Page 16 of Deadly Little Games (Four Ways to Fate #2)

16

I walked back into the tavern to find the alpha of the Willowthorn pack had taken my empty seat. The food had arrived, along with another round of beers.

I stayed just inside the doorway for a moment, fighting a grin as I watched Elena squirming in her seat. She probably had no idea what to expect from the alpha werewolf, and I had a feeling he was taking advantage of that.

Quite the prankster, was old Harry.

Sebastian appeared just behind me. “Now that you’ve learned all you can, we should go.”

“No more pressuring me about the oh so secret information that I have and you don’t?”

He sighed heavily. “I imagine you won’t be able to keep it to yourself for long.”

I laughed. “We’ll see, but either way, we can’t go yet. The local alpha has welcomed us to his table. Gabriel might be willing to be rude, but I imagine Elena will try to observe protocol.”

He moved to my side, observing the stout man seated at our table. His curly, gray streaked brown hair was unkempt, falling past his shoulders, though not quite as long as his beard. He wore a blue T-shirt, something with a logo on the front, though from the angle I couldn’t see what it said. Torn jeans completed the look. With his big hands and sun-chapped skin, he would have fit in at any construction site.

“ That is the local alpha?”

I gave Sebastian a sidelong glance. “So many things you don’t seem to know tonight. I must say, you have considerably brightened my mood.” I walked away from him toward the table.

“Eva!” Harry stood as he saw me, wrapping me in a big bear hug, lifting my feet off the floor.

I hugged him back for a moment, then patted his arm. “Can’t quite breathe, Harry.”

He let me down abruptly, giving me an abashed smile. “Sorry girl, you know I always forget you’re not actually a wolf.”

“A high compliment, coming from you.” I took what had been Sebastian’s seat, gesturing for Harry to keep mine.

Braxton was grinning from ear to ear, and Elena’s cheeks were bright red. Ringo’s face was buried so deep into a little plastic basket of french fries that he barely acknowledged me returning to the table.

Braxton slid another basket with a burger and fries on parchment paper toward me, waggling his eyebrows at me. We were on his turf now, where he felt most comfortable. I always loved seeing him like this.

I smiled in return, and any lingering tension around his eyes dissipated. Yeah, I was hurt and confused by what Theresa had told me, but now that I’d had time to recover, it wasn’t the end of the world. In fact, I was beginning to suspect that maybe my mom wasn’t the bad guy. At least not completely. She hadn’t left because she didn’t want me. She had left because she was being chased. Mistral had suggested it, and now Theresa had confirmed it.

I lifted a fry as Harry sat. “Your elf friends were just telling me about your time in Emerald Heights.”

I stiffened. They wouldn’t tell him…

“I would have killed to see you riding that buck,” he continued with a laugh. “I remember that summer my tia tried to take you horseback riding.”

The mention of horses had me glancing at Gabriel. “I’m a little more comfortable on horses now than I used to be.”

Gabriel offered me a small smile, though I could tell something was wrong. He was even more broody than usual. If I had to guess, he was worried about Mistral. He should have been in the Bogs protecting his prince, instead he was out here protecting me. At least Gladiola would have told Mistral by now what had happened.

I held his gaze for a moment longer, then nodded toward the vacant pool table at the other side of the room. “I’ll be right back, Harry. If you want a real story, you should ask Elena about the time she went undercover at a vampire bar.”

Elena’s cheeks burned even brighter.

I gave her a teasing grin, then snatched a few more fries as I pushed away from the table. Not muttering a word to the others, Gabriel followed me. I noticed Sebastian at the bar as we retreated, being handed a glass of red wine. Rolling my eyes, I kept walking.

Gabriel and I ended up in a darkened corner near the pool table. I fiddled with a cue stick, though I had no intention of actually playing. “If you need to get back to the Bogs, I could see about finding you a car to borrow.”

“I don’t drive,” his voice rumbled lowly from within his chest.

I lifted my brows, though I supposed it made sense. With Mistral unable to leave the Bogs, I doubted Gabriel left much either. “There is no way Harry is letting me leave so soon, but maybe Crispin can drive you, and I can find a car to drive the rest of us…”

His dark eyes finally met mine. “I’m not leaving you. Especially not with Elena.”

“You don’t think—”

His gaze slid across the room, watching her nervously sipping her beer. “How did she know where to find you? You did not tell her about your meeting at the diner.”

“Maybe she got the same intel that Sebastian did.”

“Convenient.”

I moved closer to him, not wanting to risk being overheard by the werewolves in the room. Or Sebastian. He had returned to the table with his wine, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t somehow listening in. Oh well. I turned my back on everyone, then stood on tiptoe to reach Gabriel’s ear, bracing myself with a hand against his chest, careful not to touch bare skin. “I think I believe her. Even if her father actually saw the Realm Breaker, I don’t think he told her.”

I felt him tense beneath my palm. “That does not mean that he has no ulterior motives for offering you his protection. He may have sent her to the diner.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. “Either way, there’s nothing we can do about it tonight.”

I was close enough that I couldn’t see his face, but I imagined he would be glowering. “I’m not leaving you alone with them.”

“Fine, but that means you’re not going to make it back to the Bogs any time soon. Harry is a friendly guy, but he’s still alpha. You don’t enter werewolf lands, then refuse the alpha’s hospitality.”

“What did Sebastian have to say to you?”

My breath went out of me. Maybe I was recovering from the news, but thinking of everything still made me dizzy. “He was spying on my conversation with Theresa. He heard everything.”

Gabriel went extremely still. I knew he wanted to know what I had learned, but I also knew he wouldn’t push me for the information. He would let me tell him if, or when I wanted to. “It’s a long story, and I don’t want anyone else to hear. We’ll discuss it with Mistral once we’re back in the Bogs.”

He moved his head slightly, brushing his cheek against mine. Just the small touch made me shiver, made my breath catch in my throat. We still hadn’t discussed our kiss, hadn’t discussed the tension between us. Hadn’t discussed the possibility of exploring my magic further.

I remained close to him as the first sparks of magic ignited between us.

“Eva—”

“I know,” I breathed, pulling away enough to meet his eyes. I tried to convey what I was thinking. That I didn’t think the kiss was a mistake. But I didn’t want to say it out loud where Sebastian might hear. Some things were actually supposed to be private.

As if he could actually tell what I was thinking, he nodded, but I could tell he still wanted to say something.

“What is it?” I asked.

“The celestial woman, she called you Evelyn.”

My shoulders tensed, then I forced them to relax. “That was my name. Evelyn Waters. When mom left my dad changed our surname to Nixey, a name from way back in his family line, and I started going by Eva.”

“Eva Nix,” he said.

I nodded. “I shortened it when I was older. I thought it had a nice ring to it.”

He smiled, and it was such a rare, warm expression from him that I smiled too.

“Thank you for telling me.”

I squeezed his arm, then stepped away from him just as Warrick sauntered into the tavern with two of his friends. He spotted me almost immediately, diverging from his two friends as they headed toward the bar.

He threw an arm around me, swarming my senses with werewolf power and the slight smell of wet dog. “How about that beer?”

“I don’t owe you any beers. The tree broke .” I looked back, giving Gabriel an apologetic smile before allowing Warrick to lead me toward the bar.

“The bet was that I could make it to the top. I did.”

I laughed. “Fine. One beer.” I really shouldn’t be spending the money since I hadn’t been taking on any new jobs, but I was also starting to think I could fire some of my private investigators. I was pretty sure at this point that if anyone was going to find my mom, it was going to be me.

“That’s my girl.”

Spotting us, Crispin hopped up from the table, meeting us at the bar. “I offered to buy the next round,” he told us with a grin. “Am I an expert at werewolf culture, or what?”

Warrick lifted a brow. “Don’t get out very often?”

Crispin shrugged. “Well I only came to this realm fifty some odd years ago, and much of that time has been consumed by my research. You see, werewolves are not native to my realm.”

“Oookay,” I cut him off. “Enough realm talk. Do you even have any money?”

He held up a credit card slipped between two of his fingers. “It pays to escort a princess.”

Warrick finally removed his arm from around me, but it was only so he could face both of us. “What’s this about a princess?”

An evil idea crossed my mind. “An elf princess,” I emphasized. “She’s right over there.”

“You’re a good friend, Eva.” Warrick clapped me on the arm. “Consider your debt repaid.” He turned away from the bar, heading straight for the table.

A smile slowly formed on Crispin’s lips. “My, you’re a bit wicked, aren’t you?”

I laughed. “He’s harmless, and it will be fun to see just how red Elena’s cheeks can get.”

He ordered the next round of drinks, then turned back to me. “I think you’re the perfect friend for her. She deserves to have some fun.”

I rolled my eyes toward him. “It seems like you’d be the perfect friend for her. Do you ever take anything seriously?”

He shrugged. “Some things.”

“How did you know to find me at the diner?”

He seemed taken aback. “You mean you don’t know?”

I waited expectantly.

“You have the protection of our king, Eva. How would it look to have you killed out somewhere in the city?”

My jaw fell open. That meant— “You mean he had me followed?”

“Of course. As soon as our sentries noticed the fairies following you, Elena and I came right away.” He rolled his eyes. “Oh don’t look at me like that. You can’t be perfectly fine with goblins following you around, only to scoff when elves do it too.”

I shut my mouth. Everyone at the table would be wanting their drinks, but… Had the king really spared so many people to protect me, just because his daughter asked him? Or was there more to it? “Does Elena really believe her father knows nothing about the…mythical object?” Crispin’s expression sobered considerably. “I’ve been wondering about that, actually. Elena was the first to bring news of the bounty, but when she told her father, he told her the blade did not exist. It was all some sort of scam.”

My brows lifted. “You heard him say that?”

He nodded. “At first I thought little of it, and believed he must be right. As far as I was aware previously, the blade was indeed a myth.”

We both turned as the bartender set several open bottles on the bar. Crispin gave her his card—or was it Elena’s card?—and told her to keep the tab open.

I met the bartenders eyes, but it didn’t seem like she’d heard anything we were saying. The noise had picked up considerably in the tavern, but we still needed to be careful.

I sidled closer, lowering my voice. “And what do you believe now?”

A hint of worry flashed in his eyes, then was gone. “I believe Elena needs to speak with her father.”