10

I stopped breathing, certain my heart had ceased beating too. I could do nothing but gawk at him — with my mouth open, I suspected, given the draft coming in between my lips. Five thousand years old? Five thousand? More, even, since he claimed he'd lost count. This man was older than Stonehenge or the pyramids of Egypt. I had just made out with an ancient being.

Damn if that wasn't the hottest thing ever.

And sort of ooky at the same time.

"There's more," he said. "I sensed none of the Unseen realm in you."

My heart sank to the ground and I swore I heard it splatting at my feet like the limp, clammy rag into which it seemed to have morphed. "I'll go to prison for the rest of my life if we don't do this."

"I wasn't finished." He tickled my earlobe with his finger, an amused smile on his lips. "There is an energy deep within you, hidden even from your own perception. I've tasted it."

The idea of him tasting energy that lurked inside me shot an erotic thrill straight into my core. I licked my lower lip, the velvety feel of my own tongue triggering a sense memory of his mouth, his tongue, ravishing me with wild abandon.

His fingertip teased the skin behind my ear, summoning a little shiver of delight.

"This energy of yours," he said, "I don't know if it's the right kind to get you into the Unseen realm. It's like nothing I've ever felt before, but we could try."

"How?"

"I shall take you to the doorway. If it opens for you, we'll know."

"Okay, I'm ready. Take me."

Oh damn. I'd done it again. Stupid mouth, stupid brain.

His lips eased into a languid grin. "Since ye granted me one kiss only, I can't take ye in the manner I'd most like."

I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn't muster words.

His grin closed into a smirk. He knew damn well what kind of effect he had on me and he enjoyed pushing that button. If I were honest, I'd admit I liked it too. I tapped my toe on the grass, creating a faint swishing sound. "You know what I meant."

"Ah yes, I do." He slid his hands down my back to rest on my hips.

"Has your test ever not worked before?"

"Never." A darkness scudded over him, like a gray cloud obscuring the sun. "Everything about you is unprecedented."

"Do I get a gold medal or something? For being the most difficult human on earth?" After what we'd shared a moment ago, I shouldn't have let him put his hands on me. I ought to pull away right now. If I planned on keeping my wits, I had to maintain a distance from him. But the contact felt soooo good.

"If you attempt this," he said, "and you don't have the requisite trace of elemental energy, you will die."

I pushed away from him. "I have to risk it."

He folded his arms around me.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Padlocked my arms around him. Held my breath. And prayed.

The ground dropped away. The silence of a vacuum engulfed us as we spun round and round, up and up. Icy needles pricked at my skin. I gripped Nevan so hard my arms trembled from the effort. Whirling. Soaring. Shattering and reforming.

My feet plunked down on solid ground. Nevan's embrace loosened, though his hands lingered on my hips. The solidity of his touch grounded me, more than the actual earth beneath my boots.

The throaty roar of a waterfall pelted my eardrums. Light glowed on the other side of my lids. I peeled them apart.

And yelped.

We perched on the rock ledge alongside the falls. My right toe caught in a depression and I stumbled sideways, flailing my arms to regain my balance. My boot slipped off the edge, skewing my center of gravity. I lurched toward the precipice.

Nevan seized me around the waist, hoisting me up and over to plunk me down on the ledge. He braced my body with his, both arms snug around me, his hands fastened over my belly.

Terrible visions assailed my mind, of my body plummeting and crashing into the water, of bones fracturing, of water choking my lungs.

Nevan gave me a gentle shake and hollered to be heard above the thundering cascade. "Are ye damaged, love?"

"No." I mashed myself into him, my toes frighteningly close to the edge. "Terrified, but not damaged."

"It's a six-foot drop. Far from life threatening."

I peered at the pool below, at its water churning and foaming. "I don't like water."

"Then we have a problem." He nodded toward the gushing cataract behind us. "To reach the Unseen, we must first breach the falls."

"I don't like deep bodies of water, like ponds and lakes. A waterfall is doable."

He squinted at me, searching my face, a question poised on his tongue and evident in his eyes — but then he nodded, seeming satisfied. Nudging me away, he grasped my shoulders and rotated me to face the waterfall. "Jump."

The hairs at my nape bristled and my skin went clammy, not entirely from the water droplets peppering my arms and face. Jump into the falls? What if I blundered off the edge? Or smacked head-on into a rock wall?

"I've taken many mortals through the water," he said, his body blockading me from behind, leaving me no escape route. "This is not the dangerous part."

Great. That eased my mind. Not.

"I'll show you." Nevan hopped around me. His feet slapped onto the ledge in front of me. Water sprayed over his bronzed flesh, glazing it with a faint sheen. I stretched out my fingers to skate them over his damp skin, but just as I touched him, he spun away from me.

And leaped into the falls.

"Hey, wait!" I lifted my hands, as if I might hold back the raging waters or maybe part them like Moses. No such luck. I inched closer and my boots skidded on the wet rock. I flung a hand out to the solid sandstone cliff beside me, thwarting my fall, sparing my skull from a bone-splitting impact.

I took a fortifying breath. Straightening, my hand firmly on the stone wall, I edged toward the cascade. Drops spattered my face, raining particles of a chill on my skin as the liquid evaporated. The clean scent of water mingled with the dankness of wet dirt and the racket of water pummeling rock pulsated through my skull with deafening force.

What on earth was I doing? I worked in a rock shop, serving tourists who thought agate was the name of a teen pop singer. I did not allow strange, half-naked men to lure me into waterfalls.

Except today, apparently, I did.

From my position mere inches from the falls, I noticed the ledge extended behind the curtain of water, where I could just make out a yawning darkness indicative of an empty area beyond. Nevan hadn't thrown himself into the cliff of sheer stone behind the water. He'd leaped through the falls, into whatever space lay behind it.

Okay. I could do this. Saving myself from prison required a literal leap of faith, with Nevan on the other side to catch me. I tensed, bracing for the impact of hard, cold water. Clenched my fists. Shut my eyes.

"Porter!" Travis and his deputies rampaged toward the railing. The sheriff's voice echoed off the trees. "Porter, get the hell offa there! What in blue blazes are ya doing? Trying to break your fool neck?"

My attention diverged, like a TV displaying two feeds in a split-screen effect. My nails scraped at the rock, but my left foot skidded sideways. My fingers grasped at depressions in the stone, steadying my balance. I pushed away from the wall and confronted the curtain of water.

"Lindsey, no!" A note of panic quavered in Travis's voice.

I jumped.

The water swallowed me. Cold. Sharp. Tiny nails driven into my flesh. I cleared the falls and my boots struck solid rock.

Panting, but with both feet flat on the ground, I struggled to orient myself in my new environment. The frigid water left me shivering, my teeth chattering. My hair and clothes clung to me, sodden and heavy. I stood within a small cavern, from the outside hidden by the falls but now revealed before me. To my left and right, rock walls rose up to meet the ceiling, where it arched across the space at least five feet above. Water-filled depressions pockmarked the sandstone floor.

The thundering of the water had faded into a dull rumble. I glanced backward, but the cascade still blocked the entrance. I couldn't explain the dulling of its roar, though the effect reminded me of wearing foam earplugs.

To my left, a few feet away, Nevan braced his body with one hand on the wall.

"Why is the noise quieter in here?" I asked.

"Magic."

I supposed that was all the explanation I'd get, so I returned to surveying the cavern. The floor was level, if pockmarked, and strands of green copper ore weaved through the arching ceiling. In front of me loomed an unnatural darkness. It shimmered and swirled, in a striking echo of Nevan's eyes. In contrast to the bright metallic hues of his irises, this whirlpool gyrated with a fathomless blackness, as if it were made of crude oil sprinkled with starlight, a wall of glittering emptiness stretching into eternity.

The closer I approached to the shimmering void, the more colors I detected inside it. Thin ribbons of iridescent blue, green, and purple twirled within the black. I lifted a hand to touch it but felt nothing, as if I'd tried to caress the air. My fingertips disappeared into the opalescent shadows. Goose bumps materialized on my arms, heralding a tingling chill.

Get out of here.

My subconscious had a point. I ought to run. Right this instant.

I couldn't. I had to know.

Nevan's fingers wound around mine. He sidled past me, partway into the shimmering abyss. One side of his body vanished.

I stood paralyzed before the portal to another world.

He tugged my hand in quiet invitation.

My gut clenched. Ohhhh, this is a really bad idea.

I did it anyway. I marched straight into the blackness.

Light blinded me. Radiant warmth chased away the chill of the cavern, calming my shivers. I squinted into the brightness, which emanated from above like the sun. As my eyes adjusted to the change, I noted the source of the light. It was the sun.

Which made no sense. I'd walked into darkness. Yet here I stood, bathed in sunshine with a tepid breeze tickling my face.

Nevan strode past me, freeing my hand.

I turned in a circle, awed by my surroundings. Behind me, where the cavern and waterfall should've been, a six-foot-tall boulder hunkered. Water burbled up out of the boulder's top, spilling down its sloping sides and onto the ground, where the water collected in a pool about ten feet in diameter. Tiny waves lapped at the pool's edge, inches from my feet.

Everywhere around me, thick trees hulked at least a hundred feet overhead. In place of leaves, stringy stuff reminiscent of moss dangled from the branches. The sky shone an ethereal blue, as dark and lustrous as a sapphire. The sun blazed within the blue, a flaming diamond embedded in the sky. Unseen birds chirped and twittered, their songs like nothing on earth. Indescribable scents wafted on the breeze, tantalizing and mysterious, delicious and dangerous. Everything here struck me as beautiful but wrong.

Nevan leaned his hip against a tree trunk on the other side of the pool, his arms folded over his chest. Our trip through the waterfall had drenched him too, molding the loincloth to his flesh and slicking his hair back. My gaze tracked the lines of his muscles down his body, over his hips, along those powerful thighs. His skin had become a glistening tapestry, dappled with beads of water, kissed by the unearthly gleam of the sun.

My hand rose to my throat of its own volition, my fingers stroked my skin.

God, he was as beautiful and strange as the surroundings. The memory of of our scorching kiss rocketed through me, my body reliving the bliss of his hands groping and his tongue milking every ounce of passion from me.

"Come back to me," Nevan murmured, suddenly right in front of me.

I blinked rapidly, but couldn't shake the lightheaded awe — of him, of this place, of the surreal dream my life had become. "Imposs — wha — "

His lips curved in a closed-mouth smile and lines of amusement crinkled around his eyes. "You'll need to finish a sentence, or at least a word, if you're wanting me to respond."

Rationality burst back into me with a jolt. I'd have to wait until later to process everything I'd seen and experienced. As for the lust-inducing memory of Nevan's mouth… Best not think of that at all.

Nevan studied me with his glowing, amber eyes. His tongue slipped out to wet his lips.

I repressed the urge to squirm under his scrutiny. "I gather this whole 'touch of the Unseen world' stuff is designed to keep pesky mortals out of your precious realm of magic and creepiness."

"Naturally." He brushed a lock of hair from my shoulder, his fingers teasing my skin. "If it were easy to enter the Unseen, marauding droves of your kind would overrun our world."

I stifled a laugh, sort of. It broke out as a wet snort. "Come on, we lowly humans aren't that bad."

"You aren't bad at all." He ran his finger along the top of my ear, tucking my hair behind it. "Allowing the teeming hordes free entrance would rather negate the unseen aspect of this realm."

"I see your point." But another thought occurred to me, and I scrunched up my lips. "But you guys have free entrance to our world. That's not fair at all."

"Not free entrance." He twined a lock of my hair around his finger, winding it loosely, letting it fall, and winding it again, his gaze trained on the task. "There is a boundary which limits our egress."

"Your egress?" My derisive grunt turned breathless as he trailed his fingertips down my throat. Not fair at all. "Nobody talks like that. Besides, I haven't seen any walls or fences blocking your way."

"It is a magical boundary," he said on a sigh, as if I'd questioned the existence of gravity. "We cannot travel more than one mile from any of the gateways between the worlds."

"The waterfall. It's a gateway."

"All bodies of water serve as doorways."

"Hmm." I thought back to our encounter in my car, when he'd freaked out at the sight of a mile marker up ahead. "That's why you nearly got us into a car crash. We were approaching one mile from the falls."

"Ah… yes."

"Jesus, why didn't you just say so?" I rolled my gaze up to the heavens, shaking my head. "Could've saved us both a lot of grief if you'd told me the truth right then."

"Perhaps." He winked, grinning. "But where's the fun in that?"

"Do you honestly think it's fun to almost get me killed?"

His grin crumbled. "I would never harm you, if I could prevent it. What happened in your vehicle was an accident, one for which I have apologized."

"Yeah, I know." I paused, then said, "But you've been in my apartment. It's outside the boundary."

"Outside one boundary, but inside another. There is a small, secluded waterfall nearby."

"Guess I'll take your word for that. What happens if you try to cross one of these invisible lines?"

"Annihilation."

"Of the world?" I squeaked the question, my heart surging into my throat.

"No, love." He patted my cheek. "Annihilation of the immortal being who tries to violate the boundary."

"Oh." I yanked my hands out of my pockets to rub my arms. "Guess I can understand why you flipped out in the car."

"I did not flip either out or in." Nevan backed away, tripped over a rock, and staggered forward, about to collide with me. Sputtering a curse, he righted himself with a little hop. "I requested you stop the car."

"Requested?" I laughed. "Oh, come off it. You totally flipped your lid."

He frowned, brushing himself off. "We'd best track down the bloody leprechaun, if we're to have any hope of resurrecting your deceased friend."

"Shoplifter."

"Pardon?"

"The dead guy. He was a shoplifter, not my friend. I didn't know him and I damn sure didn't like him."

"I appreciate the clarification." In one swift movement, he planted a firm kiss on my cheek, stepped away, and tugged my hand to urge me into motion. "But I wasn't concerned about your relationship with a corpse."

As we headed across the clearing, I bumped my shoulder against his arm. "And what about when he's not dead? Will your green beast rear its head again?"

He froze, forcing me to stop with him. "You think of me as a beast?"

"No, it was a joke." I'd nicked a nerve, but why? An instinct warned me not to pursue the topic further, at least until I'd learned a little more about my would-be savior. Pasting on a smile, the one I wore so often it hurt, I said, "Let's find this leprechaun, okay? I'd really prefer not to go to prison."

"Leprechauns are terribly unpleasant."

Enunciating each word with exaggerated lip movements, I said, "Take me to the leprechaun."

"As you wish."

Nevan shepherded me into the shadows of the forest, down a dirt path veiled in shadows. The further we traveled, the more his smile faded and his body stiffened. I struggled to keep up with his brisk pace. Underneath his flippant disguise, he must've been annoyed at the prospect of visiting a leprechaun. Pardon me, a bloody leprechaun.

Jeez, I hoped he hadn't meant that literally.

The path dead-ended at a small clearing. Nevan stopped at the edge of the trees, his body blocking my view. He turned sideways, his expression no longer amused but tight with tension. Whoa. He must've really disliked leprechauns.

"There," Nevan said, jerking a thumb toward the clearing. "You'll need to do the talking because the leprechaun won't speak to me."

"What did you, sleep with his sister?"

Nevan flinched. "Indeed I did."

"Oh." I'd been joking, but his confession spurred a stab of jealousy. I didn't want to know, not really, but my mouth seemed to have a mind of its own. "Of course you did. How many women have you screwed?"

He rubbed his forehead with his thumb and forefinger. "I have lived for thousands of years, and for most of that time, I recklessly indulged my baser instincts."

"In other words," I said, "you've boinked thousands, maybe millions, of women. Lovely."

He dropped his hand from his forehead, clenching it into a fist. "I make no excuses for my behavior, but never once have I forced a female into my bed. They came to me willingly. Tris's sister pursued me, in fact."

I tore my hand out of his and stomped toward the clearing, ducking under a low-hanging branch. Tendrils of mossy stuff drooped down from it. A clump of the gunk lodged in my hair and I batted it away. "I was right, wasn't I? You are a woodland lothario."

He growled in frustration, punched his fist into a tree, and shook his hand as if the motion could quell his temper. He breathed in and out, in and out, until the dark tension in him ebbed. "All you need know is that for the past century I have been celibate."

"A century?" I looked straight into his eyes, one part of me unable to accept his statement, another part wishing it were true. He hadn't lied to me so far — that I knew of — and I couldn't believe he would lie about this. Being a thirty-two-year-old virgin didn't sound so bad compared to a century of celibacy.

Nevan gave a curt nod.

"Okay then." I swung my arms at my sides, slapping my palms together each time they met in front of me. "I have no idea what to say to that."

"Say nothing. For once." He moved closer, taking my hands in his, and fixed an earnest gaze on me. "Listen to me, Lindsey. On this side of the falls, you cannot trust anyone."

"I trust you." No clue why, but I did.

"Don't." He leaned in, his voice infused with a quiet intensity. "Anyone you meet may try to trick you into a bargain. Do not speak the words 'please' or 'thank you' in this realm and never — never — agree to anything. Do you understand?"

"Not really." My throat constricted at the pain in his eyes. "But I'll do what you want. I prom — Is it okay to say 'promise'?"

"I'd prefer you didn't risk it." He freed my hands. "I know you will do as you say. There's no need for promises."

"How about if I pinky swear?"

Nevan's lips twitched. "Also not necessary, but not dangerous either."

He gestured for me to head for the clearing and walked alongside me as we entered the open area. Nevan slowed his pace, lagging by a couple paces. When I halted, he stayed behind me.

In the clearing's center, seated atop a flat boulder about two feet tall, hunched a rangy teenager. His brown hair, clipped into a buzz cut, matched the freckles dotting his peaches-and-cream skin. The clomping of my footsteps stirred him from his contemplation of a rock he gripped in one hand. His bright green eyes locked onto me briefly, but then his attention zipped straight past my shoulder. His lips contorted in annoyance.

"Go away," the kid said, his accent reminiscent of Chicago or the Bronx. "I ain't interested in the sylph's latest bimbo. I'm busy."

"I am not a bimbo." How many girls had Nevan brought here? Thousands of years, remember? "I don't appreciate the sexist jibe, you pubescent rat."

His brows shot up. "I been called lotsa things, but never that. Least Nev brought a sassy one this time."

The kid wiped his free hand on his ripped and faded blue jeans. He lifted the rock to inspect it. I recognized the chunk of green-tinged stone as copper ore, much like the chunks we sold in the shop. Two of the rock's edges had been sanded to a smooth surface and polished to a glassy shine.

My jaw fell open. No, not like the ore we sold in the shop. The rock had come from the shop. The kid was holding one of the float copper bookends my now-deceased shoplifter had tried to swipe. He must've sneaked back into the shop to finish his heist. But how did the leprechaun get the bookend?

The top edge of the stone, once curved and smooth, now looked ragged and raw.

My new friend raised the copper bookend to his mouth and bit into it. Crunch. Bits of copper ore peppered his green flannel shirt.

"Lindsey," Nevan said, nodding toward the boy, "meet Tris."

"He doesn't look like a leprechaun."

"If you were expecting a stout little fellow wearing a green outfit and a big smile, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place. Tris doesn't do colorful or cheerful."

Tris threw a hot glare at Nevan before zeroing in on me. "We do not wear lame hats or dole out luck. Got it?"

"Yeah, I get it." Thinking I'd better ingratiate myself if I hoped to resurrect the dead man, I added, careful to avoid any dangerous niceties, "I didn't mean to offend you."

His glower softened, though only a smidgen. "I blame the sylph. If I could, I'd sue him for libel and I'd win." He bit off another mouthful of copper, munching it with great relish. "What do you want, lady? You're busting in on my lunch."

I decided to take the high road and assume rudeness was a defense against the weird magic rules. "Do you know what happened to the dead man?"

Tris gulped down the last of his copper ore. "Look, I don't got a clue what you're yammering about. Go away."

He flapped a dismissive hand in my direction.

To hell with ingratiating myself. If this kid was guilty, I wanted to know.

I marched three steps toward him, narrowing the gap between us to a few feet. His eyes, though glowing like Nevan's, lacked any motion or fire in the irises, imbuing them with a coldness. Yet behind the flat green light something sputtered, faint and well hidden, visible only from the right angle. He might not be as cold as he wanted me to think. "The man you stole that copper from is dead. Somebody bashed him in the head. I'm guessing it was you."

Tris made a thumbs-down gesture. "You guess wrong."

He hefted the bookend for another bite.

I snatched it from his hand.

Tris let out a loud hiss. "That's mine, sister. Give it back."

He thrust out a hand, waggling his fingers in the universal gesture for gimme-gimme.

I clutched the bookend to my chest. It was oddly warm, probably from the leprechaun's hands around the stone. "You stole it."

From another thief, but that was immaterial.

The kid shook his head, not as if denying what I'd said, but as if he knew I wouldn't leave him alone until he told the truth. Good. Let him stew.

Nevan bounded up behind me. "Tell her what happened, Tris. This one is willful. Ignoring her won't do you one bit of good."

Tris refused to glance at Nevan or acknowledge the man had spoken. Instead, he slumped forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "All right, all right. But I didn't kill nobody. He was dead when I found him. Seeing as how he didn't need the copper anymore, I sorta claimed it. As abandoned property."

I tapped my fingers on the bookend, still hugged to my chest. "Why should I believe you?"

"It's the truth, lady," he snarled. "Believe it or don't, what do I care?"

Actually, I did believe him. Couldn't say why. The kid was annoying, insolent, and must've suffered from a bizarre mineral deficiency. I didn't like him. And yet, I believed his story. "If you didn't kill the guy, who did?"

"Dunno." His glazed eyes fixated on the bookend and he licked his lips. "I'm still hungry. Can I have that back?"

Considering the way he kept moistening his lips, and the greedy sheen in his eyes, he must've really been hungry. For copper ore? Oh well, I'd given up on trying to understand anything that happened since I found the dead man yesterday.

I handed the bookend to Tris. He bit off a mouthful. His teeth pulverized the rock with an audible grinding noise and powdered copper dribbled from his lips. He swiped the back of his hand across his mouth.

What kind of teeth did this kid have?

I shoved the question to the back of my mind, returning to the issue at hand. "I believe you. Which means I need to ask for your help."

He made a rude noise. "I don't do favors. 'Specially not for stinking mortals."

A snide quip popped to mind, but I bit it back and tried my damnedest to look relaxed and nonthreatening. Not that anyone had ever accused me of being threatening. Just seemed like a good idea to minimize the hostility. "If I could ask anyone else, I would, but according to Nevan, you're it. Resurrect the dead man for me."

"Ah," Nevan said, a finger raised. He gave me a look that suggested he thought I was tiptoeing too close to the P-word. "Perhaps I should take over from here."

"I need his help and you said he wouldn't talk to you." I turned back to Tris. "Will you do this for me?"

"Help a mortal?" Tris cackled. Like a witch from a bad horror movie. Leprechauns were not supposed to cackle. In that moment, I realized I'd better adjust my preconceptions — or better yet, dump them altogether — if I hoped to survive in my new reality.

I raised both hands, palms together, letting my gesture beg where I could not. "Bring back the dead man and I'll owe — "

"No-no," Nevan said. He strode between me and Tris, a massive blockade composed of tight muscles and burnished skin. "She doesn't care to finish that sentence."

"Sure I do."

Nevan shot me a dark look. "Trust me. You don't."

Tris lowered the bookend, letting it rest on his thigh. He tilted his head up to glower straight at Nevan, who met his gaze with a blank one of his own. Tris spoke directly to the sylph. "Don't this broad know nothing? What kinda morons are you bringing in here these days, Nev?"

My sylph companion feigned surprise. "Now you're speaking to me, eh?"

The kid snorted. "Not cuz I wanna. But what's the point in talking to this broad when she don't even know about debts? Teach these dames the basics before you drag 'em in here."

I peeked around Nevan's shoulder. "Debts? What do you mean? Does this have anything to do with not letting me say the P-word?"

"Never mind," Nevan said, shifting sideways to keep me blockaded. "Tris, Lindsey asked for your help. Will you voluntarily perform the service?"

Voluntarily perform? I marveled at the deft way he tap-danced around around these magical land mines. No please, no implication of owing anything. He asked the leprechaun to volunteer.

"What's in it for me?" Tris demanded.

Nevan gritted his teeth, blustering a breath out his nostrils. "I won't throttle you."

I curled a hand over Nevan's bicep. It bulged under my palm, hardened by a barely contained anger. His eyes fluoresced in shades of red, bronze, and white, while his skin seemed to toughen like leather stretched taut. He had the aura of a wild beast preparing to pounce. Whatever happened between Tris and Nevan must've involved way more than the sylph enjoying a simple roll in the hay with the leprechaun's sister.

I gave his arm a light squeeze. "Nevan, chill out. I can handle this."

His radioactive eyes swerved to me.

I let my hand fall away from his arm, chilled by the eerie sense of gazing into the soul of an ancient, ruthless warrior. I bit back the first word that wanted to come out of my mouth — "please" — and scoured my brain for a safer phrase.

Nevan crept closer to the leprechaun.

"Stop this," I said. "You've done enough for me and I can handle one snotty twerp. I'm grate — "

Nevan slapped a hand over my mouth.

I pushed his hand away. "What are you doing?"

"You were about to incur a debt." His gaze flitted to Tris and back to me. "All debts must be repaid, by whatever means the owed party desires."

By whatever means. He'd told me Skeiron forced him into a bargain that enslaved him to the king's whims. Nevan repaid that debt every day, humiliated by his duty. I did not care to wind up bound like that.

"You vowed to do as I asked," Nevan said. "Do not incur a debt. Obey me on this."

The gravity of his tone stopped me. His grip tightened, his nails slicing in my flesh. "Ouch. You're hurting me."

He yanked his hands away and held them in mid-air, as if he weren't sure they belonged to him. Breathing hard, he slowly lowered his arms. "I should not have held you so tightly."

"No shit." I lifted my right hand, palm out. "I won't thank anybody or say I owe them ever again. Satisfied?"

His shoulders flagged, looking suddenly weary. "Yes."

"I almost heard a thank-you in that yes."

"Owing you would not be a trial."

Tucking my hands in my pockets, I rocked forward on my toes to smile up at him. "I'll remember you said that."

His mouth slid into half smile, but then he reminded me, "No bargaining. And no gratitude of any kind."

"Got it." I angled a little closer. "You're bossy, but I've decided it's in a good way."

His voice dropped to a husky rumble. "How good am I?"

Despite the distance between us, his radiant heat soaked into me like sunshine. Our gazes intersected, drawn together by a gravitational force. My thoughts and desires revolved around him — I, the satellite trapped in the orbit of him, the planetary body. If I gave in to the pull, our passion would explode like a supernova. The mere thought of it shuddered anticipation through my entire body.

I was in so much trouble.

The leprechaun cleared his throat, regarding me with a canny gleam in his eyes.

Oh yeah, sooo much trouble.