I pursed my lips. “Obligation. Of the Fae sort.”
“As you have occasionally experienced, I believe,” he said, “as… what shall we call it, an officer of Winter? The scales need to remain balanced—which is why beings of Winter serve so ably in the justice system.”
“Is that what you think you’re doing?” I asked. “Serving up justice?”
He shrugged that shoulder again. “Or attempting to do so. Just as you seem to be doing.”
“By suing a tutoring company so that a slimeball pimp can make a quick buck?”
“I’m not suing anyone at all. Merely providing legal counsel for the being of free will who is doing so. And may I point out, I didn’t design your justice system, Mister Dresden,” Inverno said. “I am merely operating according to its rules—which are, at times, quite amusing.”
Something unpleasant gleamed far back in those green eyes and I suddenly felt extremely wary.
I leaned on my staff and eyed him. “I still need you to back off.”
“I’m afraid I cannot do that. I have an obligation.”
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s try it from a different perspective. What would I need to do to get you to back off?”
“I would need to be released from my obligation,” he said calmly. “Either by Queen Mab or by my principal.”
I grunted. “And there’s no other way?”
“None whatsoever, I’m afraid.”
“Suppose I kill you,” I said.
He showed me very white teeth. “Suppose you can’t.”
“I’m starting to think there aren’t many beings around whose day I can’t ruin,” I said philosophically. “Maybe I start ruining yours and see where it takes me.”
“Nowhere good,” he assured me. “I would then be free to defend myself against you, despite your office within Winter.”
“There aren’t all that many beings in Winter who rattle me, these days.”
Inverno showed his teeth. “Mainly due to your ignorance.”
“Meaning?”
“I assure you, Mister Dresden, that I am quite capable of rattling you. To death, if necessary.”
He said it right. Calmly, evenly, not looking away from my eyes. He wasn’t human. A human would have triggered a soulgaze by doing something like that.
“So how come you haven’t done something already?” I asked.
“I prefer not to be obvious,” he said.
“Or you don’t want to cross Queen Mab.”
He swirled his drink and gave me a confident smile. “I think we both know that Queen Mab wouldn’t waste many tears on a Knight who got himself killed in a foolish fight with a being he did not bother to know.”
I grunted, studying him. Inverno was either as dangerous as he seemed to think, deluded about how powerful he was, or an excellent liar. I’m not bad at making threats, and he’d taken mine without rancor or discomfort.
The problem was, I could sense that he was a member of the Winter Court. As long as he was in good standing with Mab, if I just walked up and aced him, I might well be in a lot of trouble, myself. Mab didn’t take kindly to anyone messing with her people—and I knew damned well she had taken in a lot of strays over the centuries, beings of tremendous power who could bend me over and spank me if they chose to do so. Sure, I’d taken on a Titan—a battered, bloodied, bruised, exhausted Titan, who had been pounded on by every supernatural boss in sight before I ever got to her. I’d only been the Winter Knight for a little while. I’d be a fool to think I knew every badass in the Winter Court.