who she belongs to,” K said, his voice cutting.
“Cool, man.” Goldfield put up two hands and turned to order a Cuba Libre. While Indira took his money and slid his drink toward him, he winked at her. “How about you and I—”
“Fuck off,” Indira said.
“Women!” The merman shook his head and careened away with his poison.
“Seriously, K?” I asked, frowning at him. “It’s sweet of you to play a big league boy, but you know it’s unnecessary. I’m a big league girl who knows how to take care of herself. And I prefer you stay in your own lane.”
“You stir up shit any chance you get,” he said. “You can’t help it. And you were about to punch a guy double your size. I have a strict order from Boss to keep an eye on you.”
“Rydstrom needs to get over his trust issues,” I said, rolling my eyes. “And you judged me unfairly, but this time I’ll let it slide since I’m not petty. However, I have a question for you. I heard that you did an excellent job catching the mage bombers.” I stepped closer to him and pat his forearm to show him that we were in this together. “Can you tell me exactly what happened?”
“No,” K said.
I glared at him.
He leapt away from me, keeping at least three yards between us, and growled. “Try not to get me killed.”
The Night King had informed me that he would kill anyone whom I flirted with. I’d thought it was a joke.
“Don’t be an ass, K,” Indira said. “At least not to our Evie.” She wheeled to me and slid a new shot of coffee toward me. I didn’t even know when she’d made it. My half-Fae, half-shifter friend was magical in mixing all sorts of drinks.
“How much have you learned about Fae history?” Indira asked.
“Uh, I’ve picked up a little bit here and there,” I said, giving K a baleful look as if it were his fault that I didn’t have solid knowledge on the supernatural world. He parked away from me like a mountain, his bulky arms across his massive chest. Maybe he was half-troll. “Fae were on Earth before humans. They claim that they were the first race here, but I don’t trust Fae much.”
When humankind showed up, growing in numbers and rising technology, Fae as the older species faded into the background. Rowan had revealed that their race still kept the ancient chronicles, which recorded two long bloody wars between Fae and humans. However, any mention of other intelligent species had been purged from human history.
No wonder mortals weren’t aware of the existence of immortals and a parallel realm right beside them, separated by the Veil.
“The majority of pureblood Fae have been waiting to reclaim the other side of the Veil,” Indira said. “Dominance is in their blood, and they hate humans in their bones. And now with the rumors running amok that the Veil opened, no matter how briefly, the Fae purists are gathering forces to prepare for a great invasion into the human world.”
Damn. My heart pounded with guilt. Why did I have to go see the Veil and be tempted by it?
“You mean the Fae kings will also wage war against humans?” I asked. I was now super distracted. If the kings were using me—no, I shook my head. I shouldn’t doubt them. They weren’t the bad guys. In fact, they’d helped prevent havoc in the human realm by slaughtering the demons coming out of the Veil.
“I’d say the Dawn Queen is the evil mastermind,” Indira said. “All the purist dicks are gathering around her now.”
“Drop your voice,” K hissed. “You never know who’s listening, even in our territory.”
Rowan, Baron, and Rydstrom each owned extensive spy networks in both the mortal and immortal realms, so it made sense that their enemies had spies as well.
Despite their spies, the kings hadn’t found my parents yet, but they did have prime suspects as to who placed the bounty on my head—either the Dawn Queen or Lucifer.
It seemed a far stretch to think the devil might want me dead. Rydstrom had insisted that Lucifer had been secretly searching for the lost Dawn princess as long as anyone. What could Lucifer possibly want with me?
I could understand the Dawn Queen’s motivation, though, since as the lost heir to the Court of Dawn, I threatened her throne.
“I know in my gut that bitch is behind it all,” Indira insisted, but her voice hushed. “The purist Fae want to