Page 86 of The Human’s Heart

“Sooo… what’d he say? What’s his real name?”

Basil made a face. “Jack. It’s like… it’s like the memory of his real name was… erased from his mind or something. It has to be magical… Jules couldn’t get anything else out of him in regards to his name. But we were able to pick his brain about the assassination of Phia.”

“That’s… weird. But… who hired the guy?”

He took a deep breath. “We found out he was hired by this nymph family.”

Zay went still and stared at him, and I could feel how horrified he was, but I didn’t understand why. After a moment, he quietly asked, “Are you telling us Phia’s own family had her killed?”

Basil grimaced. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Shit. Nymphs are usually so peaceful.”

I asked, “Aren’t they supposed to be one with nature and all that stuff?”

“Yep. But like with any species, there’s always good and bad mixed in.”

Zay looked… stricken. “Why did they kill her?”

Basil answered, “The assassin didn’t know. All he was told was that she betrayed her family and was giving away too many secrets.”

“Shit,” Zay said again. “Do you know what nymph family it is? Can we find them and start questioning them?”

I didn’t know who Zay thought this we was, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to go hunt down bad guys or whatever. He was a nurse, not a BCA agent.

Basil ran a hand through his hair and readjusted himself on the seat. “It’s the Egawa clan. You’ve probably never heard of them because they’re a small family.” He cleared his throat. “The Egawa clan went into hiding, but we were able to find one of them because she hasn’t been living with them for the last few months. Either they purposefully didn’t tell her to go into hiding, or they told her, and she didn’t listen… or she simply took too long to leave. Either way, we found her.”

We both stared at him for a long moment absorbing this before Zay asked, “Why are you telling us this? What do you need?”

My eyebrows raised at that. Why would he need anything from us?

But his uncle surprised me by saying, “The woman we found is in custody, but she won’t tell us anything until she speaks to you.”

It took me entirely too long to realize he was talking about me. “Me? What? Why?”

He shrugged. “She won’t say.” He paused for only a few seconds. “Do you know a Anithea Egawa?”

My brow furrowed. “No. Not that I know of. It doesn’t sound familiar.”

Basil nodded and pulled out his phone, pressed a few buttons, and passed it over to me. “Do you recognize her?”

The blonde-haired, green-eyed woman on the screen was a complete stranger to me. She didn’t even look the least bit familiar. “I don’t recognize her.” After a moment, I added, “I mean, I suppose it’s possible that she’s come into the bar when I was working, and I served her or something, or she could’ve just sat at a table and saw me, but I don’t remember her at all if she did.”

He nodded and gestured for me to pass the phone to Zay. “What about you? Do you know her or recognize her name—Anithea Egawa?”

Zay took a moment to look it over, then shook his head. “No. Not at all.”

Basil nodded and took his phone back with a sigh. “That’s what I figured, but it was worth a shot.”

I waved my hand at him. “Can’t you just vamp whammy her or whatever?”

He snorted at that and leaned on his elbows toward me. “No, we can’t. We don’t have enough evidence against her for that. Everything’s circumstantial, so we can only hold her for twenty-four hours. There’s no way anyone will sign off on using a vamp whammy on her.” My lips twitched in amusement at him using my name for it. “So that’s why I’m here. I need you to come down to the BCA office with me and see what she wants.”

Before I could agree, Zay said, “No. No way. She’s dangerous.”

“She’ll have a shield over her the entire time so she won’t be able to cast anything or hurt Hugo in any way.”

“No. It’s too dangerous.”