Free The Cursed (League of the Black Swan) by Alyssa Day

moved away from them and motioned to someone inside the glass revolving doors, and Rio saw the shadowy figure lift a hand, presumably carrying a phone, to its head.
    Rio turned to Luke, proud that her knees weren’t shaking. “You see? Sometimes it just takes a little bit of politeness.”
    Luke shook his head, looking stunned. “I’d never have believed it. A mountain troll. You just exchanged pleasantries with a mountain troll. Also, Stephanopoulos?”
    She shrugged. “I like
Good Morning America
.”
    “You do realize that Bordertown is a small place, right? Relatively speaking? You’re not fooling anybody with all of these aliases.” He folded his arms across his chest and rocked back on his heels, just an ordinary wizard casually standing around on the sidewalk.
    “You do realize you’re not fooling anybody when you try to act harmless, right?” she shot back at him.
    Luke laughed, and she had the feeling she’d surprised it out of him. She also had the feeling that he wasn’t surprised by much, so she was oddly pleased with the small victory.
    Abernathy inclined his head with some dignity. “Mr. Dalriata will see you now.”
    “Here we go,” Luke said, taking her hand as if he did it every day of the week.
    She determinedly ignored the spark that shot between them. Static electricity; that must be it. She couldn’t possibly be feeling a spark of attraction to the
wizard
, in front of the
mountain troll
, on the way to meet the
Pict king
, in order to rescue the niece of a
High Court Fae
.
    Watch out for that tree.

CHAPTER 6

     
    Luke led the way to the elevator, and they silently listened to Muzak all the way to the top floor. He’d let go of her hand, and she found herself missing his touch. Her fingers tingled where they’d been in contact with his.
    She had to think about something else.
Anything
else.
    “Seems wrong, doesn’t it?” Rio asked, shoving her hands in her jeans pockets and affecting a nonchalant pose, when she felt anything but.
    “What?”
    “Listening to Barry Manilow on the way to the evil villain’s lair. Seems like it should be AC/DC or a soundtrack of evil cackling, maybe.” She started humming “Copacabana” and watched Luke try not to grin.
    “I think lairs are underground, right? Can there even be penthouse lairs?” He shot her a speculative look and then shook his head. “Doesn’t anything scare you?”
    She caught her breath, wondering at, and then giving in to, the impulse to tell him the truth. Only him. “Are you kidding?
Everything
scares me. I’m a human with a single, not very useful talent living in a world where even the lesser of the predators could take me out with one bite. But sometimes they don’t notice that if my attitude is bigger than I am.”
    His blue eyes glowed a hot blue for a moment, and then he reached out his hand as if to touch her arm, but the elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened. Luke’s hand dropped to his side, and he stepped out first and scanned the area before moving forward so Rio could enter the lobby.
    It was huge, was her first thought. Rio’s entire apartment could have fit into the lobby, with room to spare. A gleaming silver reception desk dominated the space, and the words DALRIATA INDUSTRIES were carved out of the front of the desk in a three-dimensional effect. The same words shouted at them in three-foot-tall letters from the wall behind the desk.
    Luke snorted. “Maybe he’s afraid he’ll forget the name of his company?”
    “Strange there are no guards here,” Rio murmured.
    “Don’t underestimate Blondie,” Luke said. “Who knows what she’s packing?”
    The blonde at the reception desk was as icy as her surroundings. Platinum-blond hair, pale white skin, gray eyes, and a white business suit with a white silk blouse beneath it turned the woman into a wraith. She looked unreal, as if some denizen of the underworld had conjured a colorless imitation of what a real employee might look like.