“We’ve checked it all out, remember? You were in on the meetings. Zorn and Amber have visited every relics dealer in the area. None of them have heard of this fae, and the one who had is dead now.” Along with those other idiots who jumped Mordecai. She’d seen to the matter personally. If Mordie knew about it, he hadn’t mentioned it. “I’m good, Lexi. Honest.”
Nervous jitters filtered through her body, but she didn’t let them show in her bearing. In reality, no, she wasn’t totally good. There wasn’t any reason for the fae to show up…except to grab her. She had no idea when that might happen.Ifit might happen. He could’ve been toying with her on that ledge until the Celestials chased him away.
Part of her worried about those dreams—how real his voice sounded in them. How vivid his presence was. Part of her was convinced that the fae would come calling any day now and take what he wanted. Her. Horribly…she wasn’t entirely sure if she was anxious because of the danger…or because of the anticipation of seeing him again.
But if he did want what this contact was peddling? She’d be damned if she’d send someone in her place and get her family harmed. It didn’t seem like the fae would kill Daisy. Not yet. She knew in her gut that the same wouldn’t be true of the others. Zorn agreed. This was a necessary risk to keep everyone safe. If they had to lie a little to do it, so be it.
Lexi studied Daisy, uncertainty clear in her eyes. She sighed heavily. “I know. It’s just…I know you don’t need the reminder, but if you go into a situation that is over your head, the penalty is death.” She swallowed thickly, as though that sentence had taken a physical toll to say. “There are no second chances in this field. Remember what Zorn says? You can never relax. In a world with magic, the magic-less are always in danger.”
Zorn’s voice echoed in Daisy’s mind, finishing his quote:Your life depends on your vigilance.
“Yes, Lexi,” she said patiently, “but Zorn also always says that I will be underestimated, remember? Being underestimated is my greatest strength.” She held out her arms before gesturing to her face. “I’m young, I play up my dainty look, and this makeup accentuates what you call my big blue doll eyes. People who can’t relax around Zorn or Amber can relax around me because of my perceived fragility. It’s an act. It’s a persona. I’ve explained this. I got this.”
She hoped to hell she had this, at any rate.
Lexi nodded. “I know.” She stepped aside so Daisy could pass. “Just be careful. That’s all I’m saying.”
Daisy walked past her toward the kitchen. It was time to go.
Mordecai hovered close. “I still don’t know…” he started, obviously seeing through her front. He’d always been able to. That was what happened when you spent a large portion of your youth sharing a bedroom with someone.
She created a distraction.
“Who’s that girl you’re seeing, anyway, Mordecai?” Daisy entered the kitchen. “She’s pretty. Young, though, right? Is she legal?”
“What’s this?” Lexi asked with an edge to her voice.
Mordecai tried to hedge. “Daisy swore earlier.”
“I wouldnever,”Daisy said dramatically, knowingdating a minor was way worse than a little slip of the tongue.
The woman wasn’t a minor, of course. She was older than Mordecai. But one question would lead to several as Lexi learned all about his new squeeze. She’d found the love of her life in a dangerous, stalking Demigod. She wanted the same bliss for everyone else.
Daisy’s family filled the kitchen. Boman, a light bender, stood at the island. He wore a black T-shirt to match his black cargo pants, the pockets stuffed with all the wonders of a Mary Poppins’s carpetbag.
“What’d you do to make Mordecai rat you out?” he asked Daisy.
“He’s got an underage girlfriend, apparently,” Lexi said to the room.
Bria, sitting at the island beside Boman, spat out a laugh.
“She’s not underage,” Mordecai said adamantly. “Or my girlfriend.”
“Bang-buddy?” Thane asked, his smirk showing through his bushy beard.
Dylan sat beside him at the end of the table, watching the show with a grin.
“Who is this girl?” Lexi asked Mordecai.
He gulped. “She’s a woman and I’m getting to know her, that’s all. She’s a friend.”
“Friend with benefits?” Donovan stood at the stove with Jack. He looked over his shoulder with a glittering smile.
Zorn sat at the table with his back to the window. Kitty-corner to him, at the end, sat the Demigod of Poseidon, co-ruler of Magical San Francisco and extreme political player in the magical world. Kieran.
He had the power to change the tides and control vast quantities of water and the air under which it moved. He could bring in clouds and control the weather. The pain his magic administered could kill (and had). This man’s power had a literal undertow. His grandfather was an actual god, said to have been placed in this realm by the old gods to rule the humans, an easily manageable lot compared to what festered in the wylds.
He sat at the end of the table in a white T-shirt, with tousled hair and threadbare jeans. Only their family ever got to see him like this. It was the only place he was relaxed and casual and real.
