The assassin continued to silently glare at us. Her body spun slowly in the air. No matter how she kicked or lashed out, she couldn’t get upright.
This man was a secret supporter of the Seelie Court—or, he had been until he revealed his allegiance with that over-the-top suit change. He slowly lowered my arm and released my wrist.
“I’m calling your babysitter,” he said to me. He raised the envelope from my purse and tapped his temple. “Don’t worry. I’ll deliver this for you. Though, I’m not sure it will make a difference. Maybe you know that already, Princess.”
Rhoan
I jammeda finger in Taliesin’s direction. “There better be a sandwich in this for me.”
The Seelie man smiled and leaned onto the counter so he could put his chin in his hand. Beside him, Delphine floated in the air with her arms crossed over her chest like a petulant child. The moment she touched the ground, she would turn into a murder machine. For now, she was rendered immobile.
That was a simple reminder of just how strong Taliesin was and just how much stronger Beryl was. This fight was going to be an uphill battle, especially if Taliesin remained a turncoat. He’d been part of the Seelie Court, but he’d chosen life over honor when Beryl showed up. The man had joined her the moment she’d declared her uprising.
While Taliesin had kept to himself during the fighting, his actions still rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe he didn’t kill any of his own, but he hadn’t helped them either. He’d shown that his own life meant more to him than his court.
I groaned. That reminded me that I needed to pick up my princess. She, too, cared more about her own life than her court. In time, I knew that would change. She would see the reality of living under Beryl’s control, and she would learn that nowhere was safe with Beryl in power.
From the conflicted, distracted look in Cerri’s face, I had a feeling that she’d had her first epiphany. I wondered what’d caused it. She looked to Taliesin, who waggled his fingers at her. A silent question that I couldn’t translate crossed her expression. Taliesin nodded in response, which bothered me.
I grabbed Cerri’s upper arm and tugged her close. In her ear, I whispered, “You can’t trust him.”
“I’m going to skin that girl alive in front of you all!” Delphine screamed.
I turned all my ire and frustration on the elven assassin. “No. You won’t.”
That just wasn’t like Delphine. She was angry and screaming anything to get our attention. While she would absolutely continue to pursue her contract, she wouldn’t go that far. And I wasn’t going to let her get anywhere near Cerri.
“Can you stop running off on me?” I asked the princess.
“I wanted to get a sandwich before work,” she pouted.
Yeah, that was a lie, but I wasn’t about to challenge it here. I needed her to trust me enough that she stopped running away to do things on her own. I wasn’t even pushing her towards her duty. If anything, I spent all my time just trying to keep her alive.
I needed to strike a deal with Delphine. If I could find out what Beryl had promised her, then I could offer more. I just needed to know, so I had something to work with. Everyone could be bought, I just needed to know her price.
Taliesin appeared by the door. He lifted a brown paper bag and smiled like this was nothing more than customer service. He’d been a high noble back when I’d known him. Now he slung sandwiches with the best pesto in town.
I yanked the bag from Taliesin’s grasp and pushed Cerri through the door. Outside, I shoved the bag into her arms, turned her towards Bad Moon Café, and sulked behind her. This search and rescue mission was getting tiring. I wanted nothing more than to whisk her away and hide her somewhere safe where Beryl would never find her.
Hell, court be damned. I sounded like Taliesin now, but I just wanted Cerri to survive. She’d been through enough. I knew this was all a wild and desperate attempt to find a way to live through this duty pushed onto her. I didn’t blame her, but I wished she would let me help her.
The taste of whiskey burned my tongue. The craving seized my core, but I shoved it aside. I had to stop drinking. It was part of the reason that Cerri didn’t trust me. She saw me as a drunkard who couldn’t keep his shit together. I had to prove her wrong and be the kind of man that she needed.
That was my job, after all.
Inside the café, I gave her friends a two-finger salute and pushed Cerri towards the table situated all the way at the back. There, she dropped into a chair and glared up at me. She didn’t cross her arms over her chest and pout. No, this woman gripped the sides of her seat with every ounce of fury in her fae body.
A crack outside came right before a plant shoved its way out from beneath the sidewalk. Cerri gave the plant outside the window an ashamed look before turning her attention back on me. The outburst was cute, if anything, but I wasn’t going to let this slide.
Leaning forward, I planted both hands on the table between us. “Stop trying to die.”
“I’m not!” She growled under her breath.
“I know you’re not doing it on purpose. You keep making a lot of really dumb decisions. We both know that deli is run by the fae. Walking in there was a gamble, one that you didn’t take just for a sandwich.”
Her cheeks turned red. I’d caught her in her lie, and she knew it now. Her gaze dropped. I watched her study the beads in my braids for a long while.
“Uhh, is everything all right over here?” a mortal woman asked.