“Fine. Then I’m going too.”
“Absolutely not.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he continued, “I don’t have time to look after you. Unfortunately, you dying doesn’t help me.” Eyden gave her one final glance and then disappeared through the door, pulling it shut behind him.
Lora almost screamed after him. She had given a piece of herself by telling Eyden about her mum’s condition and all he said was that there was enough time. But time was a slippery thing. You never quite knew how much you had left.
She couldn’t sit and wait for his return. Eyden was an infuriating mystery and she couldn’t take it anymore.
Lora opened the door again and scanned the outside for his whereabouts. Eyden was walking down the street as if he had no care in the world. The sun had started to set, cloaking him in shadows as he disappeared.
Hastily, she checked her pocket. Her phone and pocket knife were still there. Lora might’ve blamed her unrelenting headache for the impulsive decision she was about to make, but she did it anyway. Good thing she had chosen to wear the new fae clothes Eyden had gotten her with the dresses.
Pulling the hood of her jacket over her head, Lora ran after Eyden. The door fell shut behind her, locking automatically.
She tried to move quietly but fast. It was a struggle to keep up with Eyden while also taking note of the route she was taking. She had saved Eyden’s flat as a location on the map on her phone, but she couldn’t be running around with it in plain sight. She needed to be able to find her way back on her own if she had to. The last thing Lora wanted was to get lost in the fae world.
Eyden turned left and, after waiting a few breaths, Lora sneaked into the same small alley. But there was no one in sight. The path wasn’t short enough for Eyden to have disappeared this fast at his pace. Had he run? She almost started sprinting down the alley when a voice halted her in her tracks.
“You really thought you could spy on me, didn’t you? And here I was beginning to believe you were smarter than that.”
She turned around and, as expected, found Eyden standing there, a smug look on his face. How did he get behind her so fast? She must have underestimated the speed of the fae.
“You have an unfair advantage,” she said.
“Intelligence? Yes, I’d say so.”
She couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes as she bit out, “Basic fae abilities. How long have you known I was following you?”
Eyden walked closer to where she was standing. “I knew as soon as you caught up with me. I could hear your steps trailing me.”
“How did you know it was me?”
“A feeling. Also, your scent.”
Now she smelled? Was this what their arguments had come to? “Your insults are getting lame. I just showered.”
Eyden chuckled quietly, the sound deep yet restrained to their ears only. “You mostly smell like my soap.”
Great, that wasn’t weird at all. How did they get to this conversation? “Moving on, where are we going?” Lora asked.
Eyden dropped his head in defeat. “Since I don’t have time to walk you back, we’re going to a bar. And we’re being stealthy.” He gave her a serious look. “No more talking.”
* * *
The last couple of hours had been pretty dull, but at least Lora’s headache had subsided enough to let her think with more clarity. She had been contemplating what Eyden’s motivations could be as they sneaked around Chrysa.
From what Lora could tell, Eyden’s mission was to follow a guard from one bar to the next. To what end, she didn’t know. She did realise it was far from safe, being this close to a guard and basically stalking him, but she wouldn’t admit that now. They had stayed outside in the shadows, Eyden keeping an eye on the guard through windows, never getting too close to him.
It seemed like the guard had a pretty uneventful day, yet Eyden would sometimes pull out a small notebook, identical to the ones he had stored in the secret closet space. He would hastily scribble down notes with a shiny black pen that was decorated with delicate silver flowers and had a small ornament hanging from one end. Not exactly what she would have imagined Eyden to be writing with, but she had already established he was a mystery in many ways. The ballpoint pen probably came from the market, as it was a mundane thing to own. The fae usually wrote with fountain pens, according to her research.
As they waited outside a bar, Eyden seemed restless too. He was tapping his pen against his notebook impatiently. She guessed he wasn’t getting whatever information he was looking for.
When he stopped his repetitive movement abruptly, Lora followed Eyden’s eyes as a younger guard exited the bar they were currently surveilling. Eyden inclined his head with a newfound interest. He shoved his belongings into his pocket and off they went.
They walked far behind the guard and through a crowd of fae. Darkness had fallen over Chrysa, making it even more difficult to keep the guard in her sight. Lora couldn’t keep track of their new target. Eyden seemed to have no such trouble. He led her forward with no hesitation then slowed down as they neared the busy nightlife district.
Lora recognised Caligo, the club they had gone to yesterday, a few buildings ahead of them. For a second, she was afraid they’d have to go back there and run into Blue, but Eyden wasn’t looking in that direction. His eyes were trained on the club opposite Caligo. A club with blacked-out windows and lightly dressed fae waiting outside. Some disappeared inside the club as they linked arms with other fae, having a blast, it seemed. Lora had never been to a strip club or anything similar but she was certain she was looking at that kind of establishment.
“We’ll have to go in there,” Eyden said.
