“No. It’s not. Just this once, I’ll help.”
A smirk curves my lips. “Since when didyoustart lovingdung?”
Stannog growls, “I don’t. But I’m not about ter let that poor girl die. Ye brought her here, now ye take her back.”
I groan, rubbing my eyes. Then I twist around in my stool, listening to their conversation.
“You poor thing,” Lord Valent cries in dismay.
Ivy pauses, and it takes me a moment to realise.
They’re talking aboutme…
“He’s…not so bad,” she replies bashfully, and it’s clear she’s having a hard time trying to find something nice to say about me.
She continues, “Sure, he’s crude and selfish, but I’d be dead if it weren’t for him.”
Lord Valent shakes his head, black locks shining with the movement. “Yes, but not at the expense of your necklace. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that Rogue is not your friend. He only meant to deceive you, and it looks like his gambit paid off.”
I glower at him from the corner of my eye. Such a way with words.
But why do I have a sick feeling in my gut? One akin to shame?
Ivy actually has the stomach to look sad for me. Maybe she doesn’t hate me as much as I thought.
“My mama taught me to see the good in everyone, but… I do really have to try with him.”
My world crashes around me. I am notgoodin her eyes.
Lord Valent chuckles, “Well, I can think of one good thing about him. If he hadn’t brought you here tonight, then we never would have met.”
Ivy laughs shyly, and I stick out my tongue. Looks like we’ve got a smooth talker here.
“You can’t continue this way,” Lord Valent announces. “He’s a monster, pure and simple, and he only means to hurt you. I havemy charger outside. Let us make haste before anyone notices we’re missing.”
The blood crashes through my head like the waves of an oncoming storm, and I kick my stool out from beneath me as I finally face the enemy.
“No!”
14
Ivy
Ijerkmyheadtowards the bar, feeling the hair pricking at the back of my neck when I catch sight of Tegwyn.
Pure, unadulterated fear courses through my veins, yet I don’t run. I gawk at the horned faerie, the one whose eyes glow like the dying embers of a hearth. If this is the true wrath of the Fae, then I don’t want to see it.
I sober up immediately, rising from my chair in a bid for escape, but Lord Valent wraps his long, slender fingers around my elbow. “No. Stay put, sweet Ivy. I will deal with this fiend.”
Fiend?Is that what Tegwyn has become now? I just don’t know anymore.
Who is friend and who is foe?
My heart races, yet all I can do is put my faith into the male beside me. He’s the only one displaying any calm right now.
Yet a part of me knows that Tegwyn wouldn’t hurt me. We’re friends… right?
“Is there a problem,Rogue?” Lord Valent asks, looking at Tegwyn.
