Spin the Shadows (Dark and Wicked Fae #1) - Cate Corvin Page 0,65

Pearlwave had been standoffish and nervous, but in the car, I’d decided that Lyssa Lightsea was bold and ready to take what she wanted. It was becoming much easier to adopt a new personality while wearing a mask over my real face.

“Hello, handsome,” I purred, running my deep green fingernails over Calder’s shoulder. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“You have?” Calder stared up at me, round-eyed, and I held back a wince. Had he learned? Maybe I’d laid it on a little too thick. “Oh. Right. So you’ve heard of me?”

Crisis averted. Naturally, he’d take my words at face value, the little narcissist.

I leaned over him, letting him look down my pearl dress. “Of course I have. You’re Calder, everybody knows you.” I giggled and let my nails glide gently over his hairy chest. “I’m a big admirer.”

He puffed his chest out. “Well, I’ve got a very important meeting to get to—” He even waggled his eyebrows, the smarmy little ass— “But… I could make a quick exception for you.”

“Lovely.” I offered my hand and let him pull me down the tunnel, not even looking at the Dullahans as I passed them. They were beneath Lyssa’s notice.

Calder’s guardians followed us through the tunnel, and after we’d passed several dark bends, I heard the first thump of a body hitting the stone floor like a sack of bricks.

“The fuck was that?” Calder muttered, spinning around. The clop of his hooves echoed down the tunnel, overshadowed by the sound of the second Dullahan hitting the ground. “Balfour? Dubh?”

There was no answer. I smiled as Calder wheeled around and stared up at me, suspicion and horror filling his eyes. “Did you do this, you cunt?”

I waved my fingers. “Good night, asshole.”

A puff of red smoke filled the air in front of Calder’s face. The satyr gasped in surprise, filling his lungs with the dust… then choked, sneezed, and stumbled over. A sharp crack echoed when his horns hit the ground.

He was drooling before he even knew what hit him.

“Nice, boss,” I said appreciatively.

Robin let out a low chuckle, then picked up the satyr and threw him over an invisible shoulder. Within moments, Calder had also faded from sight, enveloped by Robin’s powerful invisibility glamour.

“Back through the Skin Market, Briallen. Meet me back at the car if we get separated.”

“Is that likely?” I asked, picking my way back along the tunnels and stepping lightly over the unconscious Dullahans. They were sprawled in an undignified pile in a puddle of oily water.

“He’s… hefty, we’ll say that. I might need to find a clearer route unless I want to smash through the place like an invisible battering ram.”

“Point taken.”

I plunged back into the Skin Market with a satisfied smirk, like I’d just gotten the richest, quickest client in the place. Nobody batted so much as an eyelash as I passed through.

The streets were much darker when I emerged, and when I got back to the car, it was still empty.

I leaned against the brick wall, giving passersby a jaded gaze. We were close enough to Sobek Street for it to look natural and normal. Every odd once in a while I hissed “Boss?” under my breath.

I didn’t get a reply to that for nearly fifteen minutes, when the trunk of Robin’s car suddenly popped up. The entire vehicle tilted when he dropped Calder’s dead weight into it.

“Took you long enough,” I muttered.

“I had to take an access tunnel,” he said, not even out of breath. “The market was too close-quarters. I hit two selkies upside the head with his hooves and almost started a fistfight.”

I choked back a laugh as Calder’s head jerked to the side: Robin’s invisible hand was plucking clumps of hair from his head. “Are you sure Brightkin won’t see through this one?”

“First, I paid a princess’s ransom for this next glamour, so it’d damn well better work. Second, it’s much less likely with Calder’s physical essence to power it,” he said. It was weird, talking to a disembodied voice. “Having a piece of the face I’m wearing makes the barrier much harder to penetrate. Worst case, if he senses something, I tell him I received a protection spell. They have a similar signature.”

“Good thinking.” I shifted in place, my feet already aching from the super high heels.

Robin shoved Calder further into the recesses of the trunk, then slammed it shut. “I apologize for all the short dresses, Miss Appletree. You know… I suppose I could’ve just paid a few nymphs for their hair