Page 108 of Let Slip the Dogs of War

Ophelia’s parents are already drawing her to her feet; they seem keen to get her out of here and I wonder if there’ll be an argument about how she should obviously return back home before they go. I know she won’t. She loves it here, and even now, she shoots me a look that tells me she’s fully prepared for that discussion, too.

“We’ll stay with you,” her mum says, and when Ophelia looks at Kieran, he shrugs. Yeah, it’s been a tough couple of days for him too. Not that he blames them, I’m sure, but Ophelia’s parents can be… a lot.

She looks at me next. Does she want them to stay? For a day, maybe; I can see that. “Take my room for tonight,” I say. “There’s not enough room in the living room. You won’t be comfortable.”

“Thank you,” Ophelia’s mum says. As if suddenly remembering, she comes and gives me a hug, too, almost squeezing the life out of me. “Thank you,” she says a second time, and this time, I hear tears in her voice.

“Don’t worry about it.” Like I’d have done anything else. That moment’s hesitation I felt at the Guardians’ house makes me burn with guilt.

“What, are you gonna stay with me?” Felix asks, waggling his eyebrows. “I’ve been stuck in Quinn and Asher’s living room, so it’s going to be a bit cramped if we’re both squeezing together on that sofa…”

Lark scowls. I press my lips together so I don’t grin because I know Felix is only trying to wind him up.

“No. No, I’m gonna…” I glance up at Mamma, and she pushes my curls back from my forehead.

“We’re at a hotel nearby. We can get another room with space for you, Dantino, no problem.”

“He can stay with me,” Lark says, and Mamma winks at me. “I mean… It is not far away.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m gonna do that.”

“Uh-huh.” Mum’s not having it, but she’s not about to interrogate me here. No, that’ll be— “We’ve got our hotel room for a few more days. We’ll have lunch, then dinner with both of you.”

Lark nods when she turns her glare on him. I try not to panic. In the next few days? I’m not sure we’re going to have everything sorted in the next few days.

“Yeah, okay,” I say. Felix says he’ll see my mums out, no problem, then tells Quinn and Asher he’s going back to bed.

“I’ll be here a few more days too,” he says, and Asher makes a faintly distraught sound. “Not forever. Like I don’t have my own shit to do. But yeah, we should have our own hangout. Just the three of us. I’m sure you both have so much gossip to share.”

He eyes Lark and Oisin suspiciously, and Oisin doesn’t seem to like him at all, but Lark is being incredibly restrained. He usually doesn’t like people like Felix; or at least, from what I’ve seen at the café. He didn’t like any of the posh fae back in the Otherworld.

But he likes me. And Felix is my friend, so.

Once they’re all gone, I go boneless in my seat. Lark finally breaks away from Oisin and comes to sit next to me, so we’re all but mirroring Kieran and Lucien across the room.

“You can work all that out on your own time, of course,” Kieran says, and I know he means the bond. I don’t think he can sense them—he didn’t seem to even be able to sense his and Lucien’s before they were all but bonded. “But don’t fuck with him again, Lark. I mean it.”

“I would never,” Lark says. He trails his fingers through my hair and down to my nape. “Oisin?”

Kieran tips his head, fixing on Oisin for a moment, too. “I’ve got somewhere you can stay. Just a room. There’s a couple of other fae in the flat. But they’re friendly, and we can sort out something more permanent in time. You’re too powerful a fae to just have running around London, unfortunately.”

“That is…” Oisin shifts from foot to foot, and I don’t think he’d leave if he could. Doesn’t mean he’ll have to like it, I guess. “Thank you.”

Kieran nods. “No worries. And if you’re inside, don’t worry about your glamour, either. Spectra’s always complaining about hers.”

That seems to settle Oisin further, and he drops his glamour entirely, shoulders relaxing when no one makes any sounds of surprise or dismay. Lark rubs his hands over my shoulders. “Come,” he says. “We should rest.”

Quinn gives us a lift back to Hallowed Grounds, even though it’s a walk away. Good choice, really. I’m listing to one side when Lark lets us into the café, and he presses some power into the wards before he steers me over to the stairs.

“Oh,” I say. “I didn’t bring anything with me.”

Not even my phone charger, God. My mums are going to kill me if they can’t get in touch.

“Drew said he would drop some things by in a few hours,” Lark murmurs. “He wants to prep the kitchen to open again the day after tomorrow. Come along.”

I make an agreeable sound, and he gently pushes me up the stairs ahead of him. All the exhaustion of the past few days is weighing on me, but already my mind is whirring, wondering if anyone watered my plants at the flat, considering when I’ll manage to get Ophelia away from her parents long enough for us to hang out with Felix—if she wants to be away from them so soon, and…

“You are worried,” Lark says. The upstairs of the café is one large, open space, a small studio flat. Lark’s bed lies under the eaves, under the largest window in the room. There’s a small kitchen and a door at the other end that I guess leads to the bathroom.