EAVESDROPPING AND READING NOTES

Looking frantically up and down the hall, I let out my breath, relieved. Anne-Whatever Whatever was nowhere to be seen. But I could still hear her, which meant she was way too close for comfort. I put my finger to my lips to shush Jack. He put a finger to his lips, too, but used the middle one instead of the pointer.

"Wait here," I hissed.

I tiptoed down the hall with my back to one of the walls until I got to the corner, where I could make out words.

"...know about the deal. I assure you I haven't forgotten." Anne-Whatever Whatever sounded equal parts annoyed and nervous. "We've been tracking their progress, and I'm confident they are no closer to making a gate."

How did she know about gates? IPCA didn't usually pay attention to faerie lore. I startled, nearly screaming as a hand came down on my shoulder. Jack gave me an exasperated look, leaning in to listen, too.

"And the Empty One?" This voice was definitely not Anne's. It was like birdsong formed into words, and something about it made a spot behind my eyes start hurting. I needed to see who that voice belonged to. I was sure it was a faerie voice, but which one? That wasn't how IPCA officials talked to named faeries.

"I've told you, she's a silly, stupid girl. We'll get her away from her protections and next time she won't escape the Center."

"Our displeasure is not to be taken lightly. Do not think you can try to gain an advantage over my queen by keeping the Empty One for yourself."

"You keep up your end of the bargain and get me more names, and I guarantee that Evelyn will never make a gate. Yours will be the only exodus from this world."

What the crap? If this was what it sounded like-and it sounded like the government agency charged with protecting the world from paranormals was conspiring with the very worst of the lot-it was big. Scary big. No wonder Bud had been nervous. I had to look, had to see if I could tell which court the faerie belonged to. If the Seelie Court was playing all the sides, I was so done with them. I started to lean forward; Jack's hand tightened around my arm like a vise. I shot him a glare. "I need to see," I mouthed. He didn't let go, so I ducked down and peeked my head around the corner.

Anne's back was to me, but I had a full view of the faerie. A faerie with midnight blue hair and eyes, her cold white skin dotted with pricks of light like stars. A faerie straight from the Dark Court. A faerie I knew for sure that IPCA didn't have named.

Which meant Anne-Whatever Whatever was making deals with uncontrollable faeries. Unseelie uncontrollable faeries.

Oh, bleep.

I pulled back, heart racing as I waited for the faerie to yell or sound an alarm. Nothing. Jack and I slipped off down a side hall, taking the long way to Raquel's unit. We made it without incident, then stood there. I shuffled my weight from foot to foot, trying to relieve some of the soreness and wondering how long it would take Reth to figure out where I was and get into Raquel's room.

The door slid open in reply.

Jack and I darted in, letting out twin sighs of relief. Lend, of course, immediately dropped to the floor. Naked, still. I doubted Raquel had anything in his size.

"He was rather upset waking up in the Faerie Paths with me," Reth said.

"I can't imagine." I quickly scanned Raquel's austere living room area. "There, help me get him into that closet."

Jack grabbed an arm and we dragged my poor boyfriend across the floor and shoved him into the tiny coat closet next to Raquel's vacuum. I added watching Lend walk to the things I missed most about him.

We closed the door and after a few moments a loud thunk sounded. "What the-Where am I? Evie?"

"Right here," I said, tapping on the door. "You're in a closet in Raquel's unit."

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to search the rest of her place and I didn't want you to risk brain damage by any more unconscious falls."

He muttered something unintelligible but distinctly grouchy and I turned, quickly scanning the room. Nothing here but a glass coffee table and a bland gray couch. I'd spent a couple of nights there after I'd gotten trapped in the Center, cleaning up a poltergeist this fall. The couch was both ugly and uncomfortable. Someone seriously needed to teach Raquel a thing or two about interior decorating.

I hoped I'd have the chance.

"You two look around here and the kitchen. I'm going to look through her room."

I walked in and my breath caught. I'd never been in Raquel's bedroom before; now there was no question in my mind why I hadn't been invited. Prominently displayed on her wall was a framed series of photos from when Raquel was a young woman. They looked suspiciously like engagement pictures, her black hair loose and flowing and her smile brighter and happier than I remembered ever seeing.

And the guy with her was Lend's dad.

Didn't see that one coming. And, oh bleep, what would Lend think knowing that his dad had been very serious with one of Lend's least favorite people in the world? Or at least I assumed they were very serious, given the number of photos that they were sucking face in.

"Well, that's interesting," I said.

"What's interesting?" Jack called from the other room.

"Something is interesting?" Lend shouted.

"No! Nothing! I mean, nothing important. Keep looking."

"I found a vacuum," Lend said.

"Brilliant!" Jack answered. "Just what we needed!"

Sighing, I went for the bed, surprised and pleased to see a deep green bedspread instead of white or gray. Shoving the top mattress to the side, I felt around and...my fingers closed around a file folder.

"Bingo!" I shouted, pulling it out and praying it wasn't filled with love letters or some other equally horrifying thing. "Between the mattresses!"

"See?" Jack said, leaning against the doorframe. "Told you I was useful."

"We'll see." I walked out into the living room and sat on the floor against the closet door. "Oh, Lend, in the hall we saw Anne talking to an unnamed Unseelie faerie about me. Apparently she's helping them keep me from making a gate."

Reth's attention snapped to me. "Are you sure it was an Unseelie?"

"Yup. The faerie was in the Dark Court, standing beside the queen. And I know I never saw her at IPCA, not even when they called all their named faeries in."

"Perhaps this trip was not a waste after all, then," Reth said. "We should go and inform my queen immediately."

"Not yet. Please."

He nodded sharply, but his eyes promised I'd have to pay him back soon.

"What do you think that means?" Lend asked.

"I dunno, but it's big. It goes against everything IPCA does to work with paranormals like that."

Lend's voice sounded tired, even muffled by the closet door. "Okay, that's something, I guess. What did you find in the folder? I'd really, really like to save Raquel and then nab a dark faerie who can break this curse."

I opened the folder, pulling out several sheets filled with Raquel's precise cursive penmanship. Oh, bleep, they were love letters, they were totally going to be...I could feel my cheeks burning by the time I realized that these papers were not anything close to love letters.

I passed the first page under the closet door as I pored over the second. It looked like a detailed accounting of werewolf and human IPCA employees: dates of when they started, specific duties, and for each...a date of disappearance. I flipped through sheet after sheet of names and information and dates, passing them on to Lend. Reth was standing in the middle of the room, again filling it more than his size made possible, while Jack juggled coffee mugs.

"Anne" was written at the top of the last page, followed by hastily scrawled notes about things Raquel had noticed, changes she'd seen, conversations she'd overheard. People whose names even I recognized-mostly politicians, and, bleep, the vice president of the United States?

And then, the final line: "Must convince Evie to help Light Queen or all will be lost."

Well, that was fabulous. Way to be cryptic and a traitor, Raquel. "Looks like Raquel joined Team Force Evie to Do Supernatural Crap." I passed the final sheet under the door and folded my arms as I waited for him to finish reading.

I closed my eyes, stewing over everything. What could make IPCA violate their own charter and work with unnamed faeries? What did they have to gain by conspiring with the Dark Court and keeping me from opening a gate? "I don't get it. Why does IPCA care what goes on with gates?"

Lend shouted, his voice excited. "They don't want you to open a gate because they'd lose their power! What would IPCA be without faeries? Nothing. It wouldn't even be IPCA anymore, it'd probably dissolve into all the various factions again. And there's no way transportation is all they're using the faeries they control for. What if they're using the magic to mess with the whole world? Influence people, control politics?"

I nodded my head, eyes wide as what he was saying sunk in. "They could do anything with what they have now. If I open a gate and the faeries they control leave the world, all that influence and magic is gone. Done. No more power, no more money, no more nothing."

"So why work with the Dark Court?" Jack asked, catching one of the mugs with his foot. "Shouldn't they be working against all the faeries to keep everyone here?"

I snapped my fingers. "Because! IPCA helps the Dark Court, and the Dark Court makes sure all the Light Court and other paranormals stay here forever! IPCA never has to lose control. Reth himself said the Light Queen would never attempt to make another Empty One."

"But even if the Dark Court manages to leave, the Light Court still has you," Lend said.

"It was pretty clear from the conversation we overheard that one way or another I'd be dead."

Something smashed to the ground. Jack looked at me, all the mugs forgotten. "I'm not going to let anyone kill you." He grinned. "If I don't get to, no one should."

"I'm touched." But I couldn't help smiling back at him.

After a few seconds Lend said, "But what about all these disappearances she has listed? What do they have to do with anything?"

"I wish I knew." Actually, I kind of wished I didn't know any of this. Lend and I were cursed to the ultimate long-distance relationship, we weren't any closer to Raquel, IPCA had gone crazy, powerful immortal creatures and a covert international government agency were gunning for my death, it looked like I would have to help Reth's side no matter what as the lesser of two evils, and I was pretty sure there was no way I would be getting those car-financing back-pay checks from IPCA now. The rate my luck was holding, Reth'd probably make me a permanent brunette by tomorrow.