For some reason, that made Dacian feel good. He wasn’t ready to analyze why.

Sparkle sighed. “You’ve spent too much time around your plants, Cinn. Everything that happens between a man and woman is a game. And if you’re lucky, you both win.”

Cinn raised one brow. “Is this the old shallow Sparkle talking, or the new one with depth and character?”

Sparkle’s smile was a sly lift of her lips. “It’s both, sister. The new me tells the truth. The old me knew the truth. There’s nothing I don’t know about what goes on between a man and a woman.”

“Be afraid. Be very afraid,” Edge intoned.

She shifted her attention to Edge. “I don’t know what game you were playing tonight, but stop it. Dacian is my guest as well as a manager, and you can always be replaced.”

Edge narrowed his eyes. “I can always quit.”

“But you won’t, and we both know why.”

Tension hummed between the two, and Dacian watched the interaction. Maybe this was something he could use. He glanced at Ganymede. The cat didn’t seem concerned with the back-and-forth, so sex probably wasn’t involved. Interesting, though.

“Is that all?” Edge’s voice almost thrummed with anger.

“Not quite. My sources tell me that Airmid has been to Oregon. She knows Cinn isn’t there, and now she’s picked up the trail and is headed this way. It won’t take her long to find out where Cinn is. So everyone needs to keep a heads-up.”

Dacian turned to catch Cinn’s expression. She was pale but not panicky. Yet. He’d bet Cinn wasn’t sure if she believed Sparkle. Dacian certainly did.

“Now, is that all?”

Sparkle nodded.

Without another word, Edge rose and left the suite. He didn’t slam the door behind him. Great control. Dacian would’ve slammed the freaking door.

Chapter Five

Cinn’s thoughts were rattling around in her brain like air-popped corn gone wild. Did this Airmid goddess really exist? If she did, how had she found out that Cinn wasn’t at home?

Ohmigod, had someone hurt her family? She fought down the urge to lunge for the phone. Calm down. She only had Sparkle’s word for any of this.

She looked across at Dacian, who’d just set Vince down on the coffee table. Poor Vince. He had to be picking up on her emotions. Not only that, but she’d separated him from the others.

And then there was Dacian. What was she going to do about her thoughts of him? Did she fear him? Uh, that would be a yes. Did she trust him? Sort of. At least until he did something that reminded her of what he truly was. But of all the crazies living in the castle, he was the only one she felt she could depend on. Maybe.