‘Without going inside, I can’t map out the secret parts of the building and can’t tell where the rest of their electronics are becauseit’s obviously not on the maps.’ Luca shrugged. ‘It’s cool, but it’s too risky.’ He picked up one of the gummies – shaped to resemble different supernaturals, Kyan realised – and bit into it.
Callum smiled. ‘Well then, we’ll just have to take you inside.’
Luca choked.
Kyan slapped him on the back.
‘Er – wait—’
‘Problem solved.’
‘No?’ the Nazen asked helplessly.
Callum spun Luca’s chair back around to look at the screens and leaned over his shoulder. ‘Come now, Luca. I’m offering you exactly what you’ve always wanted. Think of all the power you can sap from their systems by going in? Think of the tech you could feel out while inside. How much it could help your … little idea.’
Sapping electricity was a rare Nazen skill, as too much would just overheat them to the point of death. If Luca could sap, no wonder the Wake wanted him dead.
Kyan frowned at Callum’s phrasing, but his friend shot him a look to stop him interrupting, while the seduction of the statement swayed Luca.
The Nazen set a sparkling sweet on his tongue with a smile. ‘When do we leave?’
CHAPTER NINE
Nicole
HER MOTHER WATCHED FROM ACROSS THENOTE-STREWNcoffee table.
Nicole had propped the portrait up against an ornate chair and sat opposite on the floor, a silken couch at her back. Around her the otherworldly frescoes of the Bow Room watched, the figures blissfully quiet companions. In the first few days here, she’d spent so long in the three most painted rooms that Verin had put more useable furniture in each so she could sit beneath the painted masterpieces and focus on anything other than the whispers of her body and dreams of swarming paintings.
She knew Dylan was baking away the fug of his blurred memories, and Bells was watching a movie in bed. Their father had been reading with her until he went to check on the plants he’d been nursing in one of the grand windows of his guest room.
Nicole picked up her mother’s portrait and laid it flat on the table. Its details were lambent: the Celtic Revival patterning on the circular gold frame; the way her mother’s face glowed against the dark background; the deep rose-burgundy gown that shimmered in the firelight.
And those eyes.
The brown of them so rich they almost looked flecked with red as well as the slightest hints of gold.
If Elisabetta wasn’t coming back, then Nicole would just have to take matters into her own hands. Her mother’s clue had said her last lead had been hidden with her painter.
But what if that meant there was something in the painting itself? That was how her mother had given them clues before; they’d just never had reason to believe there was something inthis. The only likeness of her they owned.
If anything happened to it, that likeness would be destroyed.
But if Elisabetta didn’t come back for another six months, Nicole couldn’t sit by and do nothing. Not when Kyan had to stay in the Wake, playing a game of cat-and-mouse that could cost him his life.
Emboldened, Nicole hurried over to her father’s weapons case. Thankfully, he’d left it by the armchair. Opening it was like unlocking a dark treasure chest. Inside, the most wicked of his weapons and poisons were laid out, sitting in little shelves or sunk into a padded side pouch so they didn’t rattle.
Nicole ignored the guns, blades, and other curious devices and scanned the vials, plucking out the one she was looking for.
It was a tiny amount of the Finfolk blood Remi’s mother, Lawna, had collected back in Estwood. Just enough to make a thin supernatural varnish remover and discover if there was anything painted beneath her mother’s portrait.
Nicole pulled out some of the items she’d gathered from Elisabetta’s studio: a small dish, paintbrushes, and wads of cloth. Then carefully mixed the Finfolk blood with a carrier oil to help it spread further.
Without hesitating in case she changed her mind, Nicole tested a corner and, satisfied there wasn’t an adverse reaction, painted the remover over the piece.
There was—
Nothing.
