I traced my finger down the side of the photo. She was looking at me like I was nuts in it, her hair pulled back into a gleaming black ponytail and a pink stuffed unicorn clutched in her hands. I remembered that day like it was yesterday.


“Why are we here?” She asked as I pulled up to the Chuck E. Cheese.

“There’s someone here we need to meet.” I replied, opening the door of our sleek, black Lexus.

“And by meet you mean…”

“Spy on.”

“Ah,” she said. “You could have just said that.” She rolled her eyes and walked up beside me.

She was one of the few women who were close to my height of six-three. It was nice not to have to tower over someone all the time, though there was a time when I’d tried. But she wasn’t easily intimidated.

“Who is the guy?” She dug around in a pocket for a second before pulling out a mint and popping it in her mouth.

I handed her a file from my coat pocket. “Daniel Terra. He likes to think he owns the siren part of town. They like to let him think that.” There were no better gossipers in town than the sirens and they collected gossip the same way a dragon collected treasure. It was just as hard to get them to give their treasure up—unless you hung around them enough.

The sirens didn’t take to well to guys, but I guess the rules were different when they were transgender. He was pretty good at looking like a girl too. Not even the mothers at Chuck E. Cheese could tell.

He was flanked with at least a dozen sirens clad in short skirts and cropped tops. Most of them were sucking at their lollypops and attracting the attention of the fathers. Even our guy was getting some looks.

“Yes!” He exclaimed as he hit the fifty hole in skee ball. “What you bitches goan do now?” He said it a little too loud and attracted the attention of the nearby mothers who quickly covered their children’s ears.

She wrinkled up her nose in distaste. “Not only does he wear crappy, cheap perfume, he talks like he’s ghetto. And I know ghetto. He is not ghetto.”

I shrugged. “He’s what we’ve got.”

“What exactly are we looking for again?”

“The sirens have recently found something of great interest to the Council in their lands.” I locked eyes with her and she nodded.

The Sword of Champions wasn’t just of great interest to the Council—it was the most interesting thing they had to deal with. If the legends spoke true—which most times they did—anyone who wielded the Sword could not be defeated. Up to a year ago it had belonged to a close friend of ours, Sage Sommersworth. And she wanted it back. Bad.

“Do you have it?” I heard one of the sirens whisper to her sister.

The girl grinned and giggled uncontrollably, covering her mouth in a useless attempt to smother her laughter. “Miri’s got it,” her eyes got wide with excitement. “And it’s got a hell of a kick.” She used her index finger to make some sword movements in the air.

Okay, for all we knew, she was talking about sex, but from a siren I figured that was unlikely. They were more prone to killing men than sleeping with them.

I locked eyes with my partner and she rolled her eyes and shook her head at the girls. I could practically hear the thoughts in her head: A mouse could have done a better job at keeping that thing hidden.

She jerked her head at them. “Go. Do your thing. I’ll be here trying to win a few tickets.”

I nodded and she eyed the pinball machine. She loved all the bells and whistles on the thing.

I slid through the sirens, ignoring their glares at my back. There was no way I was going to talk to them; my life meant too much to me.

“Hey,” I called to him, having to near shout over the roar of people.

He looked up at me with a surprisingly woman-like face, eyes ringed with blue eyeshadow and fake lashes extending too far out to ever look real. A smile curled his lips as he looked me up and down.

“Well hey there, good looking. Is there something you need from me?” He chewed on the end of his pink painted nail. His voice was unnervingly high. “’Cause I’ll give you anything you want.”

“I need to know about a certain siren with a certain sword.” I said, without bothering to sugarcoat it.

He scowled, suddenly disinterested. “Look, talk to the sirens. I don’t have it. They don’t have it. But they know someone who does.” He stopped with the falsetto and I had to admit he sounded better with the high voice.

“You have to know something,” I pressed. “You know everything about them.”

He gave me a grin and his eyes flashed to my partner who had taken her won tickets over to the desk. She’d been collecting for a while and had enough to buy a pink, fuzzy unicorn stuffed animal. “I’ll tell you if…if you take a few pictures over there with her.”

He pointed to an area in the corner where a sleazy guy was standing in a stereotypical black trench coat. Since there were no screaming parents yet, I assumed he was glamoured.

I didn’t like the look on Terra’s face. He seemed much too gleeful for this to be just a few pictures.

But I knew she would say I was stupid if I didn’t do it.

I called her over with no more hesitation. “He’ll know what we’re there for?” I asked Terra.

“Yup,” he said. “Tell him I sent you. He should waive the fee.”

“You called?” She said, hugging the unicorn to her chest.

I jerked my head at the abandoned corner. “I made a deal.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her there without waiting for her to answer.

“Okay,” she said, sounding weary. “What is it?”

I didn’t answer at first. I focused on the photographer. “Terra sent us.” I told him.

He nodded and readied the camera, making her sidle up closer to me. He grinned. “Yeah, that’s right pretty girl. Get close.”

Her eyebrows crunched together and she looked at me like I was insane. “What’s going on here?”

“We’re just having a few pictures taken.” I said, staring straight ahead.

The camera flashed.

She’d made me burn the rest of them—at least the ones that Terra hadn’t confiscated.

“What are you doing?” She asked, slipping her arms around my waist from behind.

I held up the photo. “Reliving the memories.”

She made a face. “I can’t believe you agreed to that.”

“At least Sage thanked me.” I smiled. “And that is a feat to be accomplished.”

“Yeah,” she sighed happily and leaned her head against my back. “I guess it was worth it.”