Chapter 10
Ren and I didn’t talk much after that, but he convinced me to go down with him to have dinner, and I didn’t have it in me to make up an excuse.
I discovered then that Ren had confiscated the iron daggers at some point, and we armed ourselves up just in case someone wanted to go for a round two with me.
“Was there anyone else involved in the attack?” I asked as I hooked the dagger to my hip. It felt good to have it back. I tugged my shirt over the belt and dagger.
“Not as far as I can tell.” Ren opened the door, and we started down the hall. “And trust me, I’ve been very convincing on when it comes to how important it is to tell the truth.”
I glanced at him. His jaw was set in a hard line. “So, you think it was only those two?”
Ren nodded as he hit the button to bring up the elevator. “I’ve interviewed nearly eighty percent of the fae here. So far, none of them were involved.”
Eighty percent? “Damn, you’ve been busy.”
The elevator doors slid open, and he stepped aside, allowing me to enter. “Had to keep busy since I was banned from your room. It was either that or go crazy.”
I folded my arms over my waist, focusing on the brown paneled walls. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if Ren had been injured and I hadn’t been able to see him.
“I do have some questions.” Ren leaned against the wall, drawing my gaze. “Did the fae say anything to you?”
Exhaling slowly, I nodded. “They didn’t come after me because I’m an Order member.” I paused. “Or was. Who knows at this point. Anyway, they did it because I was a halfling and . . .”
What the fae had said to me came roaring back. Holy crap, I’d forgotten that the fae had said the Prince would find me here, that he’d eventually break through the glamour.
My stomach bottomed out just as the elevator opened on the main floor.
“And what?” Ren stepped out.
I followed, my skin feeling like ice. “They were just scared. That was all.” My gaze lifted to his. “They were just scared.”
“I don’t give a fuck if they were terrified or not.” His eyes hardened. “You were supposed to be safe here. You weren’t.”
The doors closed behind us, but neither of us moved. “And I should’ve been able to defend myself.”
“You didn’t have a dagger, something that won’t happen again.”
“With or without the dagger, I should’ve easily taken them down or gotten away,” I pointed out, still disgusted over how easy it had been for the fae. “I was unprepared and hadn’t been paying attention.”
Ren stepped into me. “You took one of them down, Ivy. Without a weapon. After being stabbed. Give yourself some credit.”
My lips twitched but it didn’t spread into a real smile. Not when the fae’s words were echoing in my head. “I need to talk to Tanner real quick. I’ll join you in the cafeteria.”
His head cocked. “I can go with you.”
“You don’t need to.” I quickly stepped around him. “It’s only going to take a couple of minutes. I’ll be right there.”
Ren opened his mouth, but I didn’t give him the chance to say anything. I jogged off down the other corridor, relieved when I looked over my shoulder and didn’t see him.
It took no amount of time for me to find Tanner. He was in his office, and when I burst into the room, he was sitting in a wingback chair across from Merle, engaging in some tea time.
Merle had been ostracized from the Order ages ago, something that always irritated me since she had given her life and then some to them. Rumor was she’d been caught by a fae without the protection of a clover and her mind had been a few screws short since then, but who even knew if that was true? Merle may be odd, but she was sharp as a tack whenever I was around her.
And I couldn’t help but remember her standing in the back of the room Ren had brought my bleeding body into. Her face had been void of all emotion. Could she have had something to do with it?
She could be odd, but she always seemed to like me.
“Ivy.” Tanner put his itty-bitty cup onto a platter and smiled even though it was obvious he was surprised to see me. “I’m so glad to see you up and moving about.”
“Are you really?” I asked, staring pointedly at Merle’s back. She didn’t turn around.
“Of course.” He looked and sounded surprised by the question. “What happened to you was inexcusable and you have my most sincere apologies that it occurred. I promised you sanctuary. You did not receive that.”
Before I could respond, Merle did. “Ivy is a trained member of the Order. Two ordinary fae should not have been difficult for her to handle. Back in my heyday, I could take four out in the blink of an eye.”
Wow.
My eyes narrowed on her back. “Well, thank you for making it sound like getting stabbed was my fault.”
“It was not your fault,” Tanner was quick to add. “I am glad to hear that so far Ren has not found any conspirators.” His gaze dropped to where the dagger created a slight bulge along my hip. “Though I do understand why you feel the need to arm yourselves.”
“I’m not here to talk about getting stabbed.”
“Then what are you here for?” Merle glanced over her shoulder at me as I stalked to where they sat. “I imagine it’s something quite urgent since you forgot that it was polite to knock.”
As much as I liked Merle, I had to ignore her at this point. “Can the Prince find me here?”
Tanner’s brows lifted as he leaned forward in his chair. “Outside of what happened, you’re safe here, Ivy. I can assure you—”
“I’m not asking if I’m safe,” I cut him off. “Because no matter what you claim, that’s obviously not true. I’m asking if the Prince can sniff me out here?”
He glanced at Merle, who calmly took a drink from her tiny tea cup, and a moment passed before he answered. “Our presence here is heavily glamoured, even from other fae. Unless they know to look and see, they will not find us.”
I wasn’t stupid. “That doesn’t answer the question, Tanner.”
Clasping his hands together, he tilted his head to the side. “The glamour isn’t infinite. Everything has a limit, Ivy. The Prince wasn’t looking for us before, but by now, I am sure he knows that we exist in New Orleans. He’ll be searching and he’s powerful.”
My heart turned over in my chest. “What does that mean, exactly?”
Merle lowered her cup. “What he’s saying, dear, is that the Prince could poke a hole through the glamour. It would not hold against his will.”
Oh my God. “So you’re basically saying that if he somehow figured out that Hotel Good Fae was here, he could rip away the glamour and enter?”
The smile slipped from Tanner’s face as he nodded. “He could, but we have no reason to believe that he would become aware of us.”
“And why is that?” I demanded. “You have hundreds of fae here. Any number of them could say the wrong thing to the wrong fae.”
“They know what is at stake,” Tanner replied. “None of them want to be found by the Prince. They know what would happen to them.”
Even if that was the case, that still didn’t mean it was unlikely that the Prince would ever find this place. “Did it ever occur to you that he could have someone like Faye on his team playing spy?”
Tanner’s lips thinned. Merle didn’t answer, and I seriously wondered if that had crossed their minds. If not, they were utter idiots.
Pressure clamped down on my chest. “What would happen if the Prince got in here?”
“Besides him taking you?” Merle lifted her chin, her unlined face hiding her true age. “The fae here, without feeding, are no match for the Prince and his warriors.” Merle’s gaze was sharp. “If he comes, they will not survive any attack he may launch.”
I closed my eyes. So the fae who attacked me was right. “Me being here is a danger to all of them.”
“The Prince being in this world is a danger to every living creature,” Tanner said, and when I opened my eyes, he had sat back in his chair. “The fae who consider this place a haven know this.”
“I am thinking a few are not happy about that,” I pointed out.
There was nothing Tanner could say in return to that.
“So, let me get this straight. The fae here are basically safe as long as the Prince doesn’t catch wind of this place? But if he does, he’ll find a way to get in and he will kill every fae in here for shits and giggles?”
Tanner paled. “That is an unlikely yes.”
Unlikely? Yeah. Right. I felt like I knew Drake well enough to know he’d eventually, sooner than later, find this place. “I think you forgot to mention all this in your stay at Hotel Good Fae pitch when I first arrived.”
“He didn’t fail to mention it, dear. He chose not to.” Merle held my gaze. “The safety of those here is irrelevant to the mission of keeping your belly empty of the Prince’s seed.”
I vomited a little in my mouth. “Can you never say it like that again? Please?”
“It’s the truth,” she replied. “These fae would be dead if the Prince discovered the location whether you were here or not. Keeping you out of his hands is the top priority.”
That was hard to swallow. I didn’t like knowing that my life—or, well, my womb—had a higher value than other lives. “Or I could, you know, just die. That would fix the problem.”
She held my gaze. “It would, however, it appears you’re hard to kill when you can feed and heal yourself.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “I didn’t choose to do that.”
“I know.” Something flickered over her face. Sympathy? Compassion? Constipation? Who knew? “I know you would not have made that call, but there are people here who will make that call for you. And they will continue to do so, to save you.”
She was right. “But me being here means that the unlikely chance of him discovering this place moves closer to the likely territory.”
“It’s irrelevant, sweetie,” Merle repeated.
I blinked at her and then turned to Tanner. “Every time someone goes out there—out in the world beyond the glamour of this building, they run the risk of being seen by one of the Prince’s minions.” My heart lurched in my chest. “Just like when Ren and Faye went out there looking for the Crystal. They could’ve been seen and followed.”
“Faye is careful and she’s aware of the risk,” Tanner stated.
“And what about Ren?”
Tanner didn’t reply and a horrible thought occurred. Did Ren know about the danger of me staying here? No. There was no way he would’ve signed off on putting the fae here in danger. But then I thought about what he’d done for me. I obviously didn’t know what extent he’d go to keep me safe. “You said that me being here was no problem.”
“And it isn’t, Ivy.” Tanner picked up his cup. “We have survived here longer than you realize without being discovered by those we wish to remain hidden to. We shall continue that way.”
“Things are different now. That was before the Prince arrived.”
He shook his head. “Things are just more complicated.” A faint smile appeared, one of approval. “I appreciate your concern for my brothers and sisters, more than you know, especially after what was done to you, but we are willing to shoulder the risk to make sure the Prince does not open those doors, destroying the mortal realm just like his court did to our world.”
Not every fae here was obviously willing to shoulder that risk.
“I don’t appreciate your concern,” Merle retorted. “It’s misguided and will lead to foolish decisions.”
“Do you not care about the fae here?” I demanded.
A small smile appeared, the kind that reminded me of a grandmother’s. “You wouldn’t want me to answer that question.”
“And we wouldn’t ask her to answer that question,” Tanner added.
I couldn’t believe they could be so dismissive of the risk involved or the fact that they thought I’d be okay with this. The inhabitants of this place were fae, but they weren’t hurting humans. Like Tink, they were just trying to scratch out some sort of life. And Tink and Ren were also here. Them staying safe was of the utmost priority to me. “I’m not okay with this.”
“We don’t expect you to be,” Merle answered. “We just expect you to deal with it. You grew up in the Order. You know sometimes you have to sacrifice the many to protect the few. You’ve lived that life every day you’ve breathed. Get with the program, Ivy. It hasn’t changed.”
I sucked in air and turned to Tanner. “You all have to realize that it’s only a matter of time before the Prince realizes you’re harboring me here. It’s not if he does, it’s when he does. What do you do then? How long would the glamour hold against him?”
Tanner took a sip of his tea. “We’d hopefully have weeks.” There was a pause as his pale gaze met mine. “But if we’re lucky, we’ll have days. Hours if we aren’t.”