The city flowed by and I dodged in and out of traffic smoothly while Tabitha shimmied her shoulders and sang along with Blondie's Heart of Glass.

She opened up the box of ravioli swimming in a sauce of mushrooms and pine nuts and shavings of truffle. She closed her eyes, inhaled the flavors wafting upward, and made that low sultry moan again and I had to adjust my straining hard-on discreetly.

Taking a bite of ravioli she tilted her head to the side with a thoughtful look. "What's it like being an enforcer? Do you like it?"

Her question startled me and for a moment everything emptied out of my head, including what she'd asked.

In all the years I'd been with Irma she'd barely asked me anything after a day's work. It was always—How are you? Quickly followed up by—Did I remember that I was taking her to whatever-the-fuck to show off to whomever-the-fuck. Then pouting—I'd hoped you'd have worn the gray tux not the black.

Tabitha continued to look at me with an expectant expression, patiently waiting for me to answer.

I did like being an enforcer and I did like working for Upper House Novak. I mean it wasn't all I did. Sometimes there was a whole bunch of paperwork to do, meetings with other Houses, and hunting down mortals or an elusive beast for tithes we owed the Horned Gods.

"Yeah," I began, because though it could be stressful dealing with the leaders of cartels and crime syndicates, there was nothing as thrilling and adrenaline-pumping as going in there scaring the shit out of them. "I do like being an enforcer." And then I just kept talking.

Tabitha listened while eating and feeding me mouthfuls of ravioli that melted across my tongue. She asked further questions, and because of the insightful line her inquiries took within five minutes she'd proven what a shrewd mind she had.

As I slowly spun the steering wheel around to lead us onto the highway and leave the city behind, I continued to talk about my job and the different aspects of what my family did for the Horned Gods. And it eventually led to Sirro.

"He's so charming and so freaking scary at the same time," Tabitha said, twirling linguini onto her fork.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Now was the time to ask her about Sirro. The Horned God had her pinned against a tree, and the faintest trace of whatever was prowling the Deniauds' home—Kinslayer or not—had been present at the exact same time.

"So..." I began, tapping my finger on the steering wheel, wondering how to phrase this. "The morning after Jurgana, what did Sirro want with you?"

She stilled and her wary gaze snapped to mine. "How do you know about that?"

Relief flooded through me that at the very least she wasn't denying it.

Then her eyes flared with a shot of anger. She parted her lips and I was sure she was going to say something like—Were you stalking me again? Before she could, I jumped in with a rush of words. "I came looking for you to say goodbye before I left the Deniauds'."

Confusion creased a line between her eyebrows. "Why?"

She really was clueless. "Parting with a goodbye is what friends do."

"The last time we spoke that morning you blackmailed me," she replied dryly. "Is that what friends do to one another?"

"I'm a super friendly blackmailer."

Delightful laughter burst from her throat. She shook her head at me, grinning with that godsdamned sexy as fuck dimple. "Super friendly blackmailer."

"So Sirro?" I nudged. "When I spoke with him, I saw your footprints and traces of fibers from your clothing hooked into the bark as if he'd pinned you up against the tree."

The wariness left her gaze and she pursed her mouth to the side, glancing upward, thinking about it. "I surprised him for some reason and he reacted badly at first. It was so strange, almost as if he'd seen a ghost, like I reminded him of someone else."

I was about to tell her that he'd recognized her as a child when what she'd said triggered a memory from that morning beneath the spread boughs of the tree Sirro had her fixed against. The Horned God had said something when he first began discussing Tabitha.

What was it?

At first, I thought... Nevermind...

Curiosity prickled down my spine. She had reminded Sirro of someone else. Maybe that was why he was clearly intrigued with Tabitha.

"And was that it? Did anything else happen with Sirro?" The Horned God had been enraged when he'd come to find me to hunt down the third scent present at the scene.

"Nothing else," she said, lifting the forkful of linguini and shrimp coated in garlic sauce to her mouth. "He apologized and let me go."

Did I believe her? Yes, no...maybe.

Tabitha finished her mouthful before asking, "What sort of business are you on for him at the Deniauds'?"

"He wanted me to track something."

Unease expanded in my chest as I watched her nuances from the corner of my eye, and I saw a sharp spark of fear briefly tighten her features. I didn't know what was going on with her, if she had anything to do with that presence for certain, but I had to find out for Sirro and myself too.

"I'm hunting through the forest to make sure we got all of Jurgana's beasts," I lied. "Sirro wants me to make sure none of them escaped and are running around on the loose."

"Oh." All the tension melted from her body and she squiggled back into her seat, getting comfortable again.

"It can be dangerous out there," I pushed.

"Yes," she said quietly, putting away the empty box of linguini and picking a new starter. "It can be. But you don't need to worry, I can look after myself. Like I told you this morning, I don't go in too deep. I really like being in the forest, especially first thing in the morning. Sometimes I reset snares and traps for one of my colleagues and bring in what he's caught. He loves rabbit stew and there's been a few pesky foxes getting into the hen house of late." She stared right at me as she said it and fucked if I didn't know if she was telling me the truth or not.

Maybe she was doing the trapping for someone else. And then I reminded myself—she had krekenn webs in her hair for fucks' sake. Even if she'd inadvertently walked into krekenn webs it would have been impossible for her to break free. Tabitha wasn't like me, a Crowther with heightened strength. Which begged a question, just what was Miss Catt? I tried to push down the worry that surged through my veins because if she were other I couldn't help her. I'd be forced to hand her over to the Horned Gods.

The headlights of the sports car grazed along the narrow road and I pondered whether or not to confront Tabitha about the krekenns. For now, I thought it was better to keep her in the dark about how much I knew about her.

It was when I slowed down, shifting gears and dropping my foot off the accelerator, that Tabitha suddenly realized we were headed elsewhere. "Where are we going?" She propped herself up straighter and looked through her car window at the countryside coated in darkness. I turned off the road and into the forest that grew up around the silver lake of Ascendria. She half-swiveled my way. "I thought you were taking me home?"

We bumped along a dirt road that could barely be called a road. "There's a place I want to show you." It was a spot amongst graceful willows that hardly anyone knew about.

Amusement sparkled in Tabitha's sea-green eyes as the underside of the low sports car scraped along the road's uneven surface and a loud sound of scratching metal could be heard from scraggly branches raking along the Bugatti's polished flanks. "Aren't you worried about your fancy car?"

I was just about to answer—I have another dozen to choose between if I fuck this one up—when I caught myself just in time. Reminding Tabitha of the vast difference in rank and status would destroy the casual ease I'd fostered between us. Instead, I asked, "What do you do besides reading porn in the forest?"

Her shoulders shuddered and even her stomach jiggled with one of those deep belly laughs. "Oh my gods—porn. It's not porn," she corrected, shaking her head at me. "It's spicy romance."

"Okay," I grinned. "What do you do besides read spicy romance then?"

"I go for runs," she lied with a straight face.

"Collect mushrooms," I added.

"And go hiking too." Tabitha opened up the small starter box and sighed. "Carpaccio, my favourite." Scooping up a piece of tenderized meat drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with shards of dried chili, sea salt, and capers, she lazily chewed, savoring every morsel while rolling up a slice for me.

"My aunt and I are amateur astronomers and we take photographs of the night sky." She reached over and I parted my lips, eyes sliding to hers, as the tip of her finger pushed the rolled meat into my mouth. I couldn't resist swiping her finger with my tongue.

Her breath caught and her green eyes darkened.

Flustered she sat back and fussed with the box, closing it up and selecting a new one full of goodness. But she didn't open it. She slid her hands back and forth over the green and white and red striped box. "I really love gardening. That's what I spend most of my spare time doing. White climbing roses are my favorite. Not the kind you mostly find growing these days, but the heritage roses with their irregular clusters of petals."

That summed Tabitha up perfectly, a rare rose, and was the answer to her unique scent. I liked the idea of her coming home with grass stains on her knees and dirt under her nails. The summer sun tanning her skin darker and adding golden freckles to her cheeks. I envisaged a wicker basket hanging off an elbow filled with white blooms and green stems, as bright and glorious and fresh as her smile when she greeted me on the steps of my ancestral home.

She glanced up and I quickly looked away, safely tucking away the broad smile.

Gods, I am such a fucking sap.

I angled the sports car into a clearing. The headlights swept over the majestic willows and their draping fronds gently swaying in a light breeze. A series of streams and brooks wove through the forest, bubbling up against the weeping willows, their twisted roots soaking in the cool water. Further along, the brooks joined up with a river that tumbled into the city's lake.

Parking the Bugatti, I pushed up my door and quickly rounded the car to open Tabitha's up too.

"Would it be alright if I borrowed your magical phone to call home?" Tabitha grinned, snickering at the way I bristled when she said magical phone. "My aunt might be worried."

"Sure." I popped open the glove box, retrieved the stupid outdated 80s Brick, and handed it to her.

Tabitha sat in the car and dialed home. She spoke with someone at the Servants' Quarters while I spread a rug on the forest floor, gathered the remaining starters from the console, and set up a few torches to exhale light into the darkness. I tried not to listen to her private conversation but it was impossible not to. There was a lot of "She is?" and "With who?" and gasps along with, "No... No way... I can't believe it."

Tabitha got out of my car with big wide eyes. "My Aunt's gone on a date." She fisted both hands and this time squealed with excitement. "My aunt's gone on a date!" She bounded up, practically skipping through the wild grass and dandelions. "She's never dated anyone... Anyone," she breathed, sweeping her hands wide and twirling around so her skirt flowed in a summery swirl of blue. "When I phoned home I found out she'd left me a message to say she's gone out for dinner with Markel."

I frowned. "Who's Markel?"

"Our Chef."

Oh, the big burly guy who'd barked at me when I'd entered his kitchen and whom I'd seen this morning checking out Aunt Ellena's Vespa.

"She wanted to let me know she'd be home late." Tabitha shook her head in astonishment, her ponytail dancing with the motion. She blew out a puff of air. "I just can't believe it."

As devious as this was, I was fucking ecstatic myself. It meant more time with Tabitha and her not pushing me to get her home sooner.

"Well, I guess you don't have to worry if you're going to be late too now," I replied, placing the larger box of dessert on the cozy rug and beginning to head back to my car.

"No. I guess not," she said, settling down on the rug with a wide smile and awe still shining in her luminous eyes. She glanced up at the velvet sky with its ribbons of stars. "What did you want to show me?"

The long blades of grass and puffy heads of dandelions brushed against my calves as I turned around to face her and walk backward. I wiggled my eyebrows. "Patience, Miss Cat. It'll make its appearance soon."

Spinning around I chewed through the distance to my car. Bending over, I blindly searched beneath my car seat until my hands wrapped around a bottle of red wine and two long-stemmed glasses. I pulled them out, straightened, and headed back to Tabitha who sat on the rug with her knees tucked to the side.

I fully expected to see Tabitha still grinning while thinking of her aunt, but when I saw the delight fade away and her features begin to pinch with perplexion as if she was thinking something through, my pace faltered. A terrible feeling invaded my chest as her eyebrows slashed forward and her pretty lips thinned.

She suddenly made a low irritated sound at the back of her throat and drummed a fist against her bowed forehead. "I'm so stupid. So freaking stupid," she muttered.

My pace slowed down and I frowned. "What are you talking about?" Tabitha was one of the smartest people I knew.

She rounded on me fast and her features blazed with fury. "You broke my car on purpose to get me here!"

I gulped, coming to a standstill. Sticky heat flared at the back of my neck and my tie suddenly felt like it was strangling me.

"Admit it!" she hissed, stabbing a plastic fork at me.

I tried for innocence and shook my head slowly. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Her furious gaze shot to the wine in one hand and to the other where two plastic wine glasses dangling from my fingertips. She startled, her mouth falling open as her gaze swept downward and bounced between the boxes of Italian spread across the rug, slicing across to the pair of dessert spoons. Her complexion paled and her eyes grew wider and rounder. She gasped. "Is this a date?" She leaped to her feet and shrieked, "AM I ON A DATE?!"

My heart pounded in my chest and I felt dizzy and lightheaded as if I weren't breathing.

Fuck, I wasn't breathing.

I forced my lungs to suck in the barest trickle of air. Tabitha was going to find the nearest dullest blade and flay me alive. I croaked, "What if it is?"

"I've never been on a date before," she whispered, speaking to herself rather than me. "Oh my freaking..." She threw her arms wide and frantically scrutinized her appearance, tugging at her peacoat and smoothing down her summery dress, and lifting up a lemony yellow shoe. "I would have worn something else—not freaking Jelly shoes and a scrunchie!"

The bushy carpet of grass and dandelions suddenly sparkled with bright ambitious colors, as if a rainbow had exploded into dewdrops. Iridescent light lifted into the sky in straight streaks like a reverse sunshower as Willwips, elemental beings, awoke from their daytime beds tucked into the roots of dandelions to twirl across the sky.

The swarm flew as high as the tops of swaying trees and their luminescent trail of filmy light reminded me of Mrysst basking in moon rays, their ripple of colors like the northern lights stretching across the horizon.

Tabitha tipped her head back, gasping a soft sound of wonderment. The nearest cluster of Willwips gravitated toward her and swirled around her figure in a shimmer of silvery-white and pale violet and rich marigold. They landed on her outspread limbs and tangled in the gentle waves of her hair and set her figure aglow. Willwips fanned behind her and created an illusion of delicate wings. In that moment she looked like one of the ethereal faerie mortals liked to spin tales about.

And when Tabitha smiled at me, that broad beaming smile that showed all of her teeth and shone true in her grassy green eyes, I smiled broadly back. All the tension melted away as certainty warmed every inch of my body.

We belonged together.