“Reaaally?” he said with pure sarcasm, giving that a a good and prosperous life. His voice was like his face—rough, scary, and captivating.
“I work for Proctor & Sullivan,” I said, doggedly ignoring his suspicious glare. “You?”
“No.”
I swallowed. “Then you probably shouldn’t be here.”
His gaze flickered down to the unconscious guy then back to me.
“That wasn’t me, I swear. I found him like that.”
He made a noncommittal sound then focused on the artifact. I turned slightly, protecting it from his view. “What?”
“You find that too?”
I didn’t like the mocking tone of his voice. “This is P&S’s room. I came down to retrieve some, uh, items.”
“I see. I thought Proctor & Sullivan were an accountant firm. Have they branched into the magic artifact business?”
Okay, good, so he knew about Fae stuff. My instincts hadn’t been wrong. “What my employers do is none of your—”
“What’s your name?”
The sharpness of his question jolted me into answering. “Maddie.”
His eyes widened a fraction, then his expression turned pensive. Which I appreciated over the whole I-caught-you-in-the-act-you-naughty-thief mocking thing he had going on.
It didn’t last long.
“So, Maddie,” he said wryly, “if this”—he made air quotes—“wasn’t me, I swear, shouldn’t you be calling for help?”
“There’s no reception down here.”
He arched his brows. I was reminded of the good and prosperous reaaally. “Then shouldn’t you be running upstairs and calling for help?”
“Shouldn’t you?” I asked, knowing I sounded way too cheeky for the circumstances. The situation was still extremely awkward, my heart was still jumping rope inside my chest—the rope being my guts—and I couldn’t be responsible for what my brain told my mouth to do. I lowered my tone and tried again. “I was simply making sure nothing had been disturbed before going back upstairs.” I sniffed. “The man is simply asleep. The smell from the potion is unmistakable.”
“So it is.”
That was all he said before allowing the silence to descend upon us. A tingle of unease began to crawl up my spine, and I cursed myself for not thinking of the possibility that this man had been the one to set the trap. That he had come for the artifact, or that he might use something stronger than a sleep potion to take it from me. My sweatshirt was suddenly a furnace, and sweat dampened my forehead.
I gathered my courage with an effort of will. “What’s your name?” They say you gotta build a relationship with the bad guys so they feel bad about offing you, right?
He let that one roast in the air for a good while, too. Slowly, never dropping my gaze, he crouched and reached for the guy’s neck. “Aidan.”
It didn’t fit him, and yet it did. In any other circumstance—say, in the safety of my room while I looked him up on my phone—I’d have found all these small contradictions quite fascinating.
There was a sudden shift in the atmosphere. I looked at the spot where Aidan’s fingers had just made contact with the guy’s neck. Something had happened. Was he aware of it? He showed no reaction when my eyes refocused on his face, and I wanted to kick myself for not paying better attention. I still sensed no remains of a ward besides the one on the door. Some kind of spell, perhaps? Had he used something to keep the guy asleep?
“Alive,” Aidan said.
He returned to his full height and stepped over the body. I took a step back. His features softened into what, after much deliberation, I now believe he meant to be a reassuring expression. At the time, though, it only made adrenaline rush through my veins and my gaze dart around for anything I could use to bust his knees, destroy his groin, or generally defend my person in any useful way.
“Don’t be scared,” he said smoothly. Sure, I’d get right on that. “I just need to take a look at the artifact.”
Alarm shot through me. “What? No.”
There was no way I was letting anyone touch this ball. See, all this time in the back of my mind, I had been playing with an idea. True Fae artifacts were rare—the man on the floor sure had thought this one of enough value to try hiding it—and there was a job in the Magical Artifacts Retrieval and Research Institute with my name of it, even if nobody wanted to acknowledge it yet. This little magical ball in my hand was about to get me some serious consideration.
Aidan let out an impatient tsk. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He lifted his hand, palm up. “That thing could be very dangerous. Hand it over.”
I shook my head. “No.”
He scowled and took another step. “You don’t know what you’re playing with.”
My answer was to take another step back.
Then, in a sudden movement, Aidan leaped forward.
I squawked and jumped back, out of his reach. I ran to the farthest corner of the room and flattened myself against the filing cabinets.
“Give it here,” he said sternly.
“No, it’s mine,” I shot back, hiding the ball behind me. “Finders keepers!”
“What?” he demanded in outrage. “It’s not yours.”
“I found it.”
“You stumbled upon it seconds before I found it.”
I grinned. “Well, timing is everything, isn’t it?”
His hands twitched, as if he wanted to strangle me. After taking a deep breath, he tried again. “I work for the Institute. I need to take a look at—”
“No,” I blurted in horror. Another thought struck me. “Oh, you recognized my name, didn’t you?” I preened a little despite the shock of the revelation. “Do they talk about me a lot at the Institute?” Things must really be looking up if my name was being tossed around.
“Sure. Now give me the damn ball.”
I bit my lip, my spirits lifting. “If you talk to your boss about giving me a job.”
The look on his face was almost comical. “Huh?”
“The artifact for a job,” I told him with my most charming smile. I even added a wink.
Aidan cut the air with a hand. “Enough of this nonsense. Any unidentified artifact with no clear ownership falls inside the Institute’s purview.”
“It’s called the Ball of Jobopportunity, and it’s mine. There, identified.”
I’m not sure what pushed him over the edge, the name or the reaffirmation of my ownership—might’ve been the smirk—but he went very still. His eyes narrowed, his mouth settling into an even grimmer line, and then he began advancing toward me with a scary purpose that had me about to climb all over the cabinets. The kind of purpose you knew would never stop, never falter.
Except that he did—stop.
Aidan blinked, attempted another step. His face became strained, his neck corded tight.
The shift in the atmosphere earlier clicked into place inside my brain.
“Binding spell,” I exclaimed like I’d won a quiz game.
Aidan did not look happy.
“What now, Mr. Institute?” I said (gloated). I tossed the ball into the air a couple of times. “Would you like to reconsider my offer?”
“Hell, no.” He made another attempt at moving farther from the guy by poking the air in front of him. “You will give me the ball, you will help with the binding spell, and I might not mention your attempted theft.”
I snorted. Attempted theft. As if anyone was going to put any stock into that. It wasn’t like he could take me to the cops for coming across a magical ball in the basement room belonging to my place of work, where I had been sent by my boss.
“I’m sorry,” I said sweetly. “I can’t remove bindings.”
“We don’t need to remove it,” he said with badly concealed impatience. “We only need to shift it.”
While I had a good knowledge of how Fae magic worked, I was the first to acknowledge I didn’t know much about binding spells. “You can do that?”
He nodded brusquely. “Yes. The binding is between sentient, intelligent beings. It doesn’t care who is bound to who as long as two of them are.” He eyed me disdainfully. “Although in your case, it might fail.”
“Wait,” I said suspiciously. “You want to transfer the bind…to me?” There was definitely some acute horror in the last word. “No. Nope. Not doing it. No.”
Aidan took another long, calming breath. “Look here, lady. We both need to get out of here, and this is the only way.”
Wow, first my intelligence, now lady. Bringing out the big guns. “Will you let me keep the ball?”
He barked a laugh like it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. “No.”
“I’m sorry, dude, but I don’t think so. Not unless you agree to my offer. A job at the Institute, and you can have the ball and my help. I can wait here all day, I don’t care.” I sat to reiterate my point, then wished I hadn’t because the floor was freezing and it went right through my jeans. “Someone will eventually come looking for me. They’ll call security, and you’re the one not allowed to be in here.”
Cocking his head, Aidan gave me a long, searching look. It flustered me, but I didn’t want to drop my gaze. Artifact Hunters did not avoid staring contests no matter how badly their cheeks burned. Plus, Aidan sure as hell wouldn’t, so I couldn’t.
“I don’t think we have the whole day,” he finally said.
The non-combative honesty in his voice caught my attention. “Why not?”
“Because I think the sleeping potion and the binding spell weren’t the only traps set off in this room.”