“You’re an asshole. That’s no way to talk to anyone, no matter what they wanted to ask of you.” Her lips pursed and her nose wrinkled as she stared me down.
I raised my glass to the bartender. I wasn’t nearly drunk enough for this. To the woman, I said, “It’s none of your business, but I took a vow of not-interested-in-your-opinon.”
Beyond the voluptuous blonde, another blonde laughed. This one was tall and as thin as a reed. A fire burned under her skin. I could almost see it radiating out of her. The core of her aura wasn’t bright, though. It was dark at the very center, like she had a bit of darkness hidden away inside her.
Turning back to the voluptuous blonde, I studied her aura. Something about it struck me as familiar. I couldn’t quite place where I’d felt power like this before. This woman wasn’t human, but her pointed ears could have told me as much.
Still, I didn’t need a prickly fae woman telling me what to do with my life.
I’d already given my vow to another: my queen.
“Tell him who you are,” a small voice hissed.
I raised a brow and cut a sidelong glance in the woman’s direction. A small, tawny ferret had emerged from her voluminous hair. It gripped her earlobe with sharp little fingers, but I didn’t think that was why she wore that deep scowl.
The woman puffed out her cheeks, leaned forward, and pointed a finger in my direction. Just as she opened her mouth, her eyes went wide. They dropped to her right shoulder, where a crossbow bolt jutted out from her body.
I shot to my feet. She turned those wide eyes up to me. Her shock lasted barely a heartbeat before she pulled herself together and grabbed the front of my vest.
Teeth clenched tight, she growled, “Take me back to my apartment.”
“What in the seven courts is going on?” I scanned the crowd behind her to see who could have fired the bolt.
The bar was unusually full tonight. That’s what I thought at first glance. There were repeating faces in the crowd, though. Someone was using an illusion, copying patrons to create a crowd that they could hide behind. I focused my attention and noticed the faint aura of fae magic. I’d almost missed it because it was such a low-level glamour spell.
“Cerridwen!” the little ferret shrieked.
“Shush. I’ll be fine.” The woman turned her attention back to me. “Home. Now.”
That name struck me as familiar, but I couldn’t place it while I searched the bar for the attacker. I put a hand on Cerridwen’s waist and pulled her close to my chest so I could turn her away from the crowd.
Cerridwen…that was a name I’d heard ages ago. A fae child, barely more than a little girl. My queen made me promise that I would pick up my sword in her daughter’s name someday. They’d refused to tell me where Cerridwen was. I’d been heartbroken. My liege hadn’t trusted me.
This woman couldn’t be that very same Cerridwen. I remembered a toddler with a poof of golden curls and a sharp tooth at the corner of her impish smile. This was a full-grown woman of marrying age—with a body meant to entice and please.
“That’s a poisoned bolt from the Unseelie Court,” the ferret whispered.
“Thanks. I can tell it’s poisoned,” Cerridwen snapped. “I didn’t need you to tell me.”
Her knees gave out. I moved to catch her without pressing the bolt into my own chest. Torn between finding the attacker and getting this woman out of the bar, I froze. It’d been too long since I’d saved anyone…I…
“Let’s go. Point the way,” I grumbled as I lifted the woman into my arms to princess carry her out of the bar.
“Hey! Where are you taking her?” the athletic blonde shouted after me in the dark parking lot outside.
She caught up to me with her long legs and shot ahead to block my way. She threw her arms wide. I glared at her. She could have been the attacker. I saw the darkness buried beneath her light arcana. I wouldn’t have put it past her.
“Don’t worry, Vi,” the woman in my arms said to the one in the way. “He’s on our side. I can’t explain how right now.”
Vi sputtered. I pushed past her. If that crossbow bolt was poisoned, we didn’t have a lot of time. We had to find an herbalist who could neutralize the poison right away. We weren’t going to find one waiting at Cerridwen’s apartment, though. The poison must have been addling her mind already.
Vi caught up with us and ran alongside my long strides. “I can burn it away. Let me help!”
I gave her a side-eye when the woman in my arms stiffened. There was something between them that betrayed a problem beneath the surface of their relationship.
“No,” Cerridwen said, almost too fast. She swallowed and tried again. “No, don’t worry about me. I’ve got it.”
Vi stopped. I glanced back and noted the hurt on her face. Maybe the woman had a core tainted with darkness, but I got the sense that wasn’t her fault. A light shone through it, nonetheless.