even know what the questions were yet—they could be perfectly benign ones he would have answered anyway. But if avoiding being contractually bound to answer questions was more valuable to him than precious gems and metals, that was his prerogative. Of course, it was also possible Dugan had no idea the value of local mortal currency and I was more or less taking advantage, but he seemed fairly knowledgeable about the human world for a fae who wasn’t supposed to visit it, and he was a big boy who could have asked about exchange rates or whatever if he needed.
Schooling my face to neutral, I looked to Falin. “That sound acceptable?”
“That bargain is between you two. If that is what you both decide is fair, then fine.” He shrugged. “Me, I’m paying with the ever-popular agency credit card.”
I almost laughed at that, catching the sound at the last minute and smothering my smile. We took a few minutes to finalize and sign the contract, and then the two men exchanged another oath that ensured that the truce between them would last beyond my office—thank goodness. With that done, there was nothing else to do but head to Faerie.
Chapter 3
The Eternal Bloom was Nekros City’s only fae bar. The public side was a kitschy tourist trap with a limited but overpriced drink selection and an even more pricey short-order food menu. No one would have given the place a second glance—and certainly not much patronage—except that it was one of the few places humans were guaranteed to see unglamoured fae. The fae employed on the public side of the Bloom were paid to allow humans to gawk at them, and that started with the bouncer in the main entrance.
Today the bouncer was one I hadn’t seen before, and I couldn’t identify what manner of fae he was on sight. He had two rows of small black eyes and a mouth that ended with a pointed beak. He was so tall that, even sitting on the provided stool, he had to hunch down to avoid brushing his head on the ceiling. But while he was long, he was thin, like someone had put him in a taffy puller and stretched him. He reminded me of some sort of stick bug. Not that I’d tell him as much.
His small beady eyes scanned over our group as we stepped through the door. He nodded at us and lifted an arm, pointing to a small lectern in the corner of the room, and beside it, the VIP door. The ledger was one of the most important things in the room, and I headed straight for it as Falin checked his gun with the bouncer. I meticulously signed us all in, writing as clearly as possible, and putting the exact time in the arrival box. While the public portion of the Eternal Bloom might be a tourist trap, the VIP room was a pocket of Faerie. An in-between space that led to the door to the winter court. The bouncer was there in part to prevent humans from wandering into Faerie unknowingly, but more than that, to ensure that everyone who did enter signed the ledger. The door was easy enough to walk through, but time sometimes did funny things if you didn’t document your arrival and departure properly.
It had been a while since I’d visited the Bloom. Since my castle had dug itself out its own little pocket of blended mortal and Faerie reality a couple months ago, there hadn’t been much reason for me to visit the bar and its unpredictable door. Not much had changed in that time. Masterfully carved tables and chairs were scattered through a room larger than should have been able to be contained within the building as it existed in the mortal realm. A motley gathering of fae sat at those tables, some played dice in the corner, and a few had even joined the endless dance in the most distant corner of the room. In the center of the room was the amaranthine tree, its varied ever-blooming flowers giving the bar its name. And above it all, the impossible stretch of Faerie’s sky. Normally the sky had little correlation to the sky in the mortal realm, but today the sun hung at nearly the same spot as when we’d been outside, but this sun looked larger, closer than the one in mortal reality. Also, despite a lack of clouds in the soft blue sky, it was snowing,