“Stop tapping.”
Sage’s voice cuts through the noise. I glance down to find my fingers drumming against the table—again—and flatten my hand against the surface.
“I’m not.”
“You are,” Ivy says, smiling over her drink. “You’ve been doing it since we got here.”
“That or mangling straw wrappers like they insulted your mother,” Grant adds.
I roll the last of the shredded paper into a tight ball and flick it across the table, hitting him between the eyes. “I’mfine.”
Sage raises a subtle brow at me, communicating without words that he knows exactly why I’m restless. Hell, they all do. But I can’t think about that right now. The memory of Tobias’ expression when I said I was leaving twists something painful in my chest. I’d promised this trip wouldn’t take long, and here I am, breaking that promise. We’re going on six hours in this fucking city, and I’m over it.
There’s a restless hum under my skin, like my wolf is ready to rip free. It’s not nerves exactly—more like a deep urge todosomething. Prodigy alwayshits me like this—fills me with energy but no purpose. It’s why I love and hate coming here.
Jericho arranged for us to meet Kaine at a place called The Rookery. It’s a bar-slash-restaurant in the heart of downtown, which means it’s right in the thick of the mage energy. All the walls shimmer faintly with wardlight, runes and sigils shifting like heat ripples under the deep blue paint. The air hums to the upbeat background music, and beads of color float lazily over each table, bursting into soft glows as the servers make their rounds.
It’s also one of the best places to get mixed drinks with blood in it. Perfect for vamps.
We’ve shared two pitchers of beer in the time we’ve been here, and Jericho is slowly working his way through a blood cocktail that glitters faintly with gold. I’m surprised he can stomach it, since I haven’t seen him eat any other human food. It’s probably mostly blood.
A swift, sharp buzz captures my attention, and I turn just in time to witness a purple-haired pixie steal a tip from a recently vacated table.
“Hey!” I snap, but the little bastard flies away before I can stop them. Damn pixies. I hate them.
At the table next to us, a shifter is in wolf form, keeping watch beside his alpha. Probably using his heightened senses to compensate for the noise. It’s impossible to hear anything here. Around us, humans and supernaturals chatter excitedly, and a few of them are dancing in the corner.
It’s the perfect place for a meeting no one should overhear.
“Any sign of them?” I ask Jericho.
He checks his phone. “Nothing.”
“For fuck’s—they’re the ones who called this meeting!” Grant’s tone could cut glass. “How are they late?”
Because they’re Kaine and Willow, that’s how. I don’t say it, but everyone knows. Kaine does everything on his own terms.
“Actually, Kaine tried to tell me what he learned over the phone,” Jericho says. “I insisted you guys be here for it.”
Forest seems pleased, tipping his head at Jericho. “In a city this size, it’s not uncommon to be a little late. Let’s be kind when they get here.”
Grant’s jaw ticks as he stares at the empty doorway. His loathing for Kaine could not run any deeper. But tonight we need him to put that disdain aside—because Kaine has information we need.
“Fucking finally,” he mutters, as he gets to his feet to wave them over.
Kaine looks like he just crashed through a fae portal, despite not having an ounce of fae blood in his system. His long white-silver hair is windswept and messy, and his blood-red shirt is half-buttoned, like he just rolled out of a fight. Willow’s in a plain purple hoodie, and her blue hair sticks to her damp face, but otherwise she seems fine.
“Where the hell have you been?” Grant asks as they pull out some chairs.
Kaine flips his around to straddle it backwards. “Nice to see you too, jerkface.”
When he sees Jericho’s drink, he snags it and downs it in two gulps.
“You’d better pay for that,” Jericho says.
Kaine wipes his mouth, hand coming away streaked with red. “Sorry. Needed the boost. Now—where were we?”
The table falls silent, and the buzz in my veins sharpens. “You were going to tell us where you found one of them?”
