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Coming from my sword, that was almost amusing. I rolled my shoulders, trying to ease the tension. It didn’t do much, but I suspected little would. Not until the Aedh in front of me was in bits all over the floor.
“So are you intending to enlighten me on who stole the damn thing? Because it’s very obvious you know them and are maybe even working with them.”
“Working is not quite the right term to use,” he replied. “Let’s just say we have a somewhat fluid agreement.”
I snorted. “Meaning you’re both doing your utmost to stab the other in the back.”
“It does add a degree of excitement to the proceedings,” he said, voice droll. “Much like fucking you, really.”
I snorted. “Only in that you’re betraying us both.”
“And fucking you both.”
I blinked. “The person who took the key was a man—”
“So? As I have said before, it is pleasure that matters, not source.”
“So you’re fooling around with two dark sorcerers?” I asked incredulously.
“Perhaps,” he replied. “Perhaps not. I am hardly likely to give you such information, my dear, when I still need cards to play if I am to survive this encounter.”
“And we both know you’re not going to survive; otherwise you wouldn’t have been such a busy little beaver trying to impregnate any woman you could get your grubby little paws on.”
“That was merely a precaution.” He glanced at his watch, and I suddenly remembered Ilianna.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! Had she been rescued, or had the whole thing gone ass up?
“A precaution?” I bit back, relief filling me when he didn’t immediately dig out his phone. We obviously still had some time left before he needed to make his next call. “Another lie. Aedh breed only when their death is imminent.”
“As your father only bred?” He shook his head. “Like him, I have a few years left before I am forced to leave this world permanently.”
Amaya’s steel was getting heavier in my hand, her hissing more strident in my mind. I hoped that meant the wall was weakening rather than her.
“Is the person who stole all the weapons out of that display case,” I growled, “the same person who stole the first key?”
He considered me for a moment, expression a mix of amusement and condescension. “It was.”
“And is that person a dark sorcerer who is also a shape-shifter?”
God, it felt like we were playing twenty questions. But this wasn’t a game, and I had to get as much information out of him as I could while I was still trapped, because there wasn’t going to be any talking once I was free. Not by me, anyway.
Amaya, on the other hand, was a whole different story.
“I believe that might also be correct.” The amusement got stronger. “You will never guess their identity, Risa, but you are most welcome to try for as long as you like. However, it will not get us that key back.”
“Is it even possible to get the key back, given what happened to the first one?”
“The difference that time and this,” he said, “is that it wasn’t only the key stolen, but rather a whole bunch of weapons in which the key is just one. Our thief has not the capability to find it himself and will need our help.”
Relief slipped through me. We may have momentarily lost the key, but it still was within the realms of possibility that it could be retrieved. That was something, at least.
“Our help, or yours? You can sense the key when you’re close, can’t you?”
“Yes, but I need you to pin down its location. Which is why I suggest an agreement would be in order—”
I snorted. “The only agreement you’re going to get from me is one at the end of a sword.”
He tsked again. “Now, let’s not forget Ilianna here. I would hate to have to kill her after all the effort I’ve put into snatching and seeding her.”
