Page 4 of The Fae Menagerie
"Who are you? And where are we?"
"Doyle." I held out my hand to him. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."
He studied my long fingers, tipped by razor-sharp nails. "What are you?"
"Humans call us the fae."
"Fae. Like … wood sprites? Goblins?" He glanced at my wings. "What kind are you?"
"None of your business." I didn't like to kiss and tell on a first date. Not that this was at all date-like.
"Where—"
"The Fae Menagerie."
"Menagerie." He sat up and pulled his knees to his chest, but then he snorted and pushed his feet back to the floor with a grimace. I could smell it, too, the sour stench of bile.
"I have a washrag around here somewhere."
I stood up, and he gasped.
"Where the fuck are your clothes?"
I'd sent my burlap covering away when I'd replaced it, but I wasn't allowed to have nice things here. That meant our return trip had stripped me of my glamour and my clothes.
"And why is your hair blue? It wasn't blue before."
No, it had been a perfectly acceptable shade of brown, thanks to my magic.
"It wasn't," I agreed.
I shuffled off to my bedroom for my backup garment. I didn't have another word for it. It was too shapeless to be a tunic, too scratchy to be a robe, and far too plain to be a dress. It was also a dingy gray from being washed countless times. Thankfully, that made it a little more comfortable than the newer one I'd lost.
I returned with rags from under my bathroom sink and some shoe polish from my bedroom closet. I was required to polish the warden's shoes, among other things, whenever he stopped by. I'd long ago given up hope my warden would teach me whatever my mother wanted me to learn about love. Aidan was a taker, the same as me.
Parker didn't flinch when I kneeled before him. I wiped away the dried puke with a wet rag and polished with the dry one. I looked up at him between shoes, catching him staring. He blushed and looked away.
He had a pretty blush. If everything went well, I'd have him blushing with my cock in his mouth soon enough.
I was at eye-level with his cock, so of course I looked. Most humans would be tenting a boner from my beauty by now. From the cut of his pants, they gave him plenty of room, but I couldn't tell the size of his package.
If I didn't know better, I'd think his pants were spelled, but no magic worked inside my cell, not even the magic to hide my wings, let alone use them. I was a flightless bug surrounded by ten-foot walls.
A knock startled us both. Aidan came and went whenever he pleased, so of course, he popped into my living room unannounced and knocked on the nearest surface to get our attention.
"Doyle."
The beautiful incubus seemed to suck all the shadows from the room. His shoulder-length black locks curled around his golden horns. His golden bat wings hung limp behind his shoulders, the only sign he was uncomfortable without his usual magical glamours.
"I was summoned," I whined. If he thought this was my fault, he would tack years to my sentence for misbehavior.
"We are aware." He sighed. "Where is the coin?"
"The what?" I feigned ignorance because I hadn't gotten a chance to look for it yet. I hoped it wasn't somewhere obvious, or Aidan would find it before I did.
"The fae luck coin. It's the only way a human could have summoned you to their realm through the prison's security spells."
The only way. That meant Bret the Ex was smarter than he looked, or just damn lucky. It went with the coin, I supposed. I wished his luck would have transferred to me, but apparently not. I had to work my way out of my cell the old-fashioned way, by making Parker fall in love with me.
