“Why would you care when the entirety of the Order does not?” He didn’t let go.
“How do you know they don’t?” I fired back even though he was mostly right.
“The fact that you’d have to ask that question makes me doubt your intelligence,” he said. “Then again, I already have good enough reasons to doubt that.”
My mouth dropped open. Literally. “Did you just say that to me?”
“I am confident that I spoke in your native language and quite clearly.”
Anger flashed through my system. “You don’t even know me.”
“Oh, I know you.” His voice dropped even further, eliciting an unwanted, confusing as hell shiver from me. “I know exactly what and who you are.”
My fingers curled into a fist. “I don’t even know what you’re suggesting.”
“You know just as well as I do that the Order doesn’t give a damn what may or may not have happened to a few Summer fae.” As he spoke, the space between us seemed to have evaporated. “And you stand before me, claiming that you do while you won’t even admit that the people you work for couldn’t care less.”
I opened my mouth and then closed it. Damn, he had a point. A good point, but that didn’t mean I was apathetic. “I do care. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have taken this file. I wouldn’t have told Tanner and Faye that I would see what I could find out. If you actually did know who and what I am, whatever the hell that means, you’d know that I wouldn’t lie.”
Faye’s audible sharp inhale warned me that my voice had risen even though the Prince’s hadn’t, and at least she could hear me.
I didn’t care. Frustration and irritation had long since replaced the healthy sense of fear. “And seriously, dude, can you let go of my arm?”
The Prince ignored my request yet again. “You are nothing but lies and façades.”
My entire body jerked at that comment, striking too close to home for comfort. “Let go of me.”
He held my gaze as he slowly lifted one finger after another, releasing my wrist. That bitter knot was back in my throat. The Prince had let go and his heavy lashes lowered, shielding his powerful gaze, but I swore I could still feel it. “My apologies,” he murmured. “That was uncalled for.”
A feather could’ve knocked me over right then. He was apologizing? The Prince? “Yeah, it was.” I swallowed hard, taking a step back from him.
“Even if it is true,” he added.
“Wow. Way to ruin an apology,” I muttered. “Not that you probably even know why you just apologized.”
“I do. It hurt you. Those words.”
“What? You can smell that, too?”
Those heavy lashes lifted, and the intensity of his gaze pierced me. Suddenly I thought back to the day I woke up in the hospital, to those eyes. “I can sense many things.”
Oh.
Oooh.
I had the distinct impression that he was talking about earlier, when I was thinking about the dream I had. And boy, didn’t that make me want to crawl up in a hole somewhere. At that moment, I made a mental note to legit not feel anything when I was around him or any other fae.
One eyebrow, several shades darker than his golden hair, lifted.
“Wait. Can you guys read minds?” I asked, voice hushed and thinking I didn’t know nearly as much about the fae as I thought I did.
“We don’t need to.”
Relief hit me, but it quickly faded when his words cycled back through my head. We don’t need to. Meaning picking up on our emotions probably gave them enough insight on what our thoughts were.
Nice.
“Well…” I held the folder closer to my chest. “That’s freaky.”
His lips twitched.
“And I need to go.” I started to turn once more, ordering myself not to run out of the lobby like it was on fire. But I stopped, facing him again. “I do care about these younglings. I will find them or I will find out what happened to them.”
The Prince inclined his head. A moment passed and then he nodded. Thinking this super awkward face to face was now, thankfully, over, I started to turn away again.
“Brighton?”
Desperately ignoring how the way he said my name made me think of stormy summer nights, I faced him, even though common sense screamed that I shouldn’t. I just couldn’t help myself. It wasn’t a compulsion. It was apparently really bad self-control. My wry gaze flickered over his face, and I bit back a sigh. He was the strongest, the deadliest of his kind, and that knowledge did nothing to dampen my appreciation of his masculine beauty.
“The red hair was a nice touch, but I prefer it this way.”
And then with those parting words, he turned and stalked off, leaving me standing there knowing one thing only.
The Prince knew it was me Saturday night.
Chapter 10
Damn.
Damn it.
Damn it all to hell.
Faye followed me out into the thick, overcast skies. “That was weird.”
“You think?” Shaken, I pulled out my phone and opened the car service app. Thank Mary Mother of God, Faye hadn’t heard what the Prince had said before he walked off. “Yeah, that was super weird.”
My heart was still pounding like I’d just done an hour on the treadmill. He knew. Damn it, he knew it had been me. He probably also knew why Tobias had disappeared.
I dragged my teeth along my bottom lip as I checked out what cars were nearby, resisting the urge to rip off the damn sweater. It was much cooler out here, but I still felt too hot.
“Brighton?”
Lifting my chin, I glanced at Faye. She stared at me with some sort of wonder in her eyes. “I don’t think you understand how out of character that was for him.”
“Oh, trust me, I was on the receiving end of all that weirdness. I understand.”
She gave a slight shake of her head. “No, you don’t. I’ve never seen him speak to anyone for that length of time.”
“Really?” I choked out a laugh as I glanced over my shoulder at the door that now looked like a rusted-over scrap of metal. The glamour had settled into place. “He spoke to me for about a minute, two tops.”
Faye nodded back at me.
“Seriously?” I lowered my phone. “That’s not very long. Does he not talk?”
“Not really.”
“To anyone?”
“No.” She folded her arms as she stepped in closer to me. “Not even his brother. He’s… well, you know what he’s been through.”
And I knew what he, under trance, had put others through. But I kept that to myself.
“He’s not very communicative,” she said.
He didn’t seem like he peopled very well, but I also kept that to myself and instead let curiosity get the best of me. “Has he been here this whole time? In the city, since the fight with the Queen?”
“Yes.” Her dark brows knitted together. “He actually hasn’t left New Orleans at all, not even to travel to the other large community in Florida with his brother.”
I thought that was odd, that I hadn’t seen him, and none of the Order had ever mentioned seeing him while on patrol. But I had a feeling the Prince knew how to stay unseen until he wanted to be.