“So you must be pretty powerful, to have all these books,” she fished gently, affecting genuine interest as she leaned forward on her cot. “And this workroom. And you clearly keep prisoners from time to time. Does your boss depend on you a lot?”

“She does,” he said, his shoulders lifting back as he slid a cautious look in her direction. “She is very powerful and only trusts a select few with her care and tasks. Especially now, with her condition.”

“Her … condition?”

“Yes. She is expecting a child.”

The Bodywalkers had not mentioned to her that the god Apep was expecting a child. Did they even know? she wondered. Known or not, the ramifications of such a thing had to be tremendous. A god giving birth to offspring? That could not be a good thing. What if it was as powerful as its parent? Then they would be facing the threat of two gods, not only one.

Now she knew she had to get out of there. She had to somehow get this information to them as quickly as possible. They had to know! They had to know or they all would be in danger. And Ahnvil was their protector so he would be the first to meet that danger. That couldn’t be allowed to happen. He would be killed for certain and if he died …

Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god. This couldn’t be happening, she thought frantically. She had to do something!

“Are you the father?” she asked.

“Oh no,” he demurred. “I don’t know who it was. But I do know she considered me as mating material.”

“Oh? How do you know that?”

“Because she … well, she has flirted with me on many occasions. Quite seriously. You know … touching and such,” he responded.

Oh gross.

“Well then. What an honor.”

“Yes, I thought so,” he said, preening ridiculously.

“Well, you also seem pretty fair. I mean, I’ll give you the necklace if I can. Can you help me find a way to get it off that doesn’t involve chopping my head off?” And that gives me time to learn how to get the hell out of Dodge! she thought.

“I don’t know …” he hedged.

“Oh, come on. As smart and powerful as you are … you can’t figure this out?”

“Of course I can!”

“Of course you can,” she agreed with him.

“I’ve already been researching Adoma’s Amulet and haven’t come across anything about it being hexed, never mind how to get it off or negate the hex.”

“Well, there must be something. Just … give it another day or two. You can just as easily kill me then as now. Right?”

“Right. Perhaps I will,” he said thoughtfully. “I must admit, it is a puzzle and it does intrigue me.”

“See? Everyone loves a puzzle.”

He frowned and glared at her. “Don’t think I don’t see what you are trying to do here. I’m not an idiot!”

“I never said you were,” she said. You’re a total fucking idiot, she thought but, obviously, did not say aloud. “And I’m not one, either. Of course, I’m going to try and get you to approach this from a different angle. But since it doesn’t hurt either of us to try it another day or two maybe we can just wait that long. Honestly, I’ll be pretty damn impressed if you can figure it out in that short amount of time. I am really not holding out any hope.”

“Well, you should. If anyone can figure this out it will be me,” he said, trying to come off as smooth and confident but looking small and desperate. He was no more convinced of his abilities than she was. Which really kind of pissed her off. To be captured was one thing. To be captured by a total moron was just downright embarrassing.

She was going to get out of this somehow. And it had to be soon. If she was right, she was in the same stronghold that held Apep and that was a being of true power and cutthroat insanity she did not want to come up against. If she could just fly under the radar. That fact that she hadn’t been dragged in front of Apep already told her that she wasn’t the only one wanting to fly under the radar. She was pretty sure this whole kidnapping thing was a little side project for Panahasi. Just as his theft of the Amulet from Kamen’s belongings had been done on the side. Panahasi’s greed and deception were two things working in her favor. The third and fourth things were sparkling and pretty and resting on various parts of her body.

Maybe there were keys to the manacles left on the table somewhere. She wished he would leave so she could practice some more with levitation.

“I’ll be leaving you now. I have some things to do,” Panahasi said.

Whoa. Awesome! I wish I had a peanut butter sandwich, she thought with an inner snicker.

“I’ll have them bring you some lunch,” he said then.

Oh. My. God.

“What’s on the menu?” she ventured to ask.

“Nothing special,” he snapped at her. “You are a prisoner, remember? You’ll be fortunate if I send a peanut butter sandwich.”

Okay … what the hell is going on here? She said aloud, “Oh, that’s fine. I understand.” I wish you’d let me out of here, she thought a bit frantically. And for just a minute he toyed with the keys at his belt but then rubbed at the back of his neck and marched out of the room, muttering under his breath.

“What the hell was that?” she asked aloud, pulling back the cuff of her manacles and looking at the bangle. What was it Ahnvil had said? Never ask for a wish from a Djynn. But she was a Djynn. Did that mean she could grant wishes? For others and for herself? Oh, why hadn’t she had more time to practice her new abilities? She needed to know what to do! Could she convince a Bodywalker like Panahasi to simply unlock the door to her cage and let her go free? It was clear that the one thing working in her favor was that he had no idea she was a Nightwalker. A Djynn. If he had thought her anything more than a simple mortal female he would be on his guard against her. He might even kill her right away to protect himself.

So she wondered if it was more practice that made the difference or just more powerful niks.

“Damn, if only I knew what to do!” she said fiercely to herself. She waited until he was gone for a good fifteen minutes before she went back to the bars and started looking around for things on the workbench that might be able to help her. Maybe more niks or even a set of spare keys. She would get far more use out of a set of spare keys. But there was nothing. Outside of all those jars full of weird things it was nearly impossible to figure out what was on the slovenly bench.