I sighed, relieved that she obviously still wasn’t quite with it if that was her biggest question. Maybe she wouldn’t actually process anything that had just happened. “I changed my mind. Can’t pass up a good party.” I shrugged.
“This was some party,” she said slowly, bobbing her head up and down. She seemed positively high. “Wait, why did you follow me out here? Did you … kill … that guy who was trying to make out with me?”
Uh-oh.
Daniel stepped forward. He tucked the sword behind his back, but he couldn’t cover up the bloody tear in his shoulder. “I think someone may have slipped something in your drink, Katie. We followed you to make sure no one took advantage of you.”
“Daniel?” She leaned forward, squinting at his eyes behind his mask. “You came, too? I thought you had pneumonia?” She tapped her fingers against her forehead like she was trying to think really hard. “Did you just chop off some guy’s head?”
Brent busted up laughing. I gave him a quick glare.
“Okay,” I said. “I think Katie’s had enough partying for one night.” I motioned for Slade to pick her up. “Take care of her, will you?” I asked him.
Slade looked down at Katie, still clinging to his legs, and then back at me. A stricken look crossed his face. He leaned toward me and whispered, “Um. To be clear, are you asking me to kill her and dump her body?”
“What? no! Why on earth would you think that?”
Brent cleared his throat. “To a Shadow King, ‘taking care of someone’ has a very different connotation.”
“Oh … oh!” I was going to have to be more careful with my vocabulary choices in the future. “No, I mean, make sure she gets back home okay. Keep trying to convince her that everything she saw was the result of special party Kool-Aid so she doesn’t go spilling all of our secrets. You know, that kind of taking care of someone. Take Brent with you.”
Slade nodded. He and Brent pulled Katie up and hitched their arms around her back to help her walk.
“You saved me, didn’t you?” Katie asked, patting her hand limply against Slade’s cheek. She giggled and waved her hands like someone who’d enjoyed a good joint. “Did you see all the pretty green ooze?”
“Yeah, it was pretty,” Slade said. Brent snorted. Slade glanced back at me with the look of someone being punished.
I watched them walk away, leaving me with Daniel and Talbot. Not the three best people to be left alone together.
Especially with weapons.
We were all quiet for a moment, tension building thick between us. Finally, Daniel approached Talbot with the sword in his hand. Daniel stood in front of him, their eyes locked, like they were trying to read each other’s thoughts. I was reminded as to how much bigger Daniel’s stature was now than before. Talbot, who had never seemed small to me, suddenly did, compared to Daniel. Or maybe it was just the way Daniel carried himself now—like an alpha. One whose pack had just defeated a rival’s attack.
Daniel extended the blade of the sword toward Talbot, and then he flipped it upside down and offered him the handle. “Thanks,” Daniel said. “You really saved us back there. We might not have gotten out of that without you.”
Talbot blinked. “You’re welcome,” he said slowly, cautiously. “So … truce?”
Daniel glanced at me, as if looking for my verdict. I didn’t know what to say. Talbot had helped us, but he’d also done so much to destroy my trust, I didn’t know how I could just forgive him and call it good.
“I just want to help,” Talbot said. “What happened here tonight was just a test. Caleb is eventually going to come at you with everything he’s got. You need all the help you can get.”
“He has a point,” Daniel said. “Talbot knows Caleb’s operations better than anyone. And he’s a good fighter.”
I was surprised Daniel was the one arguing on Talbot’s behalf. He knew what Talbot had tried to do to keep him from coming back. Talbot owed Daniel big-time for what he did. How could Daniel be so forgiving?
I thought about what Gabriel had said to me about forgiving people their debts. Could I really move on and let Talbot back into my inner circle again?