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I wondered if they had ever considered counseling. They were both wolves, so they were not required to keep sessions like mixed marriages did, which in my opinion was unfair. Daphne and Olav may have cultural divides between them, but I had never sensed the vein of hate in either of them, not the way I’d sensed it in Lavenya.
“Constable Cade,” Eucilla said in short order, heading for the stairwell, “Meet Gretchen in the servant quarters. Start scouring for that blasted hidden tunnel.”
“Yes, Lieutenant,” Cade said, giving a crisp bow before striding toward the stairs. He cast a brief, worried glance at Derrick before disappearing down the stairs.
“Constable King, escort Miss Grayson to her rooms so that she can pack. I’ve sent for a team to take her home.”
Startled by this abrupt dismissal, I stammered, “Really? Just like that?”
Eucilla’s dark eyes met mine. “The runestone has been removed and you are on the mend. There is no need to keep you in danger further.”
I glanced at Derrick, who was scowling at Eucilla. His struggle was clear on his face. He did not like this assignment, though I suspected that had more to do with the fact that his mother was in danger than anything to do with me. His fists bunched and I could almost hear his teeth grinding as he stared at his Lieutenant.
I’m not sure where the words came from, but they were out of my mouth before I could stop them. “I can help. With my magic back, I can sense when someone is withholding the truth.”
Derrick’s struggle broke and he turned his glare on me. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s too dangerous.”
Ignoring him, I faced Eucilla and squared my shoulders. Maybe I was delaying having to go home, to face Bess and Martin and all the lies they’d told me. Maybe I couldn’t stomach the idea of Janice in danger if there was something I could do to help. Or maybe I wasn’t ready to part with Derrick yet. Whatever the reasons, I shook off my unease and tried to produce a confident stare of my own.
“If I’m close enough, I can also help locate Mrs. King. Even if she’s asleep, there are emotions that play through us. I just have to concentrate.”
Eucilla peered at me, looking far more interested than she had before. “An emotional tracker?”
I nodded.
“Have you ever tried this sort of thing before?”
“Only once, when I was young,” I admitted, recoiling from the memory. A shiver of fear sped through me, an image of the basement stairs looming in my mind, the smell of burnt tomato sauce sharp in my nose. My breath hitched and I clenched my fists, feeling the bite of my nails in my palms. Pain flared where the runestone had been, white-hot and immediate, and I was able to banish the past from my mind and deliver my next words with clinical precision. “It’s how I found my mother when she was sick.”
Sick.
No, she hadn’t just been sick. She’d been dying. But the dracken didn’t need to know that. Nor did Derrick for that matter.
Everyone assumed I was too young to remember mother’s death, and in truth the scene was hazy at best. Mostly I remembered the emotions, the fear when Mom didn’t answer, the momentary relief when I spotted her on the basement floor, and the ache that seemed to fill every space inside me as I realized she was not breathing.
Fever, they’d said.
Tragic. And poor, poor Nora for finding her like that.
It was only now, with the Lieutenant staring at me in her calculating way that I realized I couldn’t remember mother being sick before that moment.
My stomach clenched.
When all this was over, a new investigation was going to take place, and it was going to be centered on my home.
“Very well,” Eucilla said after a moment. “Constable King, take Miss Grayson to the factory that was housing the warlock traffickers. She might be able to locate something we missed. If she finds something, alert us immediately.”
“But…” Derrick started and clamped his mouth shut when Eucilla shot him a glare.
“You’re too close to this, King. Don’t make me send you back to headquarters to wait it out.” And with that, she descended the stairs and out of sight.
Derrick hissed a breath, still glaring at where Eucilla had disappeared for several seconds before he turned to face me. “You don’t have to do this, Nora.”
“Too late now,” I said, heading for the stairs. “I’ve gone and volunteered.”
He followed, as I knew he would. “You can change your mind.”
“I could, but I won’t.”
