We all stared at him for a long moment. Finally, Kyla cleared her throat. “We were hoping to find him and interrogate him. Daimonion is obviously watching closely enough to know that.”
“Yes,” Vas growled. “Another taunt.”
“I need to ask you some questions,” Nelson told me. “Since this DB is related to our case, I’ll be staying on it.” He glanced across the road, where a crowd of curious people was gathering. “Can we talk in your bar?”
Vas reluctantly released me, and I led Nelson into my empty bar. An hour later, we were circling back around to the same questions.
No, I didn’t know the guy. Yes, we’d been attempting to locate him. No, I didn’t know how Daimonion figured out who he was, but yes, the demon was gunning for me. Finally, Nelson left. The crime scene people took my car, and Evie and Kyla wandered back into the bar.
Vas glanced up from where he was leaning against the wall a few feet away. He looked at me like I was as precious as a crystal vase. A vase he was worried someone would shatter into a million pieces.
I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. He pressed a kiss to my cheek. “No one will take you from me. If you believe one thing, Mere, believe that.”
I didn’t know who he was attempting to convince—me, or himself. I forced myself to take a deep breath. Some of the tightness released from my chest. “I know.”
Evie took one of the chairs off a table and sat in it. Kyla did the same, and I turned, still in Vas’s arms. He pressed a kiss to my temple.
“I couldn’t get anything out of the laptop last night,” I told them. “Whoever set up the jobs has managed to cloak anything that could lead me to him.”
Evie nodded. “It’s okay. Kyla found something. One of Ilayda’s cousins.”
I frowned. “I thought we looked into her family.” I’d personally researched everything I could about Yorise and Aellone.
“I talked to Hystea. Now that was an awkward conversation since Solonia tripped, hit her head, and bled out during our little talk.”
Vas’s chest shook against my back. I’d told him all about the fight.
I stared at Evie. She shrugged. “Anyhoo, once I proved to Hystea that Solonia had been up to no good with a bunch of criminals, and convinced her that Ilayda was still alive and in severe danger, she was willing to talk to me. She described the fae Solonia was seen talking to. He had a messed-up ear.”
“Huh?”
“The tip of his ear was…blunted. As if he’d been in some kind of accident or had it chewed on by something nasty.”
I went still. “Let me guess, you found a fae who meets that description.”
Kyla nodded. “Tyverre. One of the cousins. I’d already started looking into him—that’s why I knew about the ear thing, but I couldn’t find anything when I was researching. He’s always with his brother Carmag, so we can assume he’s in on it too. They live off their family’s money and spend all their time at fae balls and shit. But Evie talked to Aubrey, and Carmag has apparently been making moves to get closer to the king.”
“Why would they want Ilayda?”
“I don’t know,” Evie said. “But I know they’ve got her. And I know where they live.”
Kyla stretched her long legs out in front of her, crossing them at the ankles. “They’ll have security.”
“They sure will,” Evie said. “Aubrey’s going to help us there. I also need to talk to Gary, and then I’ll fill you guys in.”
I let out a long breath. “We’re so close. I’m scared something will happen to her before…”
“Me too. But we only get one shot at this. If Finvarra’s people go in, who knows how the light fae will retaliate? And if we fuck this up, they’ll either kill Ilayda or move her, and we’ll never get another chance to find her.”
I eyed her. Evie wasn’t the patient type. “Is that the same little speech you gave yourself this morning?”
“No. It’s the speech Aubrey gave me when I called him earlier.”
Vas nodded. “He’s right.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “He is.”
“Besides, I need to tell Nelson what’s going on. Otherwise, any cooperation we’ve been getting from the cops will disappear.” Evie got to her feet. “We go in at night. Aubrey said the light fae are more powerful when the sun is up, so we’ll take advantage of that.”
