A Kind of Magic by Shanna Swendson

Anything that happened would have been in my capacity as a police officer.”
    “Are you on duty now?”
    “I’m on my way home.”
    “Good, then we can talk.” He kept walking, but she wheeled her cart around so she could walk alongside him. “What do you think happened yesterday?”
    “We’re still waiting on the ME report to see if it might have been foul play.”
    “That wasn’t what I asked. What do you think happened?”
    “I won’t know what I think until I have all the evidence.”
    She gave a loud snort that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Oh, so you’re playing it that way now, are you? I’d thought you were too clever to resort to denial after everything you’ve seen.”
    With an unexpected burst of anger, he snapped, “What do you want me to say, that I’m pretty sure a kelpie did it? I saw the white horse running across the lake, and I saw enough of the victim’s life to get the impression she might have believed just enough to see it, but didn’t know enough to realize it was dangerous. But even if I admit that, what good does it do? And didn’t you tell me this was your jurisdiction, for this kind of work, anyway?”
    “That was when we first met, before I had a better sense of who and what you were. Based on what I saw then, you looked like a full-fledged operator moving in on my territory without so much as a hello. Now I realize that while you’ve got the chops, you’re more of an apprentice, so you should be working with me until you’re ready to fly solo.”
    “An apprentice?”
    “Frankly, since you struck me as a smart boy, I was expecting you to come to me, asking to learn. But since Mohammad didn’t go to the mountain …”
    “I already have a job. I’m a cop. Having the inside scoop on fae activity helps me know what’s really going on, but I don’t have time to train to do anything else.”
    “And besides, you thought it was all going to go away, didn’t you? Or you hoped it would. Shut it out, leave it all behind, and go back to the way things were. But sorry, son, you’ve been changed, and it’s not going to go away. You’ve got to deal with things the way they are. And what’s happening is that weird things are invading our world. The kelpie was just one of them. There’s also a nixie running loose.”
    “And selkies on the shore,” he admitted reluctantly. “I’m still not sure about the missing kids.”
    “Kids are missing and you’re sticking your fingers in your ears and singing the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’?”
    “I’m looking into it.” His anger and irritation faded into a kind of weariness that reminded him of the days when he was recovering from a gunshot wound. “So, are more weird things happening now, or am I just learning to see what’s been there all along?”
    Her pause was longer than he would have expected from someone who’d approached him with a clear agenda. Finally, she said, “Keep your eyes open. There’s change in the air. This is normally a quiet time of year for any interactions with the fae. It may just be that things settled down in the Realm so we notice the things outside. It could be something rising here. There are lots of fae-related beings that don’t live in the Realm, and a changing of the guard in there won’t affect them. That’s where people like us may have to work with your enchantresses.”
    “So selkies in Jamaica Bay, the kelpie incident, a possible nixie in the park, and a lot of missing persons could be signs of something dangerous.”
    “Could be. Might be nothing.”
    “You’re being unhelpfully vague.”
    “Magic isn’t an exact science. That’s what makes it magic.”
    “What should I do?”
    “Put up your Christmas decorations—the real stuff, no plastic. Where do you think that tradition came from? Dark things sometimes happen at dark times. When the days are short, it’s party time for the things that don’t like daylight.”
    “I’m not going to have to start slaying vampires, am