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She’d been stabbed multiple times. There were wounds all over her chest and across her stomach, suggesting she’d been the victim of a murderous frenzy rather than a controlled and deliberate action. There was blood on her clothing, blood on the floor where she’d lain, but no further spread, suggesting the killer had indeed used some sort of containment bubble.
There was also nothing to suggest she’d been taken by surprise. Nothing to suggest—at least from where I stood—that she had in any way fought back. Which was odd, because if they’d been close enough to stab her, she’d have been close enough to use pixie control on them. Had the restrictions on her personal magic held even if the boundary ones had failed? Or had her murderer been an elf and therefore immune to control?
That was likely, given the Looisearch were all elves—at least as far as we knew—but that didn’t explain the lack of defensive wounds. At the very least, there should have been slashes across her hands, arms, and even legs. If someone had come atmewith a knife, I could sure as hell guarantee I’d be kicking the bastards long before they got within chest-stabbing distance.
“Bethany?” Sgott said softly. “Is it her?”
I sucked in a breath and tore my gaze away from the bloody mess that was her body. “Yes.”
He grunted. It was an unhappy sound. “I’ll ring the pixie council and see how the hell she escaped the red knife’s restrictions. It shouldn’t have been possible.”
“Unless she was never officially placed under the knife. She was in hospital when Lugh and I handed down the council’s judgment, remember.”
“She was under guard. If she’d escaped, I would have been informed.”
“Except the Looisearch seem to have fingers in every pie, so maybe there’s been a deliberate delay in telling you.”
“I wouldn’t have thought so, but I’ll check.” His phone rang, and he answered it. After a few minutes, he growled, “Fine. Remain up there and keep an eye out, Joode.”
I walked over. “I take it the person on the roof has gone?”
“Yes, though I suspect he or she hasn’t gone too far. The problem with all these fucking old buildings is there’s too many damn places for a small shifter to hide.”
I smiled. “Which is why you have rat shifters on the team.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about the other side having them.”
I laughed, as he’d no doubt intended. “I guess not. Do you need me up here anymore?”
“No, you can come on down.”
I climbed down, then walked across to the kitchenette. Cynwrig didn’t say anything, he just wrapped his arms around me and hugged me for what seemed like forever. Then he stepped back and gave me a whiskey.
The man was definitely a keeper.
Shame that I couldn’t.
I took a sip of the whiskey and moved over to my chair to sit down. He followed, propping on the chair’s arm then draping his arm around my shoulders.
“Did they find the Codex?”
“No.”
“That’s something.”
“Yeah.”
I remembered the banner bag and looked around. It wasn’t sitting where I left it, which most likely meant our skylight escapee had grabbed it without looking inside. I would have loved to have seen their faces when they opened the damn thing.
“The thing I don’t get is, why kill Vincentia?” I took another drink. “Surely the fact she could catch my thoughts when she was close should have made her a valuable asset.”
“Doesn’t the red knife prohibit all contact?”
“Yes, but thoughts aren’t contact.”
“Depends on the definition placed on the word when they placed the restrictions, I’m thinking. The pixie council were aware of the link you formed when you magicked her, so it’s possible they included it.”
“Maybe but that still doesn’t explain why they killed her.”
