Falon took his beer with a nod of thanks. “We now know all the colours the arch can go. Purple for fae, red for a shifter, green for a witch.” He took a sip of his beer, giving an appreciative moan when he realised I’d asked for a shot of aconite in it. “And blue for humans.”
My head shot up. “Blue?”
“Yeah, a couple tried to get in just after you left, but they were politely asked to leave.” He gestured to his wrist. “No permission.”
My pulse slowed and relaxed back against the wall. Axel’s words rang in my head.
“What if he’s not human?”
He had to be.
And what if he didn’t even show up tonight. Now that Axel had sewn a seed of doubt, I had to know for sure, and I couldn’t exactly just come out and ask him. Well, I could, but it wasn’t something I felt comfortable doing, and he didn’t have to tell me even if I did ask.
I was still thinking about it when Axel elbowed me in the ribs.
I knew before looking up who he’d spotted.
My heart rate kicked up a notch and I licked my lips as Max and Gabriel walked through the entrance to the club. They paused to let the people in front of them go through the arch one at a time. My mouth went dry, pulse racing as Max went through.
It glowed red as expected.
Gabriel walked up next. I searched his wrists for the tell-tale wristband, but they were both bare.
A cold shiver trickled down my spine like icy fingers and I held my breath. The world around us seemed to stop as Gabriel stepped under the arch. For a split second, it flickered blue and I started to relax, thinking I must’ve missed the wristband he was wearing, but then just as quickly the blue faded, turning a pale purple instead.
Fuck.
“Not as strong as the other fae who’ve come in, so I’m guessing he’s not full fae,” Falon mused.
Three sets of eyes turned my way, two curious and surprised, the other not as smug as I expected. Meanwhile, I struggled to catch my breath, still reeling from the fact that Gabriel wasn’t human after all.
He’d lied about that too.
Max didn’t look at all concerned so clearly it wasn’t a secret either.
It hitme harder than I’d expected, and I took a shaky step backwards until I felt the wall behind me. How could he run with hunters when the vast majority of them wanted nothing more than to see us dead? Liked nothing better than baiting a non-human then claiming self-defence?
He’s one of us, for fuck’s sake.
And I’d trusted him so completely.
What did that say about me and my ability to protect my pack if I couldn’t even protect myself?
I didn’t realise I was shaking until I felt Talis’s hand on my shoulder.
“Breathe,” he murmured. He dug his fingers in, grip tight enough to snap me out of whatever the fuck had taken hold of me, and I sucked in a ragged breath, the surroundings flooding back in with a whoosh. “All right?” he asked, green eyes full of concern.
I took another deep breath in, forcing myself to hold it a moment before letting it out slowly, thankful when the next one came easier. Axel and Falon had moved to shield me from the rest of the club, and I breathed another sigh of relief that I hadn’t shown everyone else exactly how weak Gabriel made me.
I hated him more in that moment than I ever had.
“I’m good,” I said, finally meeting Talis’s gaze. He stared at me a moment, searching for the truth before nodding and letting me go.
“You thought he was human,” he said, more of a statement than a question.
“I did.”
I expected Axel to be ready with an “I told you so,” but instead, he lowered his voice to barely more than a whisper. “Having fae blood would let him enter the Fae Realm, but it wouldn’t be as easy as just walking through the gateway. I think it unlikely that he’d be able to get his hands on any Blue Alhuirn without help.”
