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“I had guys looking for the tracker,” Pat defended himself. “And I hate to break it to you, sis, but I work with folks who are more than capable of pulverizing me.” He paused, then added, “Though I am the only human, so they were stoked that I’ll be primarily working on this case now.” He fussed with his cloth napkin—like I said, they were going all out—then glanced at Noctus. “If you find anything, I’d appreciate it.”
Noctus nodded. “Then I should let you know that—thanks to Chloe’s visual of him—we were able to confirm that the fae we believe was responsible for the first artifact attack, and was involved with organizing the illegal manufacturing ring we broke at the end of spring, was present downtown the day of the most recent attack.”
Pat sat up straighter in his chair. “Do you have any pictures of him? Anything I can share with my guys?”
“Yes,” Noctus said. “We’ll see to it that—”
Charon immediately stood. “I could fetch them now.”
“Sit down, Charon,” Ker said.
A muscle in Charon’s jaw twitched, but he sat down and reluctantly picked up the cup of tea he’d poured himself.
“Do you know where he was downtown?” Pat asked. “Because we were able to trace the epicenter of explosion on the sidewalk. If we can pin him to that area, we’d have a case.”
“What stores is the spot near?” Ker asked.
“Just outside a pet grooming salon,” Pat said. “Paw & Order.”
“I’d have to see a map, but I don’t know that we had any footage from that particular area,” Noctus said.
Charon shook his head. “None of our people work in a grooming salon.”
“That’s a shame,” I said. “With the elves’ natural aptitude with animals, I bet they’d be fantastic at it.”
“All elves don’t have animal magnetism,” Charon said. “It’s a skill that varies.”
“Oh,” I said. “Is that why Noctus made such a big deal about it, because it’s rare?”
Aristide laughed as he leaned back in his chair. “He made a big deal about it, because Noctus is one of the most intense pet parents walking this world. Something I had no inkling of, until you came into our lives, so we have much to thank you for, Chloe.”
Pat awkwardly cleared his throat. “Yeah, Chloe is great. But thank you for sharing information…Noctus, and Charon.”
Charon just nodded, but Noctus flashed a polite smile at my brother. “Of course. Is there anything else we should know?”
Pat frowned as he thought. “We recovered the artifact used to make the noise, too: a green gem—that apparently couldn’t handle the spell because it was cracked pretty badly.”
“Do you know what kind of gem it is?” Charon asked. “Perhaps the cut, or size?”
“I happened to see it, and it was smaller than a ping-pong ball, but I don’t know enough about rocks to make any kind of guess whether it was an actual jewel or just a crystal, sorry,” Pat said.
“Don’t be,” Noctus said. “Crystals can hold spells as well as jewels, so the type doesn’t necessarily matter, it just makes it easier to track.”
Pat nodded, but he’d dug into his dinner, so he couldn’t reply.
The rest of the table was silent, except for the rattles of our plates and the crystalline noises our cups made.
I was digging into my food—Charon had worked mehard—but I did finally notice when Joy wiped her mouth for the third time in a row as she eyed our hosts.
“I hope I’m not overstepping any boundaries,” she cautiously started, “so please excuse my boldness, but it occurred to me that if the elves go public, it might be ideal for them to use a situation like this fae setting off artifacts to their advantage.”
Pat—his mouth once again full of food—eyed our sister.
I—on a similar wavelength—asked in his place. “What do you mean, they could use it to their advantage?”
“If the elves helped the Curia Cloisters capture this fae guy and went public at the same time, you’d be able to assure humans of your good intentions. It’d be an excellent PR opportunity,” Joy said. “And with the supernaturals set against you, you’ll want to focus, first, on appealing to humans before then attempting to restore your reputation with supernaturals.”
“And you have an idea for that, too?” I guessed.
