“Just had a run-in with Kymaris,” Carrick says, and I about break my neck as I snap my head all the way to my right.
“You what?” I exclaim, eyes so wide I’m afraid my eyeballs might fall out.
“I went to see Ozigeor to get the ritual she’s going to use,” he says, his expression grim. “She’d apparently put some sort of spell on him that would kill him if he told on her. Just as he started to tell me about the ritual, he started to burn from the inside out. Kymaris appeared to witness it, and we exchanged some verbal jabs.”
“He was our best chance at learning what the ritual is,” I murmur morosely.
“Back to the books,” Myles mutters, bending his head over the one in front of him.
“Not quite,” Carrick replies, his gaze locking on Myles until Myles lifts his head to look at Carrick. “I actually have a party to attend tomorrow, and I need you to come with me.”
“Why?” Myles and I ask at the same time.
“Because I need a human companion,” Carrick replies smoothly.
“I’m human,” I snap, pointing out the obvious.
His gold eyes slide to me. “Yes, I’m well aware of that. But this isn’t the type of party you can go to.”
“Why not?” I demand.
“Let me rephrase that,” Carrick says coolly. “It’s not the type of party I want you to go to. There will be things going on there that I would really rather you not see.”
Not good enough for me, so I demand more information.
So, Carrick lays it out for all of us and by the end of his explanation, I sincerely don’t want to go, but I still put on a brave face. “I can totally handle it.”
“Maybe,” Carrick replies, but his hand comes up to wrap around the side of my neck. He pulls me in closer to him in an intimate move so he can speak only to me, although everyone can hear him. “But it would make me feel better if you didn’t have to see those things. Give this to me, please.”
It’s his eyes, the pressure of his hand, and, ultimately, the please that gets me to capitulate.
In the end, Myles is actually excited to go because while Rainey already determined she was done with the scary stuff after what happened at Kymaris’ house, Myles was going to take any action he could get in our fight against evil.
And I was okay with that, too. Carrick might not like Myles very much, but he knows I love him, so he will make sure he remains safe.
CHAPTER 22
Carrick
More of a serious man than not, Carrick couldn’t help but find way too much amusement in the outfit he’d picked out for Myles to wear to the party Pyke was taking them to tonight.
It was a fetish party, which had been going on since the time humans and fae began to mix. While the Light Fae mostly moved on to Faere or other realms, those that chose to stay in the Earth realm would often reveal their true nature to humans. A prime example was Stan—who was a royal Light Fae that could see the future, and his human lover, Patty, also had that ability. It was something they had in common, and even though Patty would age out of Stan’s interest at some point, it worked for them in the short term.
Most fae and humans, however, did not have healthy and balanced relationships. Humans were what eventually outnumbered and forced the Light Fae from the Earth realm, and there was an inherent prejudice against them. It had become a little too commonplace for the fae living in the Earth realm to subjugate humans if they could. This often came in the form of BDSM, which was an easy way to get humans to bend to a fae’s will. Many times, those fae would eventually reveal themselves, but, in the grand scheme of things, most humans allowed themselves to be leashed like dogs and enjoyed it.
Carrick never understood it, but he understood others’ ways of thinking, and he knew he could carry himself off fine tonight. Myles was a different matter, and he was clearly uncomfortable in his leather pants, a top made up of nothing but crisscrossing leather straps, and a collar around his neck that indeed had a link with which to attach a leash.
“You’re lucky I didn’t pick the leather pants that had the ass cut out of it,” Carrick told him to stop Myles’ complaints.
He actually hadn’t been considering any such thing. In fact, he hadn’t picked any of it out, but had left it to Zaid to make sure Myles looked the part of a human pet.
“This is so humiliating,” Myles muttered, pulling the tight leather at his crotch.
Carrick agreed, but felt no sympathy. At least Myles was lucky that Rainey and Finley had stayed down in the library so he didn’t have to suffer their looks of pity.