Free Burning Bright (Ivy Granger) by E.J. Stevens Page A

faerie.  He could only enter if Jinx or I let him in.  Which
was…awkward.
    The fact that my supernatural security system kept the good
guys out left a sour taste in my mouth, not unlike the acrid tang of soot that
currently coated the back of my throat.  Just a few months ago, I’d have been
happy that my home was protected against the fae—every damn one of them.
    Until last summer, the only faerie I’d considered a friend
was a churlish brownie who would just as soon pix you as sweep his own hearth. 
It’s funny how a battle to protect the city could change so much in such a
short span of time.  Since then, I’d learned that being fae didn’t necessarily
make you an enemy.  Hell, we’d even allied with vamps—dusty old blood suckers. 
War makes strange metaphorical bedfellows and if Kaye was right, there was
another war brewing, which was just freaking ducky.
    In the past few months I’d gained some amazing fae friends
and was literally sharing my bed with a kelpie king whose ancestors ate humans
for breakfast.  I’d also learned the secret of my own fae lineage—something I
was obviously still struggling with.  After years of thinking of the glamoured beings
who walked the city streets as monsters, it was hard to resist the urge to stab
first and ask questions later.
    And don’t get me started on demons.  My city was being
vandalized by pyromaniacal hellspawn and I was wondering when Forneus would
call with an update on Jinx.  Since when had my hopes hung on a demon?
    Everything I’d thought I’d known was turned on its head in
such a way that even setting my door wards made me feel guilty.  Mab’s bones,
this was messed up.  It also didn’t go over my head that the very wards and
charms protecting my home were created by the witch that the glaistig had
ordered me to kill.
    I brushed salt and herbs from my gloves and followed Ceff up
the stairs.  Oh well, if I was having a crisis of conscience, I might as well
enjoy the view.  Yeah, I was going to Hell, but at least I’d go happy.
     
     
     

Chapter 13
     
    C eff went to
the kitchen where he started opening cupboards, pulling down packages of food,
and setting a pan on the stove.  It wasn’t the first time he’d cooked for me,
but today the sight of Ceff wearing Jinx’s apron felt wrong.  My roommate
usually cooked my meals.  She’d made it her mission to make sure I didn’t
forget to eat, something I had a bad habit of doing, especially when I was
wrapped up in a case.  I swallowed hard and dropped onto a tall stool, watching
Ceff as he found his way around the small kitchen.
    “How is Jinx?” he asked.
    He kept his attention on the food, which was now simmering
on the stove, giving me a chance to regain my composure.  I took a deep breath,
waiting until I could speak without breaking out into big, ugly sobs.  My skin
began to glow and I bit the inside of my cheek.  When it came to Jinx, I could
be such a wuss.
    “For the moment, she’s being kept inside a spell circle at
The Emporium,” I said.  “An incubus fed on her.  He’s one of the carnival fae,
and if I want to save Jinx, I have to either kill the bastard or convince him to
relinquish his hold on her.”
    Ceff’s hand paused as he reached for a kitchen knife.  I
could read his emotions by the tension in his shoulders and the way he worked
his jaw, but when he spoke, his voice was calm, controlled, the voice of a
king.
    “When you called for my help with the fires, you were going
to speak with The Green Lady?” he asked.
    “Yes,” I said.
    He slowly turned off the stove, and carefully set the pan
aside.
    “And did she punish her subject, this incubus who attacked
your vassal?” he asked.
    “Punish him?” I snorted.  “Nope, she’s the one who ordered
him to make contact with Jinx in some freaking Machiavellian attempt to get my
ass down to the carnival and pay up on one of my bargains.  A ploy which
worked, by the way.”
    Ceff spun around so