I turned around, confused. “What?”
The werewolf on the other side of the door yanked the door open, effortlessly pulling me towards him with his superior strength as I was still holding the doorknob.
“Step outside, Ma’am. The door can’t be left open,” the werewolf said.
“Oh, but…” I turned to look back at Orrin.
He pointedly turned away from me, seemingly occupied with his empty cup.
“Okay…” I stepped through the door and the werewolf shut it behind me, then set about locking it. “Thanks.” I called to him as I retrieved Sunshine’s newspaper from the bench.
The werewolf nodded as he took up his position again.
Not knowing what else to do, I lamely waved to him, then started the journey back to my department.
I went back to the locker room to get all the weapons I’d left behind and was following the route I took to our meeting room, contemplating whether I should take off my mask to humanize myself for our muster when I realized Sarge was in front of me, also heading toward the meeting room.
“Sir?” I called.
Sarge whipped around; his silvery eyes intense as he studied me. “Blood,” he greeted in his no-nonsense way. “Something wrong?”
“Yes—er, sort of?” I struggled to find the right words to evaluate the wizard situation, then gave up and held up the newspaper.
“Ah. Yes. The Telliers’ latest stunt.” Sarge waited until we were shoulder to shoulder before he started walking again, his pace slower. “Once again, they are the heroes of the hour.”
“What,” I licked my lips, struggling to put my thoughts into words. “What if whenever they were heroes…it was because they made the situation?”
Sarge glanced at me—briefly, thankfully, so I didn’t squirm. “Go on.”
“We know between the statue, the sketchy timeline, and the flames that wouldn’t go out that it’s highly likely they messed with the fire, even if they were not responsible for starting it. What if… what if the figures I saw on the bridge early this morning were them, and they created the ice so they could swoop in and melt it to show off for the humans?”
Sarge slowed his walking speed as he processed my theory. “They could have taken advantage of the storm earlier this month to raise high gales, and then ‘saved’ the humans by stopping it.”
“They also put out a fire at the supernatural fall market, which started at a fireworks display they sponsored,” I said.
“That’s a pattern,” Sarge calmly said.
As we rounded the corner of the meeting room, we slowed down even more. “Is it a distinct enough pattern that we could bring them in for questioning?” I asked.
Sarge tilted his head. “It’s enough that we can sanction bringing them in for questioning. If we can get evidence out of them, we can immediately take it before an emergency meeting the Regional Committee of Magic is holding tonight.”
“You don’t think we should wait and just gather evidence?” I asked. “Isn’t that what Adept Hazel Medeis suggested?”
Sarge shook his head. “If we can’t get evidence out of the Telliers tonight, we’ll wait. But then, they’d likely be on their guard in the future. Best case scenario is that we nail them tonight and take it to the emergency meeting.”
“If we can get enough evidence of harm to humans…the Regional Committee will be allowed to handle it so the Wizard Council can’t waylay it?” I guessed.
Sarge flashed a rare smile, which was beautiful but also shark-like. “Precisely. Ready?” He tilted his head towards the meeting room.
I started to nod, then remembered my conversation with Orrin. “I spoke to Orrin.”
“Today?” Sarge asked.
Stupid—I should have known to quantify when I talked to him!
Words escaped me, so I nodded. “The werewolf guarding him said he was going to be shipped off to Ghast soon since the werewolves are tired of wasting resources on him.”
Sarge nodded. “Sounds about right—werewolves aren’t overly patient supernaturals. Did Orrin say anything?”
I summarized the conversation for him—relaying Orrin’s reaction to the news Gisila was standing outside the office and his notation of ‘twenty-nine days’.
“That is very specific,” Sarge confirmed. “And risky.”
I’d been nodding but paused at Sarge’s judgement. “Risky?”
Sarge nodded. “As we can’t lie, fae don’t like to talk in specifics—it leaves no room for interpretation and thus no way for us to take advantage of miscommunications.”
“So, it’s definitely something, then,” I said.
“Yes,” Sarge agreed. “But what something is it, and why did he tell you? It’s possible he’s trying to use you in some way.”
“Yeah…there are still too many unknowns in the situation,” I agreed.
Sarge snapped off a nod. “Think it over. I’ll inform Captain Reese, but we’ve got to focus on our chance to put pressure on House Tellier tonight.”
Much more comfortable with orders than sifting through fae trickery, I stood straighter. “Understood, sir.”
Sarge opened the door and motioned for me to go through first.
I did and scurried off to my table—which was isolated as usual—as Sarge shut the door.
“There’s been a change in plans, squad.” His silver eyes took on a dangerous light, and when he smiled it made his classic fae good looks turn dark. “We’re going wizard hunting tonight!”
We took all the available vehicles the Curia Cloisters owned to pick up the Telliers. Medium-Sized Robert was carrying a backpack full of magic canceling cuffs just in case they resisted—which would be great for making a case against them, but I had a feeling resistance would mean property damage, and I wasn’t eager to mess with the Tellier’s sentient magical house. So, my nerves were still jumpy as we approached the colonial-esque farmhouse styled House.
“Remember, do not set foot on House Tellier land until I get the signal,” Captain Reese said, her voice effortlessly carrying up and down the street so we could all hear her as we approached the sidewalk in front of the magical House.
A chorus of “Yes, Ma’ams,” drifted across the team as we fell in line.
Tetiana—directly next to me—playfully bumped April. “Say, if we finish here in record time, do you think we’ll have a chance to play go fish?”
“Doubtful,” April said. “There’s going to be a lot of paperwork to process tonight no matter what happens.”
“We need to play a new card game,” Juggernaut piped in as he joined the two lethal ladies. “You’re getting too attached to your weird go fish rules.”
“They aren’t weird,” Tetiana said. “They exist because everyone complained the old maid card shouldn’t be the only card with a backstory.”