“Pitstop.And it’s not that bad.”Bringing the jag to a halt on the slow-black lot surrounding the place, Cha cast an affectionate eye over the rambling establishment.Transports of all types and sizes, commercial and private, idled on the ley shoulder, while those converted back to animal form stood in stalls that delivered carefully metered draws of ambrosia, or stood docilely leashed in lines with their riders, waiting their turn.Yeah, it made for a churned-up pixie-muddied mess—especially as the animals tended to dump excretions once out of carriage form—and the area stank to the highest states, echoing with the hoots, cries, and howls of an exotic zoo.
Ley riders weren’t always the most genteel of folk, either.Fae blood brought certain abilities, not refined manners.They were all still only human, and the kind that preferred running ley lines to any kind of polite, family life.Even Dy had her bad girl days before Phinny domesticated her.The riders who weren’t fighting to control their restless beasts were shouting challenges at each other, one duo actively brawling.Prince Charming looked frankly appalled, and Cha clapped him on the shoulder.“Take heart.Just think how no self-respecting royal would imagine looking for you here.”
He gave her such a sour look that she gentled her hand into a pat.“You know not to step on the ley line, right?Even this slow, it can—”
“I’m not an idiot,” he snapped, levering himself up and leaping nimbly to the null margin.
“Pohtaytoh, pohtahtoh,” Cha muttered to herself, resisting the temptation to show off her own athletic ease.All she needed was to catch her toe on a spur and dump her ass right on the ley where she’d told Prince Charming not to go.Slow-black or not, that would cloud her brains right at a time she needed them most.
In fact, Dy was probably right—as usual—and the last thing Cha needed to be thinking about on this epic and critical gig was man-candy, even if he was the finest piece she’d encountered in a long while.Maybe ever.The sooner she could divest herself of the alluring prince, the straighter she’d be thinking.
Mindful of the time—although Cha could easily catch up with Big Betty, dawdling led to the wrong mindset, and you never knew when you’d hit a setback—Cha efficiently triggered Katu’s transformation back into animal form, ready with the leash and collar mandated by law in public venues.And enforced by Giant Jo herself, if anyone dared cause a dustup by losing control of their animal.
“That’s rather unsettling,” the prince noted, an odd look on his face as he watched.Maybe he’d never seen the process before.
Katu was panting lightly, but looked in good form, placidly receiving the collar and eagerly padding toward the carnivore line.Cha wasn’t the only one who remembered this place.She jerked her chin at the bar and grill.“Why don’t you head inside and grab us a table?Order me a beast-burger, parsnip fries, and a bayberry malt.”
“Peasant food.”
She gestured at her rangy, decidedly unroyal self.“I am what I eat.Hopefully it won’t taint your noble blood too much.Get yourself whatever you want.”She eyed his lanky form.“You look like you could use a decent meal.”
He drew himself up in a huff.“I don’t take orders from you, Bandit.”
“Fine, do what you like, but if you want to eat, you’ll need something other than those flashy coins.Stuff like that doesn’t turn up in the humble realms of actual humans.”
He had the grace to wince.“They were for the ceremony.I didn’t have time to grab anything else.”As he said it, he also looked vaguely bemused.Cha suspected the prince wouldn’t have known where to find commonly used coin even if he’d had more leisure before fleeing the altar.
“I’m not judging.”That is, she wasn’t anymore.Still—what kind of wedding ceremony required the delivery of platinum coins?She probably didn’t want to know.Cha inched up in the line as a fine-looking lion finished its drink and its rider paid, swearing at the total.Prices had indeed gone up.“Point is, I’ll cover lunch, since you’re paying me so handsomely, but I’m on a ticking clock here so it would be good of you to bump up the timeline for me by going in and ordering.”
He wanted to argue, she could absolutely read that in him, but he didn’t.To his credit, he didn’t flounce, either.Instead, he prowled off toward the bar and grill, the milling ley riders giving him a wide berth, their wariness making him look much like an unleashed carnivore in the herbivore line.
When it came his turn, Katu drank thirstily, but with elegant economy.A few ley riders complimented the animal, several more looking on with envy.Yeah, jaguars were pricey beasts, and Cha wouldn’t have been able to afford Katu if she’d done everything on the up and up.Hey, when they stacked the deck against you, it paid to learn to have a few cards up your sleeve—and have the moral flexibility that allow for some judicious cheating.She stroked Katu’s flat head affectionately and the cat purred, ready for a rest.
After Katu filled up and she’d converted him back to carriage form—also regulation—and parked him in the shade on the slow-black for a nice nap, Cha made her way inside, greeted by the cheerful sound of a fiddle playing a bouncing reel.One day she should get one of those magic music-playing boxes to listen to on road trips.
Giant Jo presided behind the grill, giving Cha a big grin and a fist-pump of solidarity.Rumored to have the blood of giant fae in her ancestry, Giant Jo towered over everyone and made magic with food.Cha reminded herself to grab Jo some of the effervescent blackberries from Obsidian that the mighty woman loved to put in her special pies.If she had time, that was.
Cha found the prince slumped in a booth, a pair of bayberry malts on the table.From the vibrant magenta stain on the tip of his striped paper straw, he’d at least sampled his.From the sullen look on his fine-boned face, he didn’t love his first encounter with Giant Jo’s cuisine.What would it take to make this broody bit of man-candy really smile?Too bad she wouldn’t get to find out.
She slid into the seat opposite him, sucked down a fast and icy sweet berry-fest, then pinched the bridge of her nose at the instant ache.“Gah—brain freeze.”
“Whoareyou?”he asked, sounding genuinely bewildered.
“Soon to be a cherished, if fleeting, memory.”
He snorted.“Not in the least cherished, though I’ll take fleeting.I can’t wait to put this entireincidentbehind me.”Glancing off to the side, his full lips set broodingly, eyes hooded, he looked briefly vulnerable and so troubled that Cha nearly reached out to pet him.
She opened her mouth to say…she didn’t know what.Comfort wasn’t her strong suit, and he wasn’t the sort to want it, especially not from a peasant.Still—
“Cha, my beauty!”A man slid into the seat beside her, looped an arm around her waist, and drew her into a deep kiss.Mmm.She recognized that particular flavor.
Reluctantly withdrawing from the kiss—Tourqe had always been exceptionally skilled with his mouth and Cha allowed herself a dreamy internal sigh—she patted the cheek of the handsome blond ley rider.“It’s been too long.”
“Muchtoo long,” Tourqe agreed with a sensual smile, hands slipping familiarly over her hips.“Got a few hours?I can get us a room.”He glanced at the prince.“Three could be fun.Remember that inn in Sandpoint?We could—”
“I’d rather be eaten and shat out by fell wolves,” the prince spat.
Cha sighed for real, not at all dreamily.“Tourqe, this is Prince Charming, and we’re on the clock sadly.”Just then the waitress plunked down two identical plates.The prince had clearly taken the shortcut of requesting two of Cha’s order.The server threw the prince such a fulminating glare that Cha could just imagine how he’d bungled that interaction.Cha gave her a nod of thanks and smile that promised a hefty tip, then wriggled out of Tourqe’s stimulating grasp.“Gotta eat and fly, alas.Maybe next time?”
