This man couldn’t be Aidan’s boss, because he was my temporary boss.
Kane, now in the running for biggest Jerk in the world, had set me up.
“Mr. Sullivan,” I said in a weak voice. Everything about me felt weak—my knees, my heart, my friendships.
He was taller than I was, taller than Aidan, and had the shape of a wall dressed in an expensive suit. Used the gym on five every day for sure. He looked me up and down, cataloging my pros and cons. He had done the same when we had briefly met yesterday, and he must be remembering too, because a glint of recognition came into his eyes.
“I know you,” Sullivan said, then snapped his fingers. “You’re the new intern.”
“Temp worker,” I answered, putting a couple of steps between us.
“Lovely. Show me the Eye.”
“I have some conditions before we trade,” I warned him warily. The play of emotions on his face was starting to creep me out. It wavered between that of a kid on Christmas day and a stoic businessman. The effect was unnerving.
“First, I need to see the item, then we can negotiate.”
A shiver racked me as I retrieved the eyeball and my fingers came in contact with my torso. My hands were frozen again. This damn place was bad for my health. After rubbing the eye on my sweatshirt, I held it up for Sullivan to see.
He stepped up to me, and I stopped myself from walking farther back. It took a severe effort on my part.
“May I?” he asked, his attention never deviating from the Eye.
“Okay.” I watched him lift the eyeball from my hand, never touching me.
He rolled it in his hands, inspecting it in clear awe.
“This is wonderful craftsmanship,” he said in a reverent tone. “Beautiful. Just beautiful.”
I did not want to tell him it was probably someone’s actual eye, but he got me curious. “You know about Eyes?”
“Mhmm-mhmm,” he answered. “Quite rare. I’ve been trying to get one for my collection for ages.”
Which, I supposed, explained how Kane the Jerk II had managed to arrange this transaction so fast. Still, perhaps I was being too fast to judge here.
“Are you involved with the Council or the Institute?” I asked.
He made a sound of derision. “God, no.”
Dammit, Kane. “And Greaves? Do you know him?”
Sullivan inhaled harshly. Apparently, simply hearing the name was enough to sour his day. I should know. “A pain in the ass. Like his Institute.”
I stared at him at a loss for words. But I’d better come up with some, and fast. Soon he’d be asking for my price, and I didn’t think he’d take “get me a job at the Institute” in stride.
“So, er, you collect things?” I asked to buy myself some time.
“My Fae artifact collection is one of the best in the country. In the world, actually, once I add this little one to the ranks.”
His artifact collection… “You’re the Collector?”
I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth. I shouldn’t have let it slip I had guessed his secret identity.
But instead of turning antagonistic, he smiled, full of pride. “My reputation precedes me, I see. Yes, lady, I am known among some circles as the Collector. I hope this won’t be a problem?”
Ah, there it was, the steel-edged warning in his words. Like Aidan, Sullivan had access to all my private information thanks to my temp work for him. Unlike Aidan, he would have no trouble messing with those close to me to make sure I kept my mouth shut.
“Not a problem, Mr. Sullivan,” I agreed. “Now, about my fee…”
“Ah, yes, the finder’s fee. You can take it up with the Wishing Well. It’s on hold pending the sale.”
What was he talking about? I thrust my hand out, palm up. “I’m sorry, Mr. Sullivan, I mean my sales fee.”
He glared at my hand like it was holding trash. “You have my gratitude for keeping my artifact safe, lady, and that’s it. After all, you took it from me.”
“Took it from—” Oh, of course. He had been the client Floor Guy had meant to sell the Eye to. It had been P&S’s basement room, after all. “The ward and the binding…?”
Sullivan nodded, somewhat aggravated now. “Not enough security, I see now. It was good enough to catch Mason trying to sabotage the deal, but not enough to keep you around.”
I sent a covert glance to my surroundings. How many wards had Sullivan prepared in anticipation for this meeting? I couldn’t sense anything, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there, if they were well hidden. “Still,” I said, “the artifact could’ve landed in anyone’s hands—like the Institute—if I hadn’t come along, so I think I deserve an extra fee.”
“You have my thanks. It’s more than enough.” He turned to leave the room. “Let’s forget this meeting ever happened.”
He made it three steps away before the Eye was yanked from his hand and fell to the floor. It rolled across the tiles until it bumped into my sneakers. I didn’t know how much of it had been the bond and how much it had been the Eye itself, but then, who cared? I picked it up, trying to keep my face a mask of serenity instead of triumph.
Sullivan arched a brow. “I see.”
“Let’s talk about my guarding fee. You are an important man, and if you help me with a small favor, I’ll be glad to transfer the bind to you.”
“I don’t negotiate with blackmailers, lady.”
Jeez, from one to one hundred in a second. “I’m not a blackmailer. I only need this one favor, and I think I’ve earned it, considering how much effort I’ve put in keeping the Eye safe.”
Sullivan simply stared at me, boredom creeping into his darkening features. With a start, I realized the lights had begun to dim. Unease hit me like a brick. I looked behind me, searching for the tell-tale signs of oily darkness and black tendrils.
“The hound is yours?” I asked in too high a pitch, holding the Eye close to my chest. I chanced a glance down. Its pupil stared back. Did I dare…?
Sullivan took a step toward me. “Don’t even think about it. You don’t want to use that Eye. The tradeoff will be much worse than you imagine. Be a good girl and hand it over with the bind.”
Prickling along my arms turned my skin into goosebumps. I could almost feel the Fae beast lurking somewhere outside the room, waiting for its master’s signal to rush in and munch on human.
“Call it away,” I said.
“Transfer the bind.”
“Not until we’re upstairs.”
“Here.”
I shook my head. I was impulsive, not stupid. “No.”
“Then you’ll die, and the binding will snap to me.”
I let the dormant Fae magic in my blood awaken and travel all the way to my fingers, to the Eye. I was about to find out what this horrible tradeoff was all about. As I’d told Aidan earlier in the day, it couldn’t be worse than death, right?
The room’s door blew inward, and Aidan stepped on the threshold.
Thank God.
“Greaves,” snarled Sullivan.
“Call your hound off, Sullivan. We’ve got a meeting at the Institute.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Sullivan said, composing himself. “I have done nothing wrong. The lady was simply returning my property. You can’t take me to the Institute for retrieving things I bought legally.”
“I can take you for not registering your items.”
“I have two weeks since the day of acquisition, which happens to be,” he made a show of looking at his luxury wristwatch, “today.”
“Then what about I take you for imprisonment of people?” Aidan said just as placidly, tipping his head toward me.
Sullivan tut-tutted. “Not the Institute’s purview.”
Aidan leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms, looking mighty good. “I don’t mind waiting while the guardians get here.”
“This is a private meeting, and you’re intruding in my business’s property. If you want to wait, you can do it outside while me and the lady finish our business.”
I shook my head like some kind of demented doll. Aidan looked at the ceiling and took a deep breath.
“Miss Dover here is acting under the Institute’s orders,” he said in a neutral tone. I gave him a small thumbs up. His eye twitched. “As her supervisor, I must make sure she’s following instructions, you understand.”
“Oh, bullshit.” Sullivan brought a hand to the neck of his shirt. “This is not how I wanted things to end, but you’ve become an annoyance anyway.”
“Maddie,” Aidan warned, moving inside the room. “Go.”
Sullivan’s smile stretched wide. “I don’t think so.” He finished unbuttoning the shirt and grabbed some kind of pendant. Magic raised the hairs on my nape. I backed up until I hit the wall. The hound’s stalking magic and this new power mingled in the air, making my own magic squirm and bury itself into the depths of my soul. It wanted no part of this, and neither did I, but I was too frozen to do anything but gape.
The light dimmed until both Sullivan and Aidan were simple shapes. Something howled in my ears, inside my head. It made me want to curl up and burrow into the floor.
“Yes, come closer, Greaves,” Sullivan taunted. The floor beneath his feet became an enlarging pool of oily darkness, and I flattened myself against the wall. Perhaps I could slowly pick my way around the room until I got to the door, I thought in my panic. Aidan and Sullivan were busy with each other. They might not notice me.
But one glance at Aidan and my plan crumbled into little pieces. He hadn’t taken his attention away from Sullivan, not even to look at the pool of darkness slowly eating its way across the floor. Dream Devourer’s hilt rested in his hand.
Something shifted inside me. I was no longer one, but part of a team. Aidan might have come mostly to save the Eye and not me, but I couldn’t leave him.
A mass of glistening dark muscle rose out of the pool.
I gasped, horrified.
It wasn’t the hound. It was way worse.