Page 53 of Explosive Chemistry

“Yes. Thank you.”

The prince shrugged. “We’re even.”

“You did not promise me a favor.” Liliana looked at his face for a moment, confused.

His lips twitched in a tic at the edges. “You didn’t promise to keep me from getting hit by a car.”

They had exchanged “not favors.” Again.

It was as if the two of them, with unspoken agreement, had turned the laws of Fae bargaining on their heads to become a free exchange of whatever gifts or favors the other person felt like giving.

And now they both knew the enemy they fought, even if he did not trust her enough to let her fight at his side.

Yet.

She looked back at the colorful bar of ribbons on his chest, a smile painting her lips, before getting out of the warm car and heading back into the teeth of the storm.

Chapter 15

The Spider, The Wolf, And The Detective

The driving rain soaked Liliana to the skin again in the few seconds it took to reach the front door of the police station. She ducked quickly inside as the door automatically shut. The warmth loosened some of her muscles, but the crowd tightened them right back up again.

A surprising number of people crowded into the station lobby. Many were shouting about their power being knocked out and people stealing from them while security systems were down. Some griped about wrecks caused by traffic signals failing, confusing their auto-drive programs.

Liliana wrapped her arms around herself, hugging tight, and shivering, six of her eyes firmly shut, the other two pinned on her soaked ballet shoes. People bumped into her, crowded her, shouted, and jostled. She fought hard against the urge to shut down. Too many people in too small a space could make her mind retreat inside itself where she would become unaware and time would pass without touching her.

Her favorite goblin and her favorite sprite did not have time for her to shut down.

Liliana got in a line with a bunch of other people and waited her turn. She watched a big digital clock on the wall with large red numbers out of the corners of her human eyes, as it marked the time Doctor Nudd and Siobhan had left to live.

Finally, she reached the front of the line. A policeman with a mustache that made her wonder if he might be walrus-kin sat behind a desk she could barely see over. He asked her business there.

“I need to speak to Detective Shonda Jackson,” she said. “I have information related to a case.” That should get her in, and while the goblin’s murder was not yet a police case, it undoubtedly would be by the end of the day if she didn’t manage to prevent it.

“Jackson, huh? Wait over there. I’ll call her in a minute.”

Liliana sat in the hard chair as instructed and watched the digital clock to know when a minute had passed. When two passed, she considered doing something, but she wasn’t certain what. She had already waited in the line once for approximately fifteen minutes for the privilege of talking to the walrus man. She did not wish to do it again. The man left her waiting for another seven minutes while he dealt with others. Liliana was beginning to worry that Pete would leave before she could get to him. If that happened, one or both of her Fae friends would die.

Liliana ignored the social rule that said she must wait her turn. She was running out of time. She shoved a man three times her size with a lot of tattoos aside and took his place at the front of the line.

He gave her an aggrieved look and said, “Hey!” He had waited his turn properly.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I need to see Detective Jackson now,” she told the walrus. “Lives depend on it.”

“Okay, lady, keep your shirt on.”

Liliana blinked at him for a moment, confused. “I have no intention of taking my shirt off. I am already cold.”

The walrus officer blinked back at her for a few seconds, then shook his head and yelled over his shoulder, “Hey, West!

A man in police uniform, who was even bigger and more muscular than the tattooed man behind her, shifted his armful of files and answered. “Yo!”

“This lady says she needs to talk to Jackson right now. Life or death.”

“On it.” The big police officer escorted her into the building, dropping stacks of folders on various desks as he went.

She had seen this man a time or two before in visions and in the forest after she found the grave of the two soldiers. “You are Detective Jackson’s friend.”

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