A Local Habitation

“I’m not that good,” Terrie said, with a laugh.

“Right,” I said. “Quentin, get your things and come on. We’re getting out of here.”

“But, Toby—”

“Don’t argue. Terrie, it was nice meeting you. Quentin, we’re leaving.” I started to turn.

Behind me, Terrie said, “I bet you got lost in the knowe.”

“What?” I stopped, looking back.

“I bet you got lost in the knowe. Everyone does, at first.”

“I got a little turned around, yes,” I admitted.

“It happens to everyone, honest. Want me to show the two of you out?”

This woman had set me on edge faster and more skillfully than anyone I’d met in years, Jan included; I was afraid that if we spent too much time with her, Quentin was going to propose, just before I decked her. At the same time, my migraine was back with reinforcements, and I just wanted to get out and find the hotel before I killed someone.

“I would love to be shown out of the building,” I said.

“No problem. Terrie to the rescue!” She winked at Quentin and stepped into the hallway with no further fanfare, motioning for us to follow. Quentin started after her, and I followed, watching them speculatively.

Quentin can be a lot of things, but I’d never seen him be fickle. Not that long ago he’d been blushing over his mortal girlfriend, and now he was panting after some strange changeling like a puppy in heat. It didn’t make sense, and it was irritating me. I was sure I was overreacting—Terrie was probably a perfectly nice person who wasn’t trying to toy with my underage assistant—but it was weird. Really weird.

After about ten minutes, Terrie pushed open an unmarked door, exposing the lawn outside. “Ta-da!”

The outside lights were on, and cats lounged in the lit areas, watching us with detached interest. The only flowers in sight were normal, mortal clover. We had left the knowe. I stepped past Terrie and Quentin, taking a deep breath of the cool air and relaxing as I felt my headache loosen. “This is wonderful.” It was dangerously close to saying “thank you,” but I was too absorbed in my speculations to care.

“Don’t mention it,” Terrie said, shrugging off my near-slip. “Are you guys sure you’ve got to get going so soon? The night shift has hours to go.”

“Well—” Quentin began.

“We’re sure,” I said. “Quentin, come on.”

He started to protest, but stopped, catching my expression. Sighing, he turned to face Terrie and executed a deep, formal bow. “Open roads and kind fires to you.”

That was the last straw. Whatever this was, it was moving a bit too fast for me to be even remotely happy about it. “Right. Good night, Miss Olsen.”

I grabbed Quentin’s shoulder and hauled him off. Terrie watched, hiding a smile behind her hand. I did my best to ignore her. Quentin craned his neck for one last look, protesting only when we were out of earshot. “What did you do that for?”

“ ‘What did you do that for?’ ” I mimicked. “Did you see yourself back there?”

“I was being nice!”

“You were being a creepy little ball of hormones! She’s twice your age!”

“You’re like four times my age.”

“But I, at least, am not hitting on you.” I let go of his shoulder, letting him try to smooth his wounded dignity as I stalked toward the car. “We’re here to work, remember?”

“You left me alone. I was gathering information.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Yeah! Did you know that ALH only employs faeries? They hire changelings and purebloods, and that’s it—no humans of any kind. Not even in service capacities.”

“Since most of the company is in the Summerlands, that makes sense. What else?”

“Most of the management staff has been with the company since the beginning. January and her daughter basically run the place, only Elliot does all the staffing. And—”

“Hang on. Daughter?” Sylvester hadn’t mentioned a daughter.