“Why did Vlad call ahead, then?”
I take a sip of my drink instead of answering. Why indeed? And where is Spectra? We don’t have all night to wait; I can’t really keep dragging Njáll away from his work, especially if he still has to deal with Augustine.
“Nice to see the Hunt is still punctual,” a voice says, and I turn so quickly that I almost spill the contents of my glass. Njáll puts a hand on my back, steadying me. The heat of his palm sears through my clothes.
“You must be Spectra,” I say to the woman who has just appeared to my right.
She’s not high fae, but she’s not far off. One of her parents was, maybe, because I can feel her magic from here, but there’s no way she would have been able to travel without us knowing about it. She’s almost as tall as Njáll is, with a head of curls, wearing a skin-tight gold dress that pops against her dark skin.
She taps an emerald fingernail on the top of the bar. “Oh. Must I?”
“Are you?”
“Of course.” Her gaze moves past me and over Njáll. “Who’s he?”
“A friend,” I say before Njáll can answer. Not that I think he would. He seems to understand my reasoning for him to stay silent and out of trouble, generally speaking.
“I didn’t know the Hunt had friends in the clan,” Spectra replies. Her grin shows too many teeth. She’s wearing a glamour, of course, but letting it slip.
“He’s not… He’s helping me. He’s the reason I’m here.”
It’s halfway true. I need to investigate for the Huntsman anyway, but Njáll’s attack is what has upped the stakes.
“Not a chance you’ll have your little pet sit here by the bar?” She indicates the fae behind it with a jerk of her chin. “Sparrow’s lovely if you take the time to get to know them.”
I glance at Sparrow. They stare back, one eyebrow raised.
“Not a chance,” I say to Spectra, and she smiles like she expected nothing else before she lets out a put-upon sigh.
“Come along, then. I’ve somewhere we can talk.”
Njáll is only a step behind me as I follow Spectra through the pub. We skirt the edge of the dance floor, heading for a door that is entirely encased in shadow. No magic, though. Instead, there’s a fae who has height and breadth on Njáll. He eyes us both with no little suspicion, relaxing only when Spectra murmurs to him.
We pass through the door, and I wonder if he is guarding it on the other side. He might look physically stronger than Spectra, but I am not a fool. She holds all the power here, both figuratively and literally.
Down one narrow corridor, then another, and finally, Spectra swings open a door that opens into a cosy sitting room. I scowl as I stamp over the threshold.
“Warping space is forbidden, isn’t it?”
She pauses from where she’s pouring drinks over in the corner and gives me a look I like even less than I did back in the bar.
“Not forbidden,” she says finally. “We’re not supposed to use powerful magic in ways that the mundane might discover us—or you. If a human managed to make it into the bar itself uninvited, I’d be surprised.”
It’s weak, but I’d need to check the rules the Huntsman originally laid down to be sure. I haven’t read them in such a long time, and I have no idea if or when he updates them.
Still, I suppose Vlad has left Spectra alone all this time. Her information must be worth it because he is usually the most sensible of us all.
Well, his recent bout of turning a human aside.
Spectra waves at the sofa—this whole place gives me the same impression as Njáll’s office, honestly—and we both sit. She hands us both a drink before she takes her own seat in a Chesterfield armchair, crossing one leg neatly over the other.
“To what do I owe the pleasure, hunter?”
“Maurice,” I say because I’m not a hunter in the way those who work for the Council are, and I don’t want her to forget that. Not that I believe she will. “Vlad said you might be able to give me more information about the fae.”
“That depends. What information do you seek?”
I sigh and glance at Njáll only once before I explain the attack on him, as well as the resulting dryad and the selkie who got away. She raises an eyebrow when I say that Reijo attacked too; clearly, he’s at least known to her, though I suspect she may know most of the fae in this city.
