I really did love my job—even if my teammate’s confidence in me made me nervous.
The work really mattered, and while I had no qualms in putting down threats, there was something about being a defender, about protecting the city, that I enjoyed so much more than my typical family work.
I was happy. Happy with my job, happy with the few—but special—friendships I’d managed to make.
Getting to this point had involved a lot of nail-biting, and lonely moments, but I could feel it in my blood: Magiford was where I belonged.
The following evening, I arrived at the Curia Cloisters in a good mood. I’d gotten some work done on my paper in the afternoon, and then hung out with Connor for an hour. I’d even had time to make one of my favorite fruit smoothies, which tasted like pineapple ice cream!
I waved hello to Emi as I passed through the Cloister’s main chamber—which was crowded with day and nocturnal supernaturals at this hour—and slipped into the employees only lounge, taking the door to the hallway that would lead me to the task force department’s area.
When I entered the locker room I found Sunshine, sitting on the bench in front of my locker, doing the crossword puzzle in the Magiford newspaper printed by humans.
“Hey, Jade!” She waved to me with her pen, before writing something in the crossword.
I set my backpack down on the bench next to her. “Hi, Sunshine. How was your shift?” I opened my locker, then stripped off the bulky cable knit sweater that made my top layer, revealing my thin, insulated vest, long-sleeved moisture wicking shirt, and base layer of a short-sleeved shirt.
“Great! It was thankfully way less exciting after your squad dragged everyone from the fight in.”
“If it was less exciting, why are you still here? You started ridiculously early today,” I asked. Sunshine hadn’t bothered to go home today after reporting the fae; she’d stayed in and started her day.
“A fae got busted for illegally selling potions to humans, so I had to test her entire batch to grade how potent they were. It took me all afternoon, until my regular shift ended, so I decided I’d hang around so I could say hello to you.” Sunshine’s smile warmed me from the inside out as she grinned at me.
I put on the long-sleeved shirt of my task force uniform, testing the snug buttons around my cuffs. The test was for the safety of my vampire teammates and because Considine had tugged on them a few times, which made me nervous. “That sounds like your kind of fun.”
Sunshine glanced back down at her newspaper. “Absolutely! I like bagging rats who think they can prey on humans—oh! I got to see Queen Darina when she came to pay the fine for the release of her fae. She was furious! I thought she was going to crack her teeth with how hard she was clenching them. It was great—I was so sad you missed it!”
I laughed as I removed my sneakers and tucked them into my locker, swapping them for my special boots. “Did King Forgought show up?”
“Nope.” Sunshine filled another spot on the crossword puzzle. “I think he’s trying to scrape together the funds. That Court has done some seriously stupid stuff in the past year; he’s got to be almost out of money. It’s probably why Queen Darina is going for him—she thinks he’s a weak target.”
I left on the pair of black leggings I was wearing and slipped on my uniform’s navy-blue trousers over it—one of my favorite things about the colder weather was that I could have extra padding. I just had to be careful I didn’t wear anything that hindered my movements. Consequently, my winter uniform was a size bigger than my summer uniform. “Tricky. Your family is safe despite all this succession fighting, right?”
“Oh yeah.” Sunshine folded up her completed crossword, restoring the newspaper to its regular shape. “We’re part of the Day Court. We had some tense years, but order has been restored, and our King has never been better.”
I have no idea what she’s talking about. Maybe I should learn more about fae politics—so I can be a better friend. Though I bet it would help my work life, too.
I pulled my belt from my locker. “Good.” I slipped it through the belt loops, then glanced at Sunshine, frowning when I saw the bold headlines.
Black Ice on Bayview Bridge Causes Accident.
Bayview Bridge… it took me a moment to place the name on my mental map of the city, but when I did, I sharply inhaled: it was the bridge I’d seen before dawn, the one with all the humans tottering around it.
“Accident on the bridge?” I asked.