“Do you remember everything that happened once Gunter was inside you?” I said.
“Yes. I wish I didn’t. I was still me, but there were certain things I couldn’t control.” She rubbed her hand vigorously over her mouth. “It made me smoke and—” Her hand flew to her neck. “I said I’d never take that pendant off. I swore in Mom’s memory.”
Mayan could once again uphold her promise. Unlike me. “I’m sure she’ll forgive you the gap.”
“You don’t have to be a bitch about this. It wasn’t my fault.”
My hands curled into fists. “How about when you found out your fuck buddy was a necromancer, you went and actually applied for asylum or something at House Pacifica instead of just phoning Levi and continuing to wander around like everything was fine and Jonah wasn’t a potentially dangerous asshole who’d come after you? I don’t care that it wasn’t your fault. A guard died, Alfie almost did, and the two of us came way too close to ending up on the wrong side of the law in Hedon.” I brushed a hand over my purse. “I broke a promise to someone tonight as well, and mine isn’t fixable, so forgive me if I fail to give a shit about the specific degree of your complicity.”
“Quite a speech,” Levi said lightly. He’d entered along with Miles.
“Jesus. Stop creeping up on people.” I stood up. “She’s all yours.” I walked out without a look back.
It was raining and I didn’t have a jacket. Gritting my teeth, running on adrenaline and fury, I rubbed my goosefleshed arms, my ruined filthy dress dragging through puddles. I was still barefoot, having left my shoes in Hedon, and my feet were freezing.
Levi fell into step beside me and draped his trench coat over my shoulders.
“How does it help for you to get wet?” I said, tugging it close.
His limo glided around the corner and pulled up to the curb next to us.
“Fucking hell, Levi. Do you have a tracking device implanted on you?”
“What was the promise you broke tonight?” His voice held only a mild curiosity but the corners of his eyes were pinched tight.
“Priya’s tiara. From her almost-wedding. I’d promised to keep it safe and it got broken in all this bullshit.” I stopped suddenly, forcing Levi to turn back for me. “You thought I wasn’t going to come.”
He shrugged. “It’s been hours. You didn’t call.”
“I was investigating the case you hired me for and a little busy. But thanks for your show of faith.” I stalked off again. Levi and I were impossible. No, he was impossible. I was fan-fucking-tastic except he kept doubting that fact. Because he’d sorted me into a box.
I shoved his trench coat back at him.
“Get in the limo.” He opened the car door. Levi and his driver had an agreement. Simon only pretended to be the typical limo guy and wait on Levi when it was important to keep up appearances, but beyond that they were friends. Sometimes when Levi called me from on the road, I’d hear him make an offhand joke to Simon, or Simon ribbing Levi about his tight schedule and not leaving enough time for his lady friend.
For, you know, me.
All my protests died on my lips. The weather was shit. My feet were bare. I wasn’t about to walk home like this. Was I really so hellbent on being right that I’d hurt myself to prove a point? The old Ash, maybe, would have done it. But what about the current one?
“Fine. Take me home. My home.” I clarified, since Levi tended to take those kinds of commands literally.
The limo was as warm as the inside of a dryer, but I still shivered.
Levi raised the tinted privacy glass between us and Simon, who shot me a smile in the rearview mirror right before he was blocked from view. “If you get pneumonia because you’re stupid enough to walk off in the rain in April without shoes or a jacket, don’t expect paid sick days,” he said, and wrapped his arms around me.
I burrowed into his heat. “I’m taking all the sick days and billing you time and half because you have shit taste in exes. Next time get one with half a brain.”
His chuckle vibrated against my cheek. “You really laid into her. Did you enjoy it?”
“Not as much as the rock I hit her with,” I said into his chest. Some of the cold and stiffness seeped away, replaced by an exquisite tiredness. More than that, this felt nice. I didn’t have to be a queen or a Seeker, and no one expected me to be unassailable. This was just me as I was right now, wet, and still covered a little in blood, seen for who I was and feeling like everything was possibly going to be okay.
“You can’t give me even a smidgeon of plausible deniability, can you?”
I glanced up at him through my lashes. “It was the most prudent course of action at the time. I expect you want details now.”
“Nope. That’s the last thing I want. We’ll debrief with Miles later today.” Levi sat back, regarding me with a serious expression and I clenched the folds of my dress. Had Levi sorted through the many layers of us and come to the conclusion that this was more hassle than it was worth? “What did you think was going to happen?”
Oh. He meant Hedon? “Not the gong show that did, that’s for sure.”
“With us. When you promised to come over.”
I squirmed on the seat, dropping my gaze to my dirty feet. Grr. Short of flinging myself out of a moving vehicle, it seemed we were having our talk, even though I didn’t have a carefully planned speech ready. I crossed my arms. “Everything between us is messy and crosses all kinds of lines, and that’s not working. For
