Grace was in front of him so fast she seemed to teleport into his path. "You're worried about Olivia. That's what you meant."
"Right." He started around her. "If TC wasn't down here, it was a trick to get me out of her apartment."
"No one will harm her here," Grace said as she followed him up the stairs.
He kept going, climbing two at a time. When he reached the top, he jogged down the hall, nearly tripping over TC, who loped along beside him.
"Fine," Grace called from the stairwell. "Check on her. Then get your ass back out here. We need to talk."
He went into the apartment. Liv lay exactly where he'd left her. TC hopped onto the bed and settled at the end. Then he looked at Ricky, his eyes narrowed, as if to say, Well, get in already.
Ricky searched the apartment as TC wound around his legs, trying to get him back to bed where he belonged.
Ricky checked everything twice. Then he returned to the hall, where Grace waited.
"Satisfied?" she said. "You really are Cwn Annwn. As faithful as a hound."
When he didn't reply, she peered up at him. "Not going to take offense at that?"
"Nope."
"I knew Arawn," she said. When he looked at her sharply, she gave a croaking laugh. "Oh, that gets a reaction. I was there, back in the day. I've met a couple of his embodiments, too. Pale imitations. I didn't see him in them. I do in you."
"Aspects," he said. "I have things in common with him. I won't deny that. But there are differences. I'm not going to make his mistakes."
"No?"
"Arawn was careless, reckless, and impulsive. Petty and self-absorbed. He couldn't stand to lose Matilda to Gwynn and that was about him, not what was best for her, which ultimately would have been best for him, to let Gwynn have her as his wife and keep them both as friends."
"Oh, you are clever. Far too clever for a biker."
"No, just clever enough to be a good biker."
She snorted a laugh. "All right, boy. But you're too hard on Arawn. He was young. The young make foolish mistakes for foolish reasons, like a girl they can't live without. You might seem young, too, but you're not. It's the part of you that is him that sees his folly, like an old man looking back on his youth."
"So you think I was lured out by someone trying to get to me, not Liv?"
"Clever boy."
"Then the upshot is that I need to learn from that. Don't go chasing yowling cats in the night. Question everything that could be luring me into trouble."
She chuckled. "You are indeed Arawn. Good. This will make things very interesting."
"Not sure I want to know what you mean by that."
She reached to squeeze his arm. "I mean that you are not a child, easily led from the path by those who wish to harm you. You are Arawn. Lord of the Otherworld."
"Thanks. I think." He glanced at the apartment door.
"Yes, yes. Your girl waits. But before you go, you said you won't make Arawn's mistake. What do you think that was?"
He told her.
She studied him. "And you think you can avoid that? That when the time comes, you'll be able to do it?"
"I'll have to, won't I?"
She nodded and let him go into the apartment.