The police officer tapped on the window. Deena rolled it down.
“Is something wrong, officer?” Deena asked with enough sugar in her voice to rot teeth.
The officer’s dirt brown eyes flicked over her, then to me, then back again. Deena tightened her grip on the wheel.
“Ma’am, you aware that your taillight’s out?”
“No, sir. I’ll make sure I take care of that as soon as—”
“And that you were going thirty-two in a thirty?”
“Th-thirty-two…” Deena stammered, her cheeks darkening.
“Yes, ma’am.” He then looked right at me. “She yours?”
Deena took in a deep breath before saying, “I’m her caseworker.”
“You got proof?”
“Proof—how about you just ask her?”
“It’s true,” I said quickly, “She’s my—”
“We got a missing girl—possible runaway—matching her description, ma’am.”
“There a problem?” Another officer came up to stand beside his partner. My mind blanked for a second as I registered the honey-brown eyes, dark brown hair, and an arrogant smirk. Impossible.
“Edon?” He looked five years older in uniform. I shook my head and looked again. Yep. Edon.
“This her?” Officer Rhino asked, thumbing his finger in my direction. Edon looked over at me and shrugged.
“It’s possible. Best to play it safe. And Louie? Make note that she was found here in your report.”
Louie sighed. “You sure about that?”
Edon smirked.
“Always dragging politics into the job,” he muttered under his breath before leaning into the car.
“Ma’am, I’m going to need you to exit the vehicle and come with us to the station.”
“To… to the station,” Deena repeated. “Officer, I swear, I’m this girl’s caseworker. Look.” She dug into her purse and came up with a plastic-encased photo ID on a lanyard. “Here’s my ID”
The officer didn’t even glance at it.
“In the case of a missing child, occupation is not a factor, ma’am.”
“But this proves I’m a caseworker. See?” She tapped the part that read Department of Human Services.
The policeman sighed. “Ma’am, even if you are her caseworker, we need to do our due diligence. Now, in the car.”
I finally regained enough sense to snap my jaw shut. How was Edon a fae police officer? He was a rebel and he went to my freakin’ high school. Then again, so did Mickey, the council advisor. And Bridgette, my bodyguard assassin. For all I knew, half my school consisted of adult fae pretending to be real students.
But still, how was a known rebel a police officer?
“But what about my car?” Deena asked.
“Give me the keys. Another officer can drive it to the station for you,” Rhino said.
Deena glared at him, almost flinging the keys in his direction. He pocketed them and swept his arm toward the police cruiser.
As we got in the back of the car, a plastic barrier between me and Edon, I realized getting away from the fae was going to be a lot harder than I thought.
Edon started the car, glancing at me through the review mirror. I barely resisted the urge to flip him off. Mostly because he was a rebel. And from what I understood, they kind of wanted to kill me right now. Playing nice—well, at least not openly hostile—was my best bet.
When Edon and Officer Rhino escorted us into the precinct, I expected a pretty normal setup, kind of like the stuff I’d seen on crime TV shows.
But as we walked past a ginormous plastic-encased holding cell that was three times taller than me, I realized my mistake. Inside were three human-looking fae lounging on benches that ranged from doll-sized to giant. At the moment, the doll-sized one was empty.
We kept walking until we got to a desk. Edon gestured for us to sit down. I did, all the while giving him the stink eye.
It didn’t seem to faze him.
“Ms. Pritchard,” Edon said. “We’re waiting for a couple folks to arrive so we can get everything settled.”
Deena crossed her arms and nodded.
I sat, looking around the office and then back at Edon and his pointy-eared shadow.
“So. You’re a cop, not a student?”
He smiled, neither confirming nor denying.
“You know that’s pretty messed up, right? Pretending you’re a senior around a bunch of underage girls?”
“Pretending what?” Deena looked from me to Edon and back again. “What are you talking about?”
“That guy.” I pointed to Edon. “He’s been hanging around my high school.”
“Undercover work, ma’am,” Edon cut in smoothly.
“Okay, then.” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms. “What were you investigating?”
“Kella.” From Deena’s tone, I knew she thought I was stepping out of line. But I couldn’t let it go. This guy had me thinking he was a normal kid like me…well, as normal as one could get looking like he did, anyway.
“No, seriously, Deena. The guy’s a total fraud.” I turned back to him just in time to catch the amused glint in his eye. “This town is too small for some kind of undercover cop operation. Everyone knows everybody. And on top of that…” Here I paused for a long, dramatic moment. “He kissed me.”
“What?” Deena looked from me to Edon and back again. “What did you say?”
Edon shifted from disinterested amusement to damage control in half a second. “Now, ma’am—”
“Yep. A full-on, no-holds-barred kiss.” I couldn’t help but relish the words. Sure, I was kind of overstating what happened… okay, I was completely misleading Deena. But hey, I just needed to see Edon squirm for once. And so far, it was super satisfying.
“Is what she’s saying true?”
“I did not—”
“Yeah, Edon. Did you kiss me? Yes or no?” I said, staring Edon down as best I could from my seat. Edon shot me an annoyed glance.
“It was not…”
“See.” I turned to Deena. “He didn’t deny it. He called it ‘it’. That implies there was an ‘it.’ So now you know he’s a creeper guy just like my math teacher—”
Deena’s eyes widened. “Just like who, now?”
“—and that he pulled us over, claiming he’s not sure if I’m this missing girl, but now you know that he knows who I am. So why is he dragging us down to some precinct to see if
