He laughed again, deeper this time, the skin around his temporarily-amber eyes crinkling. They were the wrong color, but somehow I felt like I could still see the real Keradoc behind them.
I just didn’t know who that real Keradoc was.
Still studying him, I recalled Elian’s earlier accusations again, letting them roll around in my mind, trying to see if any of them stuck.
Murderer.
Kidnapper.
Fae child trafficker.
I knew the first was true—I’d seen him execute two shifters the night of the Feast. It was a thing I couldn’t excuse, but… What if I didn’t have the whole story? What if the shifters were guilty of crimes even more heinous than Keradoc’s crime of beheading them?
And that night, Elian had mistaken Keradoc for Evander. He’d called him by that name several times. If Keradoc had been involved in Evander’s death, wouldn’t he have shown a glimmer of recognition? Guilt? Something?
I closed my eyes and shook my head. None of this made any sense.
“Haley? Are you all right?”
We’d stopped walking, I realized. I opened my eyes and forced a smile, intending to tell him I was fine.
But then, ducking into a building across the street, another fae caught my attention.
A Midnight fae with purple hair.
Everything inside me burned with rage.
“Gem,” I hissed.
Keradoc turned to follow my line of sight.
When he looked at me again, he nodded. “Gem is supervising the operations your companions are working on. That’s the processing and testing facility.”
I handed over all my shopping bags. “Wait here,” I said. “I’m going in.”
“Not alone, you’re not.”
“Incognito, remember? You can’t waltz in there with me and your goon squad. We’ll draw too much attention.”
“But—”
“No buts,” I said. “You can wait for me right across the street. I just need five minutes. Ten tops.”
Just enough time to bleed a bitch dry…
26
ELIAN
I’d been doing my level best to keep my shit together and do my job, but I’d also been high asfuckfor the last two nights, so maybe I wasn’t the best judge of my performance.
Gem had just returned from wherever the fuck she ran off to half the time, and as usual, she brought back a nasty glare for me. And a glower. And a roll of the eyes for good measure.
“How’s it going?” she asked. I didn’t know whether she was talking to me or Jax, but I decided to appoint myself spokesperson for that particular question.
“Excellent.” I grinned, scooping up a handful of the little black beauties. “Truly excellent.”
That, at least, was the truth.
