He pressed his lips together and went silent. My heart pounded in my chest, and I dug through the conversation, trying to find something I’d said that had tipped him off. He’d seemed to buy my story, and I’d only asked questions anyone else wouldask.
“You aren’t the first supe to answer the ad,” he finallysaid.
I fought back the urge to exhale inrelief.
He continued, “We need more than just one supernatural to pull this off. If we both agree to you, you’ll be joining a team on themission.”
“I guess that shouldn’t surprise me,” I said. “That castle is prettyimpenetrable.”
“We won’t be storming the castle.” He slid his hand into his pocket and extracted a cell phone. “You seem okay to me, even if you are a wee bitcranky.”
Cranky? Me?Never.
I arched a brow. “If you aren’t storming the castle, then what are youdoing?”
“I can’t tell you that,” he said quickly. “It’s not up to me if youjoin.”
“Wait.” I pressed my palms flat on the sticky bar top and leaned toward the human, whose name I still didn’t know. “You aren’t the one in charge of this wholething?”
He snorted, shook his head, and grinned. “That’s what you thought? I’m flattered, but no. I’m just screening supes for theboss.”
Disappointment and irritation battled for dominance inside of me. Bartender Bloke wasn’t going to give me the inside scoop after all. He wasn’t the one in charge. Someone else was. We should have realised. How could a human wrangle a group of rag tag, angry supernaturals whose powers were far greater thanhis?
The answer was, hewouldn’t.
“So, who’s in charge then?” Itried.
“Sorry. Can’t share that either.” He pushed up from the bar top and strode to the other side, refilling my pint glass one more time. “I’ll tell him about you, but it’s up to him what happensnext.”
“Great,” I said dryly. “I lovewaiting.”
“Don’t worry,” he replied with a wink. “You’ll get your revenge on the king on the hill. You’re everything he wants in a supe. I just have to ask one more thing, and then you cango.”
“What’sthat?”
“You’ve been here before, and you pretended like you were human then. You asked for a room but ran the hell out of here after you eavesdropped on some supes. What was that allabout?”
Damn. I’d hoped he hadn’tremembered.
Time to think quick on myfeet.
“I was on the run then, just like I am now,” I tried. “Those were fae, the supes who were in here then. From the sound of their conversation, I thought they were working for Lugh. Hell, I thought they might be trying to track medown.”
He gave a slow nod, as if convinced. “Alright, that makes sense. Give me your number, and I’ll have the bloke call you. He should be in touch soon if he wants tomeet.”
I rattled off the number and slid off the stool, trying to come up with a way to stall. I’d hoped to find answers here at A Knight’s End, but I’d only found more questions. Who was this mysterious supernatural after Lugh? It wasn’t Nemain from the sounds of it, but that didn’t mean it wasn’ttrouble.
I’d hoped tonight’s mission would be the end of things, but I was quickly realising that this was only thebeginning.
5
“Tell me what you’ve learned,”Lugh demanded the instant I stepped foot through the castle gates. This time, he’d been waiting forme.
I let out a heavy sigh, warming my hands in my leather jacket. “The human bloke is notthebloke. Not that I’m particularly surprised. It never made sense that a human would care much about your spear. Even if he got ahold of it, he’d never be able to wieldit.”
Lugh’s expression darkened as he fell into step beside me. We headed toward the Royal Palace, lit up even at this late hour. My heart tripped. He had waited up for me. “I’m not certain I follow. The human isn’t looking for myspear?”
“Oh, he’s looking, but he’s not the brains behind the operation. Or the power.” I glanced up at him, his sharp profile backlit by the bulbous moon. A part of me ached to reach out and trace the line of his profile, to feel his skin beneath my hands. But I bit my lip, holding myself back. Again. “He’s working for someone else. Screening ‘applicants’ was how he described it. He’s had loads ofthem.”
