Knight in Leather (9 page)

“Human-passing ones?”

Hestia made a
more-or-less
waggle of her hand. “They don’t necessarily live and work among humans, but the ones who do tend to have magic that can obscure what they are.”

“Obviously not like the Sídhe, then. Takes a lot of energy to use glamour.”

“Not for certain elves.”

Dasha pushed up an eyebrow at the goddess. “Elves? Like, the little guys who used to make my favorite cookies that got discontinued?”

“That’s one kind of elf. Most don’t look like that. They’re very close evolutionary cousins to fairies.”

“I’m intrigued,” Simone said in a flat voice. “Tell me more.”

“No need to be tart.” Hestia straightened her golden headband.

Dasha wondered if the woman owned any modern clothes at all or if she just
liked
being a throwback to the olden days.

“My point is that perhaps you should get in touch with the former elf queen, Eldora.”

“Another scheming megalomaniac like my mother-in-law? No, thank you.”

Hestia sighed and looked to Dasha as if for support.

Dasha put up her hands. “Hey, I know nothing. I’m not the right person to convince Simone of anything regarding elves, fairies, or diabolical queens.”

“Eldora isn’t diabolical, and technically, she isn’t an elf. She’s a nymph. She’s quite practical, but very empathetic. I’d tell you to give her a call, but reception is an issue where she is.”

“She’s in the magic realm?”

“No. The elves and their kin abandoned that months ago. They’re not bound by Rhiannon’s strictures. They relocated their holdings to a more stable position. Shall I set up a meeting?”

Simone shrugged. “Can’t hurt. Getting to know some of the groups related to the Sídhe probably wouldn’t be a bad thing. Would calling them allies be overstepping?”

“Yes.”

“So…are they hostile or neutral?”

Dasha whistled low. She couldn’t imagine the Simone she’d known in college to think in such nuances, and the fact that she’d learned to was a little scary. Scary, yet impressive as hell.

Hestia sucked in some air and cringed. “Hostile to Rhiannon and Brandan.”

“Oh, well. I see.” Eyes closed, Simone rubbed her temples.

“Is this lady safe to talk to?” Dasha asked Hestia.

The goddess shrugged. “Absolutely, if she’s unaccompanied. She’s not one to overreact, and she’s not much of a fighter, anyway. She rarely leaves the palace, and doesn’t have a dedicated team of guards around her. I could make arrangements for Simone to throw a portal directly to the palace grounds.”

Eyes narrowed, Simone drummed her fingertips on the desktop and gnawed on her bottom lip.

“If you’re worried about the portal telemetry,” Hestia said sweetly, “I’m certain your mother could give you clear instructions.”

“Nah, I’m not worried about that. I’d already suspected that I’d have to get her to help. I’m just wondering if we should go now before Heath and the fairy bandits come back. He’d probably want to accompany me.”

“And I would caution against that. Eldora is rather skittish, and you would do well not to put her in the company of a group of men who’d loom over her.”

“Sounds like someone I know,” Dasha said quietly.

Judging by the lift of Hestia’s perfectly sculpted eyebrow, she caught the words. Fortunately, she didn’t call Dasha out on them. “The meeting would take you an hour,” the goddess said. “Perhaps two. Your biggest concern would be finding someone to mind your office.”

“I’m qualified,” Dasha said.

“No, you have to come with me,” Simone said.

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Because
what
?”

“Well, for one thing, I need a family member here for me to be able to leave. You’re not family. Also, just because.”

“You’ve got to give me something a little better than that. Don’t you trust me?” Dasha couldn’t help there being a bit of stink to her voice. Nobody liked feeling like they weren’t good enough for a task.

“Of
course
I do,” Simone said, just as indignantly. “I trust you better than almost anyone. It’s
other
people who I don’t trust. No one is going to be more concerned for your safety than me since…”

Whatever Simone was going to say, she let trail off and pushed her rolling chair over to the printer.

“What?” Dasha nudged. “Since Ethan isn’t here? Is that what you were going to say?”

“I figured I shouldn’t bother, but you told the truth. I love you like a sister, but he’s programmed to see to your wellbeing.”

“Okay, then.” Dasha pushed away from the counter and rolled her eyes. “The last guy who said he’d take care of me had a funny way of showing it.”

“No one’s trying to rush you into anything, Dash. You’ve got a very long time to smooth out the rough spots and forge something good. All I’m asking is that you try to understand his perspective, too. I know how he feels, and trust me—I resisted Heath plenty when he made that claim that I was his mate. But after my magic unfurled, I knew without reservation that he was right, and that he belonged to me. Being away from him for more than a day or two is absolutely
gutting
. I don’t know what better way to explain the binding. I always feel out of balance when we’re not together. I imagine he feels the same way. And that’s what Ethan’s feeling—gutted and off-center.”

Dasha twined the end of her scarf around her index finger and stared at her sandaled feet. She’d never felt like that with any man. She’d never felt anything even close, and Simone was talking about dreamy, romantic stuff—about actually fitting so well with someone that distance made both hearts hurt.

And apparently Dasha was supposed to have that with Ethan. She didn’t know how to let herself have that sort of connection. She was afraid to.

Humming softly, Hestia straightened Dasha’s scarf, then pressed her hands to Dasha’s cheeks. She tilted Dasha’s face toward hers. Made her look. Hestia’s touch was warm, as if she’d been holding her hands close to a fire, and her eyes were sad.

“I didn’t make the match,” Hestia said. “But I think the pairing is a sound one. It’ll work.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because Mielikki said so, and she’s never wrong about these things. Inscrutable though she may be at times, she’s very pragmatic. Very
careful
. Move things slowly if that brings you peace, but do move them. You’ll both be better off that way.”

Dasha wanted to believe her. She didn’t have a good reason not to, but skepticism was a hard monster to defeat.

Hestia dropped her hands from Dasha’s cheeks and turned to Simone. “Would half an hour be enough time for you to prepare?”

Simone stood and grabbed her big key ring from its hook. “All I need is fifteen minutes. I just need to fill Daryn in so she can help my mother watch the desk, and I need to run a comb through my hair.”

“And you also need to ask your mother about the portal.”

“I’ll pop in and do that now. She’s going to have to be on the premises, anyway, in order for me to leave. There’s no one left here who can be my pinch hitter for the curse.” Simone stepped into the back room where the fairies kept one of their gun safes. Anyone standing on the other side of the glass office door wouldn’t be able to see her disappear, and Dasha knew that was what Simone was doing without having to peek inside.

She’d likely pressed her hands to the back wall and opened a portal to her mother’s location in the Serengeti. Katie’s specific location didn’t matter, Simone had explained. Like magic was attracted to like. Even if her portal’s trajectory was imprecise, the angle would self-correct on the other end. She’d always be able to find her mother and Fergus, too, although she might occasionally mix up the two.

“You look inspired,” Hestia said, grinning coyly.

“Do I?”

“Are you thinking about motel improvement schemes or are you struck by magic?”

“The magic, I guess. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around all this. It’s…a
lot
. I doubt my family would understand any of this stuff. I might never be able to tell them.”

Hestia’s smile fell away. “Perhaps not. Not all secrets are meant to be shared, and maybe that’s for the best. There’s no reason you can’t love them from afar.”

“You’re operating on the assumption that I’m going to concede to this…this
life
. You make my acquiescence sound like a sure thing.”

“I don’t intend to. I simply have the benefit of thousands of years of wisdom to draw on. I know which things are likely to be certainties, and which won’t unfold so neatly. You’re already enmeshed in this…” Hestia swept a hand toward the office in general. “…this
world
, and you’re inextricable. The decision of how gently you’ll knit yourself into it, or how
tightly
, is in your hands. You set the standards and establish the expectations. Do you understand?”

Dasha thought she did, so she nodded. Hestia may have been giving her the old, trite,
the world is your oyster
speech, but Dasha had forgotten that she had some control. She needed to stop sheltering herself and start taking some risks again. Maybe subconsciously, she’d known that when she’d stepped onto that plane for her unannounced visit. She’d needed more out of life and went off looking for a spark in the safest way she knew how to.

Simone had said she’d look after her, and Dasha was going to count on that. She’d need her trusted friend to give her the reality checks she deserved…and also to give Dasha those hard shoves when she was being too cowardly to look at scenarios with fresh eyes.

She needed to start being gentle with herself with some things. And she needed to be fair to Ethan. She owed him at least that much.

Ethan dragged his fingers through his knotted hair and let out a ragged exhalation. Then he pulled in a deep breath slowly, and let that one out, too.

Prince Heath, with arms crossed over his chest and a scowl tugging at his lips, stared down at the unconscious mer-fairy on the ground and gave the slumbering man’s side a nudge with his boot. “Weak as water,” he muttered. “Barely had any magic for me to pull off.”

“I’m sure Quinton would be more of a threat underwater.” Princess Siobhan looked equally as peeved as her brother with her hands on her hips and one booted foot tapping impatiently.

The man on the ground had given them a bit of a runaround, and then had the audacity to cackle when they caught up to him. Prince Heath wasn’t fond of having his time wasted, so he’d laid the guy out no-questions-asked. One touch, and Quinton had crumbled. He’d remain in the coma of sorts until they got back to the motel or until the prince decided to give him some energy back.

“What would he have to gain from being here?” Matt asked. “I just can’t believe he’d take his sister’s word without proof about Ethan being her mate.”

“That’s the human part of you talking, dear cousin,” Princess Siobhan said. “Chances are very good that he’d believe his sister in absence of compelling evidence not to. I’d believe pretty much anything Heath told me.”

“But Heath isn’t insane.”

“My wife might disagree with that statement at times,” the prince said, “but Siobhan’s right. If you can’t trust your kin, who
can
you trust? Believe me, Siobhan and I didn’t come around to recognizing that Mum wasn’t quite…” He made a moue of disgust. “
Decent
for a very long time.”

Ethan pulled the prone man up by the shoulders and gave him a little shake to knock some of the dust off him. “Who’s gonna carry him?”

“That depends on what we want to do with him,” Prince Heath said. “We could certainly have the ladies detain and question him, but are we really going to believe anything he has to say?”

“No. He’ll be just as deluded as Laurel.”

“I don’t believe informing Laurel we’ve captured him should be our next step. If she assumes he’s hanging around to provide her with backup if she needs it, she might be a bit more brazen. When she does act out of turn, we’ll handle her accordingly.”

“We’re
not
going to take him back to the motel?” Matt asked.

“I don’t see the point of doing so, and him being there would amplify the odds of Dasha stumbling onto our little problem. I don’t want to have to explain why he’s hanging around.”

“We’ll get Simone’s mother to come fetch him,” the prince said. “Her mate’s tribe is already holding many of our detainees for us. I don’t think one more will make a difference. No good way to contact her from here, though. I’ll call Simone to let her know we’re heading back and ask her to get her mother to meet us.” He pulled out his phone.

Ethan dropped the mer-fairy into Princess Siobhan’s sidecar. “I laughed when you got that thing, but I’ve got to admit it’s pretty useful.”

“You should get one.”

“Nah. I wouldn’t be caught dead with one.”

“Good luck getting Dasha onto your bike, then.”

Grunting, Ethan pulled up the kickstand on his bike and threw a leg over the seat. “Must you taunt me, Princess?”

“If the tables were turned, you’d do the same to me.”

“I’ll make sure that I do. I believe I told Daryn the same.”

She scoffed. “Well, don’t worry about a hookup happening anytime soon. Unlike you and Sully, I don’t have a mate beeping on my radar screen. You’ll probably be waiting a long time to reap your vengeance, so don’t hold your breath.”

The prince tucked his phone away and mounted his bike. “She didn’t answer. She’s probably dealing with guests, so I left her a message. Let’s head back. She’ll probably have collected the message by the time we get close. I don’t want to waste any more time out here. Leather is hot as hell, and I’m not in the mood to have my pants sticking to me. Simone’s not gonna want to help me peel them off.”

___

If Dasha had been a woman with normal thought processes, she might have been curiously ogling and fondling all the pretty baubles in the elf king’s North Pole palace, but no. She was playing
BUY, BUILD, DESTROY!
on her phone and building up Ethan’s village’s defenses. His poor little convict had half-assed built the wall—which happened about sixty percent of the time in the game as everything was a gamble—so she loaned Ethan her reliable mason and some materials.

He hadn’t logged in since the wee hours of the morning, so she figured he’d have a nice surprise the next time he played.

“What are you doing?” Simone waited primly at the end of Eldora’s faded baroque sofa with her fingers twined atop her lap. The former queen of the elves was supposedly on her way up from the kitchen, according to a gruff, gnome-like aide who’d scurried away right after depositing Simone and Dasha into the chambers.

Dasha found that them being left unsupervised was curious, but figured elves were just trusting sorts in general. Either that, or they had theft-deterrent spells laced into every nook and cranny of the room.

Huh. Is there magic for that?

Dasha shrugged. “Oh. I’m fixing Ethan’s village wall. It’s crappy. He needs a better one.” She tapped out a message for him.

dotdotdotdash:
One of the next things you’ll need to do is promote your convict to a guard, and then use a fresh convict for building stuff. You’ll get tasks done faster and your structures will be better constructed.

Simone squinted at her own phone’s screen. “Are you getting a signal here? I’m not. I’m can’t even pick up a roaming signal.”

“Nah, I’m playing offline. The phone will send data back to the game servers when I have a cellular signal again.” Dasha peeled her gaze away from Ethan’s tiny village and shook her head at her friend. “I can’t believe we’re at the freakin’ North Pole. Aren’t satellites in space picking up all the activity going on here? This isn’t the frozen wasteland I imagined.”

“No. The activity here is obscured, dear.”

At sound of the newcomer’s voice, Dasha and Simone both stood.

The tall, lithe, nymph glided into the room. At least, she
seemed
to be gliding. Eldora was probably walking normally enough, but her movements were so graceful that she maneuvered more like tall leaf being blown than like any bipedal creature Dasha had ever seen.

Eldora waved them to sit, and moved slowly to the sideboard. “You don’t have to stand for me. I didn’t enjoy the fuss even when I was queen.”

Dasha and Simone sat, sharing a look.

Eldora poured herself a drink, then held up the decanter of golden liquid to the ladies. “Not sure what the hour is in your time zone. Too early to indulge?”

“It’s never too early,” Simone said. “I gave up on the five o’clock rule months ago.”

Eldora chuckled and splashed some whiskey into another glass. “Probably around the same time you found yourself in the company of a certain prince.”

“I imagine that’s widely known now, huh?”

“No, I didn’t know until Hestia told me.” Eldora furrowed her brow and carried the glass to Simone. “I hadn’t seen her in more years than I can recall, but what’s a year to a goddess, I suppose?” She turned to Dasha. “For you, dear?”

Dasha shrugged again. “Sure, why not? I’ll probably be less inclined to ask ignorant questions if I have a bit of booze in me.”

“Nothing wrong with asking questions.” Eldora glided back to the sideboard. “I have to keep reminding my daughter-in-law of that. She’s still trying to settle in here. She’s only been with us since Christmas.”

“About as long as I’ve been with Heath, then,” Simone said.

“Yes. I imagine you and Gillian have experienced a similar sort of adjustment. And I’m so sorry she’s not here to meet with you today. She and Nicholas are cleaning up some of the upheaval from during the long period when we didn’t have a king, and they’re away from the compound often. Kori is here, though. I’m certain she’d like to chat. She does so enjoy conversing with people from your realm.” Eldora cringed and shook her head once. “My apologies—I mean from out in the open. I have difficulty remembering that we no longer dwell in the magic realm.”

“Yes, about that—” Simone said. “That’s why we’re here, I think. Realm relocation.”

Eldora bobbed her white-blond eyebrows and grinned openly at them. “May I call Kori?”

“Uh. Sure. I guess.”

“She’ll be so pleased. My granddaughter is always at a loss for what to do when Gillian’s not here.”

“Won’t this discussion bore her?”

“Why? Are you boring?”

Dasha suppressed a snort.

Eldora had asked the question so flatly that the delivery had an unintended comic effect.

“I try hard not to be,” Simone said.

Eldora handed Dasha a drink and moved toward the door. “I’ll be right back. The intercom is on the fritz again. I’ll need to send this guard down to fetch her. Forgive me. Just one moment.” She hurried into the hallway, and the heels of her unseen shoes click-clacked against the stone floor as she went. She was wearing a plain, but pretty, floor-length dress under her cloak, and probably needed all that fabric to stay warm. The palace was drafty.

Dasha cut Simone a searching look. “So, where’s
your
palace, Princess?”

“My palace is called the Hearth Motel, and it’s currently overrun with fairies and frat boys.”

Dasha snapped her fingers. “Damn. I’m gonna get rid of that reservation for that party of nine for you. Just wait.”

“I wish. You know the rules. I can’t deny anyone hospitality.”

“But you
can
make them change their minds about being there. Remember—as good as I am at talking people into things, I’m just as good at talking them out of them. And since we’re here sitting and waiting, why don’t you tell me what your plans for the motel are? I’ll tell you what I had in mind for your marketing.”

Simone swirled the ice around her glass and put her spine against the seat back. “You know, I don’t have plans. I just go with the flow. Siobhan has plans, and I let her do what she wants because having dominion over some small thing makes her happy.”

“That’s nice of you.”

Simone turned her hands over in one of those
eh
gestures. “The crew has been on the road for so long, and they can’t exactly go back to the realm. People need to feel like they’re knitted into things and that they have a place to belong to. I think those fairies need a place to roost more than anyone.”

“It’s a shame they feel like they can’t go home. They must miss their families.” Dasha didn’t see hers very often, but just enough. She took for granted being able to fly home and see them whenever she got a whim to do so. She wondered what Ethan’s family must have been like.

Do they miss him? How do they feel about him being in Heath’s crew?

She couldn’t imagine her child being an entire realm away and working a job that required sword handling. In fact, the thought made her stomach lurch, and she didn’t even
have
kids yet.

“Some do. Some don’t,” Simone said. “Caryl and Daryn miss their family a lot. Perry gets homesick, too, but besides Matt, he’s the youngest, so that’s expected. Perry’s only got his grandmother out here, and she’s staying with the Afótama for the time being. Gareth is glad to be away from his family. They sold him to Rhiannon.”

Dasha’s jaw dropped.

“Yeah, but look at how that’s backfiring on them now,” Simone said. “Gareth is such a loner that he’s more or less ambivalent about the estrangement.”

“What about Ethan?”

Simone’s smile was soft as she swirled her drink. “I think…them being safe and unaffected by his actions are important to him. He’s motivated to get them out. He doesn’t get to see them, obviously. Has to rely on secondhand word to know how they are.”

Dasha twiddled the ends of her scarf and stared at the cracks in her whiskey’s ice. “You should find some kind of messenger. Someone who’s not detectable who can go there and pass word.”

“The messenger would have to be someone who doesn’t have fairy magic.”

“Yeah. That’s the hard part, I guess.”

Simone nodded slowly and took a long sip of her drink. “Anyway, Siobhan’s been trying to get her hands on that northern lot so we can get some residential housing erected. Condos or apartments. She hasn’t decided which yet, but I think she’s leaning toward the units being accessible by shared breezeways.”

“The lot is large enough for like, townhouses, though. Can probably get eight or ten of them around a cul-de-sac and still have sufficient distance between the construction and the water.”

“Plans hinge on what we get zoning approval for, but I like the idea of townhouses better, too. On the other side where that gas station currently is, Siobhan wants to wrap around the building of suites that’s on the Hearth’s lot now into an L on that property so we can enclose the lot a bit.”

“What about the original motel building?”

“Still renovating and refreshing. Those would keep on being the non-suite rooms. Lower cost lodging for singles and budget-minded couples.”

“What about dining? If you add that many new rooms, you’ve got to have dining on site.”

“That’d be in the new stem of the L along with the fitness center.” Simone snorted and rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe I stumbled into the hospitality business like this. I never planned on being a hotelier.”

“There’s good money to be made, if you’re careful. And if you
market
the right way.” Dasha waggled her eyebrows.

“You’re a mess.”

“Just trying to help you out. A girl’s gotta keep herself busy.”

“I would have thought you’d have plenty of ways to keep busy. You’ve got a demanding job.”

“But it’s not fun anymore.”

“You never told me that.”

Dasha sighed. “I didn’t want to sound like I as being petty or lazy, but that’s the truth. There are too many memories of Ben there, and plus, the passion I had five years ago dried up. The money isn’t enough to keep me there.”