“I could just torture you for it,” Carrick replies blandly, causing Echo’s gray skin to blanch.
“You’ll get paid an amount that’s equal to the strength of your info,” I say to Echo, and her head whips back my way to glare. “If it’s really good and benefits us, you’ll get the thousand dollars.”
“You going to pay it, Miss Porter?” Carrick drawls with a lazy smile.
I side-eye Carrick briefly. “Of course not. You are.”
To Echo, I continue while I still have her attention. “Give us an idea of what type of information you have.”
Smirking, Echo’s gaze moves from me to Maddox to Carrick—who she doesn’t look at for long because he intimidates her—then back to me. “I know who the Dark Fae is who took your sister’s body.”
Before I can even turn Carrick’s way with a look that says get your wallet out, he’s already pulling it from his inside breast pocket. He opens it, efficiently flips through crisp bills, and pulls out ten one-hundred-dollar bills. After tucking the wallet away, he holds it up for Echo to see. “Start talking.”
Echo’s eyes sparkle with greed as she leers at the money, and I’m wondering if she’s imagining all the drugs she can buy with it.
“Talk, Echo,” Maddox growls, and it snaps her out of her obsessive stare.
Straightening up, she moves forward in the chair to perch on the edge. Glancing at the money that Carrick holds fanned out in his hand one more time, she surprisingly settles her gaze on me.
“I have a friend who has a friend who has been hanging out at your sister’s art gallery,” she says.
“That’s not my sister,” I counter.
Echo’s lips curl into a faux smile of sympathy as she shakes her head. “No, she most definitely isn’t your sister. She’s someone far more important.”
I glance over at Carrick, who is staring with narrowed eyes at Echo. The hard lock of his jaw tells me he’s bracing for bad news.
I’m bracing, too, because I can hear in Echo’s tone that this information will change things.
“The Dark Fae who’s wearing the glamour of your sister is Kymaris,” Echo says with relish.
“Kymaris?” Zaid says, shuffling forward quickly with a heavy frown on his face. “Are you sure?”
“Yup. That’s the word. She somehow escaped the Underworld and is now here,” Echo says smugly, then cuts her eyes to me. “My condolences over the loss of your sister.”
I grit my teeth because Echo hasn’t said anything about this Dark Fae being a changeling, so I’m not about to educate her on that. Besides, I have so many other questions.
“Who is this Kymaris?” I ask Zaid just as I note that both Carrick and Maddox have the most serious expressions I’ve ever seen.
They actually look worried.
“She’s the Queen of the Underworld,” Zaid replies, bringing his knuckles up to his chin as he seems to drift deep into thought over this news.
“Queen of the Underworld?” I ask, implying I need clarification. At this point, Rainey and Myles want in on more of the conversation because they walk over to stand near me.
Carrick cuts his eyes my way. “She was the supposed leader of the rebellion of angels when God cast them from Heaven to the Underworld. Rumor has it that she assumed the throne as the supreme ruler there.”
“Rumor has it?” Rainey asks.
Carrick shrugs. “There’s not a lot of accurate history about the Dark Fae. Those who have been freed from the Underworld aren’t necessarily the best historians.”
“The question is, what is she doing here?” Maddox ponders aloud, which causes Echo to twist around in her chair to look back.
“She’s shut down the gallery, and the friend of my friend said she’s actively looking for Dark Fae. Word is out that the Queen is here on Earth, and she’s seeking her loyal subjects. She’s gathering daemons first, supposedly to make contact with their dark parents.”
“Again,” Maddox mutters. “Why?”
Echo shrugs. “That’s all I have. I swear.”
Without making further threats and accepting that we have all her information—which was really quite good—Carrick hands over the thousand dollars and then lifts his chin to Maddox.
Maddox nabs Echo by the back of her army surplus jacket and hauls her off the chair. As he escorts her to the elevator, he says, “Lots more money if you have more information, you understand?”
Echo nods effusively as Maddox jabs the button.
“And,” he warns darkly. “Just a reminder, if we hear you’ve mentioned Finley to anyone, Carrick will carve out your intestines with an iron soup spoon. Got it?
Echo’s gray skin pales again, but she reassures us. “I wouldn’t. You can trust me.”
The elevator doors slide open, and Maddox gives her a little push in. When she’s gone, he turns back and says dramatically, “Queen of the fucking Underworld. How about that?”
“Why don’t we all sit down and brainstorm what this means?” I suggest, giving a pointed look to Carrick that I think he understands. We still need to talk to Rainey and Myles about the danger they’ll be in, but I’m hoping that will be better received now that we’re talking about the baddest of the Dark Fae being here on Earth for the prophecy.
We move to a larger grouping of furniture and settle onto couches and swivel chairs. Zaid would normally be offering refreshments, but he seems incredibly worried as he takes a small loveseat all to himself. Carrick and Maddox choose the two swivels, and Rainey, Myles, and I sink onto a cream-colored leather couch opposite them.
“Are you sure she was telling the truth as well as being complete with her info?” I ask Carrick. His eyebrows shoot up that I’d question his judgment. “Well, you know… because you’re usually a lot more sinister with her.”
Carrick’s lips twitch, but his answer is dry. “I’m sure that’s all she knew, and it was worth every penny.”
“So I’ll say again,” Maddox exclaims. “Queen of the fucking Underworld here. What do we make of it?”
“What can we make of it but that she’s here to take over?” Myles suggests. “Echo said she was recruiting Dark Fae.”
Carrick shakes his head. “It can’t be that simple. There just aren’t enough Dark Fae here to form any type of legitimate force because they are so few and their powers are nominal.”
“Kymaris’ powers weren’t nominal when she torched One Bean,” I point out.
Carrick nods gravely. “I suspect her being a changeling funneled some strong magic into her somehow. What she did is not the norm for Dark Fae without stone magic.”
“Could she have stone magic?”
Scowling in thought, Carrick gives a shake of his head. “It’s possible but unlikely. Stones haven’t been seen in hundreds of years.”
“I’m wondering how other Dark Fae got into this world, but the actual Queen herself couldn’t? I mean, if anyone would have the power to do it, it would be her.”
Zaid drapes an arm over the back of the loveseat, crossing one leg over the other. As always, he’s dressed in black pants and black mock turtleneck with black loafers. “It would all be speculation. We know some Dark Fae have managed to slip through small tears rendered with stone magic, but that was in the form of dark rituals where humans here would attempt to summon demons to grant them powers. As to why Kymaris never came through before, I suspect because she’d be rather ordinary here as the Dark Fae don’t have power beyond strength and immortality unless they are granted powers by someone who has stone magic. But what we do know about changelings is that they’re not just a method to come to the human world, but also a catalyst for great magic. So it means we know she’s planning something big.”