“Suit yourself. Ah, pull over here, driver. I’m starved.”
We got out into the gravel parking lot of a farm stand that had a sign saying they served fresh sandwiches and salads. A river ran by a row of picnic tables with the Poconos rising behind it. It was much cooler here than in the city, and the sunlight felt heavenly on my face.
Locke got out and smashed a ball cap over my head.
“Hey!”
“Either this or stay in the car. We don’t want any more pictures.” He put one on, as well, and then handed me a pair of sunglasses, too. Then he looked dubiously at the farm stand. “The things I do for my brother.” He shook his head. “Last night I ate at La Mer in Chelsea, and today this. Well, I don’t think that old farmer reads online tabloids, so we’re safe.”
Still, he had the driver order us food while we went and sat at one of the picnic tables in our disguises. The driver brought over two Caprese sandwiches on thick sourdough with homemade basil and fresh-picked tomatoes, and it was divine. Even Locke ate it without complaint.
His phone rang, and he answered and walked away a few feet, out of my earshot. When he came back, his face was grim.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yes, but we’ll need to head back to the city. One of our fae warriors managed to track down someone involved in the attack. Severn wants me to be there when he interrogates him.”
“A demon?”
Again, Locke’s face shifted. He glanced at the werewolf driver, who was eating a sandwich at the next picnic table over. He shook his head. “No. Something else. Which is perplexing.”
He wouldn’t say anything else about it. We drove a few more hours through the mountains before returning to the city. Locke was bent over his phone, doing work, and I managed to get a little sleep. Locke poked me awake as soon as we were back in the financial district. I put back on the ball cap and sunglasses, even with the tinted windows. To my relief, the crowds outside Wilde Tower were gone, dispersed by either the fae or the police. Our driver took us into the secure underground garage, and from there, Locke and I went up to our floor.
He started for his penthouse, then paused. “It wasn’t completely awful spending time with you today. I’m pleasantly surprised.”
“Wow, thanks,” I said.
He leaned his shoulder against the wall. “There’s a party tomorrow night in my penthouse. You should stop by after the children are asleep. I assure you, it won’t gettooscandalous until the early hours of the morning; early on, we merely feast and play games of chance. If you’re truly curious about fae customs, I think you’ll find it intriguing.”
“Um, okay. Maybe.” I had no intention of going. Whether it was scandalous or not, being the only human at a party full of the most beautiful creatures to grace the earth, known for their cruelty, didn’t sound like a blast.
He smirked and disappeared back into his house. I opened my penthouse door, and May immediately hurled herself at me.
“Willow! You’re back! Don’t leave again! Poppy was awful. She wouldn’t let us do anything.”
Poppy Wilde stood behind them, arms folded, looking extremely relieved to see me.
“I had no idea how much attention human children needed,” she said, shaking her head. “Did you know they have to be fed every fewhours?”
“I did, actually.”
“They’re worse than demons.”
Once she was gone, I made the kids popcorn, and we sat down to watch a movie. It drove me crazy not to have my phone. What were the newspapers saying about me? Had they figured out my name yet?
And the worst fear of all: I still had to face Severn.
* * *
The next day,the children and I stayed in the penthouse. Severn had asked me to keep a low profile, and the last thing I wanted was to go out in the city with Henry and May and subject them to the paparazzi’s harassment, too. Besides, it wasn’t hard to find things to do in our apartment.
Severn’s credit card had bought us every video game and board game imaginable. After a few hours of playing, we made a pillow house for Puck and then took him up for a potty break on the rooftop patio, which had a decent-sized patch of lawn. A part of me was thankful that I didn’t have my phone and thus wasn’t able to listen to the news, though another part was painfully curious to know what the world was saying about me. That one hipster paparazzo had photographed me standing in front of Zara’s apartment, so maybe they thought I was a wealthy socialite like her.
In the afternoon, I brought out my colored pencils and gave the children an art lesson. We tried to copy the paintings of forest scenes on the walls, but they kept moving in that magical way, making it impossible to capture the exact shapes of foxes and fawns. By the time we’d eaten a late dinner, May, Henry, and even Puck were passed out on the pillows covering the living room floor.
I gently carried them each to bed and tucked them in, then came back downstairs and started cleaning up the pillows and toys when someone knocked at the door. After the attack on the tower and the drama with the paparazzi, I hesitated. But then I realized Wilde Tower probably had better security than any building in the world.
When I answered, I was surprised to find Mia and Talon in the lobby. They were dressed in going-out clothes, Mia in a short blue skirt and Talon in black pants and a black button-up shirt. From the opposite side of the lobby, I could hear music and voices coming from Locke’s apartment.
