Lucas thought about a lot of things on the way back. He thought about the messenger services. The Back Alley Whisperers had gotten into their business two times. Both were right after they’d sent or received a letter from an official courier. More than anything, he thought about the way the woman had disappeared at the end of the conversation. That was when he decided that this whole thing was one more layer of some elaborate trap.

At this point, the right thing to do would be to go anywhere but the Parin estate. It would probably be safer for him to ride into the city proper and deal with the guards, but changing his plans would tip his hand, and he was sure he’d lose the opportunity.

Instead, with the tension growing, he bidded his time, and as soon as they crossed the gate into the Parin territory he yelled, “Mort, as soon as we stop I want you to fetch Adin and Danaria and tell them to meet me in the dining room, then I want you to personally shoo away all the servants, do you understand? Even Gerwin. This is family business and i do not wish it to be overheard by anyone!”

“But—” the driver started to say.

Lucas interrupted him immediately. He had no idea what he wanted to say, but really, this wasn’t about him. This was about anyone else who might be listening. “No buts!” he yelled. “Fetch them straight away. We will need to examine shipping schedules and see what we can do to throw these scoundrels off the scent.”

Lucas felt silly being so dramatic, but that was exactly what was needed. He sat in the carriage even after Mort parked it directly in front of the front porch and ran off to carry out his order, but Lucas lingered, straining his ears while he pretended to fume.

He heard nothing, though, and so he got up and stormed into the house like a man that had just lost a lot of money, or worse, a man that was about to. Adin happened to be there already, and he looked at Lucas, strangely, but when he opened his mouth, Lucas practically bit his head off. “Not one word, cousin. Not until your sister gets here. I dont want to have to explain the terrible thing that just happened twice.”

He stood there by the table pensively, tapping his foot, as he watched the servants stream out of the kitchen and then out of the house. When Danaria came down from her rooms, she said, “What’s all this? If you send the servants away like this, then dinner will be delayed. If you had something so secret to discuss, then why don’t we meet in—”

“Because it’s urgent,” Lucas insisted, as he shut the door to the parlor after she walked in, making a big show of making sure it was empty. “It couldn’t wait. Let me just check that the kitchen is clear too and then we can discuss the frightful day I’ve had.”

She looked at him strangely as she sat down, but that was okay because he was talking strangely. Neither she nor Adin were his target audience, though.

Lucas stormed into the kitchen, but he wasn’t making sure that the cooks boy was hiding or anything. Instead he walked to the counter, grabbed the large crock that held the bakers flour, and then charged back into the dining room where everyone was waiting, and with no warning at all he shattered it on the floor, sending up a cloud of white powder that filled the room clinging to every surface and shocking both of the Parin siblings.

“Lucas what in the bloody—” Lucas covered the other man’s mouth as he searched the room with his eyes and his ears. Danaria on the other hand sat their stunned at his unexpected behavior. He ignored them both and focused on the faint currents in the air and the crepuscular rays that cut through the sudden cloud of flower he’d unleashed as he searched for any sign that they weren’t alone.

For a moment, he thought he’d done all of this for no reason, and he was about to look like an idiot. Then, he saw a flicker of movement in the corner, which drew his eyes to the faintest dusting of flour that was slowly collecting on the outline of a person who wasn’t there. He charged them without a second thought.

Fuck, she’s heading toward the window, he realized. Glass windows were a rarity in the world, and though the Parin mansion had them, this one had been left open. He should have closed it before he launched his flour bomb, he realized belatedly, but it was too late for that now.

He changed tactics, leaping up onto the table and running across it. Then as he saw the smudge of a ghostly hand on the window sill as his spy jumped, he leaped off it and out the window, tackling someone he couldn’t see midair. And landing in a tangle of limbs.

He was bigger and stronger than the veiled woman, but being unable to see your opponent was a pretty big disadvantage, and she almost got away more than once.

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She clawed at his eyes and punched him in the mouth, but neither was enough to break his hold on her. If he let this woman free, he’d never catch her again, and this was probably his one chance to turn the tables on the secretive gang that he could just tell was about to become a pain in his ass.

“Get off me!” the woman yelled, But Lucas ignored her.

Now that they were smeared with dirt and flour on the ground he could see at least the outline of her. She’d shed her dress ad some point and seemed to be wearing leggings or armor instead. He couldn’t say. But when she reached into her vest and came out with something decidedly wand shaped, he tried hard to shake it free from her grasp.

“Tsvondris!” she yelled as he moved the thing aside. The resulting beam of fire lasted only for a moment, but it was enough to singe his hair as the flames arced by him and sheared the top off three nearby trees.

When he got it away from her, it went out immediately and became visible as nothing more than a slender branch with delicate runes carved into it. The woman who wielded it was still invisible, but by the time other people were running to his aid, he’d managed to completely pin her, and by the time he got organized, he was already pulling off her jewelry a ring at a time, looking for whatever was making her invisible.

It wasn’t until he’d removed all the jewelry on her left hand and started on her right that the spell faded, though, and the whole time he did, she howled and spat like a scalded cat.

“Release me!” she yelled, “You shall not treat the daughter of a duke like this!”

Some of the men that had come running actually did when she ordered it the first time because they were that ingrained to respect nobility. Lucas, though, he ignored all that and made them do their jobs. The only thing he did was try not to hurt her any worse than he had to because he had a rule against hitting women, especially beautiful ones.

He didn’t know who she was or who her father was supposed to be. However, as soon as he saw her face, he knew it was a shame that she wore a veil to hide it in all their other encounters.

Adin obviously seemed to, the way he looked at her though, so as soon as she was secured, Lucas had picked up the slender wand, ordered the other men to get tied up, asked Danaria to search her thoroughly, and then he took the Viscount aside.

“Spill,” Lucas said. “Who is she, and how fucked are we?”

“Who is she?” Adin gasped. “Lucas, what in the name of all the Gods is Arrisa Tovrin, third daughter of Duke Tovrin, doing in my house, and why was she invisible?”

“I’ll tell you the answer to that in a bit,” Lucas said. “For now, get Kar’gandin and Hura’gh together, and I’ll be along to the cider house to discuss all of this after she’s secured.”

“I really don’t think it’s my place to search someone like this…” Danaria volunteered hesitantly.

“Well, if you don’t want to, I can have one of the guys do it,” Lucas shot back, but I figured that would be a lot ruder than if someone like you handled it.”

“Well, when you put it like that…” Danaria said, “But we’ll still need some privacy, and—”

“You can have all the privacy you like,” Lucas said. “We’ll bring her into the basement and have the guards turn their backs. You need to search her thoroughly, though, because—”

“Their backs?!” Danaria gasped. “That simply isn’t done! A man can’t be in the same room as a woman when she’s in a state of undress like that! It’s not… It’s not…”

Lucas didn’t answer her with words. Instead, he grabbed her by the chin and turned her head before he pointed to the tree their prisoner had just given a flaming haircut to. “That could have been me,” he growled, “And you have no idea what else she might have on her. The last time we met, she had a scroll that teleported her away. This time, she had a ring and a wind. She could have anything… Anything… on her, so if you can’t do this without guards, then I’ll do it myself, damn propriety.”

Even as he let go of Danaria’s chin, she stayed staring at the smoldering tree that was missing most of its leaves. Finally, she said, “I’ll be very thorough. I’ll make sure she has nothing that could hurt anyone else. I promise.”

“Good girl,” Lucas said, turning his back and walking toward a couple of the men who were just standing around. “Alright, everyone, here’s the deal. No one saw anything; in a couple hours, drinks and the annual “I didn’t see shit” bonus are on me, but first, I need you guys to cut down that tree, dig up the stump, clean the dining room, and clean up any other evidence that this ever happened, you got it? This never happened, and Mort, you’re in charge of shit that didn’t happen, so get to work!”

“Y-yes, boss,” Mort said, as everyone suddenly looked to him, even members of the staff that were technically more senior, like the cook and the head groundskeeper.

They probably didn’t like the new balance of power, but then, Lucas didn’t give a shit. They were already being paid double the going rate, and he had more important things to worry about than some hurt feelings, like invisible spies and assassins jumping out of the woodwork.

He’d been busted by cops wearing a wire, and he’d had a tactical team break down his door before, back on earth. He was aware that things could get crazy, but he never thought that the damn Predator would come out of nowhere and shoot flaming lasers at his ass.

Lucas sighed as he headed toward the cider house. “This is going to be a long fucking day, isn’t it.”