Jayce raised both brows at Sionnach, but this time, he remained silent. The sound of an old horn interrupted the silence, and Jayce pulled out his phone. “Del texted,” he said after a moment. “They split when things got weird in there. He doesn’t like violence.”

“Good,” Rika said quietly, carefully not meeting Sionnach’s gaze even as the fox faery stared at her.

“Take him home,” Sionnach urged her again.

As he waited for her reply, his twinkling eyes and crooked grin were in such contrast to the chaos she could hear inside the club, as if he weren’t at all disturbed by the way Maili had behaved, as if he weren’t encouraging her to reveal secrets to a mortal. There were rules, actions faeries ought not engage in unless they wanted the courts coming round and starting to interfere.

“They can’t do that.” Rika scowled in the direction of the main room, choosing to focus on the fight rather than the decision she needed to make. “They’re out of hand. Starting trouble around . . . people. We can’t ignore that.”

“So I guess we need to figure out how to stop them. Leash them.” Sionnach stared at her, waiting for her as he had so many other times over the years she’d known him.

Rika knew he was right, almost as much as she knew that getting involved with faery politics was exactly what she swore she wouldn’t do. Sionnach had brought up her ability to be Alpha or co-Alpha often enough that she had threatened him with bodily harm the last time he’d mentioned it. After years of staying quietly away from the machinations and struggles of the solitary desert fey, she was about to be involved. In truth, she was involved now. She’d stood and fought against them, thereby ending years of uninvolvement. It was because of her interest in Jayce that this was all happening, and it was because of him that she would remain involved. She’d been the catalyst, and she couldn’t expect Sionnach to handle it. He might help tonight, but tomorrow she had to begin to figure out what she should do. For now though, she told Sionnach, “Be safe. I owe you.”

“I know.” The fox faery glanced at Jayce again and then gave Rika a long, unreadable look before turning and walking away.

Silently, Rika and Jayce went to the door and stepped outside.

So many broken rules. What’s one more?

If she were honest with herself, she’d admit that there were times she’d wished she could tell Jayce that she existed, that she was near him, that she was a faery. She’d never expected it to happen, but here they were. She took a steadying breath and said, “We’re going to run. No matter what happens, just keep moving your feet. Run, okay?”