Page 89 of After 5
“Yes.” My stomach knotted. The direction of our conversation wasn’t sounding good.
“I’m too late.” He dropped his arms to his sides and stepped away from me.
“Too late?”
“The man’s name was Boon. He traveled with the seer I’m looking fir. He was my contact. I believe he scratched the message into the blade and gave Sam Raney the sword.”
I bit my bottom lip. “But I have it.”
“Jest as weel, this trip has gone to shite.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mahlia didnae want to marry me.” He almost looked upset. “At least that’s what I thought.”
“Why didn’t she want to marry you?”
“Sunshine, ye didnae accept my proposal either.”
“You were under the influence of the Thunder key.”
“Ye dinnae know that at the time.” His green eyes cut through me like laser beams.
“You’re changing the subject.”
He shook his head at me in surrender. “The wedding was naugh supposed to go as far as it did.”
“What are you talking about?”
“When Gian-Carlo ordered me to marry Mahlia and find the seer before he would return my key, she offered to help me.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Seriously?”
Ignoring my sarcasm, he continued. “Mahlia told me she had no interest in marrying me and promised to transport me before we said I do.” He spread his hands and wiggled his fingers. “Smoke and mirrors.”
“I guess you were surprised when she walked down the aisle without her key.”
He paused for a moment, taking in the fact I was at the wedding. He chuckled. “I shouldae known ye wouldn’t miss it.”
“And you didn’t think she would double-cross you?”
“I dinnae know what to think. I went along with the wedding until I could figure oot a plan. After I said my vows, that’s when Toches dropped a smoke bomb and signaled for me to follow him from the house. He transported me here.”
“We should have known he could transport.”
Caiyan thought about my words for a moment, assembling the puzzle pieces. “Toches can transport, but only if he’s wearing a transporter’s key.”
“Like Ace,” I said.
“Aye, I suspected such, but didnae know for certain.” He paused. “They conspired together, Mahlia and Toches.”
And a piece of the puzzle clicked into place. The colorful silk shirts in Caiyan’s apartment, the jealousy I felt when I read Toches in the jail cell at Gitmo, and Mahlia’s panties in my closet. Mahlia and Toches were an item.
“My guess is they’ve been doing more than conspiring.”
Caiyan paused as he connected the dots. “Wouldnae have pegged her to go for the likes of him.”
“And not the likes of you?”
