Page 75 of Wicked Deeds

“Still, I’d like to know what Jack offered Gwen’s mother. And I don’t think we should let Cerridwen know about Gwen and Jack until we have to. Usuriel wasn’t happy about letting thetwo of you leave the realm. If he finds out Gwen’s half-witch, he might be difficult.”

“Usuriel was at the club last night,” I admitted in a rush.

For once I’d managed to genuinely shock Cassandra. Her jaw dropped. “And you’re just telling me thisnow?”

I gestured back at the house. “There’s been a lot going on. And he only wanted to talk to me.”

She muttered something under her breath. It didn’t sound complimentary, but I wasn’t sure if it was aimed at me or Usuriel. “He shouldn’t be outside the realm. I’ll have to tell Cerridwen. What did he want?”

“I’m not sure. He admitted he sent the nixlings. Said he wanted to keep an eye on me. Somehow he found out Jack was the one we’re hunting and that Jack has dabbled with demonkind. I don’t know how much more he knows, but he said he wanted to watch for him.”

“And you believed him?”

“Not completely. But you know, the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. If he wants to help stop Jack, that’s fine with me.”

“You don’t think he was there because of Gwen?”

“He sent the nixlings before Gwen arrived in the US. And I don’t think he saw her. So, no.”

“Still, it will be safer if he doesn’t find out.”

“I’m not sure how we prevent that,” I pointed out. “If he’s moving outside the realm and watching us still, he’ll see her sooner or later. Or his spies will.” He had more than nixlings at his disposal. But that though made me think of something else. “Usuriel’s not the only one with a spy.”

Cassandra looked confused.

“Lianith,” I continued. “She belongs to Cerridwen. Or serves her or whatever you want to call it. I’m not sure how much of all this she understands but she’s overheard some of ourconversations. She could tell Callum or Cerridwen.” For all I knew, she had already.

“Has Callum been here?”

“No, but she has the same mental speech he does. I don’t know if that works long distance.”

Cassandra sighed. “If it does, then I expect I will be hearing from Cerridwen sooner rather than later. But I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Just be careful. With her and with keeping Gwen safe.”

“We’re always careful. This is one of the most secure places in the city. Probably in the whole damned country. But I get it. I’ll watch out for Usuriel. Can we not tell Gwen, though? She is not a fan. And if we’re trying to reduce her stress level to avoid a magic flare, this won’t help.”

“She has to know eventually.”

“Let’s give her a few days to adjust. She’s been through a lot recently. Let’s see if we can find out if Jack is our father, before we hit her with the news Usuriel’s stalking me.”

“Very well.” Cassandra didn’t look entirely happy about it, but she didn’t argue.

“Can we ask Callum to figure out how well Gwen has been trained in Fae magic? We don’t have to tell him about Jack. He knows she’s tanai. I’d like to ask him to teach her that trick of his to break out of VR.” Callum had been able to get out of the re-creation of Jack’s locked VR. I could usually manage to exit a VR magically when I was sufficiently scared or angry, but I couldn’t do it reliably otherwise. “Maybe she’ll figure out a different way to Callum. Something easier for the rest of us to try to learn.”

“And safer for her if Jack decides to take an interest?” Cassandra said.

“Yeah, that too.” I rubbed the now nearly pulverized mint savagely between my fingers. Fuck Jack. Teaching anyone how to escape a locked VR should never be necessary. But thanks tohim, and whoever his twisted cronies were, it was. Yet another reason to hate him. “Are you sure there’s no way of hexing Jack or something? If he died, that would solve a lot of problems.”

“As much as he’s broken enough of our laws to warrant it, sadly, no. That kind of thing is black magic or worse. We’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way. Catch him, bring him in, and then deal with him.”

“He burned down my house. He summoned imps. Doesn’t that warrant ending him?” I asked, bitterness burning my tongue and sharpening the words.

“We want information from him first. Like who he’s working with. Don’t worry, he will get the fate he deserves.”

But how much harm could he do before he did?

Cassandra touched my arm. “You know, none of this is your fault,” she said. “You don’t know him, you didn’t know about Gwen and you weren’t any part of Jack’s plans.”

“Sara knew him,” I said bitterly. “She made a baby with him.”

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