“He’s armed,” Sebastian said quietly, to Nora.
“Armedanda damn good shot.” Geoffrey pointed at him. “Are you working with Lord Valemount?”
“Me?” Sebastian said. “Why would I be working with Valemount?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” Geoffrey said, “but he took a shot at Wesley this morning.”
“He what?” Nora said in shock, as Sebastian stared at Geoffrey.
“Your uncle tried to murder my cousin this very morning, on our hunt.” Geoffrey stuck out his fist, then opened his fingers to reveal a bullet casing, resting in the palm of his hand. “I found this in the exact spot Wesley had been standing,” he said. “Valemount thought none of us were looking, but I saw him aim straight for Wesley’s head. I thought Wesley wasdead.”
Nora had paled. “There must be some mistake.”
“No mistake,” Geoffrey said darkly. “I don’t know how Wesley managed to fall at exactly the right moment, but Lord Valemount tried to kill him and I will swear to that in any court of law.”
Nora covered her mouth. “What on earth is going on?” she said, as if to herself.
They didn’t have time to guess. “Come on.” Sebastian was already moving toward the door. “We have to go back to Wesley.”
* * *
The world slowly began to creep back in for Wesley, his head pounding, as nauseated and woozy as if he’d drunk three bottles of whiskey. He could hear voicesas if from a distance. Two men, it sounded like, their voices edged with the echo of hard walls and floors with no carpet to soften them.
“He’s stirring,” one voice said.
“Finally.” The other voice was suddenly much closer. “It might interest you to know, Lord Fine, that one perk of pretending to be a doctor is one can fill one’s bag with all kinds of interesting items and no one thinks anything of it.”
Wesley managed to crack his eyes, and found his vision filled with Dr. Wright.
“Ethyl chloride,” Dr. Wright said. “A useful anesthetic, of course, but also quite potent when inhaled.”
Quite potentwas an understatement. Wesley felt like he’d been flattened by a lorry, but he wasn’t going to give either of them the satisfaction of showing it. “What do you want?” he said, through clenched teeth.
It was dim, wherever they were, and what light there was was mostly yellowish, like a lantern’s. It was enough to see Dr. Wright as he looked over his shoulder. “Damn miracle you didn’t kill him too soon.”
“It was your bloody order for me to take the shot,” Lord Valemount said, as he stepped into view at Dr. Wright’s side.
“Well, obviously he can’t have the H6,” Dr. Wright said. “But never mind. He’ll be dead soon enough.”
Well,thatdidn’t bode well. And why the devil was a doctor giving orders to a duke?
He tried to shift, and found his arms were bound behind him, his ankles tied or chained together as well. He seemed to be on a flat surface, hard as stone and cold enough to seep through his clothes, and the air wasunpleasantly stale with the dampness of earth. He tried to clear his throat. “You haven’t said what you want.”
Dr. Wright and Lord Valemount paused their bickering and looked down at him. A sliver of scant light came in from beyond their heads, illuminating a ceiling in ill repair, crumbling and buttressed with thick wood planks. The wall beyond was riddled with recessed cubbies, each holding a coffin. Was he underground, then? In a family crypt, perhaps, chained on top of some decaying Valemount’s sarcophagus?
Lord Valemount raised his arm, and Wesley was suddenly staring at the barrel of a revolver. But then Valemount turned the gun so that Wesley could see the grip. Set into the wood was a circular medallion, and it was glowing as if lit with lamplight.
“We have several questions for you, Fine,” Valemount said darkly. “But the first one is—how do you have de Leon magic?”
Wesley tore his gaze off the medallion and up to Valemount’s face.
“That shock looks real enough,” Dr. Wright said, gaze on Wesley’s face. “I think he actually didn’t know.”
Sebastian’s magic. It was withhim. Fuck, of course it was—had it been with him all this time?
“De Leon must know about the relics,” Valemount said to Dr. Wright. “Then the coward hid his magic in this hapless idiot.” He gestured to the glowing medallion set in the grip again. “That’s why the medallion didn’t light up when I had it near de Leon before dinner last night, but here’s the magic now, in Fine, plain as day.”
Wesley opened his mouth, a thousand possible lies on his tongue—
