Well fuck.
I’d had every intention of going to see Zane. Eventually. I wasn’t sure how I felt about doing it with an audience. And why did Dathal want me there in the first place? I asked Mase as much, expecting maybe a bit of teasing.
Mase: You have prior knowledge of the case and probably know Zane the best outside of his own coven. Who have, incidentally, refused to talk to us further.
His reply was more professional than I’d expected so I assumed they were all onboard with the idea. But I still wanted clarification on what they were expecting from me being there.
Nick: I’ve told you all I know. What can I possibly add that will be of value?
If they were expecting me to use magic to extract information out of him, then they were shit out of luck, not to mention I thought that was illegal except under a court order, and even then it was extremely rare and carried out by a witch far more experienced than me.
Mase: We might ask about the magic he used to help Tombs. You’ll know if he lies about anything.
NowthatI could do.
Nick: Fine, but I’ll need to run it past my coven.
Which would be easy to do, since I was just about to go inside and meet with them.
Nick: And I want a few minutes alone with Zane first.
I expected Mase to push back on that one, and he did.
Mase: What for?
Nick: Because I’ve not been to see him since everything went down and I feel guilty about that. I don’t want the first time to be when I’m with a fae who wants to interrogate him. I don’t want long with him, and you can listen in if you want.
I didn’t particularly like the idea of someone watching or listening to us, but I didn’t have much choice.
His reply took a little longer to come through. Would he have to get clearance from his boss? And if he did, would she want to know what Zane and I talked about? Not that I had anything to hide… Well, that wasn’t strictly true.
I had nothingcriminalto hide.
My phone buzzed before I had the chance to get lost down that path.
Mase: You can have half an hour with him, but your visit will have to be recorded, sorry. Thornton was unmovable on that.
I didn’t like the idea, but I’d expected as much.
Nick: That’s fine. When?
Mase: This afternoon, say 2pm? Sorry for the short notice, but we want to get ahead of this. Tombs can’t have been the only buyer for that much refined Blue Alhuirn.
I checked the time on my phone. 12:30 p.m.
Lunch with my coven could run anywhere from an hour to the whole of the afternoon, depending on what we had to discuss. I could put Mase off, tell him this afternoon wouldn’t work for me, but while a part of me shied away from talking to Zane, I knew I needed to do it. Needed to face him and try to get some answers of my own before I took over the running of his club.
And you wouldn’t mind seeing Dathal again.
Yeah, there was that too.
My pulse raced at the thought of him. Was it weird that he was Axel’s cousin, considering the fact Axel and I had fucked on more than one occasion? Maybe? We’d never been anything more than casual though, and nothing had happened between us in a while. Axel was my friend now, nothing more.
Not that anything was going to happen with Dathal either. I was getting way ahead of myself on that front. Was he even staying this side of the gateway for any length of time? For all I knew it was a fleeting visit.
All that was beside the point, though.
My main focus now was Zane.
