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I threw the button in the air, and he moved so fast, it was kind of surprising. He caught it in his massive fist and brought it down again, shoulders rigid, brows narrowed in caution. He opened his fingers slowly and looked inside. His shoulders relaxed instantly.
“A button.”
“A button,” I said with a nod.
And then, the most wonderful thing happened.
He tried—oh, how he tried to keep his face neutral. It looked a bit painful, too, but his lips stretched and stretched, and the corners turned upward, and his white teeth peeked out, just a tiny bit.
A smile.
“Aha!” I shouted, pointing my finger at his face that was now already smile-less again. “I saw that. I saw it!” I’d won!
He closed his fist around the button and shook his head, eyes shut tightly. I fell back against the wall again, feeling a million times better for that win. It was small, but it was mine. And it proved that I could, in fact, do this. If I could force a smile out of a guy like that, I could take on the ODP in my sleep.
But the feeling didn’t last.
Suddenly, the man moved. He leaned forward and he looked at me, and I expected his name or a thank you or anything other than, “You shouldn’t be here, Teddybear.”
Unfortunately, that’s what I got.
“Oh.” I tried my best to keep up my smile, but it melted off my face within seconds.
And the guy stood up.
My God, he was huge. Possibly over six feet tall, and he could fit three me’s between those shoulders. What was he? A high fae?
No, those felt different. A low fae then—like a nymph?
But that didn’t feel right, either. Maybe a Gifted? A vampire or a werewolf or a—
“Watch your back. It’s a jungle out there,” he said, cutting off my thoughts, and made for the door. He opened it, and the sound of the hallway hit us, reminding me that we hadn’t been all alone in the world like it had felt until now. “And Teddybear?” I looked up into his eyes, and they were wide enough now that I saw the color in them—green, like the never-ending fields of grass at home and those beautiful plants I could never manage to grow. “Always assume the worst.”
Only when he walked out and closed the door behind him did it occur to me that he’d never even told me his name.
