Page 55 of Fallen Court

“Hello again.” Fiona glared at her from the chair by the fireplace.

Romy placed a hand on her shoulder, murmuring something before she turned to my mate. “I’m Romy—”

“My number one fan,” I muttered. Everyone ignored me.

“Fiona’s girlfriend,” she continued. “We’re so glad to meet you.”

“Oh, we’ve met.” Fiona’s mouth puckered as she stared at Cate. “I guess I was wrong when I told you that fae don’t m—”

“Watch yourself,” I growled.

But Cate only rolled her eyes, taking a seat next to Ciara on the couch.

“Care to explain what took you so long last night?” Ciara asked me.

“The Hunt tried to grab us.”

Roark shot me a surprised look. “What? How?”

I filled them in on what had happened when we nipped back from Dublin, stopping when we reached the library.

“A library?” Ciara repeated. “How did you wind up there?”

“No clue,” I lied smoothly. I had my theories about that, too.

“You’re lucky you wound up in New Orleans.” Roark scratched at his jaw. “I guess this means you won’t be nipping.”

“Yes,” I agreed grimly, “but you should all be careful. They could try to grab any of you.”

“Do you really think they would use one of us to get to you?” Fiona asked.

It was a possibility. “As far as I know, no one has escaped the Wild Hunt.” Not for long, at least. “We have no clue how they’ll react to being outsmarted.”

“But we’re here now,” Cate said softly.

Ciara swiveled toward her, tucking one leg under the other. “We had every magical creature in the city looking for a way around Lach’s curse.”

“I wouldn’t call it a curse,” I interjected, but they ignored me.

“And half of New York,” Romy added.

Ciara nodded, her gratitude obvious. “I swear we nearly gave up, but a familiar named Thalia had a stroke of genius.”

“A familiar?” Cate frowned.

“One of the covens of witches,” I explained. “They’re called familiars because of their relationship to vampires.”

“Witches are familiars,” she said like she was piecing this information together.

Romy spoke up. “Not all of us.”

I sighed. This could get complicated.

“When our magic was cursed a couple of centuries ago, some witches sought protection from vampires,” Romy explained. “Familiars. Others maintained their relationship to the goddess. We believe she still watched over us even during the curse. The devout. But, of course, some witches turned to dark arts, others to green magic, some to voodoo. But most of us consider ourselves to be either devout or a familiar.”

Cate’s eyebrows ratcheted up another notch. “I might need a chart.”

“Later,” I promised.