Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

The next few days rolled by without incident. Zee kept his head down, adding just a few performances in the hotel bar. Victor buried his head in the hotel finances, trying to find ways to pay for smartening up the remaining rooms. And I tried to make it so the hotel ran like a well-oiled machine. A really old, worn-out machine full of gremlins that should have been decommissioned years ago.

Leomaris must have kept their word so far, as the SSD stayed away, but on the third quiet day, Elion arrived in the lobby, looking severe. They handed me an envelope with two cryptic words: Be careful. Then left again, without saying any more.

I tore open the envelope and found three black-and-gold Dine and Fight finale tickets. The event was to take place at Hunter's Point docks, not far from Agatha's nightmare-inducing aquarium experience. Gideon owned the land, so it made sense the finale would be in his back yard.

"Everything alright, darling?" Madame Matase asked, looking up from behind the reception desk. She'd seen my face on opening the tickets .

"I think so."

"I'm sure whatever it is, you'll do the right thing," she said, her dark, soul-deep eyes seeing through me.

"Maybe." The plan was risky. It put me in the spotlight, where there was nowhere to hide. But I was rapidly running out of hiding places anyway.

Madame Matase touched my arm, drawing my gaze back to her. "You aren't alone anymore."

I swallowed and nodded.

"They say you are not what you seem, but that is because they do not know you. You are stronger than even you know."

Something in her tone tugged on my instincts, and added greater meaning. I looked at her anew. Kindness had always warmed her eyes. She'd never judged, never scolded. She'd been one of the first people we'd hired for the hotel, after she'd walked in off the street and told us we'd need a receptionist and a ward weaver. Zee had hired her on the spot, saying he had a good feeling about her. Of Romani origin, she'd always been nearby when I needed her. Had she come to the hotel for more than just work? Did she know who and what I was?

"Adam." She smiled, then whispered, " Mydros ." My real name. A name nobody this side of the veil knew to connect to me. "I will always be here for you. It is my honor and my destiny as Romani to protect you."

Mydros was a dragon. The last of his kind. Depending on who you asked, he was a brutal, vicious monster, responsible for the death of his people. But some believed he'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time—a lot. Madame Matase appeared to be in the latter camp. "I think I've always known you were looking out for me, but I'm only now just realizing it. "

She nodded, and patted my arm, then sat back. "There's a gremlin stuck in room five's toilet."

"Right." Tucking the fight tickets into my back pocket, I headed off to deal with the hotel's next crisis.

The fight was tomorrow night.

And tomorrow night, Claymore was getting his freedom back.

Even if it cost me mine.