Spin the Shadows (Dark and Wicked Fae #1) - Cate Corvin Page 0,64

ones, lines that boxed Briallen in with Robin.

I didn’t want to relegate that night to the distant shores of memory, but I also wanted to stay.

“Sure thing, boss.” It was amazing how casual I sounded around the lump in my throat. “It’s settled, as far I’m concerned. So what’s the plan with Calder?”

Robin ran his fingers through his hair. I wondered how long that had been a habit for him. “Apparently, he learned absolutely nothing from his last venture with nereids, because he’s been searching for them recently. I’ve pieced together as many of his messages with Brightkin as possible to be able to reliably imitate his speech, and if I’m reading into this correctly, the prince is beginning to develop a paranoia of being watched.” Robin’s smile was cold. “We’ll exploit that.”

“And we’re kidnapping him first, right?” I chewed a fingernail. Robin looked like he wanted to pull it out of my mouth.

“We’ll reprise our last plan, with a few little additions.”

I groaned and dropped my hands to my lap. “Aww, I have to be a hooker again? When do I get to wear a cool suit with secret weapons?”

Robin just shrugged, hiding a smile. “It’s a tried-and-true method.”

An hour later, I was wearing a new nereid face, this one tinged with pale green and studded with seed pearls. My false ID read Lyssa Lightsea.

Robin hadn’t bothered to get dressed, wearing his usual dark suit. He held a silver medallion, shimmering with pent-up magic.

“What are we going to do about his Dullahans?” I asked, trying not to scratch an itch on my back. The pearl-woven mini dress was not the most comfortable thing I’d ever worn.

“Corpseroot powder.” Robin held up a small vial full of a dark red powder before he tucked it in his suit pocket. “It won’t kill them; we might want to question them later. But they’ll be unconscious for the time it takes us to gather Calder and reinforcements to collect their bodies.”

I nodded, the pearls in my hair clicking together. “Fuck. We should’ve just taken Calder the first time I had him knocked out.”

Robin gave me a wry smile. “His absence for over a week would’ve been noted by Brightkin. There was one common thread in their communications; Calder never made the meeting arrangements. Trying to impersonate him while simultaneously behaving out of character would’ve tipped off Brightkin too early.”

So we’d had no choice but to wait an entire week for this Myrage meeting. I filed the information away for later; learn to bide your time for the right moment, Briallen.

“Honestly, if this idiot goes for another nereid after what happened last time, then he deserves whatever’s coming to him.” Even as I said it, I knew the odds were very good that Calder would be all over me in seconds. Satyrs were ruled entirely by their raging hormones.

“He deserves it all,” Robin said, so quietly I almost didn’t hear him.

I wondered if I’d someday find a pair of little chopped-off satyr hooves fertilizing Robin’s backyard.

He drove us close enough to Sobek Street for us to get out and walk, but as I shivered on the sidewalk, he pulled the silver medallion over his head and tapped it.

It was like he’d pulled a veil over his head, turning him slowly transparent until I couldn’t see him at all.

“Robin?” I whispered. A warm hand touched my shoulder.

“Right here,” he said, his breath touching my ear and making me shiver again. “I’ll be with you the entire way, Miss Appletree.”

Damn. I’d called him by his first name, and the usual address of my last name made it feel like a rebuke. “Just making sure.”

I turned towards Sobek Street, ignoring the wolf-whistles of the Solitary Fae as I made my way to the Undercity door.

The Skin Market clearly never slept; it might’ve been evening outside, but down here in the endless dark, the lamps were always burning.

I tried to walk like I was meandering, but every fiber in my body was vying to move with purpose. Calder was here or at home, and I was eager to see him knocked out cold.

I came across the little bastard at the edge of the Skin Market, just inside the tunnel leading to his house.

He was still wearing the leather jacket and looked cranky as he looked over the Market’s offerings. Maybe he’d actually learned a lesson about inviting strange nereids home…

But the satyr’s eyes landed on me and lit up.

I smiled and strode forward, letting my hips sway. Vanora