Page 15 of Veiled Justice

‘She was a beautiful young ogre.’

He nodded. ‘She was.’ He turned to look at me and hesitated a moment. ‘I have no interest in dating someone half my age.’ His eyes held mine. ‘I want my mate to have life experience. She’ll need balls to take on the ogre den. Helga …’

‘Didn’t have either of those things,’ I finished.

‘No. She was soft, kind-hearted.’ He made it sound like a criticism.

‘Surely that’s a good thing in a mate?’

‘Perhaps for an ordinary ogre,’ he shrugged. ‘But I am the High King. My standards are necessarily different.’

I was genuinely interested. ‘What’s on your list?’

‘My list?’

‘Of attributes for your mate?’

‘She must be strong; she must have her own morality – and she must be willing to kill for me.’

I raised an eyebrow; the last two seemed a mite contradictory. ‘That’s it?’

He nodded. ‘That’s it.’

‘What about beauty?’

He looked amused. ‘I am an ogre. As a group we are misshapen and deformed, and what you consider beauty we often do not. To an ogre, appearance matters little. Beauty fades, it is what is in her heart and soul that would interest me.’

I was genuinely stumped. ‘Huh,’ I said eloquently. ‘I wouldn’t have expected that.’

‘Most would not. Most look at our tusks and our overly large limbs and think we are brutes.’

‘Well, you do lean into the brute stereotype.’

He smiled a little. ‘We do, and we take pleasure in it. But there is far more to us than that.’ He pointedly turned his attention back to the road.

Ogres were notoriously close-mouthed about their culture and it was disconcerting that he had shared so much today. It was the case, I decided. He thought it was relevant, that was all.

The seat was warm and the hum of the engine was quietly soothing. Before I knew it, my eyes were sliding closed.

Chapter 9

The phone alarm jolted me from sleep. I threw an arm out to switch it off, blurrily trying to swipe at it. I succeeded and sank back into the pillow.

‘Seize the day, Pigdog!’ Loki screeched loudly, right by my ear.

‘Son of a bitch!’ I sat up, my heart racing. ‘We talked about you doing that!’

Loki ruffled his pearlescent white feathers. ‘Murder to solve,’ he said and started hopping around.

The fog cleared. He was right. Ididhave a murder to solve. I pulled the duvet back and froze as I saw I was still in my uniform. I didn’t remember coming home. ‘Er … Loki, how did I get into bed?’

‘Krieg carried you,’ he confirmed. ‘Rockabye baby.’

‘He carried me … in his arms?’

‘No,’ Loki squawked sarcastically. ‘With feet. Of course arms! Pea-brain.’

Fuck. Krieg had carried me from his car into my flat and put me to bed. That was just … ‘How did he get in?’ I asked.