Drink Deep - Chloe Neill [48]
“Kel, I’m not sure it’s that simple. I mean, I’m glad the lake is back, but I didn’t do anything, and I don’t think she did either. In fact, I don’t think Lorelei had anything to do with the lake at all. She’s weak like the nymphs are.”
“Occam’s Razor, Merit. The simplest solution is usually the true one. The lake went bad, you talked to Lorelei, the lake is back again. Maybe you scared her straight. Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth, right?”
I frowned. That those things happened in order didn’t mean they were related to each other. Lorelei certainly hadn’t worked any magic while I’d been there. Would she have had time to do anything after I’d left?
This wasn’t the first time I’d been presented with an answer that seemed too easy. Celina had confessed her involvement in the V trade while standing in the middle of a public festival. That had briefly seemed like a miraculous end to our drug-related drama, at least until we discovered she’d been under Tate’s magical thumb.
Nothing was that easy. But maybe, for now, Kelley needed to believe we were making a difference, that we’d actually managed to solve a problem. The entire House probably needed to believe it. Maybe forgoing the truth was occasionally the right thing to do, so I gave her what she needed to hear.
“You’re probably right,” I said. “It would have been a pretty big coincidence otherwise.”
“Right? Anyway, go play! Take the night off. I’m just thrilled. Excellent job, Sentinel. And I’ll make sure Cabot knows it.”
The phone went dead, but that didn’t do anything to quell my anxiety. If I couldn’t discuss my findings in Cadogan House, I’d find a more receptive audience. Problem was, my best audience—the Ombud’s office—might not be all that receptive, either. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of telling Jeff that Lorelei blamed the Packs for the lake, and decided that confession needed to be made in person. Telling him shifters were my new suspects wasn’t going to go over well.
On my way to the Ombud’s office, I called Jonah to check in. He answered on the first ring.
“Well done on the lake,” he said.
“Thanks for the performance eval. But it wasn’t me. Any word on the nymphs?”
“I’ve heard they’re getting more healthy and hale by the minute and are big fans of yours right now.”
“Crap.”
“That wasn’t the reaction I expected.”
“I’m ruining the punch line here, but I didn’t actually do anything at the lake. Lorelei and I just talked.”
“You just talked?”
“That’s it. She was also weak and getting weaker, and she denies having done anything to the lake. I tend to believe her.”
“And I’m guessing you aren’t going to be content with the fact that the lake’s back to normal?”
I wasn’t sure if I should be flattered or insulted by the sentiment. But either way, he was right. “You would be correct. I’m gonna visit my grandfather and pick his brain. You wanna join me?”
“No can do. I’m in the middle of something. You want to meet later to debrief?”
“We can do that. I’ll call you when I’m done.”
“I’ll bring popcorn,” he promised, then hung up.
I gnawed my lip all the way to my grandfather’s south side office, hard enough that I eventually tasted the metallic bite of blood. The lake’s time as a giant magic vacuum might have ended, but I was convinced this wasn’t the end of the story. And if I was right and the fix was a coincidence, we had another force working major magic in the Windy City. I had a sinking fear we were going to find out soon what Tate’s “next move” would be.
Traffic was light, so the drive to the south side didn’t take long. The office of the Ombudsman was located in a low brick building in a working-class, residential neighborhood. I parked on the street and headed to the door, hitting the buzzer to signal Jeff, Catcher, my grandfather, or Marjorie, my grandfather’s admin, that I was there.