Danica and Meredith had somehow brought cable to the underworld. For me. The sheer difficulty of what they’d done was hard to comprehend.
Danica had made me a home here. And yet this was the first time I’d visited in months—because I needed something.
“Come here.”
Danica angled her head, but she stepped into my arms.
“You’re amazing. Thank you.” I sighed and rested my chin on her head. “I’m a bastard.”
“You’re not.” Danica pulled away. “You’ve been busy. You need to kill Daimonion. I get it, Vas. Believe me, I do. But…do me a favor and visit occasionally, so I know you’re okay.”
“I will.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead, vowing to do better. Dani had gone from bounty hunter to demon mate and now underqueen in the span of a few months. She needed support. Friends.Family. And I’d missed the hell out of her. “I promise.”
2
MEREDITH
Iset the last of twelve tequila shots onto a tray and nodded at Amy, one of my servers. She beamed at me and lifted the tray, swaying her hips as she walked toward the table of werewolves in the corner.
One of them licked his lips as she approached, and she put an extra spring into her step. Amy was cute, human, and smart as hell. She also had a young son whom she worked her butt off for, hoping to give him the kind of opportunities she’d never had. When it came to earning her tips, she didn’t fuck around.
I surveyed my bar. It was two a.m. Sunday morning, and things were heating up. I usually tried to close by three, but it wasn’t unheard of for me to stretch it until four if we were slammed.
And we were slammed. People crowded the bar, the line for drinks three deep. Werewolves glowered at dark fae, witches gossiped with fellow coven members, and the light fae were currently beingverycareful not to push anyone’s buttons.
No one had forgotten how their king had betrayed Samael. Even though some of them had fought on our side, it was still difficult to know just who to trust. The high fae may not be able to lie, but that didn’t mean they weren’t experts at deception.
Next to me, Orin poured several pints, sliding them across to a group of gnomes who were sitting at one corner of the bar. They nodded their thanks, placing several dollars in front of them. Orin smiled at them and shoved the notes into our communal tip jar.
I didn’t bother scowling at him. He didn’t need the money, and he refused to allow me to give him his share of those tips each week. He worked for me because he enjoyed it, because he thoughtheowedme,which was ridiculous.
“Hey, Mere,” a high-pitched voice said, and I glanced over as a group of pixies landed.
“Hey, Nix. How’s it going?”
“Not bad, not bad.”
“The usual?”
“Yes, please. There are five of us.”
I leaned down and pulled out five thimble-sized glasses we kept on hand specifically for the pixies.
“I’ve got this, Mere,” Orin called over the music, and I glanced at him. He nodded toward the door, where Evie was walking in.
The bar went momentarily quiet. Someone used their power to turn down the volume on the music. Evie raised one eyebrow and swept her gaze around the bar. “What?”
“You gonna start acting hoity-toity now that you’re the underqueen’s sister?” one of the gnomes asked, before letting rip with a belch that made his friend high-five him.
Surprise flashed across Evie’s face. It was a beautiful face. Unfortunately for her, she also looked delicate in a fairy-princess kind of way, with long, curly blond hair, blue-green eyes, and the kind of pert nose I’d once longed to have in the middle of my own face.
Evie scowled. Then a crafty expression crossed her face. “What if I do? Does that mean I get to drink for free at every bar in the Triangle?”
It was the right thing to say. Everyone cracked up, and the music resumed its previous earsplitting level. Someone threw a napkin at her, and she dodged it with an easy grin, striding toward me.
“Drink?”
She blew out a long breath. “God yes.”
