“I’d better get going. I’ll have to face them sooner or later.” Maurice drained his coffee and stood. “Maybe I should ask Mrs. Russo to walk me to my van.”
I grinned. “She’d probably take pleasure in doing it.”
The kitchen phone rang as the door closed behind him. Dad and I shared a look before he went to answer it. Two days ago, we had changed all our numbers to unlisted ones because of the nonstop calls from reporters and crackpots. You never knew how many sickos there were until you found yourself the center of media attention. Somehow, the reporters kept getting the new land line number. We’d agreed that only Dad would answer the phone until this blew over.
I listened to him decline an offer for an exclusive interview and waited for him to return to the living room. His face gave nothing away, but I caught the flash of worry in his eyes when he looked at me.
“How much did this one offer?” I asked in an attempt at levity.
“Nine-fifty,” he said as he sat.
I huffed dramatically. “Did you tell them I refuse to go lower than a cool million.”
Dad shook his head at me and picked up the remote. “I think we should see what they are saying before your mom wakes up.”
It wasn’t hard to find a channel talking about me or showing footage from that night at Navi. I winced at my deer-in-the-headlights expression as I’d stared at the sea of cameras and lights. Then Tennin was there, ushering me away, and the stone-faced royal guards were blocking anyone from coming after us.
If that wasn’t bad enough, we found a panel on one entertainment show speculating about what the Seelie queen thought of her son’s torrid affair with a bounty hunter. Apparently, Prince Rhys had converted me because he couldn’t bear to give me up.
“What I’d like to know is how she survived the conversion at all,” said one of the female hosts. “She was almost nineteen when it happened.”
The others nodded and murmured solemnly, and a male host said, “That leads you to wonder if faeries have been misleading people all along about the age limit for conversions.”
“Why did the Agency keep it a secret?” the first one asked. “What is so special about Jesse James?”
Another male host tittered. “I guess being the Seelie crown prince’s lover comes with more than a few perks.”
“Turn it off,” I said, my stomach roiling.
Dad clicked the button on the remote just as we heard their bedroom door open. When Mom entered the living room, Dad was sipping his coffee and I was playing with my phone.
Before any of us could speak, we were startled by a knock at the door. Dad stood, but I motioned for him to sit as I went to answer it. It had to be someone we knew because no one else could get into the building.
My heart did a little flutter when I opened the door to Lukas. I’d seen him only once since the night he’d brought me home, but he called daily to check in. Things were a lot better between us since he’d explained his absence, and I couldn’t imagine having to go through this craziness without him.
I wished I knew if his attentiveness was out of friendship or something more. Before my conversion, he’d admitted he cared about me but that there could be no future for us because I was human at the time. I had understood and accepted that. I was Fae now, and my mortality was no longer a barrier, but Lukas had given me no sign he wanted more than friendship even though we were free to be together.
He smiled and held up the bag he was carrying. “I brought more food and juice.”
“Thanks.” I stepped back to let him enter. “Finch and Aisla have been drinking all my ghillie juice.”
A whistle came from the treehouse, and I spied Finch’s grinning face in his window. He was getting used to Lukas and the others dropping by every other day.
“I saw you were going through it faster, so I brought an extra bottle.” Lukas set the bag on the kitchen counter. “I also got more berries and yikkas.”
“That’s so thoughtful,” Mom said. She smiled, but it didn’t hide the strain around her mouth and eyes.
Lukas shot me a questioning look, and I moved into the kitchen where my parents couldn’t hear us. In whispers, I told him about what Dad and I had watched before his arrival.
“I’m so afraid this will cause a setback for her,” I confided as I put the food away. “She’s supposed to take it easy and avoid stress. What if she has a relapse and has to go back to the facility because of me?”
He put his hands on my shoulders and spoke in a low, firm voice. “None of this is your fault. I should have handled this better from the beginning.”
“You two are awfully quiet in there,” Dad called, a note of amusement in his voice.
Lukas’s fingers squeezed my shoulders. “I won’t let anything happen to your family. Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation, earning a smile from him.
“Good.” He released me, and we went to the living room. “I’ve been thinking that it’s unfair for you to have to stay cooped up here until the media craze dies down. I have several properties that would allow you more freedom and privacy, and they are available to you for as long as you need them. I can arrange private transportation as well so the media won’t know where you are going.”
Mom’s eyes widened. “That’s very generous of you.”
“Are they in the city?” Dad asked.
“Not New York.” Lukas sat in the armchair, looking completely at home. “There is a villa in the Italian countryside, an estate in the Scottish Highlands, and a small island in Brazil. They are all private, and the staff can be trusted not to reveal your whereabouts to anyone.”
I stared at him. I knew he must be rich as the crown prince of Unseelie, but he never showed off his wealth. This was the first time he’d ever mentioned owning properties other than his Williamsburg building. He was also a private person, for a Court faerie, and here he was offering up one of his personal properties to my family.
Mom and Dad shared a stunned look, and Dad said, “All of those sound perfect. I think we’ll need to talk it over first.”
“The offer is open whenever you’re ready,” Lukas said.
“An island?” was all I could think to ask.
He smiled. “Sometimes, I like to be alone.”
Mom rubbed her hands on her thighs, something she did now whenever she was feeling overwhelmed or disquieted. “How long do you think it will take for this to die down?”
Lukas’s eyes met mine briefly before he answered her. “If we do nothing, it could take months unless a bigger story comes along.”
My stomach fell. She couldn’t deal with this kind of stress for that long even if we did go to one of his private properties. Dad knew it, too.
I sent Lukas a pleading look. “There has to be something we can do.”
“We could do an interview,” he suggested.
Some of the pressure on my chest eased. “We?”
“It won’t be enough for them to hear from you. They’ll want to talk to the faerie who did the conversion. Once we tell them our story, there won’t be any exclusives for them to chase after. They won’t back off completely, but they’ll ease up. And it will kill all their stories about you and the Seelie prince.”