CHAPTER 66
My eyes locked on Izzy’s face. “Is that true? Do you have . . . um . . . feelings for me?” The very thought left me slightly dazed and itchy. But not in a bad way.
“No.” She bit her lip. “I don’t even like you, let alone have a single warm feeling for the blue hairs on your chinny chin chin.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I would’ve killed you. Just like that.” She snapped her fingers. “But we needed you alive . . . to get the pea . . . no matter what the Council said. It was the best way. The only way . . .”
I frowned. “. . . to restore your family’s good name by bringing back the pea Arnold stole. That was why you kept the Council from killing me.”
Her gaze darted to Jonas and then back to me as a splash of color heated her cheeks. When she spoke it was in a low whisper. “I had to clear my father’s name. He deserved as much; after all, he’d given up everything, including my mother and me, for his fairy brethren.” I thought of the paintings in the storage locker where Arnold had hidden the pea. His prized possessions. “He never planned on keeping the pea. He told Clayton and Peyton that he was worried about it, worried someone would try to use it against the Shadows, causing another war. He just wanted to make sure it was safe.” She glared down at the princess. “Penelopee must’ve caught him before he had a chance to tell the Council where he’d put it.”
“What does any of that have to do with you and me? Why didn’t you search for the pea yourself? Why get involved with me?”
“There is no you and me, Blue. You made that clear when you slept with her.” Again Izzy’s gaze returned to the princess on the floor.
“I didn’t . . .” At least I was pretty sure Penelopee and I hadn’t done the horizontal electric slide. Not that I could remember a damn thing about that night. She must’ve drugged my whiskey.
“It doesn’t matter.” Her thin lips said it did, more than she wanted. “What I did, all of it, was to keep you alive to find the pea and save the fairies.”
My chest started to burn, but not with my typical electrical current. “You’re lying.”
She ducked her head. “When the Council put the hit out on you, I was worried we might never find the pea, so I had to act.”
“By act,” I paused, “you mean stop the fairies from outright murdering me.”
She shrugged. “You say pea, I say pea pod.”
“Right.” I took a step away, needing to distance myself from her, from her cold, clinical talk of my murder.
“The twins and I came up with the idea of protecting you until you found the pea.”
“By acting like a damsel in distress.”
She shrugged. “You expected me to be weak, to need you, so I used your assumption to get what I wanted.”
“But you were distressed. Penelopee as Jack the Tooth Ripper had already tried to kill you once. It was only a matter of time until she tried again.”
Izzy laughed. “I can take care of myself, Blue. I didn’t need you or anyone else to protect me.” She paused, a smile lifting the ends of her lips. “Can’t say the same for you, though.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Is that so? If I remember correctly—and I do, by the way—I was the one saving you last night.” I leaned down until our lips were inches apart. “From your ex-lover and his plot to wipe out all of Fairyland. Not that you bothered to mention being engaged to your archenemy.”
She snorted. “You wish.”
“Excuse me?”
“I had everything under control last night.”
A smile spread over my face. “Is that so?”
“I had Damien exactly where I wanted him.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Fine,” she said, smacking her palm into my chest. Blue sparks shot between us, but she didn’t move away. “We’re even then.”
“Not quite.” I held out the magic pea. When she didn’t move to take it from my hand, I pushed it toward her. “Go ahead. Take it. It’s what you came here for.”
She still didn’t move.
Jonas wasn’t as hesitant. He leaped from his place behind my desk, snatched the pea from my hand, letting out a yelp as he shocked himself, and then ran out the door. The pitter-patter of his tiny retreating boots were the only sound in the room. Izzy and I watched as he ran and then turned to face each other. Silence filled the air between us.
Finally, when I couldn’t take it anymore, I said, “Guess I’m out of a job. Serial killer’s caught. You’re no longer in danger. And the pea is safely with the fairies.” I motioned to the open doorway and the scurrying of fairy feet down the hall. Damien was still on the loose, but I would find him. And then I would make sure he paid for what he’d done.
“That makes two of us,” she said.
I tilted my head in question.
“I turned in my floss this morning.”
My eyebrow rose. “You quit being the Tooth Fairy? How is that possible?”
“I never wanted the job, Blue.” Her eyes met mine imploringly. “I wasn’t lying about that. I only agreed to save your ass.” She frowned, as if regretting her decision. “After the fairies sent Henrick to kill you, I knew I had to do something other than keep you distracted from finding the pea. The only way the fairies would listen to me and not chop you up into blue bite-sized pieces was if I held the highest power.”
“Wait,” I said, holding up my hand. “Henrick came to my apartment to kill me?”
“But your little girlfriend there,” her finger pointed to the downed princess, “got to him first.” She laughed. “I guess you owe her your life. Of course since she was inside the apartment to kill me, I don’t plan on thanking her anytime soon.”
I stood, staring at Izzy, trying to take it all in. So many times I could’ve lost her. And now she was simply going to walk out of my life. As much as I wanted to stop her, I knew she deserved better than all of this. She belonged in a world without serial killers, sadistic fairies, and blue PIs. A world where things made sense. A world where murderous princesses didn’t rip out your teeth for revenge and a new set of dentures. A safe world.
“So what now?” I asked with a small smile. “Do you go back to your former life, minus the ex-fiancé? A nine-to-five life working for the man?”
She tapped her finger to her lip. “Kind of. But I’ll be working with, not for, only one man.”
“One—”
“A blue-haired man.”
“What?”
“Partners?” She held out her hand. When I didn’t take it soon enough, she snatched my hand in hers. “Until death do we part.”
I nodded slowly, shocking both of us literally and figuratively. “Partners,” I repeated.
Two weeks later the Little Blue Fairy Detective Agency opened for business, much to my dismay. But that was what Izzy and I got for letting Clayton and Peyton file our incorporation paperwork.