Page 29 of Stubborn as a Shadow

NELSON

Morgan refused to leave the hotel. He refused to order room service. He refused to change any of his damn plans.

Short of knocking him out and hauling him out in a blanket burrito, I didn’t know how to make him do as I asked. He might be full of rainbow bubbles and beautiful smiles, but he was also foolishly obstinate.

So I trailed after him when he went downstairs for his dinner reservation. More supes were in the lobby now than before. It had been a few hours since I’d been down here, so that made sense. Unfortunately, the temporary market area was also buzzing with people.

Morgan’s eyes lit up when he saw it.

“Come on,” he said.

Dread coiled through me as he tugged me toward the tables. I couldn’t figure out how to steer him away without causing a scene. The last thing I wanted was for people to look too closely at Morgan. Second to that would be someone realizing I’d stolenthe crystal earlier. I doubted anyone would figure it out, but returning was still dangerous.

I wrapped my hand around the pillbox in my pocket, just to make sure it was still closed tight. Thankfully, it was.

Morgan stopped at every single stone and crystal vendor’s table. I thought about buying a few small stones, like I’d planned earlier, but Morgan didn’t linger long enough for me to do that, and there was no way I was letting him out of my sight. He knew exactly what he was looking for, and when he didn’t sense it at a table, he moved on.

Much faster than I’d expected, we were through the vendors and heading to the restaurant with Morgan’s cloak fluttering in his wake as he walked.

While we waited to be seated, I glanced at the hotel registration desk, because part of me still wondered who Rudy Tada was. But now that I’d found Morgan, I wouldn’t be coming back downstairs later to hack the computers. I couldn’t leave the unicorn alone, unguarded. Rudy Tada was no longer my concern.

“Do you have a reservation?” A man peered at us from behind the host station.

“Of course,” Morgan said.

“Name?”

“It’s only for one, but I’d like to change that to two.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, sir,” the man said. “What name is it under?”

“Rudy Tada.”

I jolted in surprise. What the?—?

Morgan had said the last name with a singsong quality, like a magician sayingta-daat the end of his trick. I bit back a groan. I bet that was the inspiration for his alias.

The host nodded as he scribbled on a laminated seating chart. When he looked up, he smiled in the way people in theservice industry often did. It was friendly enough on the surface, but it wasn’t quite real.

“This way, sir.”

I followed Morgan to the table. It was tucked off to the side. Thank Magic for that. Sitting under the bright chandelier in the center of the room would have been unbearable, particularly when I was reeling from this latest discovery.

I sat in the chair facing the entrance but with a view of the doors to the kitchen and the bathroom on the far side of the room. We weren’t close to an exit, but hopefully we wouldn’t need it. And yep, I’d probably just jinxed myself. Because, given how this day had gone so far, anything was possible.

Once we were alone, Morgan wiggled in his seat and hummed happily. It was like he had no idea people were after him, or that someone at the SC had arranged a bodyguard for him.

Could he be that clueless?

Because the implications of Morgan being Rudy Tada were staggering and, right now, those implications were all detonating in my head like fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Had the wolf been right? Was Morgan looking for the Time Traveling Crystal? If he was, was that why Venus had wanted me with him? She had to have known I wouldn’t let an artifact like that be purchased by anyone. Even Morgan.

My stomach twisted and churned.

“What’s the matter? You look a little blurry around the edges. Are you okay?”

Damn it. I suppressed my magic. I had to keep control. This situation was already complicated enough without drawing more attention to us.