“Great,” Ana said. “We’ll be over in a bit.”
“Brilliant.” Esha headed into the night, her black cat a silent shadow on her heels.
“All right, let’s figure out where this priestess is,” Ana said, and strode across the cobblestone lot.
A few minutes later, after passing through gleaming wooden corridors and beneath the eyes of ancient portraits, she knocked on Fiona’s door.
“Come in!” The voice echoed through the door and Cam and Ana stepped into a cluttered little office. It was almost a broom closet, but instead of brooms, there was a tiny desk, a chair, and a beat-up laptop. A dark-haired woman turned away from a bookshelf she’d been trying to squeeze a book into and smiled.
“You must be Andrasta and Camulos. Come in. Enjoy the ambiance of my office.” She swept her hand around the space. Her eyes welcomed them from behind glasses. A little black cat peered over the edge of the top shelf on the bookcase. It was a ball of fluff that blinked big yellow eyes at her from where it perched three feet above her head.
“Oh, don’t worry about Fluffy Black. She comes to the office on Tuesdays. That’s her nap spot.”
“Okay.” Ana looked around for a place to put herself. With Fiona occupying the space in front of the bookshelf that stood behind the desk, and the cat on the top shelf, the only space available was to lean against the desk. Ana and Cam squeezed in.
“It’s cozy,” Ana said.
“Sure, like a grave. But whatever. You’re here to ask me about Druantia, the Druid priestess.”
“Exactly,” Ana said. “How’d you find her?”
“I didn’t find her, exactly. I found her boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” Ana had not been expecting that.
“Boyfriend, lover, whatever. The man she’s currently boning. Who, by the way—and this is crazy—is the Logan Laufeyson.”
“What?” Cam’s voice was sharp, disbelieving.
“I know,” Fiona said. “I was shocked too. Everyone thought he was dead. But he’s not.”
“Wait—explain, please,” Ana said.
“Oh, sorry.” Fiona squished her face into what Ana always thought of as an apology face. “For hundreds of years, Logan Laufeyson was a renowned mercenary whose skill was the bow. He sold his services all over southern Europe. He was the absolute best in the world. But he fell off everyone’s radar about three hundred years ago. We thought he was dead—until he popped up and stole an artifact from us. An ancient amulet. No one else in my department thinks it’s worth the effort or the money to go after it, so they dropped the recovery effort. But I know it’s important. I’m sure of it.”
“Why do you care?” Ana asked.
“Ah, well. I care for history’s sake. The artifact should be in a museum. But, on a more personal note, these fabulous accommodations of mine”—she swept her hand around the office—“are the result of a bit of a mix-up with a very important artifact a few years ago. Basically, I fucked up bad. Real bad. I was demoted from field Acquirer to record keeper in this purgatory.”
“I’m sorry,” Ana said. Fiona gave off the vibe of someone who’d been stuck in her surroundings too long, desperate to get out.
“You’re wondering why this is all relevant, I’m sure. Simply put, I’m trying to win my old job back by finding the artifact that I lost, as well as any others that have been stolen. That’s how I came across Logan. I found him living with a woman in Inverness—Druantia, your Druid priestess.”
“Holy shit,” Cam breathed.
“Crazy, right? I was going to go up there on my week off to find him and retrieve the artifact.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Ana asked, glancing around the office. If the woman was used to spending her days in a place like this, was she really qualified to go up against one of the greatest warriors the world had ever known?
“I’m not a desk jockey. I’m a field Acquirer. I’m just being punished here in the stacks. Anyway, I’m not going to challenge him or anything. He’s dangerous as hell. I was going to try to sneak in and steal it. You’d be surprised how often that works.”
“Did you learn anything about Druantia?” Ana said.
“I did some digging when Esha told me you were interested. She’s still acting as a Druid priestess—though with a lesser following than in years past, of course. For the last two hundred years or so, she’s had a shop that sells magics and trinkets.”
“Excellent, thank you.”
“No problem.” She turned and grabbed a notebook off the shelf. With a quick hand, she flipped it open and transcribed an address on a page, then tore it out and handed it to Ana. “Here you go. Don’t scare off Logan. I want that amulet.”