He actually smiled before laughing in his rumbly weird way. “Of course. Fairy magic doesn’t work so well on old goblins.”
That was a good thing to know. “Can you show me how to get back to the Academy?” I asked him, suddenly exhausted with aching feet—heels were the devil’s work. I mean, they even hurt demigods.
Mossie paused. “I’m running security outside, but I think it’ll be okay if I slip away for a minute to help you home.”
“Thanks. If you can get someone to let Ilia and Larissa know, I’d really appreciate that.”
“No need, girl,” Ilia said, appearing out of nowhere and making me jump. “We followed you out.”
Larissa snorted. “Yeah, we would have been here sooner, but Ilia gave Asher a piece of her mind first.”
Ilia mutteredbastardunder her breath. I adored her loyalty.
“You don’t have to leave just because my night is done,” I said quickly. “Go back and have fun. You both deserve it. I’ll see you for breakfast in the morning.”
Ilia laughed. “You’re crazy, chick. We’re sticking together.”
She winked at Mossie, friendly with the goblin who often helped her when she went out to track down supes. “How do we get out of here, Moss?” she asked. I knew she was more than a little drunk, but the only way to tell in this moment was by how slow and perfectly enunciated each word was.
He shook his head. “Follow me.”
The walk back took almost an hour. We were on the far side of the demi-fey Academy in one of their large halls. On the way, Mossie acted as tour guide, just as he’d done when we’d been searching for the library.
“And here is the swamp,” he said. I could sense how large it was, spanning back almost as far as our ocean. I wondered what lived in there, and for a second my body craved the water so badly that I almost stumbled and tripped.
Dammit. I needed orgasms and swimming. In that order.
And to forget Asher Locke.Fucker.
“He kissed me,” I said softly. “He actually kissed me after everything that he’s put me through over the last few months. Like … one kiss could erase it all.”
The words tumbled out despite my need tonotthink about what happened.
Ilia and Larissa shot me concerned looks. I could see them from the corner of my eyes, but I kept staring straight ahead, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. “How did he know it was you?” Larissa asked. “Mab told me that these masks were virtually foolproof.”
“Mossie knew too,” I said, as way of explanation.
The goblin cleared his throat. “The magic of the masks is starting to wear off. That’s the only reason I could feel some of Maddison’s energy. But, like I said, fairy magic doesn’t work so well on goblins.”
“Asher is not fairy or goblin,” Larissa pointed out. “So how did he know?”
His words were burned into my brain. “He said he would know me anywhere. Even in death, we would find each other.”
I choked on the last words, the hot tears I’d been working so hard to fight finally winning, dripping into my mask. “It hurt so much when I thought he had kissed me not knowing who I was. Like he was cheating on me. But it might actually hurt worse that he did know it was me. We’ve got too much damage between us for him to just jump in with a kiss.”
I’d seen the need in his face. I’d felt it too. But my anger at Asher had almost settled permanently into my soul. Enough that if he tried to kiss me again, I might not stop at one punch.
“I’m proud of you,” Ilia said suddenly, shocking me. “I know how hard it must have been to have him touch you like that, but you didn’t cave. You fought back. You showed him how strong you are now.”
I didn’t feel strong. I felt like a swift fucking breeze would shatter me into a million tiny pieces until I was no more than a whisper of a memory. But I’d been in a dark place like this before, and I had come out stronger on the other side.
This would not beat me.
34
Asher
“We pushed it too fucking far,” Calen said, running his hands through his hair. His face was tight with anger, and normally I’d worry about that—his fucked-up past often came back to haunt him, and while he’d been dealing better since Maddi came into our lives, lately…
