Shadow shook her head. “No, my father chose his last heir well. I am glad that he died with someone as kind as you.”
“How did he even figure out how to contain you?” Parker crouched down, his eyes focused right on Shadow. Her skin shimmered again, briefly blending into the surrounding forest before becoming human again.
“My own hubris, I’m afraid. In my own realm, many people travel with pieces of me. It allows me to see places and experience things that I never could inhabiting one body. I live a thousand lives. I thought to live in Durkavic. More fool me. I made a deal with him in order to have him agree.”
Parker winced, and Shadow laughed. “Yes. It was not to my benefit to try to make a deal with a fae. I should have learned my lesson, but it has been so long since I have dealt with any outside my own realm, and they are all explorers and scientists. They would not think to do such a thing.”
“So he trapped you with an obligation and then he trapped you with light,” Parker said thoughtfully, looking at the light rigging that surrounded them, the brilliance thankfully off. “Well, guess who started off as a garden variety creep and then turned into a serial killer? Now that you’re free, are you able to collect the other parts of yourself? So no one else has to go boom?”
“Yes.” Shadow looked down, clasped Nick’s hand again. “I am sorry for my part in this.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Nick said.
“That does not make me less sorry for it.” She searched his face. “I believe we have that in common.”
Pieces of shadow traced over the ground like watching someone fast-forward a sunset, the scraps of darkness clear of all signs of alchemy as they returned to Shadow. Nick stood and pulled out his cell phone. He watched as Durkavic’s eyes went wide.
“Captain, you remember how you wanted to know when the answer fell out of the sky?”
On the other end of the phone, Tate started cursing.
“Let me get this straight,” Rios said. “An old god, like the ones who blew massive holes in San Amaro not too long ago, got trapped by Durkavic. Who wasn’t dead, but had instead killed his old friend?”
“Durkavic said that Learn was blackmailing him, apparently. Threatening to tell his girlfriend that Durkavic was gay. Two birds, one person-soup explosion,” Parker said. “Get rid of his blackmailerandtest out his new magic.”
“That only looked like alchemy, but was actually a piece of an old god,” Rios said.
“I think if we’re writing it, I’d put down that Durkavic harnessed dangerous, deadly magic. I’ll attest that the magic he was using was bastardized alchemy which is prohibited by national and international alchemy councils.” It was true. Any alchemy council that learned that Durkavic had created an alchemy circle made from pieces of an old god would have allgone into collective fits from the horror. Nick looked around the room. “Unless we want to let him go.”
“The man killed one of ours,” Falk said. The CGPD captain glared, as though any of them were going to contradict him. “I don’t care if he did it with a piece of TNT, an alchemy circle, or if he got hold of that menace you call a pet, King. He’s going down for this.”
“Luckily for all of us, Durkavic isn’t arguing. He’s pleading guilty to everything.” Tate eyed Parker with something between amusement and annoyance. “King and Ferro here just wanted to make sure all of us got the answers we wanted. So we all hold the line about the flow of information and if there are any leaks, we all know exactly where the drip started.”
His tone was friendly, but the other captains grimaced.
“That’s quite the threat,” Owens, the Major Crimes Captain, said.
“Listen, when it comes to Ferro, the Far Realm, or the World Tree? I’ve learned to take my wins where they land.” Tate leaned back.
“And that’s what we’re telling the Bureau of Paranormal Threats?” Owens groused. “They aren’t going to buy that.”
“Luckily for you, you don’t need to convince the BPT of anything. They were at the scene and they agree with our assessment and our results.” Tate leaned forward, eyeing the other captains.
“I think we have the guilty man behind bars,” Rios said. “We have our city back. Andwe, in this room, know the story. We aren’t missing any key information?”
He aimed the question at Parker and Nick and before Nick could answer, Parker kicked him and tilted his head toward Robin Keating, who was making good use of her hours. She nodded.
“That’s what we know.” Nick clasped his hands in front of him.
“Alright,” Rios said. “Then the case is closed.”
With a grumble, Falk stood. “Let’s not ever do this again.”
Owens followed and when it was just Rios and Tate with them in the room, Rios leaned in. “Itwasthe right guy, wasn’t it?”
“It was,” Parker said. He looked down. “Durkavic killed two people, maimed two more, and was planning to kill as many as he needed using another person to get the money he wanted. He did it.”
“It wasn’t this old god controlling him?” Rios challenged.
