Chapter 3
THREE
Okay, so I lied. Sleep is probably the most underrated activity of all time. It’s truly amazing. Awe-inspiringly wonderful. And I’d had almost none of it when I arrived at The Portal for my shift the next day.
It had taken several hours for the fire department to shut off the sprinkler system, clear the building, and give the residents permission to return home.
After that, I’d done my best to remove all the excess water without anyone noticing.
I couldn’t do anything about the water damage to the floors and walls, but at least our downstairs neighbors wouldn’t be standing in puddles.
Then for the rest of the night, Kes and I had taken turns staying awake while Ethan slept. Even though she’d drained as much of his magic as possible, we weren’t sure what his regeneration speed was and didn’t feel like risking another incident.
All of which meant I’d only slept for about two hours before I showed up in Irene’s kitchen, blinking and weaving on my feet as I washed my hands. Hopefully, I could at least snatch a quick cat nap during my break later on.
Ordinarily, Faris would have just given me the day off.
But it was a Saturday, and we’d been closed for two days.
That meant we would have the usual weekend crowd, plus everyone who was curious about the wedding and the news from the Fae Court, so I couldn’t leave the rest of the staff scrambling to keep up.
Irene was already busy at her prep table, chopping ingredients at a speed that made it look like she had at least two extra arms.
“Afternoon,” I muttered, knowing she wasn’t likely to return the pleasantry. Irene was nice enough if you met her anywhere else, but in her kitchen, she was focused to the point of obsession, and woe betide the one who interrupted her process or messed with her space.
“Boss wants to see you,” she barked out, not even turning her head to look at me.
There was no point in being disappointed or offended by her manner—that was just standard for Irene.
“Thanks,” I said. “I guess I’ll go see what he wants.”
“He’s downstairs.”
I exited the kitchen into the back hallway and hadn’t even set foot on the stairs yet when I heard Faris’s raised voice echoing up from the basement.
“… idiots… disrespect me… I’ll bury them under so much…”
Uh-oh.
I’d finally gotten over expecting my boss to just up and fire me or evict us from our apartment without warning.
Faris had claimed us as family, and he’d more than proven that he had our backs.
But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be frustrated about last night.
We had endangered his entire building and his tenants.
Forced him to show up in the middle of the night and deal with complaints when he was already doing me a favor by spending the weekend with Logan.
Not to mention how upset he was over Kira’s postponed wedding.
I suspected he might also be concerned about Draven’s safety, but nothing short of an apocalypse would have induced him to admit it.
So it was with a healthy sense of caution that I trotted down the stairs and poked my head into The Portal’s basement storage space.
As usual, it was clean and orderly, with shelves full of liquor and kitchen supplies, stacks of shipping crates, and three small rooms where inebriated customers were sometimes confined until they sobered up sufficiently to recognize their mistakes.
Also, where Faris occasionally imprisoned the least annoying of his enemies, but so far that seemed to be a rare occurrence.
“You wanted to see me?”
Faris glanced up from the stack of crates he was inspecting, set down his tablet, and looked at me with his hands on his hips.
Double uh-oh.
“I’m sorry about last night,” I said with a wince. “I genuinely thought we’d be safe. Never even considered he might be able to use magic in his sleep. We’re looking for a new solution.”
Faris still said nothing, only reached into his pocket, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and handed it to me.
I shuffled forward hesitantly to accept it. “What is this?”
“You tell me.” One of his eyebrows quirked in my direction. “When my people cleared the building last night after the firefighters left, they found it on the floor in your entryway.”
The paper was still soggy and about to fall apart in places, but when I unfolded it, I could still read the message.
“Travel expenses paid, only work one week a month, full medical and dental,” I mused as I scanned the words. “Plus a support team of up to five individuals at my own discretion. Various talents available. Sounds like a good deal.”
Faris stared at me.
I gazed back noncommittally.
“If you need a raise, you can just tell me,” he grumbled. “Are they taking online applications for mercenary crews now?”
If only.
“Third one this week,” I informed him. “All slipped under my door. And no, I didn’t apply. They just started showing up.”
This time, both of his eyebrows shot up. “Any idea why?”
“As best I can tell, it’s thanks to all the rumors making the rounds.” I grimaced uncomfortably. “When we decided to hide the fact of Ethan’s existence, that whole mess in Guthrie got pinned on me.”
And by mess, I meant earthquakes, tornadoes, an entire house destroyed, and a highly competent mercenary crew demolished in seconds.
And when I said demolished? Seamus had searched the area in wolf form and still couldn’t find all the pieces.
Just enough to reassure us that none of them would be bothering us again.
But because we didn’t want anyone hunting Ethan once they realized the truth of his identity and his powers, we’d locked down all possible rumors of his presence or involvement.
Which left… me. Much of the Idrian community now knew that I had more than one form of magic—but not which ones—so it made sense for them to assume that I was at fault.
However, the result was not at all what I’d expected.
“I didn’t think they’d be bold enough to recruit on my territory,” Faris admitted. “But I’m having Tim look over the footage. We’ll identify whoever it is and warn the residents not to let anyone into the building unless they recognize them.”
Our building security was solid—even more so since Kes, Logan, and Ari had been kidnapped right out of our apartment just over a week ago. Faris had upgraded pretty much everything, and it would take significant tech savvy—along with magic—to break in without being detected.
But even the best security system was no match for pure gosh-darn Oklahoma politeness on the part of my neighbors. Any one of them could have unlocked the door with their code and then held it open for a random passer-by who requested entry.
“If it helps, I’m not mad about it,” I told him. “Even if my reputation is entirely unearned, as long as I can use it to keep the kids safe? I’ll just smile and nod and look as mysterious as I can.”
Faris didn’t appear to share my lack of concern.
“Normally, I would agree with you. But I can’t afford any more scrutiny from the human authorities.
Not with things as volatile as they are.
I have a solid relationship with the city government for now, but if these break-ins are noticed, I’m likely to have more complaints, and there’s always a chance they’ll fold under pressure and try to shut me down. ”
Well, great. Now I was endangering not only my neighbors, but Faris’s business and reputation. I dropped onto an empty crate and vented my frustration with a vicious jerk of the white strands of my ponytail. “So what can we do?”
“Probably need to have someone on the inside let it be known you’re not on the market,” he advised. “And since Elduvar is out for now…” I could hear the worry behind his words.
“He’s fine,” I murmured quietly. “Kira would know if he wasn’t.”
My boss grunted. “She wouldn’t just know. She would take off for Colorado and immediately cause an inter-species incident we might never recover from.”
Apparently, meddling in fae politics was in her family DNA. But the last thing the Idrian community needed was another violent interaction between dragons and fae.
“I could ask Shane?” I suggested, being careful to make it a suggestion and not a statement. Because I still wasn’t sure how my boss felt about Shane Isaacson.
For that matter, I wasn’t sure how I felt.
The half-goblin mercenary seemed to have made our safety something of a personal project and had been a vital member of the team that rescued Kes and Logan.
Also, for reasons I had not yet been able to determine, he’d invited Kes to stay at his house to recover from her injuries after the kidnapping… and she’d agreed.
But in the days since we’d moved back into our apartment, I hadn’t seen Shane, nor had Kes said a word about whatever had happened between them.
Maybe I was reading too much into it, but their behavior suggested a relationship might be developing, which made me nervous considering Shane seemed to have a vendetta towards both Faris and Kira over his late mother’s death.
“I can’t approach Isaacson,” Faris said, “but might not be a bad idea if you’re willing to hunt him down. Chances are he can put the word out and get the recruitment efforts to stop.”
“I’ll do it as soon as I can,” I promised. “Anything else?”
Faris’s phone buzzed on the shelf beside him. “Yes,” he growled, “but it’ll have to wait. They’re slammed upstairs and Irene is about to chop someone’s head off if the orders don’t move faster.”
That at least I knew how to deal with. “I’m on it. And Faris?”
He looked up at me, green eyes sparking slightly beneath lowered brows.
“Thanks.” For everything.
“You’re welcome,” he rumbled, his cheeks turning just a tiny bit pink. “Now get out there and save someone’s life.”