Page 19 of Dark Sun (Wicked Lovely 6)

Why resist?

“Send me the Hunt, if you will,” Aislinn accepted the offer. “He struck mine. I owe them safety.”

Almost guiltily she reached out for Irial’s hand. “Forgive me?”

“My son drew first blood, but I’ll ask for mercy,” Irial said. “If he had hurt you, or Niall, or Leslie, I don’t know that I’d be so calm.”

Shadows radiated out from Niall. “Or you. His rage is atyou, Irial, and at the Summer Queen. I will not allow anyone to strike me.”

“Other than you,” Irial said lightly, tone teasing and flirtatious. “Or Leslie. She can strike me if she chooses.”

Niall waved the words away. “You know what I mean, Irial. Now is not the time to—"

“To hurt Irial needs only hurting you or Leslie,” Aislinn interrupted, trying to think strategically. “To hurt me is to hurt Seth.”

“And angerSorcha?” Irial laughed. “No. The whelp is fine. No worries there.”

“Keep yourself safe, Irial. And Leslie,” Aislinn said mildly. “And, Niall, if you are willing, send me the Hunt. I have quarry.”

ChapterNine

Katherine

Katherine slipped out of the house several days later. Gina, her neighbor, was waiting there. She looked friendly enough, but any mortal foolish enough to consort with a faery made of darkness was of questionable intellect.

“I don’t want to discuss him,” Katherine said as the girl stood and approached.

“Fair.” Gina fell in step beside Katherine.

As they walked, Katherine started to relax. She reallydidwant friends. There was introvert, and then there was weird-secluded-loner, and Katherine wasn’tnaturallyeither one. If she had a choice, she suspected she’d be as extrovert as a person could get. Wander. Meet people. Seduc—no,not that. She wasn’t like her dad. She chose to be mortal.

After several tense, silent moments, Gina asked, “Could we discuss how you were glowing?”

“Glowing?”

“Like you were coated in something, and Uri was a black light making you shine.” Gina shrugged, but her expression was intense. “Are you actually human?”

Katherine sighed, looking out at the faeries lounging in among the rocks and Palo Verde trees and squat muted green shrubs that she’d learned were called sagebrush. The fey things were pointedly not looking at her, and she had to wonder if that was Uri’s doing.

“Not totally,” Katherine admitted.

Panic hit her hard as soon as she said the words. Never admit. Never risk. Never leave the house. She’d lived over two decades by those rules—all because her father was agancangh, a love-faery, a seducer. But it had hit her like a slap that she was never going to get more mortal.HerSight wasn’t because of some ointment. It was because she wasn’t human. Not really.

“My dad was. . . you know.” Katherine swallowed hard. Maybe it was easier admitting it because Gina already believed in the fey.

“So you’re basically destined to be stuck between worlds, eh?” Gina nudged her with her shoulder. “Maybe the desertiswhere you ought to be. We get the lost ones here, in-betweeners of some sort or another.”

Katherine nodded.

“So you know a lot of people like you?” Gina prompted.

“None.”

“Until Uri,” Gina added.

Again, Katherine nodded. “Don’t reallyknowhim though, do I?”

Gina gave her a wicked grin. “Girl, from the way he was eye-stripping you, you certainlycould. Don’t think we haven’t all wished he’d look at us that way, but he says we’d get sick—like AIDS but worse—if we touch him.”

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