Iron Master – Jennifer Ashley Page 0,15
sharpened as he glanced at Stuart in the rearview mirror. “Kendrick didn’t mention this—he said you needed some help only Jaycee and I could give. I figured it was because we were bad-ass. What dokk alfar?”
“I was pulled partway into Faerie so one of my people could communicate with me. When I asked the dokk alfar who he was, he told me to speak to you,” Stuart explained calmly, far too calmly, in Peigi’s opinion, for the frightening event.
“Ah.” Dimitri slowed the truck as the dirt road ended at the highway, waited for a couple of passing vehicles, then pulled onto the asphalt. “I wonder if that was Cian. Huh. Nice to be remembered.”
“Cian?” Stuart’s brows went up. “I don’t think I know him.”
“He was my cell mate when I did time in a high Fae prison.” Dimitri’s words were light, but Peigi saw pain flicker in his eyes. His experience could not have been good. Jaycee, watching him, put a comforting hand on his thigh.
To give Dimitri time to recover, Peigi asked Stuart, “How would you know that you don’t know this particular Cian—out of all the Cians who might be out there in Faerie?”
“Because dokk alfar don’t duplicate names,” Stuart answered. “They’re unique. They can be passed from generation to generation but only if the bearer of the name of the previous generation has died.”
“Humans should do that,” Jaycee said. “Imagine doing research on a guy called John.”
“Or Thomas,” Dimitri said. “Shifters should do one name per generation too. There are a lot of Dimitris.”
“Are there?” Jaycee started. “Well, crap. More of you to put up with.”
“James—that name comes up a lot,” Dimitri continued, pretending to ignore her. “William. Jack. A lot of Jasons.”
“I heard that one of the most popular names these days is Aiden,” Jaycee said.
Traffic thickened and Dimitri pulled into the passing lane. “I don’t know about that. How about Trevor?”
“Are you asking if it’s popular or if we should name our cub that?”
Dimitri shrugged, grinning. Peigi cleared her throat. “So there is only one Cian?” she gently steered the conversation back to where it had begun. “And only one Stuart Reid?”
“Stuart Reid isn’t my true name,” he said. Peigi had known this—he had a fairly long name in his own language, which he’d told her meant he was high in his clan. “Cian won’t be his entire name, but what he goes by.”
Dimitri nodded. “Yeah, Cian has a long-ass name, like …”
“Cian Tadhg Cailean an Mac Diarmud,” Jaycee said. She sent Dimitri a sweet smile. “Lady Aisling told me.”
“Because she’s your best friend. Can you believe my mate is friends with a Tuil Erdannan?” Dimitri asked the back seat. “Translation: scary as shit woman who can terrify the high Fae.” He shuddered. “That doesn’t worry me at all.”
“Anyway,” Peigi broke in. “Tell us about Cian.”
“A good guy.” Dimitri returned to business with ease. “I don’t know much about him, because I don’t speak dokk alfar and he didn’t speak English or Russian. He got himself captured, and I think he’s a tracker, like me. Some kind of scout to see what the Fae were up to. That’s the impression I got, anyway. He helped me escape—and I helped him. Once we were free, he saluted us and took off. I’m glad to hear he’s alive and well.”
“Hmm.” Stuart’s brows came together, his expression thoughtful.
Jaycee, as impatient as Peigi, turned in her seat to face Dimitri. “You could have told Eric that on the phone, instead of dragging Peigi and Reid across two and a half states in Marlo’s plane.”
Stuart sat forward. “I don’t think so. There must be something Cian wants me to know. If you tell me everything, Dimitri, the whole story, every detail, I might figure it out. Better than a quick phone conversation.”
“You mean putting up our feet, breaking out the beer, and shooting the breeze.” Dimitri nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
Jaycee rolled her eyes. “Anything to get out of, you know, actual work.”
“Hey, this is work. I’m a tracker. I’m tracking. Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a beer at the same time.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, sweetie.”
Peigi hid a smile as Dimitri drove on, speeding up to get around the traffic. Jaycee and Dimitri were so easy with each other, good friends, and obviously deeply in love. True partners.
Would Peigi ever achieve that with Stuart? Or might this journey bring them to the end of whatever it was they had?
Stuart would never turn his back on his people if