Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
“You’ve heard of me?”
“Tales of your time in the market have reached my ear. And what you paid is in here.” They patted their book. “Knowledge is power, after all.”
Graves clenched his jaw at their words. “I see.”
Kierse glanced between them, wondering what exactly was happening. Niamh leaned her hip against the counter and looked down at her nails. “What did he trade and trade for?”
Rio’s eyes jumped to Niamh. “I know what you traded for, too.”
Niamh shrugged. “So?”
Rio smirked at her before turning to Kierse. “What would you like to trade for?”
“I’m trying to regain my memories, and I was told that was something that could be done in here.”
Rio shrugged. “Sure. We don’t have any magic ourselves.” They snapped their fingers. “Monsters not magic, and all that.”
That was the motto that had been circulated once monsters came out in the open. They were supernatural beings—vampires, werewolves, mer, wraiths, nymphs, goblins, shifters, phoenix, trolls, and incubus/succubus—but they didn’t have magic. That apparently was not the same as the fact that magic didn’t exist. Because it very clearly did.
Kierse laughed softly. “We all know that was a lie peddled to humans at the end of the war.”
“It depends on how you look at it. I have no magic myself. The other monsters I regularly work with don’t have magic. But there are magic users who have not come into the light, such as your friends here, and they’re happy to trade their magic for bits of what we monsters can offer,” Rio said with a sharp-toothed smile. “So, for regular people, monsters not magic is just fine. For those who see beyond the veil, perhaps not.”
“But you have traded with someone who can help a person regain memories.”
“Indeed.” Rio opened the book and began to flip through the paper-thin pages. “Memories are tricky, though. Not many who specialize in that sort of thing.”
“Are you trying to tell me it’s expensive?”
Rio flashed her another smile. “Ah, I see why you decided to come here when memory stands at your side.” Their eyes flickered to Graves. “Perhaps I’d brave the shadow, too.”
Graves crossed his arms. “Do you have someone who can help or not?”
“I do.” Rio breezed through more pages before stopping and sliding their long red nail down the list. “Ah. Here we are. Just what you’re looking for.”
Graves leaned forward against the counter as if he meant to try to steal the information before Rio could shut the book. But it was all gibberish to Kierse, either in another language or in code.
Rio shot Graves a look and then put their hands over the encoded pages. “Now, the fun part. What exactly have you brought me for this information?”
“The bracelet of Queen Aveline of the Dryads,” Graves said.
Rio’s eyebrows shot up. “Is that so?” Their eyes were greedy as they looked from Graves to Kierse. “Show me this jewel.”
“We don’t have it on us, but we can give you the location of where to acquire it.”
“Would that location be Versailles?” they asked drily.
“I stole it from the queen,” Kierse told them.
“Hmm,” they said. “That doesn’t seem like a fair trade. You give me a location of wherever this most precious artifact could be, and I give you exactly what you want when you could never have found it on your own?”
Niamh tsked from her place at the end of the counter. “You’re both trading information.”
“The difference is that I’m good for it. This is my job. I don’t take I-owe-yous from new customers. Especially with his background,” they said, looking Graves up and down.
“Fine. We can add something else to the bargain,” Kierse said.
Cost in the market had always been a nebulous thing. It wasn’t always money traders were after, or at least not expressly. Kierse had more than expected to have to cut off a lock of her hair or give some tears or a bit of her magic. If the cost was higher, she was prepared to pay.
Rio’s expression turned shrewd. They already knew who Graves and Niamh were—the New York City warlock and a Dublin High Priestess were high-end clients. But it was Kierse who made them tilt their head in consideration.
“You’re not human,” they said.
Kierse forced her hands to stay at her sides, away from her ears. Her glamour was still in place, and Rio had already said they couldn’t use magic, so there was no way for them to know.
Still, she nodded. “I’m not.”
“In the company of a warlock and Druid who hate each other on a mission for you. Curious.”
“All in a day’s work,” she joked, echoing Graves’s words from earlier.
“Very few things could bring together this warlock and the Druids,” they said, tilting their head. “Very few things indeed.”
“Do you have a price in mind?” Graves growled.
They eyed Kierse up and down. “Perhaps a vial of your blood.”