“Look, I gotta go,” Fury said. “I’ve got something to do tonight. But I’ll be back in Lunathion in a few days. I’m wanted at the Summit in two weeks—it’s at some compound a few hours outside the city.”
Bryce didn’t ask why Fury Axtar would attend a Summit of various Valbaran leaders. She didn’t really care that Fury would be coming back at all.
“Maybe we can grab a meal,” Fury said.
“Sure.”
“Bryce.” Her name was both a reprimand and an apology. Fury sighed. “I’ll see you.”
Her throat burned, but she hung up. Took a few long breaths. Fury could go to Hel.
Bryce waited to call her brother until she’d plunked her ass down on the couch, opened her laptop, and pulled up the search engine. He answered on the second ring. “Yeah?”
“I want you to spare me the lectures and the warnings and all that shit, okay?”
Ruhn paused. “Okay.”
She put the call on speaker and leaned her forearms on her knees, the cursor hanging over the search bar.
Ruhn asked, “What’s going on with you and Athalar?”
“Nothing,” Bryce said, rubbing her eyes. “He’s not my type.”
“I was asking about why he’s not on the call, not whether you’re dating, but that’s good to know.”
She gritted her teeth and typed synthetic magic in the search bar. As the results filtered in, she said, “Athalar is off making those muscles of his even nicer.” Ruhn huffed a laugh.
She skimmed the results: small, short articles about the uses of a synthetic healing magic to aid in human healing. “That medwitch who sent you the information about synthetic magic—did she offer any thoughts on why or how it got onto the streets?”
“No. I think she’s more concerned about its origins—and an antidote. She told me she actually tested some of the kristallos venom she got out of Athalar from the other night against the synth, trying to formulate one. She thinks her healing magic can act like some kind of stabilizer for the venom to make the antidote, but she needs more of the venom to keep testing it out. I don’t know. It sounded like some complex shit.” He added wryly, “If you run into a kristallos, ask it for some venom, would you?”
“Got a crush, Ruhn?”
He snorted. “She’s done us a huge favor. I’d like to repay her in whatever way we can.”
“All right.” She clicked through more results, including a patent filing from Redner Industries for the drug, dating back ten years. Way before Danika’s time working there.
“The research papers say only tiny amounts are released, even for the medwitches and their healing. It’s incredibly expensive and difficult to make.”
“What if … what if the formula and a shipment leaked two years ago from Redner, and Danika was sent out to track it down. And maybe she realized whoever wanted to steal the synth planned to use it to repair the Horn, and she stole the Horn before they could. And then they killed her for it.”
“But why keep it a secret?” Ruhn asked. “Why not bust the person behind it?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a theory.” Better than nothing.
Ruhn went quiet again. She had the feeling a Serious Talk was coming and braced herself. “I think it’s admirable, Bryce. That you still care enough about Danika and the Pack of Devils to keep looking into this.”
“I was ordered to by my boss and the Governor, remember?”
“You would have looked once you heard it wasn’t Briggs anyway.” He sighed. “You know, Danika nearly beat the shit out of me once.”
“No she didn’t.”
“Oh, she did. We ran into each other in Redner Tower’s lobby when I went to meet up with Declan after some fancy meeting he was having with their top people. Wait—you dated that prick son of Redner’s, didn’t you?”
“I did,” she said tightly.
“Gross. Just gross, Bryce.”
“Tell me about Danika wiping the floor with your pathetic ass.”
She could nearly hear his smile through the phone. “I don’t know how we got into it about you, but we did.”
“What’d you say?”
“Why are you assuming I did the instigating? Did you ever meet Danika? She had a mouth on her like I’ve never seen.” He clicked his tongue, the admiration in the noise making Bryce’s chest clench. “Anyway, I told her to tell you that I was sorry. She told me to go fuck myself, and fuck my apology.”