One of the bed’s carved posts was broken, silk sheets and thick blankets tossed aside. An armoire stood in the corner, the doors open, the contents torn out and spilled onto the floor, including a white dress that shimmered with jewels.

The dress Claudia had worn to the opening-night session.

I needed to find Theo.

* * *

• • •

I took photographs of the room, and made it back to the courtyard with only seconds to spare in my twenty-minute allotment.

“No fairies,” I said. “I didn’t have time to search the entire keep, but I found this.” I showed him the pictures I’d taken of Claudia’s room. “Someone trashed it.”

Theo studied them, brow furrowed. “Why would someone do that?”

“Maybe she had a tantrum. Or maybe she didn’t want to leave and fought back against it, and this was the result.”

Theo nodded. “Maybe they were angry at her.” He looked back at me. “You said you didn’t see her last night? That Ruadan was playing at being in charge?”

“Yeah. You’re thinking he wasn’t just playing?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t get why they’d have left all this. The castle is basically new, and they built it to their own specifications. It’s theirs and it’s fortified. There’s no reason for them to leave.”

“They could have been afraid Cadogan would retaliate.”

“Because they’re suddenly afraid of a fight?” Theo asked, and he had a point.

“They don’t make decisions based on fear,” he said. “They’re smart and calculating narcissists. They’re sociopaths that hold grudges. That’s what drives them.”

They hadn’t looked like they’d planned to pack up last night, which meant they’d made the move after we left. And probably because of us.

“They left this place because they wanted to be—physically—somewhere else,” he said. “We need to find that location and figure out what they wanted with it.”

“Do the fairies have other residences in town?”

Theo shook his head. “Other than the tower, which they abandoned, not that we know of. But they’ve gone somewhere, so we’ll start scanning the satellite feed, try to nail down their new home.”

He looked around. “Still a lot to go through here, but I’ll get CPD officers to sweep the rest of it. Let’s go back to the car. I want to update Yuen. Then we can decide what to do next.”

“Get me coffee,” I said, “and you can call whomever you want.”

* * *

• • •

The scent of roasting beans poured through the skinny drive-through window at Leo’s, and I thought it was possibly the best thing I’d ever smelled.

“Chicago dogs. Pizza. Hot beefs. You have an entire city at your disposal, and you want cheap, drive-through coffee?”

“It’s not cheap, and it’s the best coffee in Chicago,” I said, closing my eyes at the first sip of sweet and hot and sharp.

“There’s a barista serving civet coffee in a hipster café in Wicker Park who’s weeping right now because of what you said.”

“I’m okay with that.” And I took another sip. Civet coffee seemed like the kind of twisted punishment Eleanor of Aquitaine might have come up with.

My needs fulfilled, Theo pulled the vehicle into an empty parking lot. Yuen’s image appeared like a hologram above the dashboard. The car might have been a recycled Auto, but it had a few tricks up its sleeve.

“Trouble?” Yuen asked.

“Not the kind you’re thinking of,” Theo said. “The fairies are gone. The castle is empty.”

Yuen’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean, empty?”

“They’ve abandoned the castle entirely. Left the furniture behind, but taken everything else. And they trashed Claudia’s room. Elisa will send you some pics.”

Yuen was quiet for a moment as he considered. “They trashed her room,” he quietly said, and his gaze shifted to me. “Thoughts?”

That he’d asked for my opinion made me sit up a little straighter and choose my words more carefully. “I don’t think she’d have destroyed her clothes. She’s too vain. That makes me think someone else did it. Ruadan, or his fairy allies, seems like the best candidate. But until we find them, we won’t know.”

He nodded. “Agreed.” He held up a hand, then looked to the side at something we couldn’t see. And his eyes widened.

Petra’s face appeared beside Yuen’s, as if she’d moved to stand beside him. “We’ve got something weird in Grant Park. You’re closest.”

“Something weird?” Theo asked.

“A power surge. Vibrations, and they’re magical in nature. This isn’t weather or geology or underground construction someone forgot to tell the city about.”

I frowned. I didn’t know anything about magical vibrations, but guessed humans wouldn’t be able to feel them. “Who reported it?”

“River nymphs,” Petra said. “Two near Buckingham, communing with the water in the fountain.” Her voice was dry. “They felt it, reported it to a meter maid, who thought they were drunk bachelorettes.”

High heels, strong makeup, short dresses. That checked out.

“Where in Grant Park?” Theo asked.

“All of it,” she said. “The vibration’s got a good spread. But start near the fountain.”

“Copy that. I’ll take a look and report back.” He looked at me. “You up for another adventure?”

I was up for a bucket of wine and a chance to apologize to my father. Or a bucket of wine before I had a chance to apologize to my father. But since I was unlikely to get either right now, I figured I might as well do the city some good.

“Sure,” I said. “Let’s do it.” I’d just need to tell Lulu that I wouldn’t be home for dinner.

I’d seen television detectives attach lights to the top of unmarked cars so they could cruise through traffic to a crime scene. I hadn’t seen it in real life until tonight, when Theo whipped one out.

“What exactly are we going to do with whatever we find in Grant Park?” I asked, and checked the side mirror just in case Connor was following. I was a little disappointed he and Thelma weren’t behind us. We probably could have used them.

“We handle it, or we call in backup,” Theo said. “And we hope they get there on time.”

* * *

• • •

It was late, at least by human standards, and traffic was light, mostly Autos shuttling the tired through the Loop. Even Grant Park, usually crowded with tourists or festivals, was quiet.

Theo drove north on Columbus, pulled the vehicle to a stop at the curb in front of the wide brick plaza and fountain beyond it. There was a low pool with monstrous sculptures that reached through the water and three tiers of pink marble that glowed in the darkness.

We climbed out of the car, looked around, and saw no one. In silence, we made a large circle around the fountain, scanning the park for anything unusual. But there were no nymphs, no humans, no fairies. Just the fine spray of water across the bricks as the wind blew through the fountain’s towering spray.

And then the world shifted.

I felt it before I heard it, the vibration beneath my feet. Not a literal shaking, but a ring of power.

The monster felt it, too, and woke suddenly, stretching beneath my skin, reaching for the magic. Not because it seemed familiar—this wasn’t the Egregore that called from my mother’s sword. But because the power was enormous.

The second vibration was even stronger, like the earth was contracting beneath my feet. “Damn,” I murmured, and braced a hand against one of the metal supports around the fountain to stay upright.

“Elisa? What is it?”

“You can’t feel it?”

“No. It is the vibrations?”

“Yeah. Magic under our feet.” The rippling grew more violent still, like a train was bearing down on us. “And I’d say something’s on its way. Get ready.”

They appeared like ghosts, solidifying out of darkness. At least a hundred fairies in two straight lines that stretched out across the brick plaza.

Theo’s voice was quiet as he spoke into his screen. “We found the fairies.”

Or they’d found us.