Free Faerie Blood: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Changeling Chronicles Book 1) by Emma L. Adams

“They’re by and large vicious and stupid. That’s how they get coerced or persuaded into impersonating humans. But it’s their masters you want to watch out for.”
    Except those spells set up in the Swansons’ son’s room didn’t look like the work of an idiot. No, it was calculated. By whom, I couldn’t say.
    “Masters,” said Lord Colton. “The kidnappers. Fey?”
    “Without exception,” I said. “They wouldn’t be working with humans.”
    “I thought not,” said Lord Colton.
    A likely story. “Sure you didn’t,” I said. “Want to come and hold the spell while I lure out a changeling?”
    “Hold the spell?”
    I gave him my most charming smile. “It’s nice to have an assistant sometimes.”
    “Assistant?”
    “You don’t have to repeat every word I say, Sir.”
    His eyes narrowed and he grunted. “I’m starting to doubt your expertise.”
    “More like starting to regret tying me down,” I said. “I work better alone. This is the best you’re going to get.”
    “Fine,” he said. “I’m putting a call through to the other Mage Lords, letting them know there might be rogue faeries loose in the city.”
    I bristled. “I can handle—”
    He’d already pulled a phone from his pocket. I moved towards the door, fidgeting. I wanted out of here. Did he have to inform his underlings whenever he went anywhere?
    The Mage Lord gave a few incomprehensible orders, then hung up the phone. “That’s taken care of. We have backup on standby.”
    “Oh, good,” I said. “Nice to know you have faith in me.”
    “Do you frequently walk out with no backup?”
    “You’re the backup.” I hitched my smile back into place. “I did say I could do my job.”
    His brows rose. Probably, it had been a while since anyone stood up to him. Well, he was head of the Mage Lords, and as far as I could tell, that meant loaded, arrogant, and surrounded by fawning admirers. Okay, I hadn’t seen much in the way of the latter… yet.
    “We’re partners,” he said. “That makes it our job, not just yours. The other Lords can step in and intervene if need be.”
    “You won’t need to.” Sure, if shit really hit the fan, we’d probably need as much help as we could get—but I didn’t need all the mages figuring out my ties to the faeries. As long as Lord Colton proved more of a help than a hindrance, I’d let him in on this. If not, I’d take off on my own, as I always did.
    “You seem certain,” he commented. “The reserve team consists of two fire mages, one frost mage, two kinetics and an empath. Would your skills be sufficient enough to make up for that?”
    Damn him for trying to goad me into confiding the extent of my abilities. I glared at him instead.
    “Depends if your skills are up to scratch.”
    The mage bared his teeth in a grin. “My skills are more than sufficient, I think you’ll find.” His tone slid over me, unexpectedly seductive, and sent my thoughts right into the gutter. I fought to keep from blushing. The gleam in his eye told me he knew exactly the effect he’d had.
    What in the hell was the matter with me? Ever since my… bad experiences with faeries, I’d developed an aversion to males who fell into the category of ‘pretty’ or showed any signs they might have faerie blood. This guy, though…‘pretty’ was not a word I’d use to describe him. Unless in the phrase, ‘pretty scarily attractive.’
    Nope. Not going there. I shut the thoughts down and gave him a Look. “We’ll see about that.”
    I marched ahead down the corridor, and I swore I heard him laughing at me as he locked his office.
    What have I got myself into?

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    I called Swanson as we left the Mage Lords’ house to let him know we were tracking the changeling. I didn’t say where. I’d rather avoid him getting involved in this any further. He’d had a damn close call, and the idea that the hellhounds had attacked him at home