Lapidary

The taxi stopped at the edge of Bareband – where I had saved a human from Astaroth’s wrath and met Devton. The humans lifted me out of the boat, and I struggled against them as they carried me to the shed where I had locked up Astaroth. Inside were fishing rods, hooks, chairs, and a table. They plopped me down in a chair and covered the windows with boards and cloths. My chest was rising and falling with each breath, and I darted my gaze around the room, hoping to find something that could set me free.

The humans searched me and found the shell around my neck, which they left there. They found the coins in my purse but didn’t take them either. Clearly, they did not want to rob me. Then, to my surprise, they left me alone and closed the door. I peered longingly at the table where a knife lay – its hilt was just over the edge. I could reach it.

I wiggled in my chair until the chair fell over and my right arm took the impact. I inched like a worm until I reached the end of the table. Then I pulled back my tied-together legs and kicked the table. It moved backward, and I kicked again. This time the knife fell off.

I wiggled closer and turned my back toward the knife. It was tricky grabbing hold of the hilt and even trickier cutting my hands free. But, once my hands were free, it was easy. I cut the ropes binding my legs and removed my gag.

The door swung open.

I jumped to my feet and held the knife out in front of me. I took a defensive stance, ready to strike. I’d never killed anyone before, but given the right circumstances, I might be able to do it. I had, after all, slain a dragon.

I had never seen this man before. The wrinkles around his eyes told me he was older, but there was something in his eyes that spoke of the ambition of a young man. He had bushy eyebrows and hair, which hasn’t been cut in a while. His fisherman’s shorts and a T-shirt made me think he had perhaps stumbled in here by accident.

“Natka Roqueze,” he said. “I’m so sorry for how this has turned out. I really just wanted to talk.”

So, he wasn’t here by accident. “Well, I don’t want to listen.”

He wasn’t carrying any weapons, but then again, the men who had kidnapped me hadn’t, either. “My name is Robert Smith. I am the leader of the Insurgents and a friend, or I used to be a friend, of Ryker Featherswallow.”

I didn’t lower my knife because he had just admitted he was a gang leader – the human rebels’ leader to be more specific. And he had known Ryker…

“Did you and Ryker smuggle diamonds?” I asked.

His frown suggested that he hadn’t expected this question. “Why do you ask that?”

“Did you?” I pressed.

He looked me up and down, studying me, clearly trying to figure out what I was capable of. I didn’t even know what I was capable of.

“We did,” he said, confirming what Devton told me, “but that’s not why I wanted to talk to you.”

I arched an eyebrow but didn’t give him the satisfaction of asking what he wanted. We were off on a rough start, and I didn’t feel like telling him shit.

“You were at Shark Bay Prison, and one of my men saw you, going to visit Lakelyn before the dragon appeared and broke his cell, giving him the chance to escape.”

“Good for him.”

“What did Lakelyn tell you?”

“Uh, you know? We were talking about boys and things.”

“Really?”

“Of course not. That mermaid was telling me about her fear of drowning.”

He pressed his lips together, and I was certain he wanted to swear at me. “I know about the letter she sent to Ryker.”

“What letter?” I tried.

“The letter saying she found the White Crystal and was going to give it to him,” he said.

“How could you possibly know that?”

He hesitated. “I read it before he did – I found the pigeon carrying the letter and read it, before sending it off to Ryker.”

My gut twisted as I realized this man knew of the White Crystal. I gripped the knife tighter. Had he been the one to push Ryker of our building? Human or not, if he was calculating, he could kill fae. Robert was also looking for the crystal, and that was why his men had patted me down.

“Why the fuck would I help you?” I wondered.

He straightened. “Because we are both human. We are both being oppressed in our own fucking world. The magic creatures invaded and decided to stay. They took over, and they mistreat us. I’m sick of it. I want that crystal so that I can open a rift and send them back to their own worlds.”

I believed him. “I don’t have the crystal. Did you kill Ryker for it?”

He stiffened. “I read about Ryker’s death and found his suicide odd.”

“Did you do it?” My hand was trembling.

“No,” Robert said. “I have no way of getting into his building unseen.”

The cameras inside the hall hadn’t caught anyone coming into our apartment and neither had the cameras outside the skyscraper. Out of everyone who could have managed a way around that, I somehow doubted it was a human.

I lowered the knife.

“You want me to tell you what Lakelyn said.” I met his gaze. “Nothing. She said nothing, other than she had given him the crystal.”

Robert touched his forehead and sighed. “I had thought the crystal was in Arameer all this time. I thought he died before she sent it.”

Lakelyn could be lying, and they could have the crystal, but something told me that she had been terrified of opening a rift and had sent the crystal away as soon as she could. Where would Ryker have put it? If Devton’s men had gone through all his things, and someone had stolen everything in our apartment… It could either have been stolen and used to open a rift in Shark Bay or it could be in the safe, in Arameer, but how had the rift opened, then? At some time, I would have to blow on the shell and talk to Neron about the safe.

“It’s a year later, and news of the White Crystal being found has spread,” Robert said. “The angels and daimons and fae are looking for it. It’s just a matter of time until someone finds it, and if it ends up in the wrong hands, there could be even more deaths than the first time around.”

I shivered to think of The Shaking. The veil wasn’t as thin or as big at the prison, and that was why, when the rift opened, the world hadn’t gone to complete shit. Yes, a dragon had escaped the Netherworld, but no angels had fallen from Heaven, no daimons had gone back to Hell or the Netherworld, and the world hadn’t shaken enough to move the tectonic plates and create a tsunami.

“If you find it, just remember that you are human. I’d like us to be friends,” Robert said.

“Of course, you would,” I said.

“I asked my men to tell you that I want to talk,” he began.

“They kidnapped me!”

“They didn’t want anyone to see you talking to us – in case you knew something.”

“So, they kidnapped me,” I said.

“Yes,” he admitted through gritted teeth.

I gave him a spiteful smile before I pushed past him and stalked outside.

“You might act tough,” he called after me, “but you’re just another human.”

I didn’t respond.