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Iokul nodded.
Elvey turned to me. “Stick with me, Daisy darling. Don’t flirt with a stranger.”
I glared at him. “I’m not the flirting type.”
“Good to know,” he said, and pulled open the heavy door.
A wave of loud music blasted my ears, the kind of music I’d never heard in my lifetime. The drumbeats and the singer’s moaning and unintelligible shouting were quite painful to my Fae ears.
Elvey called this howling fun? He and I had very different tastes.
Iokul and I filed behind Elvey through a dim passageway. Elvey appeared relaxed, even dancing a little to the coarse music, but Iokul tensed like a whip. His ice magic reached out to shield me.
“Stop it,” I hissed. “You’re already spent.”
“Protecting you is always my privilege, love,” Iokul said.
“But you forget that I can protect you back,” I said.
At the next turn, a half bar broadened in front of us. The other half was concealed from the main entrance and from many other angles.
The bar was crowded, dimly lit with amber light.
Human patrons lined up on the red bar chairs, their drinks on the glowing glass. A woman, who looked like she’d just broken up with a lover, studied a large painting of a naked, horned huntress who nocked an arrow.
Two men and a young woman served behind the bar, whizzing left and right, mixing drinks, taking orders, never getting in each other’s way.
A few patrons stood in the center space, waiting for the next vacant seats, holding their drinks, and chatting—shouting—over the music.
“It’s a popular bar,” I murmured.
Under the ceiling of a glowing chart of constellations, all the tables were taken, except for the half-mooned one with a vintage sofa at the far corner.
Elvey strode directly toward the table.
Spotting the Fae, the three bartenders froze for a second before pretending that he wasn’t there and drawing the patrons’ attention back to them with professional flirting.
Suddenly, I was thankful that as powerful as Elvey was, he was my ally and not my enemy. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if he turned on me.
We settled around the curved sofa, our backs to the wall. The amber light was too weak to reveal our faces.
While humans couldn’t see us clearly, the three of us had no problem seeing in the dark.
I sat between Elvey and Iokul, with Elvey near the open space.
“We’re hiding in plain sight,” Elvey said.
The ear-pounding music stopped bombarding us as soon as Elvey put a sound barrier around our table. No one could eavesdrop on our conversation unless they were invited.
“Better?” he asked me with a grin. I bet the music hurt his Fae ears as well.
“So, you know the owner,” I said. “Or are you the owner?”
“He could dream,” a bright female voice purred as a gorgeous woman appeared at our table. From how fast she moved, I’d bet she wasn’t human.
The blonde had high cheekbones and forest green eyes. Her hair was tied in a sleek ponytail. She was tall, her high-heeled boots hugging her stretch leather pants. Her dark, red blouse added edge to her chic style.
I drew in a breath to distinguish her scent. She was more Fae than Elvey and I. She was the first full-blooded Fae I’d met.
