Sighing, I nodded at the woman. “Nice to see you again too, Ariella.”
The fae woman was over a thousand years old, but looked like a beautiful twenty-year-old, with flowing blonde hair, dark green eyes, and skin so pale it might have been carved from alabaster.
She glanced at Veronica, who still had her head tilted down to hide her face.
“Who’s your friend? Is this the little side piece you’re fucking these days?” Ariella asked, though there was a humorous tone to her voice that told me she was only joking. I hoped Veronica picked up on it as well.
“Can we come inside?” I said, casting another glance over my shoulder.
Rolling her eyes, Ariella sighed and put a hand on her hip before moving aside and allowing us in. “Come on.”
I ushered Veronica in, then shut the door behind me. “You can take the hat off. We’re safe here.”
Veronica threw back her hood and took off the cap.
“You brought a goddamnedmurdererinto my place of business?” Ariella hissed, turning her baleful gaze on me.
“I didn’t killanyone,” Veronica said.
“That’s not the word around town,” Ariella said, but even though she addressed Veronica, she kept her eyes on me.
“She’s telling the truth, Ari,” I said. “We need your help to prove it.”
“You realize every witch within a hundred miles of Chicago is looking for this woman, right? There are magical bounty hunters combing all the humanandmagic streets for her. I don’t care what you need, you’re putting me at risk.”
“Ari,” I said, stepping forward. “Youoweme. Or don’t you recall what I did for you all those years ago? Huh?”
The fae woman gave me a withering look. “Really? After all these years,nowyou call in your favor?”
“That’s what favors are for,” I said. “You only call them in when you need them.”
She glared at me, her ample chest heaving up and down with each breath. Finally, she looked at Veronica. “You’re telling the truth? You had nothing to do with Balthazar Freedman’s death?”
“Absolutelynothing,” Veronica said.
Ariella sighed with resigned acceptance. “What do you need?”
“I need a glamour talisman,” I said, and went on to explain what we were planning and where we needed to go.
When I was done, Ariella shook her head. “It won’t work.”
“What?” I said, suddenly crestfallen. “Why not?”
“Even the most powerful glamour spell isn’tcompletelyfoolproof. You’ll be going into a placefilledwith people who know—or are looking for—this young lady. The charm won’t be strong enough to fool everyone who knows her. If it was a small cocktail party with four or five people, it’d be doable, but not this. Whoever goes would need to be someone the guests don’t know very well.”
“So, you’re saying your magic isn’t strong enough?” I said, attempting to goad her.
Ariella looked at me like I was the stupidest man in the world. “My magic is strong enough, but you can only confuse so many people at one time. I can make a glamour talisman for you, but her? No way. They’d realize there was something off about her in minutes, and once there’s even thehintof confusion about someone’s identity, the glamour breaks. It’s not a power thing, it’s logistics.”
“Piss,” I growled.
“It’s fine,” Veronica said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “She’s right. All my classmates and instructors would know my magical signature. They’d sense it. There’s no way to mask that with a glamour anyway. This is the best we can do. You go. We’ll find a way for us to communicate while you’re there.”
“Fine,” I said, though I didn’t like it. Leaving Veronica alone was dangerous. I wanted to be near her. I needed to protect her.
“Give me something of yours,” Ariella said, holding her hand out. “Something personal you’ll have on you at this littlesoirée.”
I gave her a sarcastic grin, then reached under my arm and pulled out my gun. Slapping it into her hand, I said, “Not going anywhere without that.”
