Page 109 of By the Fae

“Sick ride, bro,” Bailey told him. “Bagsy the front!” he yelled.

So, I had to sit in the back, like a chump. Churning over what I would say to Holly when I saw her. Not that I didn’t have the entire twenty-hour drive back from the Kingdom to contemplate it. I still hadn’t figured it out when August appeared at my side in the standing area next to the back bar.

“Goldie, you’re here!” Her expression was pinched, her glasses conspicuously absent, she seemed out of breath.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, one eye still trained on Holly.

“You’ve been AWOL for a fortnight. Where have you been? What have you been doing? Actually, never mind. I’ve got something I need to discuss with you.” August searched my face, as though readying herself for more fae truth manipulation. “It’s not good news, I’m afraid. I’ve heard a rumour . . . Seth mentioned something. Uh, that you and Holly have been sleeping together?”

I shot another look at Holly. She pointed to a man in the front row with his arm raised.

“Because you know,” August continued. “If you are, I’m gonna have to let you go.”

“I . . .”

Distantly, the guy said, “I heard you designed the game with a fae, is that correct?”

Holly was smiling again. Gods, I missed that smile.

“Goldie?” August said, gripping my arm, snapping my attention back to her.

It took a few seconds for my brain to catch up. She’d asked if Holly and I were fucking. I guessed there was no point in dancing around the truth, not anymore. No point denying it since I was about to make Holly mine forever. I’d found a way.

Forever.

Not just fifty years. But five hundred.

If she’d have me.

August was about to fire me. Three decades with the same company.

Well, it had been a blast.

“Yes. We were. Sleeping together, that is. And I hope to the Gods that she lets it happen again.”

“Oh, Goldie.” August put one hand on my shoulder, ironing the creases from her forehead with the other.

I smiled. “It’s been great working for FaeGames. You’ve been a fantastic boss, really, you’ve been the best.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “My strongest fae designer. Fucking hell, this is not how I thought this day would go.”

“I’m so sorry.” I put my hand on August’s shoulder, faintly aware that I was now the one comforting her after she’d fired me. But she’d be fine without me. She had Holly now. Holly, whose design instincts far outweighed my ability to manipulate images. I should have listened to her at the very beginning. She always knew what was best for the game—

My thoughts were interrupted as smoky Holly-esque Seth walked towards the stage. “I have a question,” he said, in that pompous, supercilious tone of his.

At once, every nerve ending in my body tightened. Synapses detonated like fireworks, deciding whether to send me into fight-or-flight mode.

Fight obviously. There was no way I was giving up on her now.

“. . . the fae that built this entire game for you, are having an illicit affair.”

Holly was panicking. I could see it in her face. Looking about the audience as though looking for help. Or looking for me?

I couldn’t get to the stage quick enough.

Someone in the crowd next to me leaned towards their neighbour and whispered, “I heard the fae is a nymph. Of course she’s having an illicit affair with him.”

My feet were carrying me forward, but not fast enough. I was running, sort of. Pushing people out of the way. Ploughing through them.

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