The Evolution of Fae and Gods (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 3)

Rainey gets to the neighbor’s house and cuts down the side of the property just inside a tree line that separates it from the house beside it. The house isn’t grand like Kymaris’ but still a good four thousand square feet. There’s no fence we have to deal with, and we’re well concealed away from the glow of the security lighting as we creep among the trees.

I’m quite impressed with Rainey leading the way. She’s always been a girlie girl, but she’s moving aside bushes and tree limbs without a single care that some creepy crawly might fall on her. Myles follows her, with Maddox and I bringing up the rear.

When we get beyond the yard we have to sneak through, we start a downward trajectory through darkened woods, and Rainey pulls out a flashlight. I use the light on my cell phone, and we move along as quietly as possible, but it’s impossible to stop the crunch of leaves or dead twigs under our feet.

Suddenly, Rainey comes to a halt, holding up her hand with her fist clenched. I’m wondering what war or spy movie she got that from, and I have to clamp a hand over my mouth not to laugh.

We all come to a stop behind her, and then I see what she does. Down below about a hundred yards sits Kymaris’ property, the back of the house lit up as spectacularly as the front.

While we are still too far away to see clear details and there are about twenty yards of woods between us and the house, we can tell no one is outside on the back patio, pool, or extended yard area that’s all lit up with landscape lighting. We can see many figures milling about inside through the large windows that shield nothing.

“Let’s get a little closer,” Rainey suggests, but as she starts to take a step, I lurch forward and grab her by the hood of her hoodie.

“Wait a minute,” I whisper. “Let’s just wait and make sure she doesn’t have any fae or daemons patrolling.”

“Good time to put your supersonic hearing to use,” Myles suggests.

Which is a great idea. I concentrate on the house, and I can hear muddled conversations within, but I pull back from that noise and separate it. I don’t need that distraction. I gaze around the patio, the pool, and the yard.

Silence.

I turn around in my spot, letting my ears open up to any potential conversations being had by fae and daemons, but I hear nothing.

Still not good enough. “I don’t hear anyone talking out here, but that doesn’t mean they’re not silently waiting.”

“You should have let the professional handle this,” Maddox says dryly, and all our eyes go to him. It’s too dim to see his actual expression, but he turns his head left and right, surveying the area in a wide arc. Finally, he says, “I’m sensing no fae or daemons outside at all.”

“Could have just told us that to begin with,” I mutter.

Maddox pats me on the head like I’m a little kid. “Yeah, but it’s cute watching you use your little baby powers.”

I jerk away from him like he’s a big brother that just totally annoyed me, which is exactly how I feel about Maddox nine times out of ten.

“Okay, team,” Rainey says, all commander like. “Let’s move closer and set up a perimeter.”

Maddox and I share a look that says she’s adorable, but we trudge a little closer to just about ten feet inside the edge of the woods. There are some low-level shrubs pocketed in front of a white pine, and Rainey leads us there. She squats, and we do the same. Since she’s keen on running the show, we let her make the game plan.

“Okay,” she says dramatically. “I’m doing the spying since I have the binoculars. You three are lookout. Got it?”

“That’s it?” Myles asks.

“Well,” she says primly. “I’ll obviously take close-up pictures of anything good, so leave me the camera.”

“Maybe I should be the one looking,” I suggest. “You can’t see beneath Kymaris’ glamour, and we don’t know if she’s even using the glamour of the owner of this house.”

“Good point,” she concedes. “Okay… new plan. Finley and I will be spying. You boys will be the lookouts.”

Maddox snorts. “Boys. Hilarious.”

Myles doesn’t say anything but walks a few feet away and scans the area, taking his duty as a lookout seriously. Eventually, Maddox does the same, and Rainey and I go to our bellies.

The ground is cold and damp and sticks jab into me. It’s the first time I think this might be a stupid idea.

“This is so exciting,” Rainey whispers, her shoulder touching mine, and I decide she’s so cute that I’ll suffer the cold and pokey twigs. She hands over the binoculars.

For the first minute, I just scan the back of the house. Through the large bank of windows on the main floor, I see what appears to be a massive living area that runs into an open kitchen design. The interior decor is traditional with lots of heavy furniture with ornate carvings, red Persian style rugs, and expensive art pieces. There looks to be about twenty or so dark daemons, and yes… they are mingling as if it is a cocktail party. They have drinks or plates of food in hand while they chat casually. If it weren’t for the fact that they were all fairly ugly—meaning they were offspring of some of the lower caste of Dark and Light fae—it would look just like a normal party.