CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Gabriel did not suggest we cancel our visit to the hospital. As always, the only real way to learn an adversary’s plans was to proceed as they expected and get a look at the trap close up.

At the hospital, we were directed to the proper floor, where the nurse told us Pamela’s condition was critical and she wasn’t allowed visitors.

“Critical?” I said. “We were supposed to get a call if her condition changed.”

The nurse looked like a teenager. She couldn’t be, obviously, but her expression was stereotypical teen, the one that said we were just a couple of adults making her life difficult and could we please move along and let her get back to texting with her friends?

“Please put down your cell phone while you’re speaking to us,” Gabriel said.

The nurse gave a start at that.

“Would you like me to speak slower?” he said. “Or perhaps text it to you?”

When she still didn’t respond, he plucked the phone from her hand and placed it on the desk.

“Thank you,” he said. “I appreciate having your full attention.”

She looked around, but it was well past visiting hours and the hall was empty.

“We would like to see Pamela Larsen,” Gabriel said. “We understand that she may not be permitted visitors. That is fine. Her daughter here simply wants to see her. I believe that’s understandable.”

“Mrs. Larsen is off-limits to anyone except medical personnel.”

“Her daughter will look through a window if necessary. If she’s allowed into the room, she will wear any protective garments required.”

“The patient is off-limits to anyone except medical personnel.”

“All right. Then may I request that you—as medical personnel—take your phone into her room and film a five-second video of the patient, to reassure her daughter. An unusual request, I’m sure, but Olivia is very concerned, and we would appreciate the effort.”

A flick of his hand, and a hundred-dollar bill peeked from under her cell phone.

“I can’t leave my post,” she said.

“Call someone to relieve you for a restroom break.”

“I can’t leave—”

“Bullshit,” I said. “If you’re going to play the role of a twenty-year-old, you’d better act like one. No recent graduate is going to turn down an easy hundred bucks.”

Her face screwed up. “What?”

“We’ve been through this before, and we’re getting damned good at figuring out when the person blocking us is not a person at all. Do you think we’ve failed to notice there’s no one else around? No one we can appeal to for help? Very convenient. Also? Very obvious. You fae need to get better at this game.”

Gabriel nudged me. I looked to see a doctor watching us from a doorway. I thought Gabriel was telling me there was someone else around. Then I saw the total confusion on the nurse’s face…and the faint smile on the doctor’s before he retreated.

“Why can’t we see my mother?” I said. “On whose orders?”

“One of the doctors. He said you’d be by. And he said you’d cause trouble, which is why you can’t see her. At all. Or I lose my job, which is worth more to me than your hundred bucks.”

“And that doctor’s name?”

“Lang? Lee? I’m new here. I just know he said it was important to keep you away from your mother, and that’s what I’m doing.”

“I’m sure he was very compelling,” I murmured as I stepped away from the desk.

“What was all that about?”

“Ms. Taylor-Jones mistook you for someone else,” Gabriel said. “She’s very distraught. Now, I appreciate that you’re doing your job, but are you aware of the legal ramifications of keeping my client from her mother?”

“Client?”

Gabriel continued, smoothly holding the nurse’s attention as I headed for the closed door. “Yes, client. Ms. Taylor-Jones is the de facto guardian for Pamela Larsen, who is a prisoner of the state, and under the provisions of the penal code…”

I tuned out whatever legalese fiction he was spinning and opened that door. Then I slipped through and found myself in an empty room. Across from me was another door, cracked open, which seemed a little too obvious. So I checked furniture instead—under a desk, inside a cabinet—and texted Gabriel.

Second door partly open. No sign he’s hiding.

I hit Send and then typed: I’ll wait 4 U, and imagined his exhale of relief as he got them, saving him from madly texting a warning.

I did wait. I also approached that door, though, slipping close enough to peer through and—

The hall door opened, and Gabriel walked through.

“The nurse is occupied,” he said as he approached. “I put the fear of legal action into her and suggested she find the doctor who issued the order.”

“Who I’m presuming is the one who went through that door. And is likely on the other side, listening to us. He could make this much easier by coming in here and joining the conversation.”

I waited. Silence.

“And that’s a no.” I pushed open the door. It led into a back hall. An empty one, lined with doors. As we started along it, I called, “We get that you’re luring us somewhere. It’s kind of obvious.”

“Then why are you following?” asked a voice.

We turned to see the so-called doctor, leaning in an open doorway.

“No, don’t answer that,” he said. “You’re Tylwyth Teg. You can’t help yourselves, poor things.”

“Pretty sure you’re more fae than we are.”

“Fae, yes, technically. Tylwyth Teg?” He scrunched his nose. “No, I come from sturdier stock. Fae far less likely to allow blind curiosity to lead them into obvious traps.”

“We love traps. They’re like puzzles, only with higher stakes.” I stepped toward him. “And for a fae who’s so dismissive of his Welsh brethren, you’re taking quite an interest in their affairs, playing sycophant to my mother.”

“Sycophant?” He laughed. “Hardly. It’s a mutual allegiance.”

“Mmm, yeah. You just keep telling yourself that. Ask Tristan about my mother’s idea of a mutual allegiance.”

“Tristan was a spriggan. Inferior stock, again. I know what I’m doing.”

I opened my mouth to dispute that, but Gabriel edged past me, saying, “Where is Pamela?”

“Ah, the great Gwynn speaks.” The doctor mock-bowed. “Your highness. It is a pleasure.”

Gabriel gave him a quick appraisal, those pale blue eyes taking his measure. Then he turned to me.

“He’s stalling us. He has accomplished his mission—helping your mother escape undetected—and now his orders are simply to keep us from pursuit. She’s gone exactly where I said she’d go. He’s of no use to us.”

Gabriel had not said anything about where Pamela would go, but I played along and turned to leave.

“I’m under no such orders,” the doctor said as we walked away. “Your mother didn’t expect you to show up. I only compelled that silly nurse to block anyone who asked after Pamela as a general precaution.”

We kept going. A moment later, something flashed past us. Then he was there, in our path.

“You do not want to interfere with her,” he said.

“Is that a threat?” Gabriel said, his voice a low rumble.

The fae opened his mouth, his expression saying he was about to make a jaunty response. Then he looked up into Gabriel’s eyes and stopped.

“No,” Gabriel said. “I thought not.”

Gabriel shouldered the fae aside to give me room to pass. I did, and the fae popped in front of us again, far enough ahead to stay out of Gabriel’s reach.

“It wasn’t a threat,” he said. “It was a warning. A…” A nervous glance at Gabriel. “A respectful warning. Whatever your mother has gone to do, Matilda, it is for you. It is always for you.”

“Gone to do?” I slowed.

“Ignore him,” Gabriel said. “His very phrasing makes it clear he doesn’t know what she has in mind.”

“But she has a purpose,” I said. “Beyond simply escaping from prison.”

The fae laughed, finding his arrogance again. “Escape? To what purpose? She can better protect you in jail than on the run from the police. No, Pamela will bide her time until she is legally freed. This is merely an excursion. The undertaking of a task. She’ll be back before dawn, no one the wiser, and I would suggest you leave her to whatever she’s doing.”

“You have no idea what that is, do you?” I said.

“I don’t require a reason. She was concerned for you, and she needed to leave briefly, so I manufactured an opportunity, putting her in my debt.” A pleased smile. “Putting you in my debt, too, I’ll wager.”

I started to answer, but Gabriel’s hand gripped my shoulder.

“Whether you have earned Olivia’s regard—and mine—remains to be seen. You said Pamela was concerned for her daughter? Perhaps it’s not what I thought it was. Is it something we should be worried about? A new threat?”

“Relatively recent,” he said. “Not urgent, though. She contacted me two days ago, saying she feared a new threat against Matilda, and asking if it might be possible for me to orchestrate a temporary departure.” That smug smile again. “She’d asked Tristan the same this spring, but he couldn’t manage it. That’s why he had to act for her. I provided, though. She asked, and I provided.”

“She’s going after Seanna,” I said as we got into the car.

When Gabriel started the engine without answering, I said, “No, that’s a wild guess, isn’t it?” I took a deep breath. “Okay. Calm down. Talk it out. She said she’s doing something for me, but that might not be true.”

“It always is.”

“It could be for Todd. Not breaking him out. Like that fae said, escape is pointless. It would mean life on the run, when they have a genuine shot at getting out legally.”

“It’s Seanna.”

I looked over at him.

“Seanna is in Grace’s building,” he said, “with the dryads watching over her. Pamela can’t simply slip in and kill her.”

“But you agree that’s what she’s planning.”

“It’s the most obvious answer. Seanna visited her a few days ago, shortly before Pamela contacted that fae. Pamela’s version of the conversation didn’t match Seanna’s. Seanna told you the sluagh provided a script for her side of that conversation, which amounted to thinly veiled threats against you.”

“Seanna was supposed to upset Pamela, which supposedly would upset me.”

“No. The real goal was to anger Pamela. The conversation was carefully orchestrated to convince Pamela that you are in danger from Seanna.”

“Not just me,” I said. “My father, too. That was the whole point of bringing up Kirkman. To threaten Todd. Either he’d read the note and tell my mother, or I’d get the note and ask her what it meant. The sluagh threatened me and Todd. Loading a double-barreled shotgun. Pointed squarely at Seanna.”

“As the sluagh said, she’s played her role. That means she has outlived her usefulness and is now more trouble than she’s worth. A wild card, so to speak. She has only one final role to play: leverage against you. As far as Pamela knows, Seanna is the threat.”

“We know better. Kill Seanna, and the sluagh still hold their ace on my father with Kirkman.”

“Kill Seanna, and they gain another—a murder they can squarely pin on your mother. With that, they can guarantee that both your parents will remain in prison for life.”

“Patrick,” I said.

Gabriel’s brows arched as he turned onto the highway.

“We need to tell someone in Cainsville. Someone who can help,” I said. “He’s the most obvious choice.”

“Yes, but that also puts us in his debt, which is why I was going to suggest Veronica.”

I shook my head. “Patrick owes us, and he’s a much better match for my mother.”

Gabriel paused and then nodded. I called Patrick and told him that Pamela was out of prison and going after Seanna.

“Ah,” he said.

“Going after her to kill her,” I said. “Not to invite her to tea. In case that wasn’t obvious.”

“No, it was. I suspect even a tea between them would end in bloodshed. Seanna’s blood, shed.”

“This isn’t a public service announcement, Patrick. I’m asking you to do something about it. To watch over Seanna.”

“Ah.”

My hand gripped the phone tighter. “Fine. Obviously, Gabriel was right. I should notify Veronica—the one elder in Cainsville who actually gives a shit.”

“We all give a shit, Liv, in our way. If I sound overly calm at the prospect of Seanna’s death, well, you can hardly blame me.”

“It’s not just her death. If she dies—” I stopped myself and glanced at Gabriel as I thought of Seanna’s mark. “Speak to Veronica or Grace, okay? There’s more to this. But if you’d rather not get involved, I can call Veronica.”

“No, Veronica has many talents, but I don’t want her going toe-to-toe with your mother. I’m too fond of our Veronica. I’ll head over and keep an eye on Seanna.”

“And speak to Grace. Please.”