Prince of Air and Darkness by Jenna Black

happening. Okay?”
    Kiera didn’t like the sound of this at all, but morbid curiosity prompted her to nod cautiously.
    “If you think about him right now, when he can’t possibly be using glamour against you, do you want to sleep with him?”
    Kiera blushed like a teenager. She wasn’t what you’d call a prude, but discussing sex with her mother was not high on her list of favorite things.
    “You don’t have to answer out loud if you don’t want to,” her mother hastened to assure her. “I just want you to think about it.”
    Kiera shoved her prudery aside—she’d come too far into this conversation to chicken out now. So, she once again conjured Hunter’s face, adding his tantalizing scent to the mix. Her pulse kicked up and her cheeks heated. “He’s unbelievably sexy. I don’t think it’s impossible that it could happen, if only I could shake whatever it is that bothers me.”
    Her mom nodded. “But don’t you see? When he’s not near you, you say it’s not impossible. When you were in that elevator with him, you felt like it was imminent. There’s something unnatural about that.”
    “It’s just his charisma.”
    “If you thought that, you wouldn’t be so troubled about it. Believe me, honey, I know exactly what you’re feeling. Finvarra had me in such a daze I felt like I had no free will of my own. What he did to me was a form of rape, because he made me helpless to resist. If your attraction to Hunter were natural, it wouldn’t be making you feel helpless.”
    “Maybe I’ve just been alone too long.”
    Her mom grunted in disgust. “You are one of the most stubborn people I’ve ever met.”
    “I’m sorry, Mom,” she said, feeling terrible because she had asked for just this kind of answer and she was rejecting it.
    Her mom grinned. “Honey, I’ve known you all your life. Believe me, I’m used to it.” She gently nudged Phantom’s chin away from her leg and stood up. “What I need to do is help you gather more evidence, until eventually you have enough to convince even you. Wait here.”
    As if enforcing her mother’s command, Phantom moved to sit directly in front of Kiera, fixing her with his usual stare.
    “Quit that!” she snapped at him, and then wondered at herself for acting like he could understand her. Of course, even if he’d understood her, he undoubtedly would have ignored her command. She didn’t know what the dumb creature had against her. She tried to stand up, thinking to turn her back on him to at least give herself the illusion he wasn’t staring like that. But Phantom moved in closer and put his front paws on her lap before she was able to move.
    Kiera gasped. With his paws on her thighs, he was able to stare into her eyes from an equal height, and the look in his eyes was almost as unnerving as Hunter. There was too much intelligence there, too much depth. Then, her mother came back into the room. Phantom got down and retreated to his mistress’s side, leaving Kiera thoroughly shaken. Flakiness must run in the family, she decided, and she was really letting her imagination run away with her.
    “You have the world’s weirdest dog,” she grumbled, and her mother laughed.
    “Quite a character, isn’t he?” she agreed, resuming her seat on the sofa.
    Not exactly the way Kiera would have put it, but she let it go, instead frowning at the horseshoe her mother held in her lap. “What’s with the horseshoe?”
    “Any number of supernatural creatures have an aversion to iron, and the fey are no exception. The tradition of hanging a horseshoe on the front door actually originated as a way to keep the fey, among other things, out.” She held out the horseshoe, and Kiera took it. “See if you can get Hunter to touch that. If he’s fey, he won’t do it.” A crooked grin stole over her lips. “It might be very entertaining to see what excuses he uses to avoid it.”
    Kiera noticed Phantom was no longer staring at her but had his eyes fixed on the