“I don’t believe you.”
“About the strolling or the stalking?”
“Either.”
Kaden stared at me intently and attempted a casual shrug. “If you must know, I sensed that you were in peril and flew here as fast as I could.”
“Yousensedit?” I shot back. “What do you mean you sensed it?”
“Exactly what I said.”
“How?”
He blinked, and somehow I just knew he wasn’t going to answer my question. Just because faeries couldn’t lie didn’t mean they had to offer up the truth.
“Why did you help me?”
Kaden cocked his head to the side. “Part of me was curious what you’d gotten yourself into this time.”
“Well, thank you for your concern. And the healing. But you can go now. I’m fine.”
“And deny myself the opportunity to ask what business you had with the Ringmaster tonight?”
I blanched. “Youwerefollowing me.”
He rolled his eyes. “If I were following you, would I admit to what I’d seen?”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Did you really think a huntress visiting the faerie circus would go unnoticed? Because it didn’t. The fae talk, tiny violent one. So tell me. Why were you there?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
Kaden’s expression turned to steel, and for the first time, I saw the dark, malevolent thing that he was peeking out from behind that handsome mask. “On the contrary, little huntress. A predator like you sniffing around my kind is very much my concern.”
At those words, something inside me snapped. I might have been a natural predator, but so was he. And so were those faeries at the circus tonight. “If I’m such a threat,” I countered, “why bother saving me at all? Why not just let me bleed out in that alley?”
That muscle in Kaden’s jaw tightened again, and those stormy gray eyes flashed in warning. “Let me make one thing very clear. If I thought you were as bloodthirsty as the rest of your kind, Gorm and those bastards never would have gotten their filthy hands on you.” He lowered his voice. “I would have let that demon rip apart your mind the first time I saw you. I would have let him toy with you, control you,breakyou untilyou were nothing but a soul trapped in a feeble husk of flesh. Then I would have let the rats gnaw on your rotting corpse as those demons dragged your soul to the Otherworld.”
My mouth went dry.
“Fortunately for you, I do not make snap judgments based on one’s race. There is a part of me — a foolish part, perhaps — that believes you are different from the likes of Silas.”
Something in my expression must have slipped, because he added, “Yes, I know you work for him. I also know he doesn’t let his hunters off their leashes to go to the circus. So I’m going to ask you once again: What — were you — doing there?”
A thousand answers flitted through my mind, but I didn’t allow myself to latch on to any of them. I’d once heard that very powerful fae could read thoughts, but only if those thoughts were left unguarded. I wasn’t going to let Kaden know that I’d left Silas — that I was alone and unprotected.
The fae didn’t do anything out of the goodness of their hearts. Kaden wanted something from me — of that I was certain. I just didn’t know what that might be yet. So I shoved the thought aside and pictured a series of iron doors slamming shut on my mind.
Kaden sighed as if he realized what I’d done. Or maybe I was just that easy to read. “Where’s your friend?” he asked.
“What?” I snapped.
“Your friend.” He gestured around the apartment. “The one who cares for that demonic cat.”
I had to fight back a smile at our shared dislike of Goose.
“You know, I’ve never known a witch to keep the company of hunters, and I’m fairly certain Silas never met a witch he didn’t have a use for.” Kaden raised an eyebrow. “It’s a risky game you’re playing, if you value your friend’s life.”
