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Van brushed his hand across the small of my back and I looked at him.
“I’m here.” He mouthed the words, and I took a breath.
He was here this time. Let Ziriel collapse the place. Van would get us out of here before we were crushed.
Which meant I could breathe enough to make small talk with Ziriel.
I gave a Van a nod, and focused on Asheral. “Where is Asheral?”
“Waiting to dine with you. I have your favorite tea waiting.”
I brushed a hand against Ziriel’s arm. “You remembered?”
“Oh, Cosette. There’s not a thing about you I don’t remember. You nearly killed half my court before you collapsed. Anything I didn’t know about you, I made a point of learning. I even gave up one of my favorite chips for a good bit of gossip on you.”
“You didn’t have to do that.” I pressed my hand to my chest. “If you had a question, you could’ve just asked me.”
He gave me a sly look. “And you would’ve answered?”
“No. Probably not.” I grinned, and this time it was a real grin. Ziriel was fun to banter with. “But a girl does like to be asked.”
“Lunar fey and their riddles.” Ziriel pulled me to a stop. This time he laughed and gave me a big hug. His arms squeezed tight before letting me go. “I did miss you. It’s been so boring since you left.”
I squeezed him back. “Didn’t you just finish threatening my life? Again?”
“Oh, Cosette. The Lunar Court has ruined you!” He pulled back, but squeezed my shoulders. “Do you know nothing of love? There is such a fine line between it and hate. What’s a little blood when the woman doing the killing does it with such grace? All without getting a drop on her. How did you manage that bit of magic? No matter who I ask, they don’t know.”
I didn’t have a good answer for him because it didn’t always work. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been washing blood off myself today. “A gift from my father.”
He dropped my shoulders and stepped away from me. “Ah. So not something you can show me?” The man sounded like I’d kicked his puppy.
“No.” I didn’t want to talk about it. The truth was that I didn’t know much about my father at all. I’d never met the man. Never spoken to him. The only archon I’d ever met was Eli, and he was more tro
uble than he was worth.
And just like that, Eli was there in front of me. Only Van’s hand kept me from stumbling backward into him.
This was just like Eli. Popping in like he’d been reading my mind for days. Invasive piece of—
“I take exception to that thought.” He was in his usual light jeans, a white button-down with sleeves rolled up, and wings out, spread wide for everyone to see.
“Get out of my head, Eli!” I gave him a hard shove, but he held onto my hand and pressed it over where his heart should’ve been, but I wasn’t sure the archon had a heart.
“Oh, come now, Cosette. I have a heart, and you love me.”
My mouth dropped open and I yanked my hand free. “You’ve got to be joking. You know I don’t trust you.”
His wings seemed to spread out and surround me as he leaned down. “Do trust and love always go together?” he whispered to me.
I wanted to say yes, always, but that was a generalization and I couldn’t be sure how every single person—supernatural or not—alive felt.
“See? Love. And if you don’t know that you love me, you will soon.” He grinned as he stood tall, wings spread wide again. “Before the Lunar Court’s fortnight is over,” he said, louder, for everyone to hear.
“Why are you meddling? What are you up to?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I wanted to smash that coy look off his face. “Yes. Yes, I would. Before you get me killed.” I stepped toward him. “What do you know?”
