On the tenth ring, I heard a click.
“Demonkin.” The voice on the other end of the line sounded like its owner would have been happier getting a call from Hitler than from me.
“Tinkerbell,” I replied. “Hi. I need a favor.”
A pregnant silence ensued, going on long enough that I started to get nervous.
When Albigard finally broke it, his voice could have flayed skin. “And why in all the realms would you assume that you would get such a thing by calling me?”
I took a deep breath. “Because I gave your reputation a boost in the Court by letting you haul me into Dhuinne?”
“In return for which, I arranged to have your sire removed to safety,” Albigard retorted.
I closed my eyes. “True. And I owe you for that.” Even if that ‘safety’ turned out to be... not so safe. “Look—I have information. I need your vow that you won’t use it to harm Rans, but if you promise me that, I’ll give it to you in exchange for a lift.”
Another pause.
“A ‘lift.’” Albigard made the word sound as though it tasted bad. “To where?”
I wavered between starting my search in London versus going directly to York. But I was no private investigator. If Rans had arrived in London and lost himself in the city—or gone elsewhere in the UK—I had no good way to find him. It would be hard enough trying to track him down in York, but maybe there were public records of property ownership I could check, or something.
“York,” I told him. “England.”
“Ah,” Albigard said. “I should have known.”
My heart rate picked up. “Why should you have known?”
“You’re chasing after the bloodsucker,” Albigard said impatiently. “Obviously.”
“Do you know where he is?” I blurted.
Albigard gave a snort. “You don’t think I’ve had his movements under surveillance since that performance in front of the Fae Court, demonkin? I’m not sure whether to be insulted, or mourn your sudden mental incapacity.”
“Albigard. Do you know where he is?” I repeated with more force.
The Fae made a sound of disgust. “Didn’t I just answer that? He’s off licking his wounds at the millhouse. Combined with your disappearance from the human realm a few weeks previously, the situation begs several rather interesting questions.”
“I was in Hell,” I said. “With my father.”
Albigard gave another impatient sigh. “Yes. I already know that,” he said very slowly and clearly, as if to an imbecile. “Fine. Are you someplace out of sight?”
“No.” I looked around at the gift shop. “Give me ten minutes.”
I hung up and unplugged my phone, waving to the girl behind the counter in thanks. After chugging the rest of my tea and dumping the bottle in a recycling bin, I grabbed my bag and hurried out, scanning my surroundings for a secluded spot. With all the scrubby trees and boulders around the area, it wasn’t hard to find one.
I waited, tense and impatient. A few minutes later, I was rewarded when a sizzling sound cut through the air. A line of fire appeared in the shape of an oval large enough for a man to step through. Despite appearances, the figure that appeared through the portal was no man, however. He was Fae—proud and haughty, crackling with magic that danced against my skin like prickling needles, setting my teeth on edge.
“What is this information you wish to trade?” Albigard asked without preamble.
“Hello to you, too, Tinkerbell,” I said pointedly.
He waved the words away. “You should learn not to waste time on meaningless prattle, demonkin. Now tell me.”
I clenched my jaw. “Promise me that you won’t use the information to hurt Rans. Or give it to anyone else who might use it to hurt him.”
I wouldn’t have thought it possible to convey an eye-roll so clearly without actually moving one’s eyes.
“I so vow. Now stop dawdling.”
My mouth felt dry, and I swallowed. I was counting on Rans’ assessment of Albigard’s character, before Albigard had pissed him off by taking me to Dhuinne. They’d been allies—of a sort, at least—and Rans had admitted openly to sharing sensitive information with him in the past. I sincerely hoped that meant what I was about to do was not, in fact, a horrible idea.
“Drinking small amounts of vampire blood on a regular basis extends the human lifespan,” I said. “If not indefinitely, then at least by decades or centuries.”
Albigard stared at me very intently, a small furrow marring his perfect brow.
“And I only learned about it because I saw it in action, firsthand... and on a large scale,” I finished, staring back just as intently while I waited to see if he would connect the dots.
His frown smoothed in the next instant, replaced by a blank facade of indifference. Bingo.
“I see,” he said, his earlier impatience replaced with blandness. “Come. I will take you to the millhouse. As I will not be able to stay, please pass on a message for me.”
I nodded, even as I wondered why he didn’t just deliver it himself. “What’s the message?”
Albigard seemed to steel himself. “A highly placed member of the Unseelie Court is colluding with someone from the upper echelons of Hell. I do not know to what end, but someone needs to find out, and soon.”
The familiar feeling of being at capacity when it came to bad shit happening around me returned with a vengeance. I closed my eyes for the space of a breath before opening them again. “Okay. I’ll pass it on. Thank you.”
Albigard only grunted. With a wave of his hand, a new portal formed. He turned to step through it, and I followed, my heart pounding like a frantic beast trying to escape the cage of my chest. Terror and excitement at what I would find on the other side flooded me in equal measure.
The sense of falling through a vertigo-inducing tunnel assaulted my senses, and I stumbled forward a step when my feet touched solid ground again—barely avoiding
