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Zee made a show of slowly turning toward Victor. “And you’re just fucking mentioning this now?”

“Her penchant for making and selling jewelry has not been relevant until this moment.”

“Okay.” I stepped in before this escalated, like it always did. “Victor, restrain Seb for his own safety.”

Victor’s dark eyes widened, and the voice that crawled out of him was a long way from his polite, haughty tone, and more like the ruthless killer I rarely heard. “My pleasure.”

“Wh—” Seb barely got a word out before Victor had collected a length of rope used to secure the stacks of chairs in the conference room, grabbed Seb’s wings, clamped them together, and looped the rope around him like a fly caught in a web. “The fuck!?” Seb dropped to his knees. “You can’t fucking do this. The wards! Your wards. I’m a fuckin’ guest!”

“Oh, we’re not hurting you. We wouldn’t want you stumbling about the hotel and getting hurt by gremlins, would we?”

Luckily there wasn’t anyone else in the foyer to witness this treatment of our latest guest. Just Madame Matase, who carried on knitting as though nothing out of the ordinary was taking place.

Seb’s shocked gaze settled on me. Was he just now figuring out how we did things at the SOS Hotel? “I’m helping you!”

“Gag him.”

Victor tore the tie from around his neck, snapped its length in his hands and did the necessary, leaving Seb mumbling on his knees, giftwrapped like Psycho Santa Claus’s next delivery.

“Fucking hallelujah!” Zee clapped his hands. “This is what I’m talkin’ about. Oh, Seb baby, did you bite off more than you can chew coming here?” He strutted over to the kneeling Seb and stopped only to tower over him. Then, absorbing every delicious moment, he used a finger to tip Seb’s chin up. The wards fizzled, tightening the air, but didn’t lash out. “How the snake has turned.”

“Do you mean how the worm has turned?” Victor provided.

“This worm is on his fuckin’ knees, where he belongs.” Zee bent double and braced his hands on his thighs, putting his face inches from Seb’s. “You had better hope your so-called lead pans out, because people who fuck with us disappear. You feel me?” Zee patted Seb’s head and straightened with a broad grin on his face.

“Put him in the conference room,” I told Victor, not even needing to look over to know it would be done.

In a blur, Seb was gone, the conference-room door slammed, and Victor strode back toward us, brushing dust from his hands. He had the look of a man on a mission, a man who’d let nothing stand in his way. A man who would kill for what he believed in. Mercy, he was hot.

He dropped the conference-room door key into my hand. Seb would not be getting any visitors.

Zee’s hungry eyes blazed, and even my human body was buzzing with all kinds of excitement.

For the first time since I’d lost my powers, we had a plan! “Let’s go take a quick look at Agatha’s store,” I told them. “Maybe there’s something Gideon related there?”

“She’s unlikely to be at the store at this time of night.”

“Even better.” I smiled. “What’s the harm in us walking by? Maybe looking in? Maybe . . . more?”

“Wait, what?” Zee’s wings fell. “No, no, no, Kitten. You’re staying here.”

“Not goin’ to happen.”

Victor grumbled a disapproving sound. “Zodiac is right. Your current situation leaves you vulnerable.”

“Nope.” I grabbed my coat off the hook by the desk and handed Madame Matase the conference-room key with a smile. She nodded, and dropped it into her top drawer.

“If I have to drink one more of Tom’s cold decaffeinated teas I’m going to lose my mind,” I told them. “I have the two most capable, badass bodyguards in all San Francisco on either arm to keep me safe. It’s just a little trip across town to check out a fae jewelry store. What can go wrong?”

“A store belonging to a fae who recently attempted to kill us,” Victor reminded me.

I gave Victor a broad grin. “Who is also an old friend of yours. It’s fine. We’ve got this.”

“Adam, you are no longer a dragon,” he reminded—again.

“I will be again the sooner we get this done.” I headed for the door, but they weren’t following. That was fine. I knew exactly how to get them moving “Better hurry along or I might trip and fall off the sidewalk into the path of an oncoming bus.”

“Fuck,” Zee snapped, then poofed outside, striding in front of me. “Stay behind me and in front of Fancy Fangs. You’re the squishy filling in our badass sandwich, alright?”