“Is the wife aware of what he’s doing?” I asked. “Did Dawson speak to her?”
“He spoke to people in the know over there. René and Camille run a discreet but very profitable information collecting service.”
“But...” I repeated, my mind refusing to compute the whole situation. “What woman in their right mind allows their husband to long-term fuck another?”
“One who understands it’s nothing but business. Apparently, sex is their preferred means of mining information, because both René and Camille are dream thieves.”
I nodded. “He did tell me he could get a sense of a person’s past, their dreams, and their motivations, but I just hadn’t followed it through to a logical conclusion. He did say he found me extremely difficult to read.”
“Which is no doubt why they resorted to drugging you.”
“No doubt.” I paused. “I take it their fees are rather high?”
“According to Dawson, their fees start out steep and rise to exorbitant, depending on engagement time and the information required.”
While I was well aware that sex had been used as a means of stealing information for centuries, I’d never expected it to be used againstme. Fury stirred anew, and lightning danced across my fingertips; it was all I could donotto unleash. Although, given he remained unconscious, unleashing now wouldn’t have been half as much fun.
I sucked in a breath and fought for calm. “I’m obviously a long-term target, which means we’re dealing with someone with very deep pockets.”
“I think it more likely we’re dealing with an overall body of someones, especially if, as we suspect, his employers are connected to the Ninkilim.” He rose and met my gaze. “I contacted Cynwrig. He’s sending Bodhrán here to pick up Eljin once we have finished questioning him.”
“I’m not surethatis the best option right now. Not given Cynwrig’s penchant for disappearing people.”
Mathi smiled. “Then you had best talk to him, because the man is, rather understandably, furious on your behalf.”
“I’mfurious on my behalf, but that doesn’t mean I get to kill the bastard.” I lightly toed the still unconscious man and saw his muscles tense slightly. He was waking.
“Oh, Cynwrig doesn’t intend to kill him.” Mathi paused. “Well, I don’t think he does. But tucking the man deep underground for a century or two? More than possible.”
I snorted but didn’t reply as Eljin continued to wake. Though his eyes didn’t open, the small movements of hands and legs suggested he was testing the strength of his bindings.
“You’re bound with wire,” I said. “You won’t be getting free unless I release you.”
“And you can certainly forget the idea of any sort of freedom in the mid to long term,” Mathi added.
“What the hell is going on, Beth?” He tried to roll onto his back—which would have been very uncomfortable, given how he was tied—but Mathi planted a foot in the middle of his spine and kept him still. “Why have you bound me like this? I’ve done nothing?—”
“Nothing except lie about who you really are and why you’re really here.” I stepped forward and touched his neck. The lightning sparking from my fingertips brushed the skin, and hetensed briefly. Though it was tempting to let that lightning dance across his body, I once again resisted and reached for my pixie magic instead. “You will answer every question we ask, you will not shout for help, and you will make no attempt to escape.”
The magic surged through me, then stopped dead at the point where my fingers touched his skin. It didn’t run into him; it certainly didn’t command him.
Either he was wearing some sort of protection against my magic, as Mathi had suggested, or there was elf in his background somewhere. “Where is it, Eljin?”
“Where is what?” His confusion looked real, but then, this was a man for whom deceit was apparently second nature. “Beth, this prank is really getting out of hand. Please, just?—”
“René,” I cut in. “The game is up. You have one chance, and one chance only, to come clean with us. Where is the charm protecting you from my magic?”
“There is no charm. I’m quarter elf.” Amusement touched his lips, though his eyes were cold. Calculating. “If you don’t release me, Iwillyell for help.”
“Feel free,” I said. “I pay the wages of those downstairs, so they’ll be more inclined to listen to me than you. Besides, we both know that if youweretaken into IIT custody, you wouldn’t hold on to life for very long. Your employers aren’t going to risk any sort of useful information leaving your lips, and Carla is very adept at killing those held in high security, having already killed four prisoners.”
His gaze narrowed. “You lie.”
“The one thing Beth cannot do is lie successfully,” Mathi said. “We not only know your identity, René, but we also know the woman you met in London this weekend is in fact your wife rather than your sister. We know the business you both run. What we don’t know is who employed you to steal Bethany’s memories.”
“If you’ve hurt Camille?—”
“You’ll what? Hurt us? Kill us?” I snorted. “In case it’s escaped your notice, you’re trussed up tighter than a duck’s ass. You can’t help yourself, let alone her. Now answer the goddamn question.”
