Page 32 of Pixie Problems

"Court!" Jack agreed, taking off to fly after her.

"Coming?" Aspen called back. "It's a party, you two. That means there needs to be some making out!"

As they headed for the elevator at the end of the hall, Keir offered me his arm. "Madam le Fae?" he asked.

"Sir Delaney," I replied, impressed I'd remembered his last name from class.

"Not a sir," he countered. "I'm not a knight."

I just reached back to close my door behind me, then slipped my arm in his. "I dunno, Keir. I think Aspen may have just made you one, hm?"

"Oh, that's going to piss Torian off," he said, sounding a little too happy about it.

"And Sir Keir does sound good," I added.

"Sir Keir," he said as he turned me up the hall, "knight of the Morrigan?"

"No." That didn't sound right. "Sir Keir,defenderof the Morrigan."

He looked down at me, something soft and warm in his eyes. "Yeah, nowthatwould be one hell of a title to have."

Chapter Ten

KEIR

Damn, Rain looked good. That little blue shirt really showed off her figure, and I was struggling not to gawk at her chest like some asshole. Aspen looked amazing too, but in a very different way. While Rain looked like something I wanted to keep close, Aspen had a dangerous vibe, which had always made me keep my distance before.

But she'd just put me in the court? Granted, I very much liked the idea of being Rain's defender, but thecourt? I'd spent my entire life trying to break away from the monarchy our people adored so much. To simply give in and use a title like that felt wrong somehow.

"So, why do all of you call it the court?" I asked as we piled into the elevator for our trip down to the first floor.

Aspen laughed once. "Wedidn't. The jesters did."

"The nickname was supposed to be a threat," Wilder clarified. "Harper tried to make it clear that if we got out of line, she'd call down the real nobility on us." He laughed once, the sound dry and unamused. "Her mommy had power, she always said."

"And that was supposed to be a threat to Torian," Aspen giggled. "The whole 'stick with me and I'll make your life easy' sort of thing."

"Bitch," Rain mumbled.

Yeah, I really didn't want to talk about Harper. She was gone. Hopefully, she wouldn't be coming back. Then again, before her there had been another idiot who'd thought they should be worshiped because oftheir bloodline. After I graduated, I had a feeling someone else would show up.

In truth, I'd always assumed the court was the same way. They were known asthe court,after all! Then again, why couldn't we bend this whole thing to change minds a bit?

On impulse, I said, "So I guess this means you're the court of Earth?"

Aspen's head twitched over to look at me. "Oh, I do like that!"

Wilder just shrugged. "I mean, I could be an Earth duke."

"But are you?" Rain asked, catching that. "A duke, I mean?"

"Uh..." Wilder's mouth flopped a few times. "I..."

"Don't ask that," Aspen warned. "If he confirms, it makes things complicated, and some of us can't talk about it."

"Gotcha," Rain said. "So Duke Wilder, hm? What's the proper title for that anyway?"

"Your Grace," I filled in.