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“Seriously? I didn’t come here for a dad lecture,” I tell him. “And I don’t have magic.”
His words have taken me by surprise. I don’t know what kind of magic he is talking about, unless he is somehow sensing my navelstone. My fingers twitch with my automatic instinct to cover it up. I try not to put my hand anywhere near it. The last thing I want him to know about me is that.
“Well, I don’t know how else I can help you. And if you’re not going to take that paper to the Agency, you should burn it. You don’t know what kind of trouble you’re meddling with.”
“But clearly you do. I know that Raif got the key. If he didn’t get it from you, where did he get it from?”
He shakes his head. “It is simply not possible.”
“It is possible. Raif has it.”
“You said he was dead.”
“Makes no difference. He still had it.”
He hurries back towards his wall, gesturing for me to come with him. “I want nothing to do with this. Please leave right now.”
I stay where I am. “I’ll leave after you tell me what you know.”
He contemplates me for a long moment. He takes a neat little handkerchief from his pocket and pats his forehead. The worried look on his face makes me feel uneasy.
He is shaking his head. “You really have no inkling what this is. I told your friend there was no way on this world or the other of helping his girl. Nobody would make him that sort of key. Not if the girl was the property of the Grey Queen. I said he should take the poor girl back before the fae caught them both and… Well, it doesn’t bear thinking about. That poor girl doesn’t have a hope.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. “The Grey Queen? You can’t be serious. She’s a myth. If you are going to tell me a story, at least make it a believable one.”
It now it is his turn to huff. “People’s refusal to believe a thing doesn’t make it not real. The Queen of the Fae is no myth. That symbol in your hand is her symbol. It marks the girl your friend was insistent on running off with as her property. Woe betide he who steals a drop of water from the Grey Queen, let alone a water sprite.”
“So what are you saying? That Raif was murdered by the Grey Queen?”
“Nonsense. The Grey Queen doesn’t n
eed to murder people. Leaving behind a crime scene is clumsy. I imagine if she wanted a thing done, one would never know it had been done. If I had to guess I would say the fae hadn't caught up with your friend yet. Some other person has murdered him.”
“Who?” I ask eagerly. His mind seems to be buzzing away, reaching some sort of conclusion.
He looks pained. “Your friend was very persuasive and at the end of his tether. I confess I may have referred him to a mage who may know a sorcerer, because of course only a sorcerer would even be able to attempt to undo a lock belonging to the Grey Queen. Nobody else would dare.”
He holds up his hand before I can interrupt. “If you plan to go after a sorcerer,” he says, “I’ll tell you now that you’ll never find him, and you’ll probably be barking up the wrong tree.”
“Because?” I nudge him impatiently.
“Because you said your friend already had the key, and to get a sorcerer to make that particular key would cost a fortune. And your friend seemed smart enough to know he’d need some running away money too. So if I were you, it makes more sense to look at where all that money came from. Because we are talking a small fortune, possibly a large one, which your friend did not have.”
“How do you know he didn’t have it?”
“Because of his despair when I told him how much it may cost. He reassured me that he could liquidate some business assets, perhaps properties. It would have been fruitless for me to pass on the name of my contact otherwise.”
I shake my head. “This all sounds like an unbelievable story. Raif seemed so sensible. And smart. Why would he do something this mad?”
He sighs deeply. “That is ever the question. Unfortunately people’s hope and madness are what keep me in business. The things people will risk for their child. It almost makes me feel lucky to not have one.”
My mouth drops open. People would do anything for their kids. Including trying to screw over the Queen of the Fae apparently. Zarina is Raif’s kid.
Chapter 15
DIANA
I head from Grimshaw’s straight to work my usual Tuesday evening shift at Luca’s. Once that is done it is past midnight by the time I am finally trudging towards home, yawning and ready to collapse into bed. I stop off at the little park near my apartment and find AngelBeastie waiting for me. She purrs as I scoop her up and deposit her into my satchel.
