The doctor huffed out another rough laugh. “Welcome to Little Stip and the Gate.”
Adrian had no desire to continue the conversation. He motioned for Haru to go along the line on the right while he took the tables on the left. In less than a minute, they’d moved through the room, and there was no sign of Shey among the deceased.
Thank the gods for that small mercy.
Of course, the problem was that they didn’t know where the hell he was.
“Thanks for the help, Doc,” Adrian called out as they hastened toward the doors to leave the examination room. He wasn’t even sure if the ME grunted in return. It didn’t matter.
Adrian led the way down the hall but came to a sharp halt as they reached the last door that would open into the reception area. He’d peeked through the narrow window at the top of the door in time to see two cops stroll through the building’s entrance. The man in front with the very pissed-off expression was the same cop he’d stolen the badge from. Yeah, this was an encounter Adrian was in no mood to brazen through.
He spun on one heel and slammed both hands into Haru’s chest, stopping and turning his companion. “Back door. We gotta find a back door.”
“What’s wrong, my Adrian? Do you need me to kill someone?” Haru inquired in a calm, completely normal tone.
This was why he wasn’t letting the damn dragon utter a single word during the search for Shey at the morgues. Nothing out of his mouth was remotely sane. It was “My Adrian” this and “Would you like me to kill them for you?” that, as if wholesaleslaughter were the only way Haru knew to prove his devotion to Adrian.
“No,” he hissed. “No killing. You saw the bodies stacked in that room. The ME has plenty to do. You’re not giving him more work.”
Once he had Haru pointed in the right direction, Adrian resumed the lead, hurrying them away from the main examination room and past some tiny cubbyhole offices. Another couple of turns and they reached a set of large double doors that opened onto a loading dock for ambulances and other large vehicles making deliveries.
Adrian burst outside and jogged for a while, Haru close on his heels, happy to put as much distance as possible between them, the room filled with the dead, and a pair of Damardor cops.
After a few blocks, Adrian slowed to a walk and tossed the stolen badge into the first trash can he passed. It was tempting to press his luck and milk the badge for one more con, but there was a chance the badge’s real owner had heard whispers that someone had been visiting morgues throughout the city using his name and ID. Better to move on and try another angle if they had to sneak in to check bodies again. There was always the option of bribery. Splash some money around, and overworked, underappreciated clerks were usually willing to look the other way while you inspected the dead for a familiar face.
For now, Adrian was hoping they didn’t have to check out another morgue, but he didn’t think their luck was that good. He and Haru from the Omari dragon clan had been in Damardor’s capital for over three weeks but had found very few clues as to what had happened to Caspagir’s missing prince.
Groaning, Adrian shoved a hand through his messy hair. One minute he was watching Rayne Laurent—dauphin and personal advisor to King Caelan Talos—marry Eno Bevyn, another ofthe king’s senior advisors, and the next minute, King Caelan was pulling him aside with some crazy story about Prince Shey disappearing in Damardor while on a secret mission to investigate the Damardor government. Because no one wanted a war between Caspagir and Damardor, Caelan had sent Adrian and Haru in tocovertlylocate Prince Shey and drag his ass home.
Of course, if he and Haru were stupid enough to get caught in Damardor, they were just as likely to kick off a war between Damardor and Erya. Or worse, if the world discovered Haru was a dragon from the Isle of Stone, everyone everywhere would panic about dragons being real and invading countries.
Thinking about it all hurt his head.
Where the hell is Shey?
They’dliterallystumbled across Kaede dead in an alley three nights after they arrived and had since begun haunting hospitals and morgues. The next night, they’d located Shey’s other companion and bodyguard, Juro. Things didn’t appear good for Prince Shey if something had happened that was bad enough to kill both his bodyguards. Yet, there had been no sign of Shey. Adrian was clinging to the desperate hope that the prince was still alive because he had borrowed magic.
“Where do we go now?” Haru asked.
Adrian and the dragon were the same height when Haru was in his human form, but there was something about Haru’s aura or presence that made him feel larger. As they walked down the sidewalk, Haru always positioned himself so that he was between Adrian and the cars in the street or even other pedestrians. Of course, Adrian had seen Haru as a dragon, and there was no doubt in his mind that Haru could stop a tank with barely more than a flick of his tail.
“No clue.” Adrian sighed. “Cael sent the wrong person on this little mission of his.”
“You’re worried that I’m not up for the challenge?”
Adrian tossed him a dark look that did nothing to wipe the tiny grin from Haru’s lips, as usual. “No, I’m talking about me. I’ve done plenty of sneaky shit in my lifetime, but I’m out of my depth here. Finding Shey in a city and country I don’t know at all is worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack.”
Haru nodded and hummed. “Searching for a needle in the ocean.”
Yeah, that would be worse. He could only figure that it was a saying more common to the dragons of the Isle of Stone.
“It was pure luck that we stumbled across Shey’s companions. If he’s not dead, I can’t imagine how we’re going to find him. However, I will say that if this is all a brokenhearted tantrum because Rayne married Eno, I’m going to kick his ass when I do find him.”
“I don’t understand. Why would Shey be opposed to Rayne and Eno’s marriage?”
Adrian paused at a corner, staring up at the traffic lights while he scrubbed a hand across his sweaty face. The summer heat seemed to be trapped in the city despite the fact that the sun had set hours earlier. Cars rushed by in a growl of engines, stirring up the breeze, but it did little more than push noxious fumes into their faces. His clothes were sticking to him, and he wanted to sit somewhere cool and dark while drinking something cold and alcoholic.
“Didn’t Drayce tell you? Shey and Rayne dated for two years. I think Shey even tried to win Rayne back after he was already seeing Eno. Rayne shot him down. But all that stuff about Shey being heartbroken is probably nonsense.”
