Chapter 9 #3
His identity remains unknown, but the dark elves are currently tracking down the whereabouts of Jarvil Maehdon’s immediate kin, which leads me to suspect one of them might be involved. You should not have killed the man.
It was an accident.
You plunged your knife into his heart. The man’s voice was dry. That can hardly be called an accident.
He moved, she replied, with absolutely no concern or remorse evident. It matters not, because his death was listed as natural. There were no witnesses to gainsay that.
Except for his grandson—he saw you coming out of the house, remember.
That kid? She snorted. Even Jarvil didn’t have a very high opinion of him.
It is never wise to misjudge a Myrkálfar, Brídín, even one so young.
Trust me, they are no different to any man, be he Ljósálfar, shifter, or human. You are all led by your cocks rather than your brains.
Not all of us.
Another snort, this time sharper. You may believe that if you wish, but we both know it is my ability to appease needs that would horrify your more genteel lovers that you value above all else.
Indeed, but as I have said, do not ever believe I won’t destroy you if it comes down to it.
How can I forget when your insurance lies in my head?
A statement that explained her comment in an earlier vision that capture would mean her death. He’d obviously implanted something. If we ever did find her, we’d have to work damn fast before she was neutralized.
To bring this conversation back on point, she added, neither he nor anyone else will find me. I wasn’t wearing my true form—or indeed, a form anyone from the council would recognize.
Then how is our thief so successfully targeting all that you own?
Perhaps Jarvil left an “open in case of death” letter. He was the type.
Didn’t you order him to say nothing about your presence in his life?
Of course, but it is impossible to cover every scenario. Even godly artifacts do have their limitations, you know. Besides, the blade’s effectiveness does wane over time.
You should have dealt with the man before he was able to leave a message, if that is indeed what has happened.
I was dealing with him, she retorted. He moved, as I said. But none of this would have been a problem if your lot did their fucking job and tracked the bastard down.
You cannot expect the IIT to achieve what even the Myrkálfar cannot in this situation. Our connections pale in comparison to their network.
Inner alarms started to ring. That statement suggested we weren’t dealing with just one or two moles in the organization, but rather someone much higher up in the ranks.
Carla sniffed. It was an unimpressed sound. Have you placed a tracer on the witch and Mathi?
Mathi has pulled the tracers out of his vehicles, but our inside source remains on the witch.
Inside source indeed. Anger surged, and while it was mostly aimed at Eljin for the betrayal, I could not deny the fact that, had I trusted the Eye’s judgement rather than allowing my hormones to hold sway, I would not have gotten myself into this situation in the first place.
And she remains unaware?
He suspects not, given the manner of her sudden retreat at their last meeting.
Then perhaps he needs to play it cautiously for the next few days.
He could play it as cautiously as he wanted, because he was not going to get any further chances to drug me. The next time he saw me, it would be with the full backup of my brother and Mathi, and he would tell us who’d employed him, or he would pay the price.
I might not want to unleash the inner darkness, but I was willing to make an exception in his case.
Or we can just get rid of her. Easier by far.
We dare not. Not until we have located the Harpē.
She becomes more dangerous by the day. I think it best—
You’re not paid to think, dearest Brídín, and you will—
The rest of his statement was lost as the Eye pulsed sharply and ripped me from the vision. A heartbeat later, I realized why.
The building’s bright song had darkened. Eljin was in the building, making his way up the first set of stairs.
I had a couple of minutes, if that, to get the hell out of here. Because if I saw him, he would know I suspected him. I wasn’t a good liar—that had been proven time and again—and while I was more than capable of defending myself from him, I didn’t want to do so until I was ready.
After shoving everything but the Codex into my purse, I jumped up and ran down to the skylight at the far end of the room.
With Eljin now on the second floor and making his way around to the stairs leading up to the living area, I really didn’t have time to retract the loft ladder—it was too damn slow and wasn’t exactly quiet.
If I wanted to avoid him, I really only had one option.
Well, two if I used the Bruadar bracelet, but I wasn’t about to risk Cynwrig being busy and unable to accept the call.
The skylight’s lock had been broken for years now, and while I kept meaning to fix it, I hadn’t, so it remained held in place by a long but sturdy piece of wire.
Once I’d tucked the Codex back into its hidey-hole, I undid the wire, then stepped onto the footstool and pushed the skylight all the way open.
Cool air rushed in, thick with the warning to hurry—a warning the building’s song echoed.
I quickly grabbed the sides of the skylight and half jumped, half wiggled my ass onto the roof.
He was in my living space, making his way toward the loft ladder.
I carefully shifted my position on the roof, trying not to make much in the way of sound, then dragged up the rest of the wire and closed the skylight. He’d reached the ladder....
“Bethany?” he called up. “You up there?”
Yes, I am, but you won’t fucking find me if I can at all help it.
I found a slightly raised copper slate nail, wound the wire around it a couple of times, then pulled it back across the window and found another raised nail.
The wire barely reached it, but it only needed to hold for a few minutes.
Eljin had never been into the loft, so in all likelihood he wouldn’t even question the wire’s presence.
The other skylights were locked, and the key was on the keyring in my purse.
I cautiously slid back toward the ridgeline to ensure I was out of sight even if he did step onto the footstool, then pulled out my phone. After turning the sound all the way down, I sent an urgent text to Mathi.
Can you get back here ASAP? Eljin is here, looking for me.
The building’s music warned he was now in the loft, but pausing under each skylight.
Checking them, obviously. But why he’d do that when— I stopped.
If he’d been mining my memories via the drug, he’d be aware that I’d climbed out on the rooftop more than once.
And if he was checking them, it basically confirmed what Carla had said in the vision.
The bit that confused me was the fact that, as a Tàileach pixie, he only had to connect to the building’s song, and it would tell him where I was.
So why hadn’t he done that? It certainly would have been my first move had our positions been reversed.
A message flashed up onto the phone’s screen. Running down the lane now. Where are you?
If he was in the lane, it meant he’d already been on his way back here. But why? What had happened now?
On the roof, I sent back.
I’ll shout out when he’s contained.
Contained, not dead, I sent back.
A dead man can tell no tales, he replied. He had to be using voice command to reply, because while Mathi had many talents, running and texting wasn’t one of them. And we need him to be very verbose right now.
I can pixie him.
He’s likely protected against that. In building now, coming up.
And Eljin was now standing under the broken skylight. It opened fractionally, and I tensed. The skylight briefly lowered, then was hit again, this time with greater force. The wire slipped fractionally; it wouldn’t take too much more effort to break either it or the skylight.
He obviously knew I was up here, even though I hadn’t felt him slip into the building’s song. Although in truth, he probably didn’t need to, given how loudly it was vibrating with Mathi’s presence. If I didn’t know better, I would have said she was urging him on.
But why was Eljin so determined to open the skylight? For all Mathi knew, I’d given Eljin permission to be in my loft. Was it confirmation that Carla had won her boss over and they now wanted to be rid of me? Or had she gone against his orders, and told Eljin to come here and deal with me?
Or was he here for an entirely different reason altogether?
I’d theorized—even hoped, if only because it meant that my judgement of men had at least improved a little over the years—that he’d been working under the influence of Carla and the blade. But if he was here without her knowledge or orders, then that hope was well and truly stomped on.
A third blow hit the skylight, and it crashed open, making a godawful noise in the process.
The upper half of his body appeared, his shoulder muscles straining the limitations of his shirt as he hauled himself up onto the roof.
Any second now, he would turn and see me; I had no idea what he intended and no desire to find out.
The urge to run was fierce, the urge to grab him with the wind and fling him far, far away was even fiercer, but I resisted both and called to a knife instead.
As he turned toward me, I flipped the knife over and hit him hard.
The knife’s sharp blade caused me no damage, but the hilt hit with a satisfying thud.
He slumped back, and an audible grunt rose from below.
Mathi had obviously caught him before he could hit the floor.
The inner bitch couldn’t help but whisper, Shame, that.
“You got anything around here to bind the bastard with?” Mathi asked.
“Only the wire attached to the skylight.”
“That’ll do.”