AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Pessimism seems to have settled into my bones lately.”
He laughed and led the way up the stairs. Though I’d wanted nothing more than to grab a shower and then collapse into bed for a good twelve hours of sleep, we still had the token to deal with.
I followed Lugh into his room, walked across to the window—which faced the rear lane rather than the street like mine did—and slid it open. The wind whipped in, filled with ice and an odd sense of welcome.
I shivered and thrust a hand into the night, calling down the sword. Once it had thudded into my hand, I tossed it over to the bed, hastily slid the window down, then walked across to the small desk. After claiming the solitary office chair, I pulled the token from my pocket and studied it. Like many of these things, this one was an air-dried clay coin about the same size as a penny. There were multiple tiny symbols etched onto its surface, and I had absolutely no idea what any of them represented, though given the knife’s reaction and our dead contractor, there was obviously ill intent behind the spell that had been cast upon it.
Lugh filled up the kettle, then walked over for a closer look. “Thatisn’t your run-of-the-mill street token. It’s been specially created for a specific purpose.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How can you tell?”
He motioned to a squiggle that vaguely resembled a snake or a worm in a circle. “That’s the symbol for an Eve spell, and they’re extremely pricey.”
“Eve as in Adam and Eve?”
He nodded. “It basically renders the wearer irresistible to a particular person. Not sure what the rest of the squiggles mean though.”
“Even if Gratham was seduced via the use of this thing, wouldn’t he have heard them downstairs? The walls aren’t soundproof, and given the state of the office, they would have made a hell of a racket.”
“Maybe that’s what the rest of those symbols are—attention capturing or noise reduction spells.”
“There are noise reduction spells? Seriously?”
He smiled. “You can buy a spell for absolutely anything these days. How well they actually work is almost entirely a matter of where you purchase them from and how much you pay.”
Which is why tokens such as these had a street rep amongst humans for being more for tourists than anything else. The real deal was rarely found on the high street. “How long does an Eve spell usually last? And how do you even know about it?”
“Got caught by one once. Best six hours of my life.”
“That is a rather sad statement, brother mine.”
“Not when it was nonstop. I’d wager not even your dark elf could last that long.”
I’d wager he’d go damn close. The man was sex on legs with the stamina to match.
Lugh straightened, wincing a little and absently rubbing his leg. “This one doesn’t look particularly well made, so I doubt it would have lasted that long. Why?”
“The token was still active when we arrived, and that suggests we didn’t miss his lover and whoever did the office search by very much.”
“We might not have missed them at all. It’s very possible they were scampering out a window as we were coming in the front door.”
I frowned. “There weren’t any windows on the ground floor in that back section, and the lane didn’t have any external stairs. Unless they were spider or bird shifters, scampering out of a window would have been dangerous.”
“Unless they had a man on the roof with a rope at the ready. Which they did. I saw it being hauled back up.”
“I take it you mentioned this to the cops?”
“I did. You want a cuppa?”
I shook my head and pushed to my feet. “What time are we leaving in the morning?”
“The desk opens at six, so if you’re happy to grab something on the road, we’ll leave then.”
I nodded and walked over to grab the sword. As tempting as it was to leave the bloody thing here for Lugh to guard, if a witch or someone else with dark intent came looking for it during the night, at least my knives would give me warning.
Though in truth, Lugh had plenty of experience when it came to sleeping with one eye open. Relic hunts didn’t always go to plan, and though he rarely said anything, I knew well enough that he’d been betrayed by guides more than once over the years.
“Once we deal withthatthing”—Lugh waved a hand towards the sword—“we need to concentrate on the ring.”
