Yuen looked at Gabriel. “He’ll use Riley as a scapegoat if he can. Even if that means the rest of you go down, too.”

“Alaska cannot come soon enough,” Gabriel muttered, but the fury in his eyes belied his casual tone.

I’d put their trip out of my mind, and was disappointed to remember it now. Not just because Connor had helped us last night, but because it seemed like we were starting to interact like adults, were putting aside our history. We were becoming friends, or something like it.

“My hands are tied,” Yuen said, “as are those of Cadogan House.” He shifted his gaze to me. “But perhaps Elisa has some flexibility. If you want to secure Riley’s release, you’ll need evidence—solid evidence—that he’s not involved.”

I smiled thinly. “Then let’s get to business.”

* * *

• • •

We sent the reception video footage to Kelley, asked her to run the fairy’s image against the House’s surveillance video of the party.

While that was underway, we talked through the visit to the castle again to see if there was anything we’d missed. We didn’t come up with anything new, but I did wonder about the effect of our visit.

I looked at Yuen. “You said Ruadan called you? Why not Claudia?”

He blinked. “I presumed she delegated the task to him. He’s younger, more comfortable with technology.”

“Claudia wasn’t in the gatehouse,” Connor said. “Maybe Ruadan was handling the matter himself under her orders, so it was his duty to complain.” He frowned. “But it didn’t have that feeling—like he was there solely to protect her interests.”

“It didn’t,” I agreed. “It felt like he was playing king.”

“And perhaps the phone call was another example of that?” Yuen asked, nodding. “That’s a possibility. He might have designs on the throne.”

“Fading magic,” Gabriel said, and we all looked at him. “Ruadan is young. He was born after the Egregore. Fairies have been powerful his entire life, and that’s changing now.” He lifted a shoulder. “Maybe he’s angry about that process and blames Claudia for it.”

“What could she have done differently?” my mother asked.

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Gabriel said. “Possibly nothing. But maybe Ruadan has other ideas.”

“They let us leave,” I said. “At least in part because they didn’t want to incite the Pack’s wrath, but I don’t think that was all of it. I think they have something else planned, and it must have something to do with the talks, right? That’s when all this started. Maybe the question isn’t who killed Tomas. It’s who wants the peace talks interrupted—and to breach the peace in Chicago in the process.”

“And why,” Yuen said, then glanced at my parents. “You’ve had experience with the fairies.”

“We hired them,” my father said. “They were called mercenary fairies then, because that’s how they presented themselves. They were skilled and merciless and available for hire. They guarded the House during daylight hours, when we were asleep, for many years, until they turned their weapons against us. They are capricious. And as the ‘mercenary’ moniker should have warned me, they were, apparently, available to the highest bidder.”

“The Greenwich Presidium,” my mother said. “Cadogan House held an artifact Claudia wanted. They turned on us to obtain it. Gold and jewels are especially alluring.”

“They don’t believe in romantic love,” my father said. “But Claudia had an apparently meaningful relationship with what we’d have called a demon. And she was the one who told us about the spread of Sorcha’s power across Chicago.”

“Her behaviors are inconsistent,” Yuen said.

“Externally, yes,” my father said. “But internally, they’re entirely consistent. She is the center, always. She wanted coin, so she offered the fairies to the House as security. She wanted the jewel, so she offered her services to the GP instead.”

“And then there was the green land,” my mother said, reaching out to take my father’s hand. She breathed in slowly, as if preparing herself, and then looked at Yuen.

“Before they lost their power, the fairies lived in what they called Emain Ablach, the ‘green land.’ They came to Chicago but retained their connection to that realm. When Claudia came to Cadogan House to talk to us about Sorcha, she made the green land”—she made a waving motion—“sweep over us. It was a beautiful place. Hilly and green and cool. We could smell the ocean on the breeze, hear the grass rustling. And there was a little girl.”

She looked at me.

“This wasn’t long before we got pregnant. But it hadn’t happened yet, and we didn’t know if it would ever happen.” Her gaze lost focus as she walked through the memory. “We heard this laugh—a child’s laugh—but there was no one around. No parent she might have belonged to, except for us. I don’t know how we knew it, but we knew she was ours.”

Her voice softened to a whisper. “In that moment, there was absolute happiness. But it was only for a moment. Claudia brought us back here. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say the green land was taken away from us. The sense of loss was . . . devastating. It felt like we’d lost her for real.”

She looked at me again. “It hurt to come back. To leave that—and her—behind, especially when we didn’t fully trust the prophecy. What if that had been our only chance with her? With you?” She breathed out heavily through pursed lips, obviously working to control her emotions.

“I’m here,” I said, and smiled.

“I know. And we’re glad. Usually,” she added with a grin, her way of diffusing the emotion in the room. “I guess the point is, the green land is a powerful place for fairies. I don’t know if they were able to increase their connection to it after Sorcha, when their power was stronger. But either way, I’d bet their connection is less now.” She looked at Yuen. “Maybe that’s what this is all about—thinking political power is how they obtain the magic they need.”

“Unclear,” he said. “But the more information we have, the better the chance we can deal with them before they get out of hand. Or further out of hand.”

“Maybe insinuating themselves into the peace talks is an effort to get the power they need.” I looked at my father. “You heard about the French delegation?”

“What about them?” Yuen asked.

“Chevalier and Dumas went back to Paris near dawn,” my father said.

Good, I thought. At least they’d done him the courtesy of telling him directly.

“What did Seraphine have to say about this?” my mother asked, frowning as she walked to me, then took my hand.

“That the talks had been disrupted and there wasn’t a reasonable chance they’d work, so Marion and Victor voted to go home and deal with problems on the ground.”

“I’m sorry,” my mother said. “I’m so sorry they left the way they did. I believe I’d take that very personally.”

“It’s hard not to,” I admitted. “But Lulu’s letting me stay at her loft, so that helps.”

My mother smiled. “I left Mallory’s to come here, and now Lulu’s taking you home to her place. That seems about right.”

“There will be no talks without France,” Yuen said.

“I told Seri that. She was apologetic, but . . .”

“But they still got on the plane,” Connor said.

I nodded.

“The delegates from Spain left early yesterday evening. The other delegates remain in town,” my father said. “They opted to cancel tonight’s session, given the absences, but I understand some of the delegates will be meeting together in smaller groups.”

“So there’s still hope,” my mother said.

“Fading hope,” he said. “I don’t blame Spain, and I don’t blame France. I don’t know who to blame.” He looked at me. “But the fairies seem to be at the top of that list.”

The room got quiet, all of us probably wondering what would happen next.

“You should find Claudia,” I said to Yuen.

“Claudia?”

“Either she’s directing Ruadan, so this is her fault, or she doesn’t know what he’s doing and she needs to. She has to be the key here.”

Yuen looked at Theo and me. “Go back to the castle and demand to talk to Claudia. Tell them you’re there on behalf of the Ombudsman, and you have CPD support. Take a couple of officers with you if you need to. But talk to her.”