“Excellent. Iamsorry about the wait.” I heaved a sigh, glancing up at the sky. The sun would set soon, and I felt like a drained battery. Doing another drive by of Mary’s house would have to wait until the morning.
“Let’s continue this tomorrow,” I said. Vas nodded. “I’ll follow you home.”
As soon as I walked into my apartment, Lia pounced. I scooped her up, fed her, and scrounged around the kitchen until I found a packet of ramen noodles and a banana.
Then I went to sleep and dreamed of black wings and silver eyes.
14
Danica
Vas was waiting for me when I left my apartment after lunch the next day. I’d spent the morning attempting searching online, in a fruitless effort to locate Mary and narrow down the arrows used to shoot my leads. I hadn’t found anything helpful about either.
“Where to?” Vas asked.
“Do you sleep on my roof or something?”
He grinned. “Or something. What’s our plan today?”
“Ineed to go back to the Mage Council. I need to research the witch I’m searching for, and I have a friend who I want to take a look at my arrow.” I wished I’d been able to do it yesterday, but the library closed early, and when I’d asked if Cara was around, a sneering mage had told me she was out on ‘important’ business.
“Arrow?”
I filled Vas in on the asshole who was killing anyone who seemed to know anything connected to my mother’s murder.
He frowned. “Someone thinks you’re getting too close to something they want kept hidden. Have you told Samael about the first arrow? You haven’t, have you?”
I stopped walking and my mouth fell open. Then I managed to pull myself together and narrowed my eyes warningly at the demon. “Look, Vas, this is going to shock you, so prepare yourself.”
His dreamy eyes sharpened in interest. “What?”
I smiled sweetly. “Samael has nothing to do with my life, other than the fact that I’m temporarily working for him. I know demons can’t help their instincts with people they consider ‘theirs’, but that’s not my problem. In six days, I’ll never see the winged pain in my ass again.”
Vas gaped at me. Then he let out a strangled sound that seemed like a cross between a laugh and a gasp.
“Just tell yourself that, witch. Ignorance is bliss.”
I scowled at him and slammed the door of my car behind me, ignoring his chuckle.
This time, when I arrived at the facility, Vas didn’t complain, simply took his phone out of his pocket and leaned against my car. This seemed suspicious. I gave him a squinty-eyed look and he simply smiled at me.
I sidled up to him, peeked over his shoulder and almost choked as I got a glimpse of the bright pink app. “You’re on Portal?”
He flashed me a wicked smile. “Hey, a guy’s got needs.”
“Why’d you swipe left on that light fae? She was cute.”
“Would you like me to micromanage your dating life?”
“Fine. I’m going, I’m going.”
There were lines forming for all of the elevators, so I took the stairs to the 6thfloor. The library was hushed, the books hundreds of years old. No one really read books anymore— everything was digital— but some of the books in this library were also from before the portals opened and during the decade of despair. If the wards ever failed and this building went up in flames, everyone who worked here was expected to get the books out. Even if it cost them their lives.
Humans, witches, demons and mages— all were paranoid about their libraries. But the Mages were some of the worst, and it was almost impossible to actually check a book out of this library. More than any time in history, information was power.
The shelves stood like pieces on a chessboard. They were packed with books, with barely enough room between them for two people to squeeze around each other. A librarian walked past with a stack of books floating in front of her and I stepped around her, heading toward the information desk.
“Hello, Danica.” The selkie smiled at me, stepping forward with a wince. I glanced down at the thick black manacle encircling her ankle, the obsidian chain dragging on the wooden floors. Thirty years after she’d first been imprisoned here, Mella still hadn’t earned her freedom. I’d once asked her what she did to end up here, but she’d been bespelled and was unable to talk about it. From the dark power that dripped from the manacle around her ankle, someone was concerned about what would happen if she ever did.
