“You home to stay, Mr. Augustine?” Lally looked hopeful.
“Yes.” He sighed and tipped his head back, inhaling the earthy, heady scent of the Garden District. Tiny green tips were beginning to show on the trees. In a few weeks, spring would overtake the place. “I hope I never have to run again.” He would, though, if it meant keeping these two women safe.
“Good.” Lally smiled. “We had enough of you bein’ gone.”
“That we did.” Livie sipped her mint julep, then held it up to him. “You want a drink, darling?”
“No, I’m good. All I really want is to sleep in my own bed.”
She took another sip before setting the drink down. “Well, I’ll be. You mean you’re not heading into the Quarter to see what young thing you might woo into your arms for the night?”
He laughed. Olivia didn’t need to know he’d already been there. “I thought I’d take one night off. Besides, tomorrow night is Nokturnos. I’ll do plenty of wooing then.”
“Is that tomorrow? With you gone, I guess it slipped my mind.” She looked at Lally. “Did you realize it was the new moon?”
“I knew that much, but I can’t be bothered with the rest.” Lally waved her hand. “All that mask wearing and kissing strangers and carrying on like fools. Humans do enough of that during Mardi Gras.”
Augustine raised a brow. “We don’t carry on like—well, okay, a little bit like fools, but it’s the fae New Year. There’s got to be some celebration. Plus the fae need their own party before the tourists invade for carnival and the town isn’t ours anymore. This is a big one, too. Since the covenant’s been broken and humans know we exist, it’s the first Nokturnos we can celebrate publicly.” He shook his finger at Olivia. “You’ve got a good bit of haerbinger blood in your system, Ms. Goodwin. You should be celebrating, too.”
She waved him off. “Please, cher. I’ve had enough celebrating in my days.”
“My lands,” Lally exclaimed with a smirk. “You sure came back from your sojourn with a lot of sass, didn’t you, Mr. Augustine? Hmph.”
He laughed.
“I missed this, I surely did.” Lally tipped her head up toward Augustine. “So you’ll be kissing a stranger tomorrow evening? Guess that’s not much different than most of your evenings.” She laughed, clearly tickled with herself.
“And I’m the one full of sass?” But he grinned. “Hey, you want me to have good luck for the New Year, don’t you?” A yawn caught him off guard. Before he’d returned home, sleep had eluded him the last few nights, replaced by nightmares so real, they’d driven him to return home. Probably earlier than was prudent, but enough was enough.
Livie immediately looked concerned. “You really are tired, aren’t you, cher?”
He hadn’t slept much last night, either, but he wasn’t about to tell them that. He scratched the base of one horn. “You know how it is when you’re not in your own bed. It’s just not the same.”
Lally nodded. “I hear that. You going to make it till supper, Mr. Augustine, or should I put up a plate for you?”
“Depends on what you’re fixing.”
“Nothing special. Just a little RB-and-R and some hot sausage.”
“Nothing special.” He snorted. “You know I love red beans and rice. Especially yours. Yes to supper, but first I should probably run down to Jackson Square and see if Dulcinea is around. Let her know I’m back.” He’d stayed clear of the Quarter’s main areas last night, too, keeping as low a profile as he could without becoming completely invisible to the pretty tourist girls he so enjoyed.
Lally stood. “I’ll just go take another sausage out of the freezer.”
After she left, Livie gave him a sly smile. “I’m sure Dulcinea’s missed you.”
He rolled his eyes. “You know it’s not like that between us.”
“Mm-hmm. I know what you two get up to.” She swirled the liquid in her glass. “I know you’re both adults and consenting and all that.”
He knew what Olivia was hinting at, but the past was the past. “We’re just friends.”
“Friends with benefits, that’s what they used to call it in my day.” She lifted her glass to her lips as Lally came back out.
“Y’all still talking about Miss Dulcinea?”
“Yes, why?” Augustine answered.
Lally settled into her chair and pointed toward the back corner of the yard. “She was out here one night. Just sitting in the gazebo past the pool there. I gave her a little wave, but she didn’t wave back. Didn’t see her again after that, but the next night, a stray cat showed up. Sleek gray thing with darker stripes and these two different-colored eyes that just looked right through a person’s soul.”
Augustine looked at Livie the same time she looked at him and in unison, they both said, “Dulcinea.”
She was one of the oddest fae he knew, not just personality-wise, but because even she didn’t know her bloodlines other than that they included fae and varcolai, or shifter. The strange stew of her lineage had given her some rare powers, including the ability to take on random animal forms. In othernatural terms, she was a remnant, a label applied to anyone with mixed othernatural heritage. But in the neighborhood, most called her a changeling.
Lally sat back, resting her arms across her plump stomach. “I figured that was her.”
He nodded. “Thanks for letting me know.”
She lifted one hand to shake a finger at him. “You definitely should go see that girl. She’s pining for you.”
Augustine laughed. “Dulce pines for no one. Except maybe this city.” It was nice to know she’d kept an eye on Olivia and Lally while he’d been gone. He hadn’t asked her to do that and was a little surprised she had, but then maybe he wasn’t. Nothing Dulcinea did could really be considered shocking.
ALSO BY NICOLE PEELER
Jinn and Juice
Jane True
Tempest Rising
Tracking the Tempest
Tempest’s Legacy
Tempest’s Fury
Tempest Reborn
Jane True Short Fiction
Something Wikkid This Way Comes
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Acknowledgments
Extras
Meet the Author
A Preview of Tempest Rising
A Preview of House of the Rising Sun
Also by Nicole Peeler
Orbit Newsletter
Copyright
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended
by the author.
Copyright © 2014 by Nicole Peeler
Excerpt from Tempest Rising copyright © 2009 by Nicole Peeler
Excerpt from House of the Rising Sun copyright © 2014 by Kristen Painter
Cover design by Lauren Panepinto
Cover Illustration by Nathalia Sueellen
Cover © 2014 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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ISBN 978-0-316-40734-2
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