Free Stolen Compass (The Painter Mage Book 4) by D.K. Holmberg

up dead. There was enough of that on my plate the way it was.
    “Dad never really adhered much to custom,” Devan said.
    A smile stretched across Kacey’s face. “I didn’t know he was so powerful. There aren’t many who can keep the doorway open for that long. Supposedly, the Elder has some trick to hold it open, but then again, he’s the Elder.”
    I didn’t know about his trick. And it was another part of my father that I wouldn’t get the chance to understand, especially if he was already gone.
    “Well, he’s gone now,” I said, referring to the Trelking, mostly for Devan’s benefit.
    “What did he want?” Kacey asked. Her breath was hot as she spoke and smelled a little like stale meat.
    I had a sudden image of her in wolf form, standing over some dead creature, ripping at raw flesh, and tried to shake it off. “The usual. He wanted Devan to return and had an assignment for me.”
    She tipped her head. “Why would the Trelking have an assignment for you?”
    I twisted so that I could carefully look over my shoulder at the woman sitting alone in the booth. She didn’t look up as Kacey spoke, so hopefully she hadn’t heard. In most places, there wouldn’t be too many who would know anything about the Trelking, but the Rooster wasn’t like most places. I couldn’t know for certain whether the woman was some local simply here for dinner, or if she was one of the magical variety here for the protection of the Rooster.
    “I was sort of his muscle,” I said carefully. I figured Jakes would have shared that with her. I wasn’t really certain why he hadn’t.
    Kacey frowned. “But you’re a painter.”
    “He’s the son of the Elder,” Devan said softly. “He’s more than simply a painter. My father has a habit of collecting people with certain abilities that serve his needs. I think he recognized Ollie’s gifts when he first crossed the Threshold. And with his other Painter not really panning out as he’d hoped, I think he was quick to latch onto our Ollie.”
    Kacey nodded slowly as if that explained everything just fine. “What does he want you to do?”
    “Only return something of his that I have no idea how to find. Supposedly my father was storing it here.”
    Kacey glanced around the diner. “Here?”
    It was a reasonable consideration and one I hadn’t really considered before. My father could have left the shardstone box in the Rooster. The diner was as much a place of his as the house or the shed, but somehow, I didn’t think it was likely that he would have left it here. There were too many people coming through for the Elder to have stored something of such importance to the Trelking here.
    “Probably not here,” I said. “And I’m not really sure where. I don’t think Jakes knows, either.”
    “Why does he want you to find it?”
    I shook my head. “Who knows with him? But if I find it, he’ll tell me what he knows of my father.” It had been over ten years since I’d had any sort of useful information. The Trelking had never been willing to share his prescience, especially not when it came to my father. I wondered if it was a way of controlling me, or it could have been that he feared me knowing would distract me from whatever he wanted from me.
    Kacey let out a slow breath. “Shit. Sort of makes it so you have to help him, doesn’t it?”
    “Pretty much.”
    She pushed back from the counter and slapped it with her open palms. “Well, let’s get you something to eat. What do you feel like? Burger? Fish? Steak?”
    I snorted. “Come on, Kacey, do I really have to beg for the meatloaf?”
    “Hey, it’s not on the menu every night.”
    “Right. And Tom can’t whip it up for me.”
    “He’s not back yet. He stopped by after dropping you off, but then he took off again and didn’t say where he was going. That’s not all that uncommon with Tom,” she went on, as if anticipating the question, “so you’re stuck with whatever I can make.”
    I’d had Kacey’s