Steal the Moon by Lexi Blake

before. Declan had been serious about the fact that I couldn’t see his guard. The new guy’s pale eyes told me he would slit my throat in an instant and probably enjoy the experience. So this was what passed for a bodyguard in the Fae world. I was suddenly glad for Zack.
    “Padric, release her,” Declan ordered, holding his nose.
    I’d drawn blood. That made me happy.
    “She attacked you, Your Highness.” Padric proved he had an excellent talent for stating the obvious. I stayed really still because that knife was starting to cut into my throat just the tiniest bit. “I cannot allow the insult to pass.”
    “You can and will obey me,” Declan ordered, his temper on a short leash. “Do you think I cannot handle one small female on my own? I am a warrior of the sidhe . Now let her go. This is my brother’s mistress, for the goddess’s sake. If you harm her, he will never come back with us. You know how he is about his females.”
    Padric looked me up and down, and I could tell he found me wanting. “I do not understand your perverse interest in human females. They seem so breakable and short.”
    I was, compared to Padric. He had to lean down to hold the knife to my throat. I hoped it caused a crick in his neck. Of course at barely five foot four, I was short, period. If Dev didn’t like me to wear four-and-a-half-inch heels, I would reach the middle of his chest. I only barely made it to Daniel’s shoulders. That day I was wearing flats, and Padric loomed over me.
    “I do not require your understanding,” Declan declared, and Padric finally let me loose. “You are ordered to remain hidden until such time as I call you. Is that understood?”
    Padric nodded and was suddenly gone. I looked around but there was no sign of the big scary Fae and his knife that I could still feel at my throat. I would love to have known how he pulled the invisible trick though. Something like that would come in handy when running a job.
    “You will explain.” Declan had managed to wipe himself clean of the blood, and I could see now his nose wasn’t actually broken.
    I didn’t pretend to misunderstand. I remembered the episode Dev and I had experienced on the Hell plane like it was yesterday. Dev and his brother had been barely seventeen when they were sent to the Unseelie sithein for a bit of torture their mother had decided should be part of their education. Dev was the mortal of the two but he had handled it so much better than his immortal brother. “You left him. You left him to the mercy of those Unseelie monsters to save your own hide, and I promised him I would beat the crap out of you if I ever met you.”
    Declan laughed. “Now I see why my brother finds you so amusing. He would enjoy the idea of a woman defending his honor.” His eyes turned serious. “I remember that day well. I was ashamed of my fears, and I lashed out at the brother who had sacrificed to save me pain. I have not forgiven myself for that day, so if you choose to hit me again, I assure you it will be a drop in the bucket compared to what I owe him.”
    It meant something to me that he was willing to own up to what he’d done. Ingrid had said there was always two sides to the story. I was willing to listen to Declan.
    “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. “I have one more thing I need. It’s in the kitchens and then we hunt down this bitch.”
     

Chapter Seven

     
    Declan turned out to be a complete baby when it came to mass transit.
    He whined about the people, the smell, the metal. I wasn’t sure what he thought a train should be made of, but he really didn’t like the metal. In the end, I had to get off the train and hail a cab because I was sick of his whining. It made me wish Dev had bought me that Porsche. I’d left my own crappy car on the farm for Justin and Angelina to use. I could have used the limo, but I thought that might be conspicuous in the neighborhoods where I was going.
    I settled into the cab, and Declan quickly