Tafari wouldn’t have admitted it under pain of torture, but he was having a good time.

Sur Valentin, sadly, was not. “Look at this again, please.” Xer voice was calm, gently insistent, but after three days together, Tafari was starting to pick up on xer tics. He could read when xie was moving from impatient to on the verge of challenging someone to a duel.

No duels had yet happened, thankfully. But there had been a few close calls.

What this was, without question, was time for Tafari to step forward. He’d been lurking back by the door, poking idly through a display of brightly colored beads. The entire shop was a blur of bright colors and glinting lights. Pretty trinkets, ranging from the cheap strings of glittering plastic by the door to ornate falls of worked gemstones at the counter that cost more money than Tafari would ever see.

“I know he came in here,” Valentin said in that falsely-patient cadence that meant someone might very well get stabbed very soon. “I know he came in here because I have two witnesses who confirmed as much.”

The clerk’s eyes didn’t lift from the pile of stones she was sorting.

Valentin’s eyes narrowed. Tafari stepped forward. “Afternoon.”

Now the clerk’s eyes lifted, took him in, and she straightened. “Colonel Keita. Sir. An honor to have you here. How may I assist?”

Valentin’s look shot daggers, but at least they were aimed at Tafari now. He had to fight down a smile as he took the tablet from xer hand and held it up before the clerk. “I don’t suppose you could tell me if you’ve seen this man in—what would it be—about a week ago?”

“Oh, of course. Happy to help.”

Valentin’s fingers twitched briefly into claws, then relaxed. Xer expression didn’t shift from the bland patience that was present everywhere but xer eyes.

The clerk leaned in, gave the picture a good look. “Oh, him. Yes. He was in here.”

“And did he make any purchases?” Valentin asked in that same viciously patient tone.

The clerk looked up at Tafari, who nodded. Which made Valentin bristle again in xer subtle way. But at least xie was getting xer answer. “That’s easy. He grabbed a whole bag full of hematite beads.”

“Hematite?”

“It’s an iron compound, makes pretty—”

“I know what it is,” Valentin snapped. Tafari refrained from pointing out that was the first question of xers the clerk had voluntarily answered.

“Did he happen to buy anything else?” Tafari asked.

The clerk shook her head. “That was all. And he seemed in something of a hurry. A little rude.” Her eyes flicked meaningfully to Valentin, then returned to Tafari.

“Thank you. You’ve been very helpful.”

“For the pack,” she responded off-handedly, already returning her attention to her rocks.

Valentin held xer tongue until the moment they were back in the street with the door closed behind them. “I hate this place.”

“I never would have guessed. You hide it so well.”

That earned him another glare. “An entire planet full of provincial louts.”

“Maybe you’d achieve better results if it weren’t so obvious you were thinking of them that way.”

Valentin flicked her fingers, brushing away his remark. “It’s hardly obvious.”

That point, Tafari had to concede. Valentin did hide it well. Tafari was only able to see it because they’d spent these few days together and he had—he must confess—made an extensive study of Kosuri Valentin.

“They don’t like me because I’m a Swan.”

“They don’t like you because you’re an outsider.”

“A distinction without a difference.”

It had become clear in their time together that Valentin didn’t understand the Wolf. Which was fine. It was quite clear Valentin wouldn’t be staying after xie’d found xer quarry. Most of those misunderstandings, Tafari had let pass. They weren’t worth the argument.

This one was. “They don’t care that you’re a Swan. They wouldn’t care if you were a Dragon, or Griffon, or even a Serpent. What they care about is whether you’re part of the pack. You’re not here to fight demons. That’s what makes you an outsider. That’s what makes you an interruption to their day. You’re not here to support the mission, so they’re not here to support you.”

“They don’t know what I’m here for.”

“Well no, because you refuse to tell.”

Three days in, and Tafari still didn’t know what crime Nita Philippe had committed that had driven Valentin here looking for him. “Why does the hematite matter?”

Valentin gave a silky smile. “You’re one of the pack, Lieutenant Colonel Keita. You figure it out.”

And with that, they were off to the next place.

Valentin might not be happy about it, but they had fallen into a fairly effective bad cop/good cop routine, with Valentin approaching interviewees while Tafari watched from a distance, stepping in if needed. Most of the time he was needed, but not always. Not every Wolf was hostile to outsiders.

Tafari could admit—to himself, if not to anyone else—that he didn’t mind the opportunity to watch Valentin work. Familiarity had made xer no less striking. In fact, he felt no small amount of guilt for thinking xie might be the most lovely thing in any room xie walked into. Which wasn’t technically disloyal, but it still felt like something of a betrayal. Valentin wasn’t the pack, and xie wasn’t part of the mission and xie certainly wasn’t lingering on Cradle any longer than xie had to.

But xie was here, now, and it wasn’t as though Tafari had anything better to do with his time, so he stayed where he was and he let his eyes linger where they wanted to go as Valentin asked questions of the next witness.

Not only could Tafari not figure out what it was Philippe had done to send a Swan marshal chasing him, he couldn’t make sense of what Philippe had done once he’d arrived here on Cradle. The hospital wasn’t the only place Philippe had been asking questions, and what a strange set of questions he had seemed to be focused on. The fights with demons—that was at least interesting history for him to be researching. But he’d seemed just as interested in trivial matters of travel and childhood stories. If he was the historian he claimed to be, his area of research was broad indeed.

Would Valentin be chasing a mere historian?

Tafari was fairly certain that answer was no.

This witness, Valentin was able to charm all on xer own. Even wolves were susceptible to pretty eyes and easy smiles. Valentin slid in and out of a deeply charming demeanor as easily as if it were a piece of clothing.

Tafari quickly shut down all thoughts of Valentin sliding in and out of clothing.

Just because xer charm didn’t always work didn’t mean it wasn’t powerful. When people were open to xer…

It just meant Tafari got to hang back and watch Valentin light up.

He had some small excuse for obsessing. This was something of an occupational hazard—or had been, when he’d had an occupation. Tafari studied people. It was his job, and he’d been very good at it. It was a habit, long ingrained, and would have been difficult to resist with anyone. Even someone boring.

Valentin was anything but boring. Xie was lovely, yes, but also sharp, quicksilver in mind and manners. Tafari couldn’t pin xer down. Just when he thought he understood, xie showed a new side.

This was true inside and out. At first, he thought he was imagining things, or his memory had failed him. But no, Valentin changed. Subtly. Xie was always ineffably and recognizably xer, but little details kept shifting. The precise curve of xer cheekbone or width of xer chin, the slope of xer shoulders, the angle of xer waist. Subtle curves that had been there in the morning and were absent in the afternoon.

There was a playfulness to these changes, a sparkling dare Tafari could read in xer eyes. Challenging him to catch xer at it.

He hadn’t yet. No matter how closely he watched Valentin, he never caught that change. It was always after the fact, when his eyes would trace the curve of xer elegant fingers, or the rounded tip of xer nose and realize it was different and try to remember when exactly he’d last seen it before.

Having obtained the answers xie was after, Valentin swept out of the shop. Tafari followed. And they were off to the next witness.