Page 22 of Fool's Bargain

“It won’t always be easy,” Neph said, reading my mind. “You will need to learn to control the link on your own, to turn it on and off like a tap. Otherwise it will be at the least very distracting. At worst it can exacerbate your nymphaea madness, but if you find your mate quickly, that won’t be an issue.

“Go pack your things now. And make sure to take warm clothes—it’s truly winter where you’re going.”

He grimaced and shivered as if the temperature on the beach had actually grown colder. I was too buzzed with excitement to feel anything beyond the rapid pounding of my own heart and the steady, musical pulse inside my soul.

11

Theo

“We really shouldn’t be here,” Kyril murmured from beside me, eyeing the crowd of concertgoers filing through the entry points to the venue where Fate’s Fools was about to play. “I can feel Deva nearby. You know Llyr will be able to tell we’re here.”

“We have to fucking deal with it. If we tell him the Diviner sent us, he’ll understand. Especially if we include the part about severing our bond to her by coming.”

The crowd flowed past us where we stood to the side near a caryatid holding up the roof of a building. All the attendees had tickets, which we were lacking, but getting into the concert was the least of our problems.

Beside me, Dorian tensed, his head whipping around and his gaze sharpening on the stream of humans flowing up the walkway through the main gate. I followed the direction of his gaze, my pulse speeding up as I sensed a tug beneath the still cold burn of the Diviner’s mark.

“That isn’t Deva,” I said, my gaze fixing on the back of a woman’s head as it disappeared into the crowd several dozen yards ahead.

“Not even close,” Kyril said. “Which means I absolutely need to find out who it is.”

My ears popped with the sudden rush of air as he departed into the drift, and Dorian followed. I waited a second longer to do damage control if necessary, but none of the humans flowing past seemed to register that two rather large men had popped out of existence in plain sight. They were bloodline to a man, so even if they had seen anything, they’d been charmed to never speak of it.

The end of my own short drift landed me between my friends, who were on the heels of a woman in a denim jacket with a large glyph painted across the shoulders in shimmering, iridescent ink. Her straight black hair was bound into a loose ponytail that hung down the center of her back and she wore tight jeans that hugged lovely curves.

“Recognize that?” Dorian asked. “It’s Deva’s mark. The same one she gave Llyr when she mated him.”

“That isn’t her mark,” I corrected. “It’s the icon for their band. Fate’s Fools is what they call themselves. He had it tattooed on him before Deva added her dragon magic to turn it into a proper mark.” The mark was prevalent among the crowd, emblazoned on hats and shirts everywhere we looked. It wasn’t the reason this particular woman we followed had drawn us to her. What was it about her?

She sped up, her shoulders straightening.

“Back off,” Kyril said. “She’s spooked.”

We slowed, hanging back with the crowd as they climbed a set of steps. The woman reached the top, then made a quick and graceful weave through the people ahead of her, disappearing within a few seconds around the corner of an enormous planter.

“Fuck. Now we’ve lost her,” Dorian said, jogging forward to catch up to where we’d last seen her. He rounded the corner with me and Kyril close behind. She was gone.

“She’s good,” I said, continuing a little farther down a service alley that led to a door. I tried the handle, but it was locked. Closing my eyes, I reached for the thread of that tugging sensation I’d experienced when we’d first seen her. It mimicked my bond with Deva, but was more delicate, newer. Yet it most definitely led beyond this door. I cursed. We could only drift to locations we could either physically see or had visited once before.

“I’ll break it down,” Dorian said, his voice lowering in timbre as his primal beast rose to the surface, subtly stretching at his sweater and jeans.

“Not necessary,” Kyril said, holding up a hand and giving Dorian a long-suffering look. He tilted his head to the door, voices approaching from the other side. We stood back as the door swung open and a half dozen burly human men in shirts labeledSecuritypaused in surprise. One of them shot us a warning glare.

“No passes, no entry,” he said, shutting the door behind him. He widened his stance and the other men circled. These men weren’t bloodline and I hoped like hell that Dorian realized that before letting his beast out.

“We’re friends of the band,” Kyril said, stepping forward with his hands up. “Llyr Xanthos used to be part of our squad. He said we should come by the show tonight but didn’t say how to find him. Fucker’s middle name is ‘vague.’”

The men seemed to ease up a little, which was good. If they showed more aggression, it would be tricky to keep our instincts to fight under control, particularly when they stood between us and a female.

“No shit?” the lead guy asked. “That pretty boy was in the service? What are you all, special forces? You look it.” He eyed us up and down. We were all a head taller than the tallest of his men, who were already large by human standards.

“You could say that,” Dorian said in a smooth, even tone, crossing his arms. His knuckles cracked beneath his armpits and I sensed his barely contained need to plow through these guys to get to the woman we’d been following. There may not have been a shred of logic to that urge, butlogicwasn’t really what governed any satyr’s actions on a good day. The simple prospect of a match who wasn’t the chimera was enough of a lure for all three of us.

“That accent isn’t local though. And those haircuts aren’t anything close to regulation,” the man said, his tone cautious once more. “Where are you from?”

“None of your goddamned business,” Dorian snapped. “Let us enter if you value your sanity.” He took a step forward and I shoved him back with an arm across his chest.

I didn’t want to resort to mind control because of the potential for residual psychic damage, but it was the only option if we wanted to avoidphysicallyharming these men.

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