“My resting bitch face is strong today.” I picked at the hem of my pale pink skirt. I was dressed as if I worked in an office, while Ivy wore the more standard Order attire of cargo pants, a cotton T-shirt, and the kind of boots you could kick ass with. Miles, the head of the Order, had me on the bench. Well, I’dalways been benched, relegated to research, which wasn’t bad. I mean, I loved learning things and tracking down info, either from scouring the internet or flipping through pages of books that smelled old. At least, I’d loved it up until recently.
Until I had to hide the fact that I was hunting, even from Ivy and Ren. All they knew was that I had been working with the King to find the younglings. They didn’t know I was patrolling, just like they were.
And when the shit hit the fan, no one called me…unless they needed to know a location or needed someone to pick them up.
Now, I was feeling, well, not all that useful.
“No one’s RBF is as good as Faye’s.” Ivy leaned back, hooking one leg over the other.
The dark-haired fae slid Ivy a long look, and…yeah, that was a really strong RBF. “Pot, meet kettle.”
Ivy grinned. “Tink’s leaving today, right?”
“This evening. I’m going to miss him,” I admitted. “Don’t tell him that, though. He probably won’t go if you do.”
“I’m glad he’s going. It’s about time he gets out there and sees something that doesn’t involve the Amazon website.”
I laughed.
“The community in Florida is excited to meet Tink,” Faye commented. “None of them have ever seen a brownie. It’s a big deal to them.”
“They can keep him,” Ren chimed in from sifting through the doughnuts.
“Whatever.” Ivy rolled her eyes. “You’d be sad if he didn’t come back.”
Ren didn’t respond to that, and I thought about how quiet my house was going to be tomorrow. No Tink. No Dixon.
“So, what’s going on?” Ren returned, half a powdered doughnut consumed. How his shirt didn’t end up looking as ifhe’d shoved his face in a pile of cocaine was beyond me. “Why the meeting?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Faye twisted the long strands of her hair. “Kalen texted this morning saying we needed to meet.”
No sooner had she finished that sentence than the door opened. Tanner, who was like the head honcho of the day-to-day goings on at Hotel Good Fae entered first. I saw the way he presented himself to humans for only a few seconds before the glamour faded away. The only thing that didn’t change was his hair. It was salt and pepper, proving that he was aging like a normal person would. There seemed to be more white each time I saw him. He hadn’t fed in a very long time.
He wasn’t alone. Kalen followed him, dressed very similarly to Ivy and Ren in dark cargo pants and a plain shirt. Fair-haired, he looked to be around Faye’s age—in his mid-twenties, maybe a little older. Both he and Faye were fighters, warriors, and I was pretty confident that neither fed. Besides being highly allergic to iron, they could be taken out in just about any way a human could, even though they were faster and far stronger than we were.
Tanner smiled as his gaze moved over us, stopping on me. His grin faded a little. I sighed. He was still irritated with me. I started to look away, but then a third individual entered the room, and the air seemed to be sucked right out.
It was the King.
I wasn’t surprised to see him here. He was always at these meetings, impromptu or otherwise, but no matter how many times I saw him, it was still a shock to the system.
Especially when he wore what he did now. There was just something about a loose, white dress shirt rolled up to the elbows that got me hot and all kinds of bothered. I had no idea why.
My gaze flicked up, and I saw that, like the last few times I had seen him, he wore no crown. I’d only seen it once, when he revealed it. How he made it appear and then disappear, I had no idea.
I looked away, exhaling long and hard. Today, I would just pretend that he didn’t exist. I wouldn’t interact with him, and I wouldn’t rise to the bait. He could say whatever he wanted, tell me as many terrible stories as possible. It wouldn’t change anything.
Faye rose, bowing elegantly in the King’s direction.
“There’s no need for that,” he advised her. “I keep telling you that. All of you.”
“Habit,” Faye murmured.
Despite what he had just said, all but Kalen waited until the King sat in one of the upholstered, gray chairs before they took seats themselves. Kalen remained standing just to the left of the King.
Because I apparently had no self-control, I glanced over to where the King sat. Our gazes immediately connected.Crap. I refocused on Tanner, my heart thrumming.
“Thank you all for coming.” Tanner leaned back, clasping his hands together. “Unfortunately, Kalen has some distressing news that we felt we needed to share.”
