Lorcan gripped his head in his hands; flames glinted in his tear-filled eyes. “It’s gone, lad. It’s all gone.”
I would’ve called on my magic to help except there was nothing more to be done. No amount of magic could bring the Arches back. “What happened?”
He dragged his arm beneath his eyes, catching the tears spilling down his sunken cheeks. “Deirdre and I were asleep when I thought I smelled smoke. By the time I got up, the entire ground floor had been consumed.”
That made no sense. Pooka had an unrivaled sense of smell. Surely Lorcan should’ve smelled the smoke well before it had done this much damage.
Rían smacked my hip and nodded toward the crowd growing larger by the second.
I twisted away from my friend, searching for whatever had caught my brother’s attention. Before I could ask, my brother was pushing through the humans. I squeezed between two sobbing women in their nightgowns and skirted past another in a mop cap with a screeching baby clutched to her breast.
Rían started to run, which didn’t bode well for whomever he chased since he’d always been a fast fecker. He darted down a skinny side street next to a blue and white tea house. By the time I caught up, he had a man on the ground, lying face-down in a puddle. A second man dragged himself along the ground by his elbows, his limp legs bent at wrong angles scraping the cobblestones.
“Have you lost your mind? You can’t just go around killing humans.” Tensions would be high enough in the aftermath of the fire. The last thing we needed was a bunch of humans feeling justified in committing more atrocities.
Rían’s teeth gleamed in the lamplight when he looked up from the body. “Not even the ones who started the fire?”
I glanced between the two men, searching for whatever my brother saw that had incriminated them. They wore the same dark breeches as practically every other man around. Sure, their white shirts were stained with soot, but so were everyone else’s who’d been helping to put out the fire. “How do you know they did it?”
Rían blew out a heavy sigh, like my question was really putting him out. “When I set things on fire, I like to make sure whatever it was actually burns. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
“Yes, but you’re a psychopath.”
Shrugging, he gestured toward the men with his dagger. “These two seemed shifty. I asked if they did it, and they said no.”
And with Rían’s ability to taste lies, he would’ve known the truth. If only such swift justice could help Lorcan and the others who had lost everything. “Get rid of the bodies before anyone—”
Sharp pain shot up my leg. The man from the puddle sneered up at me from the ground, a dagger in his clenched fist. The bastard had stabbed me.
I kicked his blade aside, my magic already knitting my skin back together as I knelt and shifted a dagger of my own. In one swipe, I’d carved a smile across his throat.
Only…no blood escaped the wound.
What in the fresh hell?
I could see the inside of his esophagus. How was he still trying to grab my boot?
Rían squatted next to the man. When he swiped for Rían’s leg, my brother crushed the man’s hand beneath the heel of his boot. “He should be dead,” Rían said matter-of-factly, still staring down at the thrashing, snarling man.
No one could survive such a wound—not even a true immortal. A sword appeared in Rían’s hand. In one swing, he relieved the man of his head. The bastard finally fell still.
“Was he one of us?” The thought that one of the Danú would’ve attacked one of our own like this made me sick to my stomach.
“Let’s find out.” Rían kicked him over and pressed a hand to the dead man’s chest. I held my breath, listening to my brother’s harsh inhale. “Strange…” His hand fell aside as he studied the headless body.“There’s no life force. Not even a spark. Even humans havesomething.”
I didn’t even know that was possible. “If he’s not human, and he’s not Danú, what is he?”
“Good feckin’ question.” He reached for the man’s head, and the bodies vanished.
I shot to my feet, searching the shadows for some sign of the corpses. “Did you do that?”
Rían shot me a baleful glare. “Yes. I shifted away the only evidence we had.”
Sarcastic prick. “A simple ‘no’ would suffice.”
Together, we searched the night for signs of who could have shifted the bodies. The silent shadows stared back, keeping their secrets close. Someone had used thesethingsto attack the Danú. Someone with enough magic to be able to shift them away afterward.
Meaning humans hadn’t committed this crime. It had been one of us. But who?