“I was inconspicuous. You are not.”
“You were not. You mutter to yourself constantly. If they didn’t see you, they certainly heard you.”
“What are you girls up to?” Steve asked from the edge of the garden. He had clothes on, thank goodness.
“Just trying to make people uncomfortable,” Reagan said, finally peeling away and allowing Penny a sigh of relief. “It’s working, I think, but damn, they’re really good at ignoring things. Which you know, obviously. Why you guys are bent out of shape about it, I don’t know. Look what fun I’m having.”
Steve laughed. “I don’t think normal people get a kick out of being ignored.”
“It’s not being ignored so much as the effort behind it. Like…” She tromped through the flowers. A glance back saw no reaction from the people whose garden she was ruining. “They are conveying the message that we don’t belong in the most passive-aggressive way possible. Doesn’t that tickle your funny bone? Why didn’t you guys just randomly trip people or something when you were here last time? Or barge into their houses and just take a bed if you didn’t like your setup?”
“We were trying to play nice for Charity’s sake. Still are, actually, though Romulus is trying to pave the way for Roger to gain more status. They are defrosting to us a little. Given your…lineage, I would expect they’d do the same for you.”
“Meh.” Batting a hand through the air, she stepped away from the crushed flowers and started down the little pathway further into town. Steve walked with her, and Penny followed, resisting the urge to apologize. “I couldn’t be bothered. I’ve never fit in before. Why should I try now? It’s much more fun trying to pick fights. They will crack first, believe me. Someone will punch me by the end of the day.”
“It’ll be me,” Penny said, lagging behind just a little, hunching for all she was worth. She was so annoyed that Emery was the political one between them. While he got to be invisible and attend the hearing of the First—the warrior fae called it something different, but she couldn’t remember the term—she was stuck following Reagan around, a party to crazy antics that were so against the social norms of this place. “I’ll be the one punching her in the face.”
Reagan nodded with her lips turned down in a duck bill. “Quite possibly.”
“You gave ol’ Cole a good wallop yesterday,” Steve said, falling back just a little so he could talk to Penny.
She shrugged. She’d tried to explain that she hadn’t actually meant the ball-to-his-head situation as an insult, merely as a way to show Reagan up. She’d figured he might understand that. But he’d persisted until it got dangerous, and then she’d had to react. Everyone knew she went overboard when she was reacting. She didn’t know what he was expecting.
“And then you rang the Second’s bell. I don’t think he expected that. He had you on the run.” Steve smiled with a twinkle in his deep blue eyes.
She shrugged again.
“Never get Penny on the run,” Reagan said as she waved at someone coming from the opposite direction. “Your fly is down.” The man didn’t glance over. “Hey, bro, your dick is hanging out.” He looked straight ahead, realizing, of course, that his robe thing lacked a fly (if he even knew what that was) and his dangly bits wouldn’t hang out if he tried. Which Steve probably had at some point. “Here, I’ll get it.”
Reagan darted toward the fae, bent, and reached between his legs.
That did it.
He jumped back, looked her way with wide eyes, and covered his junk all in one harried movement.
“Ha!” She pointed at him, her finger inches from his face. He blinked under her crazy stare. “Got you. Try harder, bub. Your countrymen are better at this than you.”
He let out a wavering breath and stepped away gingerly, working around her.
“Low,” Steve said with a smile. “Going for a guy’s junk is low.”
“I kicked Roger in the nuts. You think I really care about the rules of polite warfare?”
“This is true.” They kept sauntering along the path as though it were a pleasant stroll and Reagan wasn’t trying to cause havoc and turn the place upside down. The terrifying part was that she hadn’t really gotten going yet. She was supposed to take it easy for a while, then turn up the pressure, then pop into the proceedings and learn what she could from people’s thoughts.
Penny missed the days when they could just go home after Reagan caused a scene. She’d never complain about those instances again.
“Ah, there’s Callie and Dizzy.” Reagan pointed up ahead.
The dual-mages stood in the center of one of four gardens that made up the corners of a small square. In the middle was large shrubbery fashioned after a fountain. It was cool but weird, and it fit this place perfectly.