Read Online Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale by Christine Warren - Free Book Online Page A

a lot stupider and more selfish than individuals could ever be. As a reporter, she’d seen enough of the destruction people could create to know that.
    “Then there’s the fact that if the balance between Ithir and Faerie shifts, all the creatures we took with us when we left would come pouring back into your world. When was the last time you saw a real live nightmare?”
    “Do you count?” she muttered under her breath, then hurried to cover it up. “Point taken. If Faerie is full of all the fairy-tale bogeymen they talked about in the kids’ stories, then I agree that it would be better if they stayed there. So how do you plan to make that happen?”
    The men exchanged glances again, and Corinne stifled the urge to smack them both upside the head. Did they think she couldn’t see their little moments of silent communication?
    “I think we need to concentrate on finding Seoc,” Rafe finally said, nodding at Luc. “Not only is that the reason Luc came here, but if we remove him from the city, we remove the threat of anyone discovering his true identity. That is the ultimate goal.”
    “What about the people who’ve already seen him?”
    “Do you know who they are?”
    She nodded. “I have names and contact info, since I’m supposed to start interviewing them.”
    “If you will share that information with me, the Council will take care of it,” Rafe said.
    Corinne thought about that for a second and eyed him suspiciously. “Take care of it how?”
    “Relax.” The Felix flashed her a grin. “No one will so much as nibble on a single one of them, I promise. We do occasionally have to deal with situations like this, when one of our kind is seen by an outsider. Usually we can find a way to…alter such recollections. Convince them they have seen a stray dog instead of a wolf, and so on. Painlessly, of course. So long as we keep the number of witnesses down, we should be able to deal with it easily enough.”
    The idea of anyone playing around with someone else’s memories didn’t exactly have Corinne doing cartwheels, but she supposed it was the most practical solution. And at least they wouldn’t be messing around in her mind.
    “All right,” she agreed. “I’ll make you a copy of the info, but before you go and do whatever it is you’re going to do, I still need to interview these people.” She pulled her backpack onto her lap and opened the buckles to rummage inside. Digging out her notebook, she flipped open to the section marked what did i do to deserve this? and skimmed through her notes. “None of the initial reports was much help. They all saw basically the same thing: tall blond guy, brick walls, bright lights, disappearing trick. Of course, the initial reports are more like thirdhand scuttlebutt, since the police weren’t exactly interested in filing reports on the ravings of folks they assumed should be in Bellevue.”
    “Did the witnesses talk to anyone other than the police?” Rafe asked.
    “A couple of tabloids, a PI or two. Those reports aren’t much better, though.” She snapped her notebook shut. “That’s why I had intended to start redoing interviews myself. I need to talk to the witnesses firsthand if I’m going to get to the bottom of anything.”
    Luc nodded. “Great. Then that’s what I will do.”
    “Um, excuse me?” Corinne looked at him dubiously. “What do you mean what you’ll do?”
    “Agreeing to share your contact information is helpful to the Council’s efforts to contain the story, but I need to be the one interviewing these witnesses. I must be able to follow every trail before it goes cold if I’m going to find Seoc and drag him back to Faerie.”
    “You know, enough with the talk about dragging. Have you ever considered just telling the guy what you’re worried about and asking him to head back home?”
    “Seoc knew he wasn’t supposed to be here when he slipped through a door that he’d been forbidden to use. He knew he was supposed to