I met the queen on the way down, Shigeru close behind.
I looked her straight in the face, always the best way to lie. “I’ve decided this case deserves more attention. I’ve ordered a team of investigators, and contacted my most trusted detectives. I made it clear there was no higher priority.”
A speaker chimed, and the doorman spoke. “My lady, a group begs admittance.”
“I will send the elevator. Allow them in,” the queen said. “Pawn, come with me.”
Shigeru followed along behind us, padding softly on the carpet, so close he almost brushed me. She led me to a granite serving room separated by low marble walls.
“You’ll take care of the investigation, won’t you?”
Grimm had told me to let her believe what she wanted to, but the look in her eyes made me worried. “Yes, Your Highness. I’ll be overseeing it personally.”
She popped the cork from a wine bottle and poured rich red merlot into a glass. “It always falls to us when trouble comes. A man may make money, and earn Glitter, and make a thousand decisions. When trouble comes, it is a woman who deals with it.”
“I do what I’m told.” It was a somewhat truth.
“Then listen to what I’m telling you. My son has done something, or offended someone. I do not know what or who, but I will be the one to deal with him. When you find him, you will contact me. My gratitude will be impressive. I can give you rewards your Godfather cannot.”
I shouldered my purse, eager to get back to the Agency. “I’ll find him.”
She raised a glass of wine to me. “I hope so. My generosity is legendary, and it will fall on everyone who aids you.” She took a sip and considered me, as though she could scry the future in the wine. “Fail, and my wrath will be legendary as well.”
Fifteen
ROSA MET ME at the door with a shotgun. Strictly speaking, not aimed at me, but you don’t really have to aim a sawed-off shotgun. She swung it toward me. “You, get in there.” She turned her attention to the crowd. “The rest of you will take a number and have a seat.” Her paperwork skills might have been lousy, but her personal touch was something I aspired to.
I ran down the hall and slammed the door to Grimm’s office. “Where is Liam?”
Grimm flickered into the desk mirror. “We’re in the conference room, if you don’t mind.”
“I do. Where is he?” I sat down in one of the chairs and waited.
“Marissa, please?”
Evangeline came through the door and joined me, putting her feet up on Grimm’s desk.
“Ladies, I don’t like you two meeting in here. Too many toys, and some of you have shown a tendency to act first and think second.”
Clara opened the door. I looked at her white hair and wondered what she’d seen over the years, and where those scars had come from. I thought they were only on her face, but now I saw they ran down her arms as well, and most likely covered every inch of her body. She looked at me and Evangeline. “Nice to see things haven’t changed around here.” Clara limped over and took Grimm’s mirror out of the chair.
“Clara, you are sixty-two. Act your age,” said Grimm. “Put that back.”
Clara sat it up against the wall and took his chair. “I heard you met Queen Mihail. I knew her when she was just Irina.”
I had the beginnings of a migraine. “She threatened me. Said she’d reward me if I succeeded and punish me if I failed. Said Grimm couldn’t protect me or reward me the way she could.”
“That woman,” said Grimm, “is invoking powers beyond her control.”
Clara turned back to look at Grimm. “Wouldn’t be the first time. She wants her boy back, right?”
I nodded.
She opened a drawer in Grimm’s desk and began to pick through it. “Then we better get him. When Irina gets angry, she doesn’t get violent. She hires someone else to get violent for her.”
“She thinks I’m in charge of the investigation.” I had everyone’s attention now. “It was a misunderstanding. Grimm, you’d better have an idea of how we’re going to find that prince, or I am going to suffer the consequences. I told her we’d find him.”
“If Irina threatened you, she’ll punish us all,” said Clara, her eyes narrowing. “Do you have any idea what that woman is capable of?”
I stifled a keen desire to see if I could strangle her faster than Evangeline could intervene. “No. I was born less than a century ago, so I don’t quite have your range of expertise.”
“Then how are you going to find the prince?”
“I don’t know. I’ll think of something.”
The look she gave me would make a kobold soil his pants. “Remind me exactly what it is you do around here? Oh, yes. You’re pretty. You know, you’re plain for a pretty girl. Does Grimm have to spice you up for dates?”
“That is enough!” said Grimm, shaking the desk with his anger.
I was done being cordial. “What is your problem with me?” She could talk about my looks all day. I had a mirror with me at all times, and no delusions. My mirror might talk, but it didn’t lie.
She leaned forward on the desk. “You have no business being involved. You show up and don’t have the sense to wait when Irina is obviously throwing off thunderclouds. You got mugged, for Kingdom’s sake, and used to launch a curse, and you couldn’t even aim it at the right person. You’re carrying fae blessings around with you like they’re a puppy.”
She stood, and for a moment, I saw an image of what she must once have been like, and a sad prophecy of what I might become. She pointed her finger at me. “I have a family. They live in this city. That curse is old, and powerful enough to level twenty city blocks. You jet around with your curls and your smile and treat it like some sort of adventure. Now you bring down Irina’s wrath on us?”
I looked at Evangeline, but she kept her eyes down. I glanced at the mirror. “Grimm, what do you want me to do?”
Clara spoke before he could. “Settle down and act like an adult. Let your friend and Jess worry about your crush, and let me try and put a lid back on Hurricane Irina before innocent people get hurt. Grimm, do you want her tripping around with a set of blessings while we try to fix this?”
“That what you think?” I asked Evangeline.
She at least had the decency to meet my eyes this time. “I think you need to be more careful, M. I promise you I’ll find him and make sure he’s safe.”
Clara spun Grimm’s chair to face the mirror. “Make a decision, Grimm. I won’t work with her. She’s too much of a liability.”
“Clara, I need you to handle the Court of Queens,” said Grimm. “You wouldn’t be working with Marissa anyway.”
I snapped my fingers for Grimm’s attention. He hated that, but I did it because it worked. “It isn’t my fault with Queen Mihail. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Clara took a pack of cards out of Grimm’s desk and began to shuffle them. “Wrong place? Or right place? You’ve got things attached to you that wouldn’t hesitate to make a change in your favor.” She began to deal cards to me. “Anything else like this happen? Strange coincidences? Improbable accidents? People mistaking you for other people, bad things happening to people you don’t like?”