My eyes went to the camera in the corner, its friendly red light blinking. I’d stay there until another car arrived. “Don’t touch me,” I muttered. “There isn’t enough money in the world for me to work for Trent again. He’s a manipulative, power-hungry, spoiled only-child who thinks he’s above the law. And he kills people like a homeless man opens a can of beans.”

Quen shrugged. “He’s also loyal to those who have earned his trust, intelligent, and generous to those he cares about.”

“And those he doesn’t care about don’t matter.” Hip cocked, I silently waited, getting more annoyed. Where in hell is the elevator?

“I wish you’d reconsider,” Quen said, and I jerked back when he pulled an amulet from his sleeve. After giving me a high-eyebrow look, he turned a slow circuit, attention lightly fixed on the redwood disk glowing a faint green. It was probably a detection amulet of some kind. I had one that would tell me if there were any deadly spells in my vicinity, but I’d quit wearing it when it kept triggering the anti-theft wards in the mall.

Apparently satisfied, Quen slid the amulet away. “I need you to go into the ever-after to retrieve an elven sample.”

I laughed at that, and anger flickered over the older man. “Trent just got Ceri’s sample,” I said, pulling my shoulder bag tight to me. “I’d think that would keep him busy for a while. Besides, you couldn’t pay me enough to go into the ever-after. Especially not for a chunk of two-thousand-year-old dead elf.”

One of the elevators behind me dinged, and I backed up to it, ready to make my escape.

“We know where a tissue sample is. We just need to get it,” Quen said, his gaze flicking behind me as the doors opened.

I backed into it, standing so he couldn’t follow me. “How?” I said, feeling secure.

“Ceri,” he said simply, fear flashing in the back of his eyes.

The doors started to close, and I hit the “open” button. “Ceri?” I questioned, wondering if this was why I hadn’t seen much of her lately. She knew I hated Trent, but she was an elf and he was an elf—and seeing as she had been born into royalty and he was a zillionaire, it would be foolish to think that they hadn’t had some contact the last few months, whether they liked each other or not.