Page 20 of Kiss of Smoke

His laugh was cold. “The difference between you and me, Rök, is that I willalwaysbe a Fae of death. I don’t need the Hunt to go riding with the dead.” He grinned, and in the ghostlight, it looked like a death’s head grin. “You insult my girlfriend again, and I will take your soul and piss on it in the Otherworld.”

Red elbowed Rök in the side, but despite his smooth talking, it was obvious he was digging himself into a deeper hole. “We apologize for the insult, ap Nudd, but Rök is right. You don’t belong with her.” He nodded to me. “If you go her way, we’ve lost a good Hunter. Maybe one of the best of us. You should let her live above, and stay below with us. We were your family first.”

A stony hand clenched my heart. Theyhadbeen Gwyn’s family, long before he’d been mine.

I was the one pulling him away from everything and everyone he knew.

But he stood his ground. “Fuck both of you. I forgive your debts—I wouldn’t want debts repaid by cowardly little bitches. Now get out of here.”

I felt his presence against me, the tightness in his muscles, saw the twitch in his jaw. He was fucking furious, garnet eyes flashing fire.

Ceri growled softly at his side, and both Hunters glanced at the cwn annwn before backing away.

“Best of luck, ap Nudd,” Red said, looking away. “I hope you don’t regret this.”

The way he said it made it sound very much like he meant the opposite.

They melted into the darkness, and when their footsteps disappeared, we moved on.

Gwyn’s anger was like a tangible cloud, the group growing tense once more. He stalked past tunnels, occasionally whistling or giving Ceri a sharp command to sniff out the path ahead.

I was wrapped in guilt for some of that time. If not for me, Gwyn would never have been at a crossroads between what he was meant to do, and what he was doing now.

He’d been arrested by Robin multiple times. Did I really believe they would be able to work peacefully together? He was on one side of the law, and Robin was on the other.

But he is working together, an inner voice whispered.They get along for you—maybebecauseof you. Not everything you touch turns to shit.

I just wanted to be alone with Gwyn to ask him to not hide his true feelings from me, especially when he was so pissed. It didn’t help that the tunnels were empty and bare of any evidence, and our entire mission seemed to be in vain.

Jack was getting snappy and Oriande was starting to creep up on Noctifer, mic in hand, when my boot hit something that tinkled.

I stopped, beckoning one of the ghostlight orbs towards me, and knelt in the dirt.

Something glinted warm and bright, a color that looked out of place in this dank, dreary place. I picked it up, brushing the dust away to reveal a golden earring, the dangling leaf shape dotted with glimmering aquamarines.

“Guys,” I said, looking up at everyone. Gwyn and Ceri turned back, surrounding me. “Look at this.”

I straightened up, holding the earring out. The orbs of light clustered, casting a combined brilliance over it.

Noctifer sucked in a sharp breath. “That belongs to Princess Tanaquill.”

“Are you sure?” Jack asked sharply, looking away from the earring to search Noctifer’s face.

“Quite.” My father sounded grim. “I’m at the side of the royal family for every event, every court session. I’ve seen the princess wear these many times before.”

I experienced a momentary, completely inappropriate pang of jealousy at the thought that another Fae woman my age had gotten to spend more time with my father than I ever had, but wiped it away quickly.

He didn’t speak of Tanaquill as he would a daughter, and besides that, if her earring was here in the tunnels, then she was definitely in danger.

I had no time for petty jealousy. I turned the earring over, finding the post and the back of the leaf smeared with dried blood.

“This was ripped out,” I murmured, cringing as I pictured it. Just the thought made my stomach turn. “Deliberately?”

“Possibly,” Jack said, taking the earring when I offered it. “Perhaps she tore it out herself, leaving a breadcrumb trail for us to follow…or they were planning to steal her valuables and dropped this one. It’s impossible to tell.”

“Well, we’re on the right trail,” I said, then nodded to Gwyn. “Maybe if we let Ceri sniff it…?”

Jack passed it to Gwyn, who held it out for the death hound to smell. Ceri’s nostrils flared as he sniffed all over the thing, focusing particularly on the blood, then began whiffing in the dirt of the tunnel.

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