Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Luke had promised Gomez answers.
Unfortunately, the answers he brought back from the council were unlikely to make either of them feel better.
Fizzwick spotted Luke and Connal the moment they entered Gomez’s chamber.
The pixie launched from the bed and flew around Luke’s head in a quick circle before returning to his position beside Gomez.
Several of the other pixies had arranged flowers through Gomez’s hair while they were gone.
More blossoms covered the blankets, along with enough food to feed everyone who had attended the council.
Gomez looked up from a pastry dusted with sparkling sugar. “Well?”
“The gargoyles confirmed that the warehouse was a trap,” Luke said. “The trap was designed to activate when someone with magic entered.”
Gomez gestured toward Connal with the pastry. “Which explains why it tried to squish the giant magical warrior and mostly ignored you.”
“It didn’t ignore me completely.”
“Nothing with taste ever does.”
Luke refused to encourage him. “They couldn’t identify who created it.”
Some of Gomez’s humor faded. “So you still don’t know whether your boss sent you there on purpose.”
“No.”
“And I’m guessing you have a terrible plan for finding out.”
“I’m going to contact Hale.”
Gomez lowered the pastry. “From here?”
“Human technology doesn’t work in the Unseelie. Tyson is securing a location in the human realm.”
“And we’re going there when?”
“We aren’t.”
Gomez stared at him.
“You’re staying here,” Luke clarified.
“I understood the first time. I was giving you an opportunity to correct yourself.”
“You were brought into another realm yesterday with two broken legs.”
“Which are no longer broken.”
Luke paused and really looked at Gomez. He’d clearly improved, but there was no way Luke was letting him anywhere near any of it. “You still need time to recover.”
“I’m lying in a bed covered in flowers and being hand-fed pastries by tiny flying people. I can recover anywhere.”
Fizzwick nodded. “Gomez is very good at resting.”
“Thank you.”
Luke moved closer to the bed. “I don’t know what Hale will do after I contact him. Until we know whether he was involved with the warehouse, I need you somewhere no one connected to him can reach.”
Gomez studied him. “Is this your decision or his?”
Luke didn’t need to look at Connal to understand the question.
“Mine.”
Connal said nothing beside him.
Gomez glanced between them before looking back at Luke. “And you’re not going alone?”
“No. Connal and his brothers will be with me. Tyson is handling the location and the human-world logistics.”
“Logistics,” Gomez repeated. “That’s a suspiciously respectable word for whatever you’re about to do.”
“We’re sending a message.”
“From a secret location while surrounded by magical warriors.”
“Well, when you put it that way…” Luke dared a small smile.
Gomez huffed at him. “You understand why I’m concerned.”
“I do.” Luke sat on the edge of the bed. “But I’m not disappearing. I’m telling you where I’m going, why I’m going, and who will be with me. When I come back, I’ll tell you what happened.”
Gomez’s gaze held his. “Everything you can?”
“Everything I can.”
Gomez released a quiet breath and leaned back against the pillows.
“Fine. I’m trusting you to know what you’re doing.”
Luke’s mouth twitched. “That must be painful.”
“Agonizing.” Gomez retrieved his pastry. “If you’re abandoning me in the magical murder castle, I have one condition.”
“You’re not being abandoned.”
Gomez arched a brow and glared until Luke held up his hands in surrender. “Fine, what’s your condition?”
“Chicken nuggets.”
Luke blinked. “What?”
“I haven’t had normal food since I was kidnapped. Bring me chicken nuggets.”
Fizzwick leaned closer to Gomez. “What is a chicken nugget?”
“Proof that humans occasionally deserve nice things.”
The pixie’s eyes widened.
“I’ll bring enough for both of you.”
“Now you’re negotiating in good faith.”
They spent the next several hours with Gomez while Tyson secured the location in the human realm. A knock sounded against the doorframe. Tyson stood in the corridor, composed as ever.
“The location has been cleared. We can leave as soon as you are ready.”
Luke looked once more at Gomez.
“Chicken nuggets,” Gomez reminded him.
“Yeah,” Luke said. “I will.”
Tyson stepped aside to let them pass. “I’ll gather the others while you retrieve your equipment.”
Luke and Connal returned to Connal’s chamber. Luke checked the backpack’s contents automatically: laptop, charging cables, clothes, and the few tools that had survived his trip through airport security and two magical attacks.
Everything was where it belonged.
The drive pressed against his waist when he bent to close the bag. Luke checked the small watch pocket anyway.
Still secure.
Connal stood beside him while he prepared. Normally, being watched would have irritated Luke. This time, Connal’s presence reassured him.
“If this becomes a human threat, you follow my lead,” Luke said.
Connal’s brows drew together. “I will not stand aside while you are endangered.”
“That isn’t what I asked.” Luke straightened and hooked the backpack over one shoulder. “I know how Hale communicates. I know what surveillance to look for and what behavior should worry us. If I tell you something is wrong, I need you to listen before you charge at it.”
Connal considered him for a moment. “And if the threat is magical?”
“I listen to you.”
“Immediately.”
Luke’s mouth twitched. “Within reason.”
“Immediately,” Connal repeated.
“Fine.”
Connal placed one hand against the back of Luke’s neck and drew him forward until their foreheads touched. The contact lasted only a moment, but it carried the same quiet certainty Luke had felt when Connal took his hand outside the council chamber.
Then Connal released him.
They found the others waiting in a small receiving chamber near the edge of the castle.
Zer stood beside Keir with Avaneel settled in his hair.
Asterius paced near the wall, apparently incapable of preparing for danger without making everyone else watch him move. Tyson waited at the center of the room.
“The property is an office maintained through one of the crown’s human intermediaries,” Tyson explained. “It has no connection to Hale, Luke, or either exchange location. My contacts have searched the building and found no unexpected surveillance or signs of intrusion.”
“They know what to look for?” Luke asked.
“They know how to identify human surveillance. Connal will need to examine the location for magic once we arrive.”
Luke nodded. That was the best they could do without exposing the site by sending someone magical ahead of them.
“How many ways out?”
“Two stairwells, a bank of elevators, and access to an attached parking structure. The office occupies one end of the floor, so no one can approach without crossing a monitored corridor.”
“Building security?”
“Under our control.”
That earned Tyson a longer look. Luke still didn’t know precisely what the fae did in the human realm or how much influence Silenus maintained there, but Tyson had secured an anonymous office, cleared the building, and taken control of its surveillance in less time than most people needed to arrange lunch.
“You do this often?” Luke asked.
“Not this specifically.”
Asterius smiled. “He enjoys being mysterious.”
“I enjoy completing necessary tasks without explaining each one to you.”
“That too.”
Zer interrupted before Asterius could continue. “Who enters the office?”
“All of us,” Luke said. “Until Connal checks it, we don’t know whether the location is as clean magically as it is electronically. Once we’re inside, Tyson and I will determine how to contact Hale. The rest of you can secure the approaches.”
Connal moved to Luke’s side. “I remain with you.”
Luke had expected nothing else. “You remain with me.”
Tyson gave Connal the location, along with a description of the office and the room where they needed to arrive. Connal raised one hand. Magic gathered beneath his palm, spreading outward until the air opened before them.
Connal stepped through before Luke could move. He stopped on the other side, his head tilted slightly as he examined something Luke couldn’t see.
“Well?” Luke asked.
“No magic beyond my own. No containment structure.”
Only then did Luke cross.
The portal opened into a windowless conference room.
Gray carpet replaced the stone beneath Luke’s feet, and the sudden scent of stale coffee assured him they had returned to the human realm.
A long table occupied the center of the room, surrounded by rolling chairs that had seen better days.
Someone had left a stack of legal pads and cheap pens beneath a wall-mounted screen.
Boring. Forgettable. Exactly what they needed.
Keir entered behind Luke and moved immediately toward the conference-room door. Tyson followed, then Zer with Avaneel tucked into his hair. Asterius came through last, waiting until everyone else had cleared the threshold before joining them.
The portal closed behind him without disturbing so much as a scrap of paper.
Luke assessed the threats he understood.
The conference room had one door leading into the main office suite.
Beyond it, a central workspace divided several private offices from a small reception area.
Late-afternoon sunlight angled through the windows overlooking the attached parking structure.
The elevators opened at the opposite end of the floor and an illuminated exit sign marked the nearest stairwell.
Tyson crossed to a desk positioned beneath the windows and touched the keyboard waiting there. Three security feeds appeared on the monitors: the elevator lobby, the corridor outside the suite, and the entrance from the parking structure.
“My contacts cleared the floor and left before we arrived,” Tyson said. “The building’s internal cameras are under our control. The exterior feeds remain active so the security company sees nothing unusual.”
“You can do that?” Luke asked.
“For a limited period.”
Luke added another item to the rapidly growing list of questions he had about Tyson.
Zer surveyed the office and each of its approaches before turning to Luke. “You understand how danger moves through a human building better than we do. Where do you need us?”
Connal glanced toward his brother. The slight lift of his brows vanished quickly, but Luke caught it.
The invitation surprised Luke too. Zer had not surrendered command of his brothers. He had simply recognized who knew the terrain.
“Take the main corridor,” Luke told him. “You’ll be able to see anyone coming from the elevators or the first stairwell.”
Zer inclined his head and started toward the door. Avaneel rose from his hair and hovered beside him.
“You stay concealed,” Zer told her.
“I am always concealed.”
“You sparkle.”
“Only a little.”
She disappeared into his hair again. Zer’s expression suggested he had not been reassured.
“Keir, watch the second stairwell,” Luke continued. “Asterius, take the parking entrance.”
Asterius glanced toward Tyson. “And where will he be?”
“Here,” Luke said. “Doing something useful.”
Tyson’s mouth twitched before he turned back to the monitors.
Asterius sighed. “A tragic misuse of my talents.”
“You heard him,” Zer said. “Go.”
The three brothers moved into position, leaving Luke with Connal and Tyson. Connal stayed close without questioning Luke’s choices or trying to alter the plan.
Luke set his backpack on the conference table and pulled out his laptop. The familiar device felt oddly fragile after being surrounded by living walls, portals, and creatures who could turn into stone. He opened it anyway.
Nothing happened.
Luke pressed the power button again.
“Human technology works here,” Tyson said.
“It usually requires power first.”
Luke found the charging cable, dropped to one knee, and searched beneath the table. The castle had spoiled him. It would have produced an outlet the moment he needed one instead of making him crawl across cheap carpet while Connal watched with increasing concern.
“I am fine,” Luke said before Connal could ask.
“You are beneath the table.”
“Those facts aren’t mutually exclusive.”
He found an outlet and connected the charger. When he returned to his seat, the laptop powered on normally.
His phone reconnected to the human network a moment later. Notifications filled the screen, most of them from applications Luke didn’t care about. He dismissed them until only his secure messages remained.
Nothing new from Hale.
Luke had vanished after being sent to a compromised location, and his employer had not attempted to contact him once.
That didn’t prove Hale had known about the trap. It did give Luke one more reason to be cautious.
“I have to use the established channel,” Luke said. “If the report comes from an unfamiliar account or device, Hale will know immediately that something is wrong.”
“Can the message be traced here?” Connal asked.
“The device can,” Luke said. “The location is harder.”
Tyson connected a small black unit to the office network. “Any attempt to identify the source should lead through several other locations before reaching this building.”
“Should?” Connal repeated.
“No human protection is absolute.”
Connal did not appear pleased by that reality.
“It doesn’t need to hold forever,” Luke said. “We only need enough time to receive Hale’s response and leave.”
“How much time?”
“That depends on whether he’s waiting to hear from me.”
Luke connected his phone to the protected network and opened the secure channel he used for assignments. The blank message field appeared beneath Hale’s name.
He had written hundreds of reports for his employer. Completed exchange. Delayed in transit. Contact failed to appear. Package secured. Each one had reduced an entire mission to the minimum information Hale required.
This report needed to accomplish something different.
Luke had to sound like the operative Hale expected while revealing as little as possible about what had happened inside the warehouse. No mention of magic. No mention of Connal or his brothers. Nothing that confirmed Luke understood why the location had been prepared.
He typed the message.
Secondary site compromised. Forced off-grid until now. Package remains secure. Awaiting further instruction.
Luke read it twice.
“What did you tell him?” Connal asked.
“That the warehouse was compromised and I still have the drive.”
“You did not ask whether he sent you into the trap.”
“If he was responsible, asking would tell him I know too much. If he wasn’t, accusing him could make him stop cooperating before we learn anything useful.”
Connal nodded once. “Then send it.”
Luke looked at the message one final time before pressing the screen.
The status changed.
Sent.
A moment later, it changed again.
Delivered.
Luke placed the phone on the table where all three of them could see it.
No one spoke.
Then the final notification appeared beneath the message.
Read.