Niall ignored the question. “We had a bargain, and you broke it. Your sister is forfeit.”
“I did no such thing.”
“So you say.”
“I’m not the one trying to take over Boston.”
“A city like this needs guidance.”
“Not from you.”
“You have a choice, Riordan Maguire. You hand over your sister, or you hand over yourself. Your debt is being called in today.”
Riordan made a fist, fingernails biting into the skin of his palm. He looked over at where Saoirse sat, clutching her hands together before her chest, mouth set in a stubborn line. He could smell her fear, but more than that, he could see thedetermination in her eyes. “Fine. Come make us pay it. We’re at Lady Caith’s.”
He ended the call, in no mood to argue the minutiae of the bargain they’d been forced into. That would happen soon enough. He exhaled sharply, looking over at where Lady Caith stood in the doorway, several of her fae standing behind her. She nodded gravely at him. “He will believe your clan comes first. We know how protective you kin are.”
That didn’t make any of what they were doing better. Riordan had spent centuries keeping his clan safe, and it felt like the bitterest of failures when the doorbell rang not even an hour later, heralding Niall’s arrival, and he would have to choose.
Wade took his hand on the walk through the home to the front door, giving it a hard squeeze. “It’ll be all right.”
Riordan desperately wanted to believe that, but then one of Lady Caith’s fae was opening the front door, revealing Niall standing on the porch, one of his fae servants waiting behind him on the path with an open umbrella. The rain pouring down slanted sideways from the wind, but Niall appeared dry. Riordan could sense the weight of water in the air, his awareness of it tugging at his attention. He thought, briefly, of reaching for it through magic, of using it to lash out at Niall.
But they had a plan, one he’d been outvoted on, and Riordan would do his best to sell it.
“Niall Noígíallach,” Lady Caith said, naming him true and not inviting him inside for any sort of hospitality.
“Lady Caith,” Niall replied with an insincere smile. It was a mark against his position that he didn’t use her title or name her true, either because he didn’t know it or he thought using it wouldn’t help him. If he was still in the process of becoming a prayed-into-being god of some sort, Riordan wondered if Niall didn’t mind the acknowledgment of who he was. “I am not here for you.”
“Of course not. You are here for my allies.”
Niall’s mouth ticked up at one corner, but Riordan couldn’t read the reaction. That piercing gaze snapped to him, and Riordan met it without blinking, refusing to show deference in any way. “I am. Kin do so need to be on a leash, don’t you think?”
Riordan ground his teeth in the face of that insult. “You play fast and loose with your words.”
“I speak the truth.” He did, because it was ingrained in the higher fae how they thought of kin. It didn’t make Riordan hate him any less.
“Yeah, that still makes you an asshole,” Wade said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Niall’s attention shifted from Riordan to Wade, and Riordan wanted to step between them. “Ah, the human from the bar.”
“Yeah. Little old me who sicced the vampires on you and ruined your hotel. By the way, Harper wants her husband back.”
The rage that flashed across Niall’s eyes was easy enough to see, like a storm barreling in from the horizon. “You seem not to know your place.”
“Oh, I know it.” Wade jerked his thumb in Saoirse’s direction. “It’s with her.”
“I’m going with you,” Saoirse told Niall, her voice flat and firm, hands fisted at her side. “You can keep me and my skin, and that’s all you’re getting.”
Wade nodded. “And me. You seem the kind of asshole who likes a little revenge. I mean, how much did that yacht of yours cost?”
Riordan could smell the sharp scent of anger for a split second before Niall got himself under control. Wade smiled at him, a hardness to his gaze that would have been foolhardy if Riordan didn’t know what Wade was.
“Is this your choice, Riordan?” Niall asked. “You would actually give up your sister to my possession?”
No, Riordan wanted to say. But instead, what came out of his mouth was “You stole her skin, and the cost is too high to get it back.”
It took everything in him to choke out those words, not needing to fake how much it pained him to do so. Niall narrowed his eyes but didn’t immediately speak, clearly not getting what he truly wanted—which was Riordan’s clan and territory to eat away at the rest of the kin.
