Chapter Twenty-Five

 

 

 

Dylan

 

Standing at the borders of Faerie was the last place I had wanted to be this morning, yet here I was. Except this time, I wasn’t returning to Benton’s place. Instead, we were heading into the city of Seattle. Ilarial had given us a general idea about where to find this mysterious faery named Astenos.

Seattle was big. It would be nearly impossible to find a person, let alone a faery who didn’t want to be found. I breathed slowly, staring out at the wards that surrounded Faerie and feeling blasé about everything all at once.

Suddenly, the wards wavered, blinking for a moment as colors streaked across the invisible wall. It had lasted just a second, but both Nautilus and I glanced at each other, knowing what it meant.

“The wards are wavering even more now,” Nautilus observed. “How much longer do you think they’ll hold?”

I blew out a breath, my heart pounding at the thought of the wards completely failing. “I don’t know. Maybe a week. Maybe just a few days.”

Nautilus nodded, but I could see the concern written on his face. He shoved at his long dreadlocks, tying them back as he continued to stare at the borders.

“Let’s get this over with. I don’t think we have a second to lose in finding this Astenos character. If Ilarial says he’s the key, then more than likely, he knows exactly how to fix this.”

“I agree. No time to lose. Come on.” I waved him forward, and we easily crossed the barrier. A human would be compelled to turn and walk away from the ward, but if it failed, they would soon be able to peer right into Faerie. The two worlds would crash. What would happen to the magic of Faerie? Would it cease? Would it take over all the land? I wasn’t even sure how the wards were created or why. There had to be a good reason, and if there hadn’t been, we might actually find that out.

Something in my gut told me we didn’t want to find out. Losing the wards of Faerie would be devastating to everyone, including humans.

We paused to glamour our outfits into normal clothing styles for human males. Our faery garb would stand out too much in a busy city like Seattle. People rushed all over, cars were honking as roads backed up from the early morning traffic. The water beyond looked endless as we walked along a sidewalk, taking in the sights.

Where would a faery who knew too much hide in a place like this? I glanced at the street signs and spotted a café on the opposite corner. It was not as busy as some of the other shops in the surrounding area, but there were a few customers plugged in to their laptops and sipping on coffee. There were some larger machines along one wall, most of them unoccupied, and I smiled. I’d heard about internet cafés, but there weren’t as many around as there had been a few years ago. Fortune was smiling on us, though, and it looked to be the perfect place, where no one would bother us if we used one of computers.

“There. We can check the internet in there. It might have something we can use to find Astenos.”

Nautilus nodded, not as schooled as I was on the human world, but he wasn’t that unfamiliar with the common gadgets, machinery, and workings of it. Luckily, he was also a Teleen and didn’t suffer from the effects of iron. I made a face; the city reeked of it, and even though it never burned in any way due to our special powers of fire and electricity, it still smelled horrid.

We entered and made our way to one of the computers.

“Hey, guys, computers are for customers only,” the barista called out before taking the next order from a nervous-looking businessman who appeared to be late for something. He muttered his order to the barista and glared at us for interrupting. Glancing at Nautilus, I nodded as he made his way to get in line for a coffee or snack, whatever would meet the barista’s criteria to consider us “customers.” Meanwhile, I sat at a terminal in the corner, where we’d have a bit of privacy.

Nautilus was already conjuring up some money from a stash in his pocket, which was really his hip pack enchanted to be invisible. He pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and handed it to the barista when it was his turn. The guy stared at him for a moment, waiting for his order.

“Oh, sorry. Two iced teas. Small. One unsweetened.”

The barista’s mouth tightened as he rang up the sale, knowing it was a cheap order. I grinned as I logged on to the internet browser and searched for anything to do with a man named Astenos. I doubted he used his faery name in the mortal realm, but I had no idea what else to look for.

Nothing appeared after I entered “Astenos.” Brainstorming, I entered “faeries of Seattle,” “fae,” “magic men,” and “immortal neighbor,” but came up with nothing useful. I groaned and ran my hands through my hair.

“Here, man. Have some tea. I couldn’t think of anything else we’d like off their menu. It looks to be full of sugary drinks.” He made a face. I sipped on the iced tea he’d handed me and nodded, glad he had put some sugar into mine. I wasn’t like Benton, who loved his super sugary sodas. They were all right, but I preferred natural teas just slightly sweetened.

“This is fine. Thanks.” I shook my head as I tapped out one more phrase to search, but it came out negative as well. “Dammit.” I threw my hands up in frustration.

“Nothing coming up?” He took a seat next to me and studied the webpage. “Geez, if there’s information about Astenos in there at all, it could be anything.”

“I’m trying to type in some phrases or key words that might bring something up. A name, an address, something. A lead… anything. Any ideas?” I looked at Nautilus, who was already almost finished with his tea. He sat pensively as he drank, mashing together ideas. I didn’t normally hang out with the guy, but he was bright. One had to be to make it to Captain of the Teleen Guard, like we both had.

“How about mysterious or unexplained events in Seattle?”

I straightened, elated that he had come up with something. “Sounds perfect. Let’s try that.”

Pages of results showed up. I groaned internally but searched through them quickly without finding anything suspicious. When I reached the tenth page of results, I was ready to quit when Nautilus nearly spit out his drink as he pointed to an entry near the bottom.

“There! That has to be something.”

I followed where he was pointing and read out loud. “Unexplained drains in power continue throughout the city of Seattle. Authorities have no idea what is causing the surges, but they appear to be centered on the north side of town. No culprit has been apprehended, and the power is spontaneously restored before repairmen arrive to service the malfunctioning generators and powerlines. These power drains appear to be happening randomly, but there have been six events so far this year.”

I turned to Nautilus, my eyes widening. “This has to be it.”

“But what does a faery need electricity for?”

I turned it over in my mind, wondering the same thing. It could only be one thing. “He must be part Teleen. He’s been ironside for so long, he must depend on the power grid to keep his own faery magic going. Even Teleen aren’t made to permanently live in the human world. He must have figured out a way to keep his magic intact by absorbing high levels of electricity.”

Nautilus raised his eyebrows, impressed by my assumption. “Not bad. Sounds plausible.”

I checked the map showing the locations of the power drains and triangulated a possible search area. “Here!” I pointed to a row of houses near the edge of the forest, right where any Fae would want to be: close enough to home to see it yet far enough away to stay hidden. “I bet you he’d take up near the woods.”

“Let’s get to it then.”