“Leadership rotates quarterly. I’m just respecting the system.”
Joell exhaled sharply, folding her arms. “Report, please.”
Rayna filled her in. The staring, the glamour misdirect, the chase, and the man’s near-confession about being hired to investigate the L.A.W.
“I shut him up before Payne could hear,” Rayna said. “Didn’t want the Major going full scorched earth before we knew what we were dealing with.”
Joell’s brow lifted, just slightly. “Smart.”
Rayna smiled. “I’m trying something new.”
“I don’t like how obvious this guy was,” Joell said. “Either he’s bait, or someone underestimated us.”
“Exactly. So, I brought him home, to thechair.”
Joell gave a curt nod. “Let’s see what he knows.”
Rayna snapped her fingers. The runes hissed, and the chair released its grip. The man bolted upright, looking ready to make a run for it, until Rayna casually pressed her palm to his chest and shoved him back down like she was closing a trash can.
“Stand up, and this time you follow obediently like a well-trained pup told to heel,” she said, too pleasantly.
She steered him down the hall like she was giving a tour, only this tour ended in consequences. Joell opened the parlor doors,revealing deep velvet chairs, a roaring fire, and a sense that something unseen was already listening.
The man paused at the threshold. “This feels like a trap.”
Rayna grinned. “That’s because it is.”
She gave him a nudge into a high-backed chair, then slid into the one across from him with the air of someone who’d already won. Joell took the seat beside her, crossing one leg over the other, tablet in hand, but not typing. “Sunday. Subject, interrogation.” She just let the report type itself, which added to the ambiance of menace.
“So,” Rayna said, resting her chin on one hand, “Let’s talk about who sent you. And don’t lie. The furniture’s enchanted. It knows.”
As if on cue, the chair beneath him let out a low, gutturalcreakthat sounded far too intentional.
The man flinched. “Okay, okay… Please don’t let it eat me.”
Rayna smiled.
Joell didn’t. “Start talking,” she said.
5
“Your name.”
“No.”
The chair creaked.
Rayna’s eyes narrowed.
“I’ll ask again,” she said, arms folded, one brow arched so high it could've auditioned for Cirque du Soleil. “Your name?”
The man swallowed, sweat dotting his temple. “Steve.”
Creeeeak.
Rayna turned to Joell without looking away from him. “You hear that?”
“Oh yeah,” Joell said, casually examining her nails. “That chair doesn’t lie.”
