The ounce of relief I experienced at the kelpie’s death evaporated. Separating the Charybdis persona from the kelpie had been a struggle as I battled doubts over what manner of creature or creatures had pitted themselves against us. Kneeling here, I resonated all the certainty I previously lacked.

This was incontrovertible proof. Charybdis was a separate entity, and he was still very much alive.

I stood and skirted the dead medics, walked into the underbrush and called out to Harlow. Charybdis, being a creature of Faerie, would have understood the bean sidhe’s wail and fled. My cries failed to illicit a response from Harlow, but it summoned the others, who, after restraining me with a Word, resumed the search.

Jaw flexing with the force of keeping my mouth shut, I stood there like a model prisoner. Arguing would slow down the hunt, and my pride wasn’t worth so much that I couldn’t model steel bracelets for a few minutes until the paranoia of finding me standing alone by yet another corpse, two in fact, died down.

The kelpie was the first strike and these two the second and third. As far as they were concerned, until Vause verified my credentials, I was out.

Harlow’s disappearance had failed to sway the marshals—the prejudice against mermaids ran deeper than I ever imagined in the waterfront towns where Charybdis had chosen to strike—but two of their own had been slaughtered, and that lit a fire under them.

“That Ellis?” A squat man with a rolling gait snuffled in my direction. “Magistrate Vause is asking for her.”

“I would take the call,” I said, wiggling my fingers, “but I’m tied up at the moment.”

“Lady, she wants a face-to-face.” He snorted loudly through his nose with an open mouth. “I’ve got orders to escort you to the safe house in Falco.”

“We can handle things here,” Leonard assured me as he approached. “You’ve done your job. Now let us do ours.” A sparkle made his eyes dance, and his cheeks were flush. Death looked good on him. “We’ll locate the one responsible.”

“Find the mermaid.” I made it an order. “She’s a victim here too.”

Good old Leo sighed his counter-Word and unbound my hands. “I’ll be in touch.”

I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Under the watchful eye of my new escort, I made my way down to the original crime scene, which still buzzed with activity as marshals attempted to coax Roni from her bubble. After the bean sidhe’s performance, I could have told them that shield between her and the rest of the fae world wasn’t going anywhere.

I broke away from my escort and darted toward the pier before his meaty fist closed over my upper arm. “Give me a minute.”