Free changeling chronicles 03 - faerie realm by emma l adams Page A

against the pavement. In an hour she’d be chained upstairs in beast form, and Isabel would watch over George. As for me…
    Hands reached out and grabbed my arms. I yelped, my feet leaving the ground, as someone far stronger than I was lifted me into the air. Struggling, I twisted to face my attacker. A hulking man I didn’t recognise loomed over me. From his size and his long, matted hair, he must be a shifter.
    “I knew I smelled a rat.”
    “What gives?” I gasped, fighting against his iron grip. Oh, shit. Shifters on the verge of transforming were far stronger than regular humans. I was in trouble.
    He let me down, holding my hands behind my back so I couldn’t reach for my weapons. His hands searched my pockets, pulling two daggers and the witch spells I’d been carrying. Shock gave way to fury as I struggled, trying to focus and find the magic lurking somewhere under the surface. Come on. Sure, I was far from the Ley Line, but the way it had been exploding out of me lately, I had to be able to—
    Blue light burst from my palms, knocking into one of the explosives he’d pulled from my pocket. The spell began to spark, and the shifter hissed in anger, tossing the explosive away. I wriggled free, using my faerie-enhanced speed to propel myself over the road, and ran smack into another hulking figure. Wait, the same one. How the hell had he moved so fast?
    Damned shifters.
    “Who even are you?” I shot magic at him, but he dodged smoothly, lifting me one-handed. I squirmed, trying to get my foot at the right angle to kick at his kneecaps.
    “You’re meddling in something that doesn’t concern you, Ivy Lane. I think you deserve to be taught a lesson.”
    “Brilliant. Here’s a better idea. You let me go, and I’ll help you solve this murder.”
    Crash. Stars winked before my eyes, and the world dissolved into blackness.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    “Ivy.” A hand waved in front of my face. A transparent hand.
    “Oh, for god’s sake,” I said. “Don’t tell me the dickwit killed me.”
    “He tried,” said Frank the necromancer. “Very luckily, your healing spell worked. You’ll wake up in a minute.”
    “Healing spell? I didn’t use a healing spell?” What the hell was going on? Like my other disembodied experiences, the surroundings were little more than hazy smoke, with Frank’s indistinct face peering at me. How could my head hurt so much if I was a ghost?
    “Someone needs to tell those idiots that hitting someone over the head with a hard object is more likely to kill them than knock them unconscious.”
    “I’ll do that, when I’m alive,” I said pointedly. Some details came back to me. “Wait. Is there a shifter here?”
    “Right here? No. There’s an angry one beside your battered body in the waking world.”
    “Were you always this annoying?” I rubbed the back of my head. My hand passed right through it. Ack. “I was investigating a dead shifter. Figured it’d be pushing it to ask the necromancers for help, but I didn’t know how to reach you from the living world.”
    “Well, now you do,” he said dryly. “I think you’d prefer to stay alive, though.”
    “Seriously. I need to know. There’s something bad going on, and it’d be useful to have a spy on the other side of the veil.”
    “That’s not how it works,” said Frank. “If you wanted to talk to me again, though… is that blue light your magic?”
    I looked down, confused. Sure, my body was there, albeit transparent… and shrouded in blue light. “I guess it is. Why can you see it? I thought you needed the Sight.”
    “Maybe that rule doesn’t apply to the dead. Every time I’ve seen you in Death, Ivy, you’ve been covered in blue light.”
    “My magic lets me pass through Death,” I said half to myself. “Shit. Of course.” That was how I’d crossed to the Grey Vale, after all. “But why’s it happening now? The veil’s okay—not acting up.