Unbroken Ties (Keeping Secrets 2)

Chapter 2

The many ways to travel down to the faey city were familiar to Temperance now. The trapdoor in Winthrop White's tea shop basement was just the first of many. She often wondered how she hadn't noticed them before. Emery explained that they were just doors; people used them all the time. If you were free to enter, you never questioned what was going on behind them.

Hurrying away from the forest, they made their way to Winthrop's shop on Threadneedle Street. The road was lined with evening traffic and they were forced to squeeze their way through the narrow gaps between the waiting cars to reach the entrance to Alice's Tea Shop.

Winthrop was at the counter when they entered. He was wearing a scarlet dinner jacket that highlighted his pale face and blond hair. Thick blue smoke hung in layers around the room as he struggled to puff on three cigarettes at once. Emery coughed on the fumes. She waved a hand at the dense fog, which almost obscured the tea coloured wallpaper and the lewd paintings of naked nymphs hanging around the room. Several people were pressed back in their mismatched chairs, glaring at Winthrop over their china teacups and through silver cake tiers.

"A lot of werewolves in today," Emery said, slipping her way

towards the basement at the back. Winthrop glanced at Temperance, his blue eyes feverish.

"This is the only way to keep them all nice and calm!" he said, shaking his head. "It's like every werewolf in the country has descended on Carwick."

"Winthrop's shops are the only places we're welcome at the moment," Emery whispered and pushed through to the basement.

Temperance glanced back, noticing some of the werewolves were reading newspapers with the new mayor's photo on the front page. 'Issue Resolved' the perfunctory title read. A smaller headline revealed there was now a vacant Seat on the Bifrost Assembly, the ruling body of the faey world. The normal Carwick papers had reported that Sebastian Bloodworth had retired permanently due to health issues and another member of his political party had taken up office. Emery's boyfriend had told them the new mayor was a wizard too.

The werewolf lifted the heavy trapdoor in the basement with a simple flick of her wrist. Temperance shivered as the cold damp air wafted up out of the hole. A familiar ladder jutted out over the edge. Emery hopped onto the first rung and climbed down several steps before she was sucked into the darkness. Her happy scream echoed back up. When Temperance stepped off the bottom rung, the old door with the bright exit sign flashing above the lintel was already swinging closed after Emery.

Temperance pushed it open, blinking in the harsh lights of Winthrop's coffee shop. She took a seat near one of the heaters, trying to warm her damp feet, while Emery went to queue. The shop was packed with customers, however despite the long line at the tills, the lupa reappeared a few minutes later handing Temperance a drink.

"How'd you get this so quickly?" Temperance waggled the foam cup.

Emery sipped her coffee, staring over at the counter. A few of the people at the front were looking back at her. When she caught their eyes, they grimaced and looked away, adjusting their scarves around their necks.

"Being around predators makes prey animals nervous. It was their choice to stand back." She gave a long sniff. "They're selkies."

The small group, two identical tall women with red hair that stuck out under their woolly hats and a man with pinched features and a crooked nose, were now paying for their teas. Accepting their receipts, one of the women leaned forward to whisper something to the plump girl behind the till, who pulled back, looking horrified. Her wide eyes darted over to Emery.