Chapter 27
Sebastian: Chasing Down the Suspects
It was the smell that alerted Sebastian that something was wrong.
The stink of manure hadn’t belonged in the spotless, urban environment that they were in, but initially he’d dismissed it, reminding himself that people from all around Afeyra were at this celebration.
It would make sense for there to be some farmers and livestock somewhere in the crowd.
But when the smell had intensified and started to include the smell of sulfur, he realized the danger.
He threw a protection spell around the royals, the boy, and his mother.
He was about to expand it to encompass himself and Lucy when—
BANG! The explosion knocked him backward, sending him sprawling on the ground.
Lucy stumbled backwards, bumping into a pair of centaurs at the edge of the crowd.
Seeing her fall caused Sebastian’s concentration to waver, and he just barely maintained the minimum necessary to keep his spell in place.
Screams of fear and crying children filled the air, mixing with the scent of smoke and the heat of flames.
Amidst the chaos, Sebastian heard Lucy shout, “Thomas and Emil! I see them!” She scrambled to her feet.
Sebastian shouted, “Lucy, wait—,” but the shrieks filling the air obliterated his protests. It didn’t matter, though. Lucy had already transformed into a fox and zipped through the crowd.
Sebastian swore and moved to follow her, belatedly realizing that to do so, he’d have to drop his shield. He looked back, torn.
Robin caught his gaze. “Go! I’ll protect them!” he shouted to be heard over the noise.
Sebastian nodded and dropped the shield.
Without another word, he took to the skies, his wings fluttering to keep him aloft.
He was afraid he’d lose Lucy in the throngs, but her bright orange fur stood out against the gray cobblestone sidewalk.
He flew above her, tracking her movements rather than anyone else’s.
Once or twice she looked up, as if to see if he was still following, but she didn’t slow.
In fact, seeing him above her, she quickened her pace, until she was little but an orange blur.
His heart pounding in his ears, Sebastian followed her out of the town square.
They went down an alley and emerged into a rougher part of the town.
Fewer people were about, and the few that were there paid no attention to the pursuers.
Not that they weren’t fighting the crowds, Sebastian could see their quarry: Emilio and Tomas, both dressed in the same Lincoln green Robin had worn when he accosted them on the road.
So they’re part of Robin’s beloved company, Sebastian thought grimly.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he didn’t have time to figure it out now.
He surged ahead, tucking his arms against his sides to increase his speed.
His eyes focused on the larger of the two, Tomas.
If he had to guess, he’d bet Tomas was the leader; Emilio had always deferred to him when they’d talked.
If he could take him down, perhaps Emilio would stop, too.
When Tomas was within arm’s length, Sebastian shot toward him, tackling him to the ground.
The man dropped like a bag of potatoes. He struggled to turn around, to send a punch into Sebastian’s stomach, but he dodged it.
Instead, he wrapped an arm across the man’s windpipe.
“I would suggest you quit struggling,” he growled into Tomas’s ear. “You’re not getting away.”
Tomas responded by attempting to drive an elbow into Sebastian’s stomach. The fairy tightened his grip on the man’s throat.
“Let him go!” Emilio’s voice came out as a squeak. He had pulled a flimsy knife from his belt and was holding it with two shaking hands.
Sebastian almost rolled his eyes. This man was not a fighter, and it showed. Instead, he angled his body so that Tomas’s was between him and the knife. “Go ahead, if you’re willing to kill your friend to get to me.”
Emilio gave an audible gulp, but took a trembling step forward. “I…I said, let him go. We don’t have any quarrel with you. You can just walk away.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Sebastian grunted. Tomas began clawing at his arm, but he ignored him. “You and your friend—”
“I said, let him go!” Emilio insisted, running at Sebastian, waving the blade around with little regard for his safety or anyone else’s. Sebastian backed up, dragging Tomas with him, but it was too late. Emilio had lost all sense of reason. He was going to—
Suddenly, the fiend let out a blood-curdling scream and sank to his knees.
Sebastian frowned and angled his head to see what the man had encountered—then his face broke into a smile.
A small scarlet fox had her teeth sunken into the man’s ankle.
He blinked and found himself staring at Lucy’s human form.
She now had a firm grip on Emilio’s collar.
“Are you alright?” she asked, not taking her eyes off of Emilio.
“I’m fine. I had it handled,” Sebastian assured her.
“I know you did,” Lucy said. She gave him some semblance of her usual cheeky grin. “But I didn’t want you to have all the fun.”
“You’re not really tailors, are you?” Emilio groaned.
“Oh, and you are?” Lucy asked. “I’m sorry. I must have been mistaken. Did you or did you not win the last challenge with trickery and conniving, rather than skill and dedication?”
Emilio frowned. “It wasn’t like that. We were just following orders. The boss said—”
“Emil!” Tomas’s voice was sharp as flint. “Button your mouth, you dummy.”
Lucy shrugged. “Makes no difference to me,” she said. “I’m not the person you have to answer to.” She turned to Sebastian. “What about the emperor?”
“Robin said he’d take care of him,” Sebastian said. “But I think we should get back to him. The imperial guards will want to take these two fools into custody.”
“What for?” Tomas wheezed. “We ain’t done nothing wrong.”
“Oh, so you didn’t set up some kind of explosion to kill him?” Sebastian growled.
“That wasn’t us,” Emilio insisted. “That was—”
“Emil!” Tomas shook his head. “If you want to keep your head, then shut it.”
“Why do you threaten him if you have done nothing wrong?” Lucy wondered. Tomas’s mouth snapped stubbornly shut, and he wouldn’t look at her.
Sebastian shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. If nothing else, the emperor is going to have questions about the outfit the pair of you supposedly made for him. Let’s go.”
Tomas gave one more attempt to break Sebastian’s iron grip on his throat before the fight went out of him and he nodded. “Alright. We’ll come quietly.”
Sebastian’s gaze went to Lucy, who had somehow managed to wriggle out of her belt and was now wrapping it around Emilio’s wrists. “You ready?” he called.
Lucy nodded. “You go first.”
Together, they retraced their steps, each leading an extremely recalcitrant prisoner.
Soon they were back at the city square, where they found Robin standing with Lord Han, directing constables and soldiers in every direction.
The emperor and empress were nowhere to be seen, nor were Jack and Kate.
In some ways, Sebastian was glad. Though he hadn’t heard her conversation with Lucy, Kate didn’t seem overly enthused about the prospect of seeing Tomas.
Robin’s eyes lit up when he saw them leading their prisoners. “Ah, you’ve found them,” he said. “And wearing the colors of the Sherwood Company, if I’m not mistaken.”
Emilio raised his chin. “Don’t you dare besmirch the name of our band. We’re going to change things in Afeyra.”
Robin’s gaze hardened. “So I hear.” He turned to Lord Han. “I believe these two were involved in a plot to kill the emperor. Their trick with the cloth is only the beginning of their crimes.”
“We’ll take them into custody,” said one of the constables, a gray goblin in a blue uniform, as he moved to take control of Tomas. “Is there anything else we should know about them?”
“They weren’t working alone,” Lucy warned. “They keep talking about a boss, but they won’t say who he is. And they claimed they didn’t create the explosion. We don’t know who did, though.”
The goblin nodded. “No matter. We’ll get it out of them, eventually.”
Tomas sneered at him. “You won’t get nothing out of me, you stupid gremlin.”
The goblin shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll see. And there’s no need for name calling.”
Han turned to Robin. “We should get back to the palace. The emperor is going to have questions.”
“I’ll be along in a moment,” Robin said, nodding.
He waited until the advisor was out of sight before turning back to Sebastian and Lucy.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with the competition.
Either the emperor will ask Miss Tanaka and Miss Ito to return, or he will declare you two the winners outright.
But either way, you should get to your studio and start working on your entry for the last task. ”
“What about the other members of this group?” Sebastian objected. “Our job—”
“The emperor’s men will get the answers from Emil and Tom.
They have some incredibly effective interrogation tactics,” Robin assured him.
“But the emperor will be on high alert for anything that even smells of trickery until the end of the celebration. We have to make sure he doesn’t suspect you of any wrongdoing. ”
Lucy nodded. “He won’t.” She patted Sebastian’s arm. “Come on. You can tell me about the latest task on our way back.”
Sebastian hesitated. “This feels all wrong,” he murmured to Robin. “It was too easy to catch them, and the explosion—”
“I know what you mean,” the prince said quietly. “Keep your eyes and ears open. And don’t let Lucy out of your sight.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened. “I’ll protect her with my life.”
Something in Robin’s gaze softened. “I know you will.” Almost as soon as it had appeared, the softness hardened, and he gave a sharp nod. “Get back to the palace. And hurry.” Without another word, the prince turned on his heel and marched away.
Sebastian glanced at Lucy, who was chewing on her shattered lip. “What’s wrong?” he asked, taking her hand.
“I’m worried about Kate and Jack,” she mumbled. “What are they going to think when—”
“Kate and Jack will be fine. If you’re that worried about it, I’ll have one of the emperor’s men check in on them when we get back home,” Sebastian assured her.
“Kate will leave town as soon as she can,” Lucy said. “She said she’d been married to Tom, but she kicked him out when he started going down the wrong path. But—”
“It’ll be okay,” Sebastian assured her. “I’ll make sure of it.” He stepped closer to her. “Will you trust me with this?”
Lucy hesitated for less than a second. “Yes…yes, I’ll trust you.”
Sebastian nodded, resting his forehead on hers. “What about you? Are you okay?”
“A little sore,” Lucy admitted, her eyes closed. “Changing into a fox doesn’t hurt, but it hurts a lot more to come back to my human form.”
Sebastian grimaced. “I wish you weren’t in pain,” he murmured, running his thumb over her chin. “I hate it when you’re hurting.”
“Pain is a part of life,” Lucy whispered. Her arms snaked around Sebastian’s torso as she leaned on him, pressing her cheek to his chest. “You can’t always protect me, Seba.”
“I can certainly try.” His voice came out as little more than a growl.
Lucy laughed. “And I know you will. But right now, you have a competition to win. And I have to figure out what paintings we’re going to use.”
She moved to move step away from him, but his grip on her waist tightened. “I mean it, Lucy. I will always try to protect you,” Sebastian whispered into her curls. “Whether it’s from a mad band of thieves or a rampaging werewolf, I would lie down my life to save yours in a heartbeat.”
He felt something wet drop onto the fabric of his tunic as Lucy whispered, “I know.”