All Is Faerie in Love and War: A Thrilling Urban Fantasy (Fangs and Feathers Book 2) Read online

  All Is Faerie in Love and War

  Isla Frost

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2021 by Isla Frost

  All rights reserved.

  Published by JFP Trust

  2021 First Digital Edition

  ISBN: 978 1 922712 01 1

  www.islafrost.com

  Contents

  What you ought to know about Lyra’s world

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  About the Author

  Also by Isla Frost

  What you ought to know about Lyra’s world

  In the fifty years prior to the magic revolution, tech advanced in the vigorous leaps and bounds of a newly hatched dragon, and the human population doubled from four to eight billion—forcing the supernaturals to become more and more restricted in their mandate to stay hidden.

  They decided enough was enough.

  But they didn’t just book a tell-all slot on Oprah. First they came together in an unprecedented display of cooperation and inflicted—or gifted depending who you listened to—humankind with magic.

  As an opening move, arming your potential adversary with brand-new power is a counterintuitive way to go. But it worked. Sort of.

  Making everyone magical leveled the playing field somewhat. And arming every idiot in the world with magic abilities gave humankind something more immediate to fear than the seemingly well-behaved supernaturals. Especially with all the positive press about the heroic soldiers, doctors, firefighters, and social workers who’d been living among us all along.

  It came out later that they’d carefully bought up key media outlets before pulling the trigger on their plan so they could massage the reactions of the masses. They spun the magic revolution as their gift to the world. Some conspiracy theorists even claimed they’d orchestrated the Harry Potter phenomenon to ensure humankind would accept it as such.

  Even so, for the governments, those early days were like an impossible game of Whac-A-Mole. But most of the world survived.

  This story is set in a city that didn’t.

  Las Vegas was one of a few places to be razed to the ground during the transition period. Turns out the people that frequent Sin City are not the safest people to give magical powers to.

  Miraculously, or more specifically, thanks to the hard work of the gold-loving goblins who’d had their sights on the casinos for decades, only a few people died. And a new Las Vegas was built in its place. A Las Vegas that catered to all species, establishing it as one of the most diverse and integrated cities in the world.

  It’s been smooth sailing ever since.

  Ha.

  Chapter One

  I approached the residential home with my dragon partner Aurelis huffing down my neck.

  This was one of her least favorite duties.

  Most of our jobs within the Rapid Response unit of the LVMPD were dealing with a dangerous situation already in progress. We were there to protect lives, contain the perpetrators, and minimize the fallout. But this call was preemptive—on mere suspicion of brewing trouble. Which meant more talking on our part and sometimes a wasted trip altogether.

  Hence Aurelis’s bad mood.

  I, on the other hand, was just happy to be on duty again. It was my first day back at work after two weeks’ suspension.

  “I’ve missed you breathing down my neck,” I told her sunnily.

  The next breath had more heat in it. And a hint of smoke.

  A warning I ignored.

  But only thanks to months of practice. The majestic copper-scaled dragon following me down the footpath was terrifying on a primordial level that took all my willpower to overcome. She was stronger, faster, and smarter than me, and her design was pure predator. Lethal talons tipped each of her feet, wicked horns adorned her head and neck, and her powerful maw bristled with teeth made for tearing flesh—on display even when her jaw was closed. A twenty-foot wingspan and magical mastery over the air itself meant her prey had little hope of escape. And once you were caught—if you survived long enough to realize it—her armor of interlocking scales and natural magic resistance rendered her impervious to most methods of defense. And just in case all that wasn’t enough, as the smoke insinuated, she breathed freaking fire.

  There was a reason that of all the supernatural creatures that had gone into hiding around the globe, dragons had remained so deeply embedded in the human psyche. But this particular dragon had saved my ass on more than one occasion, visited me in the hospital, and even loaned me one of the books from her precious hoard, so I was pretty sure she wouldn’t decide to eat me just for irking her.

  The suspect’s home was perfectly innocuous for the nicer suburb of Goblin Ridge, Las Vegas. A two-story building in desert-inspired colors with a swimming pool and double garage on a generous-sized block.

  Perfectly innocuous that is, except for the very real armored tank sitting by the curb.

  I rang the doorbell. There was one of those THIS HOME IS PROTECTED BY GOD AND GUNS signs stuck in the window, and I snorted. If you had a tank out the front, you didn’t need a sign.

  Aurelis pushed off behind me and alighted on the roof. Ostensibly to keep a lookout but more likely just to avoid dealing with the pesky occupants.

  I didn’t mind. Having an ancient predator of myth and flame looming over your shoulder was useful for a lot of things, but in my experience, convincing a person to stay calm and talk wasn’t one of them.

  Some of the shingles shifted beneath her weight, and I hoped she wouldn’t do more damage than we’d been sent to prevent.

  In the days following the terror and chaos of Las Vegas’s population being imprisoned and held hostage, the city had been quiet. Residents were shaken, and many supernaturals were still regaining their strength after brushing shoulders with Death. Which was perhaps why we’d been assigned to this less-than-critical job.

  Well, that and of all the officers in our precinct, Aurelis was best suited to take on a tank.

  The quiet wouldn’t last. It never did in Vegas. The casinos were putting on star-riddled special events to tempt the tourists into venturing back. We were ten days out from hosting this year’s G23 summit. The jinn would soon be holding their annual Grant a Wish charity auction. And in the great words of Albert Einstein: Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.

  The door opened. “About time you showed up, you useless—”

  The man choked off mid-diatribe when he caught sight of my LVMPD uniform.

  “Good morning, sir—”

  He slammed the door in my face.

  I sighed. Aurelis snickered.

  I took a couple of steps to one side. Just in case he’d gone to grab one of the guns the sign warned about and take a potshot at me through the door.

  The suspect, a Mr. Vargas, did in fact legally own the retired military tank as part of his Adventure Shooting business, promising tourists an explosively good time. He even had the special effects magic to match—ensuring they were the dramatic dark-smoke-and-billowing-fireball kinds of explosions customers expected from movies rather than the unsatisfyingly efficient reality. But his permit for the tank did not extend to bringing it into the metro area.

  I shifted one hand to the Taser at my hip and rang the doorbell again. My newly acquired chain magic was more versatile than the Taser. But while I’d longed for a power like that my whole life, I was worried this might be one of those careful-what-you-wish-for scenarios. Until I had a chance to ascertain whether Stewie’s suppositions were based on paranoia or fact, whether using this magic might attract undesirable and even dangerous attention, I was playing it safe and not using it where I might be seen. I’d gone twenty-two years of my life without a self-sufficient magic ability, so it shouldn’t be much of a hardship. Not to mention the way I’d acquired it still made me queasy.

  To my surprise, the door swung open again.

  “Sorry about that,” Mr. Vargas said. “I just had to get something off the stove.”

  I gave him my best don’t-mess-with-me gaze. Something that would’ve been easier to pull off if I wasn’t younger than his two daughters. The fact I had to look up at him to do it, combined with my blue eyes, brown curls, and a face that tended toward “approachable” even when I was fantasizing about punching someone, didn’t help my cause. “Is that so?”


  He nodded. But his eyes flicked around like he was nervous. Which didn’t suit the grizzled-veteran look he had oozing from every weathered pore.

  The thing was, Mr. Vargas didn’t have anything worse on his record than a couple of speeding tickets. I wasn’t expecting this to end up in a mini-war reenactment. But a fully functional armored tank in the most populated city of Nevada warranted investigation.

  “Mr. Vargas, why is there a tank in front of your house?”

  “I own it.”

  “Yes,” I said patiently. “But your permit only applies to your private rural property fifty miles away. Why is it here?”

  “It needed a wash.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “So why not wash it on-site?”

  “I have to pay twice as much to get someone out there.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment to gather additional patience, then remembered this guy’s propensity for guns and snapped them open again. “I’m certain the cost of driving the tank into the city is less than the cost of having someone come out to your property. What’s really going on, Mr. Vargas? If you had a valid reason for bringing it here, you should have applied for a special permit.”

  He folded his arms, and this time his twitchy gaze landed on me and stayed there. “A permit? Do you know how much paperwork I have to do every year to run my business? It’s my vehicle. I should be able to drive it where I want without begging and scraping and wasting away my life on a bunch of bullshit red tape and money-grabbing schemes set up by the government.”

  My own hatred of paperwork made me sympathize. If I made the wrong call here and something went wrong, I’d be able to drown myself in a stack of the stuff like Scrooge McDuck and his money pit. But I did not allow my expression to soften.

  “I understand your frustration, but—”

  My comm chimed in my ear. “Unit Twenty-Seven, we’ve got a new job for you.”

  I frowned at Mr. Vargas. “Excuse me a moment.” Then I half turned and touched the button on my wrist that would send audio through to dispatch. “The last call is still in progress,” I murmured. “Can’t you send someone else?”

  “A kid’s threatening to jump off a cell tower and has asked for you personally, Ridley. Unless there’s extreme and imminent danger in your current job, it can wait.”

  A million questions raced through my mind, but the one I asked was, “Who’s the kid?”

  “I’ll fill you in when you’re en route. I’ve already sent you the location.”

  I turned back to Vargas. “I have to go. But this matter hasn’t been resolved. Please don’t relocate your tank again until the LVMPD gives you the go-ahead.”

  He grunted and shut the door in my face. Again.

  Fear for the waiting kid warred with unease that something fishy was going on here.

  Aurelis hopped down onto the driveway.

  “You don’t happen to know how to disable a tank in a few seconds flat, do you?” I asked.

  She rolled a slitted golden eye toward me. “Sure. The military made them super easy to tamper with.”

  Of all the human relational practices she could’ve picked up on, I wished sarcasm wasn’t the one she’d mastered.

  “What about the main gun?” I persisted, using her knee as a launchpad to scramble onto her shoulders.

  “Leave it, Lyra. If it makes you feel better, that tank represents only a fraction of the total firepower in Vegas.”

  It did not make me feel better. But I shoved the motorcycle helmet over my head and prepared for takeoff.

  No, the helmet hadn’t been designed with dragon flight in mind, but neither had my human body. It had only taken a half dozen insects lodging themselves in my tonsils for me to decide helmet hair was a reasonable exchange for bug protection.

  I tapped my comm again. “We’re en route. What’s the story?”

  “We don’t have much to go on yet. The person who called it in said there’s a kid between the ages of eight and twelve up in a cell tower. Dark hair. Dark clothes. Too far away to see details. But he’s asking for you and threatening to jump if anyone else gets close. One of the bystanders reckons he’s some kind of cat shifter. We haven’t managed to get an ID, but I wondered if it might be your brother?”

  My chest constricted. No.

  It couldn’t be.

  I’d come so close to losing my father and younger siblings less than two weeks ago. Far too close. Close enough that I’d glimpsed the black, empty ocean of despair their absence would plunge me into. And that glimpse had damn near broken me.

  This couldn’t be happening. Not again. My heart felt like it’d sprouted a set of wings and was attempting clumsy, panicked flight around my rib cage.

  I mumbled something even I didn’t catch and hung up on dispatch so I could call home. “Dad, are Blake and Archer with you?”

  “Sure, darling. What’s up?”

  “Are you sure they’re with you?”

  Miles was by no means a lax parent. As a vampire, he was particularly hard to get things past. But Blake might manage it. Especially if his brother Archer was covering for him.

  And as much as I hated to even entertain the thought, Blake was a sensitive kid—smart and observant and deep-thinking. The world could be unkind to those who saw and felt too much. And yes, okay, he did have a peculiar fascination with end-of-life funerary rites. But I’d thought that was just him doing him—not a cry for help.

  No.

  Only two weeks ago, my younger brother had been fighting to live. I refused to believe that had changed.

  “Both definitely here,” Dad confirmed. “Now, are you going to tell me why you sound like you’ve been drained of several pints of blood?”

  “Later. But thanks.”

  I hung up, feeling horrible for the relief that washed over me. Whoever was up on that cell tower was someone’s kid. Someone’s brother or best friend.

  I had to stop him from jumping.

  How I was going to do that, I had no idea. But it had to mean something that he’d asked for me, right?

  Something, yes. But what? Something good or something bad? My brain spun like the wheels of a mired car, failing to land on an answer.

  The cell tower came into view.

  It was one of those towers disguised as a palm tree, and my scrambling mind helpfully put two and two together.

  A cat stuck up a tree. Sort of.

  I tried to rub my face and clunked my helmet instead. Focus, Lyra.

  “Can you get me close enough to shout but not so close as to scare him?”

  Aurelis scoffed. “If you have to ask after all these months of seeing my majesty up close, I’ve actually managed to underestimate your dimwittedness.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I meant it as a request, not questioning your ability.”

  “Then you should’ve used proper syntax.”

  I had just enough time to wonder why I’d missed this and whether it was a sign something was wrong with me—because I absolutely had—before Aurelis brought me in close to the giant artificial palm fronds and the small dark-haired boy perched precariously in their midst.

  I shoved up my helmet’s visor so he could see my face while Aurelis’s wings worked to subjugate gravity.

  “Hey,” I called. “I’m Officer Lyra Ridley. My dragon partner’s going to drop me up on the tower so we can talk like you wanted, okay?”

  I had to introduce myself because, despite his superficial resemblance to Blake, I was almost certain I’d never seen him before. And I didn’t want my sudden arrival on the tower to startle him into jumping.

  He nodded, his gaze spending more time on Aurelis than me. She dropped away to gain speed and momentum before climbing upward again. Then executed a perfect barrel roll and used a splash of her magic to deposit me on the postage-stamp-sized platform near the center of the tower.