“Almost an hour more than that,” she admitted, and the prince made a sound of disgust, shaking his head.“Hey, I rescued you.You could show a little appreciation.”
“Told you so,” Dy said.“I left some high white for you.Try to make up the time, please.”
“Have I ever let you down?”
“Consistently,” Dy snapped and the box went dark.
“You two have a beautiful friendship,” Prince Charming observed.
“I know.”Cha allowed a beatific smile.
He bit out a sigh.“Give me your hand.”
“Aww, I’m touched, but we just met.And you’re already engaged.”
“Are you always an asshole?”
“Yes, but I’m your asshole now, darling.”She could’ve been wrong—it had happened once or twice before—but she thought he smothered a laugh.Reaching over he snagged her bad hand.“Hey!Watch the grabby grabby.”
“You liked it well enough with that Tourqe idiot.”
“Well, what hedoesthink with, he uses very well and—ouch!”
“Don’t be a baby.”
“I’m not, I…oh, now that’s nice.”Her hand had abruptly stopped hurting, the cessation of agony almost orgasmic.She tipped her head back, closed her eyes, and sighed at the sheer relief.
“Shouldn’t you be keeping your eyes on the road?”he asked.
“I am, metaphorically speaking.”As promised, Dy had left a thin line of white down the network of rural leys, guiding Cha back to the Thirteen via a series of shortcuts.Mostly she just had to keep a mental feeler out for anything dumb enough to wander onto the white to get fried there.She could leave the rest to Katu.Cracking one eye open, she risked a glance at her maimed hand, pleasantly surprised to see it looking almost normal again.“What did you do?”
He shrugged, acting nonchalant, and released her hand.“A spot of therapy.”He reached across her, gave her an arch look when she jumped, then laid careful fingers over her scorched shoulder.“You need to learn not to stand in the way,” he murmured.
“Yeah, totally my fault.”
“Good of you to admit it.”As the pain in her shoulder lessened, he dropped his hand to her bum leg, healing the thigh wound, which turned out to be a fell-wolf bite she didn’t remember getting.“All better,” he told her, more than a little smugly.
“Th—I appreciate it,” she said, amending her thanks at the last moment, recalling how insistent he’d been that he hadn’t thanked her.If he was full or even mostly fae, then thank-yous were verboten.
“Least I could do given the rescue effort.”
She flexed the hand, beyond relieved to have it back in working order, but unwilling to say so.Also: they really needed to talk about who in the seven hells he really was, but she was afraid to find out.She’d hate to have to leave him by the side of the road, after all the trouble she’d gone to.“I was hoping for another platinum coin,” she told him instead.
“Isn’t one enough?”
“I, ah, kind of lost the other one.”
“You.Lost.A platinum coin.Is that what happened to your hand—the coin burned a hole through it?”
“Pretty much.”And that was all she was going to say on the subject.“On-ramp coming up.”
This entrance to the Thirteen went more smoothly—though it could hardly have been worse than the last one—as Dy had led her to a decently threaded ley meant to enter the main line at speed.They inevitably slowed, however, as they lost the high-test white and dropped down to a smattering of dark gray.Katu hit a nice cruising speed and Cha settled in for some serious catching up with Big Betty.
“Why did you come after me?”Prince Charming asked after a while.
“Told ya—I was hoping for another platinum.”
“You could have endeavored not to lose the first one.”
