Knight in Leather (10 page)

“So what are you going to do?”

“Take a leave of absence. Help you out for a while, maybe. Get my head straight.”

Simone nodded sagely. “Right. And you think you can do that with Ethan around?”

“I…”
Don’t know.
Dasha didn’t know what to do with Ethan in general, but she knew she wasn’t going to keep running from him when doing so was contrary to everything else she wanted to be doing at the moment.

Yes, he lived at the Hearth. So did Simone. Dasha wasn’t going to avoid the place simply because he was there and she wasn’t ready to commit. She was going to find a way to
deal
, and that meant getting a handle on him. There was no reason she couldn’t talk to him—to see if he was worthy of friendship. She could do that without leading him on. She just needed to get past the fear of trying.

Eldora glided back into the room wearing a grin and with a young woman on her arm. “I figured finding her myself would be easier and faster.”

The family resemblance was there. The pale hair—though the younger woman’s casual, high ponytail had a bit of a purple tinge—the silver eyes, and seemingly iridescent skin. If Dasha hadn’t been clued in about supernatural genetics, she would have assumed they were mother and daughter. If a person didn’t look closely, they wouldn’t see the subtle signs of aging, but Eldora
had
said “granddaughter.”

Dasha scoffed with jealousy.
Elves age damn well.

“Kori, this is Princess Simone of the Sídhe and her friend Dasha Maurice.”

Kori closed one eye and scrunched her nose. “No. Wait.
Siobhan
is Heath’s sister, right?”

“That’s right.”

Kori turned her hands over in apology. “I’m bad with names sometimes, but that’s to be expected. I spent most of the last ten years hold up in a suite of dorms, so yay!”

Oh, another weirdo.

Kori plopped into the armchair at the short end of the table across from Simone and pulled her legs beneath her. She was dressed far more casually than her grandmother, but warmly enough. Her baggy cable-knit sweater fell at mid-thigh, and though her leggings had a couple of holes in them, Dasha suspected the placement was strategic and “fashionable.”

Eldora had a seat on the sofa with Simone. “Kori acts as Gillian’s aide when Gillian is around, so I hope you don’t mind if she relays anything of import to her.”

“I don’t see why that would be a problem,” Simone said.

“Well, good. Now, you said you had some questions about geography?”

“I do. As you know by now, the magic realm is collapsing, and apparently I’ve been tasked with relocating its denizens. Personally, I don’t see how we could possibly integrate so many people who’ve never lived among humans into society.”

“Complete integration may not be immediately possible. Some will need acclimatization. Others may never suitably merge. You have to be prepared to keep them sequestered.”

“But how and where? There’s a finite amount of habitable land on this planet that isn’t already claimed and occupied. We can’t just drop them into the middle of the Australian outback and expect them to thrive. The group that’s there now has been there for ages, and I don’t know if they can absorb many people so soon. The infrastructure isn’t ready.”

“No. You certainly can’t expect that, any more than we expect elves to prosper here on this frozen tundra.”

“But you’ve made this place habitable,” Dasha interjected. “When we exited the portal, we didn’t feel like we were going to get frostbite if we stood still for too long.”

“That’s because the palace is a structure that has its own magic and it generates some warmth that spreads outward.”

Kori turned her head to the side and muttered, “The heat
inside
is what we have problems with.”

“What’s wrong with your heat?” Simone asked.

Eldora sighed. “Nicholas will remedy the mechanical issues when he returns, I’m certain. We’ve had some problems upgrading the old heating methods to modern ones. The furnace isn’t working properly.”

“That’s because the thing runs on magic instead of renewable fuel,” Kori said.

“At the moment, the furnace isn’t equipped for that, dear.”

“Can’t we get someone to do an upgrade? I’m tired of waking up with numb lips.”

“Wait,” Dasha said. “You’re running this palace on magic? There’s one person in particular who’s responsible for the climate control?” That sounded a lot to her like how Fergus used to light the Sídhe tunnels. His magic used to charge them…until he had a charge of his own that backfired and burned him badly.

“Well, three. They take shifts. They do a good enough job with the equipment they’re given, but unfortunately the equipment is inadequate for our purposes.”

“What do you need to do an upgrade?” Simone asked.

“Time and skilled labor,” Kori said. “We can get folks to do the time, in theory, but there’s no one here skilled in engineering, and obviously you understand why we wouldn’t be able to contract an outsider.”

Dasha cut a look to Simone. Simone sipped her whiskey and nodded at Dasha. They were probably thinking the same thing.

“What if I could get you someone to take a look at your heating system?” Simone asked.

“You know of such a person?”

“Possibly. One of the guys in Heath’s crew is very handy. He’s got a good brain for machines, and of course, being a fairy, he knows a little something about magic.”

“You would spare him for the job?”

“Hey, the guys can come and go as they please. If he wants to volunteer, no one’s going to stop him. You just have to promise to take care of him while he’s here.”

“We will certainly try our hardest to see that no harm comes to him. Allowing him to be harassed would be such a terrible way to repay a boon.”

“I’ll talk to Gareth when we get back to the motel, then.”

Kori crinkled her nose again. “Motel?”

Dasha chuckled and set her empty glass on the table. “Long story short, Simone owns and lives at a beach motel. It’s swarmed by fairies.”

“At the
beach
?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I bet the beach is warm this time of year.” Kori cut her grandmother the side-eye, but Eldora seemed blissfully oblivious.

“If you’re going to do us such a favor, we should certainly try to do one for you. We’ll do what we can to help you find new homes for your people. You could send some to us if you think they’ll be able to stand the climate.”

“Thank you. I think many would stand the cold just fine. Some were born in northern climes, so the idea of snow doesn’t intimidate them. If you give me a number of how many you’d be able to take, we’ll figure out who’s best suited.”

Eldora clasped her hands. “Splendid. I’ll discuss the agreement with Nicholas when he comes home.”

“We could use a fresh infusion of DNA around here, too,” Kori muttered.

Eldora sighed.

“There’s just…one teensy problem.” Simone held her thumb and index finger a millimeter apart to illustrate the size of the said problem. “As you might know, Heath doesn’t have easy travel through the realm at the moment because there’s a bounty out on him, and…hell. Most of us, at last check, were wanted for questioning and worse things. We might be able to get out a handful of folks here and there when Rhiannon’s got her back turned, but we might be cutting the relocation stuff close. You might have a big surge of refugees on your hands, and I don’t want our friendship to strain at the stress.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll be ready. We have a very good staff here and I’m certain Gillian will get them shipshape in short order.”

“Well, good. I feel like we’ve accomplished something today. Surprising that any referral of Hestia’s ended productively. She’s generally so coy.”

Eldora rolled her shoulders in an elegant shrug. “She likely has to be, given the company she keeps. Will you stay for dinner?”

“Mm.” Simone chugged down the rest of her whiskey and got to the feet. “Sorry. We can’t. My mother tossed the portal for me and it has a looming expiration. All the short ones go away quickly. The portal will collapse soon, and we don’t want to be in the middle when that happens.”

“What would happen?” Dasha asked, fear tingeing her tone.
Gonna have a talk with this chick later about holding out on me.

Simone gave her a placating pat on the shoulder. “Let’s not find out, okay? Can’t be anything good.”

“Geez.”

Kori scrambled to her feet and followed them to the door with Eldora on her heels. “I’ll walk you down. A couple of our guards are standing around the portal and scratching their heads.”

“Elves don’t use portal tunnels?”

“Nah. We don’t have anyone who can make them. If we want to get around fast, we can teleport, but there are only a handful of folks who can do that without magic objects. Uncle Nick is one of them, but there’s a limit to how many times he’ll use the energy in a day.”

“Same with me and making portals,” Simone said. “I only have so much energy to draw on. The more I have, the better and shorter my tunnels are and the longer they last. My grandfather is much better at making tunnels that last. Magic strengthens with age.”

“Won’t you give Fergus my regards?” Eldora asked.

“Of course. As soon as I see him.”

They took leave of Eldora, and as she’d stated, Kori led Simone and Dasha down to the ground floor and through the drafty front hall.

“So…” Kori drawled out. “You’re gonna send us a guy?”

“A heat guy. Yep.”

“’Kay. So…when do you think that’s going to happen?”

“As soon as I run the plan past Heath.”

“Cool. And, uh…you’ll just send him by tunnel?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Great. So…” Kori waved a hand at the pair of guards blocking the front door. They got out of the way, mumbling their apologies.

Dasha laughed, and when they were out of earshot of the guards, she said to Kori, “Come on. Spit it out.”

“Ugh. Fine.” Kori stopped on the stone path, put her hands on her hips, and spun around to face them. “What are the chances of you hosting a couple of frozen elven nymphs for the tiniest of beach vacations?”

“Well, you just asked, so I can’t tell you no,” Simone said with a shrug.

“Huh?”

“Ignore her.” Dasha got them moving toward the tunnel again. Maybe she wasn’t going to get frostbite anytime soon, but her nipples were hard enough to cut glass. “Just let us know when you’re ready, and we’ll figure out how to get you there.”

“Yay! I can’t wait. If I could just go three days without wearing fur-lined boots, I’ll be happy.”

“Poor baby.”

“I know, right?”

Dasha and Simone stepped into the tunnel and waved goodbye as the portal closed behind them.

Then they hauled ass.

Simone was right. Dasha
didn’t
want to find out what would happen to them if they were still inside that thing when it collapsed.

I’m way too young to die.

Ethan heard the lusty laughter echoing in the tunnel moments before Simone and Dasha stepped out of the motel office’s storage room.

He raised his eyebrows as they stopped behind the desk, taking in Katie behind the counter with Daryn and Ethan leaning onto it.

Katie turned on her stool and waved Simone over. “One of these days we’ll have to figure out a reliable communication method when you’re out of a cellular zone.”

“What happened?” Simone asked.

“Oh, nothing to worry about. Heath tried to reach you by phone, but obviously you weren’t here. Um.” She took Simone by the arm and led her toward the door. “Want to…show you something.”

More like
inform
her that Katie needed to drag an unconscious mer-fairy through a tunnel and that she needed to leave soon.

Ethan’s gaze fell on Dasha, who was busy staring down at her phone.

“Where’d you go?” Daryn asked. “Katie wasn’t very clear.”

“Oh.” Dasha tucked the phone away. “The North Pole, of all damned places. Went to talk to a lady about some homeless fairies.”

“Ooh. I’m intrigued. Eldora?”

“Yes.”

“Awesome. She sends Siobhan sweetbread loaves every Christmas. They’re to
die
for. Nobody makes bread like nymphs. If Eldora ever expands her repertoire to include donuts, she’d make a killing. Mark my words.”

Ethan cleared his throat. He didn’t care about bread and donuts. “So. How long of a tunnel was that?”

“Fifteen-minute walk, so not too bad. Katie and Simone pooled their energy.”

“Oh. That’s nice.” Nice that they were
only
tromping around unguarded for fifteen minutes at a time instead of a few hours.
What the hell were they thinking?

He rolled his eyes at himself.

Princess Simone had likely been thinking that she could take care of herself, which was true for the most part. As competent as she was, Ethan didn’t think she was equipped to provide adequate security for Dasha, too. He’d need to have a little chat with the princess about that.

Dasha clasped her hands over her belly and shifted her weight. “So…how was your ride?”

“Productive.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm-hmm. We accomplished what we set out to do.”

“Good. We’ve all had a productive day so far, then.”

“Seems that way.”

“Great.” She shifted her weight some more and cleared her throat.

Daryn, still behind the desk, propped the side of her head against her fist and wriggled her brows at Ethan. “Got an interesting room service request. Several of them, actually. That’s how my morning’s been going.”

“I didn’t think Simone did room service.”

“Oh, she doesn’t. Apparently, some
people
are threatening to leave if they can’t get adequate…
attention
.”

“Let them leave, then,” Dasha said.

Ethan suppressed a groan. If Ethan was reading Daryn’s insinuation correctly, Laurel was threatening to come out of her room to raise hell. “What did you tell them?”

“I told them to go sit on it and spin, but I don’t think that’s what they wanted to hear.”

Dasha gaped. “Daryn!”

Daryn waved a dismissive hand at her. “I swear I wasn’t being inhospitable as far as the curse goes. This person wouldn’t leave even if I set a fire under her arse.”

“And you
want
her to leave.”

Daryn nodded slowly. “She’ll be here indefinitely, probably. Opened-ended reservation.”

“Ew.” Dasha tapped her chin. “Well, there’s that reservation that came in with the frat boys. Simone was reluctant to accept the booking, and I was plotting ways to get rid of them, but maybe you can put them on either side and drive her out on her own volition.”

“They’re probably going to trash the rooms.”

“Which room is she in? If she’s in one of the ones that hasn’t been renovated yet, chances are good one or both of the two on the sides haven’t been either.”

“Room Two.”

“There you go. Call the frat boys and tell them to come on and soak up the North
Kakilaky
sun. Make sure you let them know you’re charging them for a third room, though. Fire codes and such. Can’t put nine adults in two rooms.”

Daryn snorted and picked up the phone. “You’re a ball buster, aren’t ya?”

Dasha shrugged and straightened her scarf. “When I have to be.”

The day’s head covering was neon yellow—a lovely contrast to the reddish brown hues of her skin and her white tank top.

Why she kept her head covered, Ethan couldn’t guess. He’d seen her hair before—during the autumn when she’d first stumbled into the fairy mess. The short crop suited her. The cut made her features stand out without distraction. Dark, almond-shaped eyes. Full lips. Cheekbones sharp enough for every starved fashion model on the planet to envy.

Idly, he reached across the counter and tugged gently on one exposed coil of hair. It snapped back into place like a pen spring.

“Hey!”

He shoved his hands into his pockets and moved toward the door. “Sorry. The spirals are hypnotizing. You can’t tell they’re there unless you’re up close.”

She sighed. “Everyone says that.”

He didn’t want to think about
everyone
—didn’t want to think about a bunch of random dipshits touching his mate, but he was trying to behave himself. He wouldn’t raise a fuss.

He raised his chin to Daryn. “I need to get out of this leather. If Prince Heath or Princess Simone come looking for me, let them know I’m in my room. I should be back in a few minutes.”

“Don’t take too long,” Dasha said neutrally.

Ethan stared numbly at her.
Was that flirting?

She fiddled with her phone some more, expression just as blank as her tone had been.

Nope. Sarcasm.
He should have known better than to have gotten his hopes up.

Daryn snatched up the ringing phone. “Hearth Motel. How can I help you?” She reached for a pen, then cut her gaze toward Dasha, hand frozen mid-flight. “Oh?”

Dasha shrugged at her and looked to Ethan. Sort of, anyway. She wasn’t quite making eye contact. She was staring somewhere in the general vicinity of Ethan’s Adam’s apple.

“Um,” Dasha started, “Simone said something about sending one of the guys to pick up catering for dinner. I think she wanted to eat early. She’s got a bunch of admin stuff to do after all the guests settle in for the night, but there were some crew issues to discuss first.”

“Catering for all of us? For a
meeting
?” They hadn’t had one in a while. With all the construction going on and disparate missions pulling them in different directions, they’d been going about things piecemeal, patching up problems here and there with no real structure.

“For whoever’s around,” she said. “Could probably set up in that suite that’s done but unfurnished. Pull a couple of folding tables into there or whatever, and set up the food on the counters. Simone wants to get everyone on the same page regarding recent events.”

“Well, okay, then,” Daryn said into the phone. “I’ll let her know to be looking for you and your friend. Does your uncle need coordinates, or what?”

Ethan furrowed his brow at her.

She covered the phone’s mouthpiece and said, “Just hold on.”

He shrugged and turned his attention back to Dasha. “What else did you plan for us while we were gone?”

She raised one shoulder coyly. “Who’s to say? Sometimes, idle chitchat turns into making actionable plans, and we don’t always realize when conversations start to drift toward business. We’ve always been that way, though. Since college.”

“You get things done.”

“Better when we’re together. We think in different ways, and we work together well. I missed that—playing off of her and having her around for brainstorming and reality checks.”

“She missed you, too. I know that for certain.”

Dasha grinned. Her grins were always a little crooked. More bunching on one side of her face than the other. Perfectly charming. He wanted to kiss that one cheek until she laughed and pushed him away, but he stood firm and his body ached from the effort.

“What’d she tell you?”

“Oh, she’s always talking about how Dasha would do
this
, or Dasha would do
that
.” Drove him fucking nuts, to be honest. More than once he’d told the princess to just stop talking about her if he couldn’t go to her. The separation was torture. Princess Simone had eased up on the gossip a bit, but she wasn’t perfect. Sometimes she forgot.

“We used to drive her mom nuts with all the plans-making and secrecy, but Katie would always just sigh and shake her head.”

“I can’t imagine Katie doing the doting college mum thing. I can’t imagine her being integrated into this world at all. She’s so peculiar.”

Dasha snorted. “Just like the rest of you, fairy boy.”

“You know what I mean. She’s one of the old ones. She’d certainly be set in her ways.”

“And I think she was. I always thought she was puzzling, you know? She didn’t seem to have a complete grasp of everyday things that would have been obvious to anyone who’d been living on the planet for any length of time. Of course, her oddness makes sense now. I do wonder how her mate must have felt about her marrying Simone’s stepfather in order to hide her out here.”

Fuckin’ angry, probably.

Ethan kneaded at a tight knot where his neck and shoulder joined, then tried, and failed to smile convincingly. He wasn’t feeling the slightest bit cheerful.

He would have been worse than angry had he been in Simone’s father’s shoes. He would have been inconsolable. For the chief to have stomached it as long as he had without there being single murmur anywhere in the realm that Katie had a daughter—or any children at all—was a testament to his self-restraint.

Ethan didn’t know what the limits of Katie’s arrangement with her ex-husband were. He didn’t know if they were intimate or if they’d had simply an agreement on paper, but in the end, Simone got the worse end of the deal when she’d inherited her stepfather’s family’s curse.

Katie might have done what she had to do to keep her daughter off Rhiannon’s radar for as long as she could. As a portal key, Simone had rare, highly detectable magic and Katie had been able to suppress it, in part, by keeping Simone away from fairies—including Simone’s father. But that isolation had come at a cost, and not likely one Ethan was willing to pay. He suspected, though, that when he’d lived as long as Katie, he’d be more practical about such things.

Daryn hung up the phone, stood, and then stretched her arms over her head. “I suppose you told a certain frozen princess she could visit the motel?”

“Oh,” Dasha said, brightening. “Kori. Yeah. She was cold. Poor baby.”

“Her uncle is going to drop her and a friend off in a couple of hours.”

“How, teleporting them?”

“Yep.”

Dasha whistled low. “He knows to be discreet, right? And that there are human guests here?”

“Aye. I wouldn’t worry. From what I hear, King Nicholas is
very
good at hitting targets. If he has an address, he can visualize what’s on the other end pretty well. Handy skill.”

“
Very
handy. Well. Let me go light a fire under Simone’s rump about dinner, then, so we can at least get that settled before things get busy here tonight.”

Ethan grabbed her arm as she passed, and realizing what he was doing, he stepped back and put his hands up. “Sorry.”

Her lips flattened into a tight line.

“I swear, I didn’t mean to touch. Grabbing is a reflex. Fairies tend not to talk if touching works faster.”

Sighing, she closed her eyes and gave her head a slight shake. “I’m not mad. I’m just…” She opened her eyes, but kept them cast down toward the floor, and twiddled the ends of her scarf.

She didn’t really need to complete the thought. He understood…or at least thought he did. She was antsy, and she was justified in being that way. He might have felt like he was drowning, but she was the fish out of water.

“I was just going to say that maybe you should give her a moment with her mother,” he said. Katie needed some time to drag that mer-fairy away.

“Oh. Right.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and stared at his Adam’s apple again.

“Want to take over for me?” Daryn asked. “I can go complete the fairy headcount for dinner.”

“Sure. I need to check my email anyway. My boss keeps sending me messages in spite of the fact I told him I wouldn’t be responding to them for at least a week.” She took Daryn’s abandoned seat and reached for the computer mouse.

“What does he want?” Ethan asked.

“I’m the point of contact for a couple of accounts, and I guess clients don’t like talking to him as much as they do me. He’s an asshole.”

“Gotcha.”

She chuckled and started typing. “Gotcha. Ethan Gotcha. You should check your game, by the way. I think your convict is finding his circumstances much improved.”

“Is he, now?” As Ethan made his way out of the office with Daryn on his heels, he watched his game’s recap text scroll up the screen. Apparently, his worker convict had become experienced enough to be a supervisor, and Ethan had half a stone wall constructed in front of his wood fence.

“Hey, how about that.” He grinned. Stupid thing to grin over, but he was long overdue for some levity in his life.

He got his convict and his guard to work on gathering materials and finishing the wall. He was so engrossed by tapping commands into the games that he didn’t hear the door opening up ahead or catch the man-eater stepping outside in his periphery.

“For fuck’s sake,” Daryn muttered under her breath.

Ethan rolled his eyes and kept walking past.

“Put on some damned clothes,” Daryn snapped at Laurel. “There are children here.”

Unbelievable.

“What good are clothes?” Laurel asked in that petulant tone that made Ethan’s brain and other parts of him shrivel. “Why should I cover myself when my purpose is to be alluring to my mate?”

“I’m
not
your mate,” Ethan called out as he rounded the corner.

A sunburned man carrying an ice bucket stopped short on the sidewalk as Ethan turned.