keys, I was filled with more hate for her than anyone I'd ever known. Which is saying something, considering some of the things I've seen.

I knew a lot about the home before I stepped inside, mostly because I'd been there once before. Back when I'd been working with the police, I'd been called there on a case that had involved the previous owner. A man who's family had been cursed with a ghastly inheritance, one that turned him into a raging monster once a month. A man that had been targeted by others, his self-made containment circle destroyed by those that would see him blamed for crimes he didn't commit.

A man that had killed his friend, my would-be apprentice Kim Delaney, in that very same house.

Maeve had bought me a wonderful home indeed.

I'd made do with it the best that I could. The place had been gutted, so by the time I moved in, I could no longer smell the blood that had once permeated the air. Sometimes I still caught a whiff, but that was most likely just my guilty conscience reminding me of my failure to help her.

I didn't live in the room where Kim had died. I'd had the place redone, with the master suite switched to the other side of the house. The old bedroom where Kim had met her end had been turned into a war room for my Household Guard. I never set foot in there.

As I returned home, I drove the jeep past the front, and parked it in the detached garage in the rear. Cutting my way through the cold morning air, I went in through the back, which led into the kitchen. It was there that I found the captain of my Household Guard arguing with my head chef.

"That is not a proper meal," the dark-haired fairy standing on the kitchen island declared angrily. She was less than a foot in height, with a human-like figure that would have been eye-catching if she weren't the size of a Barbie doll. Her thick mane of black silken hair was tied back in a long braid that almost reached her feet.

When she saw me enter, she gestured toward the counter, her dragonfly wings snapping crisply. "Sir, I recommend that you not eat that."

As the person in charge of my safety, the fairy known as Lacuna took her job very seriously. I'd searched high and low for someone competent enough to serve me that wasn't already affiliated with either of the Sidhe Courts. I might have been the Winter Knight, but that didn't mean I trusted the Court with my life.

Lacuna had been a lucky find. As a wild fae, she held no loyalties to Summer or Winter, and had sworn herself to me and me alone. She'd overseen the formation of my Household Guard, which looked after things while I was away. She'd also become my most trusted confidant, who I relied heavily upon, even if she tended to fixate on things outside of her purview.

Her current tantrum seemed to be based on her efforts to ensure I ate a proper diet. Something that was woefully unlikely to happen, considering who I'd anointed as head chef.

"There'f noffing wrong wif it!" Toot-toot the fairy replied, his mouth full as he scowled back at her. His own silver dragonfly wings were still as he stood atop the counter, holding aloft a plastic bladed pizza cutter. The fairy's magenta hair was wild and frizzy as he turned to me, quickly swallowing his bite-full to defend himself. "It's fine!"

I walked over to see what the fuss was over, and let loose with a groan that was half frustrated, half amused.

"Our lord needs a proper meal! One with fruits!" Lacuna insisted.

Toot glared at her as he swung the pizza cutter around to point at the box on the counter. "It's got fruits!" The round edge tapped the front of the box. "See? Apples!"

"Apple Jacks are Not. Real. Apples!" Lacuna growled, her tiny foot stomping.

Toot just turned to me, his arms extended as if to ask that I assure her they were more or less the same.

The two faeries hadn't gotten along ever since I'd recruited Lacuna. The little guy had been infatuated with her at first, but when he'd learned that she was a vegetarian that disapproved of pizza, his enthusiasm had quickly waned.

Instead of taking sides, I looked toward the concoction on the pizza stone, which seemed mostly edible. The fairy had cooked up one of the frozen pepperoni pizzas from the freezer, and sprinkled it liberally with the aforementioned cereal. There was also some freshly blackened bacon crumbled over it, along with what looked like runny eggs.

Toot bowed gracefully, his arm waving over the pie. "Your breakfast pizza, sir."

"Thank you, Toot," I said neutrally. Rather than just diving in, I made my way toward the coffee pot, which I had smelled upon entering.

"Will Miss MacTire be joining us?" Toot asked, casting a longing look at the pizza.

"Unfortunately she left earlier," I informed him, although he likely already knew that. The little fairy wouldn't have made a full pizza if Sía had stuck around; he would have made two.

Toot's wing's fluttered excitedly, although his expression and tone remained saddened. "That is a shame."

"Isn't it?" I asked after taking a sip of coffee. With a grateful sigh that the fairy had at least learned to make a proper pot, I grabbed a plate and a couple slices of pizza. "Toot, would you see that the rest doesn't go to waste?"

The tiny fairy snapped a crisp salute in my direction as I strolled out, the plastic pizza cutter edge banging on his forehead as he did. I returned it with an awkward salute of coffee, and nodded toward the door, letting Lacuna know I needed her. She dutifully trailed along in my wake, although she lingered long enough to exchange several impolite gestures with Toot.

Taking another swig, I headed for a door along a hallway, which lead to a narrow spiraling staircase. I made my way down carefully, the enchanted lamps on the walls beginning to shine as I passed by.

When I reached the bottom, I fumbled with the plate and mug, somehow managing not to spill anything as I opened the door to the basement storage room that I'd turned into my lab. I would have had Lacuna do it, but every door handle in the house was made of iron, as was every window latch, hinge, vent grate, and anything else I could think of.

Lacuna and her people had other ways of getting about, and I took a dark pleasure in knowing that any unwanted Sidhe visitors would be inconvenienced by the abundant presence of the metal.

The basement was already well lit by more magic lamps as I entered. There'd been windows along the top edge of the wall when I'd first moved in, similar to what I'd had in my old apartment. But without a deeper sub-basement to use as a lab, I'd walled those up, sealing the room away from any trace of natural light.

A small figure was traipsing about one of my lab tables, its thin limbs made of wood and wire. It was nothing more than a skeleton marionette, although the long wires and control bar had been cut away. Unlike a puppet on strings, the thing's movements were fluid and natural, as if it were alive.

That it was moving about on its own was due to the dark amber light that infused it.

"How we looking?" I asked as I placed the mug and plate down on another table.

The wooden skeleton head turned to look at me, its eye sockets shining brightly with the same amber light that was wrapped around the wire joints. The puppet's eyes narrowed, the wood not moving so much as the embers of light twisting to impersonate the human expression. "Much better than your breakfast."

I took a bite of said breakfast, taking it slow to see how it tasted. Once that one was done, I brushed the cereal off and tried again. Better. "He's trying."

The skeleton's eyes rolled at that. "I could do better."

I shot a doubtful look at the wooden contraption that was currently housing my lab assistant Bob. "If I recall, the only time you expressed any interest in food was when you read about nude sushi bars."

Bob's eyes widened, the darker amber briefly flaring into something more golden. "The one time I wished I could eat."

The Spirit of Intellect gave a soft wistful sigh, before turning his gaze back toward the object on the table. As he did, his eyes shifted a shade darker again. "Our modifications from last night took care of that feedback issue."

"Good," I said, looking at the foot long length of oak, its surface covered extensively with etchings that had been filled in with a magically crafted resin that would add some durability to the rod.

"Although you may want to test it again before you put it to use," Bob added as the marionette walked over to a small wooden chair atop the table.

"I'll put it through the paces later," I said as a cloud of amber lights flowed out of the wooden doll, floating across the room to gather within an old skull atop a shelf. "I've had a busy morning, and I need to consult with the two of you."

Lacuna snapped off a crisp salute while Bob just rolled his eye-lights in the sockets of the skull.

As quickly as I could, I got the two up to speed on the case and the duel. I took bites of pizza when I could, taking care to pour off the runny eggs whenever necessary. By the time I finished eating, Bob and Lacuna knew everything I did.

"So are you going to wait for the threads?" Bob asked.

"That's the plan," I confirmed. I turned to Lacuna. "Although I'd like you to put feelers out; see if anyone has caught a trace of this thing. If it does have any power, it should be practically glowing on the magical spectrum."

"Unlikely to be that easy," Bob interjected. When I looked to him, his eye-lights tilted. "Imbued items like that aren't always easily detected by beings not on the same… wavelength."

"Wavelength?" I asked, surprised.

"The Shroud is an object of faith magic," Bob explained. "I'm a spirit of reason and intellect; we're not on the same wavelength. And the fae," he added, his eye-lights bobbing toward Lacuna, "aren't all that attuned to such things either."

"Well, see what you can do," I told her, hoping she might get lucky.

The fairy nodded. "That reminds me, sir. I haven't given you the morning report yet."

"Anything of concern?" I asked. Each day Lacuna compiled the reports from the numerous fairies and creatures around town that she'd drafted into our information network. We tried to stay on top of everything supernatural in the city, but with the sheer size of Chicagoland, it was a daily struggle.

"One thing of note," she replied.

"Alright, let me finish my thoughts on the rest of this," I said. I sat back on the stool. "As for the duel, I'll need a second." I sized up the tiny fairy, just shy of a foot in height but dangerous all the same. "You up for it?"

Lacuna snapped off another salute. "I shall be awake and vertical as appropriate, sir."

I pinched my nose. "Good. Good." Bob just rolled his eye-sockets again. "And find out what you can about the perimeters of the duel. I think they're spelled out somewhere."

"I will familiarize myself with them," the fairy assured me.

"Alright, now what was it you had?" I asked.

Rather than cutting to the chase, Lacuna went through her whole report. Because if you want an efficient fairy to be in charge of things, you get a fairy that doesn't do things by halves.

She went through the list one item at a time, most of which were mundane matters. There was an abundance of supernatural creatures in Chicago. Between the Red Court, the small contingent of White Court vampires present, several other factions that tried to slip by unnoticed, and the odd collection of things that lived in Undertown, it was all but impossible to keep tabs on everything. But she and her people tried her best, and kept me up-to-date as much as they could.

It wasn't until we got to the last two items that I heard anything of note.

"Treeblossom reports that Mr. Marcone's witch has been busy at one of the local hotels," Lacuna was saying as I stared at the bottom of my empty coffee cup.

"Doing what?" I asked.

"Setting up wards, it seems."

"That's odd," I observed. "Any idea why?"

"There is a function scheduled to be held there tomorrow evening. Mr. Marcone is one of the sponsors for the event."

"Why would he be setting up wards for a party?" I mused, mostly to myself.

"It is an auction," she offered quickly. "My presumption is that there will be several items of value."

Her words made me recall my visit with Vincent. "Now what are the odds that Marcone is hosting an auction for valuable items at the exact same time the Shroud of Turin is brought to town by thieves?"

"Very good odds, sir," Lacuna dead-panned. "That is exactly what has occurred."

I ignored Bob's snicker. "See if you can get me a couple of tickets to the function," I instructed her. "And send someone by to see exactly what Gard is putting in place."

It'd been several months since John Marcone had hired a magical consultant. I'd had Lacuna look into things, and we'd found that Sigrun Gard was an employee of a company called Monoc Securities. She'd been putting up wards at all of Marcone's places, apparently in reaction to my spying and interfering in their business on behalf of the Streetwolves.

Lacuna nodded. "Consider both done."

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Yes sir," she said quickly, disappointing me. "Snakeroot picked up a scent of dark magic. He traced it back to the morgue. Based on his description, it appears that someone was killed with magic."

Her words sent chills down my spine.

While it was true the White Council couldn't touch me, it didn't mean they couldn't make my life difficult. The last thing I wanted was wardens running around Chicago looking for someone killing with magic. That'd inevitably lead to them arriving at my door, which wouldn't go well.

"Alright," I said with a sigh. "I'll look into it." Although that could wait until nightfall. I didn't have the pull that I'd once had with the police, which meant they weren't going to just let me come inspect a body.

As if my plate hadn't already been full enough. On top of a magical duel and a search for a missing artifact of power, I had to contend with a dark magic user in town that might cause me even more trouble.

I looked up at the ceiling, wondering what else could go wrong.

I should have known better.