“It’s irresponsible.”He rubbed his jaw.“Shouldn’t get involved with a partner.”
Jason growled.“Goddess, Silas.Where you there today?Our lives could be over tomorrow.Do not fuck this up out of some desire to beresponsible.”
He took a bite of his burger to keep from arguing.
Thankfully, Jason changed the subject.“Besides Nickelova, what dragon would stab Laina?Dragon fae are rare.You haven’t heard anything from the rest of her family, have you?They haven’t waged war against us while I was away?”Jason asked over his pasta dish.He’d barely touched the stuff.
“No.The Siberian Dragon Fae distanced themselves from Nickelova once she stole the amulet.Official word is that they will not interfere with the course of events.They’ve known she’s hibernating in her mountain, but her brother sent word that the family wouldn’t help her.”
“Then if it was a dragon, it had to be her.But how?”
“I can think of three possibilities when it comes to Nickelova,” Silas said.“One: she’s here helping Alex without her heart.Two: she’s here helping Alex and has somehow obtained her heart again.Or three: it wasn’t a dragon at all.After the sulfralite infected Laina’s system, the person who stabbed her could have suggested he or she was a dragon.The only theory we can potentially disprove is number two.”
“Ryker,” Jason said.
“Selene’s right.We have to find out if he still has her heart.”
They finished their lunch and then took the unmarked van into the vampire district.He parked under an old-fashioned tin-plate sign that readLost Thingswith an illustration of a runaway boy smiling down on them.The thing always crept Silas out.
“Why do I have a feeling this is not going to go well?”Jason mumbled.
“Because demons don’t like questions.Especially demons who make their living reselling dark magical artifacts,” Silas said.
Jason had no argument with that.It was barely twilight, but Lost Things was brimming with shady-looking customers.A bald warlock in purple-and-black robes was levitating three silver balls in front of a shelf of weapons.Near the checkout counter, a woman who looked to be half-goblin dug through a basket of dehydrated mice.Across the store, a vampire in a heavy, hooded cloak stood motionless in front of a rack of carved figurines.It was too early for him to be up.Silas wondered if he might be ill.
The two navigated to the back of the store and rang the bell on the counter.After several minutes passed, Silas grew annoyed, shifting from foot to foot.Ryker was here.No way would he leave the store unattended with this many customers in it.
“I’m going in there,” Silas said, gesturing toward the door to the back room.
“Are you insane?”Jason said in a stage whisper.“For all you know, he could have it rigged to steal your soul.You do not touch anything in Lost Things without permission.Trust me.”
“Then how do you propose we get him out here?”
“Ryker!”Jason yelled toward the door.“I need to talk to you.It’s about my friend, Grateful Knight.You know, the Hecate?I’m not sure if you know this, but she has the power to sentence practitioners of the dark arts to her hellmouth?—”
There was a thump, and a black fog filtered under the door and formed into a dark and exotic-looking man.“Lower your voice, Mr.Flynn.Have you no respect for a man’s business?”
“We need to talk to you.It’s important.”Jason paused, eyeing the dark man behind the counter.“Hey, you look great.Have you been working out or something?”
“Eating well.”Ryker glanced toward Silas.“Perhaps we should take this conversation to the back room.”He held the door open for them.
If the front of the store looked like a cursed rummage sale, the back room was even less organized.There was only one chair, parked unevenly in front of a desk heaped with papers and shipping boxes.Ryker promptly sat down in it.
“Now, what brings you two gentlemen into my humble establishment?”His voice held a gritty quality, not unlike Clint Eastwood in those oldDirty Harrymovies.
Silas felt the weight of Ryker’s gaze settle on him again.Was Ryker more fidgety than usual tonight?He didn’t know the demon well, but his gut told him he was onto something here.
“I won’t beat around the bush, Ryker,” Silas began.“My sister was stabbed four days ago.There was sulfralite residue in the wound.”
Ryker stilled, his face showing the slightest lines of worry.“Sulfralite?Are you quite certain?That is a substance even I have trouble obtaining.”
“Quite certain,” Silas said.“Grateful was able to negate the effects, but when our sister woke up, she said it was a dragon who stabbed her.”
Ryker picked up a pen and tapped it rhythmically on his thigh.“I haven’t felt a dragon’s presence in this city for some time.Not since Nickelova.”
“Exactly.That’s why we’re here,” Jason said.“Do you still have her heart?”
“You’re afraid her heart was reunited with her body and that she is the one who stabbed your sister?”
