Mahogany and Teakwood

Chapter 11: Shamrock

if you're a lover, you should know

the lonely moments just get lonelier

the longer you're in love

Logan recovered first, eyes flashing white. Ice spiderwebbed from the doorknob and froze it solid. Charming snatched up his spilled mug, face falling when he saw it was empty. Growling, he rattled the frozen knob, and when that did nothing, he resorted to beating on it with his fist.

"You are wasting your energy," Logan said.

Finally Charming slumped, his back still to them.

"You will be my guest until I have interrogated you to my satisfaction." Logan smiled thinly, his voice icily pleasant. "You will not be harmed, but you will not be leaving. So, you may as well make yourself comfortable."

The half-faery sat on the couch, crossing a leg and adjusting his glasses.

Virgil glanced at Charming, who glowered back.

"What are you looking at, Hot Topic?"

"Aww, you think I'm hot." Virgil fluttered his eyelashes.

Charming's cheeks darkened. Winding this guy up was quickly becoming Virgil's favorite activity of the night.

"I'm not the bastard who tried to cut his throat." Virgil perched on the cushioned couch arm and gestured at Logan. "You should feel lucky he's in a good mood."

Charming rattled the frozen doorknob again, though it was clearly pointless.

Logan sipped his tea.

"I hypothesize that you possess the ability to alter small, seemingly insignificant events in your favor," the half-faery said. "To manipulate luck, as it were. The lock, my dog's exhaustion, the lights, Anxiety's phone, even the coffee just now. Hot liquid, weakening my ice just enough to facilitate an escape attempt."

Charming's shoulders drooped as Logan spoke. Virgil grinned at how easily Logan had seized the upper hand from his attempted assassin.

"Such magic is subtle, but powerful in the hands of a changeling creative enough to generate unorthodox solutions to problems, and courageous enough to carry them out," Logan went on. "However, due to the interconnected nature of existence, and your human ignorance of the Contracts of creation, I speculate that your control over this power is unpredictable; subject to whim, circumstance, and the free agency of others."

He leaned forward, white sparkling through his irises again.

"Which is why Anxiety was able to render your weapon harmless, and why your attempts to overpower me from here on out will continue to fail."

Sometimes, Virgil feared Logan's razor-edged calm as fiercely as he admired it.

"Fuck you, faery." Charming's voice held more bitterness than heat.

Virgil wondered what Logan ultimately intended to do with this guy once he finished his verbal evisceration. Maybe he hoped to get information or something.

Logan finished the last of his tea and set the mug down with a clack.

"What I don't understand," he said, "is why Smile would send a hunter to kill me when I have no quarrel with them, and as far as I am aware, they have none with me. In fact, I have worked with them in the past."

Charming whipped around to stare with wide eyes. A knowing grin spread across Logan's face.

"Ah. So, they did not send you."