Tabitha shook her head, her expression carefully schooled into an innocent blank slate as if she had no idea what I was talking about, and couldn't possibly have done such a thing.

I folded forward with an irate groan, bracing an elbow on my knee to rub my forehead with the heel of a palm. Gods, I was a fucking idiot. She'd stolen it from my pocket when she'd been feeling me up.

Glancing up at her, I could feel it in the air, her unease, the desperation to seem nonchalant. I knew her well enough by now. She was good, really fucking good. But she wasn't stupid, she knew I was onto her.

Tabitha shot to her feet suddenly and the blanket fell around her heels like a dirty pool of water. Flipping her hand, she glanced at a watch that wasn't on her wrist. "Well, this has been lovely, but it's late and I need to get back to the Stag Party, they'll be leaving soon." She craned her neck, her hair tumbling down her back like a waterfall, and drank the glass of wine in one long go, her throat working as she swallowed it down. She swiped the beads glistening on her lips with the back of her hand when she was done.

"You knocked that back so fast you'd never have known if it was bold and dry," I muttered sarcastically as I pushed upright. I just knew she was going to hightail it to get out of this with me.

Wide-eyed, she spun around to face me fully. The navy skirt billowed out around her long legs in a bell-like shape. "Pardon?"

I gestured with an annoyed flick of my fingers to her empty wine glass. "The server mixed up our drinks."

She blinked. "You switched the drinks back?"

My bitter laugh warmed my belly at how shocked she looked. For a weird moment, I swore I heard her curse under her breath as she stamped a rockstar heel on the teak wood.

Tabitha ditched the wine glass on the coffee table, scooped up her clutch from the couch, and stormed into motion. She shoved through the cabana's curtains, batting them aside furiously with a fist. I was on my feet after her in a blink.

Fucked if she was going to run from this conversation.

But the godsdamned server blocked me with her inconvenient arrival, the jug of water perspiring with condensation on a silver tray. I barked my demand that our drinks be added to my personal account, anxious to catch up with Tabitha who hustled across the rooftop, her shoulders hunched around her ears, a hand splayed sideways as if to shield herself from the sight of the highrise's edge.

Snatching the pen and pad from the server, who took fucking forever to fish them out of her apron pocket, I hastily scribbled my signature. Bolting across the rooftop, through the avenue of Japanese maples, I cursed loudly, skidding to a halt outside the foyer's doors. Shifting from foot to foot, I waited impatiently for them to open. Through the glass, I could see Tabitha already inside the elevator. She jittered on the spot, shooting me panicked glances as she frantically stabbed the button repeatedly as if it would encourage its doors to close faster.

Finally, the foyer's doors began to slide apart, excruciatingly slowly, so slowly I was tempted to smash my fist through the glass.

I squeezed through the slender gap—

My footfall thundered down the patterned tiles—

And I hurled myself sideways between the burnished metal doors before they closed completely and locked me out.

"Godsdammit," Tabitha huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. She wedged herself into the furthest corner, averting her gaze by glaring down at her strappy, studded black heels.

We began to glide downward and some cheesy happy-go-lucky elevator song began to play that made me want to punch the fucking speakers out. I tugged my tie roughly from over my shoulder where it'd caught and flapped in my sprint to reach Tabitha in time. The small space was a cage and I paced like a feral lion, locking both hands at the back of my head, my blood boiling and sputtering. "You stole the ring. Admit it," I growled between gritted teeth.

"I did no such thing," she denied. And petulantly added to goad me, "You lost it."

"No, I fucking didn't."

Her head snapped up, eyes blazing and scarlet lips a thin mean line. She rapped her clutch against an upper arm in a rhythm of simmering anger—tap, tap, tap.

I dropped my hands to my hips, my entire body clenching tight as I advanced on her. My broad figure blocked the light above and my shadow fell over her smaller frame like a threat. "Tell me the godsdamned truth, Tabitha!"

The floors ticked by in a series of red numbers as we glared at one another in a silent standoff. This time I wasn't going to lose. She was.

Frustration radiated from her and scorched my skin like a windborne flurry of embers. She'd been caught out and was now trapped in both a tangle of lies and me in a metal box. There was nowhere to run. Fire lit the gold in her iris. Fierce and destructive. Strands of hair wavered around her burning cheeks and heaving chest, like amber flames. She was beautiful in her defiance.

Infuriatingly stubborn.

Gloriously obstinate.

But I was just as pigheaded.

She cracked with utter magnificence, strangling out a gaaaah sound. "OKAY!" she roared, shaking her black clutch right in my face. "I did. I stole it from your pocket while I stroked your cock and almost got you off!"

Finally. The truth. And godsdamn her—fucking clever.

"Why?" What was so important about that ring?

"Because I'm a kleptomaniac," she tossed back at me, flinging her arms wide and stamping a heel. "I can't help myself. I like shiny, sparkly things, so I stole the ring like a magpie!"

It was the most absurd thing I'd ever heard. So absurd I threw my head back and erupted into harsh laughter, the abrasive sound clashing against the mirrored walls. One thing I knew for sure, Tabitha Catt wasn't a kleptomaniac. "Bull-fucking-shit!"

I scrubbed my face roughly with a hand, trying to get a grip on my anger. I tried for calm and rational, softening my voice. "Tabitha, what the hells is going on? What are you involved in?"

"Nothing. Just a bit of old-fashioned thieving is all," she spat back, glancing sideways at a mirrored wall, the reflection of our unyielding standoff bouncing between the two walls was endless, infinite.

I lost my grip on my anger and it exploded. Fizzing. Crackling. Sparking. The mirrored walls almost seemed to warp with my rage. An electric buzz charged through my veins like ice droplets cracking up against one another in a wrathful black thundercloud. "DON'T LIE TO ME!"

She flinched but didn't back down. She wasn't afraid of me. She sucked in my rage like a whirlwind—stole it, owned it, and amplified it. Her fearsome glare went darker, savage. I almost caved under its might. She was a goddess of fire and indignation.

"You hacked off Laurena's hair, stole the moonlit ring, and I know for a fact you're not going into the forest every morning for runs or hikes or checking your friend's traps for pesky foxes. Those traps are yours and you're collecting kills to feed krekenns!"

She burst into scoffing laughter. "Krekenns?!"

"I found krekenn spiderwebs on you last week."

She rolled her eyes and drawled, "I think I would know if I'd been stuck in a krekenn web."

"Tabitha," I snarled in warning.

"The Hemmlok Forest is wild and dangerous. Jurgana and her sister reside there, as well as who the hells knows how many other Horned Gods," she replied in a snarky voice, perching a hand on her hip with attitude as if I was the one being delusional. "Of course, there might be deadly things like krekenns lurking inside of it."

The elevator eased to a stop. Behind me, the doors opened.

In a burst of motion, she darted around my tall figure and bolted from the elevator. I whirled around, going after her. She hurried down the hallway we'd earlier walked down, shoving through an inconspicuous doorway that opened to a series of utilitarian corridors that led to the nightclub.

Her heels clattered on the dark tiles. She moved so fast in that long leggy stride of hers, she was speed walking and I was half-jogging by her side.

"Krekenns don't live in fucking forests, Tabitha, and you know it."

She ignored me.

"I found a cave and I'm pretty fucking certain there's a nest of krekenns inside. I can hear them scrambling around inside. And your tracks led me straight to them."

Her pace faltered.

She knew right then, she'd lost.

Though she paled, her spine stiffened with defiance. "I'm looking after them for a friend," she admitted. Lifting her chin, she quickened her pace, still refusing to look at me as she turned another corner. The music grew louder, the thump of bass vibrating down the corridor the closer we neared the entrance to the club.

"The same friend you went and visited in Ascendria?" It was a wild stab in the dark, but I'd watched her collect roadkill on the way to Ascendria and she hadn't returned with the manky scraps of dead animals. She'd also taken a bag of cleaning things with her too. She'd disappeared for a couple of hours in the middle of the market and I hadn't been able to find her.

"I knew you'd been following me," she cried, astounded and rounding on me. "Why would you do that?"

"Because you've been lying to me."

"I haven't been lying."

"Withholding the truth then."

I shook my head in disbelief at her outraged expression. She owned an extremely rare artifact, one of Zrenyth's blades no less, nevermind unnatural healing, had a cave of krekenns, stole Laurena's hair and a ring of captured moonlight. What the hells was she going to do with them all?

"It's none of your business what I get up to in my life!" she shouted, thwacking her clutch at my upper arm.

Seriously? I reminded myself this was all new to her. She'd never been in a relationship before. "You're my girlfriend,"—and I fucking love you— "Of course, it's my business."

Her brows shot up and her eyes shone with astonishment. Her anger dissipated and her features softened. "Your girlfriend?" she said in a small pleased voice, lowering her clutch and taking a step closer.

I realized we hadn't admitted those things out loud to one another yet. It felt good claiming it, claiming her. "Yeah." I risked her pushing me away by latching my hands around her hips, tugging her up close, the heat of her body warming my own and melting against me. "Let me in. I can help. Just tell me what's going on," I asked, damn near begging.

She spread her hands on my biceps, scanning my face, still hesitant. It was a long drawn-out moment before she sighed heavily, wearily, and nodded. "I can't tell you, not now, not like this." She glanced briefly over her shoulder to the entranceway of the pulsing club. "It's a long story to tell and I've got the wedding tomorrow and Sanela's birthday party coming up too. It's going to be a really busy time at the Deniauds and I don't know if I'm going to be able to see you as much as we have this past week."

"What about when we go out after the wedding?"

She skimmed her hand down my tie, smoothing it against my chest and I resisted stretching into her touch. "Can't I be selfish and just enjoy my evening with you?"

"Okay," I agreed, not liking it, but doing it anyway. "One week. But I need to know—is someone making you do this?

Her hair ruffled as she shook her head. "No. No one's forcing me to do this."

"Are you in danger?"

"No. No, I'm not. I promise," she said in a rush. "The only dangerous thing was collecting Laurena's hair."

And that went so fucking south it wasn't funny. If Byron hadn't covered for my sister, Valarie would be the one blamed for it. And if Tabitha didn't possess unnaturally healing she would have bled out on the hallway floor.

"I'm doing it for a friend. They're not well and they need my help collecting a few odd things," she confessed.

Did I believe her? Who the hells was this friend of hers anyway? And what would I do when she told me her story?

Help her?

Or stop her?

"Please, give me a week and I'll explain everything then," she said earnestly.

"Everything, Tabitha. You don't leave out a single detail."

"Everything. I promise," she replied.

"Okay," I breathed, relief easing the tension in my limbs.

Untangling ourselves from one another, I took her by the arm, guiding her toward the murky light at the end of the corridor, the music pounding along with my rapid heartbeat.

Heat and smoke washed around us as we entered the club. The laser lights arched overhead, splattering violet and blue light over our skin. We went to split up and return to the VIP section separately, but I wasn't quite ready to let Tabitha Catt go. Before she vanished into the seething mass of limbs, I grabbed hold of her forearm and spun her back around. She fell into me with a startled oof, her hands spread across my chest to steady herself, my hands on her waist keeping her upright.

I bowed my head to whisper in her ear so she could hear me over the loud music. "I don't want us to end this night like this. We were out having fun. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," she whisper-shouted back, her fingers pressing into my chest deeper.

My hand slid beneath her heavy hair to cup the nape of her neck and angle her lips perfectly to meet mine. I stole a deep lingering kiss as the music thrummed through my blood and the dancers flowed around us. Coming up for air, both of us breathing heavily, she blinked slowly with a goofy grin. "I'll see you in a few days' time," she promised.

As I grinned back, I glanced over her shoulder.

My smile slipped from my face and ice crystallized in my blood.

Ahead of me, the dancers had drifted apart, and in the gap was a woman standing still and staring directly at me.

It was her hair I noticed first, or rather the lack of it. The pale blond fuzz was clipped short, almost bald in spots, but her fingers twirled at a point high on her chest as if she were twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

I snatched a swift look at her through the corner of my eyes and I saw the glamour Laurena Wychthorn had woven over her hair, the coiffed locks were parted on the side and fell down her chest in ripples of pale blond. It would feel real to her, as it would look and feel to anyone without true sight.

Glee shone in her icy blue eyes as she smiled above the lip of her glass like a snake.

Tabitha had her back to Laurena and I jerked us both around to shield her with my formidable size.

Shit, shit, shit...

"What's going on?" Tabitha asked, as I quickly led her into the crowd, letting them swallow us up to hide from the Wychthorn princess. She stumbled along, trying to keep up with me as I barged my way through the dancers.

"Nothing," I lied, trying to smile casually down at her, but it felt too tight on my face. "We need to get back before anyone notices we've been missing." There was no need to worry her. "I'll see you the night after the wedding."

I watched Tabitha disappear into the throng as she headed back to the Stag Party, and I turned about to leave the club.

The chilly night air clawed my body in a whirling breeze. I shivered as my core temperature plummeted further. I strode to where Romain's driver waited for me by the curbside, avoiding grates with plumes of steam clouding the loud, busy street with its neon lights.

I wasn't sure if Laurena had seen and recognized Tabitha. What I did know about Laurena Wychthorn—she was cruel and bitter and liked to mess with others.

I had an awful feeling my life was about to become fucking uncomfortable.