Chapter 34 Nes #2
Phineas swept his long black hair over one shoulder and from his desk drawer pulled a document.
The official House Alakar seal—complete with roaring lion head—glimmered at the top of the page.
At the bottom, in his hasty scrawl, Phineas wrote, I, Phineas Wraw, proprietor of the gambling den known as the Siren’s Hair, officially sign over all rights of ownership and profit to—
His hand paused, something cold and slick returning to his lips. “Which name would you prefer I write down? This is a legal document, you know. Using a false name could render the exchange obsolete. Shall I put Théa—”
“You won’t be putting any of my names on it.”
Phineas raised a brow. “Oh? And what name will I be writing?”
“Suri’s.”
Something sharp and hostile flashed across Phineas’s face, but it was gone so quickly she wasn’t sure if it’d been real.
And yet when Phineas once again retrieved his pen, his fingers gripped it a tad too tight, and the next lines on the page came out thicker than the ones before, the tip pressed to the paper hard enough to poke through.
Still, he finished the sentence as promised. —Suriadne Ender, effective immediately.
Rolling up the parchment, he tossed it to Nes. Her lips tight, she stowed it in a bag at her hip.
When she didn’t move to leave, Phineas asked, “Was there something else?”
She bit her tongue to keep from asking after Keifer Harrow.
She yearned to see Phineas’s reaction when she told him his contact had killed himself with her blade, but she had not come to satiate her own curiosity.
She had come both to steal from him and to have him willingly give her what she needed.
This second part was tricky. She’d been confident in the information she had on Phineas, enough to blackmail him. However, the rest was merely speculation.
Phineas had let Damari into the city—the same way he’d brought Nes in years ago. And then Damari had begun stealing large sources of magic all throughout the city. Nes had thought she was the only citizen who knew about the magic in the Prime trees. But she wasn’t. Phineas knew, too.
Phineas hadn’t just let Damari into Gadore; he’d helped her, too, by telling her all the places she could find magic.
“You brought Damari into the city,” she said, “and then gave her all the information you thought she’d need so she could take out the King’s Guard—where to find pure magic, where the most guards would be—thinking if she could kill enough of them, then maybe you could finally get some of the survivors in your pocket. ”
Phineas’s only response was to lower his eyelids as if bored.
“But Damari betrayed you, didn’t she?” Nes continued. “When she chose to steal magic from your stores? That’s why you’ve camped out here in the Bark. You want to protect your one remaining source of magic in the city. You suspect she’ll come here looking for more.”
Phineas reached for the ends of his long hair, petting them like they were a fur coat and not the hair on his own head. “Even if all that were true, it has nothing to do with you. As you have so graciously reminded me several times, you don’t work for me anymore.”
“Which is true, but while working for you, I learned a lot about you, Phineas,” she said. “And if there is one thing I know, it’s that you don’t take kindly to betrayal.”
“If I wanted to hear the obvious, I’d go listen to the forecaster on the docks proclaim the current weather.”
“You know Toran and I are after Damari. Help us and you can get your revenge.”
Phineas studied her. In his eyes, she could see their shared history. She could see how he weighed his decision with care, because if he agreed, this time he would be the one who had to trust her.
At last, he said, “What do you need?”
She grinned. “Magic. Everything you’ve got.”
She could have sworn a growl slipped between Phineas’s front teeth. But before she could question it, Phineas dropped the strands of hair he’d been playing with and said, “I expect every fiber, every weave, returned to me.”
“Of course,” Nes swore. She neglected to say precisely when she would return the magic. “And when Damari comes looking for your magic, you’ll send her to the Siren’s Hair.”
Because she’d been wrong. Damari was not like her.
She could not smell magic. No one but the Witch had such an ability.
Damari had simply used the information and resources at her disposal to find the magic scattered about the city.
And she’d need the information from Phineas to fall for Nes and Toran’s trap.
Phineas waved her off. “Haron will give you your magic. The dog working the forge outside. Now, if you don’t mind”—he stood from behind the desk—“I have business to take care of.”
“Oh, I’ll need one other thing.”
Phineas’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not in the habit of giving favors, hound.”
“Consider it payment for my two years of stellar service.” From her pocket, she pulled the ring Toran had given her and held it out to Phineas. “This needs a new home.”
He took the ring, examining the yellow crystal at its center. “Did you have someplace in mind?”
She grinned. “I’m so glad you asked.”
Across the desk, their gazes met, and for the first time since she’d entered the office, the two smiled as one.
After she explained what needed to be done and when, Nes turned to leave. At the door, she looked back over her shoulder. It was her only mistake.
Phineas changed. His whole body morphed. Bent and twisted together in ways that made her want to gag. His broad shoulders shrank inward, his muscled arms thinned, his nose elongated. He seemed to be sinking into the floor, hunching over the closer he got to the desk. And then she couldn’t see him.
It was only a second before a hound, lean and gray, bounded out from behind the desk.
Her heart thudded in her chest. She was too surprised, too still, to catch his joke. It wouldn’t be until later, when she was back in the Ditch, that she would realize he was mocking her. Hound.
Now the sleek hound growled at her, and in stuttered movements, she managed to turn the knob. With a snort, he nudged open the office door.
She swallowed her shock. It was one thing to know the man sitting before her wasn’t a man. It was another thing entirely to watch him transform. To have her suspicions and unease confirmed.
To see once and for all that Phineas Wraw wasn’t human. He was a Xell. A shape-shifter. An immortal myth come back to life.
And as she stared at the hound, she could have sworn its lips twitched in a smile. Not one of satisfaction but one akin to humble pride. As if Phineas had long been waiting for the day she’d snatch the reins from him.
As if he’d wanted her to blackmail him all along.