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I think of Nine and how he reached for my cheek before pulling back.
Especially me.
12
When we walk into the apartment, my dad and Nine are squaring off in the living room.
I don’t know how to react to that.
Honestly, part of me thought that Nine would already be gone, halfway back to Faerie to save his power and his strength. But he’s not.
He’s here.
The second thing I notice is that his fist is open. Sitting in the center of his palm, there’s the same pebble Nine has shown me a few times now.
The same pebble that Callie mentioned when Ash asked what Nine was doing in the apartment when we all landed here together.
Okay. So it’s obvious that we’ve walked into the middle of something. Some kind of argument between old friends, maybe, though that might be wishful thinking, believing Nine and my dad used to be friends. Who knows? It could be something else entirely.
I don’t really care.
My attention goes straight to the pebble. I point.
“What is that? I finally have a chance to ask. I’ve got to know. What does that small rock have to do with anything?”
Ash shoots a nasty look at Nine. “You haven’t told her?”
“She knows of my debt to her mother. I never had the opportunity to explain the meaning behind it.”
Once upon a time I thought it was like his lucky charm or something. Then, when Callie brought it up, I convinced her to tell me more about it. It looked like a pebble, but it was more.
It was a symbol of the debt that Nine owed Ash.
So why is Nine holding it out to him now?
He made a point to tell me once that he didn’t consider the debt closed. In a fit of anger, I told him that it was—that I didn’t want to be treated like a responsibility he couldn’t avoid—and that he could leave me the hell alone. He refused, then pocketed the pebble.
Is he trying to give it back?
My heart stops beating.
That’s what he’s doing, isn’t it?
“If you’re going to stay in our home, I expect you to be truthful with my daughter.”
“I’ve never lied to Riley,” argues Nine.
Yeah. Because he’s fae. And the fae might not be able to tell a lie, but I know from experience that that doesn’t mean they’re always telling the truth.
“What’s going on here?” I ask.
Ash coldly eyes Nine. “Tell her, Ninetroir. Or I will.”
“Fine.”
“Now.”
Nine glares over at my dad. “I’m trying to decide where to begin.”
