I’m Scarlett.” Her lips twitched in humor. “I see it’s happy hour here in the human realm.”
“I’m afraid I have a bit of a weakness for champagne,” Lorien admitted on a loud whisper. “But the effects don’t last long—quick metabolism. Come have a drink with us. I hear you’re something of a legend with a sword.”
Scarlett gave the faerie a wary look as she followed her to the sitting area. She lowered herself onto the smaller sofa, while Pat and Sydney shared the larger one.
“Who told you that?” she asked, wondering, not for the first time, what Pat might have told his human about her.
Sydney handed her a glass and she murmured her thanks as she stared curiously at Lorien.
“I was at your brother and Violet’s bonding ceremony in our realm,” Lorien explained. “My sister is Violet’s faerie guardian.”
Scarlett had avoided Sydney during that event, so it wasn’t surprising that she hadn’t met the cheeky sprite who watched over her.
Lorien grinned. “Your kin were bragging about you.”
“She can kick my ass with a sword, that’s for sure,” Pat said drily.
“I can kick your ass without one,” Scarlett retorted.
Lorien snickered and Sydney let out a bark of laughter.
Scarlett’s cheeks heated and she added, “I teach sword technique to our young warriors, so I have to keep my skills sharp.”
“Really?” Sydney asked. “My best friend Sunny teaches college, so her students are probably about the same age group as yours. Is that your full time job?”
“Yes,” Scarlett replied in a guarded tone. She was surprised at the genuine interest in Sydney’s expression.
Pat made a face at her behind Sydney’s back and motioned with his hand for her to keep talking.
Scarlett cleared her throat, unused to conversing with humans, but aware of the promise she’d made to be nice to Sydney.
“I teach five days a week, primarily the young warriors from our village, but sometimes trainees come in from the surrounding villages as well.”
“Cool. Sunny specializes in medieval literature. So I guess you teach your students how to use swords, and she teaches hers about people who fought with them long ago,” Sydney said with a smile.
“Your histories are littered with tales of humans who unknowingly fought alongside the sidhe,” Scarlett replied stiffly. “Many of the sword techniques your people used were learned from us.”
“Really? You’ll have to sit down with Sunny some time and let her pick your brain. I’m sure she’d love to hear anything you have to say about that time period.”
Scarlett shifted uncomfortably at the thought of allowing another human to ‘pick her brain’. She took a sip of her drink to avoid answering, and made a surprised sound of pleasure at the taste.
“It’s good, right?” Sydney commented. “This penthouse came with a case of it and Lorien and I have been addicted ever since. It’s pricey but, since I don’t have a mortgage payment anymore, I can justify splurging on it.”
“I think you go through about a case of that stuff a week,” Sparrow teased.
“I usually have help,” Sydney defended laughingly.
“Yeah, Sunny’s usually here to drink with us,” Lorien said. “Speaking of which, when’s her next visit?”
“In a couple of weeks,” Sydney replied. “She’s presenting an academic paper at a conference in France in a few days, and she may extend her stay to hang out in Paris. I’m so jealous!”
“Have you ever been to Paris?” Sparrow asked, his thumb idly brushing her shoulder.
“No, but my mom says it’s beautiful.”
“Maybe we can meet Sunny there for dinner one evening,” he suggested.
Sydney twisted on the sofa to face him, excitement lighting her eyes. “Seriously?”
Sparrow smiled at her and nodded.
“They can be a little nauseating, can’t they?” Lorien asked from the side of her mouth.
Scarlett transferred her startled gaze to the faerie. She realized she’d been staring at the couple, but it was intriguing to see Pat acting the man-in-love. She was used to his tough detective side, and his teasing brotherly side, but this was a side of him she’d never witnessed.
It was just as strange to see her beach-bunny-chasing brother suddenly all doe eyed over his new wife, Violet. The fact that both women were human only added to the surrealism. Not that she disapproved, exactly. She was surprised by how much she liked them.
An image of Agent Derrington popped into her mind, and she wondered why she couldn’t seem to shake him from her thoughts.
Not that it mattered. She would probably never see him again. Pat had made it clear that he had no intention of making their presence known to the human authorities.
Perhaps she was just feeling a little adrift because Pat and Doyle had found their soul mates. The last time she’d felt such an inexplicable fascination for a male had been when she was a teenager.
Acting on that feeling had been the worst mistake of her life.
This felt much different though. Back then she had been focused solely on how he reacted to her. With Agent Derrington, it was more that something deep within her reacted to him.
A soft wuffing sound escaped her throat as the hefty black cat jumped onto her lap, effectively derailing her unsettling train of thought.
“Oh sorry! That’s Jasper,” Sydney apologized as she extricated herself from Sparrow’s embrace and started to lunge for the feline.
“No. It’s okay. I like animals.” Scarlett maneuvered the cat into a more comfortable position and stroked his silky fur.
“My brother has an Irish wolfhound,” Scarlett murmured as she ran her palm along the cat’s long, white-tipped tail. “He’s as big as a baby peg. He loves to play with the fallen palm fronds in Doyle’s back yard.”
“Well, Jasper certainly seems to like you,” Sydney remarked as she refilled their glasses and dropped back onto the couch next to Sparrow. “Do you have any pets?”
Scarlett shook her head. “We don’t have the same issues with animals needing homes as you do in your realm. Most of the animals of Faerie possess a certain...magical awareness. They are independent creatures in their own right. Some may choose to live with us, but we do not own them or make such choices for them.”
Sydney turned to the hiccupping sprite and asked, “What about your nephew’s pet frog? Is he magical?”
“Buster?” Lorien asked in amusement. “He’s not magical in the sense that he can
