Nothing moved in the darkness of the woods. Unlike Falin, I couldn’t remain on full alert when it appeared nothing was out there. Which didn’t mean I put my dagger away, but I did relax slightly, my thoughts circling back as I considered the scene beyond the huge redwood.
“If this was about silencing conspirators, killing them would be a horribly stupid way to prevent a grave witch from questioning someone,” I whispered, chewing at my bottom lip. “I mean, if you guys are right about the scene at the winter court being a trap for me, then the killer or killers still at large know I can question a corpse.”
“Look at the bodies again.” His voice barely carried, and I doubted anyone lurking could have heard. He still had both of his long daggers drawn, watching, waiting.
Looking at the bodies again was something I really didn’t want to do. I’d seen enough. Lunabella was headless. I’d seen that. Jurin, well, I hadn’t technically seen whether his head was attached or not. Maybe they both had other wounds too that I hadn’t spotted with my first quick peek, but that wouldn’t matter.
“Science and capability of speech at death really have little to do with a shade’s ability to answer questions.” Which he knew; he’d seen me raise shades from bodies in far worse condition.
He didn’t answer as his head swung around, eyes narrowed. He took two steps forward, blades bared.
“Only me, Knight,” Dugan said, seeming to melt from the shadow of the tree. Two shadow cats bounded out beside his legs.
“Anything?” Falin asked, lowering the blades but not sheathing them.
Dugan shook his head. “Whoever did this is long gone and left no trail to follow.”
“I don’t suppose your cats can identify who killed Lunabella and Jurin?” I asked, looking at the two shadows.
I thought at first they were identical, but then I noticed that one had more substance. It was shadow and it was more at the same time. The way the second mirrored the one with substance, I realized it was the shadow’s shadow—however that was possible. So maybe not cats, but cat. The cat sat, and the shadows on its face writhed until big green eyes opened in the featureless darkness.
It blinked at me.
If it grinned, I was leaving.
Dugan glanced at the cat, and then at me. “She might be able to. But cats aren’t bloodhounds, and there is no discernible trail to follow to narrow down in which court to look. Basically our suspect pool is the entire population of Faerie. They won’t all gather in one place again until the next revelry.”
True.
“Now, once we have a suspect . . .” He shrugged.
“Why didn’t you attach a shadow to Lunabella that could speak?” Falin shot a disparaging glance at the shadow cat. The shadow in question narrowed her eyes at him. “That would have been far more useful.”
“Because it would have violated the truce? We are fortunate I had Ciara follow her or these bodies wouldn’t have been found until the Spring Equinox, at the earliest. Considering how far we are in the woods, maybe they wouldn’t have been found for centuries.”
And likely they weren’t meant to be. It didn’t matter if I could question the dead if the bodies were sealed in an inaccessible part of Faerie. But now our suspect was dead. Well, there was definitely one other unusual character.
“I have a suspect,” I said, pushing off the tree.
“The golden-cloaked fae?” Falin asked, but when I nodded, he frowned. “The problem with that is that we have no idea who he—or she—is, or in what court we might be able to find them. So our suspect pool is still all of Faerie. Unless you know?” He glanced at Dugan.
The prince shook his head. “I noticed that he was watching Lunabella, so I kept an eye on the gold-cloaked figure, but I never saw more than a hand. Certainly not enough to identify or even narrow down a court.”
Great.
“Now what?” I asked, because the festival site had to be clearing out by now, and once a fae left, they couldn’t return. Which meant we might very well be alone with the dead bodies, and no help was coming.
Or the killer could still be lurking.
The thought made my hand tighten around my dagger again. Of course, I had the Winter Knight and the Prince of Shadows at my side. If the killer was lingering, he—or she—would need a small army to stand a chance. Though he had apparently