Arrowan

Glenna was helping a customer while Safiya rearranged the charm shelves after a pixie finally left, taking her rowdy kid with her. He had gotten his hands on anything he could, and a few times, Glenna or Safiya had barely stopped him from touching or triggering something dangerous. Meanwhile, Safiya's soul mate, Roderick, and I were sitting in the armchairs near the curtained-off area that had been put up for my healing jobs.

On a little fold-out table between us, we had a map of the forest we had chosen for my faked death. There were mountains and lakes, as well as craggy ravines and great heights to leap from. Lots of options. And Roderick thought he had almost worked out how to make a simulacrum that looked like me, something we could send running through the forest like a tangible illusion. He had it looking fairly lifelike at this point, but neither of us could figure out how to convincingly stage my death without leaving the Unseelie a body to carry back to Alterra.

"I still think falling into a lake from high up should do it. If it's a high enough fall, it would be physically impossible for you to survive. Then you sink and your body is lost under the water," Roderick said. He'd been stuck on that plan for days, so I think it's excusable if I lost my patience a little.

"That will never work. They won't be satisfied with my body being lost like that. They'd drag the lake and it would be obvious I might have survived when they couldn't find anything. Then it would only take a lucky tracking spell getting through my defenses, and they'd be back after me and Luin – only we wouldn't be expecting it anymore."

Roderick tugged at his hair. "If they're really going to be that thorough, they'll never be satisfied with you faking your death. If they really need a body..."

I slammed my head down on the table. We had been talking in circles for days and we couldn't find a way to make this work. It had to, though. I didn't know how else to protect myself and my bond mate, so we were going to keep trying until one of us had an epiphany.

"Maybe we can convince them I jumped in a volcano. No one would expect to find a body then," I grumbled.

"And what are the odds of them believing you ever would jump in a volcano?" Roderick asked, smirking.

"About nil. But it's just as good a plan as your lake one," I responded drily.

Safiya walked by with her arms full of boxes. "Want me to hex him for you, honey?" she asked Roderick.

He grinned at her and pulled out his wand, flicking it at the boxes so they lifted out of her arms and levitated in front of her. "I've got it, sweetheart," he said.

"The rare ingredients aisle, please," Safiya told him, looking like the cat that got the cream. The boxes drifted through the air and out of sight. Safiya blew him a kiss and headed off in the same direction.

"You know she didn't start learning magic until she was an adult?" Roderick said. "She's come a long way, but she still does a few too many things by hand."

I snorted. And if I wanted, I could cover my living space in mirrors and never have to get up for anything again – I could just reach through the mirror realm and pull out whatever I needed if the mirrors were magically connected to each other. That kind of laziness was a trap, and one far too many had fallen into.

But we were getting distracted. I racked my brain for a plan that was even slightly less stupid than "pretend I jumped into a volcano."

"Okay, scrap the forest," Roderick said. "What if you jump off a cliff and into the ocean? They couldn't expect to find your body then."

I turned the idea over in my mind. We would have to make it plausible that I'd get lost in the ocean, and they would have to be sure enough that I hadn't made it out to declare me dead. "Maybe," I finally said. It was the best idea either of us had come up with so far.

Safiya must have finished restocking the shelves, because she came over and slid herself onto Roderick's lap. Though the pair hadn't known each other long, Safiya had thrown herself into their relationship and Roderick seemed happy to go along with it. In fact, sometimes they seemed closer than me and Luin, which made my heart ache. I didn't know if that was my fault for being so distracted with planning and my healing jobs or if it was just that Luin was more reserved than Safiya.

We would get there, I assured myself. And I liked that we were taking time to really get to know each other. I almost had enough money saved up to buy the materials I needed to make that new statue for Luin and the tools I needed were already ordered and on their way to our home. We could have another date night in when I had it all done and maybe that would be the push we needed to grow even closer.

Glenna joined us and said, "Arrowan, your four o'clock just canceled."

That was my last appointment of the day, which meant I was home free. "Thanks for the heads-up," I said. "I'm going to head home, then. See you guys in the morning."

They chorused their goodbyes and I stepped through the mirror Glenna had hung back here for my transportation. Mirror travel wasn't quite as secure as Luin's teleportation, but it was a minimal risk. The portal to the mirror in my bedroom was only a few steps away, so any Unseelie waiting to attack me would have very little time to do so, and they wouldn't be able to follow me home through our wards.

When I stepped out into the bedroom, I heard voices coming from the living room – more than just Luin and Fen. "So?" someone asked.

"Give me some time!" a voice answered. "Jeez."

"What's he looking for?" Fen asked.

I reached the living room and three sets of eyes swiveled to me – Luin, Fen, and a man I didn't recognize. Lachlan was here, too, I saw. He was entirely focused on the laptop screen in front of him, but took one hand off the keyboard long enough to wave in my direction.

"Arrowan, I thought you weren't going to be back until later," Luin said, smiling brightly at me. I slid him over so he was closer to Fen and sat down next to him.

"My last appointment canceled," I said. "Is that pizza?"

Luin picked up the plate that had been in front of him and flipped open the pizza boxes, loading the plate up with slices that had three different toppings. I was still trying to find my favorite foods and flavors on Earth, so even though I really didn't like trying new things, Luin was pushing variety on me wherever he could. I didn't enjoy it, but I did appreciate it.

I picked up the most appealing piece, which had sliced mushrooms on it, and took a bite while looking around the room. I made eye contact with the man I didn't recognize and offered him a little smile as I took another bite. Lunch was hours ago and I was hungry enough that this was delicious, even if it was lukewarm now.

"You must be Arrowan," the man said. "I'm Everett, Lachlan's brother-in-law."

I had heard his name before, but I couldn't remember much about him. I nodded a greeting and ate another bite.

"I'm sorry, Everett!" Luin said. "I forgot you two hadn't met. Yes, this is Arrowan."

Luin shot me a look and I understood that he thought I was being rude. "Sorry, I was hungrier than I thought. It's good to meet you." I looked to Lachlan, who was still hyper-focused on the laptop screen in front of him. "What's going on?"

"Lach is trying to get information on the school where Fen's mate works. The website seems like a shell."

I glanced at Luin, hoping he had some idea what Everett meant by that, and Luin shrugged.

"The links go to nowhere. The staff profiles are fake. The contact information is useless," Lachlan said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was the front for some crime syndicate – and not a very well-thought out one."

Luin hooked an arm over Fen's shoulders and I looked over to see the poor guy was pale and looked worried. "It might be something harmless, right?" I asked, putting an edge in my voice so Lachlan would know to answer yes.

He nodded absentmindedly. "The fact that the place is well-shielded by magic makes me think they're just hiding from those who don't know about the supernatural world." He glanced up and winced when he saw Fen. "Sorry. You really shouldn't worry yet."

"Oh, well, as long as someone tells me when it would be appropriate to worry, I'll be fine," Fen mumbled sarcastically. I snorted. Fen and Luin had a lot in common, but Luin had more fire when he was upset and Fen was a bit softer. He would either shut down or let his words lash out for him.

Not to mention, Luin was way hotter than his friend. And Luin was soft in ways no one else I knew could be. Those easy blushes, how little it took to brighten his day, and how adorably frustrated he would get when he couldn't keep himself from losing the mask he liked to wear over his emotions. He barely ever put that mask on anymore when we were alone together, which was humbling. It told me he was starting to trust me with himself.

"Arrowan? Do you not like it?" Luin asked, frowning in concern.

I looked down and saw that I'd been holding my pizza halfway to my mouth while I got distracted with thoughts of Luin. "It's great," I assured him, and took another bite. I hummed in pleasure for emphasis, which made Luin roll his eyes, but I saw the smile he fought to hide.

"Yes!" Lachlan shouted. Luin jumped in his seat a little, then glared at me for chuckling. He was quickly distracted when Lachlan set aside the laptop and took a long drink from the can in front of him. "I found an e-mail address," he said.

Everett frowned. "Their 'About Us' page is full of e-mail addresses. You said those profiles were all fake, though."

"They are. I found the e-mail address for whoever maintains the site. It was buried deep – they really make you work for it, but I think they left it there as a breadcrumb," Lachlan said.

"So what now?" I asked.

"Now we draft an e-mail. What angle should we take?" Lachlan asked, leaning back in his seat and nursing his drink.

"Say you're interested in enrolling and would like a tour of the campus," Everett suggested.

"This is a tech guy, not admissions," Lachlan said. "They would probably see right through that."

So Lachlan thought the e-mail had to be tech-related? I didn't know enough about all that to help, so I finished off my mushroom pizza and moved on to the next slice – pepperoni. I liked pepperoni bread, so it was probably going to be delicious. I took a bite and groaned. "What's the point of the mushrooms when the pepperoni is this good?" I asked rhetorically.

Everett laughed and looked to Luin. "I guess I was wrong about fae having bad taste in pizza. It's just you two."

Luin straightened his spine as he did when he was irritated and said, "You guys are getting off-topic. We're writing an e-mail."

"I've got it," Lachlan said, reaching for the laptop again. His fingers started flying over the keys and we all waited in silence until he pushed the laptop away again. "I asked how to access the real website."

"Won't they see right through that?" Everett asked.

Lachlan smirked. "Yes. But it's obvious enough that I think they'll take the bait just out of curiosity. I'm calling them out on their shell of a website using the hidden e-mail address. At the very least, they're going to wonder what else I know."

"How long do you think it'll take to get a response?" Fen asked. He had to be eager to make progress after so long.

Lachlan shrugged. "There's no way to know. I'll send a follow-up tomorrow if I haven't heard back."

We settled in. Fen took another slice of pizza, taking real bites this time instead of nibbling at it. Everett flipped on the TV on to a sports station and muted it. Lachlan rolled his eyes. "You don't even like sports," he said.

Everett shrugged. "Felix does. I guess I got used to having it on in the background."

We chatted a bit more, more of the pizza got eaten, and after maybe an hour had passed, most of us were slumped in our seats, enjoying the slightly uncomfortable feeling of too-full stomachs. A comfortable kind of quiet had settled over us. No more need for conversation, no pressure to plot a way to get information out of a mysterious school – no pressure to do anything at all. Then the laptop dinged.

Fen sat bolt upright, launching himself to the very edge of his seat, and watched with wide eyes as Lachlan picked up the laptop again. He read the e-mail and smirked. "We're in."