Knight

by Karen Lynch

  My fists clenched, but Faolin’s words from one of our sessions filled my head. “The fastest way to lose a fight is to let emotions control you.”

  I smiled at Leah. “I think you broke a nail.”

  She started to lift her hand to examine it and dropped it to glare at me. “I’m going to break more of them on your face.”

  “Such aggression.” I made a tsk sound. “Have you tried yoga? I hear it’s great for that.”

  A few people nearby snickered. Leah’s lips pulled back, and a vein popped out on her temple. “It’s on now, bitch.”

  She lunged, throwing another punch. I ducked the strike and sent a hard jab to her stomach, making her double over. I’d taken a few gut punches in training, and I knew how much they hurt.

  Natalie’s hand grabbed my hair and yanked hard, making tears spring to my eyes. Instead of resisting, I moved toward her, only stopping when the top of my head slammed into her chin. I reached up to grab her hand as her grip loosened. Bringing her arm down, I forced her to her knees with her arm bent behind her back.

  Cheers and catcalls came from the onlookers, but they were hollow and distorted as the world seemed to slow around me. My heartbeat and breathing were loud in my ears, and I could feel the vibrations of the air around me. Maybe I’d hit Natalie a little too hard with my head.

  I sensed rather than saw the kick aimed at my head. Releasing Natalie, I put up both hands and caught Leah’s booted foot before it could make contact. A sharp wrench was all it took to knock her off balance and lay her out on her stomach. She tried to push herself up, but I knelt on her back, holding her in place.

  The world sped up, and sound returned to normal. Beneath me, Leah blistered my ears with a stream of profanity, and a few feet away, Natalie wailed that her arm was broken and I was going to pay.

  “Fight’s over, people,” said a hard voice that made the crowd scatter. Even Leah and Natalie shut up.

  I looked up at Orend Teg’s scowling face. The blond faerie crossed his arms as he stood over us. “Jesse James, why is it that the two times there have been fights in my bar in the last six months, you’ve been at the center of them?”

  “Rotten luck?” I offered.

  “Mine or yours?” He surveyed our surroundings. “At least you didn’t destroy my property this time.”

  Leah bucked, trying to dislodge me. “Someone get this crazy bitch off me.”

  “Allow me.” Teg smirked and extended a hand to me. “Miss James.”

  I was perfectly capable of standing on my own, but I took his offered hand and let him pull me up. His brow creased when he got a closer look at the cut on my cheek, but he said nothing about it.

  Leah scrambled to her feet, her face mottled and her hair a wild mess. She charged me, but Teg stepped between us, blocking her.

  “There will be no more fighting in my bar.”

  “She started it!” Leah yelled.

  “You tried to take my –” I swung my gaze around the room. “Damn it!”

  I ran to the door and out into the street, but there was no sign of Lewis Tate. How the hell had he disappeared that fast with his hands shackled behind his back?

  “Lose something?” Teg asked from the doorway.

  I glared past him at Leah and Natalie, who watched me with satisfied smirks. “My bounty, thanks to those two idiots.”

  The Texans tried to push past Teg, but they were no match for him. He waved for someone, and a waitress with fuchsia hair joined us. I remembered her from my first visit here.

  “Boss?”

  “Cynthia, please give these two ladies whatever they want to drink, as long as they behave.”

  The waitress smiled. “Sure thing.”

  The two hunters shot me looks of loathing before they turned to follow Cynthia. I’d have to watch my back until they returned to Texas.

  “You always give free drinks to people who fight in your bar?” I asked Teg as I went back inside.

  “Only the ladies.” He smiled when I gave him a questioning look. “Women attract males, and males like to spend money, especially male faeries.”

  “Ah.” I searched my pockets and found a tissue to dab at my cut, but it had already stopped bleeding.

  “I take it you know them.” He looked toward the bar where Leah and Natalie sat.

  I made a face. “Not really. They’re bounty hunters from Texas, who don’t like to play nice.”

  “So I saw.” Teg stared at me until I squirmed under his scrutiny.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  He blinked. “My apologies. It’s just that I watched you take down the brunette, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human move like that.”

  I shrugged. “It’s called adrenaline. And I’ve been training every day.”

  “With whom? The Unseelie royal guard?” he retorted.

  “Yes.”

  He laughed, and then his eyes widened when he realized I wasn’t joking.

  I took out my phone. “Excuse me. I need to let the Agency know their fugitive is running around the Bronx wearing my shackles.”

  The corners of Teg’s mouth turned down. “Exactly what I need tonight. Agents crawling all over my bar.”

  I smiled apologetically as I called the Agency and was transferred to the Special Crimes division. I gave them a quick rundown of what happened, and they told me to wait there for Agents Curry and Ryan. I made a face at the mention of Daniel Curry. I was starting to wish I’d never seen Lewis Tate at that traffic light.

  “You say Tate met with another man here?” Teg asked when I ended the call and told him the agents were on the way.

  “Yes, he took off when I caught Tate. The Agency will want to know who he is and what business Tate had with him. I don’t suppose you have security cameras.”

  “I have cameras covering every inch of this place, except the restrooms and my office.”

  “If you can give them video of the man, it will probably get them out of here faster.”

  He let out a resigned sigh. “Come with me. I’ll need you to point them out.”

  “Sure.” It wasn’t like I could leave until after the agents questioned me. I might as well do something useful in the meantime.

  Teg turned toward his office. His steps faltered, and he grabbed my arm, almost dragging me with him. He didn’t let go of me until we were inside his large office with the door closed.

  I rubbed my arm. “What was that about?”

  He locked the door and faced me, and I was taken aback to see alarm in his eyes. “Jesse, why is a member of the Seelie royal guard in my bar watching you?”

  “W-what?” I choked out the word as an icy breath tickled the back of my neck.

  “I saw him standing at the back of the dais just now. You didn’t know he was there?”

  “No. Are you sure he’s one of the Seelie royal guard?” Teg was Unseelie, so it was possible he had made a mistake.

  He walked over to his desk and picked up a cell phone. “I’ve seen him before. He was with Prince Rhys when he made his debut, and I have it from a reliable source that he’s one of Queen Anwyn’s personal guard.”

  I swallowed dryly, trying not to panic. I hadn’t seen any of the queen’s guard since that night at Davian’s party, and I was sure he had not seen me. If he had, I wouldn’t have left that penthouse alive. I wracked my brain and couldn’t think of why one of the guards was watching me now.

  “Jesse?”

  I started when Teg’s voice broke through my deep musings. He was watching me with a concerned expression.

  “You look a little pale? Do you want to sit down?”

  “No.” I pressed my lips together in thought. “Can you access your security cameras from in here?”

  “Of course.” He sat and logged onto the computer.

  I walked over to stand beside him. “I got here about thirty minutes ago, and Tate entered ahead of me. Can you go back to that time?”

  Teg brought up the cameras, and
I was shocked to see how many there were. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said every inch of the place was covered. He started with the camera for the main entrance and found the moment Tate entered the bar. I told him where Tate had been sitting, and he switched to that camera. Sure enough, there was Tate joining the unidentified man I’d seen him with.

  “Now, can you go back to just before we got there and look for the royal guard?”

  He did as I asked, bringing up the camera on the dais. He stopped the video and pointed to a blond faerie. “That’s him.”

  Relief made my legs weak. “He wasn’t here for me.”

  “How do you know that?” Teg asked, unconvinced.

  “Because I didn’t know I was coming here until a minute before I entered the place. I spotted Lewis Tate as I was driving by, and I followed him.” I pointed to the faerie on the screen. “Look at him. He’s watching someone in the lower section, and I’ll bet it’s Tate’s friend. He must have known they were meeting here and was waiting for them.”

  Teg rubbed his jaw. “Why didn’t he follow them when they left?”

  “Maybe he was curious because he saw me with Tate. Or maybe he likes watching women fight. But unless he can see the future and somehow knew I’d be here tonight, he wasn’t here for me.”

  “You make a valid point.” Teg switched to the live feeds, but the royal guard was no longer visible. A bit more checking showed the faerie leaving the bar shortly after we’d entered the office.

  A sharp rap on the door made me jump. Teg pulled up the camera outside the office, and a jolt of surprise went through me.

  I stared at Lukas, Faolin, and Conlan on the monitor. “What are they doing here?”

  Teg stood. “I called Lukas.”

  “Why?” I vaguely remembered him picking up his phone when we entered his office, around the same time I was trying not to freak out.

  He walked around the desk. “Because he is my prince, and I have to notify him of suspicious activity in my bar, especially when it involves Seelie.”

  Teg opened the door, and a stone-faced Lukas entered first. He barely acknowledged Teg before his angry eyes narrowed on me.

  “If you’re going to say I shouldn’t be here, you can save your breath,” I said before he could speak. “And stop glaring at me. The Seelie guard was not here because of me. It’s been a crap night, and I’m in no mood for a lecture from you or anyone else.”

  No one spoke. I turned to Teg who was staring at me. “Tell him.”

  “Ah.” The bar owner glanced uncertainly from me to Lukas. “We checked the security cameras after I called you. The royal guard was here before Jesse arrived.”

  Lukas’s scowl stayed in place. “That means nothing. He could have been waiting here for her.”

  “He wasn’t.” I relayed everything that had happened from the moment I saw Lewis Tate at the traffic light. Teg showed Lukas and the others the security footage, but this time he kept playing, showing me coming in and catching Tate.

  “Nice moves,” Conlan said when I shackled Tate and helped him up.

  I didn’t respond because my confrontation with the Texans started to play on the monitor. I stared at the red-haired girl, who moved with a fluid grace that didn’t look real to me. When it got to the part where I grabbed Leah’s foot and took her to the floor, I saw what Teg had seen. For those few seconds, I was moving twice as fast as I normally did.

  I looked up from the monitor to find Lukas, Faolin, and Conlan watching me with odd expressions. “What?”

  Faolin was the first to speak. “Your fighting has improved significantly since the night you fought the ogres.”

  “That happens when you train every day with a bunch of bullies.”

  He ignored the taunt. “You haven’t shown that kind of improvement during training.”

  I lifted a shoulder. “I guess being outnumbered brings out the best in me.”

  Lukas broke his silence. “The Seelie guard didn’t follow you here, but Orend said he was watching you. Is there any reason he would think you have knowledge of the ke’tain?”

  I slanted a look at Teg, and Lukas said, “Orend knows about our search.”

  I thought about it. “As far as anyone knows, I’m just a bounty hunter who came here to catch a fugitive. Everyone heard me arguing with the other hunters about the bounty.”

  “I still don’t like it,” Lukas said. “The last thing you need is to draw their attention after what happened with your parents.”

  A cold knot formed in my stomach. “Maybe he didn’t recognize me.”

  “How many young, red-haired, female bounty hunters are in New York?” Lukas asked.

  “We have a lot of out-of-state hunters here now, and there could be a dozen redheads for all I know.”

  Lukas raised his eyebrows. I was grasping at straws, and we both knew it.

  I almost let out an audible breath of relief when someone knocked on the door. Conlan opened it to admit Cynthia.

  “Boss, there are two agents here to see you and Miss James,” said the waitress, who didn’t bat an eye at the sight of all the faeries.

  “Send them in.”

  She nodded and stepped aside, and Agent Curry appeared in the doorway. To say he wasn’t one of my favorite people was putting it mildly. He might be the person who had freed my parents and me from Rogin’s basement, but I couldn’t forget how he’d harassed me when he should have been searching for them. If he’d put that much effort into doing his job, we might have found my parents a lot sooner.

  Unlike Cynthia, the agent did a little double take when he saw who was in the office. “Prince Vaerik, I did not expect to see you here.”

  “Agent Curry,” Lukas said in a disinterested tone, giving me the impression I wasn’t the only one who didn’t care for the agent. Or maybe he was this way with all agents.

  Curry turned to me. “Miss James, you have some information for us about a person of interest?”

  “Yes.” I took a step forward.

  “You can talk in here,” Lukas told Curry when the agent turned to leave the office. “Two of my men are searching the area for Tate. I will inform the Agency if we find him.”

  Curry frowned. “You have an interest in our fugitive?”

  “I am interested in anything related to the ke’tain,” Lukas said. “I am also interested in the member of the Seelie royal guard who was here tonight watching your fugitive.”

  The agent couldn’t hide his shock. “The Seelie royal guard?”

  “His name is Aibel, and he is one of Queen Anwyn’s personal guard,” Lukas said.

  I’d heard that name before. The Seelie guard at Davian’s had mentioned it to the queen.

  Lukas sat on the edge of Teg’s desk and crossed his arms. “As we are all aware of Seelie’s involvement in the Jameses’ abduction, I need not explain why my men and I will stay for this interview and then see Jesse safely home.”

  “I have my own vehicle, and I don’t need an escort,” I reminded him.

  “You parked half a mile away and walked here. We will take you to it and follow you home.”

  The set of his jaw told me there was no use arguing with him. And to be honest, I didn’t want to walk back to the Jeep with one of Queen Anwyn’s men lurking in the area. I swallowed back my pride and let him have this one.

  Satisfied, Lukas said, “Let’s get started then.”

  Chapter 15

  “CAN I PET your dog?”

  I looked up from my phone at the little girl standing in front of me. She was cute, maybe eight or nine, and her hand was reaching for the plastic dog carrier at my feet.

  “No!” I shoved her hand away before it touched the carrier.

  She yanked her hand back, her face screwing up as her eyes filled with tears. A woman rushed over and shot me a death glare as she ushered the crying girl away.

  I sank back into my seat, ignoring the disapproving looks from some of the other ferry passengers. They should be directing the
ir glares at the parent. Who let her child walk up to a complete stranger and stick her fingers in an animal carrier containing God only knew what?

  Right on cue, growls came from the carrier along with the sounds of fighting. The carrier rattled, and the people on either side of me leaned away from me. Unzipping my duffle bag, which sat next to the carrier, I pulled out a bag of coal and stuffed pieces of it through the wire mesh gate. Ten dirty, little gnome-like faces appeared as chubby hands snatched the coal from my fingers. Soon, the growling turned to crunching as the trows inside feasted on their treat.

  Brushing coal dust off my hands, I let out a weary sigh. When Levi had called me this morning, asking me to do a high priority job, I’d had no idea I would be spending the better part of the day saving the Statue of Liberty from destruction.

  Okay, maybe that was a tiny exaggeration, but I had saved it from extensive damage. Trows looked harmless enough until you saw them in action. The little critters had retractable claws as hard as diamonds, which they used to tunnel through rock, brick, stone, or concrete. Like termites, they could destroy a building’s foundation, only they’d do it much faster.

  In a city like New York, trows would be an absolute disaster, and there wasn’t enough Fae power in the world to ward buildings against them. For that reason, they were banned from our realm. This lot had been brought to Liberty Island and set loose by some group protesting the recession. I wasn’t sure what they hoped to gain by wreaking havoc on a national monument.

  Thankfully, like most faeries, the little monsters were weakened by iron. A layer of iron mesh on the bottom of the carrier was all it took to prevent them from extending their claws and breaking free.

  My phone vibrated, and I looked down at a text from Violet, who was still in LA. I didn’t know how I was going to get used to us living on different coasts when she finally moved out west.

  Lorelle wants us to meet up at Va’sha when I get back, she’d texted.

  I smiled to myself. Violet had mentioned Lorelle at least once a day since meeting her at the Fae club, and it was clear my best friend was crushing hard on the faerie. I sent her a few kiss emojis, and she responded with a blushing one.