Monty just stared at me and shook his head.
“Balfour? Her name was Slif Balfour?”
“It’s not a proper surname, but she belonged to the Balfour Enclave.”
“Of course, this Magnus is just paying the city a visit?” I asked hopefully. “Coming to take in the sights and do the tourist thing?”
“After he instructed Cecil where to deliver his automobile, he expressed a desire to meet the individual who ended his enclave sister’s life—a particular Simon Strong.”
“Bloody hell,” I said as Monty raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“It has been my experience that dragons lack an appropriate sense of humor,” Monty said. “He is aware of you and your actions regarding Slif.”
“How are you not part of that equation?” I asked in disbelief. “I mean, yes, I was the one who was dragonploded and I was the one that buried Ebonsoul in her neck, and…Oh, shit.”
“Well, I admit, I did provide the orb,” Monty said matter-of-factly. “However, you provided everything else.”
“No wonder Cecil is acting like I’m toxic waste,” I said. “How strong is this Magnus Balfour? And for the record, what kind of name is Magnus M. Balfour?
“An old one. He is the leader of the Balfour Enclave of dragons,” Monty said. “I highly doubt it’s an honorary position. I’m fairly certain this ‘mission’ we are being briefed on tonight involves Magnus and his imminent demise.”
“Shadow Company is going to try and kill a dragon enclave leader? Is that even possible?”
“They’re going to try and fail, killing you in the process,” Monty said. “That’s my best guess. Especially if Rott is part of this plan.”
“If this Magnus is holding a grudge, why not just take me out directly?” I asked. “If he’s as powerful as he sounds, he can dust me without much effort.”
“Politics and optics, I’m sure,” Monty said. “You’re just a human to Magnus; to take direct action against you would be beneath him. But if you were to be part of an operation to kill him…?”
“He would be free to wipe me out without a second thought. Without repercussions.”
“Self-defense will carry more weight than, ‘This was the insignificant human scum who managed to kill my sister with only a blade.’”
“I’m noticing how you left out the enormous orb of destruction you supplied.”
“Insignificant details,” Monty replied, his expression serious. “If this is the case, this would be the ideal time to decline this mission and meeting. I don’t know if Kali’s curse will allow you to survive a dragon attack.”
“You know I can’t walk away,” I said. “I need to see this through to the end.”
“Why?” Monty said. “You owe these men no allegiance. If anything, they are trying to eliminate you.”
“If Rott is alive, I need to make things right with him and end this.”
“What if what he’s after is your life?”
“He’s going to find taking my life difficult.”
“It won’t stop him from trying, especially if he’s trying to balance the scales of Cassandra’s death with your own. He will never stop.”
“Then I’ll have to stop him.”
ELEVEN
“Jimmy doesn’t know how to find dragons,” I said. “Although he makes a solid argument against my locating them. Do you know?”
“Why would he know?” Monty asked. “He’s not a dragon.”
“I just figured he’s part of the supernatural community,” I said. “Maybe he had an address?”
“You do realize you’re part of the same community now?”
“I’m only partially supernatural. The rest of me is entirely natural, without the super.”
Monty just stared at me for a few seconds.
“The workings of your brain are truly indecipherable,” Monty said as we left the office. “His being a werebear doesn’t mean he’s a fount of information. Dragons are wealthy, old, powerful, and invisible. James wouldn’t be privy to that kind of information.”
“Invisible as in hard to see?”
“Invisible as in operating behind the scenes,” Monty said. “They have two major enclaves in the city, the Balfour and Obouros—or, at least they had. They have been dormant for some time now.”
“For a moment I thought you were going to say the Capulets and the…hey?”
“No relation at all,” Monty said. “I do believe my uncle had words with William’s use of the family name. Apparently it was cleared with the elders of the time. Poetic license or some such.”
“Dex knew Billy Shakes? I’m impressed,” I said. “Actually, that explains a few things.”
“Do I even want to know?” Monty asked. “Forget I asked. The point is that dragons prefer to remain quiescent, hidden, and behind the scenes, pulling strings and influencing events from the shadows.”
“Slif didn’t seem all that inactive when she was trying to kill us,” I said. “Why haven’t I heard of the dragon enclaves before all of this?”
“Did you forget the part about being invisible?” Monty asked. “They take great pains to remain in the background, shunning all kinds of attention.”
“Which means Jimmy can’t share what he doesn’t know,” I said. “Are you saying Slif and Kraggy were outliers?”
“Quite,” Monty said with a nod. “In any case, even if James knew, I doubt he could divulge that information.”
“Why not? Would they hit him with some kind of mute cast? Or maybe something that creates spontaneous amnesia? Then he would forget every time he was asked.”
“On occasion, I wish I could suffer from acute, spontaneous amnesia, usually every time you come up with these ideas,” Monty said. “The reason he wouldn’t share is because dragons are notoriously homicidal about their privacy. They would come back and reduce this establishment—and James—to atoms for sharing their location.”
“So, what then?” I asked. “It’s not like we can google ‘dragon enclave NYC.’ How do we locate them?”
“There is a method, but we will have to see an Auer,” Monty replied. “Which will complicate things considerably.”
“Who do we need to see in an hour? Do we have enough time?”
“Not ‘see someone in an hour’, we need to go see an Auer.”
“Right, that makes perfect sense,” I said. “What’s an Auer? Don’t you dare say a measurement of time.”
“The closest approximation would be a type of archive. She is a guardian of information.”
“You mean we’re going
