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I get up and drag my chair closer to him.

“These were taken from the survivors of Karnon’s prison?” I ask.

“Just the Night fae survivors,” Des says. “The other kingdoms are recording the interviews of their victims. At the next summit our kingdoms hold, we’ll compare notes, but until then, we only have my subjects’ testimonies.”

I know without looking that I’m one of those testimonies. It was optional for me (perks of being the mates of a king), but I did it anyway. I’ve worked enough cases to know how helpful testimonies can be.

“Why did you want me to see this?” I ask, lifting the edge of the parchment between us. I catch a glimpse of my name, and my stomach dips a little.

Des had been in the room when I gave my testimony, so he knows what happened to me, but seeing it written out next to all the other victims still makes me squirm.

Des slides the parchment over to me. “I thought you might like to read what the other prisoners had to say about their experience.”

His words sound almost like a challenge, and I eye him a bit circumspectly before I glance down at the scroll.

The paragraphs are written in an elegant scrawl. My heart grows heavy at the sight of the words—at the reminder of what happened to myself and all the other imprisoned women. But these testimonies are also a marvel. Des had been unable to get any fae to talk about the Thief before now. I assume it was because those individuals had something to lose.

As for the survivors of Karnon—well, there’s hardly anything left for ustolose. We’ve already lived through our darkest fears.

I skip over my own testimony, focusing on the other women who escaped.

I read about nine different fae soldiers, each who’d been kidnapped in her sleep. They had languished in Karnon’s prison between one and eight days.

Apparently, they—like me—managed to recover from a week’s worth of the Fauna king’s black magic. Those who were captives for longer than eight days…they now lived far below us in glass caskets.

The more I read, the more Callie the PI surges back to life. I’ve missed this: digging into cases, solving problems.

It takes me only a little longer to stumble across what Des must’ve wanted me to see.

I tear my gaze away from the scroll. “All but two were sexually assaulted by Karnon,” I say.

The two who escaped that fate hadn’t been sexually assaulted at all. This wasn’t due to the Fauna king having a change of heart; they just happened to be the two most recently abducted. Karnon hadn’t had enough time to incapacitate them with his magic. He liked violating women when they couldn’t fight back.

Des nods. “And?” he probes.

I return my attention to the parchment. It takes only seconds for the rest of the pieces to fall into place.

“And all but two confirmed they were pregnant,” I say.

Seven women are raped solely by Karnon; seven women end up pregnant.

I meet Des’s gaze. “So Karnonisthe casket children’s father?”

Des leans back in his seat, his legs splayed. One leg jiggles restlessly. “So it seems.”

I want to pull my hair out. None of this makes sense.

“But I thought…” I thought Des believed Karnonwasn’tthe father.

Before I can finish the thought, someone knocks on the library’s doors.

Des waves away the scroll, and it floats back onto the shelves. Another flick of his hand, and the library doors open.

In saunters Malaki, looking just as rakish as usual. He bows to both of us then straightens, focusing his attention on Des.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Malaki says by way of greeting, “but duty calls.”

Des straightens in his seat. “What’s on the docket?”