"True, but theycanbend the truth until it looks like a mutated pretzel," Logan muttered. "A double-jointed person playing Twister. A—"
"Gee, who does that sound like?" Jack asked.
Logan just snorted and shook his head.
Susan sighed and shoved her chair back. "Okay if I make more coffee? I mean, since we might be here for a while?"
When Jack nodded, pointing to the cupboard that held the coffee, she continued. "Everybody in this room knows you didn't steal any Fae daggers, magical or otherwise, Jack. What's important now is that we need to convince aqueenof that."
Everybody started talking at once with ideas, indignation, and proposals, and my head started hurting again. Finally, when we all had fresh coffee in front of us, and everybody wasstilltalking, I cleared my throat.
Nobody heard me.
I did it again.
This time, Jack stopped mid-sentence, looked at me, and then tapped the table, getting everyone's attention. "Hey. Tess is trying to say something."
Susan, Jed, and Logan stopped talking and turned to me.
"Go ahead, Tess," Jack said, concern in his eyes as he reached over to hold my hand.
"I don't know how to convince a Fae queen of anything, but I do have an idea." I took a deep breath. "Why don't we try to find this dagger ourselves and give it back to her?"
Silence.
They all looked at me and then at each other.
Finally, Jed spoke. "The dagger could be anywhere in the world—anywhere in either of two worlds. How could we possibly find it in such a short time frame?"
"I don't know a great deal about the Fae, but I do know that they have a resonance with certain objects. A connection. If she thinks the dagger is here, maybe it really is? But she can't figure out exactly where from her side of the doorway?" I gave Jed a steady look. "But if that's true, why didn't she know it was in the tree—if it ever really was? Or is there more you need to tell us?"
"Kal'andel claimed he put a magical shield of protection over it," he said.
"Sure," Susan muttered. "Nothing is ever simple with those … people. So, the big question is what do we do now?"
"No," I said, putting my mug down with a thud and pinning Jed with a stern look. "The big question is, how does a man who claims to have been frozen into a statue for three hundred years know so much about what the Fae are doing and thinking?
13
Tess
Jed's eyes shifted left—just for a split-second—but I recognized the move from customers in the store who tried to convince me that a piece of junk they wanted to pawn was really a priceless heirloom passed down from Great Aunt Esther.
"Ah ha!" I pointed at him. "Spill, Grandpa."
"Welll." Jed scratched his chin, looking sheepish. "I wasn't exactly a statue all the time. They took me out on special occasions."
Jack said, "How often?"
Susan said, "Took you out? Like the good china?"
Logan said, "What kind of special occasions?"
I waved my hands at the three of them, brushing off the chatter. "So you know more than you've told us?"
Jed thought about it for a minute and then finally nodded. "Yes. But I'm not sure any of it is helpful."
"Let us be the judge of that," Susan said in her most serious sheriff voice.
