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Did he think I was in distress? How would he even know that?

The ground shivers with Des’s power, his gaze intent on Eli as he stalks towards him.

I step in front of the Bargainer, placing a hand on his chest to stop him from whatever he’s thinking of doing.

He glances down at my hand, his nostrils flaring, before his eyes move back to Eli. “You have two seconds to get off my property before I make you,” he says to the shifter, his voice smooth as liquor.

Eli stares at Des’s wings for a long moment, looking stunned. Finally, he tears his gaze away. “I didn’t know,” he says.

I look between the two men. “Know what?”

The Bargainer watches Eli for several seconds. Then ever so slightly, he inclines his head. “Now you do.”

“Callie told me what you did for her when she was a kid,” Eli says. “Thank you for helping her,” he continues. “No more bad blood between us, okay? I didn’t realize the situation—any of it.”

Again, Des inclines his head.

Eli backs away, casting a glance in my direction. “Take care of yourself, Callie,” he says, raising a hand goodbye. And then he turns and walks off the property and out of my life.

My brow is still furrowed long after Eli leaves. Nothing about what just happened makes a terrible amount of sense.

I was expecting a confrontation of some sort between the two men, but instead I get apologies and understanding. I should be relieved, but as Des leads me back inside, my eyes drift to his wings.

That’s what Eli was staring at with such shock. The fae king’s wings. The same wings Des studiously hid from me in the past.

There’s something I’m missing, and I’m going to figure out what it is.

Before Des andI can talk about any of what just happened, I mumble some excuse about needing to go to the bathroom and slip away to my room.

Locking the door behind me—not that it would stop the Bargainer—I grab my phone and dial Temper, pacing back and forth across the room.

“Hey bitch, wassup?” she answers.

“Temper, you know a fair bit about fairies, don’t you?” I say, jumping right in.

Before we became private investigators, when Temperance Darling was just another misfit at Peel Academy, she had a minor obsession with fairies. When I originally met her, she’d wanted to be a diplomat stationed in the Otherworld.

“Mmmmm,fair bitmight be taking it too far, but I know a few things. Why? What you need to know?”

“Eli confronted me and—”

“Hefoundyou?” Temper interrupts, her voice incredulous. “Already? Wow, girl you suck at hiding.”

“And how do you think he found me? Could it be because he tapped your phone?” I say.

There’s a pause over the other end of the line.

“Well, shit,” she says, “that is just messed up.”

“It’s fine. We talked through our issues, now we’re good.”

Another pause. Temper has a habit of those around me. “Are you telling me you managed to talk your way off of the Most Wanted List?”

When she said it like that …

“Shit, youdid. Bitch, you must have a vagina of gold.”

I chew on a thumbnail. Outside my room, I can hear the Bargainer moving around, impatient. I’m going to have to go out there and talk with him soon. He and I both have questions that need answering.