Chapter 196

The scent of her chili and cinnamon magic rose hot and fast, like I'd just chugged the sangria.

I almost winced.

"Sorry, chica," the Queen said, her expression guileless. "But I know of nothing that would help."

I could have sworn she'd just lied to me.

"Ah well. No harm asking. It's a long shot anyway." Since I had the dog with me and a doped-up Rafael back at my house, I couldn't use the gold token to do any further digging in Hedon. I'd come back. For now, I kept my tone scrupulously polite, got my hyped-up puppy away from Moran, and blipped out.

Rafael was neatly wrapping one of Priya's connector cables when we got back. Priya had given me two tutorials and a test before I'd been allowed to handle them when tidying up, and for a moment I feared for Rafael's life, but his technique was perfect. He placed the cable next to the neat pile of power cords that he'd already wrapped.

Mrs. Hudson jumped onto the sofa next to him.

"Feeling better?" I said.