“Let me—We should—”
“I’m walking,” Quinn snaps, bringing me up a little short. Still, I remain by his side.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I had to find this place again.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why?”
“I told you, we have to—”
“We all volunteer to fight, you know,” Quinn says. “It’s not like they’re fooling us.”
I don’t point out that I don’t think Quinn would know if he was being fooled. Not that I think they’ve enchanted him. No. I just think he’s…
Vulnerable.
Desperately so.
“I know that. We have to be careful with the high fae. They’re always up to no good.”
“Bit of a presumption, isn’t it?”
“It’s true,” I say, a frustrated edge to my voice. Quinn pauses, looking at me. “It is.”
He shrugs. “Doesn’t matter. They already told me not to talk to you.”
“They did?”
Quinn shrugs again and doesn’t answer. Of course I expected that they’d have worked out who Vlad and I are. They’ve clearly been avoiding the Hunt and the Huntsman. And it’s interesting that they have wards enough to keep the pub hidden but not enough to keep us out, so either they can’t focus on his blessing, or they don’t know how.
“I think they just like the fights,” Quinn says as we cross the street. “Cel—One of them is really into them. Maybe they’re not up to anything bad at all.”
“Quinn,” I murmur, and that brings him up short, making him stop as soon as he’s standing on the pavement. “Imeanit. Don’t trust them. It’s not safe.”
I only realise how open his expression was when it shutters. “Don’t talk to me about safe,” he snaps, and when he starts walking again, it takes me a moment to catch up.
“Are you not…” I swallow and try again. “Are you not safe here?”
Everyone’s told me his pack is a good one. But what if they’re not? What if he is being badly treated for what happened with Tamesis? None of it was his fault, and we in the Hunt know that better than anyone now that we have an understanding of what happened. Bonds are hard to resist, and that’s especially true for a wolf.
“What? What do you mean?”
“With your pack, I mean. Are they treating you well?”
“My pack? Kieran’s pack?”
“Yes.”
Quinn looks at me as though I’ve grown another head. “Of course they are,” he says, using the same tone of voice I might expect to hear someone use to tell me the sky is blue. “They wouldn’t ever hurt me. Not on purpose.”
“What then?”
“Asher…”
“No. Please. I want to know what you mean.”
