Page 13 of Wolf Queen Ruin
“No.I don’t,” I said with a roll of my eyes.“Now, I know what you’re thinking—“
“Thinking about what to name your baby with Damien—“
“Luna Rookwood, working with a partner?”I said, talking over her too loudly to shut her up.“Has she lost her mind?Maybe.But Damien says this Shadow Fang thing might actually exist, and if it can…” I shrugged.“If it can help, I’ll do it.I’ll do anything.”
“I know.I get it.How about Monica for a baby name?”
“Oh my god, Jade,” I said, stepping over a questionable puddle on the sidewalk.
“Tell me the truth.Do you trust this Damien dude?”
“Absolutely not,” I said.“I’m about ninety percent sure he’s hiding something major.But right now, our goals align, and that’s enough.”
“Is it?”Jade asked.
With a sigh, I fiddled with a loose thread on my Rolling Stones T-shirt.“It has to be.”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt again.I know your heart, Luna, and it’s too big for your own good.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“I know.Oh, and what’s this I hear about etiquette lessons?”
I grimaced.“You heard that part?Don’t remind me.How hard can it be to pretend to be engaged to a total mystery man while infiltrating a supernatural gala?”
“About as hard as stealing from a dragon’s hoard?”she suggested innocently.
“That was one time!”I protested.“And we gave most of it back.”
Jade’s laughter warmed my heart.
My phone buzzed from my pocket.A text from Damien.
Please meet me at my temporary residence at 10:00 a.m.tomorrow.I’ll send the address.
I groaned.“I need to eat before I stab someone.Talk to you later?”
“Obviously.Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Thenextmorning,Iawoke with a severe hankering to learn which fork to use when dining with supernatural aristocracy.
Joy.
So this was what true excitement felt like.
I dragged myself out of bed to get ready, muttering all my favorite swear words, this time in seven different languages.
Damien’s “temporary residence” turned out to be a historic mansion in the Garden District.Wrought-iron gates opened to a curved driveway, where a fountain featuring actual marble nymphs burbled cheerfully among tended gardens.The house itself was a stunning antebellum masterpiece with columns, balconies, and the unmistakable air of old money.
The humid New Orleans morning suffocated me as I stood at the bottom of the sweeping front steps, making my simple jeans and Metallica T-shirt feel even more out of place against the mansion’s grandeur.
“Temporary, huh?”I said as Damien himself answered the massive front door.“What’s your permanent place?A castle?”
He leaned against the doorframe with unexpected casualness, two buttons of his white pressed shirt undone.“Versailles, actually.The tourists make it difficult to enjoy my morning coffee in peace, though.I’ve stopped answering the front door to avoid Americans in fanny packs asking where Marie Antoinette kept her cake.”
My jaw dropped open.“Did you just make a joke, Mr.Cross?”
“No.”The corner of his mouth quirked up slightly, and he stepped aside to let me in.“I did not.”
