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But there were other ways to mute someone.

Sgott might not be so inclined—he was the IIT night chief after all and restricted legally with what he could actually do, even if Ruadhán seemed to have no such qualms—but there were other means of making someone listen. One of those was to threaten the thing they held most dear.

In Kaitlyn’s case, that was her business and her reputation. I might have only met the woman once, but it had been pretty obvious in that short space of time just how vital both were.

And while Lugh did have some “gray” contacts who could possibly make life hard for her, Cynwrig’s family basically controlled a good chunk of the black market. It was unlikely he’d destroy anyone’s livelihood on my say so, but the Looisearch had made the fatal mistake of attacking his sister. If he realized Kaitlyn was still accepting contracts from them, she wouldn’t know what had fucking hit her.

In fact, it was surprising she hadn’t already faced his fury, but maybe Sgott had warned him off.

“Have you taken any other contracts regarding me recently?” I asked. “Have you been tracking my movements from on high?”

“No. My contract was for this specific job, nothing else.”

Someone banged on the top of the ladder, the sound reverberating, making me jump. “Ms. Aodhán? It’s Harry Preston—I work with Sgott. We’ve met.”

His voice matched what I remembered, although that didn’t mean anything in a world where electronic and magical modulators existed. “What happened to the mage?”

“Gone.”

“Are you sure? Because it’s possible he used some sort of concealment shield to get in here. He would have been stopped before he got near the stairs, otherwise.”

“No matter how good light and dark shields might be, they can’t conceal scents. He went out the window as we were coming up and ran along the Row’s roof to escape.”

“You couldn’t track him any further?”

“The rain was heavy enough to disperse his scent, and that makes tracking more difficult.”

I glanced up and saw the raindrops dancing across the skylight. Could feel the rumble of thunder in the distance and the electricity held within in. It was a little surprising I hadn’t noticed earlier, but then, it wasn’t like I’d had a whole lot of timetonotice. I glanced down at my captive. Her eyes were beginning to roll back. “You’d better call an ambulance. I’ve an injured intruder up here.”

“Will do. You need to open the loft so we can assist you and deal with your captive, Ms. Aodhán.”

“Just give me a couple of seconds to make sure she can’t escape.” To my captive, I added, “What were you supposed to do once you got the location of the Eye?”

“Retrieve it if possible.”

“And give it to Kaitlyn?”

“Yes.”

“And if for some reason you couldn’t retrieve it?”

“Hand the location information over.”

“And she would then inform the contractor?”

“I presume so. I have no idea how the system works higher up the food chain.”

Few contractors did, I imagined. It was safer for all involved. But the fact remained, Kaitlyn was still a problem and needed to be immediately dealt with... but as much as I’d love to be involved in taking the bitch out, my priorityhadto be the sword. Once it had been destroyed, the probability of the world being turned into a ruinous wasteland by these idiots would be reduced, even if they could still cause untold damage with the crown and the ring.

“Were you to ask any other questions?”

“No.”

“You weren’t supposed to kill me or anything else?”

“Not kill, but they told me to...”

Whatever else she was going to say died on her lips. She was unconscious.