Page 66 of Pining for the Prince
“You make me doubt my sanity for loving you, you git.”
Hyax cupped his jaw. “You love me then?”
He wondered if he should deny it, say it was just a slip of the tongue but he was too old and dead to play those sorts of games. “Yeah, I do. Have done so for a while. Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to say it back.”
“You really are the dumbest thing on legs some days.” Hyax laughed. “Of course I fucking love you. Do you think I’d put up with all your bullshit if I just wanted to get laid?”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Hyax stared at the ceiling, Gwil still deep in sleep, which was normal for him as his hours were in the main nocturnal, while fae days were longer and he didn’t need as many hours of sleep. They were going to have to work out the best sleep pattern to see each other. It hadn’t been an issue when they’d been friends, but now he wanted to make sure he got as much of Gwil’s time as he could. Winter would be less problematic but in the summer months Gwil’s useful hours outside the house were shorter, unless he found a way for his parents to become more accepting of his relationship choices, he couldn’t whisk Gwil off the fae land when he didn’t want to be cooped up during the day.
Their future dating habits weren’t the only thing bothering him, and he couldn’t shake the fact they’d been in the British Museum not that long ago due to the job Gwil had agreed to take, and now the Stone of Ljin was supposedly being hidden there. He wasn’t a fan of coincidence. It was no good, he would need to talk to Gwil because the idea he had formulated was either brilliant or it’d make him sound like he’d snorted too much of his own fairy dust.
They’d ended up spending most of Christmas Day in bed alternating between sex, drinking champagne, and eating the food he’d liberated from the palace’s kitchen on an emergency run because while he had a waif-life figure, he didn’t eat like one. Gwil was in a deep sleep, his mouth slightly open and drooling. He tried to rouse him from his slumber using a soft caress but it was useless so, using a concentrated jab to Gwil’s ribs, he unleashed the undead monster in his bed.
“Fuck off,” came Gwil’s mumbled response.
He poked him again. “I need to speak to you. You can’t sleep too much longer as we need to get to the museum.”
With much grumbling Gwil pushed back the duvet. He was far cuter than Hyax had imagined, his hair sticking out at angles, a grumpy pout and blurry eyes. “It’s still light outside.”
“I know, but based on what Goya told us yesterday, the warlocks are only giving me a specific window to check over the museum so we need to be ready to go at four—that should be dark enough for your delicate constitution.”
Gwil stretched, the duvet sliding away and Hyax appreciated the view, but he couldn’t afford to let himself get distracted. “Gwil?”
“Hmm?”
“I’ve been thinking.”
“It is a terrible habit of yours, perhaps you should try to stop.”
He poked Gwil again and received a slap to his hand for his trouble. “This is serious,” Hyax insisted.
Gwil struggled to sit up but he did so and leant against the headboard. “Go on, I’m listening.”
“Don’t you think it a bit of a coincidence that we’ve located the stone in the same place Flume asked you to steal the watch from?”
Gwil wrinkled his nose and scratched his belly. “I don’t know, what are you thinking?”
“Doesn’t it seem a little odd that he just happened to notice a watch that he wanted back, that had been missing four hundred years, around the same time the Stone of Ljin was being hidden there? Then calls you in, knowing you’d ask me, a prince of the family that is missing the stone?”
“Are you suggesting he knew the stone was there already, and furthermore expected you to find it when he asked us to get the watch?” Gwil sounded a little incredulous, and Hyax couldn’t blame him.
“Present company excluded, but I’m not sure any vampire is that direct in their actions.” Even Gwil could be a bit circuitous in his thought process. “Perhaps he wasn’t thinking we’d find it but that I’d sensed there was something going on that I’d pick up and run with.”
Gwil made a low humming noise, which usually accompanied his deeper thinking. “He is the type to like to meddle and shape the outcomes of things. I’m not sure what his motives would be here though.”
“If he was linked back to finding the stone, he would have been able to claim a favour from the fae.”
“But why be so coy if that were the case? It doesn’t add up.”
Hyax still couldn’t leave the idea alone and was sure they were missing something. “How well-connected is he?”
“He’s not a Council member, but he is a named member of the House Devereaux, which makes him pretty influential and is known to consult on Council matters. I mean, if you want something doing, he’s one of the people you’d ask to get things moving.”
Hyax wasn’t sure that would be enough. “I can’t imagine a vampire influencer would be that important.”
Gwil snorted. “He’d not the selling-face-cream-on-Instagram type of influencer. More the type to hide a body and convince the authorities the individual never existed.”
