A chill went through me. “Something a very powerful someone thinks they need to kill me to keep secret.”
“Danescu wants to hire you and keep you alive because his rival wants you dead. Goblins do like to piss each other off. Of more concern to me is how Danescu and his rival knew you had been dispatched from headquarters.”
“We have a spy at SPI?”
Ian’s expression darkened. “I hope not.”
BELVEDERE Castle in Central Park was wreathed in magic, gauzy tendrils covering the stone like the ivy did during the daylight hours. The fabric between dimensions was thinner in the moments of twilight and daybreak. Seelie guards in intricate armor—both male and female—patrolled the battlements.
We’d seen a few of NYPD’s mounted police on patrol. All of them near Belvedere Castle had been elves. Like I’d said, elves had a thing for law and order.
Yasha parked next to the prisoner transport, and as close to the castle’s doors as he could get. We got out and were hit with an overwhelming scent of flowers, like a hedge of gardenias. Normally I liked gardenias, but only a few at a time. This was like being smothered by a maze hedge of the things. Yeah, the veil between dimensions was thin, all right.
A limo pulled up moments later. Alain Moreau got out, turned back, and offered a gallant hand to Vivienne Sagadraco. Earlier in the evening, the five leprechauns were clients who needed protection. Now, they were being brought home wearing magical manacles riding in the back of a prisoner transport van. While they weren’t prisoners in the literal sense, more like clients who needed protecting from themselves, SPI/Seelie court relations demanded an explanation.
Ian and I were standing next to the Suburban.
“Surely the Seelie folks won’t be surprised to see their boys being brought home in a paddy wagon,” I said.
“I’m sure it’s happened before.”
I had an unpleasant thought. “Do you think the boss knows I zapped Finn?”
I detected a hint of a smile. “She knows.”
“And I still have a job?”
“You do.”
I sensed his eyes on me. I looked up at him, but his face was mostly hidden in darkness.
“Is it a job you still want?” he asked quietly.
I took a breath. “I kind of came into this thinking that most of the time, I’d be hunting for the supernatural equivalent of jaywalkers. I knew there’d be Big Bad Guys, but I kinda thought those would be the exception. Or did I just have a bad first night?”
“Yes . . . and no.”
“You could’ve stopped with the ‘yes.’ I’d have been perfectly happy.”
“But it wouldn’t have been the truth.”
“So now I’m due the truth?”
“You are.”
“Does the boss know that?”
“She will. I’ll tell her.”
I looked out over the lights shimmering on the surface of Turtle Pond. Peaceful. Quiet. Not like anything I’d encountered tonight.
“Thank you,” I told Ian.
“For what?”
“For honesty—and for being there for me tonight.”
“You’re my partner.”
“And you’re my reluctant partner. I heard you and Ms. Sagadraco talking in her office.”
“I know.”
We grew some silence between us. It wasn’t entirely uncomfortable, but at the same time, it didn’t exactly fill me with the warm and fuzzies.
“I am reluctant,” he admitted.
“More honesty is good.” What wasn’t good was the knot that’d just formed in the pit of my stomach.
“But I’m not reluctant in the way that you think,” he said. “I simply don’t want to involve another seer in this.”
“But you said yourself that it’ll take a seer to get to the bottom of it.”
“Correct.”
“So there’s no way around my being involved.”
“You wouldn’t be involved if you didn’t work for SPI. Do you want to stay?”
The knot grew larger. “I’m not a good enough seer?”
“I didn’t say that. Vivienne Sagadraco didn’t hire you without looking into your background—all of your background. Your family is well-known in supernatural law enforcement. She’s confident in your abilities.” I could see his eyes now. The sky was getting lighter; the sun would be up soon. “You’re good enough.”
“Thank you—again.”
“There’s nothing to thank me for. Merely giving my professional opinion.”
I smiled a little as I watched Alain Moreau and Vivienne Sagadraco talking with two very tall and impossibly beautiful courtiers. At least I assumed that was what they were.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Ian said. “Do you want to stay?”
“Something big is brewing.”
“It is.”
“It sounds like tonight was just another round in what could be a long fight. Probably the smartest thing I could do is turn tail and run home for the hills.”
“The file we have on you says you don’t always to the smartest thing.”
I felt one side of my mouth twitch upward. “Yeah, it’s a failing of mine.”
“I heard you telling Yasha earlier that you felt called to protect the prey from the predators.”