His stare was unwavering. “It’s probably not.”
My heart skipped at the agreement. I don’t know what I was expecting him to say, but I wasn’t thinking he was going to agree. “You asked me to join you.”
“I did.”
I stared at him. “So why did you ask me to join you if you think it’s a bad idea?”
He leaned against the booth, tossing his arm along the back. “Because good ideas are ideas rarely wanted… or needed.”
Flattening my hands on my thighs, I wasn’t sure how to respond that. “Okay.”
“Why did you agree if you think it’s a bad idea?”
I let out a dry laugh. “Honestly? I don’t know.”
The faint smile reappeared. “So, since you were recognized by the fae tonight, will that be enough for you to rethink what you’re doing?”
“Is that why you asked me to come here?” I picked up my diet Coke and took a sip. “To involve yourself yet again in something that does not concern you?”
“It concerns me.”
I put my glass down. “How is that?”
He dipped his chin and stared at me through lowered lashes. “That’s not going to deter you, is it? The added risk.”
Shaking my head, I lifted a shoulder. “Do you want me to tell you what you want to hear or the truth?”
There was a flicker of amusement that crossed his face. “You risk too much.”
“I haven’t risked nearly enough.”
“How do you see that?”
I leaned forward, placing my hands on the table. “I’ve spent thirty years playing it safe.”
His brows lifted. “That’s your logical reasoning for putting your life on the line?”
Sounded pretty illogical, but whatever. “You know why I must do this, risk or not. Just like you would go after Aric or the Queen even if it meant your death.”
A muscle ticked along his jaw. “As I said before, it’s different.” There was a pause. “I remember,” he said. “I remember the first time I saw you.”
A shiver danced across my shoulders as I lifted my gaze to his.
“You were scared of us—of me and my brother, but mostly me. You stood in the corner of Tanner’s office, not daring to come close,” he continued, and that was true. Both had scared me, but especially him. “And then I saw you the night we fought the Queen. You were still afraid, but you helped my brother. You helped my brother and me even knowing what I’d done while under the Queen’s control.”
The night resurfaced. Prince Fabian had been severely injured by the Queen and he’d needed to get back to Hotel Good Fae. I had offered to help. “I didn’t do much. I just drove you guys back to the hotel.”
He leaned forward, his gaze never leaving mine. “You were afraid of us. You were unsure of us, but you still helped us when it was needed. That is doing everything and that is why I owe you an apology.”
“You do?”
“For what I said about you looking for the younglings and knowing how important it was,” he explained. “I shouldn’t have doubted you, not when I know you will come through when needed.”
While his doubt had been frustrating, it was understandable. “It’s… not a big deal.”
“It is.” The Prince sat back. “In my experience, it is.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing as I stared at my glass of soda, watching the little bubbles race to the surface.
“It would be such a shame for the world to lose someone… someone like you, especially after being given a second chance.”
Air hitched in my throat. That was yet another word of kindness from him that I didn’t know how to process. “That’s nice of you to say, but you… you don’t know me well enough to think that.”
“I am hardly ever wrong about these kinds of things.”
A laugh escaped me. “Okay. Even if that is the case, like I said before, I don’t understand why you care this much to have this conversation again. Remember? I’m just a human woman and I’m already half dead.”
His jaw worked as those lashes lowered again. “I should not have spoken those words.”
“Why? Because they were ignorant?”
“Because what you said about yourself is a lie.”
I stilled. “What do you mean?”
A long moment passed, so much so that I thought he wouldn’t answer, but then those thick lashes lifted and those eyes seemed to see straight through me once more. “You’re not a ghost. You never could be one, not when you burn as brilliant as the sun.”
Chapter 14
It was Friday evening—pizza night in the Jussier household, a tradition carried on for many years and now continued with Tink and me. After eating, I’d gone upstairs and changed into warmer clothes because I planned on heading out tonight to see if I could do some recon on the other two fae I was still looking for and the missing younglings.
I’d checked in with Faye on Wednesday and there’d been no word from any of the missing fae. And with each passing day, I could tell she was losing hope and becoming more convinced that the Order had harmed them, rather intentionally or unintentionally.
Even the Prince hadn’t said as much, but I knew he probably speculated the same.
Then again, the Prince was adept at giving vague answers.
Over the last couple of days, I did everything in my power not to think about what we’d said to each other. What we’d admitted. Or the dinner that had started out awkward and ended rather normally, with me somehow talking about all the TV shows Tink was addicted to. And I definitely wasn’t thinking about how he said I could never be a ghost.
That I was as brilliant as the sun.
Nope. Wasn’t thinking about that or how no one, utterly no one had ever said something like that to me. I also wasn’t lying awake at night thinking about how he… he wanted to spend time with me. The real me. I wasn’t thinking about that at all. Nope.
I hadn’t seen the Prince since our dinner of very yummy crab cakes and crawfish. Half of me had expected to run into him when I was out Wednesday night, but he hadn’t magically appeared out of thin air like he had before. And that was a good thing.
Wasn’t like I was actually looking forward to seeing him.
So I decided to focus on the important stuff, like what I learned about this Ancient named Aric who might or might not be trying to make contact with the Queen.
And that was really bad news.
The problem was if I talked to Miles, he’d question how I came about the information. That put what I was trying to accomplish in jeopardy. If I had to confide in someone who just might understand where I was coming from it would be Ivy and she would be back in the city in about a week.
I had time.
Anyway, I’d only been gone twenty minutes tops, so I was rather shocked by the current condition of the kitchen when I returned.
Crossing my arms and then unfolding them before crossing them again, I looked around the room. I took a breath and then exhaled slowly. “Why does it look like the FBI raided my kitchen while I was upstairs?”
And that’s what it seriously looked like.