Spin the Shadows (Dark and Wicked Fae #1) - Cate Corvin Page 0,26

into that room and find you proof,” I said stubbornly. “I got into the room—”

“I told you to make initial contact and get his number, I didn’t tell you to take a roofied cup. The ring should’ve warned you. I would’ve preferred that you left entirely, Miss Appletree. Better that the mission was ruined than you get...” He cut himself off and ran a hand over his beard in exasperation, like he was trying to hold back something harsher.

“Will you let me finish? It did warn me, but it was a calculated risk. They weren’t going to let me walk back out without thinking I was too drugged to notice anything weird. I found proof, boss.” I paused. “Well, I saw proof. He had human girls in there. Silke took my phone for obvious reasons, otherwise I’d have brought you pictures.” I buried my face in my hands. “Ah, fuck. I didn’t get his number.”

My first mission, and I’d totally ruined it. I’d let my anger over Brightkin’s transgressions blind me to the one basic thing I needed to do.

“There’s a time to take risks, and this wasn’t it.” The gentle disappointment in his voice was even worse than outright anger. “If you’d been there alone…” He trailed off and shook his head.

Robin started the car and pulled out into the street. A long, tense silence fell in the car, while I watched his taut knuckles on the steering wheel and blinked hard.

“I apologize, Miss Appletree. It was my fault for allowing Sisse to talk me into this arrangement, but perhaps things would be better if we brewed that forgetting potion after all. Working for me involves danger, and I can’t willingly put you in harm’s way. I am responsible for what happens to you.”

I sucked in a deep breath, feeling like I’d been punched in the gut. “Fine.”

One mission in, and already fired. And I’d never remember Robin again.

“Let’s do our debrief now.” He didn’t look at me, staring straight through the windshield. “Tell me what you saw.”

My jaw felt painfully tight as I began to speak, telling him about Fionn, and Silke’s pat down, and the apparent animosity between them.

Robin didn’t so much as blink when I described the human girls eating faerie fruit out the prince’s hands, or being turned into a living chalice, but his mouth turned down at the corners a little.

We soon pulled into Thornwood. Too soon, I wanted to work just a little longer.

“And there was a satyr there.” I looked down at my hands, unable to look at Robin’s face anymore. I was so full of shame for fucking up that my throat felt clogged with tears. “He was… well, disgusting is the kindest way of putting it. Greasy, wore a leather jacket, had a red tattoo of a circle of thorns on his chest.”

Robin slammed the brakes and the car screeched to a halt. In the shaded streets of Thornwood, it was just possible to make out the brightness of his eyes boring right through me.

“You’re sure it was a tattoo of red thorns?” he demanded.

The tiniest, most minuscule seed of hope sprouted in me. “One hundred percent. He smoked a cigar, and…” I racked my memory for a moment. “I’m not going to repeat what he said about them, but he said he liked nereids. Water nymphs.”

Robin seemed frozen in place, but a wild grin broke out across his face before he schooled himself back into neutrality.

“This is good, right?” I asked, still foolishly nurturing the hope that I wasn’t fired.

Robin hit a button on the console, opening another portal to his underground garage. I closed my eyes as he drove towards the mirror-like opening in the air, and when he pulled to a halt, we were underground.

He got out of the car and came around to open my door, to my surprise. He was walking so fast I didn’t have time to protest when he reached in and took my hand.

“Come on. I’ll make you dinner.”

I was sure I hadn’t heard right. “Aren’t you supposed to be brewing a forgetting potion?”

I sounded petulant even to myself.

Robin looked me over. “We’ll need to have a few discussions about unnecessary risks, but no, you won’t be taking that potion if you don’t wish to, Miss Appletree.”

I exhaled so deeply it was painful, my body relaxing. I’d been so miserably cramped up in the car all the way back to Robin’s house, convinced I was going to be fired and have all