Chapter Text
“Rigel…” I sighed, rubbing my face with my hands, before remembering that Indigo would kill me if she discovered I’d smeared my mascara.
Would it smudge too badly if I just took one little moment to scream into my hands in exasperation?
…Then again, Indigo would almost have to forgive me. It wasn’t every day I had to hide a body.
Speaking of which, I looked at the crumpled form beneath us where it lay on the local Mayor’s courtyard garden path. Mercifully, it had been quick. And quiet, I’d give him that. Rigel was clearly good at his job—or old job—though he had fashioned himself into a sort of permanent quasi-body guard for me.
My lethal Loverboy. Goodness.
I shivered even as I crossed my arms and tapped my foot impatiently. “I love you faebae, but we really need to talk about making good choices.”
Rigel, of course, hadn’t batted an eye during the conversation. No. My beautiful faebae simply wiped the dagger blade he had extracted from the dead fae’s heart on the deceased man’s pantleg.
“I’m not sure what you mean, Leila,” he said, matter of factly, gesturing to the body before him. “This was the most logical choice.”
I couldn’t help myself. I massaged my temples.
"Things were going so well, Rigel,” I groaned. “Dinner was going so well. I was charming. You were handsome and supportive. The Mayor really liked me, and I almost had him declaring a tax free holiday for us to get caught up on some necessary expenditures. And then…”
I paused, gesturing to the dead guy at our feet. “You had to do this…”
Rigel pulled out the fae’s wallet before straightening, flipping it open to check for identification. “Did you want me to let him attack you?” Rigel asked, frustratingly reasonably.
“No,” I grumbled. “I just feel there is a middle ground we may have skipped here.”
“He ran at you with a knife,” Rigel said, pulling out his phone.
“I heard.”
Rigel dexterously tapped away at his phone with his thumb. “He shouted ‘death to the queen, long live the unseelie.”
“I know that too,” I groused. “I’m just saying, you’re very capable, Rigel. Did you have to stab him?”
Rigel paused his typing to look at me truly confused. “Why wouldn’t I?”
I scrambled to think of an appropriate response. “…Information?”
Rigel’s face remained perplexed. “He announced where he was from.”
I grimaced. “More information?”
Now Rigel frowned at me
I threw up my hands in exasperation. “Don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who just killed a man.”
“Perhaps don’t shout it so loudly, love,” Rigel chastised as he returned to sending his message. “You’ll scare the humans.”
I snorted as Rigel slipped his phone back in his pocket “Relax, Leila,” he reassured me, capturing my hand and giving it a squeeze. “I have his identification. I know who he is. We can use that to track down anyone he would have been working with. If all else fails, I’ll just answer his phone.”
My brow wrinkled. “Answer his phone? Does that actually ever do anything?”
Rigel shrugged. “It has before.”
My frown deepened. “What? When?”
I was rewarded by Rigel saying a lot of nothing, and had to stifle a strangled sound coming from my throat.
Rigel looked on beside me, standing cooly and calmly, clearly confused about my concern regarding his actions. “I feel like this is a moment for your trademark ‘it’s fine’ to be used,” he said.
“No it is not a moment for my trademark it’s fine to be used, Rigel. We are at a dinner party. At the Magiford Mayor’s House, and you have killed people!”
Rigel paused. “Is it more the killing or the location that concerns you?”
I moaned, as Rigel continued. “I didn’t kill a human, Leila. He’s a fae. I killed a fae. Technically, that’s within our jurisdiction to handle.”
“Rigel…the humans, they won’t—that doesn’t matter.”
Rigel leaned forward and kissed the top of my head again. “Relax, Leila. It will be fine, I promise. I’m not new at this. Go back into the party. I can take care of this. Chase is on his way to pick up the body.”
Rigel bent down and slipped his arms underneath the dead fae, dragging him out of the sight line of the door.
I cringed as the fae’s heels left drag marks in the mayor’s gravel and dirt pathway. As gruesome as it was, I bent to grab the man’s feet to help move him to a nearby bench.
While we moved him, I grumbled as I grunted. “Why did I marry you again? Also, we definitely need to have a talk later about all this. I am a little concerned that you and Chase seem to have a system for this.”
Rigel wasn’t even breaking a sweat as he maneuvered the fae into a convincing sitting position. “I think it is quite the opposite: you should be relieved that we have a system for this.”
True. And not. Sort of.
Man, this was confusing.
I sighed. Recognizing that I’d been beat, I let my shoulders slump as I turned to go back inside. “Fine, if you’re sure. I’ll head back and—”
My breath caught as my heart leapt to my throat.
“What?” Rigel asked, on guard immediately. Materializing next to me, his eyes darted around, looking for another assassin.
“Rigel,” I whispered, staring at a blinking sphere atop the door. “I think we forgot something important. Human politicians use cameras.”
Rigel stared at the winking red dot that indicated the system was recording. "So tell them he's sleeping."
"He had a knife in him."
Rigel shrugged. “Tell them it's a sleeping knife."
I could feel my anxiety rising as visions of prison cells danced in my head. "I don't think they'll believe that."
I felt Rigel’s hands grip my shoulders and give me a gentle push toward the glass door dividing us from the rest of the party. "Probably not but try hard. Buy time."
"Why do I have to tell them?" I hissed, digging in my heels even as I slid nearer the door.
"Because You can lie, Leila,” Rigel said, also reasonably.
I was really starting to get irritated about that.
Before I could argue, Rigel continued. “Go. Be charming. I'll wait for Chase to pick up the body."
Ugh.
I glowered at the handle as I made my way back inside the mansion. “This is ridiculous. This is utterly ridiculous.”
“I love you too, Leila,” Rigel called behind me.
“You better,” I warned him, before pasting on a fae smile and heading off to keep my wonderful, beloved, incredibly murderous husband out of jail.