“Aye. She always gets like this after the old gods have spoken through her. These days, it takes a week or so for her to recover, as she’s not as spritely as she once was.”

I opened the door and stepped to one side. “I take it you’ve worked with her for a while?”

He nodded. “Nigh on fifty years now, but it’s a position that’s been handed down through my family for generations.”

“Really?”

I couldn’t help the surprise in my voice, and he smiled. “Humans have always been the greatest threat to oracles, but their trigger finger has to be mighty fast to beat the speed and fury of a bear shifter.”

I’d witnessed how fast and powerful Sgott was when in full fight mode, and it certainly wasn’t something you’d want to be at the other end of.

Once I’d locked the door again, I picked up the whisky glass and walked back to the bar. Ingrid had already headed back upstairs, so I tucked the glass into the underbench washer, then waved to catch Lugh’s attention. He was still on the phone and talking softly enough that I could barely hear him but glanced around and raised an eyebrow. I pointed upstairs, and he nodded.

I ran up the first stairwell, then walked past the Row level bar to reach the smaller set of stairs tucked into a nook behind it. I generally kept this door locked, not only because the upper area was my living quarters, but also because there’d been a spate of thefts after Mom’s disappearance. We now believed the thieves had actually been planting listening devices and that the thefts had been a cover. Which didn’t make much sense to me, but Sgott had suggested that by stealing smaller items, they were distracting us from the bigger picture. He’d arranged for all the bugs to be removed, but I wasn’t about to take the chance of them being replaced.

Even with the roof height lifted, the upstairs accommodation was confined. There was a combined kitchen-living area and two bedrooms—one had been Mom’s and was now mine, and the other one Lugh and I had shared as kids and was now used as a spare. The bathroom was the second-biggest room in the flat, but it had to be, given four oversized pixies had at one point all been using it. Gran had moved out of the tavern when she’d handed the reins over to Mom, but before then, she’d slept in the loft, which was only accessible through a hatch and a loft ladder—something that had never worried her, as she’d been remarkably spritely right up until the day she’d passed.

I walked over to the kitchenette and filled the kettle, then unhooked the fourth of seven mugs hanging from the bottom of the overhead cupboard. Inside, stone clinked, and relief stirred. No one had found or stolen the Eye.

I rolled it onto the counter. It was as black as midnight and about the size of an oval-shaped marble. Which, given it had once been an actual eye, was about right. Though its power was currently inert, deep purple light jagged through its heart. It might not be emitting any energy, but my presence had nevertheless placed it on standby. I’d only have to touch it and it would activate.