Page 55 of Grimoires & Glamoury

“Shady.” Hazel nodded. “That is a good word. I shall endeavor to remember it and use it going forward.”

I bit down hard on my lip to keep from smiling. The Pixie was so damned cute. Composing myself, I asked another question. “Tell me why you believe the light court are involved.”

“It would be better if we could show you,” Hazel countered.

I nodded. “I am at your disposal. Just say when.”

Oona was suddenly standing right in front of me. “When,” she said.

Even as I flinched in surprise, I noted a rather long sword was strapped to her back. The princess of the Dark Fae dropped her hand on my shoulder, squeezed it tight, and in a flash we were gone.

***

There wasn’t time to be frightened. I felt myself soaring through the air, and then in the blink of an eye we stopped. I fell rather ungracefully and rolled across the pine straw and last year’s leaves on the forest floor.

I sat up, shook my head and pushed up to my knees. Then my stomach lurched and I gagged. Hard. But somehow, I didn’t throw up.

Hazel flew into my line of sight. “Magistra, are you all right?”

“Yeah,” I said, and staggered to my feet.

Oona, I saw, was standing a few feet over and was surveying the forest in a way that had me forgetting about my stomach and going on alert. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“We do not have much time,” Oona warned, her voice low. “Whatever you need to do, do it quickly.”

“The body was found, here,” Hazel told me, flying over to a spot and pointing to the ground.

Immediately I began to walk over, but I felt the punch of magick and violence lingering in the air, and it stopped me in my tracks. Holding my hands out in front of me, I tested the boundaries of the space. And there it was. Magickal coercion. My stomach rolled over as I recognized a particular type of magick at work. A sickly-sweet scent of apple blossoms filled my nose.

“This was Light Fae magick,” I said, swallowing hard against the fear that rose in my throat.

“What makes you say so?” Oona asked calmly.

I glanced back over my shoulder at her. “Because unfortunately, I was once a victim of magickal manipulation from the Light Fae. I recognize this energy.”

Her dark eyes were steady on mine. “And you are certain?”

“Very,” I said. “There’s a sort of specific… essence or scent to Light Fae magick. It’s unique to anything else I’ve ever come across.”

Hazel flew to Oona’s side and landed on her shoulder. The two Dark Fae exchanged a long look. Finally, Oona turned back to me. “Your confirmation is most appreciated, Magistra.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “You could have easily brought Giselle out here for this confirmation. She seems a capable enough Witch. Why did you bring me?”

“Because you are neutral with no links to any of the races of the Fae,” Oona explained. “Giselle is married to a Fae male from one of the old kingdoms. Her opinion would be questioned—and doubted.”

A wind whistled through the trees and the air became instantly icy cold. Not what one would expect on a pretty spring day. But this wasn’t an atmospheric change. This was a ghost wind. In reaction to it Oona promptly drew her sword and assumed a fighting stance.

“It’s not a physical being,” I assured Oona. “It’s a spirit. Manifesting on the physical plane.”

Shelby was still here—or at least some part of her spirit was—and she wanted to communicate. Following my inner compass, I spun back, facing the area where the body had been discovered.

“If y’all would excuse me for a moment,” I told Hazel and Oona. Grabbing a stick from the ground I scratched a circle in the dirt. Standing outside of it I shut my eyes and quickly called the quarters to create sacred space. Now that the elements were invoked and the circle was strong enough to hold me safe while I was working between the worlds, I stepped inside of it, planted my feet and asked Shelby’s spirit to speak to me.

I hadn’t had the need to work this particular type of magick in a long time, but my psychic- medium muscles flexed and I felt my personal energy shift. It was like a quiet inner click and then, I was there once again between the world of the spirits and the world of the living.

Shelby manifested inside the circle and directly in front of me. Unfortunately, she wasn’t looking her best. I heard a gasp from my companions at the apparition’s arrival but ignored it. “How did you come to be here, Shelby?” I asked, making every effort not to look at the torn-up side of her face.

“Sawyer betrayed me!” she said. “He lied about everything!”