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“Rescue me?” She started laughing and buried her head back inside the fridge, finally finding the bottle she was after and hauling it out. “Yeah, thanks. You rescued me from being happy. ”
Desmond gave me a worried look, wearing his uncertainty on his face. He wouldn’t remember anything that had happened, including seeing how loopy and out of it Kellen had been when we’d seen her with Brokk.
“You were under some sort of spell. ”
“Yeah, the spell of being in love. ” She worked the cork out of the new champagne bottle. It popped free and flew up into the ceiling, smashing a light bulb.
“That wasn’t love. The fae can be very convincing, but he was misleading you into thinking you loved him so he could—”
“Secret, with all due respect, what the fuck do you know about love?”
I took a step back, feeling like I’d been punched in the gut. “What?”
“Kellen, why don’t we go into the other room?” Desmond took her by the elbow and relieved her of one of the bottles in her hands.
“Don’t protect her,” Kellen insisted. “She doesn’t deserve your protection. She ruined my happiness, she’ll ruin yours too. ” Then she met my ey
es and gave me a cold smile. “Oh wait. She already has. ”
I must not hit my friend, I told myself. Although if I did it now, I could do it without causing any permanent damage. My palm itched with the desire to smack her, but I reminded myself she was drunk and probably didn’t mean what she was saying.
Blessedly, my phone chose that moment to ring and distract me from whatever scathing retort was bound to come out of my mouth. I imagined the words slut and train wreck would have been mentioned though, so it was for the best I didn’t say anything.
Keaty’s number popped up on my screen, and I felt a pang of guilt. I hadn’t told him about my predicament yet, when he should have been my first call. My hand was shaking as I hit the call answer button. Maybe it was paranoia, but I suspected Keaty would know something was up the moment he heard my voice.
“Hello?”
“I hope you had a lovely vacation. ” For someone who didn’t tend to express a lot of emotion in his words, Keaty had definitely nailed sarcasm.
“It wasn’t a vacation, I was—”
“I know perfectly well where you were. After a furious werewolf king showed up at my office a week ago demanding to know where I was hiding you, I did my job…you know, the investigative work we do here. ”
Lucas, it seemed, was hell-bent on ruining every aspect of my life.
“If you know where I was, you should know time isn’t the same there. I didn’t plan to be gone so long. ”
“No, but did you also plan to ignore your phone when you did come home?”
“I didn’t plan to. ”
“I hope you have a phenomenal excuse for not returning the half-dozen messages I’ve left you. ” For Keaty, any number higher than one should be considered a crazy amount of calls. I hadn’t checked my messages, but if he’d actually left six, he’d either been worried or pissed off. Probably both, but he’d only admit to the latter.
“I do, actually. ” One hell of an excuse, a better one than he was likely expecting.
“And I’m sure it’s dazzling. But let me ask you this—while you were off gallivanting in the palace of a fairy king, did you take a moment to ask him why one of his people is killing humans?”
“As a matter of fact—” Wait, had he said humans, as in plural? “Humans?”
“Ah, you can listen. ”
“What happened?”
“There’s been another murder. I don’t suppose you’d like to help solve one for a change?”
Chapter Forty-Four
“Over my dead body,” Desmond said. He was standing in front of Kellen’s front door, physically blocking my exit.
