Got him.
A smile grew on my face and I leaned across the counter, using my height to hover over him. “Sage is what?” I asked slowly.
He shook his head. “Sage is… Sage is… Sage is a common ingredient, easy to see how you might mistake the scent for something illicit. A-are you in the market for something like that, though? I got a good guy, first hit is half—”
My hand shot out and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him close. “Tell me about Sage Hexwood,” I commanded.
He clamped his mouth shut, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.
I admired his loyalty to his Magik, but the familiar was out of the bag now.
I raised my other hand, letting a tendril of red smoke curl around and between my fingers. “We can either do this the easy way, or the hard way…”
His familiar beat its wings, and I quickly surrounded it with a shield of my power, keeping it from flying over to attack me.
The witch whimpered as he watched. “Don’t hurt her!”
“I’m not a monster; I’m a bounty hunter with a deadline. Now, start squawking.”
He swallowed, his eyes darting between me and the bird, before lowering them in resignation. “I don’t know much. I recognized her work, that’s it. She was a regular customer until she disappeared.”
I let the smoke continue to snake its way up and down my arm. “And?”
“And nothing. She’s a sweet girl, she just wants to…”
He clamped his mouth shut again.
“She just wants to what?”
He mumbled a negative response, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “I don’t know anything, I swear!”
Time to do this the easy way. For me, at least.
I released a tendril and it split, going up both his nostrils until he gasped for breath, his eyes now rimmed in gold.
“Tell me everything you know about Sage Hexwood,” I commanded.
His body relaxed, and I loosened my grip on his shirt. “Sage was a regular customer of mine for years until she disappeared,” he replied, his voice calm and monotone. “I thought she had just graduated and gone back home until someone contacted me and asked me to help her get transport out of Noctis. She showed up a few days ago, and I connected her to Morgana Vale.”
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck,fuck.
If it was my job to find Magiks, it was Morgana’s job to help them disappear. The closest I’d ever come to not fulfilling a deal and dying was a case where she’d been involved.
“Who contacted you, and why did Sage want to get out of Noctis?”
“I didn’t ask. We don’t ask. We just help.”
I nodded. Witches often seemed like they preferred working alone, or were at least ambivalent to one another, but as soon as one of them was hurt or in trouble, they would swarm in to protect them. As a demon who was used to being sold out by his own family, I admired that coven mentality.
“How do I get in touch with Morgana?”
“She gave me a summon charm for her years ago. I used it to help Sage. I don’t have another.”
Fuck!
“Did they go to Cindralis?”
