“Yes. The same thief robbed a cottage this morning, which is where I was injured.”
Again, the fury rolled around me.
“And where was Mathi?” he growled. “He is supposed to be protecting you.”
“Since when?”
He didn’t answer, but something within suspected it was likely suggested after they’d rescued me from my aunt’s clutches. It would also explain Mathi’s sudden insistence on me being careful, though I had no doubt most of that came from my near-death encounter and his wish not to lose me as a friend.
“He’s my liaison,notmy protector,” I added. “And that aside, I’m more than capable of protecting myself.”
“I was not suggesting otherwise,” he replied evenly. “But it is also undeniable that you, trouble, and injuries seem to have a fatal attraction.”
“I’d rather label it ‘unwanted’ rather than ‘fatal’. The latter has connotations I do not want to put out there in the ether when the gods are playing their games.”
And I certainly didn’t want tothinkabout it, especially after my father’s declaration that no matter what I did, death would be my end point.
“Describe this dark elf to me.”
“Aside from the fact he’s youngish and has very good control over the earth, I really can’t.” I did give him the little information I’d seen in the vault and described the earthen snake he’d sent after me when I extricated myself from his trap. “Given his formal attire when he was robbing the bank, I thought it possiblehe was going to Jarvil Maehdon’s funeral after he’d finished his thieving.”
“If that is true, then we at least have a starting point.”
He seemed to be a little closer, even though he hadn’t physically moved. If I extended my arm, I could touch him now without effort... and I reallydidwantto touch.I dug my nails into my palm, but the pain did little to erase the desire.
“Why?” I said, a little confused. “I was under the impression the funeral was very well-attended.”
“Both human and fae dignitaries were there in bulk, but only the heads of the main seven dark elf lines and their families attended.” He paused, and his fingers twitched ever so briefly. “How did he get in and out of that vault? It’s well secured against the likes of us dark elves.”
“Via a god-gifted relic.” Amusement twitched my lips. “And, how, exactly do you know that fact about the vault? Or shouldn’t I ask?”
“My father was a consultant when the bank was built.”
“Did he build in backdoor access, by chance?”
A smile briefly touched his lovely lips. “He did not. We might rule the black market, but we do not steal from the financial institutions many of our people use.”
“Do you? Use it, I mean.”
“I do have a safe deposit box there, as well as several other places. As the saying goes, it is never wise to place all your eggs in the one basket.”
“Did your mother or father have boxes there or even elsewhere?”
“Yes—why?”
“Have you checked them for Geitha’s Tears?”
The Tears being the goddess-gifted necklace that had apparently disappeared on his mother’s death.
Something flickered across his expression. Not surprise, not exactly. More... wariness. But why? He surely knew Treasa had asked me to find it—I doubted she would have lied about that.
“My father’s security box did not hold the necklace.”
“And your mother’s?”
“Was closed long ago by my father. If the Tears were in there, he made no further note of where he’d moved it to.”
“Damn.”
