“Yes.” Clover nodded her head. “As I said, he was naturally doing much of the magic himself. I simply gave him the framework.”
Parker nodded, his shoulders lowering.
“And you don’t have the name for your employee?” Nick tapped his notepad. When Clover shook her head, he asked, “Is there anywhere that you would have written down the information? A W9?”
She shook her head again. Of course a fae wouldn’t be worried about tax laws.
“Wait.” Clover narrowed her eyes. “Learn? Was that his name? Frederick Learn?”
Nick closed his notepad, looking over at Parker.
“Well, Queen Celandine. The tea was delicious. I’m going to need a recipe on those sandwiches, as long as one of the ingredients wasn’t someone’s firstborn.” Parker stood. “Your assistance was useful and will be remembered.”
The queen rose gracefully, gesturing to the side, where vines slithered out of the ground, forming an oval. When they braided together, Nick could see the dark room they had come from on the other side.
“We wish you well, Windrose.” It was clearly a dismissal, but Parker hesitated.
“I probably won’t have time to alert the other monarchs, but you need to tell them that there is something wrong in the human realm, and unless they want it infecting their own people, they need to stay clear for the time being.”
“I will alert King Balsam, but King Hawthorne is ascendant, and I doubt he would take a warning from me in good faith.” Celandine tilted her head, eyebrows raised apologetically. “Perhaps that is news best heard from the Windrose.”
Parker’s shoulders went back, chin going up. “Yeah. Probably is.”
He led the way through the portal, and when it disappeared, his whole body seemed to collapse forward.
Nick caught him because Nick knew how to read the brittleness in Parker’s words, the sheer exhaustion he felt.
“How many items need to be on a to-do list before you accept that it’s become a to-do novel?” Parker’s words were muffled in Nick’s shoulder, and Nick rubbed a hand up his back.
“We know more information than we did when we left.”
Parker reared back, giving Nick an incredulous look. “Really? Because I would say we’re batting zero here. Lots of pitches, lots of opportunity, the hitter has officially struck out. Call the Guinness Book of World Records—worst baseball game ever.”
“We know that Durkavic was part fae, and we now know why he might have been visiting the smoke shop if his old friend worked there. We also know that the fae weren’t behind this.” Nick listed what he remembered, part of his mind focused on the facts rather than the pure scream of terror he had felt.
“Do we know that? All I know is that Celandine isn’t behind it, or she’s a really good actress, which I have suspected for a while.” Parker leaned back, some of himself coming into his expression. “Not, like, Cate Blanchett good. But I think she could still get an Oscar for Best Supporting.”
“When you told them what the spell was, neither one of them showed any recognition.” Nick waited for Parker to nod. “So, if it was something that the fae could do, even if they weren’t doing it, one of them probably would have known what you were talking about. Right?”
“Maybe,” Parker gave in.
“And”—Nick ticked off his fingers—“the Spring Court is the only connection we found between the case and the fae. Meaning, if it’s not them, it’s probably not any of the courts.”
“That’s a lot of ifs in there,” Parker said. “With the fae, we might not see the connection yet. Or it could be an obligation that’s twenty years old. We don’t know.”
Someone knocked on the door, and Nick disengaged the circle he’d used to lock it, opening it for Zahide.
She looked between them. “I hope you got what you needed. They want you back at the station.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
During the rideback to the station, Parker was almost completely silent. Nick could practically hear the thoughts in his head rolling around, tumbling on top of each other.
Nick loved his husband more than anything, and one of his favorite things about him was the way Parker put together puzzle pieces in his head, turning each piece until something shook loose or two pieces fit together.
“Are we sure it’s alchemy?” Parker asked finally. “Is it possible that it’s just something thatlookslike alchemy?”
“Like what?” Nick considered the options. “Like something from one of the thousand realms?”
