Free Midnight Enchantment by Anya Bast Page B

and run off with two pieces of the
bosca fadbh
. It’s also no secret that she’s passed them off to some nearly uncatchable fae to hide them for her. I can help you find that fae and get those pieces back.”
    Gabriel spoke up. “What skills do you possess that could help us?” The words went unspoken, but were perfectly audible to his ears—
since you’re just a nature fae
.
    “I have the ability to meld my consciousness with parts of the earth and locate objects.” There, let them chew on that.
    “That definitely is a relevant ability in this case, Liam,” answered the Shadow Queen, “but Piefferburg is a pretty big area.” It was. It was roughly the size of Virginia, in fact, the state just to the north of the detention area. “The woman hiding the pieces is an asrai, with the ability to become water atwill and re-form anywhere within the bounds of the warding. She could have hidden the pieces absolutely anywhere in Piefferburg.”
    “Let me find the woman. If I can find her, maybe I can narrow down the possibilities for the location of the pieces.”
    “We already have a very capable man on that task.”
    “So send a second.” He leaned forward. This was his fastest way of getting the job done. He could go out on his own to look for the woman, but the Shadow Queen had information that would make his job easier—like the location of the woman right at this moment. They were right, Piefferburg
was
a big place. He needed to convince them that he could help. “You need all the people on this that you can find.”
    “The one we sent is someone we trust implicitly, someone with highly specialized skills. You must understand that
trust
is very important, especially right now. The man we sent would not appreciate someone showing up who he doesn’t know, no matter how helpful you could be in this situation. In fact, we’re pretty sure he would act violently toward your presence.”
    “I can handle violent men. Send me. I want to help. I’m desperate to help. I need these walls broken.”
Lie, lie, lie.
    The king and the queen shared a brief look. Then the Shadow King caught and held his gaze. “Look, Liam, thanks for offering your help. We might take it, but not quite yet. I understand you’ll be staying here with us for a while?”
    He gave a curt nod, his teeth grinding. This was his dismissal.
    The Shadow King nodded back. “Good. Then we know where to find you in the event we need your help.”
    Not good enough.
    FUCK
. He didn’t want to hurt her.
    Niall entered the living room where Elizabeth was tied to a straight-backed chair and blindfolded. She’d let him do it, hadn’t fought him a moment. It made guilt well up inside him hard enough to give him chest pains. He didn’t want to see her suffer, this woman, yet the easiest thing would be to torture the information out of her. That’s what the Shadow Queenexpected of him. Torture was what he’d intended from the beginning.
    He couldn’t do it.
    Striding past her, he went into the kitchen and leaned against the counter, bowing his head.
Damn it.
He wished the queen had sent someone else to do this job. His brother, Ronan. Anyone. Yet he suspected he knew why he’d been selected. Sure, it had to do with his special arsenal of skills, but she’d picked him for another reason, too—his compassion.
    The Shadow Queen had known he would use restraint when another of the Unseelie might hurt her so badly she died before she gave up the location of the pieces. Niall was unlikely to do that.
    But it was his compassion that was tying him in knots right now.
    He shouldn’t care about this woman. He should be willing to do whatever it took to get what he’d come for, yet one look from her big green eyes and he was toast.
    That’s why he’d blindfolded her.
    “I can hear you, Niall.” Her voice sounded steady and strong when it should have had a tremor of fear running through it. “Why don’t you just come over here and do it?”
    He turned and