Page 59 of Elven Lies

Finally, he clenched the key tightly in one fist, muttered incantations she couldn’t hear, and opened his hand.

The key blazed with brilliant sky-blue light and shot from the elf’s hand to careen around the room like one of the light orbs during the alarm.

It darted faster than Rebecca could follow, pinging off the concrete walls, occasionally throwing up sparks and chips of cement, clanking against metal bookshelves, and came dangerously close to crashing right through the glass of the oil lamp hanging along the far wall.

She narrowly avoided catching the flying blue key with the center of her forehead by ducking last-minute. When she spun around to follow its violent trajectory, she was just in time to see Kaplan snatch the key from the air in one single, lightning-quick swipe.

Rowan’s amused chuckle followed, but she ignored him.

When Kaplan opened his hand, the key had lost its blazing blue glow and now lay still and dormant on his palm once more. Just an ordinary key.

He gazed at it blankly for a long moment, looking unimpressed by the results. “Hmm… That’s interesting.”

“What is?” Rebecca asked.

“The matching door coincides with those in the downtown Nexus building, if I’m not mistaken. Do forgive me for saying it, Miss Knox, but if your predecessor didn’t leave any instructionswith this particular key, I would hazard to guess he was a bit of a reckless bloke.”

She snorted. “You have no idea.”

When the alleged key-maker offered nothing else, she couldn’t help but ask, “Can you give us any more information than that?”

“Well, it’s really very simple. This key opens a personal storage vault in one of the most secure high-end magical storage facilities this side of the Mississippi. Honestly, my dear, you couldn’t figure that out on your own?”

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One of the most secure high-end magical storage facilities? And Aldous had a key to one of these units?

The pieces clicked into place almost simultaneously after that until Rebecca realized with a start what it all meant.

Holy shit. Bor was right.

Aldous had kept a personal vault elsewhere in this city, which he’d no doubt used to secret away everything he didn’t want to share with the rest of his task force.

But it wasn’t his anymore.

How convenient for him to have left this key in his desk before he died.

This could turn out to be the big break Shade needed to outfit them enough that they actually stood a chance going up against Harkennr when the time came—or, at the very least, to keep him from taking advantage of their under-resourced position ever again.

She still had to find this vault in the city, open it, and see what Aldous had been hiding in there all this time. But with this new information, letting herself hope this key opened the solution to so many of their current problems didn’t feel quite so dangerous anymore.

Breaking into a victorious grin, Rebecca rounded the head of the bed between her and her host, who was on his feet again by the time she reached him.

“That’s excellent news, Mr. Kaplan,” she said, extending her hand. “Thank you so much for your time and assistance.”

He stared at her extended hand in wary hesitation, as if he couldn’t bear the thought of being touched by anyone. But then he seemed to think Rebecca wasn’t reaching out for a handshake and happily placed the key against her open palm instead until she took it from him.

No handshake, then. Fine.

“It’s really no problem at all, Miss Knox,” he said, dusting off his hands. “And no charge. As a matter of fact, I’ll even waive the consultation fee. Just for you. As long ashenever comes back.”

When he thrust a finger toward Rowan again, Rowan burst out laughing.

Mr. Kaplan still looked thoroughly terrified by the thought of ever seeing the Blackmoon Elf again.

“I’ll do my best to hold up to my end of it,” Rebecca said, not knowing how else to address the issue. “And to make sure he holds up to his end.”

“Yes, well, I suppose we can only hope that’ll be enough.” He scurried around the bed, his hands fluttering toward the tunnel leading back to the alley, visibly shaken once again in his eagerness to be rid of them both.

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