“What? Why would you even say that?” Now the people down the hall were really going to get a show. I didn’t care; I was mad.

“Ms. Penchant, no need to get upset. Your happy home here on Earth will be your reward for helping us with a particularly hard case. If you should choose not to join us for this case, you give up your freedom. Are we clear?”

I glowered at him for a moment, contemplating all the different ways I could use to make him talk, to give me a better explanation for what was going on here. Wade cleared his throat behind Cumat and shook his head. He knew me well. I sent daggers streaming out of my eyes in his direction, but they seemed to glance off. He didn’t even look offended. After the shock of seeing me alive had faded, he went back to his normal cool, reserved self. Fine, two could play that game.

“Give up my freedom how?”

“Whose child are you?” Cumat asked, sounding exasperated. “Didn’t they teach you anything about protocol?”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and deepened my glare. No doubt my mom had been on the run for a reason. It wasn’t like people did that for fun. Which meant there was no way I was telling him who my mom was.

Cumat sighed. “I suppose that if they didn’t take the time to teach you manners, I should not expect you to know anything else. All fae children born in the human world are supposed to return to Faerie when they come of age, to be trained in the ways of the fae. Living on Earth without being trained is strictly forbidden. If you have been living here without permission, you have been violating the law and you will be imprisoned if you refuse to work for us. You are not on any of our lists, therefore we assume you were not returned?”

It sounded like a question, but he already knew the answer. Was that why Mom had always kept us on the run, never living in one place longer than a month? Was she trying to keep me away from these people? She’d never had anything good to say about Faerie. A cold feeling, strangely like fear, started in the pit of my stomach. I kept my face impassive.

“Do you even know who your parents are?”

“No.” Truth. Mom had never said anything about who my father was, and I really didn’t know that much about her either. Especially now that it had been so long since she had left me and it was hard to tell if my memories were accurate or just things I’d made up as a kid to make me feel better.

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“That explains so much,” Cumat muttered. “If you refuse to help with this job, you will be taken to Faerie for training. If you do agree to help us, the Council has decided to allow an exception to the rule.”

Wow, they must be desperate. From some of the things Mom had said, it had become pretty obvious that fae were sticklers for rules. Somehow I got the feeling I wasn’t going to like what they asked me to do. It had to be bad or they wouldn’t have to blackmail someone into doing it. But the choices were to stay with Dan and Nina, something I’d figured out wasn’t so bad, or get dragged off in handcuffs to some other world. Did they even have handcuffs? Probably not, they’d probably use some kind of magic.

“Fine,” I said. “I’m listening. But what could I possibly do to help you?”

“It isn’t me you need to listen to, dear girl, as I said before, I’m only the retrieval specialist. Let me take you to your new team leader, as I was attempting to do earlier. Before you attack anyone else while you are my responsibility.” The dwarf bustled off down the hallway.

Wade motioned for me to walk ahead of him, but I shook my head. No way that guy was going to be at my back. Now that he knew I wasn’t so easy to kill, I wasn’t taking any chances, even if the dwarf had said they needed me.

With a roll of his green eyes, Wade went off ahead of me. What I wouldn’t give for a weapon right now. He’d already proved I couldn’t do a thing against him without one. He was a brave man, looking the other direction. I wanted to ask him what his ability was, what Faerie was like, a million fae-related questions, but all of that would require talking to him.

And then there were the more personal questions, like if he’d felt any regret at all when he pulled the trigger. Had everything we’d had been fake. I wasn’t following this dwarf because of the job, I was just giving myself time to think about how to get to Wade. After I took care of that problem, I’d figure out what to do about the taken away from the fosters problem. I hadn’t really thought about what I would do with Wade when I found him, but now a solution had presented itself. If something happened to him he would just appear in Faerie. Hopefully that meant he couldn’t come back, but I still hadn’t murdered him. Murdered him all the way, at least.

Each door up the white hallway slammed shut as we got close. It was like we were walking down one of those funhouse hallways, the end never getting any closer, doors stretching on forever. I never got a good look at anyone in any of the rooms. It was like they didn’t want me to see them. The absolute pristine white of the hallway started to make my eyes hurt. Cumat led us past several more doors before choosing one that looked exactly like the rest. He pulled it open and bowed at the waist. “After you.”

Wade waited a second, like he thought I would go in first, then snorted and stepped through the doorway when I planted my feet. After he was all the way through I took a breath, and followed.