I couldn’t blame her for her hatred of the mages. Still, we needed their cooperation, so I elbowed her in the ribs. She shut her mouth.
“A fae woman by the name of Ilayda was recently kidnapped,” I said. “What do you know about it?”
Albert raised one eyebrow. “Why would you imagine I’d know anything about a fae kidnapping?”
“Because one of the kidnappers had one of your mages’ business cards. And we can’t seem to find that mage.”
His mouth thinned. “Excuse me?”
I studied his face. I didn’t trust Albert one bit. The Mage Council was comprised of a bunch of bigots, and I was damn sure Albert had known exactly what some of his colleagues were planning when they tried to hand Danica over to Lucifer last year.
“Name?” Albert asked, when he’d recovered enough to talk.
“Patrick Carter.”
Something flashed across Albert’s face, too quick for me to catch. He nodded slowly.
“Patrick has been doing some specific work for us.”
“What kind of work?”
His cold eyes barely blinked. “Most people think the idea of cooperation between humans and paranormals is a good thing.” The hint of a sneer flickered over his face, and then he cleared his throat, likely remembering he was staring at a witch, a werewolf, and a… something. “But when criminals from both sides begin working together, more people die. Patrick was investigating a forum on the dark web. A series of message boards are being used to connect humans and paranormals for criminal activity, and he was attempting to decrypt the conversations and shut it down.” Albert sighed, suddenly looking exhausted. “Patrick went missing two weeks ago.”
“You think he’s dead.”
“I know he’s dead. Someone found out what he was trying to do and killed him.”
“Why keep the business card? It seems sloppy.”
“I’m going to go ahead and assume that human likely didn’t think he’d end up dead,” Albert said.
“Can we have access to Patrick’s files?” Evie asked.
Albert shook his head. “Of course not.” He slowly got to his feet. “You may have convinced the police that you can be useful, but you forget, I know your sister. And I know all about the mishmash of genes used to create you.”
If Evie was offended, she didn’t show it. Instead, she just shook her head and glanced at me. I nodded. I would find the forum and ensure anyone who visited it was infected with a virus they never saw coming.
We turned and strolled out.
“Let me guess, you’re adding an illegal search of Patrick’s house to your to-do list,” I said.
“You guessed right. I’m betting Albert has already done the same thing, but we can search his place anyway.” She blew out a long breath. “Let’s go find the harpy first.”
We piled into her car and headed toward Oakmont Circle, where—according to Hystea—Solonia lived.
Evie was quiet on the way, and Kyla gave me wide eyes. I shrugged, and she turned back around. I’d insisted she take the front seat since her legs were longer than mine. She may be a werewolf, but stretching out in the back seat wasn’t safe.
She’d smiled at that, and I knew she’d barely restrained herself from patting me on the head.
Kyla cleared her throat, obviously desperate to take Evie’s mind off Albert’s cutting remarks. “Soooo, any news about you and Liam?”
Evie’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I’m done with men. They’re more work than they’re worth.”
If she’d just sounded pissed off, I would’ve let it go. But she sounded…despondent. “Do you want to talk about it?”
She shrugged. “Maybe later. We’re here.”
We slid out of the car, and I leaned against it, surveying the gray ranch-style home. Typically, harpies lived in nests, far from civilization. In this realm, most of them chose to live alone in highly secure houses. Human authorities frowned on women living wild, and if there was one thing harpies didn’t enjoy, it was attention.
