As if only just realising what he’d done, Nick went to pull his hand back, but I closed my fingers around his, keeping it there. I liked him touching me, needed it in that moment to fight the urge to lunge over the table and grab Zane by the throat.
My control was normally better than this. Maybe being this side of the gateway messed with more than my ability to call on my magic.
Nick’s eyebrows rose, confusion in his eyes.
“Wait,” I murmured, taking measured breaths and focusing on the feel of his hand beneath mine, the spicy scent clinging to his skin and the way his pulse raced under my fingertips.
The silence in the room told me my behaviour was out of the ordinary, but I imagined they’d find it preferable to me killing Zane where he sat. Whatever the reason, Nick seemed to calm me, so I took advantage of that fact, holding onto him until the murderous fire in my blood settle to a low thrum.
I’d have plenty of time later to investigate why.
Finally letting go of Nick’s fingers, I set his hand back on his own thigh, lingering only a moment before resting my hands on the table.
Zane cocked his head to one side, watching me. “You know Axel?”
“He’s my cousin.”
“Ahh.” He nodded to himself as if that explained everything. “I’m guessing you want to kill me right about now?”
My fingers twitched. “Very much so.” I’d seen the photos of Axel’s injuries—they were in the files upstairs. I had to forcibly block them out now. Nick’s leg pressed against mine under the table, and either he was the most intuitive witch ever or he was laying some impressive groundwork for making a move on me later.
Either worked for me.
“I’m sorry.” Zane said. “I don’t know if it means much to you, but I didn’t know what he was going to do when he took Axel and Rys. I didn’t watch that video before they got there. And I didn’t ask Tombs for details.”
“But you knew it wouldn’t be anything good.”
He looked down at his hands. “I did. But Max is a paranormal police officer. I hoped with him involved, they’d be able to stop him.”
Max scoffed. “Convenient. And fortunate for you that we did stop him, or you’d be looking at accessory to murder charges instead.”
I curled my fingers into fists. This line of questioning was getting us nowhere and I needed to focus on something other than Axel almost dying.
“Who’s refining the Blue Alhuirn?” The reports said Zane didn’t have the facilities or expertise, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t lied about knowing who was involved.
Zane shook his head. “I don’t know.” He gestured to Max. “I already told Max everything and he’d know if I was lying.”
“Humour me.” I was aware that shifters could sense a lie better than most, but that didn’t mean they were infallible. Turning to Nick, I asked, “Can your magic be used to mask someone’s reaction so that lies are undetectable, even to a shifter?”
Nick glanced at Zane, hesitated, then shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t exactly know how shifters know when someone is lying, but there are spells that can dull our reactions to things. Zane would have to keep recasting the spell involved for it to work all the time.” He gestured at the magic-dampening cuffs wrapped around Zane’s wrists. “And that’s impossible at the minute.”
I focused on Zane. “Which is why I’m asking again. We have no idea if you used such a spell and, if you did, how long it would last for. So please, answer my questions.”
Max folded his arms across his wide chest, cold gaze fixed on Zane. “Answer the questions, please.”
“I don’t know who’s smuggling the Blue Alhuirn out of the Fae Realm, and I don’t know who’s been refining it. Tombs was the only person I was in contact with.”
Max twitched beside me, but I ignored it for now.
Zane traced his fingers over the smooth wood of the table. “All he asked me for were spells to alter his appearance and to slip Nick, Callum, and Gabriel a potion at the club to alter their memories. I didn’t ask about anything else and he didn’t exactly offer up information.”
Max said nothing, so I presumed Zane was telling the truth. “Why didn’t you run when you had the chance? You had the opportunity to escape before Max and the others reached the nightclub, so why didn’t you? You had to know you’d be arrested as soon as they arrived and saw that you were involved?”
I’d read the answer he’d given but it didn’t make sense to me. Given the choice, I’d rather be on my own and free than locked up in a cell. Either way, I assumed he’d lost the respect of his coven, so why stick around when he could’ve fled to relative safety? There had to be magic he knew to help keep him from being discovered.
Zane hesitated. Did that mean he was about to lie? My money was on yes, but I waited patiently for him to speak.
“If I’d disappeared to keep myself out of prison, then it would’ve meant never seeing my half-sister and her family again. I wasn’t prepared to do that.”
