Page 50 of Pining for the Prince
“That’s no way to talk to your one true love, my little snookypoos.” He ducked just in time to avoid the spark of magic Hyax fired at him.
Gwil spent the next few minutes walking the perimeter of the room. It appeared to be made of solid stone and, unless there was a very well-hidden door, there was only one way in and out. Hyax was examining the pedestal. “Anything interesting?”
“Not that I can see. I think I’ll try to get a reading from the coronet.”
“You’ve been home since the stone was discovered, why haven’t you checked it out already?”
Hyax crouched down to get eye level with the flat of the pedestal. “Initially I was asked not to so that my magical signalcould be ruled out and not contaminate the scene. Then there was the investigation team that asked for the room to be out-of-bounds, so this is my first chance to get in here.”
“What about your parents or your siblings?”
“My parents have, and my eldest brother, but their gifts are different to mine. They aren’t able to maintain a projection.”
Gwil thought there was more to Hyax being kept away. “There’s a time limit on the quality of the reading you can make, right? So surely if they wanted you to help in that way, they’d have let you in straight away?”
“I know you might think I’m a blond bimbo at times, but that hadn’t escaped me,” Hyax said with a smirk. “I’m positive there’ll be a dampening field up as well, it’s gone now, but it would have stopped someone else trying other magic to find a signal.”
“How can you tell?”
“The residue is making my left nostril twitch.”
“Really?”
Hyax snorted and stood straight. “You are a gullible twat. Of course not, there’s a dusting of pink powder around the base of the coronet and that’s usually a giveaway of a magical shield collapsing.”
“Fucker!” He gave Hyax a shove, and Hyax’s answering smile was almost enough to make his heart start beating again.
The sound of someone clearing their throat stopped him from doing something stupid. “Your Highness, I was told you wanted to speak to me.”
He was taller and broader than the average fae, and not as attractive as the other examples of his species Gwil had encountered, but not what he’d call hard on the eye.
“Sennet? I was expecting Lindle, is she not joining us?”
The name was familiar and Gwil recalled Sennet was on the security council, and Lindle was the leader, who hadn’t shown up.
“She sends her apologies, sire. But your mother has convened an emergency meeting.”
“I had not been informed of that,” Hyax snapped. “What is the topic?”
Sennet’s gaze flicked to Gwil, he was not subtle. “I’m not at liberty to say, sire. Queen Talia gave strict orders.”
Hyax’s wings vibrated, Gwil hadn’t seen that before and he didn’t think it was a good sign. “I will deal with that later, but you can help with this.”
“I have given a full report, sire.”
It seemed to Gwil, that regardless of the species of security officers, they always had the capacity to be as officious and unhelpful as possible. “Let’s just assume we haven’t read it,” Gwil said with his widest and most fake smile, fangs obvious. “How long do you think the theft went unnoticed?”
Sennet bristled. “Could have been up to four weeks, it’s not clear.”
“Why’s itnot clear?”
“There was a dampening field placed over the coronet, it was a powerful piece of spellwork. We’ve untangled a lot of the background noise and it was created by two magical signatures, but we couldn’t pinpoint whose.”
Hyax frowned. “No idea at all? Were they masked that well?”
“Yes, sire. I know it seems unlikely, but it is the only way I could make sense of it. The jewel must have been removed by someone passing as one of the seven people who have access, and taken out through the only door.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t one of the seven?” asked Gwil. To him, they seemed the obvious ones to suspect first. Then heremembered that those were all members of the royal family or senior politicians.
