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I’d wiped the minds of everyone who knew that those two officers were coming to the compound—a simple bargain mixed with some forget-me magic—and as usual, it left me drained. “I passed out, didn’t I?”
Chris smiled, and there was mischief in it. “Don’t worry. You still looked elegant when you fainted, and I didn’t let you hit the floor.”
I wanted to laugh, but I couldn’t. Not while I was immobile, splayed across him.
I tried to sit up, but couldn’t. “This is embarrassing.”
He tightened his grip on me. “Nothing embarrassing about you falling into my arms, princess.”
I laughed, and nudged his stomach with my elbow. “Shut up.”
“Never.” He gave me a wink.
“The tables have turned.”
A little crease formed between his eyes and I wondered if he’d know what I was talking about.
“Are you really, right now, referring back to the night we first met?”
How did he always know what I meant? Even when I was talking in circles. He always saw through my fey bullshit. “A little. Yes. But I’ve got questions—”
“Don’t. Don’t ruin this with something so serious. And don’t compare how you are right now with how you found me.” His whole body had tensed and his easy smile was gone.
“I’m not. I was… That was rude. I just thought if I joked about it, maybe you’d finally talk to me about what happened. Can we please finally talk about how you ended up at St. Ailbe’s?” He started to say something, but I didn’t let him get it all the way out. “Don’t joke or flirt. For once.”
“I…” He took a breath. “I learned pretty quickly that you have to just let go in life if you want to survive. To ride the ups and downs as they come, because they will. Good and bad. Even as a kid, I had to laugh every chance I could. If I let the bad stuff bother me, if that was the stuff I held on to, then I wasn’t going to survive. Although I wasn’t feeling funny the night you found me.” He said the last with a laugh, but it wasn’t funny.
I poked his side. “Nothing about that was funny.”
“I don’t mean to upset you. I’m actually very appreciative of what you did for me. You could’ve killed me with the rest of the pack.”
“No. I couldn’t have.” I struggled to sit up, and he helped me, moving me off his lap to set me on the pavement. It was cold and hard and I missed the warmth of being in Chris’ arms, but I couldn’t have a normal, rational conversation with him like that. Not when all I wanted to do was pull his head down and finally know what his lips would feel like against mine. To know what he’d taste like. To finally give in to everything I wanted from him.
“You okay?” There was something about the sound of his voice that I found comforting and sexy and everything I knew I shouldn’t feel.
I did what I always did, and pushed away any romantic feelings, but it was getting harder and harder to do. “I’ll be fine. I wasn’t expecting twelve people to be inside the police station. I usually top out at five or six.”
Chris nudged my shoulder with his. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
I leaned my head back against the brick wall. “And what would that have changed? Did we have another choice?” Because if any fey—even Van—heard about this, they’d lose their mind.
“No. I guess not.”
“Exactly.” I’d done what I had to do, and that was that. “At least I protected our secrecy. If it ever got out that the fey existed and it was my fault, my mother would…”
He reached for my hand, and I knew I shouldn’t take it, but I couldn’t stop myself.
I turned my head to look at him, and saw his eyes flash bright. “What would she do?” He was ready for a fight, but there was nothing he could do.
“I don’t know. But I don’t want to find out.” And I didn’t want to talk about that. Not when I had questions and Chris was finally open to answering them. “So, no one knows your true age?”
He let go of my hand to run his fingers through his hair. “Adrian knows. I sometimes think Dastien suspects, just because I’m a better fighter than I should be for my station in the pack, but I have a lot more experience than anyone there.”
“That’s probably a safe bet.”
“Yep. What else have you got for me?” He turned his head to look at me. “I can see all those questions brewing under the surface.”
He was right. I always had one or two or ten brewing in my mind. But which one first? “What happened to you? After…”
