She keeps her gaze on the glasses. “What are you saying? I should’ve waited? I didn’t know about the fae in those first few months. I certainly wasn’t smart enough to see through his games.”
“I don’t blame you. I blame him.” I touch my chest above my heart. “I’d have taken you to faery.”
She pushes the glass at me. “It’s all ancient history now.”
I grab the hand holding the shot glass. “It doesn’t have to be.”
“Hey. Let Lindsay go.” Kian puts his arm around my shoulder.
“She was trying to cut me off. Last one, promise.” I wink at her and pretend that everything is fine. I release her hand and she lets go of the glass. Her gaze is too intense, like she can see into me and I don’t like it. I shouldn’t have bared my soul. What should I have done? Ridden until the job claimed me like Shay, like so many others who can’t let go of the hunting and killing?
That’s bullshit. I want to go home.
I want Lindsay.
I do the shot and turn away before she sees too much. I’ll keep my promise. No more shots tonight.
3
Lindsay
My heart is still beating too fast and I can still feel his touch on my hand. There was a spark between us the moment we’d met. Back then there’d been no Outer Realms Café. Riders had met up at the edges of their territory to have a drink, gossip, or pass news along. I’d just happened to be in the right place at the right time to meet Shay and Daire.
They’d both been gorgeous—nothing surprising for the fae—and I’d been smitten by their attention. When Shay had returned alone, I’d accepted his offer of dinner, which had led to more because I was a foolish eighteen-year-old.
The next time I saw Daire I was pregnant and trying to make a go of it with Shay. I’d learned all about the fae, so I knew what he was. While he smiled and laughed with Shay and I, I’d seen the shadows in his eyes and the way his face shuttered when Shay spoke to him. For the longest time I thought I was the wedge…that Daire was just jealous, and that was why he’d stopped coming around.
Why he still didn’t come by the café very often.
I’d misread everything.
Daire had been hurt because Shay had taken me, and it was damn clear Shay didn’t actually want me, he’d just wanted his friend to have no reason to go home and leave him.
“Fucker.”
“Don’t worry about him,” Kian says. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t cause any trouble.”
I glare at him. “Not Daire, Shay. He’s dead, but the trouble he made isn’t.”
“He was an excellent warrior.” Kian nudges Daire’s empty shot glass. “Can I have one?”
“Sure.” I usually try not to bad mouth Shay to other riders. I don’t want to be bitter and to them, he is a good fighter and a friend. I pour the shot. It’s going to be a messy night. But the weather is warm, and the yard is big enough for all of them to pass out on the lawn.
The carpark out the front is full of bikes and there’s more than enough weaponry of an illegal nature for there to be many years of jail time if the cops get near. But one of them will have glamoured the bikes, and if anyone investigates Conall will dissuade them with a few words.
Fae magic can be very useful, but I’m never quite sure if they’re using it on me. Which means I never quite trust them even though they pay well and if anything gets broken, it’s replaced. They are also good with their word. Making it very hard to view them as anything but honest.
Except Shay, he was a lying bastard.
But mostly I heard what he said and thought he meant me. He told me about faery and taking the one to end his ride home, but he’d never actually said I was that woman. I had just assumed.
But Daire…I don’t know enough about him except that my heart flutters like a sixteen-year-old meeting their pop star idol in person. Young fool, old fool. Still a fool for a fae. I shake my head and set up a tray of shots to take around.
Oran and Danni aren’t here. She called to say they’d arrive tomorrow. I don’t think she wanted to listen to people talk up her dad, and I don’t blame her.
With twenty shots on the tray, I make my way around the riders. They are sitting at the café tables or perched on crates. They’re talking about monsters, home, and riders that have died. The usual.
But when one of their own is freshly dead, there’s always a more somber tone, as if they know they could be next. A few of the newer ones watch me and I know they want to know why Shay never took me home.
