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“That’s disgusting.”Even the witch’s Senate hadn’t gone to those extremes.“Why would a killer chase amethysts from a nasty crown?”
The danger-ahead look in her eyes let him know what was coming was bad.Really bad.“They’re amplifiers, intensifying natural greed.Here among humans, one is enough to cause criminal insanity.All the stones together with a ritual would create greed powerful enough to take down nations.In the past, humans having the amethysts led to atomic bombs, missile strikes, genocide.Nuclear warfare would be my guess now.”
His blood pressure skyrocketed, and his temples throbbed a splittingthump, thump, thump.“So they’re doomsday kind of destructive?”
“Yes.”She sucked in her lip as if deciding how much info to share.
He’d persuaded tougher witnesses to crack.“Just to humans?I mean, there had to be a reason the amethysts are here.”
She gave ayou-asked-for-itsigh.“Over a century ago, a little goblin prince liked to wear the crown as a joke, a court jester trick.His father found it funny until the prince slaughtered his younger brothers and sisters.”
Greed on steroids indeed.“So the kid became king?”
“No.The golden-blooded heir survived.The castle protected him.”
“What about the prince?The one who killed the rest?”
“The king executed him.”
“Wait, he killed his own kid?”And he’d thought he had family issues with the parents who’d abandoned him.“That’s messed up.”
“Only a goblin royal can kill another goblin royal.I don’t know if that’s literal truth or part of the divine blood mythology that’s been passed down from generation to generation.”
“So why not crush the amethysts into dust or whatever?If they’re that horrible, why continue to allow them to exist?”
She shook her head.“As a witch, you should know.You can’t destroy magic.Harm the vessel, and you unlock whatever perversion of the power might be left.”
He tasted bile, bitter and burning.The same way the Revelare’s demon had twisted his sister’s memory by killing her and shoving a succubus into her body.“What happened to the crown?”
“The king destroyed the crown and cast the amethysts into the human realm, all except one.It’s traditionally worn by the current king around his neck as a heavy reminder of its past.”
“Because one isn’t enough to corrupt?”The truth hit him as if he’d been smacked with the stone.“The mad king—the one who killed all the royals—he wore one of the jewels, didn’t he?”
“What do you know of the mad king?”She stared at him as though he’d planned to overthrow the goblin monarch the way he’d tried to take down the witch Senate.
“Only that.Why?What doyouknow that could help you stop the killer?”
“Nothing.”Her tone made it clear she was finished discussing goblin history.
He changed tactics.“What’s the chance of a killer collecting all the amethysts with the one still in the Krad-nuh-whatever?”
“Kradnovtl.Travel between realms requires royal blood, a full moon, and functional goblin glass.Only two glasses remain—the one in the forest outside the goblin castle and the one here hidden by Baba Yaga.”
“So why kill to collect if you can’t get them all?”He swept a hand toward the crime scene photos.“Anything else link the five homicides?”
“Six.I didn’t need to look at the evidence from the murder in LA.”She sounded as if she very much didn’t want to look at that one.
“Why not?”
She wrapped her arms around her waist and shivered even though it was warm in the room.“Because I was there when she killed him.”
“She?Hang on.You saw the killer.Why didn’t you say so?”
“Why are you suddenly so invested when you turned my job offer down?”There was temper in her gaze as though she was about to invoke a hex.
He knew that look.He flashed it when he was hiding something.Something huge.“What aren’t you telling me?”
“The killer.She’s a goblin.”
