Once I’d taken the seat, she took one more step forward, but not so close that I could reach out and touch her.
“I promise, I have no intention of hurting you as long as you don’t attempt to hurt me,” I said, repeating what I’d told Helix earlier. Despite the blood thirst in my veins, I didn’t actually set out to bludgeon people randomly.
Well, except for Fin, but he deserved it.
I couldn’t tell if she believed me or not.
Her lips were pressed into a thin line. “I’m afraid I can’t let me guard down, even with people who are supposed to be friends.”
“That sounds like a lonely life. And Helix? Is he a friend, colleague, or more?”
She skipped right over that question. “Who owns the weapon you’re so concerned with? There are only a few truly magical weapons, ones that can change the world, or the course of a war.”
“I don’t think I should tell you. If I do, you won’t agree to help me.”
She cocked her head to the side, a strange stance without the ability to see her eyes. “I haven’t agreed to help you yet as it is. What do you have to lose?”
“Right now, you’re a maybe, and if you take off your sunglasses and we can actually talk, I think I can turn that maybe into a yes. Especially when you don’t have to go anywhere near the man.”
Seconds stretched into minutes and then she nodded, turned to the door, threw it open, and said, “Follow me, please.”
Helix stood on the middle of the corridor, his jaw a granite line as he glared after her. So more than friends there then. I squeezed past him and felt him right on my heels as I trailed behind the woman.
She led me upstairs into yet another sitting room, this one decorated in darker tones: maroons, grays, blacks. It felt cool and soothing as I took another seat on another couch that cost more than my apartment.
Helix poured drinks for everyone, handed them out, and took up a position at the back of her armchair. When she stripped away the sunglasses and her hat, Helix let out a muffled curse.
Finally, I could get a look at her. Her hair wasn’t the same color as I remember Sol’s being in my visions. But I probably couldn’t trust the visions since they’d been provided by Esteban. Maybe it was how he remembered her?
This woman didn’t have the same air of innocence. Her black hair cut across her collarbones in a straight line. Her eyes, however, had the same blue glow of Fin’s. But they were harder, less forgiving.
Shit. Did I call her out? Or let her retain her anonymity in hopes she would help us?
“Now, we can talk,” she said.
I settled into the cushions and cast a grin toward Helix. “I’m not going to go on a rampage. You can relax.”
“I’ll relax when you leave.” His tone came out clipped and hard.
He’d been relaxed enough on the back seat of our car, but protecting Sol obviously brought out the prickliness in his personality.
“So hospitable.” I smiled and turned my attention back to the woman. Sol. “And you still haven’t given me your name.”
“You can call me Melinda.”
Well, okay then.
“Melinda, I don’t know what sort of work is required to assist me, but I need either a way to combat this weapon, or a way to destroy it for good.”
She sipped her drink. “Can you describe this weapon?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t get a good look at it while it was shoved into either one of my friends.”
“And they lived?”
“One of them did, but he’s permanently scarred by it.” Sorrow laced my.
I met her eyes as she studied me, weighing the sincerity in my voice.