I laughed. “You super did. As for the plan, I don’t have one yet but be reasonable and sit here and talk it through me with. I’m sure we can come up with something that will suitably offend the captain in short order.”
After a few long seconds of silence, I pushed out of the chair.
“Wait, where are you going?” he asked, mouth hanging open like he couldn’t believe I’d had the gall to go upright.
“Coffee. It helps me think. And endure long, tension-filled silences where I can feel the other parties yearning to make a run for it. I’ll be right back.”
I crossed the hall and found the coffee cart just where it usually sat. With a smile, I pulled the handle of the giant carafe and filled two mugs of steaming deliciousness. Quickly, before Fin talked himself out of patience, I added some cream and sugar to mine. Then I carried the mugs back across the hall and handed him the black one.
Once he settled and took a few sips, I leaned forward, cupping my mug between my palms. “Tell me about Sol.”
When he didn’t immediately protest or start speaking, I thought maybe I’d crossed some boundary. However, she’d been the one to hunker down in my dreams every night.
“She was a bright light,” he began. “Not like you and me. Before you protest, I know you know we exist in the darkness. She was kindness, love, and happiness.”
I wanted to believe people like that existed, but part of me wondered if he saw her through the rose-colored glasses of an older brother who missed his sister. Who thought he’d failed to protect her, and now he needed to protect her memory.
I kept my tone light, hoping not to have to drag information out of him. “Anything else you remember about her? Did she have anything she was obsessed with? Hobbies? Favorite hiding spots? Boyfriends?”
His forehead bunched up, and he put the coffee on the edge of his desk. Then he turned his gaze to me. “What are you asking me?”
I took a sip of my coffee and sat it on the table beside his. “I just asked you what I’m asking you. I need information about your sister and you’re the only one alive who can tell me about her. Or, I mean, I could wait until I go to sleep and hope she visits me so we can play Twenty Questions.”
“But why do you need to know?” he asked, confusion clouding his features.
I held out my hand to shake his. He just stared at it. “Hi, I’m Zoey, a fucking bounty hunter, remember? I find people for a living. In fact, it’s the very reason I’m sitting in this room with you right now. In order to find people, I have to get into their heads. But it’s not as simple as that. I have to be them. If I do it right, no one can hide from me.”
I ventured a glance up into his eyes. The confusion was gone, replaced by faint amusement.
“What?” I asked.
He shook his head. “You amaze me. I didn’t even consider hiring you to find my sister.”
“Well, to be fair, you thought she was dead before. As good as I think I am, I can’t hunt down a corpse.”
He winced, and I froze. “I’m sorry. You know, sometimes I just say things. That was insensitive.”
“Well, today is a historic day. Zoey Salix being both reasonable and apologetic. What is happening to you? Dare I ask if my presence is rubbing off on you?”
I flipped him off. “Let’s not go that far. I enjoy my job, and we just turned this magic puzzle hunt into something my brain can understand better, something my brain knows how to do well. I can focus on doing this thing and you can focus on the magic aspects and we can win.”
“Win?”
“Well, at the very least, give you some closure one way or another. If we happen to maim and dismember Esteban in the process, well, that’s just cake on top of my already awesome cake.”
He pressed out of the chair and adjusted his cuffs. “Come on, I’ll let you see her room.”
Boy kept his dead sister’s room the exact same? Oh man, he and I were going to have to talk about letting go of things. Especially as a creature with a far greater life span than a human.
I followed him through the door and down the hallway, past the corridor that led down to the sparring mats. Nope, not letting my mind go there.
He kept going until we reached a set of double doors, not unlike the ones that led to his room.
“When do I get to upgrade to two doors?” I asked as he dug a key out of his pocket.
He fitted it in the lock and pushed the door open. “Do you even care about having two doors?”
“No, but it seems like the cool kids get two.”