It seemed strange, on some level, how complete I felt when my wings were free. As far as I could tell, my former body had not had wings. Hell, I didn't think I'd even been fae. But now, I couldn't imagine life without them.
“Fuck,” Arlo hissed, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his dilated pupils watched my wings shudder and stretch.“Why did Le Gardien need to be so Veil-damned beautiful?”
His words were quiet, almost reverent and I wasn't altogether sure he meant for me to hear them.
“Come on.” I held out a hand to him. “I'll tell you all what the seer said. Then we can start working on how to fix the Veil.”
He took my outstretched hand, tugging me up from the bed until we were face to face. Or, as much as we could be given my diminutive size and his … considerable one.
Reaching over my head, he stroked a finger over the top curve of my wing, and I groaned. Tingling warmth seemed to shudder through me from his touch, and the scent of springtime filled my nostrils. Fresh grass, wild flowers blooming, and the heady aroma of Arlo's arousal.
From where my face was directly in front of his chest, all I could see were the detailed, swirling patterns of his ink, and my fingers grasped instinctively at his broad waist.
“Let's go, Keeper,” he rumbled, withdrawing his touch from my wings almost reluctantly, and brushing past me to the door. “The sooner we get this fucking Veil fixed …”
He trailed off with a strangled sort of sound, and the sour taste in my mouth told me he'd been about to lie.
That was the first time anyone around me had come even close to lying, and I didn't look forward to the time when someone did manage it.
But it did beg the question, what exactly had he just been about to lie to me on?
Downstairs, Arlo didn't lead me through to the living room as I'd expected, but instead into what looked like a dimly lit bar, complete with pool tables where Reece and Killian were engaged in what appeared to be a heated debate.
Their words died off before I could catch anything of substance, but I cocked my head at them curiously.
“Boys.” Arlo greeted them with a smirk.“Arguing over who breaks again?”
“Something like that,” Killian replied with a glare, and again the sour taint implied there was much more going on than a debate over their pool game.
“Filles, can you give us a few?” Reece asked Caley and Amelie, who had been sitting at a high table and sipping on drinks.
The rest of the bar was totally deserted, which was probably a good thing given I had my enormous wings on full display. Then again, the entire Wild Hunt MC were fae, so it wouldn't have shocked anyone.
“No.” I shook my head. “They can stay.”
“Whatever’s goin’ on here ain’t none of their damn business,” Reece said, standing up and frowning, the massive muscles in his arms straining as he tightened his fist around the pool stick, all those swirls of … I wasn’t sure if they were tattoos or some sort of fae marking … but they twisted around his skin and disappeared underneath the sleeves of his shirt.
“Caley especially doesn’t need to stick around and hear this shit,” Arlo snorted, lighting up a cigarette and kicking open a back door. The raggedy old thing swung wide, letting in the sounds and smells of the bayou. I could hear the distant call of birds as the sun set on the horizon, warning calls and hello-chittering alike. It mixed with the distinct grunt of gators, the call of an eagle, and far away but not far enough … the whir of an airboat engine.
“Who is that?” I asked, my wings perking up in alarm. I made my way over to the door as Arlo smoked and leaned outside, watching the sun reflect off the murky water, huge clumps of Spanish moss dangling from branches, trailing their mossy green fingers in the gators’ domain. Water sloshed against the edge of the old dock as I peered outside and squinted into the sprawling mess of trees and swamp and mud. It was a landscape unlike anywhere else in the world, a tangled paradise of times past, both ancient and surreal. And the smell? It had this deep, earthy quality to it, like there was magic hiding underneath that shallow water. “The airboat.”
“That’ll be the boys taking care of business,” Arlo said, and the way the word business snapped off the end of his tongue, I didn’t much care for. I turned my sapphire gaze on him, but he wouldn’t look at me.
“Okay, Arlo is right …” Caley said, sliding off the stool and sucking down the last of her drink before placing the glass back on the copper surface of the bar. “I’m not a member of the club, and I don’t want to be.”
She snatched her purse up and slung it over her shoulder, throwing a soft smile in my direction before bending down to pick up her shopping bag from earlier. Not only had I found myself a few outfits, but so had Caley and Amelie. She patted the plastic bag and grinned.
“Sorry in advance for my brother’s attitude,” she said, “and thanks for letting me piggyback a few outfits on your shopping trip.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Arlo said, exhaling and curling up his lip. He gestured rudely in her direction. “Don’t you have to get some sleep before your next shift?”
“Thank you Dad,” Caley said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “But yes, I’ll be heading upstairs for some quality sleep. Now that the Veil Keeper’s here and all the groupies have been kicked out of the building, it’s a hell of a lot quieter …”
Arlo picked up an empty beer bottle and chucked it in her direction as Caley squealed, dodged it, and then slipped out of the room through a pair of old-timey swinging doors.
“You need to learn to treat that sister of yours right,” Amelie said, and Arlo snarled low under his breath.
“What business are the boys taking care of?” I asked, because whatever business it was, it wasn’t my business and it should be, shouldn’t it? Ciarah … she was never anyone of much importance, I knew, but the Veil Keeper? She was more important than every soul on this planet combined. She should know everything that was going on, shouldn’t she?
Arlo scoffed under his breath and Killian whispered something in French.
“Feedin’ bodies to the gators,” Amelie said, and when I turned to look at her, her white toothed smile was bright in her face, almost … wolflike. “How inconvenient to drag ‘em out there like that. Back home, we just eat ‘em ourselves.”
“Dat’s about enough o’ dat,” Reece said, lifting his hand up and massaging his temple. He glanced over at me and some of the anger leaked out of his expression, making way for a lascivious smile, a magnanimous grin that spread across his tanned face and made my heart thunder. “And girl, why you wanna shack up wit’ Arlo dere? Old Reece’d be more than happy to let you share his bed.” He winked at me and smacked his lips, making me bite my own. “That’d be a huge honor to share with da Veil Keeper. Wouldn’t hear none of dat bitching and whining from me, no.”