Page 103 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

“Not with me,” he said. “You can’t lie about him withme.”

“Fine. Yes, I want to trust him again.”

“Then just let him show his cards and make an informed decision the best you can with your heart in his hands.”

Kierse hated that plan, and Nate must have seen it on her face, because he just laughed and pulled her in for a hug.

“A little discomfort is good for you. And I’m still here if you need a good double cross.”

She shook her head with a laugh. The last time they’d worked together against Graves, they’d decided she would feed him information to help the pro-human cause. There were monsters out there trying to destroy the hard work that had been put into the treaty. The last thing they wanted was another monster war. “What’s the monster situation been?”

Nate took the out. “Quiet.”

“Third Floor?”

“Quiet,” he repeated. “The whole city has been suspiciously quiet since you left. Like killing King Louis destroyed the monster rebellion.”

Kierse frowned. “That’s optimistic.”

“It’s deceptive. They’ve gone underground. Burrowed in deeper.”

“Any evidence of that?”

He shook his head. “No, there’s nothing, but we know they’re not gone.”

“Rats,” she grumbled. “Well, keep me informed.”

“Always. But that’s not the real reason you’re here, right? My midnight girl is never up at such an early hour.”

She shot him a self-deprecating look. “You know me too well. It’s Ethan,” she confessed. “I went to see him earlier this week.”

His eyebrows rose. “You got inside?”

“The head Druid owes me a favor or two.”

“The head Druid wants to bang you,” he quipped with a wink.

She snorted. God, she had missed Nate’s easy humor. “That’s beside the point. Ethan has been brainwashed. I sort of worry about what happens when his isolation is up.”

“For him, or you…or Corey?”

“Yes,” she said honestly.

Nate sighed. “Would he leave of his own accord if we broke into the place?”

Kierse thought about it for a second, the mischievous smile tugging on her lips. Then she lost the thread of it all. “No. No, he wants to be there.”

“Well, fuck.”

“Yeah. Everyone else is like ‘give him space.’ I’m glad you went straight to ‘kidnap.’”

Nate chuckled. “Fuck everyone else being reasonable. We have chains down below the club. We could chain him up and run a deprogramming.”

Another laugh bubbled out of her. “He’d hate us.”

Nate mimed holding up a picture. “This is a Druid. They are bad guys.”

Full laughter hit her in her belly. “You’re ridiculous.”

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