AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A group of second-year students were clustered around the jukebox, snickering and pointing at the screen; no doubt whatever was going to come out of the speakers next would be cringeworthy. I noted two professors huddled over a two-top table in a corner, entirely engrossed in their own conversation.
A couple more students, fourth years, I was pretty sure, sat at the far end of the bar. They glanced up when we walked in, but other than a brief nod, they made no attempt to interact. The rest of the patrons were locals, supernaturals who lived in the village, content to stay in this place that was wholly untouched by humans.
The elven forest was like that, although even more exclusive. Very few beings other than elves wandered into our forest, and certainly not humans. I could see the appeal to living someplace where we didn’t have to hide who we were.
What I couldn’t see was myself going back to the elven forest and taking over for my father someday. I wasn’t cut out to be a ruler. And frankly, I didn’t think I was cut out to live in a place where the only people I had contact with were my own kind. Well, half of my own kind anyway.
Daruka plopped onto a stool at the bar, and I followed suit. We each ordered a beer on tap. Then she paid for both of them. I probably should have done the chivalrous thing and insisted I pick up the tab, except after paying off the proprietor at the Boar’s Inn, I was low on funds again.
After her first sip of beer, she arched her brows. “Wow. This is good. Way different from anything I’ve had before.”
“Have you ever had beer from a pub in a magical village before?”
“Nope. Only human beer. Only ever served in America.”
“Really? You never left the US until now?”
She lifted one shoulder, let it drop.
“Why not?”
Her hesitation, while brief enough that most wouldn’t notice, told me she was about to lie. Or at least alter the truth.
“No reason to, I guess.”
“Or maybe a whole lot of reason to stay,” I suggested. “Were you hiding from someone?”
Her hand gave a jerk before she wrapped her fingers around her mug and lifted it to her lips, drinking deeply.
I’d hit the nail on the head. Not that it had taken a genius to come to that conclusion. What I wanted—and knew she wouldn’t give me—was more detail. Who was she hiding from? Why?
How could I help?
“How come it took you four years to enroll at Blackthorn?”
“I never intended to enroll at all.”
“Color me intrigued.”
She did that one-shoulder shrug again. “School isn’t my thing. Studying isn’t my thing. Socializing isn’t my thing. None of it really does it for me.”
“So before you enrolled, you were a reclusive non-student hiding away on some mountaintop in America?”
She barked out a laugh. “Not even close. First, I’m half mermaid, so I need to be near water. I was hiding in plain sight in a city on the East Coast.” She gave me a side-eye. “Working as a body piercer.”
“A what now?”
“I pierce your body parts. Ears.” She gave mine a speculative look. They twitched. “Belly button. Eyebrow. Nipples. Other places.”
I swallowed thickly, that other place perking up. “Have you ever pierced anyone’s, er, other place?” The idea of her fondling some guy’s genitalia, even though I was pretty certain she wasn’t a virgin, made more than my ears twitchy.
“Nah. I hadn’t been doing it long enough yet to pierce people’s junk. You have to be a serious expert at the craft before you start messing with those body parts.”
I let out a shaky breath.
Her eyebrows shot up before her gaze lowered to my groin. “What? You like the idea? Or are you afraid of it?”
Hell, how did we get on this topic? “Neither. I don’t like the idea of you touching some other guy’s dick.”
