Page 23 of Quiver of Cobras
I snorted. ‘Try being me. I’ve been nothing but surprised since I woke up last week.’
‘Poor, poor Madrona.’
I couldn’t tell whether he was being sardonic. ‘It’s really hard.’
‘It must be.’ He gazed at me assessingly for a moment. ‘You shouted something about Chen too.’
So I did. I tilted up my chin and kept my eyes focused on Rubus’s face. I needed to absorb every twitch and every tell. This was important. Sticking to the truth as closely as I could, I outlined what the taxi driver had told me before moving onto the really juicy stuff. ‘So I got him to drop me off at Chen’s place. He was right, the whole building has been pretty much destroyed. None of the surrounding structures were damaged. I’m no arson expert but it looked deliberate to me.’
For a long moment Rubus didn’t say anything; he simply stared at me, his green Fey eyes as hard as sea glass. I watched him, praying for a reaction to give me a clue about might have happened to Chen’s safe or where Rubus might have taken it.
When he did finally speak, he didn’t try to hide anything. His lips pulled back over his teeth in an animalistic snarl and his muscles quivered with barely repressed tension. ‘What are you doing investigating the dragon? Haven’t I given you enough to do? What about my dust that you lost? I still need it back, Madrona. This amnesia business only takes you so far, you know. You’re still under orders.Myorders.’
I blinked, taken aback by his sudden, livid fury. ‘I … er … I…’ I had been expecting another of Rubus’s inscrutable masks, not this no-holds-barred emotion. Given that a moment ago, I was sure he was ready to invite me to fall on his duvet and spread my legs, this volte-face was more than a little disturbing. And people calledmethe Madhatter. At least I was fairly consistent.
‘I was taking the initiative,’ I said. ‘The information about Chen fell into my lap. It was no trouble to swing by there and see his place for myself.’
‘Don’t take the initiative. Don’t think. Just do what the hell I tell you to do.’ He glared at me. ‘Stay away from anything to do with Chen or Charrie’s disappearance or my fucking sphere.’ He jabbed his finger at me. ‘Those are my concern, not yours. Understood?’
‘Well, yes, but—’
‘Good,’ he growled. ‘Now get out.’
I was tempted to stand my ground and argue but this wasn’t Morgan. The anger ripping through Rubus’s body, and which I could swear was making him shake, was genuinely scary. He couldn’t hurt me – the truce saw to that – but that didn’t mean he wasn’t uber-intimidating.
My delay in reacting only served to increase his anger. ‘If you think this is one of those times when you can snap out a silly insult, Madrona, you are severely underestimating the situation.’
‘I wasn’t—’
‘Get the fuck out!’ he roared.
I was smart enough to do as he asked. Wheeling round, I skedaddled out of his room. As soon as the door closed behind me, there was a screeching roar and the sound of breaking glass. Rubus was very, very annoyed.
That answered one question then. He didn’t know about the fire – and he didn’t know about Chen’s missing safe, either.
***
It was tempting to hang around and see what happened next. Which minion did Rubus trust enough to talk to? Where would he go now? But loitering outside his room, especially with the annoyingly stoic Fey guard outside, would only draw further attention to myself. If I skipped off with Lunaria for the shopping expedition I’d promised, I’d appear more trustworthy. Sneaky Madrona understood not to over-cook her goose. A good spy might lurk and listen; a great spy would appear blithely unconcerned, stay under the radar and look for clues only when it was absolutely safe to do so. And anyway, I really needed some better clothes.
I caught up with Lunaria out towards the front. She was deep in conversation with another Fey. As I approached, she passed him a memory stick. He grunted his thanks and strode away before I could reach the pair of them.
‘Hey,’ I said. ‘Sharing your illegally downloaded porn collection with another person isn’t a great idea, you know. At least when it’s a guy. Your memory stick will come back all sticky.’
Rather than smile, Lunaria looked flustered. She smoothed down her hair with one hand. ‘That? That wasn’t porn. It was just some…’ she hesitated, as if trying to think of the most plausible lie ‘ …photos,’ she finished with an awkward grimace.
‘Sexy photos?’
She shook her head, alarmed. ‘No!’
‘Kinky photos?’
‘Madrona, stop it!’
I opened my eyes wide in mock horror. ‘It’s not water sports, is it? And I’m not talking about surfing. I mean the sort of water sports where your partner—’
‘Madrona! Enough!’
I held up my hands. ‘Okay.’ I grinned wickedly. ‘I submit.’
