burped.” Dian lifted his head from the pillows and yawned. “I heard you.”
“And you snore, loudly, which is surprisingly comforting.” Kee sat up and folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t see what either of those things have got to do with all this glitter. Why is it floating?”
“It’s pixie dust.” Dian rubbed his hand over his face as if trying to wake himself up. “I take it your parents weren’t fated mates?”
“Well, no, they weren’t but they’ve been together over a hundred years. Dad always said he never wanted to find his true mate although he never said why. I assume Mom felt the same or she would’ve said something. But look, mated or not, my dad is the pixie in our family, and I’ve heard him burp a million times. He’s never infested the air with dust of any kind. Besides, pixies don’t have dust, that’s fairies.”
“Don’t let any fae hear you suggest they’re dusty.” Dian chuckled, his heavy arm resting over Kee’s legs. “And yes, yes, I know there is a difference between fairies and the fae, I was teasing you. But neither of them produces any form of glittery dust after they’ve been claimed. Pixies do.”
“What does this dust do?” Kee traced a pattern in the glittery dust shimmering in front of him.
“Your parents never spoke to you about it?” Dian gave the cloud a sideways glance like it was toxic.
“No. I was raised as a shifter when I was raised at all.” Kee was fascinated. It was hard not to be. The glitter was coming together as if drawn by magnets set in his finger or something equally weird. “Does it have super dooper powers? Can I vanquish my enemies with it?”
Dian got that grumpy look on his face, and Kee realized he probably shouldn’t have mentioned enemies the first morning of his mating. Or maybe it was his “raised at all” comment. Mates could be funny about things like that. “How can I find out about this stuff and what it can do? Is there someone I can call?”
“No!” Now Dian looked panicked as he looked across at the closed door. “You can’t tell anyone about this. No one at all.”
“O-kay.” Kee gave his mate a sideways glance. “You’re awfully jumpy for someone who had the best sex of his life last night. What’s the matter? Is this stuff going to blow up or something if I cough? Oh, my gods, what would happen if I farted?”
Heaving a heavy sigh, Dian sat up. Kee was momentarily distracted by the flex of his pectoral muscles as his mate moved, but then Dian stunned him even more by opening his mouth. “That dust you’re playing in is worth roughly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars on the black market.”
“For a burp?” Kee swirled his finger through the dust faster until it was congealed in a lump. “This? This little thing?” The lump was about the size of a fifty-cent piece. “Who would buy it? Shit, I could afford to get my car fixed with that money. Damn, give me some chili and I could be a millionaire in a day.”
“I’ll get your car fixed.” Dian was grabbing his shoulders now. “And we’ve got more than enough money. Kee, mate, don’t you understand, your dust is extremely rare. Like, hen’s teeth type rare and because it’s rare there’re a lot of shady characters who’d do anything and everything they could to get ahold of some.”
“I don’t understand.” Dian was deadly serious, and Kee got an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach. “There’s no reason for this shit to be so valuable simply because it’s rare. It’s just dust.”
“You said yourself, your father chose not to take a fated mate. Most pixies never find theirs. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
“Lots of people in different species don’t find their fated mates. The Fates can’t arrange things for everyone, or they’d never get any sleep. It was only luck that you found me.”
“Pixies don’t bother to look for their fated mates at all as a rule, and for good reason.” Dian rubbed the back of his neck. “Why the hell didn’t your father say anything about this?”
“I’m not stupid. There were a lot of things I learned by myself.” Kee was getting annoyed now. Where were his kisses, cuddles, and breakfast in bed? “I only got one piece of advice from my parents. To stay away from the man, people like you in other words. That means