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LYSANDER

E zra is going home to spend time with his friend tonight. I’ll miss him in my bed.

Somehow I never get tired of his presence. I always want more . The word we agreed on never fails me, and I can’t stop saying it. In my head. In my heart.

I know the fairy reputation — that we’re aloof, untouchable. Except Ezra reaches me, and he touches more than just my poisonous skin.

Is it foolish to dream of a future with him in it? Not for the first time since my undignified introduction to Ezra’s friend yesterday, I wonder if the other human’s judgement is justified. What do I have to offer Ezra?

“Prince Lysander?”

I look up to see Plato smiling awkwardly.

“Sorry, can I call you that?” he asks.

“Just Lysander.” I pull my hands off the table in case he accidentally touches one.

He sets my drink down, but instead of leaving, he hesitates. “Can I sit?”

I frown. “Of course.”

“You just look a little sad. I have a lot of siblings — I know the look.” He slides into the booth across from me.

“What look?” I wonder.

“The, uh.” He gestures at his face, which doesn’t clear anything up. “The lovestruck look. The one where you’re about to convince yourself the best thing to do is break it off.” He chuckles. “Minotaurs love a big, sweeping romance, but only if it comes with a matching amount of drama.”

“Do you think fairies are like everyone says?” I blurt. “Cold and loveless. Incapable of truly caring.”

“Oh, well. Stereotypes exist for all monsters, but you can’t apply them to individuals.

” He shrugs. “Take me, for example. Romance just isn’t for me.

I like to have fun, meet new people, explore.

You couldn’t tie me down with a steel cable.

Or Bear — dragons are supposed to be serious, business focused money-hoarders —”

“Bear is pretty serious,” I interject.

“But he’s a Dom. Isn’t that kind of hedonistic? Bondage and Dominance are fun . He does it because he gets something out of it. Plus, he’s in line for the throne, but he threw it all away for a little rope shop.” Plato shrugs. “He’s an outlier, that’s for sure.”

“I guess you’re right.” My relationship with Bear has never been anything but professional, but that doesn’t mean he got nothing out of doing the show with me.

“If you know one of us, you know one of us.” Plato’s dark eyes glimmer with warmth. “Humans are the same.”

Even as I nod, despair creeps in. “I suppose it doesn’t matter, though. Even if I am capable of caring, I’ll never get the chance as long as I have to keep running.”

To my surprise, Plato’s smile grows. “Now you really sound like one of my siblings.” He leans over the table.

“You’ve been here for a year. I don’t know everything about your circumstances, but maybe it’s okay to accept that you want to be here.

Syril’s gonna keep a room open for you as long as you being here works out with their plans for the community, and you’re safe at The Sanctum.

” He gets up. “I’d better get back to the bar.

I watch him slide back behind the bar and greet Ezra by knocking their fists together. Ezra’s gaze seeks me out across the floor, and he winks.

I write Owyn Maddox from Ezra’s apartment. I wake early, as always — it used to be because of my nightmares, but now I just like to watch him sleep. Ezra snuffles and turns over, his arm splaying across the cover. His bare chest rises and falls gently.

I slide out of the bed and pull on last night’s clothes, tiptoeing down the hall. Felix is asleep on the couch, snoring loudly. He came in late last night, and I feel guilty — like I’ve usurped his time with Ezra, even though Ezra asked if I would stay the night.

Flashes of last night come back to me as I sneak past Ezra’s friend into the kitchen.

I muffled my gasps in his pillow as he stroked us together, his harsh breaths in my ear and his hand around both of our cocks.

The silence made a secret world just for us.

I reached my peak staring into his eyes, his hand clamped over my mouth.

I shiver.

When I locate a pen and paper, I write something I hope is princely but not pompous. I fold the letter and slip out the front door. There are plenty of pigeons roosting in the eaves of Ezra’s apartment building — it’s a simple matter of summoning one and giving it adequate instructions.

Ezra reaches for me when I get back.

“Cold,” he mutters as I shed my clothes and slide back into the bed.

“Sorry,” I whisper. “I had to get something done.”

Ezra’s warm nose buries into the back of my neck and he sighs deeply as he drifts back to sleep. Am I overstepping? Almost certainly. I just hope both of them will understand.

“Thank you for coming.” I slide into the seat across the table from Maddox.

Maddox pushes his smudged glasses up his nose. He looks out of place among the gleaming fixtures and rich leather, his hair hastily thrown up, his amulet dangling from a ratty braided cord. Nonetheless, I find myself leaning in like he holds the answers to the universe.

“Of course,” he says distractedly. His eyes dart around the bar. “Wow, it’s been a long time since I was here. Syril’s really classed the place up.”

“I heard monsters sometimes come to you for help with human affairs. Things they might need while living in a human city that they can’t easily obtain without special knowledge.”

Maddox’s gaze snaps to me. “People come to me for a lot of things. It’s tough for a monster to give birth in a hospital and file a birth certificate, you know?

The nurses might have questions. I’m not saying I forge anything, for legal reasons.

But if it appears the paperwork is correct, bureaucracy will often just nudge them through the right processes to get what they need.

This is strictly off-record, you understand. ”

I nod quickly. “Of course. It’s that kind of problem I need help with. I want to procure housing.”

“For yourself? You’ll need a lot of documents — a bank account — you could probably pass for a sheltered twenty-something year old who’s never had a job until now…" he trails off.

“Not for me,” I tell him. “For a human.”

His eyebrows shoot up. “I suppose nothing changes, but someone needs to pay for it.”

“How do I do that?”

“Do you have the money?”

I set a bag down on the table and push it toward him. He tugs the drawstrings open and peers inside, and a string of curses leaves his mouth.

He closes the bag and sits back. “Does anyone else know you have this?”

“No,” I tell him, bewildered. “They’re family heirlooms — I kept them private. But they’re worth nothing to me now. They’re just gems. If they can be used for good, that’s what matters. Is it enough?”

“You could fund a small city with these.” He grimaces.

“But you can’t just wave them around. You need actual money — human money.

If I try to sell these, people are gonna start asking uncomfortable questions.

I’ll have to set you up with a bunch of things…

offshore account… tax status… find some private buyers. ”

He trails off.

“But can you do it?” I press. I don’t understand half of what he’s saying. I just need to know it’s possible.

“Of course I can. I won’t do it for free, though. And it’ll take time. Tell you what — I’ll start you off with a little account, and when the gems sell I’ll just take it out of your principal.”

The words bounce right off, leaving me no more illuminated than before. “Whatever you think is best. I’ll be indebted to you.”

“Trust me, darlin’, for my fees, you won’t be.” He winks. “But I’ll set you right, don’t worry.”

“I’ll leave these with you.” I push the bag toward him and he shakes his head vehemently.

“Not a chance I want that sitting in my office. One at a time.”

He takes one box out, a broach my mother was gifted by the lamia king to commemorate my birth. Seeing it leave my possession gives me a pang. But they’re just objects. My family remains in my memories. Someday, Elsabeth and I will reunite, and we’ll keep the memories alive together.

It doesn’t take long for Maddox to send me a note confirming that everything is set up, and detailing how to access the money.

He also sends over a sheaf of papers — by courier, not crow — listing apartments and houses that can be rented or bought.

I pore over them carefully, but they leave my head spinning.

Each sheet has a plethora of numbers and terms I don’t understand, leaving me painfully aware of my inadequate understanding of the world.

The answer is to recruit someone who can interpret all this, and I only know one other human besides Ezra who might help.