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ChapterSeven
Vori’s nerves tingled worse than the pinpricks of last-minute fixes at a fashion show.Fear squashed the spark of hope that Perry was wrong about having an amethyst as sure as she’d smothered the electricity from his skin earlier.
Even worse, there’d been no anger in his words.No terror.No anything.
As if he’d accepted the worst possible fate.One where he might’ve been among the dead men in the crime scene photos scattered across the table.The smell of sugared coffee and lemon candies—so comforting moments ago—turned rank and stale.
The jolt of a new threat coupled with caffeine and exhaustion gave her jittery shakes.He’d asked to see the amethysts.Good idea.Maybe he’d gotten his cursed jewels confused.Although really, how many of those could there be?
She dug for the zipped inner pocket hidden in her custom jacket.“The amethysts from the wicked crown range from deep blue to violet.”
“Like your eyes?”
She froze with her fingers tangled in the velvet pouch’s knotted cord.He had no idea how close to legend he’d come with that comment.“Yes.”
“Do all goblins have violet eyes?”
“No.”Her shade of purple had only been seen centuries before.In the goblin queen.The one of legends.The one her father, the mad king, had wanted to recreate and control.
She yanked at the ties until two jewels tumbled into her open palm, sparkling and stunning in their size, quality, and cut.
He swore.“Mine is more a shade darker than those, but it’s the same.My father has it now.I can’t risk this killer coming after my dad.”He said the last like it was more terrifying than the risk to his own life.
Family mattered.She might not know what’d happened to her mother and hoped the worst had happened to her father, but thinking the witches had killed Alys had driven her and her adopted family to despairing depths.“We’ll find a way to keep your dad safe.”
“You’re sure you didn’t seeanyphysical clues on the killer that might give us a clue as to who this goblin is?”His tone might as well have mocked “liar, liar.”
“I thought I did for a moment, but it had to be a trick of the light.”Please let it have been.“I was running on adrenaline.The alternative, it’s not possible.Not with what the mad king did.”What her father had done.
“What’d you think you saw?”Perry was relentless, and the hot lawyer vibe looked good on him.
“A silver band across her forehead, edged in gold—a marking of goblin royalty.”
“Like the gold crown you have in goblin form.No wonder your culture believes in the divine power of royal blood if the evidence is embedded in your skin.”
He was taking the news that she was royalty far too easily.Suspicion slammed into her.“Who told you I was a royal?”
“Alys.”
“When?”She bit out the word.She and her cousin needed to have a chat about what was okay to share with a man who had rejected her proposal, who had rejectedher.
“Before we came in here.”
“And you’re just mentioning that now?”
“I got a little distracted by the whole ‘there might be a goblin killer after me and my dad’ thing to worry about you or your rank.”He ignored her rising irritation, sorting photos and reports as though they were pieces of a puzzle to which only he could see the bigger picture.“How unambitious of me to aim for a Senate heir.Who knew my prophecy wasn’t about a witch, but a goblin?”
How dare he?The sting of rejection fueled her anger.“Still trying to fulfill your little prophecy of mating with royalty?News flash—I offered.However false or temporary.You said no.I pulled you from not one, but two prisons, and then I saved you from a kill squad.You still said no.”
“You didn’t give me much time, and it’s not like you were forthcoming with information.”The swish of him flipping papers underscored how over the discussion he apparently was—as though he hadn’t personally rejected her because she was a monster.
No way was she letting him shift blame for his not wanting her.“You couldn’t imagine spending days—not a lifetime—dayswith someone who doesn’t fit your witch ideals.For a job.Not even a real marriage.”
“You aren’t about to goblin out on me, are you?”
Anger burned through her.“I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction.”
“Bickering like an old married couple already,” Alys said with a laugh.
