“Just take the damn drink,” he said in a low growl before whisking away to greet the newest patron at the other end of the bar. With a sigh, I took a sip, and the amber liquid warmed mybelly.
I continued to take small sips of my ale as I watched the bartender work. I hadn’t brought my phone either, just in case. There was too much incriminating information on it, and if the bloke was doing his due diligence, he’d ask to check it. He’d want to see my call history, my texts. I could have deleted it all, but then my phone history would look suspiciously empty. Better to claim I had no phone at all—I’d been squatting, according to my story. No phone wasn’t much of a stretch afterthat.
He didn’t really seem like a mastermind manipulator of supernaturals though. He just seemed…well, normal, really. As he poured a rum and coke for a woman with salt white hair, I took a quick sniff of the air. I’d always been able to pinpoint supernaturals, and their particular kind, just by looking at them, but if that managed to escape me somehow, I could definitely scentthem.
And this bloke smelled one-hundred percenthuman.
So, why was he putting together a team of supernaturals to take down KingLugh?
The minutes stretched into hours. Slowly, as the clock ticked toward two o’clock, the pub finally began to empty until there was no one left in the room except me and the bartender. He’d brought me a couple more drinks over the course of the night, never saying aword.
He grabbed another glass, took it over to the tap, and filled it with water. Then, he rounded the bar and joined me, perching on the stool beside mine. “Here’s the water youwanted.”
I lifted my brows and took the glass. “Thanks, though your service is pretty terrible. It took about four hours to get thisthing.”
He gave a slight smile. “Sorry ‘bout that. I just can’t talk about this business in front of so many people. They won’t get it, and I don’t want to scare anyone off. It’d be bad business. Rent isn’t cheap in OldTown.”
I set the glass beside my half-empty beer. “Because they’re humans, and you’re looking forsupes.”
He winced and flicked his eyes across me. I’d donned a pair of faded blue jeans, a thick flannel shirt with a hole in the sleeve, and a pair of black boots that were my own. I kind of looked like a lumberjack. A homelessone.
“I take it you’re a supe if you answered the ad, but you sure don’t look likeone.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” I sniffed and lifted my chin, trying my best to play the part of a scorned, angry fae. If I were on the run from Lugh, I probably wouldn’t be too fond of supernaturalseither.
“Huh.” He grunted, drawing a hand across his beard. “Well, tell me your story then. Who are you? How’d you find the ad? And why did you answerit?”
I took a long sip of water to give myself time to think. We’d gone over all of this at the castle, but I needed to be careful or I’d set off alarmbells.
“You’re human,” I replied. “Exactly how much do you know about the supernaturalworld?”
He snorted. “Far too much if you askme.”
“So, you know about how the Court system works, right?” I asked, shifting on my stool to face him. “You know what being a solitary faemeans?”
Understanding dawned in his eyes. “Ah, you’re a wee solitary. That explains things. Let me guess. The hill king is trying to force you to join his Court, and you don’t wantto.”
I tried not to register my shock. It was one thing for him to know what a solitary fae was—a fae without a courtly home—and it was another for him to understand that, historically, the royals of the fae courts hadn’t wanted any solitary fae out there in the world. They’d wanted full control ofeveryone.
Things weren’t like that anymore, but this human clearly didn’t knowthat.
“He’s tried to capture me several times,” I explained. “Once, he managed to trap me, along with several others. I escaped but he killed therest.”
Total fabrication, of course. Lugh would never do such a thing, but I had to convince this bloke that I was on his side. That I had good reason to go afterLugh.
The bartender nodded slowly, as if this information didn’t phase him one bit. “Sounds aboutright.”
I cocked my head. “What’s this about anyway? Your ad wasn’t veryspecific.”
“Specific enough to get you to comehere.”
“I’ll give you that,” I said, thinking fast. “But that still doesn’t explain why exactly you put out an ad asking for supes. Something about a spear? Whatspear?”
I figured he would expect that a rogue, on-the-run fae wouldn’t know a damn thing about Lugh’s spear. And I wasright.
“You let us worry about that,” hedrawled.
“Us?” I glanced around the empty pub. “You mean there’s more ofyou?”
