Those Words I Dread (Tales of the Tuath Dé #1)

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Julien stood far enough away from the apartment building to avoid being seen, a half-smoked cigarette in his fingers. The boy protecting the fairy had left both days he had been watching the building, but not at the same time. He must be in college. Yesterday he had left with a girl; Julien had followed them as far as the bus stop, but she had seemed too enamored with the boy at her side to have been touched by the fairy’s toxin. Today, he was going to get inside the apartment while the owner was out. Hopefully the creature would still be too weak to put up much of a fight.

He looked up as the lobby door opened, taking a satisfied drag from his cigarette as he saw the boy step out, but then he paused. A figure in a hooded sweater followed right behind him, and for just a moment, Julien got a look at his face. The fairy. So much for him being weak—he was taking a risk going outdoors knowing that Julien was on his trail. It had only been three days since he’d been injured; there was no way he was recovered by now.

Julien put a hand under his coat to touch the grip of the iron knife at the back of his belt, but he only watched the pair walk down the street away from him. He couldn’t attack the creature in the middle of the street in broad daylight, and even if he could, something about the way the two walked together stayed his hand. The fairy wasn’t running; this was an outing. They would be back. Did that mean the apartment was empty?

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and scrolled down his very short list of contacts until he reached the name he wanted. He touched the screen and lifted the phone to his ear, waiting through a disgraceful number of rings before a tired voice answered the phone.

“Noah?” Julien asked, barely understanding the muffled greeting. “Were you still asleep?”

“Of course I was,” Noah grumbled. “What’s going on, Julien?”

“How soon can you be in Yaletown?”

“Yaletown? I dunno; twenty, thirty minutes.” He let out a long yawn and started to speak before he was quite finished. “Is this about your dangerous fairy?”

“Ouais. Will you come?”

“What for?”

“The fairy just left with the one protecting him. I need to get in the apartment while they’re out. You must know how to set some sort of trap.”

“For a freaking fairy? Why must I know that?”

“Because you spend too much time reading about monsters not to know. You know everything. S’il vous plait, mon raleur.” A few beats of silence went by, and then Julien heard a groan of frustration, and he smiled.

“Okay, maybe I know something. Give me half an hour.”

“You are perfect.” Julien rattled off the address of the building, urged Noah to hurry, and hung up the phone to finish his cigarette.

Julien paced and smoked while he waited, and soon he saw his friend turn the corner and approach. His current jeans had holes in them at the knees and across the left thigh, and the bottom hems were all but worn away from scuffing on the street behind his Converse high tops. He had a torn and faded canvas bag strapped across his chest, the flap fluttering half open with each step he took. Noah raised a hand to greet him as he drew closer, pushing his hair out of his eyes. He had changed the twin piercings in his ear from studs to small silver hoops, Julien noticed.

“Your fairy boy found a swank benefactor,” Noah said, shielding his eyes as he leaned back to look toward the top of the tall building. He chuckled, the matching hoops at the corners of his mouth moving with his smile. “How’s the leg?”

Julien grunted, shifting his weight on his feet. Thanks to Noah’s homemade poultice, the wounds in his thigh had closed up almost overnight. He barely noticed it now. “It’s fine. Did you bring what you needed?”

Noah shrugged one shoulder, scratching at his chin. “Usually this stuff takes time, you know? He’s gean cánach. That’s kind of big mojo to begin with. There’s supposed to only be one, or one at a time, or something. And you said you got him in the stomach with an iron blade a couple days ago, and now he’s up and walking around?”

“Is that unusual? It wasn’t a killing blow.” Julien had little experience with fairies. He usually hunted quarry that was more directly dangerous—like lamia, vampires, or shapeshifters. The magical aspect of it was a little beyond his depth, which was partly why Noah had been such a valuable resource.

“Iron is supposed to be deadly to fairies, even in what we’d think of as small amounts. You saw how easily the barghest went down. You sure you’re right about what he is?”

“It makes the women it’s been with stop eating and get so depressed that they die after it leaves them, it’s been using glamours to try to get away from me, and the iron definitely slowed it down. What else could it be?”

Noah gave a hum of agreement and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, I’ve got what I’ve got. Let’s see if it works.”

He walked with Julien to the front entrance, allowing the larger man to reach past him to open the door. When the doorman greeted them, Noah leaned over the desk to smile at him. “Morning,” he began, tilting his head to better see the man’s nametag, “Brian. Nice to meet you.” He offered his hand, and as soon as he had a hold on the other man, he pressed the pad of his index finger to the pulse on the guard’s inner wrist. He could feel the man’s heartbeat in his own chest, thudding and slow. “Who’s the boy who just left a while ago? Young, Chinese?”

“Mr. Fa?” the guard answered promptly, seeming to look past Noah rather than at him .

“Fa. Great. So helpful, Brian. My friend and I are going upstairs now,” he said easily, “and we might be a while. You’re going to let us up, and you aren’t going to tell anyone that we were here, are you, Brian?”

“No,” he said.

“Good. And you aren’t going to say anything when we leave, are you? You’ll just let us walk by.”

“Yes.”

“Of course you will. You’re a peach, Brian.” Noah released the doorman’s hand and glanced back at Julien, tilting his head to urge him to follow. As they stepped onto the elevator, he noticed the older man glowering down at him.

“You’re pushing it,” Julien muttered.

“You wanted up, didn’t you? We don’t know how long they’ll be gone.” He waved a hand dismissively. “I didn’t hurt him. He won’t even remember us.”

“Hm,” Julien grunted. He took the small compass from his coat pocket and clicked it open. “I don’t know what floor he lives on. Just push the top floor and we’ll see where I get the best reading.”

“Could have just asked the guard that, but you’re the boss.” Noah pressed the button for the twentieth floor and waited while the elevator slowly rose, watching his frowning companion out of the corner of his eye. Julien was always so serious.

“Stop,” Julien said suddenly, touching the younger man’s arm to get his attention, and Noah reached out just in time to slap the button for the next floor. “This is it.”

They stepped out of the elevator and paused in the hallway, glancing around at the different doors. Julien’s compass was lit bright green, but they were too close to get a more precise reading. “Something is interfering with the signal,” he muttered.

“Let me.” Noah moved toward the closest door and gently laid his hand on it. He leaned close, almost letting his cheek brush the wood, and then he shook his head. “Not here.” He checked the next door with the same result, but at the third door, he felt the silent thrum in his skin that told him magic was nearby. It was a strange sensation, though—there was something in the apartment that seemed to stifle the magic. Had the fairy really chosen here to hide out? He lightly tapped the door with one knuckle as he looked back at Julien. “Here.”

“Step back,” the larger man muttered, and he knelt in front of the door. “And keep watch.”

Noah waited, enjoying the look of deep concentration on Julien’s face while he used his lock pick set to unlock the door, something Noah could have done in an instant. He knew the hunter was wary of magic, and he supposed be didn’t blame him. He had apparently devoted his life to hunting supernatural baddies, and it must have been easy to see Noah as a ticking bomb. At least he never treated him like one.

The door clicked open, and the two men stepped into the apartment. Julien shut the door behind them while Noah inspected the mirror in the hall. That was meant to ward off spirits. The fairy apparently didn’t count.

“This’ll be what was blocking the signal,” he said, lightly tapping the glass with one knuckle on his way by. “Very swank,” he confirmed as he moved into the living room, running his hand along the back of the sofa to feel the leather. “You said a kid lives here? By himself?”

Julien stuck his head into the guest room and found it rumpled but empty. “Seems that way,” he said. “So what do you have?”

Noah flipped open the top of his much-abused bag and retrieved a slim, rectangular box, popping the top open and setting it on the nearby kitchen island. “I don’t have any practice dealing with fairies, especially ones that take iron gut shots and walk away, so I’m kind of winging it here, you know that, right?”

“Je sais. You didn’t have to come at all, Noah. I appreciate it.”

The witch hesitated a moment, then let out a quick scoff and returned his attention to the case on the counter. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t doing anything anyway.” He picked the incense out of the box and started a quick fire in his palm to light it, shaking his hand to snuff the flame before Julien could give him a dirty look. “There’s rowan in this, and some myrrh, some sagebrush. Supposed to be bad for spirit-y fae types, and fairies hate rowan especially. I made it once you said you were tracking a fairy, in case it turned out to be useful. Good thing, I guess. So we’ll let this burn, and I’ll see about putting a circle on the floor to trap it. If that’s possible,” he added under his breath .

Noah carried the burning incense throughout the house, letting the smoke touch every doorway, while Julien watched him with folded arms. He neglected to mention to the hunter how time-consuming making incense was—how long he had spent with bits of wood in a hand crank coffee grinder and sticky resin and herbs in his molcajete, carefully measuring and mixing the powder with gum arabic, leaving it to dry for weeks. He had been glad to do it, and he doubted Julien would appreciate the nuance in his meaning even if he had told him.

When he had circled the apartment, he handed the incense sticks to Julien. “Just let that burn.” He knelt down on the floor near the entrance and ran a hand over the cold tile, then turned to dig in his bag for the Angry Birds pencil bag full of chalk and charcoal.

“Totally winging it, just reminding you,” he called as he began to draw the circle on the floor, sketching the outside and starting carefully on the symbols around the inner edge. He hummed to himself as he drew under Julien’s patient gaze, periodically pausing to sit back on his heels and peer down at the forming circle. “Ugh. What was it. Airches. No—broth? Brath. Brathlang. Wait. Shit. Is it B or H that the line goes on the right side? Fuck, Irish is stupid.” He bent back over the circle with a small huff and scooted around it on his knees as he finished the inscription, then carefully stood to take the pouch of salt from his bag. He poured a handful into his palm and drizzled a line around the outer edge of the circle, then brushed his hands together to sprinkle the excess across the center.

“You’re sure about all this?” Julien asked, still dutifully holding the sticks of incense.

“Not in the slightest,” Noah laughed, earning himself a mild glare. “Hey, you’re the one who called and woke me up, called me pet names and begged me to come work magic for you. Do you want magic or don’t you?”

“I need the creature still so that I can kill it before it causes more trouble,” Julien admitted. “If you think this will trap it, then do it.”

“Well I mean, I think it will,” Noah shrugged, and he positioned himself at the top of the circle. He held out his hands and shut his eyes, muttering a soft incantation that Julien couldn’t quite hear. The hunter watched with a wary eye as the chalk markings began to glow a dull blue. When the witch knelt to touch his palm to the floor to activate the circle, a shockwave blew him backward, and Julien dropped the incense in his scramble to keep Noah from hitting the floor.

Julien knelt on the floor with one arm behind the smaller man’s shoulders, lightly tapping his cheek in an attempt to rouse him. “Noah, aweille,” Julien commanded, and he bent down to check that the witch was still breathing. He cupped Noah’s cheek to keep his head upright, and the younger man gave a short grunt before opening his eyes. “Ah, Dieu merci,” the hunter sighed.

Noah looked up at Julien with a loud ringing in his ears, and he blinked a few times before he realized quite how closely he was being cradled. Julien’s eyes really were the most pleasant muted hazel. He didn’t move for a few moments, purposely lingering to burn the scene into his memory.

“Es-tu correct?” Julien asked, though his voice was muffled by the tinny sound in Noah’s ears. “Sit up.” He helped Noah balance himself and stood to frown across at the darkened circle while the witch sat cross-legged on the floor.

“Why did it backfire?” Noah muttered to himself, wiggling his finger in his ear to try to work out the noise. “There shouldn’t have been anything that—” He paused. “Julien, the guy who lives here, is he the fairy’s friend friend? Or, you know, is he making him put him up, or what?”

Julien made a noncommittal noise as he bent to scoop the sticks of incense up from the floor. “The boy knows what it is. I gave him the opportunity to turn the fairy over to me, and he refused. Beyond that, I don’t know.”

Noah pushed himself up and stepped over to the circle, smudging the charred mark with the toe of his shoe. “That’s old magic,” he muttered with a pensive frown.

“What’s old magic?”

“If this is the fairy’s home, I can’t put down anything to hurt him.”

“But this isn’t its home. I’ve been tracking it for months and never saw it here before this.”

Noah shook his head. “It’s magic, and fairy magic at that, so of course it’s a technicality. When you stay with someone, you’re accepting their hospitality. This kid took him in and from the looks of things fed him, so right now, this is his home. He must have done something to consecrate the apartment. Shit,” he cursed. “I should have thought of that.”

Julien swore under his breath. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll think of something else.”

Noah gestured at the marking on the floor. “You want to leave that? They’ll know we were here.”

Julien pondered a moment, but then shook his head. “No. Better if he thinks I’ve stopped coming after him.”

The two men got down on the floor to scrub the tile floor clean, and Noah stuffed the stained hand towel into his bag rather than leave it for the occupants to find. The witch gave a quick glance around to make sure he hadn’t left anything behind, and they shut the door behind them on their way out.

“What are you going to do instead?” he asked, looking up at the taller man as they waited for the elevator. Julien frowned and folded his arms without answering, and Noah gave a small sigh. “Just don’t do anything stupid.”