“Don’t tell him that,” I drawled. “He’ll be offended.”
She laughed. “We should at least warn Lugh. He’ll need to keep a closer eye on his movements at the museum.”
“If I tell my brother Eljin drugged me, there will be an ugly confrontation. We can’t afford that just yet.” I munched on the biscuit for a bit. “Besides, given the information he got from Frank and the suspicions it raised, he’ll already be on alert.”
“I’m not happy about keeping so many secrets from him, Beth. Not when it comes to you.”
I hesitated, but in truth, I could see her point. Their romantic relationship was still new, and given we had vowed long ago never to keep secrets from each other, it was natural she’d want to extend that to Lugh.
“Fine, tell him about Eljin but make him promise he’ll take no action until we get that report back from Mathi’s friend. And if he’s reluctant to promise, tell him I’ll pixie him.”
“As long as he’s included in any confrontation with the man, I’m sure he’ll be perfectly fine with sitting back and waiting.”
“Yeah, but only because it’ll give him more time to plot Eljin’s punishment.”
My voice was dry, and she smiled in acknowledgement ofthatparticular truth. “If Eljin is working for whoever stole the hoard, do you really think he’ll live long enough to tell any tales once it’s known we’re onto him?”
“No, which is why we’ve got to step carefully.” I finished my biscuit and chased it down with some tea. “In fact, it might be best if Sgott has nothing to do with chasing down the identity of older Eljin. It might be better if we get Mathi’s friend to do it.”
“Better yet, why not ask Treasa or even Cynwrig? They obviously know a lot more about him than they’ve said so far.” She paused and wrinkled her nose again. “Though having said that, if Cynwrig had been aware that Eljin was playing for the other side in this battle, he would have reacted.”
“Treasa did say she’d debated the wisdom of giving me that article, so maybe she also kept it from him.”
“Maybe she didn’t want you to think she was trying to sabotage your relationship with Eljin when you were also seeing Cynwrig.”
“More likely she didn’t want him reacting against Eljin until I’d had a chance to come to my senses.”
“Well, they are twins. She knows him better than anyone.” She glanced at her phone and rose. “I’d better get going. I promised I’d drive Mom to the hairdresser this afternoon.”
Darby’s mother—Ffion—along with her father, Dyfri, tended to spend a good portion of their time in Knolls Gardens, a specially designed retirement community for elderly but well-off Ljósálfar elves who wanted the convenience of being close to Deva without having to live in the hustle and bustle of the old city or its surrounds.
“Damn, sorry if I’ve made you late.”
“Don’t be daft, woman.” She dropped a kiss on my cheek. “By the way, Lugh said he was going into the museum this morning to search the archives. He’ll either call or send a text if he finds anything.”
“I might get in first and tell him to cc Mathi in on anything he finds. Mathi’s friend is already looking into the sister, so he might as well do a full background on the Eljin in that photo.” I paused. “Did he happen to work on those scrolls last night, do you know?”
“He did indeed. Not sure when he came back to bed, because I was fast asleep.” She touched my shoulder and then headed out.
I finished my second biscuit then grabbed my phone, first sending the text to my brother, and then calling Mathi.
“And to what do I owe this great honor?” he said, voice dry.
“Thought you might like to know that Eljin is definitely not on the side of the angels, though the jury is out as to whether he’s a total black sheep.”
“Why? What has he done?” His voice was flat, and yet so filled with threat that a shiver stole down my spine.
“We suspect?—”
“We?” he cut in sharply.
“Me and Darby.”
“To repeat, what has he done?”
“He didn’t hurt me, Mathi, so stand down.”
“Tell me,” he growled.
