I’m here,Raven wanted to say, but the truth was, he wasn’t.Hadn’t been.One day after another, like Maxim said, but there was no room for anything else there, was there?And he looked for me.He was here all the time, every day.
Cold misery washed over Raven, and he grimaced.“I’ve been an asshole, haven’t I?”
“What?No.Fuck no.Has anyone been saying that?Make them talk to me.Uh, unless they’re vampires or werewolves, in which case, make them talk to Mr.Vallois.”
“I think you can call him Maxim, actually.”
“Yeah, but if I call him Mr.Vallois, it’s easier to remember that he’s sort of my boss.Doesn’t matter.You’re not an asshole, you just need to get out of this stuffy storage floor.”
Raven sighed.“An hour?”
Jason beamed, and Raven could feel his excitement, just like he had back when Jason had dragged him to all the college parties.That seemed like a lifetime ago.
“Yeah.One hour, and we’re taking Heath to get us inside.”
“He might be busy.There’s no rush.”
Jason hummed and pulled out his phone, typed.“Yeah… Yup!He’s game.Tonight good for you?”
Raven felt a creeping sense of unease, even as Ume licked his hand.“Sure.Sure, that’s good.”Maxim won’t mind if we play chess after, will he?
Chapter 33
“Italy,”Maximsaid,lookingat the list of properties Heath had spread out on the meeting table in his office.Not all of the houses had been verified as belonging to Highgate for certain, but the Italy one was definitely his.
Heath gave a one-shouldered shrug.“You’d expect that.From the name, right?Laurenzio Highgate.Do you think maybe he kept his first name and only changed his last name for his aliases?”
While Raven had been settling in, Heath had used his considerable skill to make inquiries.Maxim, on his end, had reached out to people he trusted, people on the ground in places like London to investigate there, look at old files, and circumvent official Forum channels that might have attracted too much attention.
“It’s possible.Not easy to do if he registered with the Forum.Then again, let’s not forget about Raven’s theory.”
Heath looked up from the papers.“Huh?”
“He went to Highgate’s lecture because he thought the man was the original creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories.That it was a pen name, of sorts, although he used a human to hide behind.In a sense, that is an alias.”
“Right.It’s… Sherlock Holmes was always the smartest person in the room, right?So maybe also wishful thinking.”
Heath had printed out maps of where the properties he had discovered were located.The one in Florence was close to the cathedral with its dome.Maxim remembered looking up at it during a visit some four hundred years ago.If Highgate was around back then, if he was not a stone’s throw away from me… How things would have changed if I had known to stop him then.
It was no use wondering over this now.What was done was done, and the present was all Maxim could control.
“He does think himself supreme, yes.”
Highgate was still in the cell at the end of the hallway in the basement, and the lights there were still on.He’d not yet lost the ability to throw taunts though, or to sing his foul rhymes.
Heath rubbed his eyes.“I don’t like this.I so don’t like this.”
He had his phone next to him on the table, and it vibrated noisily, distracting him while Maxim looked away from the map.Heath flicked the screen on, read, then frowned.
“Jason says Raven wants to go to the Red Clover.What the fuck?Did he say something to you?Jason’s telling me to come along and make sure to get them inside without waiting.Why would he even thinkIcan get them in when you’re everyone’s door opener?”
Maxim felt a pang in his chest like a spot of blame.Raven should have askedhim.They had sat across from each other for hours, Maxim explaining about rooks and pawns, about when to castle and when to sacrifice.Raven was a quick study, and every now and then, brightness would shine out of him when he got something right.Maxim knew that this was likely one of Jason’s ruses to get his friend to go out, yet at the same time, he felt like a failure that Raven had not askedhimto take them to the club.And a deeper failure not to have thought of something similar.
“Darling, you can open doors if you want.Recall, the club owner called you specifically when there was a disturbance.”
Heath rolled his eyes and texted.“I don’t think that fae really knows who I am, but fine.Not like I’d let them go alone.I mean, I trust Raven, but have you seen Jason do coffee runs?The baristas give him free drinks all the time, and I think he knows everyone who works on this floor, which is most of the legal team and all the accountants.They all adore him and tell me he’s the best internever.There are strong hints in the air about making sure I hire him right out of college.”
Maxim looked up.“I don’t know everyone who works on this floor.I wasn’t even aware you had all the accountants confined here.I was certain you kept some in the basement or in walled-off rooms or such.”
