“Few fae, even those born in Faerie, can open portals to this realm.” That was why losing the tethers had shut down transportation between Earth and Faerie. “From what I’ve read, theory suggests it requires the cooperation of another party on the side you intend to visit. Someone to open the door for you. That means you need two powerful fae, worlds apart, coordinating their efforts.”

“Trust me when I say there was no consenting anchor on this side of the divide.” Reddish-brown crust dried around the cuticle of the nail she wouldn’t let be. “How it happened doesn’t matter as much as the fact that it did.”

“How can you say that?” I rapped the table for emphasis. “If there’s a fae out there who can bore a tunnel back to Faerie, the conclave will offer amnesty to them if they can do it a second time. That’s assuming they aren’t recruited by the private sector. A lot of people want to go back, and they’ll pay anything—do anything—to get a ticket home.”

“That train has left the station.” Thierry puffed out her cheeks on an exhale. “The fae responsible has been detained in Faerie and is out of the conclave’s reach.”

The relief in her voice at the thought of a return trip to Faerie being impossible stumped me. As a legacy, she had a direct familial link to the other realm. Though, as a half-blood, which most Faerie-born scorned, she might have been all too eager for that bridge to burn. For all I knew she had toasted marshmallows in the flames.

“So what you’re saying is one fae opened a portal and another one slipped through.” The idea it might be Charybdis kicked my pulse up a notch. “Were the two fae cooperating?” That seemed the most likely scenario. “Or was the second incident, the portal breach, a crime of opportunity?”

“We aren’t sure.” A grim scowl. “With Faerie off the grid, we have no means of confirming their alliance until the second fae is captured here.”

I chewed over that bit of information. “What can you tell me about the incident?”

“Not much,” she admitted. “We have surveillance footage courtesy of a camera mounted in the hall opposite the office where the breach occurred. The door was open, so it got a clear shot, but the angle is bad, and the quality is crap.” Not exactly encouraging. “That said, it shows a humanoid figure stepping through a portal anchored by a closet. It entered the hall, spotted one of the marshals, got spooked, and vanished into thin air.”

“How sure are you that this fae and Charybdis are one and the same?”