AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterSix
“Anothermurder?”Perry mumbled around the fries in his mouth.“How many are we talking about in total?”
The supermodel who’d been his fantasy for years shot him her famous slay-by-seduction stare—the one that’d been plastered on magazine covers and televisions screens worldwide.It would be a dream come true except for the nightmare reality that Vori was a green-skinned goblin underneath the gorgeous.She curled her lip as thoughhe’dbeen the one to commit the crime that her mob boss cousin had announced.“You stuff your face while talking about murder?”
“Years of working lunches, dinners, and everything else over autopsy photos.”He wiped grease and salt from his hands, proof he still had some manners.“Unless the killer is coming after me, I’m not wasting my first meal in months that’s not prison rations.”
“Ugh.”She dismissed him with a swing of glossy black hair and spoke to her cousin instead.“Any indications the killer could’ve been human?”
“No.We both know who did it.”Alexei’s face was grim.Mob boss grim.It was beyond unsettling.“The last victim owned the amethyst you tracked to Paris.You’ve been so close to two murders.We can’t risk you leaving the wards until the killer is caught.”
“If I don’t go after the amethysts, I die for sure.”The supermodel goblin wrapped her shaking arms around her middle.Perry wanted to comfort her.Ridiculous.The last time he’d followed a monster, he’d become one.He couldn’t risk that happening again.“Blood vows won’t take care of themselves.”
Perry swallowed the now-dry mouthful, and his scarred skin burned a phantom pain where his compulsion wards had been carved out.Blood vows meant serious consequences if broken—horrific death kind of consequences.“Who’d you swear a blood vow to?And what amethysts?”
She rounded on him.“You rejected me.Twice.So what do you care?”Her words screamed tough talk, but her voice faltered on the last.
Her pain stung something soft and deep inside him.Something he didn’t want exposed.Something that called misfit to misfit, unwanted to unwanted.“I can help.”
“How?”Her tone rang as haughty and as regal as any royal from the insane prophecy he’d once believed in.
“Tell me what’s going on.I’m the best at analyzing evidence for a case.”Or he had been.
“This isn’t a courtroom.It’s my insane life.Unless you’re taking the job I offered, you’re not a solution.You’re just another problem.”
He should tell her to get out, that he could take care of himself.She’d all but yanked him from one prison to put him in another.While saving him from a death squad along the way.“Tell me what you need.”
“What I need?”Bitterness edged her words, pricking at him like the poison the prison doctors had injected.“Ineeda pretend consort, or I’ll be bartered off like a shiny prize to a political alliance.But you said no, so stay out of my way unless you’re willing to go with me to the goblin realm.”
His stomach bubbled like a cauldron.“There’s an entire world of goblins?You want me to pretend to be married to you knowing what you really are?I can’t.”
Hurt flashed in her eyes so fast he could almost believe he’d imagined it.Almost.
“Let’s go.”She swept from the room, a queen with her chin high.
“Idiot,” Alexei said.“You owe her a life debt, and this is how you repay it?”
The man had a point.But not one Perry wanted to deal with.
With the distant sounds of the building creaking and the occasional far-off clang or bang, he stretched out on the bed and stared at the ceiling.Between the warehouse’s wards and the three Maronov cousins who could be their own special forces team, he didn’t worry about his safety.No, something else nagged at him.
Regret.
Vori was more.
He didn’t needmoreright now.He reminded himself of that on repeat until he couldn’t fight off sleep.
A soft thumping on the door had him jerking awake.At least this time he hadn’t been bled on a hard table with guards smacking him.He glanced at the clock and did a double take.It’d been years since he’d slept ten hours straight.The next knock tapped a lyrical beat.“Coming.”
It had to be Vori.He hoped she’d give him a chance not to be an asshole.Yanking open the door, he promised himself he would try.
Except it wasn’t her.His palms slicked with sweat, and his stomach shuddered and shriveled.He fought the survival instinct to slam the door.
Alys.The pain bringer flashed a sweet-and-sinister smile.
His powers surged, and he curled his fists around the buzzing electricity.
“You’d better get that magic under control, witch.”She cut a look to the currents.“Because I’d hate to kill you when Vori went to so much trouble breaking you out and sent you this.”She held up a silver coin etched with a distinctive pattern.
