Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely 2)

Ani poked her head in the doorway. “She pick one?”

Rabbit ignored her. “Tell me what you thought when you picked it. Were there any others that…called to you?”

Leslie shook her head. “No. Just that one. I want it. Soon. Now.”

And she did. It felt like she was looking at a banquet and realizing she hadn’t ever eaten, like a craving that she needed to fill immediately.

After another long look, he pulled her into his arms for a quick hug. “So be it.”

Leslie turned to Ani. “It’s perfect. It’s a chaos star and knotwork with these amazing eyes and shadow wings.”

Ani took one look at Rabbit—who nodded—and then she whistled. “You’re stronger than I thought. Wait till Tish hears.” She left, calling out, “Tish? Guess which one Leslie picked.”

“No shit?” Tish’s shriek made Rabbit close his eyes.

Shaking her head, Leslie told Rabbit, “You realize that you’re all being über-weird, even for people who live at a tattoo shop.”

Instead of acknowledging her remark, Rabbit brushed her hair back tenderly like he did with his own sisters’. “I’ll need a couple days to get the right ink for this one. You can change your mind.”

“I won’t.” She felt the unnatural urge to squeal like Tish had. Soon, she’d have it, the perfect ink. “Let’s talk price.”

Niall watched Leslie walk out of Pins and Needles. When she walked through the city, she moved with her shoulders squared, pace steady. It was at odds with the fears he knew hid inside her. Today, though, her confidence seemed almost real.

He stepped closer, pushing off the redbrick wall where he’d been leaning while she was in the tattoo shop. As she paused to survey the shadows in the street, Niall brushed his fingers over a lock of her hair that’d fallen forward over her cheek. Her hair—almost as wood brown as his own—wasn’t long enough to tie back or short enough to stay back on its own, just right to be intriguing.

Like she is.

His fingers barely grazed her cheek, not enough for her to react. He leaned closer so he could smell her skin. Before work, she had a lavender scent, not perfume, but the shampoo she favored lately. “What are you doing out alone again? You know better.”

She didn’t answer him. She never did: mortals didn’t see faeries, didn’t hear them—especially mortals the Summer Queen had insisted be kept unaware of the Faery Courts.

Initially, at his king’s request, Niall had taken a few of the shifts guarding Leslie. When she was unaware, he could walk beside her and talk to her as he couldn’t when he was visible to her. The way the mortal girl looked at him—like he was better than he’d ever been, like he was attractive because of who he was, not because of his role in the Summer Court—was a heady thing, too much so, in truth.

If his queen hadn’t asked it, Niall still would’ve wanted to keep Leslie safe. But Aislinn did order it. Unlike Leslie, when Aislinn had been mortal, she’d seen the ugliness of the faery world. Since becoming the Summer Queen she’d worked to find a balance with the equally new Winter Queen. It didn’t leave a lot of time for keeping her mortal friends safe, but it did give her the power to order faeries to assure the mortals’ safety. Such a task would not normally be handled by a court advisor, but Niall had been more family than mere advisor to the Summer King for centuries. Keenan suggested that Aislinn would feel better knowing that her closest friends’ safety was under the direction of a faery she trusted.

Although it had been only a few shifts at first, more and more, Niall took extra duty watching over her. He hadn’t done so with the others, but they didn’t fascinate him as Leslie did. Leslie vacillated between vulnerable and bold, fierce and frightened. Once, when he had collected mortals for playthings, she would’ve been irresistible, but he was stronger now.

Better.

He forced away that line of thought and watched the sway of Leslie’s hips as she walked through the streets of Huntsdale with a courage—foolishness—that ran counter to what he knew of her experiences. Maybe she’d go home if home were any safer. It wasn’t. He’d seen that the first time he’d stood waiting on her front step, heard her drunken father, her vile brother. Her home might look charming from the outside, but that was a lie.

Like so much of her life.

He glanced down at the heelless shoes she had on, at her bare calves, at her long legs. The unexpectedly early start of summer this year—after ages of oppressive cold—was leading to mortals exposing more skin. Looking at Leslie, Niall wasn’t complaining. “At least you have decent shoes tonight. I couldn’t believe you went to work in those dainty little things the other night.” He shook his head. “They were lovely, though. Well, really, I just liked the glimpse of your ankles.”

She headed to the restaurant, where she would put on her fake smile and flirt with the customers. He’d see her to the door; then he’d wait outside, watching the bodies that came and went, making sure they didn’t mean her harm. It was the routine.

Sometimes he let himself imagine how things would be if she could truly know him—see him in a true light. Would her eyes widen in fear if she saw the extent of his scars? Would her face crumple in disgust if she knew the horrible things he’d done before he belonged to the Summer Court? Would she ask why he kept his hair shorn? And if she asked, could he answer any of those questions?

“Would you run from me?” he asked in a low voice, hating the fact that his heart sped at the thought of pursuing a mortal girl.

Leslie paused as a group of young men catcalled from their car. One of them hung halfway out the window, displaying his vulgarity as if it made him a man. Niall doubted that she could hear their words: the bass in their car was too loud for mere voices to compete with. Actual words weren’t necessary to know threat. Leslie tensed.

The car sped away, the rumbling bass fading like thunder from a passing storm.

He whispered against her ear, “They’re just children, Leslie. Come now. Where’s that spring in your step?”

Her breathy sigh was soft enough that he would have missed it if he hadn’t been standing very close. A little of the tension eased from her shoulders, but the drawn look stayed on her face. It never seemed to fade. Her makeup didn’t hide the shadows under her eyes. Her long sleeves didn’t hide the purpling bruises from her brother’s angry strikes the other day.