“Wait.”
Rose glanced over her shoulder, then scanned her surroundings again. Her head may think she had it under control, but her instincts weren’t convinced.
“Where are you staying?”
She gave me a cool look. “Why?”
I rolled my eyes and waited her out. She scowled at me.
“In my car, okay? I can’t go home because some of the bounty hunters are staking it out.”
I pulled my keys out of my pocket, wiggled my car key off the keychain and threw the rest to her. She caught them automatically with a frown.
“Do you know where I live?”
She gave me a look and I grinned. “Oh, that’s right, you were hunting me for a while, right?”
She stiffened. “I apologized for that.”
I shook my head. “I’m just playing with you. Look, my apartment is empty. Evie’s away and I’m staying with Samael. It’s warded and there’s food in the freezer. You may as well stay there.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Are you sure?”
If I hadn’t been, the shocked gratitude in her eyes would have convinced me. “I’m sure. Get out of here before they catch up to you.”
“Thank you. Seriously.”
“I’ll be calling you the next time I need a merc.”
She grinned. “Done.”
* * *
DANICA
“This place creeps me out,” Kyla murmured as we walked through the forest in the Middleground.
“More than the light fae forest?”
“That forestwantedto be creepy. This place is too quiet.”
The tengu leader seemed surprised that we’d returned so quickly, his red face flushing even darker with excitement. I held the vial of blood in my hand and waggled it, keeping one hand on my Mark II.
“I need your geas,” I told the leader as he approached. His eyes remained fixed on the gnome blood, alight with pure joy before he blinked and managed to snap out of it.
“Of course, of course.” He turned and said something to his people in their tongue, and they began to gather.
There were a lot more of them than I’d assumed. Probably close to a couple hundred. They jumped down from the branches of trees, and slipped through the forest soundlessly until they were all gathered in the large clearing.
Knives were handed around, and it took several minutes before all of the tengu had sliced open their arms. When everyone was bleeding, I reopened the wound in my forearm to lock the geas in place.
The tengu took a deep breath, holding his arm up in the air.
“We will never use the gnome blood brought to us by Danica Amana in any way other than for a commerce spell which will be performed on this day. If we stray from this use, any repercussions shall strike our people times three.” They all intoned it, and I felt the wound in my arm flare as if in response.
I let out a long breath. It was done. The leader reached for the vial of blood, and I shook my head.
“Information first.”
