managed to dispatch two fae extremely quickly and vanish without a trace, so maybe I wasn’t giving the killer enough credit.
“The queen will have to be informed, but per tradition she would have left as soon as she announced the revelry complete,” Falin said, his eyes sweeping the woods around us one last time before he released his daggers. He didn’t sheathe them, they just weren’t in his hands anymore. Neat trick. “Lunabella’s body will need to be returned to the court of light.”
Which meant we had to move the bodies.
Falin stepped around the tree, heading toward the bodies. Dugan followed close behind.
How do I get myself into these situations? Crime scenes were not supposed to be my place. I much preferred the morgue or a nice cemetery.
I stepped around the tree.
There was so much blood. Maybe the fact that it had mixed with the snow made it spread. Or maybe I just wasn’t used to seeing two bodies completely bled out. I mean, who would get used to something like that?
“Should I question the shades before we return the bodies?” I asked as Falin knelt beside Lunabella, examining the snow around her.
“You shouldn’t raise either shade,” Falin said. “In fact, you shouldn’t be using any magic.” He turned and nodded to the hand still gripped around my dagger.
I glanced down. The entire tip of my index finger was slightly blue, and a thin trail of discoloration ran from the darkened tip to the first joint. It was only a small area, but it hadn’t been that long since I’d purged all the fouled magic. All I’d done magically since was use one charm, and it was one I’d already crafted and only had to activate.
“We need to get these bodies out of here,” Dugan said, glancing deeper into the woods. “I have no idea what happens to this space after a revelry ends, but I’m fairly certain there were trees over there a few moments ago.” He pointed.
Several yards past where the bodies were lying, a thick gray wall of mist had formed. As I watched, another tree disappeared. Something told me this wasn’t a normal fog rolling in.
Our location had an expiration date.
“Right. I vote we get out of here. Fast.” Of course, that left one huge problem. “How do we get the bodies out?”
Dugan and Falin exchanged glances. Without a word, they abandoned any precautions about disturbing the scene and ran to the bodies. Falin lifted Jurin’s body, slinging it over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Blood oozed from the stump of neck, running down the front of Falin’s dark shirt. Dugan grabbed Lunabella, mirroring Falin.
The heads.
The bodies didn’t necessarily need their heads, but considering we couldn’t come back and claim them later, someone should probably grab them.
And I was the only someone left.
My stomach roiled at the idea, but I didn’t give it a chance to protest. Darting forward, I dodged around Lunabella’s heeled feet where they dangled over Dugan’s shoulder and ran for where I’d seen her head. It lay near the base of a tree. Jurin’s wasn’t far from it. The encroaching gray mist was only a yard beyond, moving in fast. If it reached the heads, we would lose them.
I grabbed a fistful of hair close to the scalp and lifted. The head was heavier than I would have thought just a head would be. I tried not to think about it. Then I turned and grabbed Jurin’s head.
Trails of mist reached out, encircling the tree directly in front of me. With a decapitated head in each hand, I turned and ran.
Chapter 16
The only good thing about my earlier passage through the woods was that I’d left a very easy path to follow on the way out. We ran as fast as we could, Dugan and Falin with corpses slung over their shoulders, and me with a head in each fist. Lunabella’s long hair tangled in a fallen branch. I jerked it free without slowing, leaving a clump of hair behind. This is so not the proper way to treat a corpse. But I couldn’t afford to stop.
I tripped on a raised root and fell hard, my teeth chinking with the impact. What little air I had rushed out, and I gasped. I managed not to lose the heads in the fall but lost precious time scrambling back to my feet. Dugan and Falin stopped, and Falin urged me ahead of them. Apparently if I was going to get sucked into