Yeah, see, I hadn’t forgotten that bit about Crash. Feish—a river maid who rather resembled a fish—was, for all intents and purposes, a slave to Crash. Something I was not impressed with in the least, even if he seemed to treat her well.
Crash didn’t so much as crack a smile. “No. She gets lonely and scared on her own. I want to know if you’ll stay here with her while I’m gone.”
“Here? As in my gran’s house? This is your new hideout? I thought it would be an investment. You know, swindle the tourists and all that jazz.”
He looked to the ceiling as if seeking inspiration from above. “Hardly a hideout. The place on Factors Row is done for a lot of reasons and the original owners want it back. The basement here will be my new shop.”
I didn’t know what to say. At first I wanted to jump on the countertop and shout yes to the rooftops. Living here would get me out of Corb’s loft, and judging by his cupboard of lube, he was counting the days till I left. He was a young guy who wanted to party it up with the ladies, and despite the kiss we’d shared, I was most certainly not on his list.
But Crash was still one of the bad guys, or bad-guy adjacent, and I was wary of deepening our connection. An image of stealing a couple of Corb’s extra lubes just in case Crash decided I was more than a pain in the ass flashed through my mind, a little more enticing than any scenario involving Boy Butter should have been. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
His eyes shot to Kinkly sitting on my shoulder, and she cringed as if he’d taken a swing at her. “Hanging with the fairies now? That’s dangerous for a human.”
I shrugged, and Kinkly gave a nervous giggle with the roll of my shoulders. “I laugh in the face of danger. HA!” I smiled up at him. “I got gum out of her wings with some of Corb’s extra-slick lube, and she did my makeup. It was a good deal. Nothing more.” I was not about to tell him I’d agreed to speak to her lady friend.
His face was a careful blank, his tone just as careful. “Extra-slick lube?”
“No olive oil.” I shrugged again, also keeping my face blank. Let him think what he wanted. “That man has about thirty buckets of the slick stuff in his bathroom.”
Now Crash’s lips did twitch. “No he doesn’t.”
Kinkly stood up and shook a tiny finger at him. “I saw them, he does. I don’t know what bacon has to do with sex, but there was a lot of it . . .”
I laughed and put a hand over my eyes. “Blinded! I’m blinded, I tell you.”
Yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I knew I needed to get out of the loft. I’d never be able to use that bathroom without thinking of the stockpile of lube. “How long would you need me to stay?”
“I’ll be gone a few weeks, maybe two months at the outside,” he said. I should’ve been happy I’d have Gran’s house for that long, and I was, but I also felt a little sad that I wouldn’t see him for a while. Or maybe I just missed the sight of his body wrapped up in a sheet—my usual view of him given my habit of visiting while he was asleep.
“So two months.” I wiggled my lips, thinking. “And then when you get back?”
“You go to wherever you go. I don’t share my home with anyone but Feish.”
I could get my own place. Already my mind was racing ahead, trying to figure out where I’d be in two months.
If I took the job from the lady Kinkly wanted me to see . . . maybe it would pay enough for me to get out on my own again. Well, to be fair, the money in my bag was enough, but the longer I could save it the better. As of right now it was off the books, and the creditors Himself had set on me didn’t know about it—even if he did. Damn it, I suddenly wished I hadn’t flashed the money at him. Because if it was up to me, the creditors wouldn’t. I needed to find a way to foist the debt back onto him, that’s what I needed.
I looked around the kitchen. Would two months be long enough for me to find whatever Gran had hidden? It would have to be because there was no way I could afford this place, and now that Crash had it, there was no way he’d sell it to me. Would he?
“You want to sell me the house?” I had to try.
“No.” His lips twitched as he leaned forward, closing the distance between us. Kinkly squeaked and flew away, perching on top of the oven range hood. I held my ground even as the air between us heated up in a most pleasant and uncomfortable way.
His eyes dipped to my lips, and I couldn’t help the way my breathing hitched. “Don’t,” I said.
“Don’t what?” The smile curving his mouth said he knew exactly what I was talking about.
I leaned into him. “Don’t think I’d give you my body for the house.”
His eyes popped wide and I barked a laugh as the words kept coming, my filter broken and my ducks no longer in a row but quacking away like mad. “Kidding. I’m kidding. I’d totally do you for the house.”
Crash stared at me, his eyes crinkling at the edges as if he were fighting back a smile. “I don’t know what to make of you.”
“There’s a club for that, monthly fees, and a T-shirt if they have any left.” I smiled, a tiny wave of nefarious giggles threatening to break free. Broken filters were fun, especially around those who didn’t realize you were done caring what anyone else thought. I mean, it wasn’t like I could impress him either way. So why not just have fun with it?
He didn’t step back, and he seemed to be at a loss for words. I sighed.
“Deal. I’ll stay here for two months.”
He held out his hand and we shook on it, which in the shadow world was as binding as any contract.
The problem? Part of me feared I’d jumped into poop creek without a paddle or a life preserver.
4
“Please, please come to see the lady now?” Kinkly whispered as she flew around my head while I walked away from Gran’s house. The heat of the day was coming on strong, and the weight of the pollen in the air was a palpable thing.
I weighed my options. The job might be a bad one, but I had promised Kinkly I’d at least talk to the lady, plus I still had hours left before I was supposed to show up for training with Eammon and the other mentors at the Hollows Group.
“Where is she?” I asked.
“Follow me!” Kinkly shot out ahead of me, and I did as she asked. She was easy to spot amongst the tourists and locals who ambled along the streets. No one was in a hurry, and no one so much as looked at her. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Someone took a swing at her as they yelped “big ass bugs,” and then she was gone in a burst of orange light, fluttering near a tree. She was leading me south through downtown Savannah, a meandering route that took us past a few of the squares, plus the infamous Hanging Tree. The demon that lived there had caused enough problems for the human world to take notice.
“Don’t get too close,” she whispered, zipping back to me to sit on my shoulder. “He’s a right prick.”
I skirted the large tree as a tour group paused in front of it, the guide explaining how it had earned its reputation. Picking up my pace, I hurried past the twisted up Hanging Tree, caught a glimpse of eyes watching me from the branches above and then jerked my gaze away. From the book of Gran: