That explained the other voice. And the reason why Dathal sounded like he was outside. I wondered if he’d made Axel pull over on his motorbike so he could take my call. The thought sent a shot of warmth through my chest. “And you need to act on it now?” I asked as his words sank in. I held my phone away from my ear to check the time. “At twenty past twelve in the morning?”
“Yes. The witches in question were supposed to be dead, killed by a hunter group, but we believe them to be very much alive.”
“Shit.” The implications of that sent another shiver through me, but there was nothing pleasant about it that time. Hunters could be arseholes, and a lot of them were, but although they walked a fine line with the law where non-humans were concerned, very few of them ever crossed it so blatantly.
“I have to go,” Dathal said before I could ask him anything else.
I wasn’t ready to let him, though. I’d missed him. “Come see me when you’re done?”
“It’ll be late. I don’t know what time we’ll finish at the station.”
I snorted. “I’m at Midnight. We’re closing at two tonight, so I won’t get home until after three at the earliest. Just come whenever you finish. I don’t care if you wake me up.”
I also didn’t care if I sounded desperate.
Because I was.
New information meant they were one step nearer to closing their investigation. And then Dathal would be gone. I didn’t want to waste a single second.
Silence met my words, and I held my breath until finally I heard a soft sigh in my ear.
“I’ll see you later, then.” He ended the call abruptly, not waiting for a reply or saying goodbye, and I shook my head with a smile that grew bigger as I thought about the fact I’d be seeing him in the flesh after I was done here.
Fucked.
I was so totally fucked, and even knowing that, I still didn’t care.
* * *
Dathal
Despite the late, or early, hour, everyone in the meeting room was alert and focused.
Max finished tacking the three new headshots to the photoboard and stepped back with a frown. “I want to ask how you know these were the three working with Melhak, but I suspect you won’t tell me.” He looked directly at me, and I shrugged.
“I would if I could. You’re going to have to trust that our information is correct. Can you do that?”
Max studied me for a moment, and I wondered what his shifter senses were telling him. I wasn’t lying. I would absolutely tell him, but the fae magic used on the documents Axel and I had signed was as effective as if we’d had our memories wiped.
“I trust you,” he said finally, then turned back to the photoboard. “Evan Hart, Archie Samuels, and Damien Croft.” He crossed his arms. “Arrested for trying to procure banned fae substances. The police uncovered a stash of poisonous fae flora in a greenhouse at the back of their house. Nothing as deadly as Blue Alhuirn,” he added. “And no evidence was found that they’d actually done anything with it, but when the high court were informed, they were adamant that the witches be tried in the Fae Realm.”
“Of course they were,” Axel muttered.
“Did they find who’d sold it to them?” I asked.
“Yep.” Max grimaced. “He was imprisoned right alongside them and still has another ten years to go.”
Unsurprising. Smuggling anything out of our realm was forbidden.
“All three witches were released from the fae prison and escorted by Gren Melhak through a gateway outside of Birmingham.”
“Why that one?” Gabriel asked. “Why not Axel’s?”
“It depends where they came from originally. They usually get sent back through the nearest gateway to their original covens.”
Max frowned and picked up a file from the table. He flicked through to the page he wanted and tapped it. “Two of them were from just outside of London though.”
It didn’t make sense.
