Yana stepped toward him and touched his face, her fingers cool as they pressed on the salt-tender flesh under his eyes.
“That’s all? You sure?”
He stepped back. “It’s your mother’s house,” he said. “It’s neverall, but it’s all I came here to tell you.”
Her hand dropped to her side. “Be careful. You got away once. My family never lets prey go to ground twice. Arkady won’t let you go again.”
“What’s he going to do? Lock me up? Tie me to the bed?”
That slipped out. It was more fantasy than fear. Yana had the grace to just give him a disparaging look and ignore it.
“I would,” she said. The corners of her mouth turned down slightly. “And mother would if she thought it would keep her golden boy happy.”
Cash shook his head. “You know better than that,” he said. “She hated that I crawled into Arkady’s bed. Some half-human charity case wasn’t exactly who she envisaged on Arkady’s arm at family events.”
“Yet here you are,” Yana said.
“Donna didn’t invite me.”
“Neither did I, and yet….” She trailed off and, point made, waved her hand dismissively at him. “If you’re done, then? I need to unpack my trousseau, prepare the bonbonnieres, and decide what I want to say with my bouquet.”
It didn’tfeeldone, but Cash supposed that his conscience was clear. Technically, which was the best kind of clear. He glanced down at the picture of Ellie and decided he could definitely face her when she got back from camp.
“You’ll need to talk to Ellie when you get back,” he said. “She’ll be upset otherwise.”
Yana glanced over her shoulder at him. “She’s a monster now,” she said quietly. “She’ll be upset by worse. Would you really want her here? With Kohary? With the great and the grim?”
No. Probably not. Not yet, at least. One day she wouldn’t have a choice, the same as with camp. Right now it was bad enough she was sometimes around her grandmother. But he wasn’t happy about it.
“Congratulations on your wedding day, Yana,” he said to her back. “I would have gotten you a gift, but it was short notice.”
He started toward the door. His foot had just touched the threshold when Yana’s voice caught between his shoulder blades like a hook.
“In fact, maybe you’re right,” she said. “If you and Arkady are a thing again, maybe Ellie should spend more time with me and Jerome.”
He turned around. “Yana—”
“See?” she said without looking around. “You’re still too soft to survive this family, Casper. Just like she is.”
“THEY’RE HERE,”Cash said as he slid onto the seat next to Harry. It was in the café instead of the bar, but the rest of his setup was the same. Harry twitched at the company and glanced around. “I saw Yana Abascal arrive earlier. She came in through the family’s private entrance.”
Harry lifted his cup to his mouth and pretended to take a drink. His mouth moved behind the cover of the rim.
“We aren’t supposed to know each other,” he said stiffly.
Cash shrugged and leaned over, his hand braced on the edge of Harry’s seat. “So, I’m hitting on you,” he said. Harry gave him a dour look from behind the heavy fake glasses, and Cash smirked at him. “What? You’ve never hit on a cute stranger in a coffee shop?”
“I’m straight,” Harry said. He put his coffee down and looked away from Cash to scan the room. He tapped the edge of his glasses twice as someone who passed by got his attention. His monster-hunting skills were fifty-fifty at the moment. “And I’m ordained.”
Huh.
The steam of the lie bled from cracks in Harry’s close-fitted aura. It was thin and acrid as nicotine, the taste of shame and regret. Most lies weren’t so obvious—or Cash would have known whether Yana was serious or not—but self-delusion had hang time.
It wasn’t Cash’s problem, although he filed it away for the monster to gnaw on. It might be useful later.
“There are cute girls in coffee shops,” he pointed out. “And you weren’t born with a collar.”
“I had a caul,” Harry said. “So might as well have been.”
