Page 115 of Traitor Witch

The byproduct of fae magic. Some less principled fae barter it with outsiders. Small doses make immortals sleepy and help with pain. Larger doses can make you feel like you're floating, but wear off quickly.

But the smallest amount is enough to addict a human for life.

It makes them feel like they're invincible. When the high recedes, the crash is brutal. The human loses the will to do anything for days at a time. They lose themselves to a stupor.

And so the only way to make themselves feel better is another dose.

It becomes all they can think of. All they crave.

Too much of it can send a mortal into a fit. Just like that woman Elsie healed in Ilyani.

It's illegal for that reason.

I'm not even that surprised that the pirates are smuggling it.

But what does the human queen, the Eagle of Galmere, legendary icon of justice want with it?

Surely they can't all be fae dust? I look across the row of barrels and take another risk, shrinking a second bung.

Out tumbles hundreds of iridescent... scales.

Too large for a fish. Too small for a shifter.

Sirenae scales.

I fall backwards onto my ass.

No.

No way.

Killing is one thing. But plucking scales from a sentient being is a completely different level.

My pirates wouldn't have...

I trail off. How well do I know them, really?

Goddess, no wonder Klaus was so angry. These are literal pieces of his people.

I glance between the two. Dust and scales. Both completely unrelated except that both barrels carry the crest of the Eagle of Galmere.

Did my pirates steal it? Or are they smuggling it for her?

Either way, why would she want these two things in the first place?

"They're looking for you,"Opal hisses in my mind."Get out of there."

Her voice knocks the sanity back into me, and I frantically mutter a reversal spell, sealing the scales and dust back into the barrels.

The bungs seal themselves back in place just as the lock on the door clicks.

"I told you, I can't scent anyone," Rysen grumbles. "She couldn't have gotten past the door, anyway."

"I can feel something in here. It's faint, but it's there."

Shit. Valorean.

I can't be caught.