She nodded.
“That’s what they were after when I knew him. Zh’alek,” I clarified. “I never met any of the others he was working with, but they were planning to break into the high court vaults. Specifically the ones that housed the magical artefacts that are kept there.”
Dathal gripped my leg under the table, and I realised with a jolt that I’d been bouncing it up and down.
Fucking Zh’alek.
“How?” Max asked. “How were they going to get in there? I assume the vaults in the high court are heavily warded?”
“I—” I looked to Lady Sarhin for help, not sure whether to answer or not. The fae working relationship with the paranormal police had vastly improved in the last few months, but I doubted it extended to airing high court dirty laundry.
Lady Sarhin sighed and took a seat at the head of the table. “Security at the high court hasn’t always been as… robust as it is now. The wards and locks in place were old, put there hundreds of years ago by our ancestors. We were unfortunately arrogant enough to think that no one would dare try and steal from the high court and that the magic of our ancestors was unbreakable.”
Dathal’s gasp told me he was as surprised by her admission as I was.
She turned our way, eyebrow raised. “If that business with Yates and the witches has taught me anything, it’s that communication is key. I want to find Vai Zh’alek, and I’m not prepared to risk wasting valuable time just to pander to ridiculous high court sensibilities.”
Wow.
From the looks of shock around the table, I wasn’t the only one caught off guard. Only Nathan Calder sat there as if nothing untoward had happened—arms crossed with a small smile on his face.
The room fell quiet for a moment, then thankfully Jake broke the silence before it got awkward. “What’s in the box?”
“The contents of the hideout are currently being held in the investigation rooms underneath the high court offices. Human magic is not an area we are overly familiar with, so discovering the purpose of the magical items has proved… difficult. I’ve brought a sample of the things we recovered for your witches to analyse.”
Despite the gravity of the situation, I nudged Dathal under the table, noticing his mouth quirk. It must have physically hurt her to ask for help.
Cara and Wyn stood as one and slid the box towards them. “We’ll go get started on that right now.” They looked way too eager for half-past one in the morning.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Max walked over to one of the whiteboards at the side of the room. He wrote Gren Melhak at the top and underlined it. “What do we know about him?” He directed his question to Lady Sarhin.
“You have all the information that we sent you from our interviews.”
Max smiled, tapping the pen on the board. “Humour me. I find it’s easier to think of things we missed if we brainstorm like this.”
“Fine.” She rearranged herself in the chair to face the board. “From our records, Gren Melhak was born inVahlen. He joined the fae guard six years ago and worked at the fae prison just outside ofAnyath. Six months ago he transferred to work at the high court offices, where part of his job included gateway duty. That’s how he was able to escort Blake Tehlin back and forth through the gateway to move the Blue Alhuirn.
“When he was at the prison, he met the witches that worked with Yates and his hunter group. That’s where he got the refined hallucinogen to facilitate Zh’alek’s escape.”
“Have you found out how they knew each other yet?”
She hesitated.
Both Dathal and I sat forward because the last time we’d spoken to her the answer had been an immediateno.
“As you know, we’ve been looking into Melhak’s background, searching for any connection.”
Max nodded.
“In doing that, we noticed some…irregularitieswith his personal records.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “Irregularities?”
She sighed, fingers tapping on the table.
I could imagine how hard this was. Sharing information wasn’t what fae did. We hoarded our secrets like dragons did gold in the stories I’d read. She glanced at me again and warmth bloomed in my chest at the resolve in her eyes.
“We store our records differently to how you do it here. Magic can hide a multitude of things, but it can also leave a trace if you know what to look for. We didn’t before, there was no reason to suspect any wrongdoing. But in tracing Melhak’s time working at the high court, we think his records might’ve been altered.”
