Treachery Queen (The Callistra Chronicles #1)

TWENTY-TWO

Chapter Twenty-Two

"What was that about?" Seth demanded the moment Pasiphae was led back. He glared at Arthur and shooed him off, then gestured for Pasiphae to follow him. The Unseelie Queen had left. Recreation was over.

"Just the usual sort of intimidation tactics," Pasiphae replied. "Hey, what do people do in gambling dens?"

Seth stopped in his steps, pausing to look at Pasiphae like she had lost her mind.

"You were at the gambling den?"

"I didn't say that."

"You inferred it," he exclaimed. "I'll have you know—"

"Wait, wait, wait," Pasiphae interrupted. "The gambling den? As in, there is only one?"

Seth frowned, a muscle twitching by his left eye. "One that is well-known, anyway. It's in the border district. Crime is rampant there."

Pasiphae grimaced to herself. Crime wasn't just rampant, it was perpetual.

"Can we go back there?" she asked. Her mind was whirring. "I just thought about something."

She hurried down the corridor to their room, picking up the hem of her dress.

"You mean, can you go back," Seth huffed, trailing behind. "I have not been before because I make sensible life decisions."

Pasiphae stopped in front of their door and shouldered it open.  "Oh, please. You're in enemy court. That's the least sensible decision anyone could— ah!"

Seth came running. "What happened? What's the matter?"

A hand over her chest, Pasiphae let out her breath.

"Nothing."

It had just been Bel-Arh, sitting silently in the dark, scrolling on a tablet screen. Pasiphae's heart was pounding as she tried to collect herself. "You gave me a fright."

Bel-Arh shrugged at her, looking as if he was trying not to smile.

"Sorry," he said simply, before inclining his head to Seth. "I have searched the sub-level. There are no public access paths that decline down on an angle and lead into an underground hall."

"We've got a dead-end there then." Seth collapsed onto another seat.

"I would conclude perhaps there is another path that only opens with magic," Bel-Arh stated, "though I couldn't sense anything. Perhaps the witch did?"

Pasiphae scoffed from the other side of the room. "The witch gets internal bleeding with a slight tick of fae magic, trust me, there was nothing down there." She leaned up against the balcony glass. "Seth, I'm starting to think Psyche was onto something about the curved building."

Seth gave a colossal groan, deep from his stomach. "Don't tell me you think a few weird shadows calls for investigating too. I have five hours of social pleasantries lined up this afternoon in hopes that someone knows something."

"No, hold on," she insisted. "Arthur's asking about Isolde got me thinking. Surely she did something bad to have him think that she was dead, and now she's working in the gambling den. That gambling den has to be somewhere near the building." She jabbed a finger at the glass. "And criminal activity calls to criminal activity."

"I believe you are misquoting that." Seth strolled over, squinting into the darkness and the thin line of lights in the distance. "If you're referring to the same one I know," he said, "it's not just near that building, it's interconnected. The whole row of apartment buildings in the northern border district runs into each other."