Shit.
How did he know?
“Come along!” he shouted, and we scrambled inside after him.
Well, no sense wearing this sweaty thing if he knew who I was already.
I ripped off the veil and gasped for air as a cool breeze touched my skin. Sage stared at me and I shrugged. We still had our plan that if things got shady I could rip off my cuffs and fight him.
The fey walked deeper into the foyer, to a set of glass doors that led to a garden, and turned to face us. The second he laid eyes on my veil-less face, the color drained from his complexion and his gaze flicked to a picture on the entry table.
I followed his gaze and saw a photo with a younger Seam. A little girl was perched on his shoulder. She had the same white-blond hair as him.
“I don’t have all day,” he snapped, and opened the doors, stepping out into the garden.
I tore my gaze from the photo, wondering where the little girl was now. She was clearly his daughter, they looked so much alike. Sage and I ran through the dingy foyer with peeling paint walls and warped wood floors before following him into the courtyard outside. There was a large table set up with a steaming hot teacup and a plate of food. We’d interrupted his breakfast.
“How did you know?” I asked him, taking in the courtyard and looking for exits in case he attacked. There was a white picket fence only three feet high that I could easily climb over. There were also dozens of beautiful rose bushes that dotted the edge of the red brick patio. The outside garden had clearly been maintained, whereas the inside had been left to rot.
Seam sat down, sipping his tea and then finishing off a cookie. “You travel with a werewolf…” He gestured to Sage: “You have a half a million dollar ring, and you want to break someone out of Magic City Prison the day after they announce all over the news that Sawyer Hudson is sentenced to death.”
Dammit. He was right, it was so obvious.
“Why not call the vampires, get the bounty?” Sage asked, her hand twitching at her hip where her sword was.
He rolled his eyes, taking a bite of a cucumber sandwich. “Did you see what they did to my homeland?” He gestured out beyond his yard, down at the base of the backside of the hill. He lived right on the fey border, but you could see Troll Village from here, and the farmlands. Once so beautiful with their golds and greens, everything was now black as far as the eye could see. “They burned it all. I’m not keen on giving them anything they want anytime soon. Besides, that ring will easily fix this place up and I can retire early. I don’t need much here.”
Okay … it was a decent answer, but I wasn’t going to trust it. He could turn on me at any time and I was going to treat him as such.
“How did you escape?” I asked. “Tell me everything.”
He eyed the two chairs on the other side of the table. “Sit, this will take a while.”
Two hours later, we’d heard the entire story. Magic City Prison was built up eighty stories into the sky. It was the tallest building in Magic City, which was in downtown Light Fey Territory, and the prisoners were all kept on the upper fifty floors. The lower thirty floors were for administration, storage, and other things. It was almost as tall as the freaking Eiffel Tower! But the worst news I heard was that it was on a tiny sandbank island in the middle of a giant roaring river. You had to swim or take a boat to get to the building.
“So even the lowest level is two hundred feet in the sky,” I observed as he described the layout.
He nodded. “Can’t jump out that window without certain death.”
I squirmed as I stared at the nub on the end of his arm. He’d recounted his story of cutting off his own hand to release the cuff’s magic. “So they only had one cuff before?” I asked for the fifth time.
He bobbed his head. “And now they do both arms and legs.”
Shit. Maybe Sawyer was right and this was hopeless. Seam had told us that there was a magical grid built into the building, and even if you did make it out, you couldn’t leave the property with the cuffs still on or you’d die instantly. So I’d need to get Sawyer and Walsh’s cuffs off and then break them out somehow.
I decided to leave that for later and focus on any other information I could use. “So after you…?” I looked at his handless arm.
He grinned. “I lured the guard in and knocked him out.”
I nodded, replaying the story he’d just told us. “And you then dragged his body over to the cell and used his handprint to unlock the door because the doors lock behind them…”
He nodded. “Once I was in the hallway, I climbed into the air conditioning shaft, which I’d noticed was loose after a routine maintenance.”
Sage bobbed her head. “Because normally they are bolted shut.”
We’d been over this ten times, trying to find something we could use for Sawyer.
“Precisely. And then I climbed thirty floors down through the narrow venting until I hit the underground parking lot.”
“From there you stole a boat. All of this is likely not going to help us since after you left they have tightened security.”
Frick.
He looked at me seriously, stroking his chin with his good hand. “Is it true that you’re a cursed one? Demon? Soul jumper?”
I swallowed hard. Soul jumper? That was new. “No. I don’t know what that is,” I lied immediately.
His eyes glittered as if he didn’t believe me. “Because if the rumors are true, you could just have your wolf soul jump into your little friend here…” He pointed to Sage. “…and then she could get you inside the building. Two-for-one special.”
I frowned. What was he talking about?
Sage leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
The Ithaki rolled his eyes. “Her wolf, if the rumor is true, it jumped out of her body before with cuffs on, so surely it can do it again. She can’t get arrested because the Magic City warden will just turn her over to Queen Drake, but you…” He appraised Sage. “You they would gladly take in.”
A light dawned on me. “Trojan horse.”
He slammed his good hand down on the table and we both jumped. “Exactly!”
Sage could sneak my wolf into the building and then I could pull her out and … somehow free them all. But I could never ask Sage to do that, risk her life like that.
“Well, if the rumors were true, which they’re not, that would be a good idea,” Sage said, giving me the wide “let’s talk later” eyes.
I looked at Seam, wondering why the hell he was giving us these good ideas when he so clearly could turn me in or worse, try to “steal my essence” like all of the other psychos I’d met along the way.
“What’s your deal? Why are you helping me?” I crossed my arms over my chest, eyeing him with suspicion. We’d been here over two hours and he’d done nothing but answer all of my questions. He’d pulled out maps with hand-drawn hallways and riverways. He’d gone above and beyond. But if he was going to alert someone and turn me in, he’d have done it by now. Two hours was more than enough time for the vampires to come knocking.
His face turned dark, eyes narrowing. “The diamond obviously.” But his gaze ran over my long white hair and his face softened. There was something else there.