Zara was fascinated by the story of how Mia and Talon had met. Of course, Mia was bound by the same confidentiality spell that I was, so she had to use her words carefully, but Zara could read between the lines. When Mia explained what a “dog” Talon had been when they’d first met, sheliterallymeant a dog.
As we moved on from lunch to the second round of mimosas, Zara kicked me under the table. “Alexei has been asking about you.”
Azalea slid me a curious look. “Who’s Alexei?”
“My cousin,” Zara said proudly. “He’s CEO of our company and has some ties to the movie industry, too. He has a crush on Willow, but she won’t give him the time today.”
“That’s not true,” I wailed defensively. “I’ve just been busy!”
“Mmhmm,” Zara said, clearly not convinced. She jerked her chin toward Mia and then muttered confidentially, “Willow is still caught up on Severn.”
Mia raised her eyebrows but didn’t look entirely caught by surprise. “I wondered,” she admitted softly as she turned to me and explained, “There have been some rumors around Wilde Tower. Apparently, at Locke’s party…” She cleared her throat as her cheeks began to turn pink. “Well, let’s just say there was even some speculation among the tower residents that the wedding in Central Park might not have been fake after they saw you two together at the party.”
People hadseenus in the back bedroom?
I cringed. “Well, you can tell everyone there’s definitely nothing between us.”
“Just because he’s your boss?” Mia asked. “The, um,specialpeople we live with don’t care about that, you know.”
“I know. But it isn’t just that. He thinks I’m too naive. That I wouldn’t be able to handle a relationship with someone like him… Maybe he’s right.”
“As someone whoisin a relationship with someone like him,” Mia said, “I agree that it is challenging, but not impossible. When Talon and I first got together, no one believed it would last. People like him don’tdorelationships. And Talonreallydidn’t do relationships. But when it’s worth it, you make it work.”
“Severnischallenging,” Azalea agreed. “But I’ve known him for, oh, longer than I’d care to admit. And you’d be surprised what people tell you when you’re stuck in an elevator together. It’s like a confessional in there. I like to think I know Severn better than almost anyone does, and the fact that he pushed you away is a sign that he really does care. He’s afraid he’ll hurt you. There aren’t many fae who would care if they hurt a human.”
I pulled in a deep breath and then released it. “I just can’t imagine anything happening between us. One night, sure. But after that? He’s…” I struggled with my words. The spell wouldn’t let me say “fae prince,” so I settled on “…such a powerful person. And I’m a nobody.”
“Not to Henry and May,” Azalea said kindly, raising her mimosa glass to mine and giving it a small clink. “You’re everything to them. And you could be everything to Severn, too… if you’d only give it a chance.”
As the conversation drifted on to other subjects, I kept thinking back on my friends’ advice about giving Severn a chance—even though he’d been the one to shut down that night on the island, not me. When we finally left the bistro and said our goodbyes, I gave Zara a fierce hug as we both promised to keep each other appraised of any rumblings we might hear about trouble in the hidden realm.
With my substantial salary, I could have splurged on a rideshare back to Wilde Tower, but I felt like walking instead. Ever since my eyes had been opened to the hidden realm, I marveled at the beautiful swirls of magic in the air. The colors and thickness of the dustlike motes changed with the temperature, time of day, and season. At the moment, the swirls were a midafternoon golden orange, hanging lazily in the summer air until someone walked through them, when they shimmered extra brightly. A gaunt man in sunglasses exited a bookstore, followed not long after by a guy with giant ram horns and a paperback clutched under one arm. He gave me a nod, his square-pupil eyes gleaming.
Naturally, no one else in the street noticed anything amiss.
My thoughts were still on Severn as I strolled down Lafayette Street back toward the financial district. For someone who paid my bills—and had stuck his tongue down my throat—I knew so little about him. Everything about Severn and his world was a mystery, from what his childhood had been like, to his complicated relationships with his brother and extended relatives, to his true powers. I was left wondering if there was some sort of hidden realm school one could attend to get a crash course in all things Gifted. But I supposed that went against the spirit of the veil that hid their world from the human one. We weren’tmeantto know about them, and that included me.
A burst of light flashed ahead of me, and I froze, fearing it was the paparazzi again. But then I relaxed, realizing it was only the glint of the sun off a copper street post. Hand pressed to my pounding chest, I shook the worries off and started walking again, only to catch a glimpse of a face in a shop window. It was a reflection of someone standing just behind me, loitering near a hot dog stand.
The gaunt man who’d come out of the bookstore a few blocks back.
A warning tingle spread up my spine. Was it a coincidence? We were several blocks away from that bookstore now. A quick glance told me he wasn’t carrying a camera, so he wasn’t paparazzi. As soon as he realized that I’d spotted his reflection in the window, he turned toward the hot dog cart and started speaking with the vendor.
My feet began to carry me away swiftly. I clutched my purse tighter on instinct, sticking to the center of the sidewalk. Lafayette was a busy street, which, at the moment, was comforting. I didn’t want to be alone in any alleyways or side streets with a strange man potentially following me.
It’s probably nothing.
The man looked human; he wasn’t fae or demon, though he could have been a werewolf. With his sunglasses on, I couldn’t see his eyes to check if they had that telltale yellow glow. Then again, it was a bright summer afternoon.Everyonewas wearing sunglasses, so it was hardly suspicious that he was, too.
There was a chance he could be a warlock, but Zara had told me that male witches were rare, and besides, I didn’t fear warlocks. If they were anything like Alexei, warlocks were my allies against anything more dangerous that might be stalking the streets.
After a few more blocks, I didn’t see any more signs of the gaunt man, and I started to relax. But then, as I turned on to Twenty-Fifth, a man came charging up from the subway exit just behind me, hanging a little too close, also wearing the same kind of dark sunglasses.
As my pulse picked up its pace, I dug for my phone in my purse and called the number Severn had ordered me to save as a priority contact. “Hello, Kell?” I asked when someone picked up.
“Willow.” The werewolf bodyguard growled my name into the other line. “What’s wrong? Where are you?”
I swallowed, hanging back near a shoe store, pretending to window-shop. The larger man who’d come up so suddenly from the subway entrance had continued down the street but now stopped about a half a block away, pretending to look at something on his phone.
