“Great. Why isn’t it here?” I asked.
“Because we have togo get it, you doaty bampot.” Finlay scowled. “The stone was sold to a warlock in Edinburgh who peddles magical objects. As far as I’ve found, he hasn’t gotten rid of it yet. I say we head there tonight and give him an offer.”
“And if he doesn’t accept?”
“We batter him round the head till he sees things our way.”
An easy job. “Very well. When do we leave?”
“After midnight, obviously. For a former vigilante, you’re not very bright. The cover of darkness helps with all that, you know.”
I mumbled something rude under my breath before I turned my back on Finlay and retreated out of the room. He wanted to rough up the trader who had the stone, but in my mind, it was more realistic that Finlay and I would be trading blows by the end of the night.
Emma noticed my foul mood over dinner. “How are things with you and your boyfriend?”
Her jibe hardly affected me. “Finlay and I are going to Edinburgh tonight. The Unseelie stone might be there.”
“That’s good news. You should be happy,” she insisted.
“I’d be happier if I didn’t have to go alone withhim,” I complained.
“You two have to keep it together. Should I be sending someone to babysit?” she asked.
“No,” I grumbled. “A big group looks suspicious, and will attract attention. It’s best if it’s just the two of us.”
“Why can’t you guys just get along?” Emma asked. “It’s for the good of the world.”
“I’m very certain he wants to be the boss on this excursion, and I’m not used to someone telling me what to do, especially him. Finlay and I aren’t chummy.”
“Because both of you have to have the biggest dick in the room,” Emma shot at me. “Look, I know you used to givehimorders, but it wouldn’t kill you to listen to Fin every now and again. He’s upset about Vara, too. Cut him some slack and just do what he says. If it gets us the Unseelie stone, you can afford to swallow your pride for one night.”
I gripped my fork tightly. “I suppose.”
“It’d make your wife happy, so it’s in your best interest,” Emma said as she took another bite of shepherd’s pie. “We know how to perform the ceremony to open the portal. If we get the Unseelie stone, we can put all this to rest. Don’t you want to be done with this?”
I really did. I wished to get back to a normal life, whatever that would be once the portal to Edinmyre was open for good.
If that meant traipsing around Scotland and taking orders from a cocky Gaelic bastard, so be it. I was ready for this to be over.
Edinburgh wasa town that looked like it came straight from a storybook. The buildings were colored charcoal and brown, Gothic in design, and very majestic. The streets smelled like rain, and history seemed to resound from every corner.
It was a beautiful city. Emma would love to visit, but we weren’t here for sightseeing. I resolved to take her here for a romantic getaway once Droga was dead and done with. Finlay and I walked along the sidewalk, our heads ducked against the light drizzle.
“Tell me again how you located the stone,” I asked. “I still don’t understand.”
Finlay gave a sigh, as if it was tiresome to reiterate. “Itoldyou. Lord Radcliffe stole the Unseelie stone from the Circle’s treasury, then sold it to a man named Hackett Hughes in Scotland for a quarter of a milly. Hughes had it for some time, nearly a year, as he was a collector of Unseelie artifacts. But for some odd reason, as badly as he’d wanted it, Hackett decided to sell. Once the dark necklace was out of his possession, he died shortly afterward in a freak accident.”
“Interesting.” I raised my eyebrows.
“Very. The Unseelie necklace passed through three different hands before it finally landed in the possession of Atticus Zigler. Each of the owners died within weeks of selling it, all very gory deaths. And if you remember correctly, Lord Radcliffe died as well, crushed after the catacombs collapsed in the city.”
“That can’t be a coincidence,” I said. “There must be some sort of magic at play.”
“That’s something we haven’t found out yet, but I’m sure we’ll decipher the mystery once the stone is in our hands,” Finlay said. “We know Zigler had the necklace for a month before he sold the stone to an auction house. He died too, you know— another accident. They put the necklace up for auction, and it was sold to an unscrupulous bidder. There were no receipts of who it sold to… the business itself was an illegal buying ring for contraband magical objects. They peddled things like indigenous relics that were stolen from the Hawkei tribe, or rare items from Atlantis, so they didn’t keep any paperwork in case the United Supernatural Union caught word of what they were doing.”
The United Supernatural Union was an international magical council with a representative from every race. Their authority overruled everyone, even a king’s decree. Getting caught by them would result in the worst possible punishment. “What’d you do then?”
“Magdalina and I tried raiding the place, looking for a record of who the stone might’ve gone to, but there was nothing to find. Then the auction house moved locations, and we lost the trail yet again. That’s when the case went cold.”
