Jenna Black - Speak of the Devil

“Aren’t you going to reassure me that everything’s going to be okay?” I asked, and I’m afraid my voice sounded a little plaintive and childlike.

I heard him draw in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Demons are capable of many things that humans are not, but seeing the future isn’t one of them.”

I dragged my arm away from my eyes and forced them open. Lugh was watching my face, his amber eyes serious, and intense, and hard to read. I frowned.

“That’s a pretty noncommittal answer.”

His hands stilled on my feet, though he didn’t withdraw his touch. “One thing I have never done is tell you soothing lies. I don’t plan to start now.”

My throat tightened and my eyes burned. “In other words, you think it’s over between me and Brian. For good.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t say that.” He regarded me gravely. “But I suspect this rift is going to be hard to repair. And if it’s going to be repaired, you’re going to have to put a lot of effort into it.”

I swallowed past my tight throat. “I bet Adam can get some expert somewhere to verify that the photo was doctored. I mean, any idiot with PhotoShop could have done it, but surely there’s some way you can tell. And once Brian knows the photo is fake, he’ll listen to me about the rest.”

Lugh raised an eyebrow at me. “And if Brian is persuaded that you didn’t have an affair with Adam, will that make things all better between you?”

I had to suppress a groan, because I’d already realized earlier this evening that it wouldn’t. He was far from the only injured party in this mess.

“Don’t rub it in, okay? I feel shitty enough already.”

“It was not my intention to rub it in. I’m just explaining why I haven’t said what you wanted to hear.”

I nodded. “Okay, fine. If you’re not going to whisper sweet nothings, is there any particular reason we need to talk right now? Can’t you just let me sleep?” Talking wasn’t going to make anything better, so I’d just as soon have done without.

“It has always been my impression that humans appreciate having a shoulder to cry on when they are having romantic difficulties.”

I snorted. “You know perfectly well I’m not the crying-on-shoulders type. Try again.” There was something he wanted from me. He just hadn’t gotten around to telling me what yet. Whatever it was, I wasn’t in the mood to give it to him. I just wanted to crawl into my little hidey-hole and disappear until the pain went away. Too bad life didn’t work that way.

“Maybe I just wanted to remind you that you weren’t alone,” he said softly, looking at the fire, not at me. He smiled faintly, but it looked forced. “Or maybe I figured if I didn’t talk to you tonight, you’d be angry with me for my perceived desertion.”

Despite my less-than-alert state of mind, I was beginning to hear the faint ringing of warning bells in my brain. It wasn’t like Lugh to be this cagey. It took a considerable amount of willpower to move, but I forced myself to sit up and slide my feet off of his lap. I wrapped the sinfully soft blanket tightly around me, not sure what Lugh had dressed me in for this dream and not wanting to find out.

I suspected everything he’d just said was true. I also suspected there was more going on than met the eye.

“Will you stop with the tap dancing and just tell me what this is about?”

He gave me an assessing look that made my stomach do a back flip. Suddenly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what he was up to after all. I had more than my fair share of turmoil already, and the last thing I wanted was to add more to my plate.

Lugh smiled at me ruefully. “Take it easy, Morgan. It’s nothing as devious or as worrisome as you’re making it out to be.”

“Then what is it?”

“I just wanted to make some arrangements that I knew you weren’t going to get around to making in your state of mind.”

The warning bells were now so loud I was almost surprised Lugh didn’t hear them.

“In other words, you’ve been keeping my mind busy here in la-la land while you’ve driven my body around.” It wouldn’t be the first time Lugh had taken control of my body during my sleep, and, of course, he generally used such opportunities to do things I very much didn’t want him to.

“What did you do?” I demanded, meanwhile trying to muster my mental defenses enough to wake myself up and kick Lugh out of the driver’s seat. It always required some effort, but right now I felt so weighed down by the circumstances that I wasn’t sure I could do it at all.

“No need to try to shake me off,” Lugh said. “I’ve done what I set out to do, and I’ve put you back to bed.”

“Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?” I muttered, but my struggles to break through his control were weak and halfhearted. Somehow, it just didn’t seem worth the energy.

“I talked to Adam. I thought it best for you to have a bodyguard, at least until we find out what the story is behind that hand you received in the mail.”

I groaned. “Don’t tell me you invited Saul over.”

“All right, I won’t tell you that.” He smiled at me, a teasing glint in his eye.

I shook my head. “I don’t need a bodyguard!”

“I know,” Lugh said, nipping my incipient tirade in the bud. “But it made for a good excuse to move Saul out of Adam and Dominic’s house. There is enough tension already between various members of my council. I don’t need Saul and Adam in a romantic rivalry.”

I met his eyes. “If there’s a romantic rivalry going on, then just moving Saul out of the house isn’t going to stop it.”

Lugh shrugged. “Maybe not. But I’m sure it’s better for all involved, and it should at least slow things down.”

“Maybe you should have put more thought into it before you insisted on summoning Saul to the Mortal Plain!”

He gave me a quelling look. “There’s no point in arguing about that. Saul’s here—both on the Mortal Plain and in your apartment. Let’s just move on from there.”

My eyes widened. “You mean there’s more?”

He nodded. “I suspect that in his current state of mind, Brian isn’t going to be overly anxious to pay your legal bills.”

The blood drained from my face. The thought hadn’t even occurred to me, but of course Lugh was right.

He patted the air reassuringly. “Don’t worry. I’ve made other arrangements.”

I was anything but reassured. I lowered my head into my hands. “Adam again?”

“Yes. He has the financial resources to help you.”

I raised my head and glared at him, my hands trembling with rage. “And what if I tell you that I absolutely refuse to accept money from Adam?”

“Then I’ll call you a mule-headed fool and I will continue to take matters into my own hands as often as necessary.”

My jaw dropped. Lugh usually tried to be so gentle and patient about everything. I would have thought now, of all times, he’d treat me like a porcelain doll.

“My apologies,” he said, though he didn’t sound particularly apologetic. “You need money to defend yourself, and Adam has money. Getting through the lawsuit is going to be difficult enough without financial strain loaded on top. And don’t forget, the rest of your problems aren’t going to magically disappear while you’re being sued.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled. “I haven’t forgotten.”

“Also don’t forget that you’re my host, and that I need you. I can’t afford to leave you undefended, and as Adam’s king, I have every right to demand that he pay for your defense.”

I was too tired and beaten down to argue, though I wanted to. “Adam paying for my defense is just going to reinforce Brian’s assumption that he’s my lover.”