AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well if you won’t listen to me about that, let me tell you about the guy we met with in New York. He’ll be at the Earth and Emerald winter solstice celebration and still needs a date. He’s in the supernatural syndicates. An heir to the Brooklyn syndicate, I think. What was his name? Aaron? Ashton?No, that wasn’t it. There was an A…”
“Adrian,” Elias offered.
“That’s it,” Danni said. “He was so fine, Adora—”
Elias growled and the phone changed hands after a muffled exchange. I glanced at the clock and hurried through getting dressed the rest of the way. “He is your type,” Elias said on speaker. “Pretty boy. Dark hair. Delinquent.”
“What?” I asked, looking up from lacing my boots like he could see my face.
“What?”
Now he was just being an ass on purpose. “Why do you say—”
“Because the last guy you brought home was wanted by three different Houses,” he said apathetically.
“Only two,” I said, getting defensive in tone. “The third wanted him as a hostage for negotiating with the other two.”
“The one before that was a manIsent you to detain for murder.”
“It was justified.”
“And the art thief?”
“A victimless crime.”
Dannika cackled like a damn witch in the background.
“My point, Adora. Thanks for making it.”
For fuck’s sake. “It’s too early in the morning for your bullshit, yourmajesty. I’m hanging up. Tell Danni I promise I’ll be there and tell her to call me later when you’re off doing king shit.”
Elias snorted as I hit “end call”.
Prick.
I stood in my room for a moment, huffing over how my day had started. If early mornings weren’t already bad enough ...
Come to me.
Unease ran through me as that phantom command I’d heard for months made an appearance. It was the same thing every time. The same three words. But it was usually at the portal, never reaching me this far away.
I tossed on my leather jacket and was out the door before I could think much about it. It really was too early for this shit—hearing voices included.
Still, restlessness scraped against my insides. A nervous energy I couldn’t push away. My fingernails tapped against my thigh in an unsteady, erratic rhythm. A blustery wind lifted stray hairs away from my neck as I left the Blood and Beryl embassy dorm.
It was winter in Portland. My least favorite season. Cloudy gray skies and freezing temperatures were unabating, dragging the days out until they bled together. It was significantly worse if it rained or snowed. While pretty to look at from the inside, my peacock was not pleased to be outside andin it. As we shared a body, I tended to agree.
As I took a quick detour through the commissary, I couldn’t avoid overhearing the two Watcher’s conversation in front of me as I waited in line to grab a banana and protein bar.
“So there I was, listening to her brag about her travels and howworldlyshe is, while she used different lingo for the countries she was talking about, but I got confused because it was gibberish, and I was like, ‘but what’s a latterine?’”
“A what now?”
“Right? She looked at me like I was stupid, and it said it’s a bathroom.”
“Wait, did she mean ‘latrine’?”
“Yeah, and I corrected her, but instead of admitting she’d simply mispronounced it, she doubled down and insisted that’s how they say it overseas.”
