Free Changeling on the Job: A Changeling Wars Novella by A.G. Stewart

as soon as I got out the door.
    “This is twice in one night, Ms. Philbin,” Gomez said when she picked up. “This had better be good—like you telling me you apprehended whoever it is that kidnapped that woman.”
    “No,” I said, a bit breathlessly, “but I know who did. Grian—are they still keeping her at the Inverness facility?”
    “No,” Gomez said. “They moved her downtown.”
    “What’s the address?”
    I repeated it in my mind twice, making sure I’d memorized it.
    “I don’t like where this is going,” Gomez said. “That Fae man, the one like you, he said she didn’t have magic anymore.”
    “She doesn’t.” I opened the car door and Anwynn jumped inside. “Look, I’ve got to go. I’ll take care of it, I promise. Try not to worry.” And then I hung up and followed my hound into the car. My phone started to ring again immediately, but I ignored it. There’d be hell to pay from Gomez later, but I didn’t have the time to explain at the moment.
    I peeled out of the driveway and headed toward downtown. As soon as we hit the first stoplight, I slammed my hands against the steering wheel. “Why would anyone want to free Grian? I did all the Fae families a favor by getting rid of her. She was absolutely nuts. Like peanuts in a can nuts. Just rattling insanity. Now the other Fae families are out from under her boot. You’d think they’d be grateful.”
    Anwynn grumbled a little. “The majority suffers beneath a tyrant, but there are always those who benefit.”
    “Those who want to maintain the status quo,” I said.
    She looked out the window as I sped past the intersection. “Change is terrifying for almost anyone, but most especially for the Sidhe, for whom things have remained the same for hundreds of years at a time. Then you show up, and everything gets turned upside down.”
    The Guardian, whoever he was, had enjoyed the favor of Grian, simply by doing her bidding and feeding her information. Now, with Grian gone, he was cut adrift. If any knew the ways he’d betrayed the Guardians, they’d shun him, even if half the Guardians had been complicit or had just looked the other way. It was another thing about Sidhe culture I found difficult to grasp: a bad thing was usually only a bad thing if you got caught .
    I slammed the brakes for a stop sign. “I didn’t mean to upset the balance of the Fae simply by existing, but if anyone thinks I’m going to off myself just to save some crazy Sidhe the trouble, they’ve got another thing coming.”
    I turned the corner. The streets were mostly empty this early in the morning, but there was another car ahead of me. A green Honda Accord. “Hey,” I nudged Anwynn. “What do you make of that?” I rolled down her window.
    She put just her nose out and sniffed. “Calendula,” she said after a moment’s pause. “That’s your man, just ahead of us.”
    I could have just waited another few minutes and I would have come to the same conclusion myself. He wove in and out of his lane like a man intoxicated, going twenty-five in a thirty-five mile-an-hour zone.
    Sidhe: not very good drivers.
    I remembered my car ride with Dorian, and the way he’d used his magic to travel from one side of the city to the other in mere moments. The Guardian might have been saving his magic for the blood rites, but he’d hightail it out of here if I didn’t stop him, and quickly.
    “Hold on,” I said to Anwynn.
    She held up one paw. “Hold on with what? ”
    But I’d already jerked the steering wheel to the side, liberally applying my foot to the gas pedal. My car surged forward, and Anwynn thudded against the door with an “Ooph.” In a few seconds, we were level with the other car. I caught a brief glimpse of an unconscious woman in the back seat, of the Guardian’s surprised face, his mouth formed in a perfect O, before I pulled on the steering wheel again.
    My car screeched into his, metal slamming against metal. He tried to correct his path, but