Page 49 of Iron Unicorn

If it hadn’t been for the damned tool of talent containment, I would have made a mess of my enemy. “I really was. I forgot I was wearing the suppressor.”

“I have a whole new respect for those things.”

I did, too. “I’m pretty sure I have a whole new phobia to the maximum security suppressors at this point. I’d rather hold the lobster again.” I turned my gaze to Olivia. “Please don’t make me hold the lobster again.”

The princess rolled her eyes. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”

“You were at no risk of having a heart attack, but you definitely got quite the fright.” Melody went to Olivia and gave the woman a hug. “We’ll get out of your hair for a few minutes. The RPS agents can defend the hallway.”

While it took a few minutes, Melody successfully herded everyone out. Once they were gone, I stretched, grateful they’d left me in my clothes rather than subject me to a hospital gown. “They didn’t bother with the clothing removal?”

“Melody felt it was absolutely a pointless waste of time; she’s sending you to the hotel after the mandatory observation period. There is nothing wrong with you. The suppressor was just suppressing your consciousness on top of your talent.” Olivia stomped her foot, came over, and took over the stool Melody had been using. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t noticed the crab.”

“My job is to notice things like the crab,” I reminded her. “And those Texans will pay for this. How? That remains to be seen, but you mark my words, Olivia. They will pay.”

“You were pretty pissed about the crab, though.”

“I’ll give the torture session some credit. My fight instinct kicked on rather than my flight instinct. Before today, I fled. I wasn’t going to do that poor SUV any favors, though. That suppressor saved the RPS quite the repair bill.”

Olivia captured my hand in hers, and she held on for dear life.

I wondered what the woman thought, and hoping it would soothe her, I gave her a squeeze. “I’m all right. I had forgotten I was wearing the suppressors, and we don’t really train for if we’re wearing that type. Maybe we should.”

“There’d be a lot fewer incidents of royals busting out of their generic suppressors if the suppressors knocked us on our asses,” she admitted. “Melody says you have to get evaluated again.”

“I have a rare, strong talent, and I use it often. It’s been at least twenty years since I’ve been tested, and Texas is fretting because they’ve been running me through the wringer. If they want to pay for that nonsense, they can. All it’s going to show is that my queen is going to have to give me a raise. If Texas wants to force New York to give me a raise, I’m not going to complain.”

With a raise, I’d be able to look at buying a house rather than renting a nice apartment. Half the time, I stayed at the palace.

Until recently, my queen had needed me close, and I’d dealt with more than a few incidents where my king had fetched me out of bed to comfort her.

More and more, she turned to him, but some things she wanted me for—and my king retrieved me in person for those situations. If Olivia came to New York on a permanent basis, I’d need a proper house, one I could lure the woman to with the intent of keeping her there.

I wanted to be the one to offer her a home.

A raise would let me do just that.

“I… I can’t argue with that,” Olivia muttered.

I grinned, well aware the woman wanted to vent out some of her frustration. “I am sorry I forgot I was wearing that damned suppressor. It’s been a while since I’ve sent myself to the hospital doing something stupid. I was overdue. This will remind me I need to be more careful. Well, for a while.”

“Terry!”

I gave her hand another squeeze. “I’m fine. I just got the sense knocked into me is all. Or out of me. Both are regrettably accurate. Has anyone told my queen I lost to the prison suppressors?”

“I called her myself, and I had to act like everything was fine so she wouldn’t get upset. Those damned RPS agents were laughing over it!”

“Well, yes. They knew I would have eradicated that crab with excessive force. It’s hilarious. I knocked myself out attempting to murder a crab. That is genuinely an upgrade from this morning, where they would have had to chase me down. They might have caught me after a mile or two.” I spied a new pair of sneakers by the door, and I pointed at them with my free hand. “I can do a good mile in oxfords, and I’m pretty sure I run faster when in those.”

“You’re that afraid of crabs?”

“Well, I’m far less afraid of them than I was this morning,” I confessed. “After a few hours of them not killing me, I’ve mostly accepted I’m being unreasonable. That’s not going to stop me from being afraid of them, but at least instead of just freezing or bolting, I seem to be more inclined to eradicate them with extreme prejudice.”

“If in doubt, murdering the crabs doesn’t seem like a bad strategy. Thatdoesexplain a few things, like the schedule for special dinners. You were never on duty during some of the diplomatic dinners.”

“Shrimp or crabs.” I acknowledged the ridiculousness of the situation with a laugh. “The chefs took mercy on me and warned the RPS when I should not be present during the meals, so we scheduled my work to be away from the dinners. I couldn’t even monitor as interior; just seeing the leggy bastards on the screen was enough to make me sweat and want to leave the room. I expect I’ll be run through hell to break that. My queen loves eating crabs, and there’s only so much dodging I’ll be able to do in the future.”

“With how much she loves crabs? How did you avoid it so far?”

---