The Toymaker's Son: A Dark Gay Fantasy by Ariana Nash

Author:Ariana Nash [Nash, Ariana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crazy Ace Publishing
Published: 2023-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

Valentine

This wasn’t right. I watched the wagon clatter down Minerva’s main street, drawing the stares of all the townspeople. None of them would question Devere’s guilt because Rochefort—Adair—had manipulated them all into thinking Devere had killed his own father.

He wouldn’t get a fair trial, if it went that far. There was no justice here. Just a sandbox for Adair to play in. But if I said too much, he’d kick it all down and begin again, making Devere forget, hurting him more than this injustice.

I couldn’t lose his kiss to a dream…

“Come to the house tonight,” Rochefort said. “Let us talk over dinner.”

Rage was a visceral heat inside my veins. I bit my tongue to keep from lashing out. “Why did you bring me here if you witnessed Devere kill his father?” I turned and caught the lord’s scheming grin. “What is my purpose if not to find the killer? What did you witness, exactly?”

“Your tone is rather confrontational.”

I’d show him confrontational if it wouldn’t get me arrested on the spot.

“Come to dinner,” he said again. “No hard feelings?”

“I’m not having dinner with you.” This man—whatever he was—had tried to lock me in his room, and prior to that, he’d been inclined to rape me.

“I understand this must be quite a shock. You believed him a friend, no? Now to learn he killed his father. It must make you wonder if you ever knew Devere Barella at all.”

The world carried on around us. People bustled back and forth, going about their day. Carriages rattled by. I’d have loved nothing more than to punch the smirk off the lord’s artificially handsome face. What did he look like beneath his aristocratic mask? Yet, even knowing he was something otherworldly, part of me continued to desire him. It wasn’t natural. Now I knew he was fae, that twisted attraction made a strange kind of sense. If I called him out on the street, in front of a dozen witnesses, what would he do? Click his fingers and reset it all? At least if we went around again, Devere wouldn’t be in jail.

But he’d lose the memory of our kiss and my touch.

How could I protect Devere without further hurting him?

I needed to know more about the fae I was up against.

“You and I have much to discuss,” Rochefort said. He raised a hand, indicating for his driver, waiting down the street, to bring the carriage up. “Come to the house tonight, and you have my word I will do nothing you don’t want me to.”

I swallowed the knot in my throat. “Dinner tonight.” Again. “Very well.” There had to be a way to break this bubble he’d placed Minerva and its people in. To free them and free Devere.

His carriage pulled up, and he climbed in. “I look forward to it.” He thumped the carriage roof and took off with his typical dramatic clatter of marching horses and glittering opulence.

I returned to the store, locked the door, and fell back against it with a sigh.

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