Page 58 of Lucky or Knot
He took his hand from under the table and laid it on the table palm-up.
And there was the coin. Louie and I both stared at it, our attention riveted, mine in wonder and Louie’s in avarice more naked than my ass. It practically glowed, more golden than any gold had ever been, the other side of it that I hadn’t seen before exposed: a raven with its wings outspread.
Of course. I’d wondered why the coin had called to him so potently that he’d been willing to give himself to Cunningham to possess it, but how could he have resisted magical fairy gold that bore the image of his namesake?
The coin looked much bigger than it had before, nearly covering Raven’s palm, and thicker, too, heavier. A light buzzing started in my ears, in my brain, a tickle inside my skull, a hum below the spectrum of normal human or even shifter hearing. Warmth, satisfaction, eagerness.
As if the coin wanted this. As if it approved. As if we’d finally figured out the right answer that it’d been trying to lead us to all this time.
Apparently, even this piece of magical metal thought I was a little slow on the uptake.
“This was crafted in my own world by a fae workman,” Raven said. “An artifact of great value beyond its weight in gold. Even melted down for its price by the ounce, it would be worth more than the debt he owes you. But I strongly recommend you don’t try to do that, because it would work out very badly for you,” he added, with typical fairy understatement and a strong overtone of fairy threat. “I will give it to you free and clear andresign all ownership of it. In trade, you will give me Tony, and renounce any claim over him in the future.”
Louie shook himself like a dog clearing water from his ears and tore his gaze away from the coin with a visible effort, looking up at me.
“You got anything to say about this?” he asked, unexpectedly—because I wouldn’t have imagined that Louie would have any moral qualms about making a deal to sell me into fae slavery. “You okay with this guy buying you?”
Would I be okay with Raven owning me, body and soul, until the end of time? What a stupid fucking thing to ask.
I glanced down at Raven and met his gaze. Also questioning, even though I had no idea why he’d have any doubt. Hadn’t I already given my answer in the car?
“Yep,” I said, not bothering to even look at Louie. Raven’s eyes. He already owned me, and this was nothing more than a fairy technicality. Maybe the coin had known that all along. “Fine with me.”
The faintest flicker passed over Raven’s sharp features. Relief, maybe. Maybe more than that.
“Do you accept the bargain?” Raven said, turning back to Louie. “Do we have a deal?”
“You people can’t lie about stuff like this,” Louie said. “Right?” Raven nodded. Debatable, and I could’ve given him some pretty pungent opinions on that subject, but in this case, what Louie didn’t know probably wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass before Raven and I were long gone. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, and all that. “Then we have a deal.”
Louie reached out, fingers practically twitching with eagerness. Raven delicately laid the coin in his hand, fastidiously making sure not to touch him.
The moment he lost contact with the coin, something in the air shifted.
Like a pressure change, an oncoming storm. Or maybe a storm passing, the clouds drifting apart, the sun shining out, a fresh breeze whisking all the darkness away.
And I could’ve sworn I heard a weird, high, mocking laugh.
It had worked. I knew it down to my bones. My crazy, idiotic idea had actually gods-damnedworked.
Louie’s hand closed around the coin, and everything went back to normal. Mostly. Because there was something inside me, centered on a part of me that didn’t have a name or a physical location, a tug…it felt like the leash Axel had used, only lighter and sweeter, not a burden at all. It wasn’t pulling me, exactly. More orienting me toward Raven. Like when you turned a compass, and the little hand swung around toward north no matter how you moved its container.
Actually, it felt kind of like a gentler version of how I’d always heard other shifters describe a mating bond.
Well, fuck me sideways. Raven surely hadn’t anticipated that. But being tied to me had to be better than being tied to Cunningham, right? Especially when this magic clearly flowed the other direction, signifying Raven’s ownership rather than the reverse.
I turned to Raven, drinking in the slight smile teasing the corners of his mouth, the wonder on his face, the way he suddenly looked like he’d shed a two-ton weight, opening my mouth to…I didn’t get a chance to find out. At that moment, screams broke out at the front of the club, and I whirled around, claws already sprouting, to see a dozen men with guns pouring into the room with Arnold Cunningham in their midst.
Chapter 19
“Nobody move!” Cunningham’s head minion shouted, and then there was a chaos of curses and more screaming and tables getting knocked over as patrons and staff alike did the exact opposite, the drum-and-bass from the speakers playing over it all for a few more seconds before the DJ cut the music.
He also turned on the house lights, and we were all suddenly bathed in an unforgiving glare.
It didn’t do the shabby club any favors, or Cunningham, either, because if I’d ever seen a person intended to be viewed under flatteringly dim lighting, it was him. The lines starting to show in his late-middle-aged face hadn’t been carved there by laughter and smiles, that was for sure—more by the type of expression he wore now, a scowl like a thundercloud, with an aura of vicious menace wrapping around him like static electricity.
Hatred hadn’t ever been one of my primary emotions. I usually couldn’t be bothered, barely even knew how it felt.
It turned out to feel like acid searing each and every one of my veins individually from the inside, rushing up to fill my face and my scalp with a roasting, roaring, teeth-gritting cold rage.
