Page 4 of Bound
Our queen is finally sporting a rather delicate baby bump, and baby fever has spread over the compound.
I shudder. “Ah.”
Ruin looks at me. “What’s up?”
“Just left Markus,” I begin and they both stand up straighter. “They set your trial for this week. An envoy of Fae are already in town. T and I have to meet them tonight.”
“Fae?” Ruin spits. “They are letting the Fae oversee the hearing?” His dark eyes alight on me, and his grimace is back in place. “No offense.”
I wave it off. “I don’t like my kind any more than you do, true?”
He runs a hand through his shorn hair. “How many?”
“Ten.”
His eyes bug and the first hint of gold light spills through his irises. “How hard is this going to be for you?” he asks. “Being around your kind?”
I shrug. “I see others of my kind.”
Ruin grunts in response. “That’s not the same.”
He’s right. And we both know it.
In Louisiana, Fae are few and far between. The marshes hold a few sprites and the occasional nymph. But it’s nothing like the wealth of Fae under the Sith. The beauty of the Aos Sí. Hence why I fucking moved here.
“I’ve been away from the Hill too long for it to matter,” I mutter. Markus is the only one that knows the real reason I left the Sith. And even then, he only knows as much as I have told him.
Does anyone under the Hill even remember me?
Considering it has been nearly twenty years since I left, I can only hope they have all forgotten Gage Whitehorn.
Ruin turns a bit, watching me from bottomless black eyes. “You’re a Fae male in Louisiana. AsingleFae male,” he reminds me. “That can’t be good for you, man.”
My eyes narrow.
Ever since he and Tanner found the only women who can stand them, both have turned into love-drunk, besotted fools. The kind that want to play matchmaker to everyone.
Including me.
I force my mouth to remain closed on where he can stick his fucking opinion on my non-fucking-existent love life. “T, we leave in a few hours,” I say instead. The shifter looks between myself and Ruin, his expression mild. Empty.
I don’t wait for a response or any trace of fucking pity in either man’s gaze. I walk to the stereo on the low counter and turn it on. Deafening rap blares through the room, beating hard in my chest as I slip my T-shirt off.
My reasons for leaving the Sith are my own.
And as soon as this fucking trial is over, I can go back to staying far from my kind.
In the meantime …
Slipping the metal case from my back pocket, I pull out a hand-rolled and stick it between my lips.
I snap. Ethereal green fire bursts from my fingertips, the flame hot. Wild.
Lighting the end of my joint, I take a deep inhale of the spicy weed. The pungent smoke is like vanilla and chocolate mixed with spice. It loosens the knot inside me. The one holding back my magick.
Black Dream.
I eye the case before I close it back. Six left before I have to re-up.
