Page 3 of The Fae Menagerie
I did not want to miss out on this. Maybe I'd been alone in my menagerie cell too long, but Parker was the breath of fresh air I needed. Everything about him captivated me. His dark hair was spiked on top and dyed blue at the tips. If I wasn't mistaken, it would almost match my hair color when I wasn't masking it with a glamour. He wore a bespoke suit that sparkled like the midnight sky and black Oxfords polished to perfection. He carried himself with the ease and grace of someone with the human equivalent of power, which meant money. Lots and lots of money.
He took one glance at me and then turned the full force of his dark blue gaze on his ex. "What the fuck, Bret?"
"I didn't do it!" Bret pointed at me with a long, shaking finger. "He did."
Parker returned his gaze to me, looking me up and down. He turned back to Bret. "I told you I don't have time for lunch with you. I have work to do! The big pitch is in an hour, remember? I don't know how you got me here, but you'd better take me back to my office right now!"
"I'm afraid we can't do that yet." I pointed to the coin in Bret's hand. "I'll have you back in your office, good as new, but first, I need you, Parker Killian Patrick Moynahan, to toss me the coin Bret Simon Lloyd forgot to pay me."
Yes, compulsion spells are highly illegal and might be partly to blame for my stay at the menagerie. Except it didn't work, not on Parker, anyway. He took one look at me and shook his head with an arrogant sneer. "Why would I do that?"
"Bret summoned me to take care of you."
Bret curled around his hand, where light seeped between his fingers, radiating my desire. I wanted that coin. Needed it. From the way it glowed, it wanted to be with me, too. Whoever said the fae luck coin wasn't sentient lied.
It worked to my advantage. The coin burned brightly. Bret dropped it and stared at his unburned hand in shock. Then he turned and puked on Parker's shiny shoes.
"You asshole!" Parker kicked the coin in his haste to get away from Bret, inadvertently knocking it into the circle with me. I bent over and touched my index finger to the raven symbol. I shivered as a bond flowed over me, holding me to my word. Then, everything happened all at once.
Bret shoved Parker toward me and ran into the darkness. Parker tripped and fell. I reached out to catch him, and we both tumbled through the circle as a portal opened beneath us. Thecoin sank through the void at a faster rate than we did and soon disappeared.
Chapter
Two
DOYLE
Animals.That was what reasonable folk kept in a menagerie. Not the sadistic assholes at The Fae Menagerie, the light court's prison. Yes, they called it a menagerie, but the light court was as dark as the rest of the fae. They only hid it better.
I wondered if I'd looked at it wrong. Maybe the menagerie wasn't my prison. This summoning proved I could leave any time when called to the human realm. I could also escape as soon as I climbed over the ten-foot glass wall around my living quarters.
My stomach rumbled again, calling my bluff. I wasn't getting out of here until I satisfied my sentence.
I lived in a single-story enclosure at the end of a line of connected enclosures. To humans, it would resemble a partitioned fish tank surrounded by park benches and walkways. Around the green spaces, a high bank prevented us from seeing the next row of enclosures. I didn't know how many creatures, or even species, were suspended in this place outside of time and space, stuck like me while their families and enemies alike observed their suffering in the dreams of one night.
Thankfully, my bedroom and bathroom sat square in the middle of my cage with the only opaque walls and roof. They allowed me some privacy, at least.
I had hoped to fall back to the menagerie somewhere in the green space outside, but a crystal chandelier passed by my hand before I thought to grab it. I was back in my living room and falling fast.
Something hard and lumpy broke my fall. I hoped it wasn't Parker. I needed him alive.
Nope. I opened my eyes to find the garish floral display of my couch staring up at me. The pink velveteen fabric stamped with red chrysanthemums had been my mother's, a relic from the human realm the last time she'd visited. She'd wanted my home away from home to feel like home.
If you'd guessed my own mother put me here, you'd be right.
"You will remain a prisoner of the light court until you learn what love is,"she'd said.
I already knew what love was. It was the sharp instrument I used to get what I wanted, like any other tool. I wielded love like a rapier, using it to pull people to me as easily as it pushed them away when I finished with them.
Something heavy fell across my legs at the bottom of the couch.
"Ouch."
I tried to roll out from under the uncomfortable lump and ended up sprawled on the floor. I hurried to my knees to check on my escape plan, Parker.
"Anything broken?" Not that I could do anything about it. If I called the guards, they would only take him away. Hell, they were probably on their way already.
"No." He shifted, so we were face to face. Gods, those eyes were even more devastatingly blue up close, the color of theocean at night beneath the moon. Not that I had seen the ocean recently, but I remembered its beauty.
