“A little,” I managed to say, though I had to admit discussing my flow with a virtual stranger felt weird, even for me. “Some days are worse than others.”

What sounded like footsteps hurrying away from the door made my jaw drop. Had Corb been listening in? Well he wasn’t there now. A little lady-talk was all it had taken to remove him from the situation.

She laughed lightly. “Isn’t that the truth?” Her eyes fluttered to half-mast and she leaned in close. “The timeline has been sped up. Things are getting far more dangerous at the fairy ring. I want you there full time. I will of course double the pay.”

She was so compelling, I found myself staring into her eyes and nodding before my brain caught up. “Why not send Kinkly to tell me?”

“I needed you to understand the importance of this.” She added softly, “Crash cannot have what his fae are digging out of my tree. You can stop him.”

My eyes about bugged out of my head. “Um, no, I can’t stop him. Have you seen him? He’s massive and has muscles all the way out to here!” I spread my arms as wide as they would go. “And why the hell didn’t you tell me right off the bat that he was the one leading this whole shebang?”

Her eyes swept over me. “You intrigue him, and he likes you well enough that he won’t hurt you. I need you to bring me the item as soon as they dig it out. But they cannot see you, and they cannot know you are bringing it to me. Can you do that?”

I thought about the powder that Bob-John had suggested. His clearing powder had worked well enough, why not the invisibility powder? If I got desperate, I could always call on the skeleton horse for a quick escape. It struck me that the task had changed—it wouldn’t take as long, but now she was asking for an extraction, risking a possible fight with Crash, as well as guard duty. “You need to up the pay. Significantly.”

Now, now was the time to get her to sign something, but the thought fluffed out of my brain like a cloud on a summer day.

Her smile was sharp. “You will get all that I was planning on giving you for the full ten days multiplied by two.”

That was good enough for me, and the desire to close the deal and move on was strong. “Okay. Deal.”

“Good. Go there straight away.” Her eyes narrowed on me. “You aren’t who you think you are, Breena.”

She kissed me then, not on the cheek but on the lips, catching me off guard as a rush of energy whipped through me. “That will help,” she said as she stepped back, leaving me more than a little wobbly. “But it will only last while you are on the job for me. After that, you will feel every ache and pain you’ve gained, so be careful.”

I touched my lips. “What?” It only occurred to me then that I hadn’t stopped to ask how I was supposed to watch the fairy ring 24-7 when I was only human. When I was still in Suzy’s dress with nothing more than the two knives on me.

“You have to go now. Corb cannot follow you, and trust me, he will try. I will create a diversion, wait for it.” She patted my cheek and brushed past me. What did this have to do with Corb? Unless he was helping Crash? Shit, what if the two guys my libido was hot for were working together? Wouldn’t that be a kick in the lady bits.

I stood there and stared at the still-swinging door until another woman came in. She took one look at me and gasped. “Lordy, girl, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Maybe.” I gripped the edge of the counter as the other woman tittered next to me, whispering about Vic’s being haunted.

What the hell had just happened? The gig had changed, that was what had happened. But I’d get more pay, which meant I’d have a much better chance of getting Gran’s house back. Even if I had to face down Crash.

Jaysus lord, how was that going to work out if he found out I was the one who’d helped Karissa?

I frowned until the first BOOM shook the restaurant and a roar echoed through the walls, plaster and dust filling the air.

Well, I’d bet that was my distraction.

I bolted out of the bathroom with more pep in my step than I’d had in a long time. My lips tingled, reminding me of the kiss Karissa had bestowed on me.

Above all the screaming, through the dust and kerfuffle, Corb was yelling for me. I didn’t look for him, but headed straight for the front door of the restaurant, the light from the window guiding me out. I pushed my way through the people, not caring that they yelped and pushed back.

I felt none of it.

I burst out of the restaurant, dust flying around me as I paused just a moment to get my bearings. Kicking off my heels, I bolted down the walkway and raced across the main road, dodging cars like they were standing still, my skirt flaring and flashing the knives strapped to my thighs.

Whatever pep juice Karissa had given me burned through my veins. Minutes later I was back in front of Gran’s house, barely breathing hard.

Up the stairs, into the house, and up to my room, I’d stripped out of the dress and was yanking on my leathers by the time Suzy found me.

“Holy shit, what happened to you? You’re covered in dust and plaster!” She brushed some off the top of my head.

I grabbed her by the arms, my mind racing a thousand miles a minute, and in that moment I knew exactly what I needed to do.

“You need to keep the guys at the Hollows busy. Keep them there, all of them, but especially Corb. I’ve got to get out to the job I’m on. I’ll be staying there until it’s done, but it’s a good job, and it will give us the start we need for our group.” I yanked on my pants and grabbed my thigh holsters for the knives, strapping them on so fast that even I could feel my vision blurring over my own hands.

Suzy’s eyes went wide. “Okay. Will your gran watch over Eric again? We shouldn’t leave him alone for that long with a shooter on the loose.”

Gran appeared beside her. “Bring him with you,” she said.

I grabbed my leather bag and stuffed Gran’s book into it, then double-checked that I had my silver talisman, settling it over my head. “I’m going to take Eric and Robert with me,” I said.

“Why not me?”

I frowned. “Because I’m pretty sure Douche Canoe put a tracking spell of some sort on you. O’Sean was following you that night at the caves.”

“What about the Hollows?” Suzy asked. “Should we go to them for help?”

I paused, for just a flash. “Eammon wants me to do this job. I don’t know why, but he knew I could do this.” That last bit was pure conjecture. But it felt right.

“Well, what if Eammon is in on this? We might not be able to trust him,” Suzy pointed out in a quick reversal of opinion. “You could be walking into a trap.”

Both good points.

I fought to slow my breathing down, struggling. Whatever Karissa’s kiss had done, I could feel it pushing me to my limits. “I know for sure that Robert and Eric aren’t affected. I don’t know with you, and Feish is tied to Crash.”

Feish stepped into the doorway. “I can try and slow the Boss down. He’s on his way here now.”

I swallowed hard. “Then I need to go. Eric!”

“I’m ready,” he said softly, “though I don’t know what good I can do.”

“You’re my hide-and-seek champion.” I smiled at him. “We need to stay hidden; you can help me with that, and you can come back for help if I get in too much trouble.”

“You don’t want me to fight?”

“Do you want to fight?” I lifted both brows, already knowing the answer as he shook his head no.

I grabbed him by the arm and ran down the stairs and out the front door. Eric skidded to a stop beside me. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Fairy queen kissed me,” I said. We needed a way to get to the fairy ring fast. Before Crash realized where we were going.

I thought about the skeleton horse, but I wasn’t sure we could wait for it to pull itself out of the ground. That wasn’t quite right, I knew in my gut it wasn’t, but I hesitated on calling the horse up for whatever reason. I sensed it would be best to wait.

“We need a way out to the wildlife reserve. You got a boat?” I asked.

I knew Feish had a boat, but if Crash figured out where we were, that we’d borrowed the boat, he’d be on us in a flash.

Part of me didn’t mind the image that whipped through my head of Crash being physically on me, the other part reminded me that I was working against him. Again.

Eric tugged me forward, and in no time we were running through the streets of downtown Savannah, our feet a blur. “This is much easier now that you can keep up!” Eric yelled with a grin as we passed the Hanging Tree square, the resident demon watching us go by.

I couldn’t resist, I flipped him off. He snarled at me, but we were gone before he could attach to us.

“Yeah, this rocks.” But Karissa had warned me that it would hurt once I was done. At least I wouldn’t have to pay the price until later.

Eric skidded to a stop at one of the outer banks of the river, away from the downtown district, and pointed to a small boat with a large motor on it. “I don’t come in and out through the downtown like Feish does.”

I wondered out loud how he had a boat here.

“Oh, that’s not mine. It’s a friend’s boat,” Eric said. He held out a hand and helped me in, and then he got it going. The engine was a beast, and we started flying up the river at a speed that Feish’s boat couldn’t match. Which was good.

Because I was pretty sure that it was behind us.

I watched as the boat that I was sure was Feish’s pulled out into the river—the prow of it curved like a diving dolphin—and headed our way. I ducked down. “Eric, I think that’s Crash behind us. Can this thing go any faster?”

He squeezed the handle, and our boat picked up even more speed, the spray of river water soaking us, but that was nothing to what would happen if Crash caught us and we had to explain our way out of this. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that he was even following us, but it was safest to assume that was the case. For all I knew he was just going out to the fairy ring to feel up the tree again.