but proximity to the bad guy didn’t allow me to ask.
Instead, I employed an age-old diversionary tactic used for millennia. When put on the defensive, take the offensive.
“No, you explain to me why I shouldn’t believe you ordered Gretta to kill me.” I did my best at giving him equally cold eyes with my return verbal volley.
“What nonsense are you spouting?” he demanded. “Gretta may have been manipulative, but she wasn’t violent.”
“Not violent, huh? That must be why she attempted to poison me first. It’s a much cleaner kill. Is that it? Did my unfortunate recovery force her hand, making her act out of character?”
Bahlin reached over to lay yet another cautionary hand on my shoulder.
“I’d hate to see what qualifies for you,” I nearly shouted, shrugging Bahlin’s hand off and turning to him, my eyes blazing. “No, Bahlin. Hellion and I are going to settle this now. I’m tired of running scared and looking over my shoulder every time I leave a building. I’m tired of going to sleep afraid and waking up wondering if he’s in the room. Enough is enough.”
Bahlin nodded tersely and sat back in the booth. “Tread lightly, wizard.”
“Ah, so you got there first, did you? Tell me, Drago, how was she? As passionate in bed as she is right here, right now?” His words were suggestive and offensive, as if he were striving to take what Bahlin and I had and cover it in a layer of filth.
“I won’t dignify that with a response, Hellion, and neither will he. But you can answer a question for me.”
“I’d love to,” he growled, showing his teeth. “Just ask.”
“Did you kill Tarrek?”
He physically started, is eyes flashing with shock and he said, “Has the lad turned up dead then? I hadn’t heard. Damn this situation.” He took a long drink of water and then, with a mocking salute, he settled into his seat with a sense of resignation nowhere near defeat. “It’s always the good of the many over the good of the one. I will have my vengeance for Gretta’s death, Niteclif, but I will agree to wait until the murders are solved.” Sitting up straighter, he stiffened every muscle in his body and asked, “For the sake of the Council, how may I help?” He looked like asking to help had physically hurt him.
I sat there stunned into immobility, my face slack, and I shook my head. What the hell had just happened? I wondered. The action at this table was happening faster than a whack-a-mole-with-a-hammer game.
“While that’s generous of you,” Bahlin said, “you’ll find you’ve no recourse for retaliation once the Niteclif recounts her chronicle of events.”
“Don’t you mean her version?” Hellion asked, never taking his eyes off of me though he addressed Bahlin.
“No. I meant exactly what I said.” Bahlin’s voice dropped low, and his eyes changed color.
The waitress chose that moment to deliver our food, and the moment she broke the plane of the table, the spell dissolved. The sound of the restaurant roared over me like the gut-trembling roll of thunder during a storm. The dining room patrons’ voices seemed raucous following our unnaturally silent isolation.
I profusely thanked the waitress for our food, and Hellion smirked. Bahlin dug into his full English plate with gusto, and I picked at my order of egg in the basket. Hellion touched nothing, and it made me uncomfortable. Gee, poisoned once and here I was, paranoid.
Bahlin cleaned his plate and I offered him my breakfast, which he consumed without apology. Breakfast suitably finished, I stood and the men followed suit. We walked to the lobby three abreast and out the front doors. Bahlin acted for all the world as if nothing were wrong while Hellion, and I stood stiffly to either side of him. Bahlin ordered his car from the parking service.
Once the valet was gone, Hellion said, “I demand reparation, Niteclif, and I will have it. But you have my word I’ll wait until this is done. Find the boy—”
“Tarrek?” I asked, interrupting him.
“Yes, the fae. Find him, and if you require my assistance we may meet on neutral ground.”
“Where is neutral ground?” Having to ask the mage who wanted to kill me for clarification seemed cosmically unbalanced. It was something Tyr could have covered with me and I intended to ask him why in the world he hadn’t. Neutral ground could be the best way for me to stay alive.
“Any stone circle will do.”
Bahlin smiled snarkily at the other man. “What he’s not