towel dried vigorously and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I blinked and stared at the woman staring back, buck naked. My skin had changed with my weight loss. It was softer in places and in others, like along my belly, it was looser. Apparently my skin didn’t bounce back like it once had. Not that it mattered.
Unless I ended up naked with Crash again. Which, if I was honest, was exactly where I wanted to be.
“Later, you horn dog,” I muttered to myself. “Gran and Charlotte first, sex later.”
A buzzing of wings turned my head up to see Scarlet sitting on the windowsill, reminding me of how I’d first met Kinkly. I tightened my towel around my upper body. “Scar, what are you doing? And how the hell did you find this house?”
She snarled at me. “I can find my king anywhere.” Today her clothes were variegated in color, from the lightest pink through a deep, blood-wine burgundy.
I didn’t like that she could find this place. That meant we could be found here as long as Crash was with us. Besides, wasn’t Kinkly supposed to be following her? “Do you have an appointment?”
“Is he here? With you?” Her eyes swept over me and she gave a sniff of disdain. At least there was no sword this time.
I pointed to the door. “Through there.”
The fairy flew past me, and then, of course, stopped at the door. “Open it.”
“Oh, that’s not polite.” I pulled my towel up and around me again. “Ask nicely.”
“Open it, you filthy human,” she snapped as she swung around, and the cheek of her, she pulled her tiny sword and pointed it at me. I did not need a matching slice on the other side of my face.
I leaned a hip against the counter. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re here? And I’m not quite human either, if I’m being honest. If you’d been listening before, I actually have some fae in me.”
Part of me would like a whole lot of fae in me, but I didn’t think telling her that would win me points.
“I will not!” She seemed as horrified by my request as she was at the thought of asking me politely.
“I’m not opening the door”—I smiled at her—“until you ask politely.”
She flew at me with an ear-piercing screech, sword pointed at my left eye. I spun to the side, grabbed my towel by the corner, and jerked it off me.
She spun in the air and faced me. “You think to stun me with your hideousness?”
“Nope, a towel flick will do the trick.” I snapped my towel like a whip, the corner hitting her hard right in the belly.
Her wings collapsed as the color drained from her face and she went down in a tumble. I leapt forward and caught her, then set her on the counter.
“Bree?” Crash said from the other side. “Do I dare ask who you are talking to in there?”
“It’s an amazingly rude fairy dressed in all red, goes by Scarlet,” I said. “You want to talk to her?”
The door cracked open, and I scooped up my towel and covered up. Not that he hadn’t already seen me naked, but it wasn’t that kind of a moment.
His let himself in and his eyes landed on the small fairy. “Shit. Scarlet, what are you doing here?”
“Trouble,” she wheezed as she held her belly. I wasn’t too worried. There was no blood seeping through her fingers, and I knew from experience that fairy folk were tougher than they looked.
I scooped up my clothes and went into the room to get dressed, leaving them to talk.
The low rumble of Crash’s voice was all I could pick up, no actual words. I made myself go to the empty room that had been mine for about five seconds. There were clean clothes in there, underwear and, thank Gawd, a fresh sports bra that would fit.
Much as wriggling into said sports bra was a workout on its own with my skin still damp from the shower, it was nice to have on clothes that weren’t days old. Dressed once more, I headed downstairs, not entirely surprised to see Penny sitting at the kitchen table with a large book in front of her. I’d say it was leather bound, only the leather still had long fur attached to it.
“Good morning,” I said as I sat across from her. She nodded to the pot of tea in the center of the table, an extra cup beside