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Something clicked in Dautre’s metallic eyes. In the light coming from the window they had a golden hue.

“It is common,” he said. “For Alfheimr.”

Adam shook his head.

“Do y’all tend to use disappearing ink, that sort of thing?”

“I do not understand your meaning.”

“If an elf wanted to send a message, or in this case, write down a ritual, but then hide it later, what would they do?”

“You wish to obscure a message?”

“I wish to erase it, after it’s been delivered and read.”

“Any spell I can think of would not leave the blank page behind.”

Emily ran a hand over one of the pages, trying to feel for indentations.

Adam picked up one of the sheets and probed it with his Sight.

There was magic there, traces of it. He did not know its source, who had cast the spell, but he knew its flavor. Cold. Wintery. Elven.

“I need to talk to Argent,” he said. “Can you take me to her office at Liberty House?”

“The queen is quite busy.”

“She’ll want to see me. Just give me a moment to change, and, uh, please leave the cat alone.”

Adam hurried to the bedroom and pulled on his new clothes.

Dautre dropped Adam on Liberty House’s front step without knowing what he’d just done, before vanishing to get back to his—what, date, with Emily?

Adam took a long breath. Lake Liberty wasn’t far. He could smell it. His mom’s place wasn’t far either. If he wanted, he could walk there, knock on the trailer door, and surprise her.

Then again, Early might be there. His mom was dating the sheriff and the last he needed was to walk in on them doing anything remotely adult.

Still, he was happy for her, almost as happy as she was to finally get a grandson to spoil.

Pushing aside his feelings about this place and the distractions of his family, he turned the knob to open the door.

Eran, the elf from the market, stood at the reception desk, her glamour having given her a human appearance. She wore a pantsuit in Argent’s style though she didn’t quite have the gravitas to share the same killer vibe. Still, nothing about her said assistant. No, this mini-me was security.

The guy behind the desk was human.

“Oh,” he said, looking up from the screen to see Adam.

“I need to see the queen. Is she around?”

“She is quite busy,” Eran said.

“So I’ve heard. It’s important.”

Argent hadn’t taken the sword back and he wore it, though it waited in the spirit realm to be drawn.

“I can show you my credentials if you like.”

Eran and the guy exchanged a look.