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Adrian snickered, glancing at the space Brittney and Leander had occupied just a moment ago. “It's just you and me,” he stated.

“Everyone out if you want to live,” he commanded, his voice full of confident authority.

The room cleared, with many patrons grabbing their drinks on their way out. “Where is Brittney?” I asked him. If Leander had taken her to the Fae Realm, I’d be using the diamond to go after her.

“She’s here with us, fulfilling her obligations,” Adrian informed me.

I filed that information away, assuming he meant they had power similar to a sorcerer's, where they could fold time and space into small pockets that existed outside of everything around them. Leander and Brittney had simply vanished, there one moment and gone the next.

There was nothing I could do to reach her. My magic wasn’t powerful enough. It took everything within me to modulate my pulse. “Return her to me,” I demanded.

Adrian arched a brow. “The diamond?”

He wasn’t going to give me Brittney whether I returned the diamond or not. The stone was the only thing powerful enough to get her back.

“There must be something you want that I can provide, in exchange,” I remarked.

“I’m sure there is but all we want is our diamond.” Adrian drew his sword from its holster and held it by his side. “My property—now,” he ordered me.

The man watched me carefully, his muscles tensing, while I put my hand in my pocket. Eyeing him, I grabbed my own sword with my other hand and set it on the table, positioning the handle close. The gemstone rolled between my fingers inside the little pouch, the pointed end of the diamond pressing into the pad of my index finger. I clutched it in my fist.

Despite the fact I knew he wouldn’t accept the offer, I still needed more time. “Rubies from the Second Realm are very valuable,” I said.

Nobody watching would have been able to tell which one of us moved first, but it was me. I grabbed my sword and swung, intending to remove Adrian’s hand off at the wrist. He moved a millisecond after I did, and my strike missed its mark. Our weapons clashed, the force radiating up my shoulder and vibrating my teeth.

Adrian lunged at me again, narrowly missing me with his blade as I leaped over the table. Without touching the razor-sharp edge, he hovered his palm over the steel, following the length. It went without saying that he was spelling the metal with a poisonous curse.

“I’ve been training since I was three years old,” he informed me. “I’ve killed every man who has challenged me.”

I placed my hands on the table and shoved it toward him. He stopped the piece of furniture with one flick of his wrist and began circling around. “You won’t kill me.”

He rubbed his chin with his free hand. “You believe like the demons and pureblood vampires; that no one ever truly dies unless they are extinguished.” He pursed his lips. “Too bad you won’t be able to let me know if your foolish belief is true.”

The information about Fae beliefs was filed away for me to ruminate on later. Right now, I was wondering if using one of the vials I brought with me would force him back to his own Realm. That may only buy me a couple of minutes, but those were precious when I had someone to retrieve. Aside from transitioning myself between Realms I shouldn’t be able to reach, I still didn’t know what, exactly, the diamond could do.

“If I give you the diamond, you’ll still kill me.” I wasn’t a fool. I was under no illusion he wouldn’t try to strike me down the first chance he got.

Adrian’s eyes glittered. “There’s one way to find out.”

He’d dropped some of his attitude, sounding almost playful. Perhaps he wanted me to let down my guard?

Before I knew what had happened, he stood in front of me, the point of his weapon close enough to my neck that I couldn’t see the tip of the blade. My heart hammered unchecked, the shock of being bested too much for me to control my biological responses. No one had cornered me since the day I was turned. My anger flared and I wanted to strike him down. Doing so would have guaranteed my own, and Brittney’s, demise.

The Fae smiled at me. “You look confused. Let me clear that up for you.” He lifted his right hand. “No one fucks with the Fae.”

He held his palm toward me. “The diamond, Mister Hawthorne.”

Every instinct I had told me not to cooperate, not to hand over the precious stone. I’d spent a lifetime gathering contraband through whatever means necessary. The diamond was my biggest prize yet.

Perhaps, at this point, there was a bigger prize.

“Where is Brittney?” I ground out. Maybe I would lose the stone, but I refused to lose her as well.

“You will find her if it's meant to be,” he said. He stepped forward and I imagined the poisoned blade was only a hair from my skin.

Sweat beaded along my hairline, something that hadn’t happened to me in hundreds of years. Adrian hadn’t said whether I would find her alive. He’d answered me with a riddle.

Of course it was meant to be. Nobody had captured my attention like Brittney did. No one excited or frustrated me or kept up with me the way the woman had managed to.