“Neither of the kings are residing in this world at the moment,” she said. “I will pass on your concerns.”
I pulled the picture out of my pocket, conscious of Vas’ curious gaze. “One more question if you don’t mind. Do you recognize this woman?”
She glanced at the photo and shook her head. “No. Should I?”
I sighed and slid it back into my pocket as she got to her feet– a clear indication that this meeting was over. Mariam’s eyes lingered on the slight bump of the dagger beneath my shirt.
“I wouldn’t get overconfident with that dagger,” she said silkily.
“What do you mean?”
“The high fae may not be able to lie, but we can bend the truth with our words,” she warned. “If we chose, we could wind a net of words around you, trapping you within them without speaking a single untruth. So could many of the other older creatures.”
I met Mariam’s eyes. The hint of a smile played around her mouth.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“You have an ancient fae artifact in your possession, and you wield it with no understanding of what it can truly do.” Her eyes hardened. “Your ignorance will get you killed.”
With that warning, she gave us a bland smile and got to her feet. “Good luck finding your murderer.”
We were dismissed. Vas was silent in the elevator on the way down to the lobby, and I stared at the numbers as they counted down the floors.
I may not know much about the dagger, but I knew it had some level of sentience. And it could replicate spells. That made it dangerous as hell. If I were smarter, I’d give the dagger back to Samael.
But I wasn’t going to give up my best tool in the search for my mom’s murderer. I’d just have to beverycareful from now on. No more allowing the dagger to get me out of sticky situations.
“Where to now?” Vas asked as we got into my car.
I slammed the car door behind me and sighed.
Vas shifted in his seat. “What’s wrong?”
“If the fae aren’t responsible— and just because Mariam says they aren’t doesn’t mean they’re off my list of suspects— then we need to talk to the witches.”
“What’s wrong with the witches? Aren’t you a witch?”
“It’s… complicated.” But it had to be done.
It was a coven of determined witches who were to blame for the portals being opened in the first place. I couldn’t imagine a world without paranormals, but there’s no doubt that the coven was responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of millions of people.
The witches decided they were tired of the tiny ember of power they had access to and went searching for ways to increase that power. They followed the myths and scraped together enough power to wake a demigod.
Unsurprisingly, demigods don’t like to be woken. And they’re sleeping for a reason. Their power is tied to the portals between our worlds, and the moment one of them woke, those portals opened, the werewolves turned, and paranormals streamed through.
Covens of witches had been causing trouble ever since.
Beside me, Vassago’s wings rustled. Traveling in the enclosed box must be hell for him. “I can meet you there if you want to fly,” I mumbled, frowning at the road in front of me.
“That defeats the purpose,” he rumbled, amusement clear in his voice. “Bodyguard, remember?” He pushed the car seat back as far as it could go and arranged his wings in an attempt to get more comfortable.
I snarled at that, opening my mouth, and the gold mark on my arm chose that moment to begin tingling as if in warning.
I glowered at it and Vas barely suppressed a laugh. “It’s almost 5pm. Samael ordered me to make sure you visit the tower for your first ward lesson,” he said.
“I don’t have time. I need to go and do my real job— you know, that whole bounty hunting gig that pays my bills? And then I need to talk to the witches about the murders.”
Vas slid me a look. “This may be shocking to you, but Samael doesn’t care.”
