Page 31 of The Never Queen

“The nastiest,” Bash says.

“Have you heard anything?” Vane asks.

“Nah. Me? Nah.”

“Kody,” I say.

“What? Peter Pan! Come on!” He spreads out his arms. “I’m telling the truth here! But…” He returns to his domain behind his desk, putting a barrier between us all. As if a desk would stop me. Though if he was a smart man, he’d have a ward line or other magical barrier around it.

I think Kody is a smart man. Most of the time.

“I could help in other ways,” he says and pulls open one of the desk drawers. He tosses something to me and I pluck it from the air.

It’s a stone about the size of a peach pit with a smooth gray surface. There is nothing about it that stands out as remarkable, and that’s because it’s missing the part that makes it magical — a sigil etched by the hand of a gnome in one of their secret stone circles hidden deep in the forest.

In the Seven Isles, there is always a balance. Where one magic exists, another will rise up to counter it. Where darkness prevails, light will shine through the cracks. And this stone is no different. It’s the only counter to the bone shards the Witch Killers use to subvert our magic.

I think the gnomes call it a fire stone, because once the sigil is etched, it reveals some of the red flecking of the stone’s innards.

“Can you get us five by tomorrow?”

Kody whistles again and then catches the cigar between the cut of his teeth. “That’ll cost you, Peter Pan.”

“Will it?” Vane counters, reminding Kody of the debt he is owed.

I could pay any dollar amount for the stones, but Kody rarely deals in money.

I don’t know what bargain Vane made with Kody and I don’t know when he made it, but there is very little that will get Vane out of bed. Which means whatever is owed Vane surely amounts to more than five fire stones.

Kody’s veil slips. The one of affable gnome just looking to run an honest business.

A hard edge comes to his eyes. “You’d be willing to cash in that favor for this?”

“Yes.” Vane crosses his arms over his chest. “That and your continued effort to find any and all information about Merry Darling and the Witch Killers.”

Another puff on the cigar and smoke ribbons in the air. Then, “Fine. A week and a day.” Kody spits in his hand and extends it to Vane.

A week and a day is the timeline for the transaction. Kody will get us the stones and gather as much information as he can within the timeline. A week and a day already seems like too long. I want this resolved in a day.

Vane checks me.

“A week and a day for information,” I amend. “We need those stones as soon as possible.”

“I can get the stones by the next beldam’s hour.”

Which means three a.m. the following night.

“Sooner if you can manage it,” I say.

“I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t make that promise.”

I meet Vane’s eyes and nod.

“Agreed,” Vane says and then spits in his hand, the two men shaking.

“Is the spitting part of it?” Darling asks.

“Oh Darling,” Kody says. “The spitting is the mostimportantpart.”