Page 19 of The Unseelie Wish
“Cool. I have more scary shit to look forward to. Awesome. Love it.” She leaned back on the bench again. “What would you do in my situation, Bayodan?”
“I have always been a creature of wants. I do not know what it is like to not wish for anything.”
“I guess I could say I ‘wish I knew what to do,’ but I think that’s not the kind of thing this deal is meant for.” Shaking her head, she let out a breath.
“I wish it were that easy.” He smirked at his own play on words. “No, you are correct. Something that simple is hardly monumental enough to be worth one’s soul. Otherwise, you could have wished for a bagel and coffee this morning, and it would be done with.”
“Except he’d have my soul.”
“Yes.”
And I have wacky magic powers you don’t know about, so I can’t really put those in Izael’s hands. “I don’t like the idea of living on a leash.”
“Hm. Living on one, no. But for a night, it is quite lovely. You should try it sometime.” He grinned, the faintest flash of fangs showing from beneath his dark goatee. Heh. Goat man goatee.
She groaned again, making a face. “Dude.”
“Forgive me. It is entertaining to disgust you.”
“I’m so glad.” She rolled her eyes. “Y’all need to get HBO ported into Tir n’Aill. You need better entertainment than humans.”
“H-B-O?” Bayodan repeated slowly, his brow furrowing.
“Oh, man. You’re missing out.” She smiled at the idea of introducing two ancient fae creatures to the glory of cable television. That should keep them entertained for the week, easy. “I’ll show it to you when we get back.” She paused. “You don’t think Cruinn has eaten the cat, do you?”
“Hardly. They are a gentle-hearted thing. A rare breed for our kind. This outing to Earth will do them well. I appreciate you thinking of us as guardians.”
Shrugging, she figured it was worth being honest. “I don’t really know either of you. But you seemed the least likely to either use this to your own advantage or try to three-way me in the middle of the night.”
“The first is accurate.”
She slapped a hand over her eyes and groaned. “Dude.”
Bayodan laughed, enjoying their game. “You opened the door for me that time.”
“I did. Yeah. I did.” But she was smiling, despite her pseudo-real annoyance. Their banter was making her feel a little less hopeless. That maybe, if she lost, being stuck with the Unseelie wouldn’t be so bad.
Until Valroy learns about my magic powers and then everything goes to shit.
Right. That. “The point I was trying to make,” she kept going, trying to get her mind off what seemed inevitable, “was that because you helped Abigail before, I figured you might…I don’t know. Get what I’m going through. And not try to leverage babysitting me for your own ends.”
“You are correct. In exchange for ‘babysitting you,’ we have been given the opportunity to come to the mortal realm for seven days and seven nights. It is more than an equal proposition.”
At least she didn’t owe them anything, then. She was already up to her eyeballs in needy Unseelie. She didn’t need two more. Pushing to her feet, she tucked her empty coffee cup in the paper bag her bagel had come in and reached for Bayodan’s empty paper cup from his tea. “C’mon. Let’s go back. I think you’ll really get a kick out of Game of Thrones.”
He stood, his lips pulling into a thin line. “It sounds familiar to my own life.”
She started walking, with him falling in step beside her. “Yeah, but there’s a ton of nudity and sex.”
“Well, why did you not start with that?”
Laughing, she found herself smiling once more. That despite all the doom and gloom hanging over her head, she…was enjoying her time with Bayodan.
That she might, through all the nonsense, have found a friend.
But like the toll of the Park Street Church’s bell, she reminded herself of the one simple truth she needed to remember but had failed to follow so far.
Never. Trust. The fae.