Page 25 of White Little Lies (Four Ways to Fate #3)

25

“Are you sure you want me to go?” Braxton sat next to me on the sofa in Sebastian’s hidden apartment. Soft morning light cut across his tired features. None of us had gotten much sleep.

“Unless you want to hide out with us here.” I pet Ringo, curled up in my lap. Unlike the rest of us, he was unwilling to give up his rest. His soft snores echoed around the silent apartment.

Braxton wrinkled his nose, glancing around. “Yeah, don’t really like the idea of sleeping somewhere that Sebastian has free rein.” His brow twitched. “Although you don’t really seem to mind it.”

I shrugged. “Silk sheets and a full bath.”

“And a devil walking around in his underwear.”

I snorted. “Absolutely not.”

Braxton leaned back against the sofa cushions. A packed suitcase rested near his feet. It hadn’t been easy to convince him to go, not only because he wanted to watch my back, but because, well, he was a big tough werewolf. They weren’t used to running and hiding.

But I had already gotten him kidnapped by vampires, and I had brought crazed fairies into werewolf lands. He knew I wasn’t just being overly cautious in asking him to leave our apartment for a while. If Penelope got hold of him…

I shuddered to think what she would do.

I heard the door opening downstairs, and knew it must be Sebastian. Even if someone knew where it was, like Gabriel, they had to be let in.

Except I saw blond hair instead of black hair as someone came up the stairs.

Crispin tossed down a large brown leather suitcase, then straightened as he took in the apartment. “Not bad. Could use a few plants.”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” My eyes moved from him to Sebastian as the other man appeared at the top of the stairs.

Sebastian walked past him into the kitchen. “If I have to watch over you all the time, it will prevent me from finding information we sorely need. And Gabriel cannot be here at all times either.”

Crispin grinned. “And I’ve got nothing better to do.”

My jaw fell open. I looked in the direction of the single bedroom, then back at Crispin.

Only he didn’t seem to notice my silent question. He walked over to the sofa, plopping down between me and Braxton. “Plus, this will give us much more time to practice. Now that you have figured out how to jump to a near realm, I’m excited to see what else you can do.”

I still seemed to be having trouble shutting my gaping jaw. “And King Francis is okay with this?”

“Oh he prefers it. Keeps us away from his precious daughter.” He lowered his voice conspiratorially. “He found out about her bartending last night.”

Oh gods, by the time we were through, I was going to have an elf king as an enemy. “Did she at least learn anything good?”

He smiled, pleased with himself. “Only that Elizabeta would like to meet you.”

And there was my jaw hanging open yet again. “The master of all vampires in the city wants to meet me? Why?”

He shrugged. “It’s all quite mysterious. She is allied with our king and has therefore honored his protection of you, so it’s probably safe.”

Sebastian walked around the kitchen counter, approaching us with a fresh cup of coffee in hand. “Elizabeta is nearly as old as I am, and bored out of her mind. She’s probably just curious.”

“And how old are you?”

He simply smiled.

“When you’re ready to see her, Lilith will take you,” Crispin continued.

Braxton’s hanging jaw matched mine. “You’re actually going to go meet her? After everything that happened with the vampires?”

“Elizabeta killed Ivan for his insolence.” Sebastian took another slow sip of his coffee.

“So you’re just going to trust her?” Braxton’s voice was starting to go low and growly, and I realized we were probably near the full moon. Usually I kept track, but what could I say? Life had been chaos lately.

“She could have information that might help us,” Crispin answered. “And if something goes wrong, Eva will just give one of us a kiss and we’ll pop right out of there.”

I glared at him.

He lifted his hands in mock surrender. “Hey, I didn’t say it had to be me.”

Braxton sighed and shook his head at all of us. “I can’t believe I’m actually going to leave you all to your own devices.”

Crispin patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t fret, my friend. We have Elena to be our voice of reason.”

Braxton glowered. “Yeah, not comforting.”

Sebastian watched it all with an air of amusement, making me suspicious of why he seemed so pleased with everything. Of course, he was getting his way. I was hiding out in his apartment and would continue working on my realm jumping so I could find my mom.

We now knew she wasn’t the one who had ordered Lucas to kill night runners—she probably didn’t even know about it. And she might not even know about me. As far as we knew, the glamour some fae had placed upon me still held, making my mom believe I was dead.

Unfortunately, that left us with more questions, not less. We still didn’t know who was after her, or if the sword really could only be used by someone of my bloodline. Sebastian warned me I couldn’t trust anything Penelope had said, but had admitted that it was all at least worth consideration.

For what good it did us.

For now, I could realm jump, but only if I knew someone on the other end. That would prove problematic since Sebastian couldn’t go any further than the hells, even when I amplified his energy. It was a problem we would have to figure out soon, because I couldn’t just hide in an apartment forever.

Sebastian was watching me like he could read my thoughts. He smiled at me, and I had no idea what the smile meant.

If only I could read his thoughts.

But that wasn’t really in my wheelhouse. I would have to leave the mind reading to devils, and the forging of new paths to me.

Gods help us all.