The Summer King Bundle 3 Stories - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,25

that he was talking about earlier, when I was thinking about the dream I had. And boy, didn’t that make me want to crawl up in a hole somewhere. At that moment, I made a mental note to legit not feel anything when I was around him or any other fae.

One eyebrow, several shades darker than his golden hair, lifted.

“Wait. Can you guys read minds?” I asked, voice hushed and thinking I didn’t know nearly as much about the fae as I thought I did.

“We don’t need to.”

Relief hit me, but it quickly faded when his words cycled back through my head. We don’t need to. Meaning picking up on our emotions probably gave them enough insight on what our thoughts were.

Nice.

“Well…” I held the folder closer to my chest. “That’s freaky.”

His lips twitched.

“And I need to go.” I started to turn once more, ordering myself not to run out of the lobby like it was on fire. But I stopped, facing him again. “I do care about these younglings. I will find them or I will find out what happened to them.”

The Prince inclined his head. A moment passed and then he nodded. Thinking this super awkward face to face was now, thankfully, over, I started to turn away again.

“Brighton?”

Desperately ignoring how the way he said my name made me think of stormy summer nights, I faced him, even though common sense screamed that I shouldn’t. I just couldn’t help myself. It wasn’t a compulsion. It was apparently really bad self-control. My wry gaze flickered over his face, and I bit back a sigh. He was the strongest, the deadliest of his kind, and that knowledge did nothing to dampen my appreciation of his masculine beauty.

“The red hair was a nice touch, but I prefer it this way.”

And then with those parting words, he turned and stalked off, leaving me standing there knowing one thing only.

The Prince knew it was me Saturday night.

Chapter 10

Damn.

Damn it.

Damn it all to hell.

Faye followed me out into the thick, overcast skies. “That was weird.”

“You think?” Shaken, I pulled out my phone and opened the car service app. Thank Mary Mother of God, Faye hadn’t heard what the Prince had said before he walked off. “Yeah, that was super weird.”

My heart was still pounding like I’d just done an hour on the treadmill. He knew. Damn it, he knew it had been me. He probably also knew why Tobias had disappeared.

I dragged my teeth along my bottom lip as I checked out what cars were nearby, resisting the urge to rip off the damn sweater. It was much cooler out here, but I still felt too hot.

“Brighton?”

Lifting my chin, I glanced at Faye. She stared at me with some sort of wonder in her eyes. “I don’t think you understand how out of character that was for him.”

“Oh, trust me, I was on the receiving end of all that weirdness. I understand.”

She gave a slight shake of her head. “No, you don’t. I’ve never seen him speak to anyone for that length of time.”

“Really?” I choked out a laugh as I glanced over my shoulder at the door that now looked like a rusted-over scrap of metal. The glamour had settled into place. “He spoke to me for about a minute, two tops.”

Faye nodded back at me.

“Seriously?” I lowered my phone. “That’s not very long. Does he not talk?”

“Not really.”

“To anyone?”

“No.” She folded her arms as she stepped in closer to me. “Not even his brother. He’s… well, you know what he’s been through.”

And I knew what he, under trance, had put others through. But I kept that to myself.

“He’s not very communicative,” she said.

He didn’t seem like he peopled very well, but I also kept that to myself and instead let curiosity get the best of me. “Has he been here this whole time? In the city, since the fight with the Queen?”

“Yes.” Her dark brows knitted together. “He actually hasn’t left New Orleans at all, not even to travel to the other large community in Florida with his brother.”

I thought that was odd, that I hadn’t seen him, and none of the Order had ever mentioned seeing him while on patrol. But I had a feeling the Prince knew how to stay unseen until he wanted to be.

I wanted to ask her if she knew why he would’ve been at Flux looking for a Winter fae, but asking that question would expose that I had been there.

Brushing my ponytail over my shoulder,