“And he called me anyway.” I blinked, trying to piece the entire puzzle together. “That’s why his team didn’t attack that night. That wasn’t theplan.”
But if that wasn’t the plan, then what was? Why give me the Sapphire in the first place? None of it made anysense.
“Excuse me,” the sorcerer cut in, her voice sharp and full of irritation. “I have a business I need to run, but no one is going to approach if they see me chatting it up with two armed fae. Can you please take your weird conversation elsewhere? I told you what you wanted to know. Now,shoo.”
9
Lugh madeno move to leave the castle. I could tell that he didn’t truly buy Jezebel’s story. If I were being honest, neither did I. What were the odds that she just so happened to sell some Sapphire to this Quentin bloke without having a clue what he was up to? Especially when she didn’t seem particularly fond of faeherself.
“Just a few more questions before we go,” Lugh said, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You have always been adamant that you do not sell to fae. Whatchanged?”
She bristled at his words. “Nothing. Idon’tsell tofae.”
Jezebel, as far as I could tell, had gotten away with her dealings only because she kept her clientele very exclusive. She stayed away from fae, avoiding Lugh’s interests. And the humans she dealt with knew how to manage confidentialtransactions.
If she’d started selling to fae like Quentin, on the other hand, she risked a hell of a lot of eyeballs turning toward her littleoperation.
That seemedunlikely.
“No offence, but it’s kind of difficult to believe you don’t sell to fae when you very blatantly sold toQuentin.”
She shot an uneasy glance from me to Lugh. “Look. I can see that you’re upset about this whole thing, but it has nothing to do withme.”
Lugh cocked his head. “What wholething?”
“I mean, you’re here because he used it against you, right?” She looked back to me again. “That’s what he said he wanted it for. Now, I know that’s on me, it’s just...well, listen. He promised that if I helped him get your spear then he’d make sure that I could sell to whoever I wanted, no questionsasked.”
Frowning, I turned to Lugh. That certainly shed some light on the situation. Quentin had effectively promised her full immunity with some added income for a bonus. No wonder she agreed to sell some Sapphire to him, especially a potentcombo.
Which begged the question... “Do you know anything else that you haven’t told us? A small tidbit of info that might beuseful?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, lifting her chin. “Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t. But since you’ve gone and ruined my deal with Quentin, what are you going to do to help meinstead?”
Lugh tensed. He didn’t much like demands, particularly coming from someone who had worked with the enemy to take him down. “I will revisit the laws surrounding the sale and purchase of magical drugs. With mycouncil.”
Lugh didn’t have a damn council. He just had Saoirse and Uisnech. And me, I guessed,now.
She sniffed at the air. “That isn’t good enough, king on the hill, and you know it. I need your promise that you will relax the restrictions you’ve placed on mybusiness.”
This was getting us nowhere. Lugh would never back down. And Jezebel wouldn’t either. The problem with the magic-originated drugs wasn’t Sapphire. It was pretty potent but fairly harmless in most situations. The problem was the stronger drugs, the heroins of the magical world. Not only could they kill, but if gone unchecked, they could create an epidemic, due to a strange contagion theycreated.
Jezebel might not care if her drugs wiped out an entire city, but Lugh certainlydid.
“I said I’ll speak to my council, and that’s all I can promise you right now. This kind of decision cannot be madealone.”
She sneered. “What kind of king needs the permission from hislessors?”
“The kind of king that doesn’t want to see dozens of humans and fae die because you needed to make a few extra quid.” Lugh stepped forward, anger rippling off his body inwaves.
I swallowed hard. This was clearly not goingwell.
Slowly, I stepped between them. “Maybe we can come to anotheragreement.”
“No.” They both said the word in unison, sharp, like a punch to thegut.
“Ooookay,” I said slowly. Clearly, neither of them were going to backdown.
Softly, I placed a hand on Lugh’s arm and tugged on his sleeve. “Hey. Can I talk to you for a moment overthere?”
