Misdirection by Jennifer Blackstream

Author:Jennifer Blackstream [Blackstream, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skeleton Key Publishing

Chapter 15

“It sounds like I should be getting on with it then.” In my head, I was already asking Bizbee for a Coke, and I held onto that promise as I stared Cael down.

The infuriating lion—and the king of the jungle reference was not lost on me—just smiled and led me to the edge of the dance floor. I fixed the witchiest of witchy looks on my face as I watched him make his way around the room, pausing to speak to a woman wearing a unicorn mask.

“Fay can come with us.”

The heat in Scath’s voice let me know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the feline sidhe had heard Cael’s threat. My sister’s expression was difficult to read under the mask, but I didn’t miss the way her hand trembled when she reached for her cup of tea.

I unzipped my pouch. “Bizbee, I need a—”

A bright red can thrust up from the depths of the pouch, held aloft by a set of tiny hands. I was really starting to love this grig.

“I didn’t steal the goblets,” Fay said quietly before taking a sip of tea. “You can search my room. You can search me.”

I put all my focus into opening my can of soda, resolutely refusing to let my eyes rest on Fay’s purse where it lay on the table beside her teacup. Her clutch that was enchanted in much the same way as my waist pouch.

She grabbed the clutch and pushed it across the table toward me. “Search it. I have nothing to hide.”

I hesitated, fully aware of the glare Scath had leveled on me. “I—”

“I’ll have a look!” Bizbee erupted out of my waist pouch and leapt across the table in four springs of his tiny cricket legs. He had a pen under one arm and a fan of mini-Post-its under the other. His fuzzy-tipped antennae fairly vibrated with excitement as he pried open the clasp on the clutch and vanished inside.

“Cael doesn’t care that she’s innocent,” Scath said, her voice tight. “He’ll punish her anyway. She’s nothing but a bargaining chip to him.”

Fay looked back and forth from me to Scath, then cleared her throat. “I’ll just go rinse out these teacups, shall I?”

Bizbee poked his head out of her clutch. “Ye don’t need to go anywhere, you’ve got plenty of wipes in here to clean them out. Forty-two wipes, counting the open pack and the backup.”

“Thank you, Bizbee,” Fay said, her eyebrows rising at how quickly he’d assessed her inventory. “But I think my sister would like to have a small chat with Scath, and I’d like to give them some privacy.”

Scath waited for Fay to cross the room toward the makeup tent that led out to the main part of the house before speaking. “She goes out of her way to help. We can’t let him hurt her.”

“I don’t intend to let him hurt her.” I tightened my grip on my soda. “Do you really think so little of me? That I would let her suffer to save Flint’s hide?”

“I’ve seen how you look at her.

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