“I don’t particularly want to go through the hell of being kidnapped again, I can assure you of that.” I started to roll up my left sleeve. “But okay, let’s get it over with.”
“Not your arm. Your belly.”
“What? Why?”
“Most bio products are placed in either the arm or the back of the neck, just under the hairline. The belly is less obvious, but just as effective.” He motioned toward my hoodie. “Up it goes.”
I scowled at him, but nevertheless caught the hem of the hoodie and lifted it up, ensuring it was tucked under my braless boobs in the process.
“You spoil all my fun,” he said with a put-upon sigh.
I rolled my eyes. “Will you just get on with it?”
He chuckled, pulled a small, well-wrapped container out of his pocket, broke the seal, then opened it up. Inside was a small syringe; inside the syringe was the metal bio tracker, which was no bigger than a freckle. Mathi took off its cap, ensured there was no air inside the syringe, then pinched my stomach fat and injected the tracker. It wasn’t pain free—no damn needle ever was—but it was nowhere near as bad as having a tracker removed had been.
I tugged my sweater down then went into my bedroom and, after closing the door, quickly slipped on a bra and knickers, then jeans, boots, and a thick woolly jumper. After grabbing a waterproof jacket—it wasn’t currently raining, but I could smell the promise of it in the wisp of wind sneaking in through the bedroom’s open window—I walked across to the bathroom and grabbed the pectoral from the jeans that still lay in a wet heap on the floor there.
Once I’d tucked it into my purse, I called my knives to me, shoved them in as well, then picked up my coffee. “Lead the way, my friend.”
We headed down the stairs and out the back. Henrick had parked at the end of the lane and, ten minutes later, we were outside the council’s ugly building.
“I’ll meet you in the foyer once you’ve finished,” Mathi said as we climbed the stairs.
I nodded. He peeled off at the first floor, but I continued on until I reached Liadon’s door. I pressed my hand against the metal, which always felt weirdly warm but also a little oily under my fingertips; the symbols immediately came to life, glowing with an odd green luminosity as heat rolled across my palm and fingers. Liadon’s magic, scanning me.
The door slid silently open. Liadon’s orb was waiting on the other side for me.
“This is an unexpected pleasure,” she said through her creature. “I was not expecting to see you again so soon.”
“I wasn’t expecting to be back here so soon, but luck was on our side for a change.”
“You have found the pectoral?”
“Yes, and apparently, Aamon does not wish it destroyed.”
“Indeed, he does not. This way.”
The orb spun and sped off into the heated darkness. I hurried after it. “You can’t take it from me here?”
“There are some relics I cannot touch. Aamon’s is one of them.”
“Why?”
“Its gift is incompatible with what I am.” The orb spun around briefly. “Only those who are fully human can touch it.”
“I’m not fully human.”
“No, but it is your humanity that allows you to touch such relics, while it is your divine bloodline that offers you protection from many of them.”
“It didn’t offer me much protection against Agrona’s sword or the fallout from her ring’s usage.”
“It does depend on the artifact in question, of course.” Her tone was filled with amusement. “And you do remain alive, so there is that.”
“I’m thinking me being alive has more to do with the gods not wanting their game to be ended so soon.”
“That is also true.”
She led me into a small dark room that very much reminded me of a bank vault, complete with variously sized security boxes floating in almost straight lines against the walls. These boxes weren’t made of metal, however. They weren’t even made of the black stone that this place had been carved out of. Instead, they were gauzy and indistinct, their contents darkish shadows, some of which were extremely weird looking, including one that roiled around lazily, reminding me somewhat of a snake.
