“I’m not wasting the twenty-four hours you so generously allotted me on a discussion about my hair,okay?”
A corner of his mouth tilted up. “What shall we discuss then? Theweather?”
“Ways you can become a betterman.”
He snorted. “I’m a lost cause, Feather. If I were you, I wouldn’tbother.”
“But you’renotme.” I brushed my forearms to ward off the nippiness of the Aprilnight.
“I’d much rather discuss yourhair.”
“And if you truly believed you were a lost cause, why give me a secondchance?”
No longer smiling, he said, “I have myreasons.”
My skin broke out in goose bumps. “Whichare?”
“Unimportant.”
I should’ve signed off and picked someone else. Someone who didn’t look like a predator who enjoyed playing with hisfood.
“Are you going to lock me up and torture me?” I found myselfasking.
“I promised you twenty-four hours, not an explanation for making thatpromise.”
He started toward Amir, who stood on the threshold of the limestone mansion like a steel beam, glowering at me as though I were some rat Jarod had plucked out of the sewers and brought home to keep as hispet.
“Are you coming, Feather? You only have twenty-three hours and forty-seven minutes left to make me amend my terribleways.”
The mocking tone of his voice wasn’t lost on me. He didn’t believe I could change him. Truth was, I didn’t believe it myself, but I desperately wanted my missing feathers, so I jolted forward, my bronze heels scraping against the cobblestones. As I passed by the fountain, my gaze wandered to the statue’s ruinedback.
Not an omen,Leigh.
Then why did it feel likeone?
A full body shiver skittered through me as I entered thehouse.
“You seem captivated by my fountain,” Jarodsaid.
I looked up into his dusky face. “Shame it’sbroken.”
“I thought you had a fascination with brokenthings.”
I examined his hooded eyes. The lighting in the vestibule was low, but I could tell they were a shade of brown so deep they could be confused with black. “Duty, not fascination,” I answered as I sidesteppedhim.
Muriel wasn’t there tonight, and the door that led to the incubi den was propped open, so I treaded over toit.
“Your bag, Feather,” Jarod said. “I don’t allow cell phones inside myhome.”
I tucked the supple leather against me. “I won’t useit.”
“Another reason to leave itbehind.”
I bit my lip, then shaking my head, I unhooked the bag from my shoulder and held it out. Amir seizedit.
“He’ll take good care of it,” Jarodsaid.
His bodyguard didn’t seem like the type to take good care of anything. He seemed like the type who crushed throats with his giant fists and skulls with his meatyhead.
