“So rude of me for forgetting to ask. Callum, where exactly is it that you—”
“Listen,” I cut in, fully tired of hearing this man’s voice. “I promise you I’m not the worst thing that’s going to come through the Veil looking for this wielder, should anyone else get wind it’s him they’re all looking for.”
Gavin pales. “Who—or what—else exactly can we expect to see come through the Veil?”
“No one, if we get to the wielder first,” Seren says.
“And what are you going to do when you find him? I can’t in good conscience tell you where he is if you plan to kidnap him or hurt him in some way.”
“We won’t hurt him,” I say. “We just want to talk to him.”
Gavin still doesn’t seem convinced, so I try again.
“Send another wielder to his home, if you want to have assurance he’ll remain unharmed. They can stand guard, listen in on our conversation, whatever they need. We just want the chance to speak with him.”
After turning it over in his mind for a few more moments, Gavin nods.
“Fine. I’ll bring all of this to the Archwielder. If he agrees, you’ll have the information tonight.”
With that, Gavin takes his leave.
If it’s the last time I see him, all the better.
He walks off down one of the paths branching out from the plaza around the fountain, blending into the city’s afternoon crowd.
Seren lets out a long breath. “Well, that could have gone better.”
“Could have gone worse, too,” I offer in consolation. “What sort of shipment did you promise as incentive for information on the wielder?”
She smirks. “Crystals. The same ones their rogue wielder was stealing from the demon realm last year. Only now they have to pay through the nose and humble themselves by wheeling and dealing and begging to get them.”
I huff a laugh. “Something Rhett and Joan are helping you out with?”
It was one matter we discussed last night—the work both Rhett and Joan have been doing with the demon court, the amends that are being made even now for the strainedrelationship caused by the thefts and the subsequent fallout between the court, the coven, and the wielders.
“You know it.” She takes my hand again and leads me away from the fountain, down a different walkway than we took to get here. “And with the added benefit that this particular shipment circumvented the coven entirely, so they’ll also be put out that they missed the chance to stock up.”
“Clever witch,” I murmur, and her smirk turns into a grin that does dangerous things to the center of my chest.
“The cleverest,” she agrees. “Now, let’s forget about wielders and murderous fae monarchs and crystals for a few hours, and I’ll show you around a human city.”
I’ve never heard a better plan in my life.
31
Seren
Watching Callum experience the human realm is fascinating.
I’ve been keeping an eye on him all day as we traveled from Beech Bay to the city, and despite some initial overwhelm, he seems to be doing alright.
After experiencing a handful of the other realms, I can’t imagine the shock of coming here.
It’s not that the human realm has more going for it than any other realm. We’ve got technology, sure, and cities and cars and all that stuff. But we’ve also got plenty of problems other realms don’t.
One afternoon in the city, one day dealing with traffic and parking and people and noise, and I’ve already got a low-grade headache sitting in the back of my skull and the pressing urge to go somewhere without all the marvels of the twenty-first century. Maybe a realm where the trees shine at night with a bioluminescent glow, or one where nobody bats an eye at someone using magick, where it’s just a part of the fabric of daily life.
“Have you ever lived in a place like this?” Callum asks over the bowls of chowder we got for dinner at Faneuil Hall.
