us, and danger flashed in his eyes. “Who are you?”
Alastair turned to face him. “I’m here for the map.”
The short man moved across the room, and despite his height, I felt a shiver roll down my spine. Something about him set off every instinct inside of me. There was just something…dark inside of him.
“Everyone out except me and the warlock,” he said, climbing up on a stool behind the counter.
When none of us moved, Alastair said, “Wait for me outside.”
Ellis moved closer to him. “I don’t trust this guy.”
“Then you’re smarter than most,” Rumpelstiltskin said with a cruel smile, then turned to his son. “You need to go too.”
The man looked surprised, but took the doll and the glowing bottle, then disappeared into the back. We were slower to move, looking between Alastair and Rumpelstiltskin, but we slowly made our way out front. It felt a little like we were abandoning Alastair, but we also knew that the warlock was smart enough not to do anything stupid.
Hopefully.
Outside was a man that looked so much like Crax that we all stopped short, then looked back the way we had come. He was wearing different clothes, leaning against the brick part of the building, staring out at the darkness, as if it held all the answers to life.
He suddenly tore his gaze away from whatever unseen thing he’d been staring at and looked at us. We settled a distance away from him, close enough that we could hear if anything went wrong with Alastair, then waited.
“Making a deal?” he asked, and there was a sharp note to his voice.
“Our friend is,” I said.
Ellis shot me a warning look.
The strange man gave an angry laugh. “I hope he’s ready to have his debt collected. Everyone is always so damned surprised when it’s collection time.”
“You help him with his…business?” I asked, truly curious.
“It’s a family business,” he said with a jerky shrug.
“It doesn’t sound like you enjoy it very much.”
He turned and gave me a scathing look. “You don’t have a fucking clue.”
Hunter was suddenly between us, his shadows collecting around him. “Watch your mouth.”
The other man pushed away from the building. “If you’re looking for a fight, dark fae, I’m more than willing to give it to you.”
Ellis was suddenly holding Hunter back. “Let it go.”
“He’s an asshole,” Hunter hissed.
“Yeah, he is, but we have bigger fish to fry.”
Hunter stepped back to my side, and the strange man relaxed against the building. Everything was quiet for a long minute, before the strange man spoke again. “Maybe I don’t want to be the one to collect your friend’s debt one day.”
I was about to ask him more when the door jingled. Alastair was there, two bags still on his shoulder, but a long plastic map-case in his other hand. “Let’s go.”
“You got it?” I asked.
He nodded.
“What did you have to trade?” Ellis asked.
Alastair headed for the car.
“Only the things we talked about, right?” Ellis called after him.
Alastair said nothing.
We started to follow him when I heard the angry laugh of the strange man. I looked back, and his gaze met mine. “My father always takes more than anyone is willing to give. He takes and takes, until there’s nothing left.”
I shivered and hurried to catch up with the guys, praying that the man was wrong. Alastair wouldn’t have done anything stupid, right? But then again, this map could be the one thing to save Grim and the world.
I had a feeling Alastair would’ve traded anything to stop that.
Damnit.
21
Grim
I’d been issued a pair of magic-blocking cuffs and thrown in the dungeon or cells or whatever pretty much immediately after Mae left, so I was surprised when a banshee showed up at the door to the cell and said, “Master wants to see you.”
She unlocked the door, and I stepped out like a good little boy, following her back to the main room I’d been in before. There was a heavy silence in the room, and as our feet hit the hardwood floor, the sound seemed to echo. It was nothing compared to the weird echo of the Horseman’s voice in my head.
“I know you and your friends are planning something, so I thought I’d arrange a little demonstration for you,” the Horseman said, his voice sounding in my mind, seeming to bounce off my skull and ping around my brain like a pinball machine.
I didn’t respond. There was no point. This madman was going to do whatever he was going to do, whether I objected