half-lich 02 - void weaver by katerina martinez Read Free Book Online Page A

could tell, could be thirty years old. That’s hardly recent,” Jim said, but Isaac knew better. Someone had left the camera, and the Chest of Haunts, on Alice’s doorstep less than two years ago. He was willing to bet the same person who built Trapper built the Chest of Haunts, which right now sat in Alice’s closet. He, or she, may also have been responsible for the markings at the Cinema Royale, but of this Isaac had no proof.
    Jim stood and paced around to the center of the room. “You’re sure you don’t know anything else about this camera? Where it came from, who may have made it, or who was using it?”
    Isaac turned to face him. “No,” he lied. “I have no idea. But I want to find out, only I can’t do it from in here.”
    “With that I cannot help.”
    “Jim,” Isaac said, putting on his winning smile. “There has to be something you can do. I’ve been here all week, I’ve answered questions. I’m hardly a criminal.”
    “You aren’t. I know that.”
    “So why am I really still here? You can’t honestly expect me to believe it’s because of what happened at the museum.”
    Jim looked away. Isaac’s heart sped up until he could feel it beating in the palms of his hands. “Jim,” he said, “You have as much authority as the praetors. Tell me why I’m still here.”
    “I can’t, Isaac. You know I can’t.”
    “You can, and you should. I am a tribune. I have a duty to my people and to my museum, and as long as I am a captive here I cannot perform that duty. Keeping me locked in here is only hurting the magistrate. I have nothing to hide.”
    “Are you sure about that?”
    “I’m not sure I understand your meaning.”
    “I shouldn’t be telling you this…” Jim said, glancing left and right as if there were spies waiting on either side of the room, waiting to hear what he was about to say next—and maybe there were—but the precursor had been laid. There was no going back. “But they know, Isaac. They know someone else was there that night. They know you’re lying.”
    Isaac’s eyes narrowed into thin slits. “How could they know there was someone else?”
    “Was there?”
    Isaac hesitated. For the briefest of instants, his calm demeanor cracked like dry earth in the sun. Jim’s illicit visit had already put Isaac’s defense in danger, and if the apartment was bugged, anyone listening could have been given enough in the last five minutes to send Isaac in front of the praetors again, only this time he would be brought up on criminal charges instead of just brought in for questioning.
    What did the magistrate know? How could they know? Isaac entertained the idea there may have been another mage in the crowd of attendees that night, but then dismissed it. Powerful wards designed by Isaac’s complex mind were in place around the museum, and any mage foolish enough to cross the threshold would have triggered those wards. Even if they did manage to somehow break through them, Isaac would at the very least have been alerted to their presence.
    Unless someone snuck past .
    No. This was also impossible. Or, at least, it was improbable. Only a mage of great skill could have fooled Isaac’s carefully constructed magical fortifications, and such a mage would likely have involved themselves in what happened with Nyx. He didn’t think a simple fire alarm would have sent such a mage fleeing with the rest of the plebeians in the room.
    So what did they know, and how did they know it?
    “That I am aware of, I was the only mage there,” Isaac said, choosing to again avoid the question while at the same time answering it. This dodging of questions couldn’t last, but he would dodge them for as long as he could.
    “Then I shouldn’t say anything else,” Jim said, staring at Isaac from behind a set of wary—and maybe even disappointed —eyes. “I’ve already said too much, not to mention that I’m in breach of more than a handful of laws by just being here.”
    “You’d best get