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Chapter 23

Robin buttoned his shirt. "Well, what did you get?" he asked Hyax after he'd recounted his version of events from talking to Simon.

"It was pretty clear he didn't know who you were, but he didn't run off so that suggests that the bond is still exerting an influence."

"He doesn't know where he is and I didn't see anything apart from he looked to be sitting on a jetty, so perhaps where he is has a small lake. Somewhere like Crofton Hall?"

Gwil finished getting dressed. "Quite a lot of the big fancy houses have those, it wouldn't narrow it down that much. You said he described the place like a hospital and that he was being treated by someone called Ralph."

"Yes."

Hyax cocked his head to one side. "Are you going to ask your dirt devils?"

"No, I'm going to ask Copperpipe." He tutted and turned to Robin. "I have an interesting informant, I'm not completely sure what he is but he's a sewer dweller who is surprisingly good at finding information."

Robin had hoped Simon would have recognised him and given them some way of identifying his location. "He's also had his memory altered, and continues to be repressed as he didn't know his own name."

"To be honest, I expected there had to be something to stop him returning beyond a physical imprisonment." Hyax tapped a finger against his lips. "Did you say something about gold cuffs?"

"Yes, he had them on both arms. He didn't have them when he was taken."

"I will need to research those but I think they might be the items limiting his magic, they could also be siphoning it away because bottling up the magic of a fae of Simon's power would manifest with obvious side effects."

Robin couldn't help but be disappointed that they hadn't found out more. "So what do we do know?"

"Gwil will talk to the sewer potatoes, and I'm sure Solivatus will want you to fill him in. I'll be honest, it's not a huge amount to go on, and I doubt who has him will not have realised something was going on."

"Can't we try the mirror spell again?"

"Maybe." Hyax didn't look convinced. "I'm not sure it will work a second time, but we could be lucky and the bond is tethered a bit firmer than it was. We'd probably be better trying to narrow down the location and get in and extract him. By force if needs be."

"I've no issue with collateral damage," Robin said. "As far as I'm concerned, anyone standing in my way has put themselves in the line of fire, and I'm in no mood to play nice."

He wasn't the type to play nice at the best of times, whoever had taken Simon had made a dangerous enemy.

"But if we do find them, we need to be careful. This is not a fly-by-night operation, and it takes a strong and devious mind to execute this, they will have a backup plan." Hyax pursed his lips. "The level of power and magic needed brings me to agree with the hypothesis that we're dealing with a lich."

"How do we kill an immortal remnant?"

"There must be something. I'll work with the fae and the warlocks to see what we can come up with."

"I want it to suffer."

"I can understand that, but we should first concentrate on getting Simon back and restoring his magic."

"We should talk to Solivatus. Hopefully he can help. While I'm grateful we were able to connect with Simon, I don't think we've got much further."

Hyax bristled and Robin summoned Karl with a click of his fingers and a few minutes later Solivatus strolled in. Gwil, who had only just finished getting dressed, seemed flustered again, and came to stand next to Hyax.

Solivatus listened as he explained what they'd learnt. "I know you think it's not a lot, Robin. But we've some good intel. I'm sure Gwil will be back with more before you know it."

Hyax slipped his hand into Gwil's, a possessive gesture if Robin had ever seen one. "We should get going. We'll be in touch."

Robin watched Solivatus as Gwil and Hyax left. His gaze followed Gwil, and Robin wasn't sure what he was thinking. "They make a good couple," Solivatus said once they were gone.

"Hyax is a little unnerved by you."

"Most people are. Gwil isn't anything special, not in vampire terms. I'm not going to swoop in and steal him away from his prince, but that doesn't mean I'll let the fae treat him like shit."

"Gwil mentioned that Hyax's parents weren't too keen. He will have my backing as well. A few well-placed supporters will not hurt his cause, but he's not my main priority at the moment."

"Of course not. I've a few more things to discuss now they've left. I also had words with several individuals at Sebastian's insistence, he wanted to make sure there was no one associated with the Vampire Council involved. You may have noticed he can be a suspicious fucker at times."

Solivatus removed a piece of paper with a list of seven high-ranking members of vampire society. "These were the ones I was asked to approach. Pembroke would have been on there too, but his current predicament is alibi enough."

"He was at the wedding, Henry made a point of introducing himself to Simon."

Solivatus shook his head. "He couldn't have been… not with the bat issue."

" Bat issue? "

"He's been stuck in his bat form for nearly a month. As you can imagine he's quite upset… very squeaky."

Robin hadn't heard but it didn't make sense. "He was definitely there. Creeped Simon out."

"I'm telling you he wasn't because he's in the attic of my Glamorgan property working with a warlock the Invigilators sent to help him back to his human form."

"Then someone was pretending to be him at the wedding and was able to pass as him. Although he was a bit creepy, even by Henry's standards."

"Henry told Langley he was attacked and placed under an anti-metamorphosis spell while in bat form. If a lich is behind Simon's kidnapping then they'd be able to do that. It'll wane eventually, and from what Langley said Henry didn't see who it was but it was a couple of days before the wedding so the timing works."

"Langley can talk to bats?"

Solivatus tutted. "When in his bat form, yes. The point being, it all points to a lich having stolen your husband and also circumnavigated the security to get into MacLove castle. It needs to be stopped."

"I want to be the one who stops it."

"Once we have more information we will know what to do. Location, extraction and then elimination. But we have to make sure we don't tip it off as to what we're doing, these things don't survive for the length of time they do without having an escape plan."

"I'll do whatever it takes." He meant it. Nothing else mattered but bringing Simon home.

His name was Simon. His eyes flew open. He was back in his room and he didn't know how he'd got here. The last thing he remembered was being in Ralph's office with Nurse Teller, they were angry about something, but he couldn't bring the conversation to the front of his mind.

He'd been at the lake, before then, and someone had told him his name.

A warmth began to build in his chest, filling a void he'd not lingered on before, Now there was something there, it was obvious it had been missing. For the first time since he'd been here he felt a sense of comfort, and had an anchor and he would not let it go. He concentrated on the centre of his ribcage, following the tendril as it radiated through his torso and down his arms. It wanted to play and he was sure this was his magic. It didn't like the cuffs. Like an angry cat it circled them but was unable to penetrate the gold, his magic wanted to be free. He had to get the fucking things off. Only then would he get the truth.

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