City of Magic: The Complete Series by Helen Harper (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

to bluff. When we passed Boyce, who’d reappeared from inside the tent, I did my best to scan his face behind the visor. All I registered was surprise.

‘Why is your boyfriend naked?’ he asked.

Monroe paused next to me. He stared at Boyce with an expression that would have made any other person cower. Boyce simply stared back – until Monroe threw up his head, howled, and shifted yet again. His massive wolf form landed on all four paws directly in front of the guard. This time Boyce stepped back. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to crow with glee.

‘That’s why,’ I said. ‘It’s difficult to change into a wolf and retain all of your clothes at the same time.’

Boyce hadn’t taken his eyes from Monroe. ‘You sleep with that … thing?’

‘Oh,’ I said, ‘I do a lot more than that.’ I ran my fingers lightly down Monroe’s furry spine. Then the pair of us turned and walked off in the direction of the town hall.

Julian was giving Monroe a run for his money in the grimness stakes. The groove in his forehead looked deep enough to hide buried treasure. ‘The shadow beast will have to be locked up.’

‘We have a cage,’ I told him. ‘She must have unlocked it herself somehow and got free.’

‘Or,’ Monroe said, ‘someone else unlocked it and let her out.’

I grimaced. It was still a possibility. ‘We’ll put a padlock on it. I’ll keep the key. She won’t get out again.’

‘Is it strong enough to hold her?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

Julian waited. I rolled my eyes. Unless I started to turn furry, Julian would never quite believe anything I said.

‘Yes,’ Monroe agreed. ‘It’s strong enough. For now anyway.’

Julian nodded, apparently now satisfied. ‘You don’t let her out of your sight. Not at any point. Not for anything. If you have to leave her, you get someone else to watch her. And you still have to work on a way to hand her back to her own kind.’

‘Fine.’ I folded my arms. ‘You don’t have anything to worry about, though. Not as far as Lucy is concerned.’

‘You named her Lucifer for a reason,’ Julian said.

‘It’s just a name. Fabian Barrett calls himself Fab but I’m not sure anyone else is convinced of his fabulousness.’

‘You might be surprised.’

Unfortunately I wouldn’t have been. I already knew in what high regard everyone held him. He’d not been here for forty-eight hours and he was already the wonderful conquering hero. ‘Yeah,’ I sighed. ‘Okay.’

Julian started to pace up and down the room. ‘There’s a great deal that Barrett can offer us,’ he said. ‘It’s good that you were able to show self-restraint and not accuse him outright.’

Monroe bristled. ‘I was an alpha when you were still learning to write your name, Julian. Just because you deal with the day-to-day management of this enclave doesn’t mean the rest of us are idiots who have to be constantly ordered around. I’m not your underling.’

Shit. It had been a long time since Monroe had been so antagonistic. ‘Why don’t we all take a deep breath?’ I suggested.

Julian held up his palms. ‘What I meant was that I’m not sure I would have been able to show such restraint. We’ve worked to achieve a peaceful equilibrium across the enclave. All of us have. Anyone who seeks to disturb that peace by attempting to kill another deserves to have their throat torn out. No matter who they are.’ He glanced at me. ‘Especially when the creature being threatened is the most powerful magic wielder we have.’

Monroe grunted. ‘I’m glad that someone is finally speaking some sense.’

I cleared my throat, vaguely embarrassed by Julian’s indirect praise and somewhat mollified too. ‘All I have is a suspicion. There’s no proof.’

‘So,’ he asked, ‘what would you suggest we do next?’

‘We investigate. Quietly. We don’t want to arouse Fabian Barrett’s ire, not when we can use him to bring in the supplies we need. But we need to find out if he’s the one responsible and if so, why. We also need to know what he’s planning to do next.’ I tapped my mouth thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps talk to Boyce some more and see if we can get him to say more than he should.’

‘You’ll need to get him on his own.’

I nodded. ‘I can come up with something.’

‘That’s all well and good,’ Monroe said, ‘but we all know where the real information is going to be.’ He paused. ‘Barrett’s tent. We have to get inside that tent.’

My darling monster was right but we couldn’t just waltz inside. ‘He won’t let us in because we’re not suited up,’ I pointed out. ‘And it’s guarded 24/7, regardless of whether he’s inside or not. We need to find a way in so we can get a proper look around.’

Julian rubbed his chin. ‘Any ideas?’ he asked.

‘I might have to involve a few others but, yes,’ I said with a shrug. ‘I have an idea or two about how to get inside.’

‘Seduction?’ he enquired mildly.

Monroe drew himself up, sudden fury emanating from him in angry waves. I laid a calming hand on his arm. ‘Please,’ I said. ‘I’m far too good to have to resort to anything like that.’ I smiled, although inwardly I was cursing. Now I’d have to think of something else.

Chapter Seventeen

In truth, the best bluffers are those who limit their lies. You have to choose your moment and pick your battle – and make sure that your opponent wholly trusts you first to be assured of success. Unfortunately, I doubted that Fab’s guards would ever trust me. I’d already burnt those bridges the day before with my pointed questions. However, I had some very good friends who were even better at the art of the bluff than I was. Not only that, but I reckoned I could kill two birds with one stone.

The next morning, when Monroe bit his tongue and offered to escort Fab to the Travotel so he could meet Timmons and have a