“Yeah, he deserves to know.” Luca stretched like a cat in my lap, letting his joints pop as a yawn overtook him. “It’s late, but we could open a portal into the penthouse and ask them to meet us there in an hour or so? No point waiting around.”

I shook my head. “We will go to Edenglas tonight, but you will sleep first, and we will meet them at the club in the morning.” On cue, Luca opened his mouth to argue, but I sent him a pointed look. “One more night will not do any harm, my heart. You are exhausted, and I will not accept any protests to the contrary.”

For a beat, he stared at me, pouting, but when he realized I wasn’t willing to budge, he yielded with a petulant huff. “Fine, but I’m only doing what I’m told because I love you.”

I snorted lightly. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Chapter Three

LUCA

Tee took the news about his mom extremely well. He’d said that actually being tied to the royal line, being free to choose between the realms changed nothing. He had no desire to return to the Otherworld or to leave Alex, but knowing he could now cross through the Veil if the need arose eased his worries. If Cair and I found ourselves in trouble, he could be there.

We hoped it would never come to that, but having the safety net was nice.

“So, you’re not sure if he’s actually your dad, you’re just going off what you found in records and diary entries from this secret room in the library?” Alex asked, stirring his drink with his straw.

Cair and Tee had moved up to the office under the guise of checking over some paperwork for the club, but I guessed they were probably catching up. That left Alex and me at the bar, doing the exact same thing. We planned to set off on our trip in two days, and since Rathe was back in the Otherworld organizing the particulars, we had an hour or two to spare before we had to head back. It was nice just sitting here with Alex, in the first place I’d ever felt really at home. I missed him, I missed the club, and though we’d already been here an hour, talking shit and drinking Tee’s experimental cocktails, we hadn’t run out of topics—not with his ability to turn everything into an innuendo—nor did we feel like we wanted to be anywhere else.

Or I didn’t, at least.

“Nailed it.” I took a sip of my own drink. It was called a Sour Temptress, and it tasted like apricots. “Oh, and after the spell lifted and Cair remembered the guy, he said I have his eyes, so that’s something?”