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“Very nice.”
“Very old,” my father said. “And it does the job.”
Yuen nodded. “Dearborn is furious. He had convinced the mayor the peace talks were his idea, rather than yours,” he said, looking at my parents. “He cares less about their effectiveness in reducing violence than the political reward of hosting a well-received event in Chicago.”
“He’s a player,” Gabriel said. “Or imagines himself to be one.”
“Yes. Ruadan’s call was routed first to him, and his...displeasurewas passed to the rest of us, with orders to fix the situation immediately.”
“With your magic wand?” Gabriel asked with a smirk.
“Something like that. I suspect he wants Riley locked away, literally and figuratively, so he can assure the mayor and the rest of the delegates that Tomas’s death was an unfortunate act by a lone wolf—pun intended—that won’t affect the talks going forward.”
Yuen looked at Gabriel. “He’ll use Riley as a scapegoat if he can. Even if that means the rest of you go down, too.”
“Alaska cannot come soon enough,” Gabriel muttered, but the fury in his eyes belied his casual tone.
I’d put their trip out of my mind, and was disappointed to remember it now. Not just because Connor had helped us last night, but because it seemed like we were starting to interact like adults, were putting aside our history. We were becoming friends, or something like it.
“My hands are tied,” Yuen said, “as are those of Cadogan House.” He shifted his gaze to me. “But perhaps Elisa has some flexibility. If you want to secure Riley’s release, you’ll need evidence—solid evidence—that he’s not involved.”
I smiled thinly. “Then let’s get to business.”
• • •
We sent the reception video footage to Kelley, asked her to run the fairy’s image against the House’s surveillance video of the party.
While that was underway, we talked through the visit to the castle again to see if there was anything we’d missed. We didn’t come up with anything new, but I did wonder about the effect of our visit.
I looked at Yuen. “You said Ruadan called you? Why not Claudia?”
He blinked. “I presumed she delegated the task to him. He’s younger, more comfortable with technology.”
“Claudia wasn’t in the gatehouse,” Connor said. “Maybe Ruadan was handling the matter himself under her orders, so it was his duty to complain.” He frowned. “But it didn’t have that feeling—like he was there solely to protect her interests.”
“It didn’t,” I agreed. “It felt like he was playing king.”
“And perhaps the phone call was another example of that?” Yuen asked, nodding. “That’s a possibility. He might have designs on the throne.”
“Fading magic,” Gabriel said, and we all looked at him. “Ruadan is young. He was born after the Egregore. Fairies have been powerful his entire life, and that’s changing now.” He lifteda shoulder. “Maybe he’s angry about that process and blames Claudia for it.”
“What could she have done differently?” my mother asked.
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Gabriel said. “Possibly nothing. But maybe Ruadan has other ideas.”
“They let us leave,” I said. “At least in part because they didn’t want to incite the Pack’s wrath, but I don’t think that was all of it. I think they have something else planned, and it must have something to do with the talks, right? That’s when all this started. Maybe the question isn’t who killed Tomas. It’s who wants the peace talks interrupted—and to breach the peace in Chicago in the process.”
“And why,” Yuen said, then glanced at my parents. “You’ve had experience with the fairies.”
“We hired them,” my father said. “They were called mercenary fairies then, because that’s how they presented themselves. They were skilled and merciless and available for hire. They guarded the House during daylight hours, when we were asleep, for many years, until they turned their weapons against us. They are capricious. And as the ‘mercenary’ moniker should have warned me, they were, apparently, available to the highest bidder.”
“The Greenwich Presidium,” my mother said. “Cadogan House held an artifact Claudia wanted. They turned on us to obtain it. Gold and jewels are especially alluring.”
“They don’t believe in romantic love,” my father said. “But Claudia had an apparently meaningful relationship with what we’d have called a demon. And she was the one who told us about the spread of Sorcha’s power across Chicago.”
“Her behaviors are inconsistent,” Yuen said.
“Externally, yes,” my father said. “But internally, they’re entirely consistent. She is the center, always. She wanted coin, so she offered the fairies to the House as security. She wanted the jewel, so she offered her services to the GP instead.”
