The Hidden Court Read online

  “Out a little late, aren’t you?” a masculine voice spoke up from my right.

  The sudden intrusion startled me into the fountain. I rammed my knee against the edge and swore while shooting the guy a dirty look.

  My irritation didn’t last long once recognition flourished and placed a name to his handsome face. Gabriel something or other, the hot shifter from the welcome assembly, idled in front of me with his hands in his pockets.

  Hot didn’t sum him up adequately, but interesting and unique made apt descriptors for the drool-worthy guy in my personal space. Within seconds of identifying his best features—his eyes, definitely the eyes—my attention drifted over a body sculpted for an MMA arena. He had to be at least six-foot-three, and a tousled mop of blue-black hair fell over his forehead, partially obscuring his thick brows. His sun-kissed skin, full lips, and high cheekbones alluded to Latino origins, but the shape of his eyes said Asian. All in all, each of his traits summed up to one delicious guy.

  He must have realized I was checking him out, because his mouth spread into a cocky grin. “Happy to see me, new stuff?”

  I stiffened. “It’s rude to sneak up on people, you know.” After taking a seat, I rubbed my throbbing knee.

  “I didn’t sneak anywhere.” He had an accent that made me think Texas or Arkansas, though they all sounded the same to me. “You looked right at me a second ago.”

  “Did I? Must have mistaken your beak for someone else’s.”

  His grin widened. “Thought I was one of the others, didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t really give it much thought. As to your question though, I’m a big girl. I don’t have a bedtime, thank you very much.”

  “Thought you fae all needed your beauty sleep to rise and sparkle in the morning.” He said it in a conversational tone with no edge or malice to it.

  My lips pressed into a thin line, and I frowned. Before I could snap out a retort, he drawled, “Or maybe y’all are as different as we are and you’re sick of the drama already. I kinda got you pegged as one of those no-bullshit fae.”

  He couldn’t have said anything more surprising, and for a moment I stared at him. “Drama. Yeah, that pretty much sums up my feeling on it. Trust me, I don’t sparkle. Ever.” Except that one time I let Mindi put glitter on my face for Halloween. “So, what sort of drama are you referring to exactly? Is the campus not as happy and perfect as it seems?”

  He laughed. “It doesn’t take long to figure that out if you’re sane. Your name’s Skylar, right?”

  My heart jumped. Why and how did he know my name? We’d never formally met. Was I on a troublemaker list or something already? Did my dismal performance during my test get around?

  “Yeah. Skylar Corazzi, and you’re Gabriel Fujimoto.” I mentally congratulated myself for remembering and offered out a hand. He shook it with a firm, strong grip, his calloused fingers warm.

  “They don’t send assignments out officially until Sunday night, but you’ll be shadowing my faerie ward this year until you’re on your own as a sophomore. She got first dibs on the choices.”

  “Someone picked me?” Despite my best intentions, my voice squeaked and rose an octave. His ward must have been a rich kid or someone with parental pull. But… why me? Someone must have hoped my familial line through my father’s side would get them ahead.

  “Were you expecting someone wouldn’t?”

  I shrugged. “Who’s your ward?” Lucky fae.

  “You’ve probably seen her around the campus. Her name’s Monica Cunningham. A little shorter than you, electric blue streaks in her hair. Brown eyes.” After a pause he added, “Good luck.”

  “You’re going to let me go in blind, aren’t you?”

  “What’s the fun in warning you?”

  “Fine, I guess I’ll see for myself after the weekend. Though I thought you ravens enjoyed trading secrets?” Fae dealt in favors, and ravens dealt in secrets, their curiosity unmatched among the members of the paranormal world.

  Unless you were some weirdo like Pilar who lived in a box. Ugh. If it wasn’t a makeup secret, she didn’t care.

  “We do. Giving up so soon?” he asked.

  “Is this your way of engaging in an info swap?”

  He eyed me shrewdly, and then his grin returned. “That’s usually how it works, yeah. A secret for a secret. I guess you’ve done your homework on us creatures of the night.”

  “I see more ravens during the daytime hours, to be honest.” The breeze picked up and blew my hair into my face, spray from the fountain misting over toward us. I tugged my shawl a little tighter, wishing I’d tossed on a sweatshirt. “What sort of juicy tidbit are you looking for?”

  “How important is it to you?” he countered.

  “Knowing who I’m going to be saddled with all year?” I considered the question and weighed the possible outcomes. “I’ll pass. I can wait two more days, but you can answer my other question about the campus drama.”

  “Could be a life-or-death situation,” he said in a cheerful voice. “Are you sure?” His phone buzzed, but he gave it only a cursory glance and dropped it back into his pocket.

  “Maybe, but it’s not like I can do much about who I’m assigned to without looking like a whiner, a snob, or quitter.” I shrugged and shook my hair back over my shoulder. “So let’s go with query number two and you tell me what sort of info or favor you’re looking to snag in exchange.”

  His brows rose so high I thought they’d disappear beneath his hairline. “That’s a first,” he muttered. Gabriel shifted his weight to his toes and back to his heels again, fidgeting. I imagined a bird shuffling up and down a perch. “Tell you what. I’ll let you know the current juice on the house.”

  “What’s the catch?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “No catch. You just look like the type of fae to always get into trouble.”

  “Hey, I—”

  “I’m sure you already caught on that the on-campus curfew among the freshmen is new. The administration doesn’t want us to tip you guys off because it causes a lot of strife once you begin asking questions. They found a drained body at a nearby cemetery. It didn’t make it into the news since the whole thing is still under investigation by the sentinels.”

  My brows shot up this time, and I leaned in. “Seriously? But... I heard the exsanguinated bodies they found were in downtown Chicago, all human.”

  “Yeah, there’s that too. Those happened after they found the fae. A pureblood fae.”

  “You mean a vamp killed a fae?” I whispered. For a faerie to succumb to a vamp, it had to be one hell of a tough bloodsucker.

  “Supposedly, it’s the most insane magical rush you can get, better than cocaine,” he replied. “I mean, if you’re into faerie juice.” He grimaced. “Or meat.”

  Memories of the vampire attack came crashing back, assaulting me with the hair-rising sensation of a dozen little teeth seeking my blood. According to my mother, he couldn’t have gotten more than an ounce, but I’d spent the night feeling little imaginary wings beating against my face.

  “That hardly seems like campus drama of the usual sort though... Still, thanks.”

  Gabriel rolled his eyes. “At PNRU, that is the usual campus drama. If you want the mundane shit, I can give you that for free too.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice, even though he’d already told me the biggest secret of all. “Two girls didn’t return this fall. One fae and one werewolf. The story is that Trevor Nichols knocked them both up before the term ended for summer, and there’s all kinds of scandal started over it since he’s a mage from one of the thirteen great families.”

  “Wow, rich boy baby-mama drama, so exciting.”

  “Hey, you asked for the standard gossip. That’s as standard as it gets at college.”

  I rolled my eyes too and stood up. “Guess I’ll be seeing you Monday? Anything I should know about you? I mean, I get it that all of you sentinels have your own way of doing things, but you don’t strike me as a jerk
either.”

  He glanced toward the recreation building, his eyes distant. “No, not really. I mean, just do what you’re asked and don’t take any risks. If someone dangerous screws with you or your mentor, I’ll fuck them up. Pretty simple. You’ll get the whole official spiel on Monday when you receive your assignments.”

  The idea of him jacking anyone up made me grin. It also prompted me to give him another once-over. Raven shifters lacked the muscle of their wolf and bear counterparts, but Gabriel looked surprisingly athletic. The biceps revealed by his T-shirt sleeves were defined and absolutely ripped, hints of a tattoo peeking from beneath the edge of it. Without time to investigate further, I only had the chance to see some black feathers inked down his triceps.

  “Fine. Spoilsport.”

  He straightened, making himself taller, like he knew exactly what I was doing. Or maybe it was a bird thing. I read about them doing that to look intimidating. “You’ll do fine, kid. I doubt you’ll even get any action this year.” He glanced at his watch. “Anyway, I better go. Gym time with the guys. You take it easy, okay?”

  Kid? “Yeah, sure thing,” I grumbled. I wasn’t a twelve-year-old anymore with fresh, shiny new powers, and he couldn’t be more than two years older than me.

  He didn’t notice my irritation, already en route and down the path to the rec center.

  I stole a glance at the departing shifter in time to see a tanned girl crossing to him in tiny pink jogging shorts, her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. He paused for her, and the girl nudged up to his side.

  They kissed. Gym time with the guys indeed. Figures. I wasn’t into him anyway. And I’m not here for hookups, I convinced myself again.

  With no other conversational prospects, I headed back to my dormitory and crawled into bed beneath the sheets.

  Last to bed and first to rise, I roused around nine and enjoyed a shower with actual hot water since Pilar didn’t beat me to the restroom. Then I reveled in my triumph over a bowl of cereal and put on a horror flick while I studied history notes.

  Pilar eyed the movie in disgust before she flounced off to the bathroom, but Liadan joined me for the last half hour of space terror. While I itched to tell her what I’d learned from Gabriel, honor bound me not to spread it around. If he found out I had told, he might never share anything again.

  But my fae nature urged me to spill the news and discover if she’d heard anything similar. I had to know more, needed to find out what had happened at the cemetery.

  A knock at the door saved me.

  “Am I decent?” I asked Pilar. “Nothing in my teeth?”

  She gave me a thumbs-up, so I scurried to the door and answered it to find Benjamin waiting.

  “Hey, Ben, what’s up?”

  He adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses then peered past me to Liadan. He jerked his attention from her back to me. “I, erm,” was as far as he got before clearing his throat and starting over. “I thought we could get off campus for a bit and, uh, explore some nearby places of interest.”

  “There’s not much around here besides forest,” I pointed out.

  “Not entirely true. Bachelor’s Grove isn’t too far, and they say it’s one of the most haunted places in the Chicago area. Some of the magic from PNRU property seeps into the grounds.”

  “Seriously? You want to go to the cemetery that was hit?” No wonder we were becoming friends. “Sweet. Let’s do it!”

  Maybe he’d read my mind from across the hall and picked up on my inner musings. Mages had all kinds of tricks and secrets, and some of them even had mild cases of precognition that made them excellent advisors to people in politics. I rubbed my palms together, greedy with the delightful idea of exploring new places.

  “I don’t know…,” Liadan murmured. “Cemeteries are never good.”

  Ben chuckled. “It’s daylight. We’ll be fine. Besides, it was a bunch of kids spray painting graffiti and making a mess. It’s not like it’s a murder scene or anything.”

  Which meant Ben didn’t know about the investigation. Gabriel really had given me a prime piece of gossip.

  “Sure, I’ll go.” I brushed off the tingling feeling spreading down my spine and raised my chin. “I’m not afraid. I’m just surprised you’re down for doing anything against the rules.”

  “What rule breaking? We’re going for a walk. If it’s cordoned off, we don’t have to go in.”

  Impressed by Ben’s ingenious logic, I laced up my sneakers and glanced back at Lia. Neither of us had much to do.

  “Just you and me, or are there other mages going on this little field trip?”

  Ben took the bait. “Maybe Liadan wants to go with us?” Although he raised his voice and asked it loud enough for her to overhear from the couch, Lia didn’t respond, either oblivious or disinterested in his casual advances.

  “Hey, Liadan, want to go explore an old graveyard?” I called over.

  She canted her head and regarded us with a mixed expression. “I suppose it’s better than sitting here.”

  “Pilar, you want to come too?” I asked.

  She sniffed. “I wouldn’t be caught dead traipsing over gravestones.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  Before leaving the residential quarters, I sent texts to Holly, Radha, and Anji. The latter had already left campus with shifter friends and the other two had no interest in our field trip.

  We walked since it was only a couple miles away, chatting about our shared classes. The sunny weather shone above us, and a cool breeze tossed my unbound hair until I tugged the unruly waves back with an elastic tie.

  PNRU encompassed about two square miles of real world property, cutting a wide swath of ground through the area west of Chicago. And since it straddled the boundary of Tir na Nog, it made those two miles feel like twenty. Or more. None of us had the guts to delve deeper.

  And yet we were traveling to meet our doom in a cemetery.

  Then again, at least Tir na Nog was relatively safe. The greatest danger was a mischievous resident tricking one of us into servitude for a few years since fae nobles loved taking mortal slaves, and the practice didn’t exclude halfbreeds.

  Darklings couldn’t cross over to Tir na Nog at all once they went irrevocably bad.

  Upon reaching the graveyard, our adventuring trio ducked beneath yellow ribbons of police tape and entered where the chain-link fence had been destroyed by age. So much for not going in if it was taped off. The lawn was pristine and manicured, green but empty due to the recent crime. Some of the gravestones jutted up from the ground at strange angles, damaged by time or vandals.

  “So, what are we looking for?” I asked.

  Ben shrugged. “I dunno. I know it’s morbid, but I thought it’d be educational to check the area out with the second Sight for a glimpse of the Twilight. Don’t you fae have something similar?”

  “We part the Twilight Veil easier than mages.”

  As a mirror of the earthly realm, the Twilight was where spirits passed on their way to the afterlife. Unfortunately, many of them became lost along the way, or they stumbled and refused to leave at all, clinging to the last shreds of their mortality to remain with their loved ones.

  “If there’s anything to see, the actual investigators will have found it by now,” Liadan said.

  Ben scoffed. “Not if it’s magical in nature.”

  Choosing my words carefully to avoid giving up any of Gabriel’s gossip, I said, “Don’t you think the school would have sent one of their sentinels over? I mean, it’s practically next door.”

  Sulking at us, Ben kicked a few pebbles out of the way and shoved his hands into his sweatshirt pocket. “Look, I’m not saying more happened here than what was reported, but if there was something else, they’re not going to tell us. Think of it as a fun exercise, Sky. I thought you were into all that investigative stuff.” Leave it to a mage to take the manipulative route. He stole a peek at me while fighting to keep a grin off his freckled face.

  “Well, I am
but…” Damn him for being right. When I growled in frustration, he only laughed at me.

  “Maybe you’re going to be a cu sith when you Ascend,” he teased. “You have the snarling thing down like a shifter.”

  At some point in early adulthood, usually around our twentieth birthdays, we Ascended and manifested our definitive faerie types. Most became typical muses like my parents and the fae from the old tales, while a tiny number became powerful seers, dryads, and other specialties. A super tiny number. There hadn’t been many beansidhe, sylphs, yakshas, djinn, or even kitsune this decade.

  I wasn’t counting on becoming anything special, though my paternal grandmother was an undine. Our Ascended forms weren’t hereditary. No one knew what determined the type of faerie we were destined to become.

  “Anyway, let’s spread out a little but keep within view of each other then, okay?” On a bright and sunny day like this, I didn’t expect to find a corrupted vampire snoozing on top of the soil, but anything was possible. Usually nosferatu lurked in deep underground crypts and coffins in dark basements.

  The cemetery wasn’t much to look at, all things considered, surrounded by trees with a mossy green pond nearby. All in all, the place looked deserted. It was a rather lonely graveyard, with fewer headstones than I expected. But I had to hand it to Ben. The place might have looked lonely, but a crowded ambience lingered in the air reminiscent of standing in a busy airport terminal or bus station.

  Liadan didn’t stray too far from me, tension in her shoulders and face. Tempted to call an end to our excursion, I watched her for a while. Ben appeared oblivious to her discomfort, moving from stone to stone and crouching every so often to read an inscription or pick up a random chunk of rock.

  “Why would anyone vandalize such an out-of-the-way place anyway?” I called over.

  “Uh, I think I found it,” Ben said. “Come quick!” He stood on the distant side of the graveyard, surrounded by trees with a mound of dirt beside his feet.

  Hurrying over with Lia on my heels brought me to a hole as deep as I stood tall, filled with loose soil and a few rotting boards.