AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Bull bullocks. You only stay at Allie’s the nights I am securely in Eli’s care, and don’t think I didn’t notice that Tres texts you updates on her or me almost every time I see you.”
“Texts? What istexts?” Iggy stared at me with a whatever-do-you-mean look that was as transparent as his excuses about needing a room here. No man needed three addresses, and Iggy had at least that. He was trying to guard us, and I knew it.
“Liar, liar, witch on fire,” I sing-songed at him. “You are trying to protect meandAllie.”
“If she’d stay inElphame,she’d be safe.”
I snorted. “Wouldshe, though?”
The king had his eye on her, and—despite the love I felt for my husband—I was still of the mindset that I’d rather face an obvious foe than emotions. I couldn’t speak of that particular pickle, though. The king had bound me to silence in a faery bargain. No one other than Eli was able to hear of the Fae King’s absolutely monkey-balls bad idea to marry a volatile grieving widow with a big-assed gun in her designer handbag.
I couldn’t decide if she was my hero or the dangerous relative I didn’t want somedays. Mostly, I leaned toward both answers. All I could say for absolute certain was that my chosen-and-blood-family was a tangled knot inside a damn escape room with a bomb ticking somewhere.
“Thank you, by the way,” I told Iggy. “For watching over her. She’s important to me, and I like her in this world.”
He stared at me, weighing my choice of words. “My vow, Hexen, that I will protect her as best I can.”
I didn’t doubt it. She had that effect on people, even those she’d threatened or attempted to kill. Allie, Alice Chaddock to most people, had injected me withdraugrvenom during her pursuit of the “mastermind” who had killed her beloved husband. The woman was ruthless, but she had become both my friend and employee--although I paid her nickels in comparison to her accumulated wealth. Still, she kept the pretense that it was a “job.”
“At this hour, the widow is in her estate, out of sight, out of peril,” Iggy said. “I would prefer that you were secured as well. Perhaps, you all can relocate toElphamefor a few decades until Chester is distracted.”
Decades? Decades of hiding sounded terrible. Maybe if it was necessary to keep my friends and mother safe, and there were no other choices, but I was more of a “all paths lead to conflict” person than one who hid and waited. I’d find a way, and then Chester would die.
“So make them hide and abandon those who have careers here? Lives here? Businesses here?” I added another handful of bullets to my pocket, and I slipped a long knife into a holster on my thigh.
Since I was now outed as the future queen ofElphame,not many people grumbled over my public display of weapons. That was an unexpected perk of marriage that I was enjoying.
“I won’t patrol tonight,” I agreed. “Would you like to walk me to the bar?”
I knew I was as likely to shake him as a dog was to escape determined fleas, so the offer was more of an acknowledgment than an actual invitation.
Iggy bowed his head. “It is my honor.”
Luckily,there were other ways to burn my excess energy. My husband was expecting me, and despite all of my impulsivity, I was not as foolish as my friends thought. I would be armed to the teeth, not just with magic. If I were unescorted at any moment, I had fae guards who had the audacity to start popping up—so weapons and lethal friends were my de facto normal since my wedding.
“You probably ought to leave me at the door,” I added. “Eli’s still scowling over your last set of crude remarks.”
Eli still had moments of pondering Iggy’s death. I’d like to have said it was getting better, but I tried not to lie. I’d also liked to have said it was unprompted, but Iggy had the ongoing tendency to try to provoke fights.
Iggy nodded and opened the door. “As you wish.”
It hit me suddenly that Iggy’s provocation was not simply to be an ass.
“You would like it if Eli felt threatened by you and took me toElphame.” I glared at Iggy as I pulled the door shut behind us. “You’re trying to provoke him!”
I felt a hex drop over the apartment like an iron cage. That, of course, was the real reason Eli didn’t grumble that Iggy stayed in my old apartment. The Hexen Master kept my home safe.
After several moments, Iggy admitted, “I would have liked to hide you away in the cave, but your Eli had to rescue you so . . . yes, I would like him to relocate you to safety. Is it so wrong to prefer you alive, Geneviève?”
I kept my mouth shut as we stepped into the parking lot. I saw faces peering down at me from the upper floors of the building. I’d had every neighbor vetted, but there was a gap between safe and friend. A lot of them were nosy, and more than one of them had sold photos of me to the tabloids. The upside was that if I vanished from my building, the world would know I was missing in about ten minutes.
“Grid.” Iggy ordered from my side. “I shall watch for the living.”
I felt a little foolish scanning for the dead. These days, they were all wary of me for some reason, but that was not likely to be the case every night and definitely not in every city. I could feel the presence of anything dead. It was useful for killing some and resurrecting others. And for reasons that I couldn’t define—Iggy was still on that list.
He had a beating heart, but my magic still marked him as dead.
“You’re becoming better at this, Hexen.” Iggy’s voice slipped into the tone he adopted when he was cajoling me.
