“That is forever. Come on, it will be the best threesome ever.”
Straightening, I arched a brow.
“Chris Evans. Popcorn. Face masks. That kind of threesome.”
“Uh-huh.” I reached into the cubby hole, grabbing what looked like simple bracelet cuffs. In reality, they hid iron blades sharp enough to pierce fae skin and cut an Ancient’s head off. “You can still have that threesome without me.” I snapped the cuffs into place. “I’ll be home late.”
Tink turned. “The King doesn’t want you out there.”
I stopped, and it took me a moment to face him. “That’s why you’ve gone from wanting me to take you with me, to asking that I don’t go out.”
He lifted a shoulder.
Taking a step toward him, I reminded myself that I liked Tink and stabbing him wouldn’t be cool. “Have you been tellinghimI’ve been hunting?”
The brownie’s face went impressively blank. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Tink.” I met his stare and held it.
He threw up his hands, startling Dixon enough that the cat released my pillow. “I didn’t tell him anything, but just so you know, if he demands it, I have to. He’s my King.”
“Really?” I replied dryly.
“Yeah. Sort of. But, seriously, he hasn’t asked me if you’ve gone out, but he has told me that he doesn’t want you out there. It’s not safe. He thinks—”
“I know what he thinks.” I’d seen the King since he told me that there was nothing between us, which had come right after I admitted to myself that I was developing serious feelings for him—had already fallen for him, actually. Things weren’t exactly amicable between us. I was confident that if Tanner, the fae who oversaw Hotel Good Fae, heard me call his King an asshole one more time, he was going to ban me from the hotel. My jaw tightened. “He’s told me every time he’s seen me that I have no business hunting fae. That it’s the Order’s job. I guess, like everyone else, he’s forgotten that I work for them, too.”
Which was why I kept calling him an asshole to his face. It wasn’t because he didn’t want me, even though he’d led me to believe that he did. It wasn’t because he made me think I was special and beautiful and interesting without the makeup, the fake hair, and the skimpy clothes. He was a different kind of asshole for those reasons. In a way, his dickish attempts to control me—which had failed—made it easier to deal with what had happened. The deep hurt had quickly given way to anger. And cursing someone out was far better than lying awake at night, crying as I ate yet another cupcake.
“He hasn’t forgotten.” Tink’s voice was soft. “I don’t think you understand why he’s done what he’s done.”
Oh, I thought I understood perfectly. I was nothing to him, and whatever we did have had just been a mistake in his eyes. After all, he was not only a fae, he was the King, and I was just…Brighton, a thirty-year-old who had helped his brother once when injured. The King claimed that wasn’t the reason he’d healed me after the attack, but I believed differently. He felt like he owed me.
“I don’t care enough to understand his motivations,” I said. “I know why he doesn’t want me out there.”
The King didn’t want me to stand down just because it wasn’t safe. And while I at least hoped he didn’t want to see me dead, I didn’t think he was losing any sleep over the possibility.
No, the real reason was that the King was also looking for Aric. Back in the Otherworld, the Ancient had been one of his Knights. Aric had betrayed him to Queen Morgana, stabbing him through the chest and weakening him so that he was susceptible to the batshit crazy Queen and her magic. So, yeah, he had valid reasons for going after him.
But so did I.
If the King found Aric first, he’d kill him, and I would never get the chance to carry out my vengeance against the creature responsible for killing my mom. And, well, that was…that was all I had.
The rapid thump of music from the overhead speakers matched my mood as I swayed in the shadows of Flux’s dance floor, a club that catered to the fae. This was where I’d found and killed Tobias, one of the fae who’d joined Aric in the attack against my mother and me.
I wasn’t worried about being recognized in the mass of twisting human flesh that churned alongside and against the fae in the place. Most of those that frequented Flux were of the Winter Court—thebadCourt that actively hunted humans to feed on so the fae did not age. The very same Court that belonged to Queen Morgana. Every so often a Summer fae was spotted, but those sightings were few and far between.
I saw no fae at all tonight.
Questing hands slipped from my waist and slid down to my hips again. Frustration made me grab What’s His Name’s wrists harder than I intended. I’d honestly rather be scrubbing my lady bits with a brillo pad than dancing with an obvious first-timer to New Orleans, one who wore so much cologne, he could star in an Axe body spray commercial. However, lurking alone in a club like this was suspicious. Not when everyone came here to hook up.
“Damn, girl, you got a hell of a grip on you,” he murmured into my ear. “That’s hot.”
I rolled my eyes as I placed his hands back on my waist.
“So, you come here a lot?” He squeezed my hipbones.
“No,” I said, focusing on the dance floor near the stairs that led to the private second level, where the fae normally chilled in-between glamouring humans and feeding on them.
