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I cleared my throat, feeling guilty as I acted ignorant and asked, “What, uh, what’s…”

He exhaled a terse breath and scrunched up his empty leaf. “Otherworld fae don’t thank others. To do so is to give someone a huge amount of power over you. Ianthe thinks she owes us a great debt now. You don’t,” he said to her, his tone stubborn in a familiar way that made my belly squeeze tight with affection.

Ianthe was too busy giving me another meaningful look as she took a bite of her galette.

“Oh,” I managed to croak, then took a breath and carefully said, “But you thank me all the time.”

Crossbody went stiff. After a few loaded seconds, he stood from the wall and took my empty leaf from me.

“It… That’s different,” he mumbled, keeping his head lowered so a sweep of shimmering golden hair hid the blush in his cheeks. “We should keep walking.”

“Okay. Sure.” I quickly stood. Ianthe and I shared a brief look as she brushed the crumbs off her shirt.

I hurried to catch up with Crossbody, automatically threading my fingers through his when I reached his side.

Gazing out at the meadows and farm fields and little stone houses as we walked, I cleared my throat. “Thank you for the thing. The galette.”

Then I gave his hand a firm, meaningful squeeze, side-eyeing him as he glanced over. When I grinned at him, his lips slowly tilted up into a smile of his own.

“You’re welcome.” After a long pause, he added in a softer voice, “Thank you for coming with me.”

I shook my head, lifting our linked hands to kiss his knuckles. “You don’t need to thank me for that, Crossbody.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

Cone Beard

Vince

The moment we walked out of the forest in Tirnal Park, my phone started vibrating like crazy with an influx of texts.

When I pulled it out of my pocket and opened my messages, my mouth quirked. About seventy percent of the texts were from Dan.

Dan: So when are you coming back from your sudden mystery ‘vacation’?

Dan: Kinda weird that Crossbody is off sick or something at the same time…

Dan: UH, Larkin just accidentally let slip that you and Crossbody are FUCKING?????

Dan: What the fuck bro????

Dan: Did you both seriously take a week off to fuck??

Dan: CROSSBODY?

Dan: How the fuck did that happen?

Dan: Why didn’t you tell me? Is this revenge for me not telling you about me and Rafe at first?

Dan: Are you even getting these? Where are you?

Dan: Holy shit dude, F&B have popped up in California under a different name. Rafe’s been keeping track. There’s a news report about a hobby store being robbed but all they took were the bins of zippers. They tagged the place with ‘Banger and Mash’ and a drawing of a dick sausage in a pile of mashed potatoes.

Dan: But anyway, back to you and Crossbody. What the FUCK?

Dan: Kit is saying they’re not surprised. They said you two have always had mad sexual tension. I can kinda see it now, actually.

Dan: Holy fuck, you two haven’t eloped, have you???? Are you going to come back to work as a fae prince consort or something??