Page 27 of Pining for the Prince
“You didn’t tell me you’d seen your sister?”
“I was a bit caught up trying not to die from a fae portal, and then you were too busy accusing me of shagging another fae to bring it up. Oh, then there was the whole stolen stone that seems a tad bit more important than a few dust heads getting overexcited.”
Hyax clenched his jaw and Gwil guessed he was trying not to react. Which was a good idea as he didn’t have a leg to stand on in terms of him being an argumentative prick. “Fair enough. I like your sister, that’s all.”
“Well, she is your future sister-in-law so it’s great you feel that way.” He gave Hyax a nasty smile.
He responded with a one-fingered salute. “Although I hadn’t factored her into the ruse. She might threaten to pull my wings off if I hurt her big brother.”
“You don’t have wings.”
“I don’t have wings in this realm but I do at home, you’ll get to see them soon enough. Anyway, what did she want?”
The thought of Hyax having shimmering wings sent a pleasant image to other parts of his anatomy he needed to keepin check. “Same as you, she had heard something and wanted me to use my connections to have a look.”
“She wants you to use your dirt devils?”
“You can’t call them that!”
Hyax huffed. “If the cap fits. But see what they say… if it is contaminated Stardust, then we’re going to need to track down who’s doing it.”
“Since each batch seems to be affected in a different way, that’s going to be tricky. It’s difficult to track down something that’s constantly changing.”
“But there’s a common denominator, and that is that it affects fae magic. If we get a sample of a new bad batch then if I do the right incantations, I might be able to identify something about the maker.”
He didn’t think that waving a few spells in the right direction was going to cut it. “I would have thought if it were that easy you’d have done when that fae was treated for shedding magic at the Dominion hospital.”
“It’s not straightforward, I’ll need to ingest it, and depending on what happens see how it affects me.”
Had Hyax no sense? “That sounds like a fucking stupid idea. The stuff could drain your magic, or bloody kill you.”
“Unlikely. As long as it’s under controlled conditions with someone I trust present it should be okay.”
“I still don’t think?—”
“It needs to be done, so either be there to support or don’t.”
He hated it when Hyax got all defiant and noble—he was even more attractive than normal, and made Gwil want to both protect him from all the bad things and shag him across his desk. “You know I’ll be here for you.”
“So you’ll engage your dirt devils? I was thinking they could be the ones to get the drug for us.”
He wasn’t going to say no to Hyax, and although he didn’t like the direction this was going he wouldn’t have him face it alone or with someone else. “I did send word to Copperpipe a few days back since Penelope asked, he can be a bit sporadic at times but I’m meeting him later this evening. Do you want me to ask about the stone?”
“Not just yet, I think we need to dig a little deeper ourselves first.”
“I suppose it’s a bit of a sensitive topic and Copperpipe makes his living out of information. Someone might pay a lot of money to know the fae have lost an important relic.”
Hyax played with a hank of his hair—a habit when he was nervous or annoyed. “Hopefully we won’t need to go that route. Why don’t you go and meet your manky mate, and I’ll head over to our new place or what I’ve been referring to as our love nest to my parents, to start on the renovations?”
“Love nest?”
“I said we were moving in together and had a house in one of the best bits of Paranormal London. Which is actually true.”
“The only truth you told them by the sounds of it.”
“Grumpy sod. Come on there must be worse fates than being seen as my beau. At least I can get you into the good clubs.”
He knew this was a terrible idea, but he had endured worse. If he wasn’t already dead, Hyax would be the death of him. “I’ll hold you to that. Expensive place, somewhere proper showy.”
