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“How long will that last?” I asked, sounding almost hysterical now.
He looked at me seriously, and I was sure he was going to withhold the information from me again as some form of torture, but oddly, he didn’t. “The shortest I’ve seen is two days. It could be a week.”
“A week!” The next hunt in Nevermore was in just over two weeks. If we stayed here for a week and then returned only to leave again…what if they didn’t want to travel with me again? “Two days. I want to go back in two days.”
Scion looked over at me with faint interest. “I would also prefer that this be a short excursion, but Ambrose has a way of turning up only when he chooses and never when you’d like him to.”
“I don’t care. I want to go back in two days.”
He licked his lips. “I’ll consider it after we talk to Cross.”
I frowned, not liking to leave the issue open. “Who is this Cross? How do you know him?”
“An old friend of mine from the army. He may have been a soldier once, but no longer, and now he has the best information network in the city. If my brother is here, Cross will find him.”
Oh, so he didn’t just know Cross—heknewhim.Wonderful.It was so lovely to be not only moved around on the prince’s chess board but flung off it altogether. Like the game had changed without me ever being warned.
I glared at him. “If this worked out exactly as you planned, then why yell at me?”
“It was not exactly as I planned,” he replied. “Merely one of the possibilities. I would have far preferred you kept your mouth shut. As for the rest, you should understand that by behaving like a selfish, spiteful fool, you may very well end up burning our castle to the ground.”
“I don’t know how you can say that without withering from the hypocrisy of it.”
He smiled. “Spite me in your own time, rebel, but do not try to use the kingdom against me. I will destroy you to save it.”
That felt more like prophecy than threat, and the words rumbled through me, chilling me to the bone.
Before I could reply, the bartender appeared in front of us—or rather, in front of me. “Hello, darling.”
I looked up, slightly alarmed, and my mouth fell open.
I’d spent so much time around the Everlasts as of late I was growing somewhat used to the beauty of the Fae. I certainly couldn’t say I was immune to it. Bael absolutely had an easier time than he should have to convince me to not argue with him, and there was something quite strange about how easy it was to get stuck in Scion’s unusual eyes, but I didn’t fall to the ground elf-struck and sobbing in their presence. I’d never done so, though I knew that could happen to humans…rarely, but it did happen.
This bartender, deep in a strange, nearly empty tavern in the heart of Inbetwixt, made me believe in the stories of mortal women falling to pieces at the mere sight of Fae males. He wore all black, except for a red armband high on his left bicep, and in parts, he was probably no more good-looking than any of the princes—chiseled features, straight nose, dark hair—but there was an unusual, glittering glow to his skin that I couldn’t stop staring at. I wanted to touch it.Now.
“Kaius,” Scion said sharply.
Oh gods. I hadn’t even realized I’d reached out before strong fingers gripped my hand, and I jerked, nearly toppling off my stool.
It took me a long moment to realize he wasn’t speaking to me—that the word he’d uttered was a name and not, in fact, some mysterious language I didn’t understand.
What the fuck is happening?
“Sci,” the bartender replied in the same too-sensual purr he’d used with me. “I didn’t know we were expecting you.”
“You weren’t,” Scion replied without inflection. “I thought Cross might be here.”
My eyes widened as the male bent down to pull two glasses from beneath the bar. He placed them in front of us and looked up at me, winking. I flushed, noticing he had horns poking out of the top of his head between his dark waves, a bit like a baby goat.
“Kaius!” Scion barked.
“Right,” Kaius said smoothly. “Haven’t seen Cross yet, but the night is young. He still might make an appearance.”
I shifted in my chair, struggling to find a comfortable position as my pulse pounded too low in my core, and I desperately wanted to press my thighs together. The bartender chuckled low in his throat, and again, I had the strangest urge to reach out and touch him. His skin sparkled like glittering gems, enticing and mesmerizing. There was a light that seemed to play around him that I couldn’t explain…I wanted it. Wanted it inside me, and—
Scion moved his hand from my fingers to my thigh, physically holding me down. The bite of his nails into my skin was grounding, and I blinked a few times, turning toward him. My head swam.
Scion’s nostrils flared, and he cleared his throat. “We’ll wait, then.”
