Burned
Page 26

“Right, he can have it but I can’t,” I grouse.
“He does not consider past minor insult bar to future gain. Women are weak that way. Valuing things that mean nothing at all. Lamenting events they clearly enjoyed,” Kiall says, raking me with a knowing, intimate sneer. “What was lost that night? Nothing. What was gained? An experience beyond compare. Your human women kill each other for our amusement, to eliminate the competition for the privilege of such a night with us.”
I don’t know who goes more rigid beside me, Kat or Barrons. The room is a volcano waiting to blow.
I inhale, count to ten, exhale. At some point, when I’ve mastered my inner demon, I’ll pay a visit to the gothic monstrous mess of a mansion on the outskirts of Dublin where the princes have surrounded themselves with worshippers. With my spear. And those women that chirp bright, vapid nonsense like “See you in Faery” will stop killing each other to lose their sanity in a monster’s bed.
When R’jan, the Seelie Prince who claims to be the new king, enters, the Unseelie snarl like feral beasts.
R’jan reminds me of V’lane, before he dropped the mask, revealing his true Unseelie self, Prince Cruce. Gold-dusted skin pours like velvet over a powerful body; he has the face of a stunning, imperious Archangel. Long blond hair falls past his waist, unbound. He, too, has modified himself into something elegantly human, with fawn leather pants and dark boots, a creamy cashmere sweater, a gold torque at his throat. R’jan laughs and dismisses his dark brothers with a regal, condescending wave as if shooing a bothersome fly from a banquet surely called in honor of him.
The Unseelie leap from their chairs, Barrons rises, Ryodan joins him, and for a moment all the males in the room posture, assessing, debating the pleasure to be gained from turning this room into a slaughterhouse against whatever it is they’re after that made them agree to this meeting. Just when I’m certain they’re going to succumb to savagery, Kat and I are going to be sprayed with blood and bone fragments, and I’m going to end up taking back my spear and using it after all, Barrons growls, “You will all sit. Now.”
No one moves. I laugh softly. That’s a mistake.
Ryodan is abruptly gone.
When he reappears, he’s holding R’jan from behind, a scarred forearm around the Fae’s throat. He presses his mouth to the prince’s ear and says softly, “Need I remind you what I did to Velvet.”
R’jan hisses.
“He said sit. He doesn’t repeat himself. Nor do I.”
When Ryodan shoves him away, R’jan drops down on the third side of our square, eyes blazing with challenge and hatred. Kiall and Rath slowly take their seats with elaborate indolence, as if they do so because they wish to and for no other reason.
I eye the fourth side, wondering who else we could possibly be waiting for. When our final guest walks up the stairs and sits at our table, it’s my turn to bristle.
I know the face of an O’Bannion mobster when I see one. I helped kill two of them. Our final guest is black Irish with a light complexion, thick, dark hair and eyes, and the blood of a distant Saudi ancestor in his veins. Broad-shouldered and handsome in a rugged, outdoors way, he moves with long-limbed grace.
Kat half rises, looking ashen. “Sean?” she says. “What on earth are you doing here?”
I glance between the two. I don’t need a sidhe-seer gift to know there’s deep emotion between them.
“Yes, what is an O’Bannion doing here?” I say.
“The name is Sean Fergus Jameson,” the man says in a thick Irish brogue.
“First cousin to Rocky O,” Ryodan says. “He tends to omit his surname in certain quarters.”
“Why is he here?” Kat says again, resettling slowly.
Ryodan says, “You’re looking at the three primary suppliers of goods in this city: myself, the princes, and the black market—like his fathers before him, also known as Sean O’Bannion. Seems your boy learned a trick or two working in my club, little cat. Bribed my suppliers. Got himself into the game.”
“Only because you were charging half an arm and most of a leg for a simple meal,” Sean says hotly. “We’ve women and children in our streets who’ve no way of paying such high prices. They were dying for want of milk and bread.”
“You show your true colors, O’Bannion,” Ryodan says.
“A good and honest heart?” Kat says sharply.
The look Sean gives her tells me everything: they’re lovers, and I suspect they have been for a long time. How does he think to stand his ground against this kind of competition? He’s a human among beasts.
Ryodan cuts Kat a hard, flat smile. “That’s often how it starts. Just not usually how it ends. If the two of you had been talking about any of the things you should be talking about, you’d have known.”
“You will stay out of my business,” Kat warns softly.
Ryodan leans back in his chair and folds his arms across his chest. “Start taking care of your business and I might. Business unattended is free trade.”
“You had no right to force him to work at Chester’s,” Kat says. “The debt owed was mine, not his.”
Sean gives her a quizzical glance. “Force? What debt? My working there had nothing to do with you.”
Kat blinks and looks sharply at Ryodan. “You said the price was demanded of him, not me.”
Ryodan lifts a brow and gives her a mocking smile.