The Evolution of Fae and Gods (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 3)

“Put them in the living area, and we’ll be right up,” Carrick replies, his eyes coming to me. “Let’s go see what Echo has to say, then we can fill Rainey and Myles in on the rest.”

“Sure,” I reply with a small smile.

Rainey and Myles glance at each other, mutual unease in their expressions. I’m sure they’re assuming I’ve left out something really bad, but truly… it’s just Carrick and me planning to gang up on them to get them to leave for their safety.

Carrick turns toward the staircase, and I follow him up, Rainey and Myles bringing up the rear.

Maddox is standing near the fireplace in the living area, resting an arm on the pewter gray mantle that holds no pictures or decor. In fact, I’ve never even seen the fire lit and not sure what it’s for.

I make a quick introduction between Maddox, Rainey, and Myles, who give silent chin lifts to each other.

Echo is slouched in one of the blue velvet club chairs set around a low-slung round table. She’s picking at her nails and looks petulant, and I wonder how much of her being here is of her own volition and how much is due to Maddox threatening her or possibly even kidnapping her.

Those are things that would have bothered me a few weeks ago, but not so much now. If force needs to be used to get information, then I’m here for it. Especially since Echo isn’t all that nice of a daemon, and I’m fairly sure she’d kill me if she had the clear chance to do so without repercussions from Carrick.

“She has information?” Carrick asks his brother as he walks his way. Zaid, Rainey, and Myles stand back near the grand piano, but I move in closer to Echo. She lifts her head, looks at me from under those unnaturally long eyelashes, and actually hisses.

“Oh my word,” Rainey breathes from behind us.

I resist the urge to hiss back.

“Echo got word to me that she has some important information,” Maddox says as he pushes off from the mantle. “So I picked her up and brought her to you.”

“I want a thousand dollars,” she demands, sitting up in her chair and twisting toward Carrick. “Or you don’t get my information.”

“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.