Lily was so shocked at her words that she sat there with her tea halfway to her lips.
“I’m sorry,” Denae said with a grimace. “I didn’t mean for that to come out like it did. It’s my past coming out there. It’s none of my business.”
Lily set her tea down and folded her hands in her lap. “You’re right. It is my past.”
After the words were out, Lily looked around waiting for Dennis to show up. When he didn’t, she let out a small laugh that she quickly covered with her hand. For three years she had pretended that she lived a happy life, and for the last year, she was pretending those years hadn’t happened.
Denae leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I’m gathering that you’ve never told anyone that?”
Lily shook her head, unable to find more words.
“It’s all right,” Denae assured her. “Your secret is safe with me. Is there anything I can help with?”
Lily lowered her hand from her mouth. “I must deal with this on my own.”
There was that heat on her neck again. This time Lily didn’t hurriedly look for Rhys. He was gone from Dreagan, and though she wished she could see him, she knew it wasn’t him. She rubbed her neck as the heat spread down her chest.
She looked past Denae to the kitchen doorway and saw Rhys as excitement rushed through her. Their gazes locked, held for a moment. He gave her a nod, and then disappeared. Lily hadn’t even had time to call his name he was gone so quickly.
A smile pulled at her lips. She hadn’t just seen Rhys. He had been looking at her. The day certainly was looking up.
“So, I have a confession,” Denae said with a bright tone.
Lily wasn’t fooled. Denae might have changed the subject, but Denae would never forget her words. It was a look in Denae’s eyes, eyes that saw minute details of everyone’s lives. “What?”
“I have an unnatural thing for shoes. I love shoes. I have so many, but with the distributor party next week that Kellan and I are attending, I don’t have a single pair that will go with the dress I bought. Kellan is no help, and the other girls all have something going on over the next few days. How are you with shoes?”
Lily loved shoes. She loved shopping. A memory of her past surfaced of walking into Harrods in London with her mother. Perhaps it was time to revisit the past. “A woman can never have too many shoes.”
“Oh, thank God,” Denae said with a clap of her hands. “Are you free tomorrow to go into Edinburgh?”
“As a matter of fact, I am.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Inverness
Henry North stood with the other MI5 agents in a small field. None of the other agents knew of his connection to Dreagan, or that he was helping the Dragon Kings. If he were lucky, none of them would ever know anything.
It was risky? his being at the meeting place. With the help of Denae, he discovered the agents at MI5 who had joined forces with the Dark Fae. Most of those dumbasses had been retired from MI5—in one form or another.
Henry himself was responsible for three of the retirements, and he didn’t lose sleep over his part in it. The Dark were like a virus. Once they infected someone, there was no going back.
Henry had been working tirelessly to locate the Dark. The Dragon Kings thought they kept to Ireland, but he discovered the Dark Fae were slowly and surely making their way across every confinement. The only place they weren’t so wide spread was the UK.
In other words, they were surrounding the Kings.
That’s when Henry used his skills as a spy to infiltrate the small band of MI5 betrayers. It had taken little effort, which was a red flag. Remaining in their confidences had proven more difficult, and yet here he was at the meeting.
He stood in his black suit with his arms clasped behind his back. The wind gusted, sending the hem of his jacket ruffling.
Suddenly, a group of Dark Fae stood opposite them led by a hulking Dark with red eyes that filled with disgust when he spotted them. His long black and silver hair was pulled away from his face by several small rows of braids and gathered behind his head to fall with the rest of his hair down his back.
“That’s Balladyn,” the man next to him muttered, a thread of fear in his voice.
Henry knew all about the infamous Dark Fae. At one time, Balladyn had been the fiercest warrior of the Light, but the Dark captured him and then turned him. Since then, Balladyn crushed anyone and anything in his path. Most recently, his attention had been on Rhi.
A smile threatened. It happened every time Henry thought of the Light Fae with her silver eyes and black hair. Her beauty was beyond compare. She was forever out of his reach, but that was all right. Henry was content to just look at her on the rare occasions she appeared.
His gaze turned hard as he looked at Balladyn in his black pants and silk shirt. Balladyn had dared to kidnap Rhi, then attempted to turn her Dark. Fortunately, Rhi managed to escape. If only Henry could see her and know she was as fine as Banan promised she was.