Page 26 of Blood and Bonbons

I glared at her. “Not fair.”

“We’ll be fine as long as you don’t show your fear. If Spawn picks up on it, I’ll have to fork out a fortune to get information.”

“You don’t have a fortune.”

“Exactly. The only thing of value we have is the ring. And I’d rather not trade for it.”

“We won’t trade for it because we’re hoping for the best by giving it back while preparing for the worst,” I whispered harshly.

“Won’t have to give the ring back if the owner is dead.”

Vena turned at a statue of a goblin impaling a human with a spear and strode through a wall of dirty, mismatched sheets. Leathery-skinned goblins sat at a rickety table, eating something fleshy. Blood oozed between sharp teeth.

I gagged.

“There he is.” Vena pointed to the one on the other side of the table. The pointy-eared goblin she indicated looked up at us. A brief flicker of surprise showed on his face before he scowled.

“Can’t you see I’m eating?” he complained.

“Fine,” Vena said with a shrug. “Anyone else here looking for information on a recently found hoard of treasure?”

Spawn slammed his fist on the table when one of his dining companions started to stand.

“She’s mine,” he snarled.

Abandoning his meat pile, he stood and glowered at us. His head barely reached the top of the table as he walked around it. While some fools might mistake his lack of height as non-threatening, I knew better. Mean things came in small sizes. Case in point: fairies.

Vena and I followed Spawn out of the unsanitary eating area and down another aisle between vendors to a booth locked with floor-to-ceiling steel bars. Spawn waved his hand in front of the lock, and the bars retreated into the ceiling above.

“What do you have for me?” he asked, moving behind the short counter that looked as if it had been used as a butcher’s block. The grooves were deep, some flecked with red and brown that I hoped was paint and not dried blood. But that was less gruesome than the shrunken body parts that hung from hooks behind him.

With her warning about showing fear still echoing in my head, I tried not to show my revulsion either.

Vena didn’t bat an eye at his goods as she laid her hand on the counter, leaning forward. “What I have depends on what you can tell me about Miles’ latest project.”

Spawn crossed his arms and glared at her.

“He collects information, and I buy it. How am I supposed to know what he was working on? If you’re not here to sell information about the fairy hoard or buy something from me, get lost.”

Vena silently snarled and slapped her hand against the counter.

“Don’t bullshit me, Spawn. He told me you were the one to give him the lead on the cache. And as you’ve mentioned, you don’t sell information. So, I want to know why you gave him the lead. What was he working on?”

Spawn’s eyes shifted briefly to the right, and I followed his glance. There was nothing there but a stack of crates partially blocking the aisle.

“That information will cost you more than you can pay. Especially if the last treasure hunt was a bust.”

“It wasn’t,” Vena said, crossing her arms. “I found a ring with a ruby in it.”

“Might be worth something. Might not,” he said with an indifferent shrug.

“Same could be said about the information you do or don’t have. What was Miles researching?”

“He’s searching for things that went missing a long time ago. Things neither of you wanted to lose.”

Vena impatiently gestured for him to continue. “That could be many things. We’re in a hurry.”

The goblin bared his teeth, revealing a caught meat chunk. “Then leave.”

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