Black Wings, Gray Skies (Black Hat Bureau 4)

“The director has only sent you on cases involving Black Hat rogues.”

“And this doesn’t have that feel?”

“Not every case can be a giant conspiracy against the Bureau, but…”

“Maybe we’re in a lull. The calm before the storm.” I dropped my first round of battered oysters in the pan, raising my voice to speak over the hiss and crackle. “Or maybe we landed a perfectly normal case.”

Okay, fine, so the slinky cat alone meant normal had flown out the window a while ago, and it wasn’t coming back anytime soon.

“The director pulled you back in,” he argued, washing his hands, “and we still don’t know why.”

“He’s spooked, Clay.” I could tell him that, and he would get it better than anyone. “He’s afraid.”

The mention of that fear had my thoughts casting back to Samford, to the girls, to my own weaknesses.

“He’s fought off coups before,” he countered. “What’s special about this one? Why involve you?”

“Other than he still believes I’m his heir and that we’ll skip off into the sunset together one day?”

“You found your grandmother.” He lowered his voice. “That should have freaked him the hell out.”

“Language.” I popped his hand with a spoon. “And yeah, you’re right. I expected a bigger reaction too.”

But he wasn’t sweating the fact I knew Calixta Damaris’s location. As former High Queen of the Haelian Seas, and his former lover, one kept locked in a silty cage at the bottom of a swamp, I had expected more.

More cursing. More threats. More yelling.

Either he knew enough about the magic containing her to be confident I alone could set her free, and then only if I sacrificed myself for it, or she was small potatoes compared to the threat stalking his heels.

Now, if he had any inkling Delma’s ashes were in a safe full of arcane artifacts at my house, and Granny wasn’t quite as secure as he assumed, then he might flip his lid.

Unless or until I decided to reopen that can of worms, I was content to let him think the mother of his child remained a nonthreat.

Which begged the question…

What was worse than a raging former Haelian queen bent on reclaiming her throne over her ex-lover’s dead body?