I heard Keegan growl low behind me. Craning my head back, I saw him glaring at one of the male dancers. A bar patron was shoving a twenty dollar bill in the elastic of his waistband. Once he had finished tucking the bill in, the bar patron turned back to look at Keegan as if he sensed or smelled him. He had sleek black hair, shaved at the sides and big on top—one of those hot hipster guys. He took one look at Keegan, his mouth pursing to a thin line, and gave a little wave before turning back towards thedancer.
Nadine was white as a sheet in Keegan’s arms, but spoke through gritted teeth. “If you still love him, then you should just tellhim.”
Keegan scoffed and looked elsewhere. “He’s the one wholeft.”
My eyebrows rose in surprise. Damn, big badass alpha was gay? My gaydar must be broken because I could usually call that. That’ll teach me not to stereotype. As we beelined it towards a set of double doors, I saw the guy Keegan had been sulking about look longingly at Keegan’s back. Love could be painful, and in this moment, I was super glad to besingle.
Finally, we reached the closed doors and Logan wasted no time banging furiously on them. After a moment’s pause, a large man who looked like another bodyguard opened it. He took one look at Logan andnodded.
“She’s busy with another customer. You’ll have towait.”
I could see the muscles in Logan’s jaw tighten. The guard looked at me and recoiled. “Leave that stinky mutt outside. She won’t want it in theoffice.”
“What the hell did you just call me?” I stepped forward, but Logan yanked meback.
“Tell Eva I have a gold unicorn,” Logan saidfirmly.
The guard rolled his eyes. “Are you drunk,Logan?”
“Tell her! She’ll know what it means!” he ordered, and I felt some type of power in his voice. It pushed against my skin like a physicalthing.
The guard sighed andleft.
Not thirty seconds later the door flew open and a beautiful woman with long black hair who looked to be in her early forties was ushering her client out. “Come back tomorrow. I’m closednow.”
The client, an older man in his fifties, looked offended, butnodded.
The woman’s eyes then fell on me. Her nostrils flared but she didn’t recoil. Instead, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, and then rose again inwonder.
“Nick, out!” she yelled behind her at theguard.
He looked hurt for a moment, but must have been used to the behavior, because he shuffled past us holding hisnose.
“Logan, what have you brought me?” Her voice helddisbelief.
Logan pulled me forward still clutching my arm and shook his head. “We’re in a shitload of trouble, Eva, and we need yourhelp.”
She waved us in, concern pulling at her features. I saw that her eyes looked similar to the doorman’s, buttery yellow, but not glowing. She wore a crisp grey four-piece suit with a matching top hat. This woman was an alpha in her own right; I could sense that. The entire pack filed into what was a giant office. The walls were filled with floor-to-ceiling books and jars and other weird crap I didn’t evenrecognize.
Eva’s eyes were pinned on me. “Honey, take off thehood.”
Logan let my arm go finally and nodded to me. “Eva is the only sorcerer you will ever be able totrust.”
That sounded comforting.Not.
I pulled my hood back, letting my red hair fall out, and Eva looked straight into my eyes. Her eyes flashed yellow like a fire that had ignited, and then glowed a hot copper. “It can’t be,” shebreathed.
“She’s skyborn. I don’t know how, but I need you to erase her scent like you did mine. And she doesn’t heal when injured so I think hermag—”
“Holy mother of magic,” Eva breathed, and I couldn’t look away from those copper eyes. She stepped closer to me and inhaled, but then frowned. “It was smart of you to cover her scent to get her in here, but I need her clean in order to do thespell.”
Nadine whimpered behind me and Eva shifted her attention to look at her shoulder. “Logan, show her to my private apartment. She needs to shower. In my top drawer, she needs to use the black bar of soap—not the purple one. I have extra dancer costumes she can wear home.” She indicated a pile of purple velvet folded bikinis in plastic bags in the corner of theroom.
My eyebrows rose as I looked at the outfit. Sure, it was cute for summer on the beach in California … by myself. Not walking through a club in the middle ofwinter.
Logan didn’t look too pleased with the idea either. “We’ll make it work,” he mumbled to me, grabbing one of the plasticbaggies.
“Nadine, my darling. What happened?” Eva’s voice held all the love of a concernedmother.
