I scoffed lightly. “Of course.” Just because I didn’t keep up with current celebrity news did not mean I didn’t know Fae history. Princess Titania was the first faerie to address the world after the Great Rift, and she was the most loved and celebrated among the royal Fae.
Tennin resumed packing, and I wondered what it was like to be able to travel across the country or the world in a matter of minutes. Faeries were able to do it by creating portals between our two realms. They passed through the portal into their world and then created a second portal to arrive at their destination here in our world.
There had been much debate and speculation over the years about when and if this technology would ever be available to humans. But humans could not enter Faerie, so I couldn’t see how the portals could work for us.
Tennin zipped up his bag. “Something tells me it’s no use asking you to stay away from Teg’s. If you insist on going there, don’t go alone. Take someone you trust with you, preferably someone who knows more about us than you do.”
“I will.” I already had the perfect person in mind.
“Good. Come on. I’ll walk out with you.”
* * *
“You can’t wear that.”
“Why not?” I frowned at the petite Chinese girl standing in the doorway of my apartment.
Violet Lee shook her head of long, blue-and-black hair and walked past me into the apartment. She wore artfully ripped jeans, a white V-neck camisole, and a gray suede jacket that probably cost more than I’d made in a month at my old job. She’d paired the outfit with knee-length boots that brought her within an inch of my height.
“The jeans and combat boots are great, but that sweater and coat…” She wrinkled her nose. “You’re going there as the daughter of two of the most badass bounty hunters this city has ever seen. You need to channel Caroline James and dress like you mean business.”
“You’re right.” I turned on my heel and went to my room to change into a plain black T-shirt. Then I walked down the hall to my parents’ bedroom to borrow one of Mom’s short leather jackets. I stood in front of her mirror, my chest tight as I donned the jacket that smelled of her favorite soap. With my hair tied back in a ponytail, I could pass for her from a distance.
I was about to turn away from the mirror when my gaze landed on a framed photo sitting on the dresser. I looked at the beaming faces of my much younger parents and a chubby, red-haired baby boy. My brother, Caleb.
I’d never known Caleb. He had been only two months old when he’d died from an undiagnosed heart defect two years before I was born. Because of that, I’d spent the first year of my life under the care of a pediatric cardiologist. Thankfully, I had been blessed with a strong, healthy heart.
We didn’t speak of Caleb often because it hurt Mom to talk about him. Dad was better at hiding his emotions, but I could see a flash of pain in his eyes whenever Caleb’s name was mentioned.
“That’s more like it,” Violet said from the doorway. “Do you need to wear those glasses?”
I frowned. “Yes, if I want to drive.”
She tilted her head to study me. “I guess they do work on you.”
“Thanks, I think.” I rolled my eyes as I walked past her.
She followed me. “Ready to go?”
“Almost.” I went to the office where I rooted through the supplies. I picked up a knife but decided against it. I’d had a lot of self-defense training, but I’d never practiced with a weapon. Placing it back on the shelf, I continued my search until I found a small leather pouch. I checked the contents and stuck the pouch into the inner pocket of my jacket.
“What’s that?” asked Violet.
I patted down the front of my jacket to make sure there was no bulge. “Just a little protection in case we need it.”
“Protection from what?”
“The boogeyman,” I quipped dryly. “Protection from faeries, of course.”
She chuckled. “You might be more like your parents than I gave you credit for.”
“Just because I don’t have your obsession with faeries doesn’t mean I don’t know much about them.”
Sharing a home with two bounty hunters gave me access to information the average person didn’t have. My parents had accumulated an impressive collection of reference books on everything Fae, and I’d read them all from cover to cover.
Mom and Dad didn’t want me hunting with them, but they’d always encouraged me to learn everything I could about faeries. When I went to college, I planned to study law so I could be a legal advocate for lower faeries, like Finch and Gorn, who didn’t have someone to fight for their rights.
We left the office, but I turned and went back. I searched the desk drawers until I located Mom’s spare bounty hunter ID. It might come in handy, and the picture on the card was so small that I was counting on no one looking at it too closely.
Back in the living room, I found Violet and Finch watching an entertainment news show. Finch didn’t like most outsiders, and he normally disappeared the second we had a visitor. Violet was the exception. She’d spent so much time here with me that he was used to her. Plus, she was the only one who would watch these shows with him. I think he secretly loved it when she came over.
“I still can’t believe someone actually got those pictures of Prince Rhys,” she said.
Tennin’s photos of the prince were splashed across the TV screen. The internet had blown up last night the minute his pictures hit the first gossip site. You couldn’t look at social media or television today without seeing the prince’s face.
“It was bound to happen eventually,” I said with a shrug.
Violet gave me the side-eye. “How can you not be the least interested in this? A new Fae prince is like history in the making.”
I snorted. “A new world leader is history. This is pop culture.” I didn’t tell her I’d seen these pictures before they’d been released into cyberspace and taken on a life of their own.
“You’re hopeless.” She glanced at her phone screen. “We should probably get going.”
I looked at Finch, who sat on the back of the couch. “I’m leaving now. I’ll try to be back before midnight.” I hated leaving him alone, but I didn’t have a choice if I wanted to find our parents. He understood my reasons, and he wanted Mom and Dad to come home as much as I did.
“Later, Finch.” Violet gave him a finger wave as we left and he waved back.
She stopped me when we reached the lobby. “By the way, Mom wants you and Finch to come stay with us until your parents come home.”
Warmth filled my chest. “If it were just me, I would. But I don’t think Finch will want to leave here. He’s pretty upset about Mom and Dad, and you know how he is with strangers.”
“I figured as much, but she still wanted me to ask.”
I gave her a one-armed hug. “You’re the best.”
She pushed open the main door. “I know.”
Teg’s was a graffitied, one-story brick building in the Bronx. It didn’t look like much on the outside, but Violet said she’d heard it was a popular spot.
Music, laughter, and a wave of warm air hit me when I opened the heavy door and stepped inside. The place smelled like alcohol and an intoxicating scent I couldn’t identify. It made me a little lightheaded and filled me with a sense of longing, but for what I didn’t know.