Sprites are not good with time so there was a good chance it could have been yesterday. And for that matter, the thing with the Sidhe could have been a week ago, or could have been when they were planning the whole fairy as murderer plan. “Thanks.”
I rose and started to leave when Bracken grabbed my arm. “Wait, Quinn. She was with another wizard. They seemed friendly. I think she is safe.”
Safe wasn’t the first thing that came to my mind, but tried to tamp down on the jealousy. I nodded my thanks and started toward Bank’s.
Chapter Twenty
It took me twenty minutes to get to Bank’s. Twenty minutes of alternating between relief that she was alive and whole, and jealousy of this other wizard. I arrived at the door on the jealousy side so I tried to get control of myself before I walked inside. I told myself I was successful and went in.
Mark pulled a pint for me before I got to the bar. I thanked him and picked it up then looked around. Thinking the cool beer would keep me cool.
I saw Cate sitting at a table against the back wall. She was laughing at something her companion said. It was a wizard, I couldn’t see who because he had pulled up the hood of his jacket.
The beer didn’t help.
I stepped toward the table running a mental rehearsal of what I would say. I wanted to be cool and professional. If she wasn’t interested, if I was reading the signals wrong, I would not let her see it.
“Hi. It’s good to see you are okay.”
She frowned up at me. “What do you mean?”
“Your place has been trashed. I was just there.”
She looked across the table at the other wizard. “Know anything about that, Lionel?”
Relief flooded me and I looked into my glass to cover my reaction. Lionel, of course she would be with her apprentice.
He coughed. “I don’t know. Umm. Well, I’m pretty sure I got the containment spell right on that mini hurricane. You did check it, right?”
Cate’s mouth thinned and I was glad I wasn’t Lionel. “I would have checked it if I knew you had a mini hurricane in my house. But if I knew that, I would have sent it back where you got it from. Why did you think you could summon one?”
Lionel seemed to miss the threat in her voice. “I was looking through the spells like you told me to. That seemed like a real easy one. And it was. I got it on the second try.”
She shook her head. “You know that you have to master containment before you summon. Well, no real harm done, I guess.”
I figured she was just trying to be careful of his ego while I was there. I stood up; it was time for them to be alone. “I’ll get you another glass of wine, Cate.”
She nodded at me then turned her full attention on Lionel. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
Mark and I watched the storm of words she lashed him with. We couldn’t hear because she’d cast a muffle spell as soon as I moved away. We could see Lionel looking down at the table, his shoulders were slumped and he didn’t say anything. I’d finished half of another pint before he stood and walked toward the door, face ashen. Cate beckoned me over and I took two fresh drinks with me. “It will get better,” I whispered to Lionel as we passed. I’m not sure he heard me.
I put Cate’s glass down and sat. “Still think it’s a good idea to have an apprentice?”
She looked up and I saw a sparkle in her eyes. “Remember when I spilled the invisible potion on the floor just in front of the door to Master Vollont’s house?”
“Now you mention it, yes. I remember watching people step over the hole that wasn’t there.” I remember Cate having a blistering talking to by Master Vollont as well.
She sighed. “I did tell him to look at those books. I should have thought about what he might do.”
“If you need help putting your place back together, I’ll be happy to be there.” I raised my glass to her. “Have you had a chance to figure out anything about our other problem?”
“No solutions, but I did find something about how they might have done it. The spell on the amulet I mean.”
“Okay, if we have the amulet, that will help us clean it.”
“It was in one of my old books. There are two components of this kind of spell. Unfortunately there was nothing about removal so I’m guessing about that. The Sidhe could do this for other Real Folk but it was easiest for them to choose the fairies because they’re related so the fairies trust them a bit more than the rest of us. They took blood from a fairy and a little more blood from a Sidhe. It’s a control spell. Fionuir used the two bloods to cast a control of reproduction spell.”
I started to feel hopeful that we would come up with a solution. “So, we might be able to recast the spell with only fairy blood and give them control over their own fate. This is great. You did way better than I did; I wasn’t able to find anything out.”
She smiled at me and took a sip of her wine. “I have something more.”
“Okay, how did you get so much when I got nothing but ‘there’s no way’ from my sources? Oh, Olan also told me last night was a trap, there was no woman.”
She shrugged. “That’s good news. How I got information instead of you? I don’t know. Maybe it’s just the questions you ask.”
I waited for her to continue but it seemed she was making me work for the information. “Okay, what did you find out?”
She grinned before saying, “I found a Sidhe who is willing to talk to us.”
That surprised me. “How did you find them? We just got away from one trap, this could be another.”
“A friend told me about her. I said we would meet with her later tonight”
“Are you sure about this friend?”
She sighed. “I trust my friend. Stop questioning my information just because you didn’t get anything useful.”
“It’s not that.” I realized I needed to back pedal a bit. “I’m really worried about another trap. We barely got out of the last one.”
“It’s going to be risky. We can’t look for ways to do this without risk.” She plunked her glass on the table and rose. “If you want to stay here, I’m happy to meet her and report back. Is there anything you would like me to ask?”
“No. I mean, yes. I mean, I’ll come with you.”
It wasn’t that far to the meeting place. We were in the alley where I saw the first killing. It gave me a chill and I couldn’t help looking at the corner where the human died. There was no sign that anything other than bad toilet choices had taken place here. I wondered what the human authorities had thought when they found her.
Cate pulled me out of the center of the alley into the shadows. “She’s supposed to meet us here. We’re a few minutes early.”
I waited quietly. I’d already put my foot in my mouth so I told myself to watch and not make anything worse. Anyway, this was Cate’s clue. If I had found this contact, I would have been bossing her around all over the place.
“Do you see anything?” Cate whispered.
“No, but don’t worry. She’ll show up. This will probably be the break we’ve been looking for. You might have saved us.”
“Don’t be so patronizing.” She giggled with the words.
“If you two are finished cooing at each other, perhaps we can speak.” The voice came from across the alley in a shadow of a dumpster. The voice was cool and low, but I couldn’t see who was standing there.
Cate stepped forward to the middle of the alley. “You have our attention.”
I stepped up behind Cate and kept my mouth shut.
