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Flynn replied, I’m at the club. Sabine sent Amelie Ravenscroft to head the Aux packs hauling away debris and helping the wounded. Amelie said she saw you leave, Ruhn. You all right?
Ruhn answered, just so they wouldn’t call. I’m fine. I’ll meet you at the club soon. He squeezed the phone in his fist as Bryce made her way toward the front door and the Helscape beyond. Blue and red sirens blared, casting their light on the oak floors of the foyer.
But his sister paused before reaching for the handle, twisting to ask him, “Why were you at the Raven earlier?”
And here it was. If he mentioned the call Riso had made to him, that Ruhn had been keeping tabs on her, he’d get his head bitten off. So Ruhn half lied, “I want to check out your boss’s library.”
Hunt paused, a step behind Bryce. It was impressive, really, to watch both of them plaster confused expressions on their faces.
“What library?” she asked, the portrait of innocence.
Ruhn could have sworn Athalar was trying not to smile. But he said tightly, “The one everyone says is beneath the gallery.”
“First I’ve heard of it,” Hunt said with a shrug.
“Fuck off, Athalar.” Ruhn’s jaw ached from clenching it so hard.
Bryce said, “Look, I get that you want in on our little cool kids’ club, but there’s a strict membership-vetting process.”
Yeah, Athalar was trying really hard not to smile.
Ruhn growled, “I want to look at the books there. See if anything about the Horn jumps out.” She paused at the tone in his voice, the bit of dominance Ruhn threw into it. He wasn’t above pulling rank. Not where this was concerned.
Though Athalar was glaring daggers at him, Ruhn said to his sister, “I’ve been through the Fae Archives twice, and …” He shook his head. “I just kept thinking about the gallery. So maybe there’s something there.”
“I searched it,” she said. “There’s nothing about the Horn beyond vague mentions.”
Ruhn gave her a half smile. “So you admit there’s a library.”
Bryce frowned at him. He knew that contemplative look. “What.”
Bryce flipped her hair over a dirty, torn shoulder. “I’ll make a bargain with you: you can come hunt for the Horn at the gallery, and I’ll help in whatever way I can. If—” Athalar whipped his head to her, the outrage on his face almost delightful. Bryce went on, nodding to the phone in Ruhn’s hand, “If you put Declan at my disposal.”
“I’ll have to tell him about this case, then. And what he knows, Flynn will learn two seconds later.”
“Fine. Go ahead and fill them in. But tell Dec I need intel about Danika’s last movements.”
“I don’t know where he can get that,” Ruhn admitted.
“The Den would have it,” Hunt said, eyeing Bryce with something like admiration. “Tell Emmet to hack the Den archives.”
So Ruhn nodded. “Fine. I’ll ask him later.”
Bryce gave him that smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “Then come by the gallery tomorrow.”
Ruhn had to give himself a moment to master his shock at how easy it had been to get access. Then he said, “Be careful out there.”
If she and Athalar were right and it was some Keres rebels acting on Briggs’s request or in his honor … the political mess would be a nightmare. And if he hadn’t been wrong about that C actually being an image of the Horn, if this bombing and the acolyte’s murder were targeted warnings to them regarding their search for it … then the threat to all of them had just become a Hel of a lot deadlier.
Bryce said sweetly before continuing on, “Tell your daddy we say hello—and that he can go fuck himself.”
Ruhn gritted his teeth again, earning another grin from Athalar. Winged asshole.
The two of them strode through the door, and Ruhn’s phone rang a heartbeat after that.
“Yeah,” he said.
Ruhn could have sworn he could hear his father tense before the male drawled, “Is that how you speak to your king?”
