Harrison’s features relaxed. “Glad to hear it. I don’t know how you keep getting stuck with these crazy cases. Did you do something in an earlier life to royally piss Karma off?”
“I have no idea. But if I did, I’d like to officially apologize for any former offensive actions I might have made.”
Harrison laughed good-naturedly before swatting me on the shoulder with the folder in her hand. “Get out of here, O’Hare, and get some sleep. God knows you’ve earned it. Let me know if there’s anything I can do,” Harrison offered as she walked away.
I watched her go for a few seconds before turning and hotfooting it to the stairwell. I might have pissed Karma off in a past life regarding my work life, but I couldn’t be the least bit miffed with her regarding my personal life. No matter whatcame from this shit with Huxley, I’d never regret falling in love with Boone.
Ihad no idea where to start with the information dump Boone and Phlox released when I’d barely walked through the door. Boone had given up speaking and allowed Phlox to take over. Leon leaned against the couch as Phlox pixie-paced, flying back and forth while his arms flailed this way and that. Phlox was definitely one of those individuals that talked as much with his hands as his mouth. The fluffy tail twitching back and forth as he flew was more than a little distracting.
“My beloved sometimes loses control of his other form when he is upset,” Leon explained when he caught me staring.
“Sorry.” I scratched the back of my neck. “I didn’t mean to stare, but…”
“It is fine,” Leon reassured. We’d spoken low, and Phlox was so busy ranting he didn’t notice our conversation.
By the time he was done, I felt like my emotions had been sent on the mother of all roller coasters. “I think I need to sit for a minute.” Or maybe an hour. Maybe two.
Boone’s hand never left my forearm as I heavily sat on the couch. My exhausted brain tried keeping up, but I was admittedly struggling. In all the confusion, I latched on to the one thing that made some type of odd sense. “Aurelia has a scuttlebutt?”
“For better or worse,” Boone answered with a flinch.
“And its name is…? I couldn’t have heard that part right.”
“Oh, you did,” Boone reassured me. “Fuzzy Britches.”
“Dear God, who names these things? Did Aurelia come up with that?”
Boone shook his head “Peaches said the scuttlebutt came with the name.”
Leon said, “I would suspect the Master of Beasts named the scuttlebutt.”
I considered purchasing a book of baby names and asking Phlox and Leon if they could get it to the fairy they knew and if he in turn could get it to thisMaster of Beasts. There had to be better names in there.
“Stupidly named scuttlebutts aren’t the problem here!” Phlox darted toward me. I jerked back when I saw his eyes had also shifted, now a lovely golden hue that spoke of future pain.
“Beloved.” That one word, spoken with cool control, was like a bucket of ice water on Phlox’s ire. “The human is processing. Their brains are poorly developed and require more time. You must give the detective a little grace.”
I stared, eyes wide at the slight against my species. Boone’s fingers tightened on my wrist in warning. Leaning in, he whispered, “Not the time.”
Boone was right. I pushed down my desire to remind Leon that he was once alowlyhuman with apoorly developedbrain.
“Apologies, Detective O’Hare.” Phlox did sound truly apologetic. “I’m not typically this reactive. It’s just…”
“Djinn. I get it.” And I did. At least as much as I could understand. Djinn were little more than mythology in the human world. From what I understood, they’d been encountered so infrequently over the past few centuries that the other species had formed similar conclusions. There’s truth to the saying ignorance is bliss. While Aurelia had grown on me, I’d still give just about anything to go back to simpler times when I still believed djinn were mere fabrication. That wouldn’t have made them any less real, but it would have made me blissfully unaware and unbothered.
Rubbing my gritty eyes didn’t help relieve their discomfort. If anything, it just made them burn more. “I don’t suppose Aurelia knows anything else about the two djinn in Huxley’s possession.”
Boone shook his head. “If she does, she didn’t offer up the information.”
“Do you think that’s because she doesn’t know or that she’s keeping that information to herself?” I asked.
Boone’s fingers traced patterns on my skin as he answered, “I’m not sure. She knew who Janus was, but I don’t know if she could tell simply from his object of attachment. What do you think, Phlox?”
Phlox had landed and leaned heavily against Leon. His tail was gone, and his eyes were back to their pixie blue. Tapping a finger against his lips, Phlox’s shoulders rolled forward in thought. “I’m not sure. Janus had been released by the time Aurelia was awoken.”
Boone’s head snapped up, and his eyes flicked from me to Phlox. “That’s a good point.” He licked his lips. “Are we even certain Tenzen’s woken them? I mean, if he had, wouldn’t we know it? Aurelia said Pops’s wards can’t keep her out, so…” Boone looked so hopeful as he stared into my eyes.
I wanted to tell him he was right, that Huxley hadn’t released the djinn yet, but I had no way of knowing if that were true. There was also a major flaw in his thinking. “If he wants to keep his djinn around, I doubt he’d send them your way first.”
