Page 6 of Seduce Me in Shadow

“Whatever her motives, Ms. Blair is frightfully well informed,” Bram muses.

“Or perhaps”—Ice turns to glare at me—“she’s getting her information from someone who rejects magickind and would celebrate its end.”

“Me? I have no love for magic, but I would never advocate genocide. Besides, ending you all would mean my brother’sdeath as well. Would I be trying to save him if I intended to expose or end magickind?”

“A fair point.” Duke nods.

Muttering under his breath, Ice backs away. Barely.

Duke focuses on the newspaper again. “Whoever Sydney Blair is, I fear she’s dangerous. The rest of the article reveals even more. ‘The bodies discovered in the tunnel are decomposed far beyond expected, given their recent deaths.’”

“That is no secret.” Marrok waves Duke’s words away. “The media has been scratching over that like a mongrel with fleas.”

“Keep listening,” Duke barks. “‘Out of this Realmhas learned that the bodies bear new wounds and fresh traces of gunpowder, suggesting they somehow fought in the battle, rather than merely being left behind as a macabre message. It appears as if they were actually more dead than alive prior to the battle but able to fight due to evil magic.’”

“She’s guessing. She must be,” Bram insists, but he’s gone pale.

I wince.

“There’s more,” Duke reads on. “‘According to an anonymous source, there’s a mad wizard on the loose, allegedly fighting social injustice in the magical world. He’ll stop at nothing to tear down the establishment and replace it with his version of anarchy.’”

Around me, every single warrior freezes. Their collective panic is palpable.

Poor bastards.

“Who the hell is her bloody anonymous source?” Bram seethes.

Duke sets the paper down with quiet concern. “Ms. Blair claims it’s ‘a witch who recently found herself tangled in the magical war.’”

“Name me any witch who knows so much,” Ice spits.

There’s one possibility that makes my heart stutter.Anka.

“My sister knows, of course,” Bram concedes. “But she would never…”

“Of course not,” Duke agrees. “Sabelle is far too discreet.”

“What about any of the other missing females, like Craddock’s daughter?” Bram muses. “Then again, what witch in her right mind would spill magickind’s most zealously guarded secrets to a bloody human reporter?”

Isn’t it obvious?

“One who’s recently been traumatized and may not be in her right mind,” I point out. “Anka.”

This is the first possible clue to her whereabouts I’ve stumbled across in a fortnight.

Duke concedes that possibility with a shrug. “Whoever her source, Sydney Blair knows there’s a magickind, that we’re at war, and that Mathias is supposedly fighting the Social Order. I shouldn’t have to tell you gentlemen that’s dreadful news.”

Bram rakes a hand through his disheveled hair again. “The worst. The moment anyone actually listens, humanity will hunt us. It’ll make the Inquisition seem like a bloody holiday. And if Mathias reads this, her life will be in danger. We must handle this situation immediately.”

“Indeed.”

When Bram leans back against his desk, the morning sun slants through the open shutters, illuminating just how much strain the wizard is enduring. I nearly feel sorry for him—until he pins me with a wily stare. “I know how we deal with Ms. Blair. You work at a newspaper.”

I frown. “So?”

“Offer your services as a photographer. Find out who her information source is and shut her up before she reveals more about magickind.”

“How do you expect me to finagle information from her? I’m a stranger; it’s unlikely she’ll trust me with her secrets. Wouldn’t it be faster if you performed that wizard mind-reading trick of yours?”

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