Dozan had killed his own family to get ahead. He was the king of the Wastes. He did nothing without a direct return on investment. Including his investment in Kerrigan.

“Dozan has generously offered his services,” Thea interjected. “He has as much right as anyone else to want to see humans and half-Fae be treated more fairly.”

“You offered?” she asked skeptically. She stepped forward. “You never offer. What’s in this for you?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, princess, I’m human.”

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped at him.

“Why not? Doesn’t everyone know you’re actually a princess now?” he asked with a self-satisfied smirk.

Kerrigan didn’t know why, but Dozan always drew this side out of her. All she wanted to do was bury her fist in his too-pretty face. The insufferable bastard.

But Clover saw it coming and tugged her backward. “Why don’t we all try to get along? We’re here for the same cause, right?”

“Right,” Dozan said but didn’t drop the look.

Kerrigan breathed in deeply and released it. She was too tired to deal with this. To deal with him. Clover should have prepared her for seeing him. Nothing riled her up more than Dozan Rook.

“I need a smoke,” Clover said. “Come on. Let’s get some air.”

Thea nodded as Clover pulled Kerrigan back out of the room. She brushed past Dozan without a backward look and out into the entrance to the courtyard. Already, the garden was filling with attendees for the RFA meeting, and so they huddled together behind a large gargoyle structure. Clover tried three times to light up a loch cigarette, failing with the matches each time and cursing colorfully.

“Let me,” Kerrigan said. She hadn’t had magic training this afternoon, so she actually had a whiff of magic in her veins. She snapped her fingers and touched the flame to Clover’s cigarette.

She inhaled deeply, letting the addictive drug dull the chronic pain that lashed through her body. “Why do you have to let him get to you?”

“Why didn’t you tell me he’d be here?”

Clover opened her eyes and shot her a look. “You already didn’t want to come. Would you have jumped for joy if I’d told you Dozan would be here?”

“No,” she grumbled.

“Yeah. So, I thought this would be better. I don’t know. Maybe it isn’t. You two just need to bang again or something. The tension is… a lot.”

Kerrigan snorted. “Not happening.”

“Why not?” Clover winked at her. “Waiting for a prince to come to his senses?”

“No,” she muttered. “I don’t think that he will.”

“So, if Fordham has friend-zoned you, why not get some of that pent-up energy out with someone else?”