“Oh, fabulous.” Things were obviously about to go from bad to worse—the thought had barely crossed my mind when the Space Invaders disappeared and Hunter came online. As timing went, it was pretty much perfect.
“Risa, dear,” she all but purred. “What a lovely surprise it is to see you.”
“I’m betting it is,” I all but snapped back. “Considering your fellow council members just sent nine of their finest to finish me off.”
All amusement fled, and her expression became very, very scary. “When did this happen?”
“About fifteen minutes ago. I take it, then, that my astral follower hasn’t reported the situation to you yet?”
“No, because that was something I did not envisage and, as such, was not in her brief.”
Meaning she’d asked for only key-related information to be relayed? If so, I very much suspected it was a situation that would now be rectified. “I’m also gathering the councillors didn’t seek your approval or even ask for your opinion of the action?”
“No, they did not.” And they would pay for that, if the icy, murderous glitter in her eyes was anything to go by. “It is hardly an action I would approve as yet.”
As yet. It was a very telling slip of the tongue.
“Well, Azriel sent them a warning not to make another such attempt, but you might want to address the situation yourself.” Somehow, I managed to keep most of the anger out of my voice. If there was one thing I was certain of, it was the fact that I didn’t want her murderous fury aimed at me. I was in trouble enough with Hunter. “After all, you need me alive to find the damn key.”
“I’m well aware of what I do and don’t need,” she snapped. “I will take care of the council. You had best concentrate on finding the keys—especially given you only have ten hours left to produce that second one.”
And with that, she hung up. I blew out a breath and tossed the phone back to Stane. “Well, if there are any councillors left after she’s done chastising them, I’ll be very surprised.”
“That would be no great loss, from what I’ve seen of them,” Stane commented. “So that search you wanted on your accountant.”
I walked across the room, grabbed a chair, and sat down. I had a bad feeling I didn’t want to be standing when Stane told me the search results. “And?”
“And, as I said, it’s not good news.” He tapped the screen in front of him, then flicked some images across to the screen nearest me. Two were birth certificates, the other a passport document. The name on one of the certificates was Michael Judd; the name on the other two was not.
“Michael Greenfield?” I glanced at Stane. “Are you saying Mike is the missing Michael Greenfield?”
“It would certainly appear that way,” Stane said, voice grim. “And if he is, he was born in London over a hundred and twenty years ago.”
“What?” I stared at him in disbelief. “Mike can’t be that old!”
“If he is our shape-shifter,” Azriel commented, “then he can make himself appear whatever age he might wish.”
“I guess.” I frowned. “Although surely the strain of holding so many different forms and creating so much magic should show.”
“The Aedh was his partner in crime, remember, and more than likely responsible for much of the magic used against us,” Azriel said. “Besides, did you not note that Mike appeared to have aged somewhat when you met him in that restaurant?”
“Yes.” I shrugged and glanced back at Stane. “What makes you think he’s Greenfield?”
“Too many coincidences.” He tapped Michael Judd’s birth certificate. “There’s nothing untoward in Judd’s records until he hit the age of twenty-four. He took a year off university to ‘find himself,’ and promptly disappeared for several months.”
“That’s not exactly unusual,” I commented. “Lots of kids have a gap year before going to uni.”
“Yeah, but Judd disappeared in the middle of his courses. And certainly not all of those who take a year off so completely disappear that they don’t use their bank accounts or credit cards for six months.”
I raised my eyebrows. “So what happened?”
“His dad was a prominent—and well-connected—businessman, so his disappearance was given widespread publicity. As was his sudden reappearance.”
“How did he explain going so completely off the grid?”
“He simply said he was living off the land with a lady friend and didn’t need to access any of his accounts.”
I glanced at Azriel. “I wonder if the lady friend was our shape-shifting sorceress?”