meant, but he was pretty sure that the sudden return to French was her way of evading the question.
“If the vampiric mistress of a household is indisposed, can someone help her slaves without getting in trouble?” he pressed, thinking of the people he had left behind at Brina’s house.
No answer, for long enough that Jay glanced at his phone to check that he was in fact still connected. “Marguerite?”
“It would be … inadvisable for you to do such a thing,” she replied. “Midnight’s laws are not charitable toward someone of your vocation.”
“What if someone else from SingleEarth did it, someone who isn’t a hunter?”
“No, no,” she snapped. “Any mortal would be seen as a thief. Their freedom would be forfeit.”
That advice might have been helpful before Jay had walked off with the sakkri. “But what if—”
“If I ask Nikolas to look into this,” Marguerite interrupted, “will you cease these questions?”
Jay trusted Nikolas to take care of the helpless people in Brina’s household, and Marguerite wouldn’t have offered anything that could get her cherished master in trouble. “It’s Brina’s slaves I’m worried about,” he said. “I have reason to believe she may not be returning home soon.”
“If she is dead, Nikolas cannot interfere with inheritance laws.” Marguerite’s voice went soft, and perfectly neutral.
It was a reasonable assumption to make, but in this case it brought a somewhat hysterical laugh from his throat. “No, not dead,” he gasped out. Quite the opposite.
“Then I will speak with Nikolas when he wakes. Can I assure him that you do not intend to do anything stupid? He and Sarah have expressed concern for you.”
“Anything stupid” was a broad, poorly defined category. “You can let him know I got home safely, and that I trust him to help Brina’s slaves so I don’t need to do anything stupid about them.”
“Ça suffit.”
“Great.”
He hung up, feeling no more comforted than before. Nikolas was fine. That was good, but what did it mean? Had the elemental targeted only her most recent captor? Or targeted only slave traders, or trainers?
Rikai. She had contacts galore, and understood sorcery.
The three-hour drive to Rikai’s home was frustrating to the extreme. He wasn’t sure she would be willing to meet with him once he arrived, but he didn’t have a phone number to call. His hopes and fears both rose as he drove into the driveway and found Rikai standing on her front step, one hand braced on the doorframe, her foot tapping. She had known he was coming.
“We need to talk again, witch,” she said, “in a little more detail.”
She sounded out of breath, and as he approached, he realized her posture was not casual at all. She was standing stiffly, as if in pain.
“What happened to you?” he asked, reaching out instinctively with his power—and then retreating as he felt her magic snatch at his hungrily.
She smiled, though the expression never reached her eyes. “Do you stick your hand in tiger cages, too?”
“Did someone attack you?”
“Right now I’m more concerned with what has happened to you,” she replied. “I have a feeling that you have had an interesting couple of days. Walk with me, and tell me, what—exactly—did the Shantel elemental say when it spoke to you?”
“Um …” He followed Rikai back to her study, trying to find the right words. Rikai didn’t seem to notice his hesitation as she walked with a tightly controlled stride, not limping but obviously trying to conceal an injury of some sort.
“Well?” Rikai prompted as she settled into one of those ominous chairs and gestured for him to do the same.
“It said it was going to destroy Midnight,” Jay admitted.
“Exactly that?” Rikai asked.
“I think—” He broke off. What exactly had it said? She will be all I need to destroy those who hurt her. “Well, it said it would destroy those who hurt her. Which is Midnight, right?”
Rikai took a deep, bracing breath, and then let it out in a slow stream.
“A few hours ago,” Jay said, trying to get all the information out before Rikai responded, “something happened to Brina. I went to her, and I heard the elemental again, and it offered to protect me. When whatever was happening was over, Brina was human.”
Rikai quirked a brow, but her next question wasn’t for Jay. Rather, she picked up her phone and dialed a number. When the line picked up, she didn’t waste time with pleasantries. She just asked, “Is Xeke all right?”
Jay couldn’t hear the reply, but Rikai nodded thoughtfully. After she hung up,