by Jayne Hawke
“What brings you here today, Gideon? My people are looking at the contract you threw back at us.”
The corners of Gideon’s mouth twitched upwards in a polite smile.
“As you are aware, there was an artifact stolen from Quinn’s museum. We were brought in to investigate the theft. There was Mercury witch magic found at the site of the theft.”
I bit my tongue and held back from pointing out that Mercury was a god of thieves.
Isaac leaned forward with his mouth open in a flat imitation of shock.
“One of my coven members stole from Quinn? I shall make sure they’re punished immediately!”
His tone was off. There was no mocking there. It was though he was trying to match what he thought it was meant to be.
“Will there be anything else?” Isaac asked.
“We’ll need to speak to your coven members and ascertain where each and every one of you were. Let’s start with you,” Gideon said.
Isaac’s eyes narrowed, and he pulled his hands back closer to him. He turned and looked at the largest of the paintings with great sweeping strokes of black with soft threads of slate grey. I noticed a tattoo behind his ear. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. Witches sometimes got tattoos tied into their god out of respect and to act in a similar way to my tumbled garnet.
Pulling out my phone, I quickly took a photo of the tattoo while pretending to be checking the Grim.
Isaac finally turned his attention back to us.
“I was here, at work. You know how it is, it’s never ending. There’s always more paperwork to be done.”
“And you have proof of this?” Gideon asked.
I casually started walking around the room to get a closer look at the artwork.
“Do not touch anything,” Isaac said sharply.
I put my hands up. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
He narrowed his eyes and returned his attention back to Gideon.
I didn’t touch a thing, but I did take pictures of everything. The paintings, the odd stones and little trinkets on his desk. There was something there in that office that was going to explain what was going on. I just knew it.
“Why is she here!?” Isaac demanded when I got close to the weird axe with unusual angular markings down the blade.
“She is part of my company,” Gideon said coolly.
“You are just in security, no different to me, why are you here asking questions? How did you get that contract?” Isaac snapped.
“I am on the witch council. I was given the contract as head enforcer,” Gideon said smugly.
When I was a Morrigan witch, we had acted freely under the Morrigan’s guidance. She would tell us which crimes to handle and how severely. Since the coven had been shown to be corrupt, things had changed. Now the witch council looked into every crime relating to witches. The Morrigan witches were the majority of the enforcers, but they worked for the council now. It felt wrong, but I understood the reasoning there.
Set stepped into my mind, and I felt my fingertips brush over a small metal flower. Isaac had his back to me. He was glaring at Gideon while they went back and forth over Gideon’s right to investigate.
I’d never stolen anything in my life, but Set pushed. I wrapped my fingers around the delicate little metal flower and stuffed it into the inside pocket of my jacket. Set smiled and left again.
“Interesting decor you have here. Remind me how Hermes is tied into weird masks,” I said as I walked over to Isaac’s desk.
The Hermes witch looked at me with pure malevolence.
“What would a pathetic little solitary witch like you know about Mercury? Your kind are a disease that should have been wiped out a long time ago. The arrogance and ridiculous notion that you are worthy of communing with a god alone, without the sanctity of a coven,” he snarled.
I leaned over the desk.
“You know, that sounds like a lot of venom towards solitary witches. That could be considered a motive for all of the missing solitary witches...”
He somehow went even paler.
“Are you threatening me!?”
“Did that sound like a threat to you, Gideon?” I asked.
“Not at all,” Gideon replied.
I smiled brightly at Isaac.
“I would never do anything as foolish as harm solitary witches. They are a blight, but they should be put into covens, not removed from existence entirely. I have businesses to run. I would never be stupid enough to do something so illegal as to kill other witches.” Isaac said sharply.
I backed up a single step. I hadn’t said anything about the solitary witches having been killed.
43
Gideon had concluded that Isaac’s little rant wasn’t enough for us to question him further on the solitary witches. He called his firm to arrange the interviews of the Mercury coven.
“That’s the nice thing about running a large business, I don’t have to do any of the boring work,” Gideon said with a smile.
We were heading back to his office. I looked through the pictures I’d taken.
“Everything felt wrong. The decor was hideous and didn’t at all fit Mercury. He was lying through his teeth about the stolen artifact, too,” I said.
“Agreed.”
The flower in my pocket pressed uncomfortably against my chest. I pulled it out and rolled it around the palm of my hand. There was nothing special about it. No markings, no magic that I could feel.
Gideon glanced over.
“What’s that?”
“A flower, I guess? Set pushed me to steal it.”
“A touch of chaos,” Gideon said.
“I suppose so. I have no idea what to do with it now, though.”
Gideon’s phone buzzed.
He quickly read the text while stopped at a red light.
“We have to make a quick stop at a nightclub. Do you know the Grapevine, the Bacchus place?”
I’d heard of it. The club was reputed to be a sex club where people went to enjoy every form of alcohol known to man, and the pleasures of the flesh. It really wasn’t my kind of place.
“I know of it. Have you been?” I asked.
Gideon laughed.
“I’ve done a little business with the owner, Megan, but I am not a client or customer.”
I rolled the flower around my hand again and ran my thumb over the small petals. There had to be a reason behind all of this. Set wouldn’t push me to steal something for no reason.
Gideon squeezed his car into the space in front of the black building. I stepped out and looked upon the narrow building with black wooden frontage and a small door that was easy to miss. There were no signs or windows. It almost looked abandoned. Although, the area was a little too upscale for it to have been abandoned.
I really hoped that the club didn’t have any patrons. I wasn’t ready for free porn. Gideon put his arm around my waist, and we stepped into the dark, warm, and damp space. The smell of grapes and something floral filled the air. I wrinkled my nose and tried not to choke on it.
We walked down the narrow hallway, which opened out into a large open space. The floor was polished tile, nice and easy to clean. Long leather couches were scattered throughout the space, along with heavy tables covered in vinyl. The walls had cuffs and chains attached at even intervals. I noted tools ranging from riding crops through to vicious-looking knives sat in a glass-fronted cabinet next to the long slender bar.
Bottles of every shape, size, and colour lined the wall behind the bar. I’d never seen so many alcohols before; half of them I’d never even heard of. A muscular barman wearing nothing but a small pair of shorts was diligently cleaning the bar. I didn’t want to know what he was cleaning off. I kept my hands to myself, not wanting to get anything on me.
Gideon led me up the winding stairs to the office, which had a large window overlooking everything. Megan greeted Gideon with a lust-filled smile that brought out my possessiveness. She was a curvy dark-haired woman with
flawless olive skin and stunning chocolate-brown eyes. Her figure filled out the silk dress. She would be a strong temptation for anyone interested in women.
“Gideon, I’m so glad you could come so quickly,” Megan purred.
“I was in the area,” Gideon said tightly.
The flower began to burn, and I felt Set’s presence. I slipped away from Gideon and moved to look at the explicit artwork on the wall to my left. The brightly coloured painting sat above a pale wooden pedestal upon which an amphora perched. Checking that Megan was focused on Gideon and not watching me, I saw her hand slide onto his hip. Gideon pointedly stepped away. His magic wrapped around me.
“The paperwork, Megan,” Gideon pushed.
“Just one little drink,” Megan said.
I pulled the flower from my pocket and placed it down next to the amphora before I returned to Gideon’s side.
“I’m driving, you know that,” Gideon said as he held out his hand for the paperwork.
Megan huffed.
“You’re so uptight. I could fix that for you...”
I rolled my eyes and leaned into Gideon. It was a territorial move, but she was starting to bug me.
Megan dropped the envelope in Gideon’s hand and gave him a dismissive wave of her hand. Gideon tensed and held me close before we left.
I didn’t know why Set had pushed me to do as he had, but I had a suspicion he’d been involved in Megan’s sudden need to see Gideon, too.
“Have faith,” Set said.
I’d never been good at the blind faith thing, and I didn’t see that changing anytime soon. I could feel Set shaking his head at me, but he said nothing more. For that, I was grateful.
“One of my clients was attacked in Megan’s club. She owed me paperwork to clear up the legal issues around that,” Gideon explained.
“I thought only the Dionysus people got aggressive,” I said as I got into the car.
“Bacchus isn’t all fun and games. None of those hedonism gods are,” Gideon said.
If we were being honest with ourselves, all of the gods had a darkness to them. It was just whether we found it to be palatable and controllable.
44
“What are you doing for dinner?” Gideon asked.
“Sitting on my couch trying to figure out who’s stealing away solitary witches,” I said as I looked back through the pictures.
There had to be something there.
Gideon put his hand on my knee.
“I was thinking we could get a table at Savoy and enjoy dessert back at mine,” Gideon said.
I looked over at him with the wicked smile on his face.
“Well, now, that is tempting,” I said.
“You’re an incredible woman, Sky. I’m lucky the gods saw fit to pair me with you.”
“I guess you’re not too bad,” I teased.
Gideon laughed.
“Why don’t we go for a meal once this solitary witch problem is resolved? I might even consider bringing chocolate syrup for dessert,” I said.
“Well, if ever had had motivation to resolve a crime, this is it,” Gideon said.
“I think something’s wrong with both Quinn and Isaac. Neither of them fit with what you’d expect from their type of witch. Isaac had a weird tattoo behind his ear, and that artwork was really odd. I got an awful vibe from it,” I said.
“They weren’t showing any of the usual signs of being possessed,” Gideon said.
“No, but there was definitely something wrong,” I pushed.
He parked the car in front of his office building and held out his hand for my phone. I handed it over and watched as he looked through the pictures I’d taken. Slowly a frown developed on his face.
“I’m sure I recognise that spear; I don’t know how I missed it while we were in there,” he said.
“Is it cursed? Dangerous? Or just really ugly?”
He snorted.
“Stolen. It looks identical to a Mars spear that went missing a year ago.”
“If that’s stolen...”
“We’ll look and check to see if the rest is stolen,” Gideon said.
I checked on the Grim while we rode the elevator up to Gideon’s office. Everyone was talking about Megan running some sort of huge party where everyone was invited. It looked like it was a first, the entire site was abuzz with it.
I clicked through to Megan’s original post. A picture of the flower I’d placed next to the amphora accompanied the text.
“Someone returned the gift from my beloved Andrew, my first lover!” the post began.
It went on to explain that the flower had disappeared a couple of years ago and she was celebrating its return with a huge party.
“Isaac stole the flower, too. It was Megan’s,” I said as I followed him into his office.
Three large paper bags full of cartons of food waited for us on the table. My stomach growled. It smelled like Chinese food, which suddenly sounded like the best thing in the world.
“So, two of the items in his office were stolen,” Gideon said as he looked through the cartons.
I looked through another bag and pulled out the crispy wontons.
“I’ve already staked my claim on one of the Szechuan beefs,” Ella said from behind us.
“What brings you here?” Gideon asked.
“Is that how you greet your favourite healer?” Ella asked with her hand over her heart.
Gideon ignored her and returned to pulling food out onto the table.
“We’re here to help you crack this solitary witch thing. That, and we heard that our favourite Chinese place was sending you loads of food in the hope of getting you to lower your prices,” Ella said.
I managed to secure crispy wontons, sweet and sour chicken, and prawn spring rolls before Ryan descended on the food.
“I think Isaac and Quinn need to be considered as part of this solitary witch situation. Isaac has demonstrated a clear hatred of solitary witches,” I said.
“And Quinn is up to something. The team doing the clean-up said he was really twitchy and acting weirdly,” Greyson said.
“I think you’re jumping at shadows with Quinn. Isaac has a known history of despising solitary witches. He tried to push a law through that would make them illegal,” Ryan said.
I hadn’t heard about that, but it could have been before my time. Witches didn’t age like humans. Isaac could have been fifty or more years older than me.
“Quinn was acting weirdly, though, and the shadows said the thief knew what he was doing. No one knows the museum the way Quinn does. He brought in Gideon specifically. He had to know I’d be asked to look around,” Greyson said.
“I think it’s just an insurance job,” Ella said with a shrug.
“We need to look into how much insurance will pay him,” Ryan said.
“The damage to his reputation is too great for Quinn to have done it.” Gideon said.
“What if the myths about the artifact are true?” I asked.
Everyone turned to look at me.
“What if the myths about the artifact are true? Think about it, Isaac’s a thief, and he has those research facilities,” I said.
Everyone turned to look at me.
“Think about it. It’s supposed to transmute magic, right? He has a lot of research companies with no public details about them. What if that’s what he’s been researching?” I said.
Silence descended over the room.
It was a reach, but if I was right then it’d mean Quinn was innocent, at least with regards to the artifact and possessions. If Isaac had the artifact and had found a way to use it, though, he’d be rich. Witches would love to get their hands on string-free magic just as much as fae would kill to be able to use witch magic. If he could pull it off, then he’d be able to command millions, probably more.
“How much information can we pull up on those research facilities?” Gideon asked.
“Only the legal stuff. If this is what he’s really doing, we’re goi
ng to have trouble,” Greyson said.
Gideon bit into some crispy beef.
“Sky might be onto something here,” Gideon said.
I grinned.
“What can I say, I’m just that good.”
45
Gideon’s people had been tasked with digging up everything they could on Isaac. It had taken them a mere eighteen hours to produce pages upon pages of information. I curled up in my favourite spot on Gideon’s couch with some heavenly coffee and began looking over it.
Greyson had decided to join us on this investigation. Gideon was away in another office handling some meeting with a difficult client. The room felt weirdly quiet and empty without him.
Ties to fae and hunters had been found with the research facilities. The fae connections were buried behind shell companies, but Gideon’s people had found it. There were two fae ladies involved financially. They were both pouring six figures into the facility on a regular basis.
“What on Earth do they spend that type of money on?” I asked.
“I have no idea. These fae are known for trying to grab land on this plane, though,” Greyson said.
“Aren’t they all?”
He smiled.
The fae were always trying to get a foothold on the earth plane. The less dangerous and more civil fae were allowed to wander onto our plane and even make homes there. They could not, however, own businesses or hold territories in the way shifters and witches could. Fae were given temporary guest status, and they hated it.
The other supernaturals pointed out that we weren’t allowed to so much as look at Fae. The fae felt that was entirely irrelevant, and so the argument went around and around. Many supernaturals wanted access to Fae, the fae plane. There were rumours that it was formed of pure magic. If that magic could be siphoned off and used, then those who succeeded in that would become very powerful, and very wealthy. That about summed up most witches’ dreams.
“These ones have actually formed armies and tried to use magic to lay claim to land on this plane. Lady Silvera almost succeeded in taking Wolf Ridge seventy years ago. She and all of those in her territory were banned from stepping foot on the earth plane. It doesn’t look like the ban is stopping them, though,” Greyson said.
