He shot a pointed look at my hip, where Misty was covered with my t-shirt, and raised one eyebrow. Maybe he could feel the dagger’s power. I tensed, and his eyes sharpened. Then his gaze dropped to the khopesh in my hands.
“Keep it,” he said.
I gaped at him. “Excuse me?”
“You’ve been a delight. It’s not often I get to ramble about weapons to someone who isn’t merely humoring my interest. My cousin has been considering visiting me, and if she found that sword, it would upset her.”
“What about the curse?” Vas asked.
Aubrey waved one hand. “That has long been lifted.”
“Wow, are you sure?” My hands tightened possessively on the khopesh and Aubrey’s wink told me he’d noticed.
“I’m more than sure. It’ll clear a space for something I’ve been seeking for a long time.”
I opened my mouth to ask what exactly that was, and Vas cleared his throat. Right, we had work to do.
“Thank you, I appreciate this.”
He waved his hand again. He’d been alive when this was buried with the king and was older than the weapon I considered ancient. To him, it was likely as mundane as one of my throwing knives.
“Okay.” I forced myself to focus. “So Hrunting disappeared from this house, is that correct?”
He nodded.
“Was it in this room?” I glanced around. Between the poisonous vines and the ward, it seemed impossible that someone could have slipped in here without warning the fae.
“No,” he said. “I brought you here to show you that I have many weapons in here that are much more powerful than Hrunting. If whoever had stolen the sword had targeted me specifically, they should have found a way to get in here.”
This was torture. My mind was immediately on the ancient weapons behind him. Which ones were the most powerful, and why? I opened my mouth to ask, and a feather tickled my cheek again.
Right. I needed to stay on task.
“So where was Hrunting when it was stolen?”
Aubrey led us out of the weapons room and to a large office a few doors down. A white vine curled toward me as I stepped through the doorway, and I froze.
“She’s not poisonous. Just curious.” He gave the vine a hard stare and it slowly curled back along the top of the doorway.
He gestured to the desk which took up half the room. More plants and flowers dotted the desk, the scent heady and Vas sneezed again behind us.
“The blade was on my desk,” Aubrey said.
I closed my eyes briefly and he let out a humorless laugh. “Yes, I know, it was stupid. However, I had just removed the blade from my personal collection because my king had asked for it to be brought back to him.”
There was only one reason why the seelie king would want this sword. “He’s going after the sword that killed Grendel’s mother.”
Aubrey shrugged. “I had arranged for a friend to take Hrunting to our realm. He was due to arrive that day.” For the first time, Aubrey’s perfect face turned cold. Lavender eyes burned with retribution. “Someone had either been watching for that exact moment, or it was a crime of opportunity.”
“Who has access to this office?”
He shrugged. “Myself and my staff.”
“I’ll need the names of your staff.”
“My staff are above reproach. We are a family.”
Uh-huh. “Any humans in that family?”
