Dy folded her arms inyou’re going to be explaining this later.
Cha nodded anI apologize, there’s been a lot going on.
Dy sighed athat’s what you always say.
Cha grinnedI’m an asshole, but I’m your asshole.
Dy smiled a wearyI know, but I worry about you.
Cha nodded acceptance.I love you too.
See?Humans could do telepathy too.
Meanwhile, Sunshine was weeping and babbling apologies.The scene was drawing an interested crowd, which Sunshine appeared note, playing to the gathering as much as to Azul.For his part, Azul didn’t seem to be doing much of anything, letting her play out her theatrical apology.Cha trusted his instincts for this.However he thought best to mitigate whatever political costs could result.
A musical fanfare wafted over the gathering, something that struck Cha as announcing the arrival of a Personage.She glanced up, but the royal figures far above remained on their same top perch, ignoring the goings on below them, physically and metaphorically.But the crowded floor—more packed than even before—rippled, groups flickering away as one, like a school of fish flashing in the other direction as a predator approached.
If she hadn’t been touching him, Cha might have missed Azul’s reaction.As it was, he barely showed one, except that his skin shuddered lightly, just once, and she caught the distinct wave of dread from him.She looked up, searching his face for a clue, and saw the apology in his eyes.
Uh oh.
From the corner of her eye, Cha didn’t miss Sunshine’s reaction either.The blonde fae sagged in clear relief, her eyes lighting with adoring hope.Cha began to get a very bad feeling about this.It wasn’t magic, but a purely human sixth sense for when a gig was about to go south.She couldn’t claim it had actually saved them from catastrophe, but the prickle of warning had at least let them duck the full catastrophes and muck about in various shades of disaster.
She met Dy’s questioning gaze and nodded inyes, we’re fucked.
“Hello, Your Highness,” Lenorae said smoothly, giving Cha an arched brow look of disdain as if she were a muddy puppy clinging to Azul’s boot.She held out an imperious hand and—like a fucking puppy, himself—Azul dropped Cha’s arm and went to Lenorae’s side, tucking her hand in the crook of his elbow, a spot surely still warm from where Cha’s had been.Putting a hand to Azul’s cheek, Lenorae gave him a brilliant smile—and then a deep, passionate kiss.
A kiss he returned with interest.
Lenorae gave him a loving smile that she then turned on Cha, her smirk turning smug and delighted.“Hi there, Bridget.Fancy seeing you here.Took you long enough.”
~23~
A Trap Sprung
Cha went withinsouciance, her old stand by.She could brazen her way through anything and this little scene wasn’t any different.She’d faced down fae cops and human cutthroats; she could handle having her stupid heart carved out of her chest.
“Hi Lenorae,” she said brightly.“Yes, I’m here, with my partner, who I believe you’ll recall from when you visited her house.”
Dy waved, a pleasant smile on her face that barely covered her intense hostility, a force she leveled on Azul also with palpable heat.Cha could always count on her partner to be in full solidarity when it came down to it.
Azul, stone-faced, didn’t look at either of them, instead staring off into some middle distance.
“I’m really so glad you could be here for the wedding, Bridget,” Lenorae cooed, tossing back the gleaming sheet of hammered rose gold strawberry blond hair that framed her lithe, fairy-delicate body.She wore a close-fitting sheath of gems that looked like amber beads, strung together with no visible attachments and which matched her widely spaced eyes.She was impossibly lovely, of course.The best glamour could fake.“The wedding is going to be the event of the social season, even for royal fae,” Lenorae continued with malicious glee.“As a human, you must be excruciatingly aware of your great privilege in being allowed to attend such an important ceremony.I know you feel miserably inadequate in such stellar company.His Highness was determined to spare you the potential humiliation of feeling like a unwashed dog amongst your betters, but I was convinced that his His Highness’s human pet should be here to witness this joyful milestone in his life.It’s only right, don’t you think?His joy is your joy, after all.”
Cha, for once at a total loss for words, surface polite or fully snarky, stared at Lenorae, the puzzle pieces shifting and rearranging into a whole new picture.
Lenorae oozed smug and stroked Azul’s arm, drawing his attention back to her.“Isn’t that right, my prince?”
He gazed at her coolly.“No.”
She pouted, but he said nothing more.“I hadn’t expected you to be so ungracious about my wedding gift to you, Your Highness,” she said pointedly.“I went to a great deal of trouble to have your pet here and the least you could do is present me with my gift in return.”
Azul turned to her, his demeanor so cold, so lethally sharp, that he seemed to be a blade made of amethyst.A fanciful notion for Cha, who wasn’t given to romantic metaphors, but if he’d turned that look onher—and she was the farthest thing from a fainting flower possible—even she might have wilted.She had to give it to Lenorae: the fae had guts of steel that she wasn’t the least intimidated.
“So, that’s what this is about,” he said, whisper-soft as an assassin’s blade in the night.
She actually simpered, insufferably pleased with herself.“I don’t lose, Your Highness.”