“Lady Sarhin.”
She glanced between Max and Gabriel. “I didn’t realise you had a new police partner.”
Max rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t.” He gestured to where Jake had gone. “Jake, Detective Allen, was with me when we got your call. DCI Thornton assured me that she has the agreement of the high court for him to be here.”
Lady Sarhin nodded. “She does. I hope we won’t need to bring him up to speed on anything. We have a lot to get through tonight and I’d rather not waste time going over old information.”
By high court standards, Lady Sarhin was relatively polite, but I’d been here long enough to flinch at her slightly rude tone. Max, to his credit, didn’t so much as twitch.
“I’ve told him all he needs to know.”
She nodded again, satisfied with his answer. “In that case, shall we begin?”
“Of course.” Max gestured to the room at large. “What do you need?”
She gestured to the large crate she’d brought with her from the Fae Realm. “I’d like your witches to inspect the contents of that crate and tell us what’s in there. Are there any on site at this time?”
Max pulled his phone out. “Possibly. Let me check.”
I nudged Dathal where he leant on the wall next to me. “Where do you think they got that from?” I whispered. It’d rattled as Nathan carried it up the stairs and it looked heavy, judging by the way his arms had strained. “And what do you think’s in there?”
Dathal shrugged. “Magic of some kind. I guess we’ll find out.”
Max put his phone away. “Wyn and Cara are downstairs. I’ve asked them to join us.”
“Good,” Lady Sarhin answered.
Jake arrived then, pushing a trolley laden with coffee, water, soft drinks, and enough biscuits to feed an army.
Or six shifters and company.
Everyone helped themselves to drinks.
With the arrival of Wyn and Cara, Lady Sarhin moved to the front of the room, and everyone quieted.
“I appreciate the late hour, so I’ll get right to the point of our visit.”
I took a seat at the table next to Dathal, gaze trained forward on Lady Sarhin. Even so, I felt the weight of Talis’s stare from across the room.
“We found what we believe to be Melhak’s hideout or some sort of storage. Traces of his magical signature were all over it.” She paused, gaze landing on me, and I knew what was coming. “As were faint traces of Vai Zh’alek’s.”
Dathal’s hands curled into fists on the table. “He’d been there recently?”
She shrugged. “We can’t be certain when he was there, as I said the traces were faint, only that he was there for a period of time.”
“Where was it found?” I asked, both wanting and not wanting to know the answer.
“In Heyath. Not far from the gateway there.”
“Makes sense,” Dathal said. “One of the less used gateways.”
“It’s not the location that we found disturbing. Zh’alek had to have hidden somewhere after escaping the prison.” She turned her attention to Cara and Wyn. “It’s more what we discovered there.” All eyes in the room turned to the box sitting in the middle of the table. “As well as food and basic weapons, there was also a substantial amount of Blue Alhuirn and a huge collection of magical artefacts.” She paused, then added, “Humanmagical artefacts.”
Wyn sat up straight, gaze darting between Lady Sarhin and the box. “Potions?” he asked.
“Yes, but also objects that don’t appear to have value but we can feel the magic in them.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat, words on the tip of my tongue. Lady Sarhin looked at me, maybe sensing that I wanted to speak but not sure that I should.
