I was done playing games. I reached out and grabbed Septius around the neck, squeezing tight. The parrot flew off his shoulder with a squawk, and Septius wheezed as my fingers tightened around his throat.
“Who did you sell the stone to?” I bellowed. “Where and when?”
“I did not sell it!” Septius choked out.
“Was it stolen?” I asked.
“No! But it was here one minute, gone the next… you must believe me!”
How could that be the truth? I didn’t believe this snake for one minute, and I was willing to do what I had to if it meant getting the truth out of him.
Finlay, though, had come prepared. “Take this.” Finlay fished in his pocket, and placed a small bottle on the counter. I smelled the ingredients from here— it was a simple truth-telling potion, like they’d used on me during my trial. “Then we will know you aren’t lying.”
I tossed Septius away from me. He clutched at his throat before scrambling for the potion. He uncorked the bottle, and the liquid trickled down his throat. I noticed a slight change in his eye color, and his panicked voice became more monotone as the potion took effect.
“I put an advertisement for the necklace in the paper two weeks prior,” Septius rattled off. “I was polishing it to put on display the next morning, when something strange happened… it was just before lunch. I was on my feet one moment, the sun shining through my window with the necklace in my hands. The next, I was on the floor, covered in snow with the night all around me. My clothes were soaked, and my fingers were frostbitten, as if I’d been in the coldest snow of my life.”
He lifted his hands. I saw strange markings crossed over his fingers… scars remaining from treated frostbite. I’d seen it a time or two, living in a freezing climate like Malovia.
“I looked everywhere, but the necklace was gone,” Septius said. “I checked with a client…two dayshad passed, and I couldn’t remember they’d gone by.”
Septius shivered, but the tale had failed to convince me. “Your story has quite a lot of holes,” I said through my teeth.
“I’m just as clueless as you are!” Septius barked. “My mind was here one minute, and then gone the next… you can’t imagine how odd that felt. I swear, I’ve told you everything I know.”
“Did you look for the necklace after that? Were there any clues to where it might’ve gone?” Finlay asked.
“No. I don’t want anything to do with that necklace ever again,” Septius hissed. “If you find it,don’tbring it back here.”
“We’ve no intent on ever dealing with the likes ofyouagain,” I sneered. “I suggest you return to Darke Island, and stay there permanently. Europe doesn’t suit your interests, now or in the future.”
Septius gulped. I knew he took my warning seriously. “I promise I’ll get out of town.Ifyou leave now.”
“Let’s go, Ethan.” Finlay grabbed my arm. “We’re not getting anything else out of this guy.”
I forced myself not to wrench Finlay’s arm off, and let him guide me out of the store. I heard the lock to the storeclickbehind us as we returned to the street.
I laughed under my breath. Like that would stop me. I’d rip the door off with one hand if I wanted to. I had the capability.
“This is bad,” Finlay mumbled. He’d let go of my arm, and shoved his hands into his pockets as we turned into a nearby park. “Worse than I thought, actually.”
“Are you sure we goteverythingout of him? What if he was able to overpower the truth-telling potion, and still lie? Witches can break our spells,” I pointed out.
“Lady Magdalina brewed it herself. It was the last of her stock that I still had to use,” Finlay fumed. “I don’t care how good of a warlock he thinks he is, he’s not strong enough to overpower a potion created by the strongest sorceress of her time.”
“Then what was all that rubbish?” I demanded. “He says he had the stone, but can’t recall where he took it or why?”
“He was bewitched,” Finlay said. “That’s why he doesn’t remember.”
“Bywho, though? Who did he give the stone to?” My voice was too loud, but at the moment, I couldn’t be bothered if I woke up all of Scotland.
“I don’t think it’s awho, rather than awhat,” Finlay said.
I paused to consider the possibilities. “Do you think the Unseelie stone is sentient?”
“It’s possible. I bet all the Crystals are,” Finlay said. “You have to prove yourself to them in order to have them in your possession. Theygivethemselves to people, it’s not the other way around. You all had to go throughtrialsto earn the others. The stones choose you, you don’t choose them.”
“Is that why the other owners of the dark necklace died in accidents?”
