“Wasa kidnapper, like Iwasa spy.”
Wesley threw up his hands. “Arthur is your best friend! Isn’t Rory Brodigan your friend too? How can you not want his kidnapper locked up?”
“Because I know the whole story,” said Jade. “Which you don’t.”
“I don’t need the whole story—”
“Sometimes things are not what they seem.” She finally turned to face him fully. “Lord Fine, please. I know everything Sebastian did. I know more than you. I’ve forgiven him, and so has Arthur.”
“Impossible,” Wesley said flatly. “Arthur would beat someone bloody for touching a hair on Brodigan’s tiny and angry head.”
“You can cable Arthur and ask him yourself,” Jade said.
Had she lost all reason? “You said yourself, at dinner, that de Leon was one of the most dangerous men you’d ever met—”
“He is,” said Jade. “And did that dangerous man fight back tonight? Or would he have let you snap his arm before he took the chance of hurting you?”
Wesley tightened his jaw. He was bigger and stronger than de Leon; she was mistaken if she thought that de Leon had beenchoosingnot to hurt him. “I had the upper hand the entire time.”
But she shook her head. “I swear to you that things are not what you think,” she said earnestly. “Six months ago, in the antiques shop, you were in terrible danger, yes. But now, the most danger you face from Sebastian is getting mange from one of his strays.”
She took a step in the direction de Leon had gone. “I’m going to try and find him. Totalkonly—I can’t let you call the police.” She hesitated, then said, “Maybe you deserve to know more. Do you want to come with me?”
Wesley pursed his lips. Whatever Jade, and de Leon, and apparently even Arthur and Rory Brodigan were involved in, it was bigger than he had realized, a transatlantic lunacy of bootleggers and invisible hands on his clothes and outrageously handsome kidnappers with velvet accents. It beckoned for a moment, mysterious and unknown as Alice’s storybook rabbit hole.
Wesley wasn’t going to Wonderland.
“No, thank you,” he said crisply, and turned away.
Out of respect for her, he would not call the police, but he would take no further part in this madness. He set off in the opposite direction, returning to Bishopsgate and Liverpool Street Station, alone.
Chapter Four
Sebastian walked with his hands in his pockets, steps a little too fast, no real destination, just trying to give Lord Fine the distance he needed.
The air next to him flickered, and then Zhang’s astral projection materialized. “Jade talked Lord Fine down,” he said, floating through the air backward in front of Sebastian. “He isn’t calling the police.”
Jade was a better friend than Sebastian deserved. “How can you see me right now?”
“I was waiting for Jade and saw you walk past the pub with my physical eyes,” said Zhang. “She was planning to stop by your place after dinner, and I just thought I’d—you know. Go with her.”
Ah. Of course. “You are worried I would have hurt her.”
“That’s not exactly—”
“It’s okay,” Sebastian said. “I don’t blame you, and I don’t blame Lord Fine.”
Zhang frowned. “All right, yes, your magic makes you dangerous to us, but—well. You’re also—I mean. You’re also probably popular with women, right?”
Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows.
“Never mind. Look, I’m sorry I didn’t get to the alley in time to pull Fine off you, I was trying.” Zhang huffed. “And slow down already. With that tattoo of yours, I’m going to lose you if you don’t.”
That was probably for the best. Poor Lord Fine, thrown into the paranormal world with no knowledge of magic. Poor Jade and Zhang, stuck cleaning up more mess from Sebastian’s past.
Zhang’s projection flickered again, unsteadily, like a light bulb when the train roared by. “I really am going to lose you. Stop running away.”
“I’m not running away,” Sebastian lied.
