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324 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 22, 2018
I am Kesh Lasota.
Messenger.
Tek-whisperer.
I am invisible.
I’d fought for their appraisal, killed for their adoration, and risen in their ranks, but all that meant was I’d worn all the right clothes, opened all the right veins, and said all the right things while I bowed low.
Without his coat hiding his outline, I studied the confident way he moved. Broad shoulders carried a man who didn’t know how to hesitate. No wasted gestures. No wrong step. It helped that he had an easy stride and a tight ass I would have liked to admire for a lot longer than the minute he gave me as he reached into a panel in the wall and revealed a slim personal interface screen.
I was a fly pretending to be the spider, and all I had to capture him with was his own web of lies.
He tasted wrong, like everything mothers warned their children about, like the old fairy tales; he tasted like sweet poison, the kind that would slay you slowly while you begged for more.
He narrowed his eyes and looked at me side-on. There was the threat again. It had always been there, buried under his quiet pauses and watchful glances. Talen was more dangerous than Kellee. He was the snake in the grass, the killer you never saw coming.
“I don’t know what’s real around you,� he mumbled, face crumbling.
“Lies are all the weapons a human has in Faerie.�
Reverse Harem Definition - A genre in manga and anime where a single (often ordinary) girl is liked and followed by a bunch of handsome men (3 or more) who are all madly in love with her. The girl often cannot pick which guy she should go out with and remains indecisive.
Just like at the restaurant security, we walked through the scanners, barely stirring more than a fine layer of dust. As far as the tek was concerned, we didn’t exist.
“You are creepy,� Sota reported, the words all the more amusing when coming from a tactical drone.
@ 3%
“Any movement ahead of us?�
“Nothing on this level.�
“Anything above?�
His motors whirred. “Maybe.�
I rolled my eyes. “Can you be more specific?�
“No, something is blocking my sensors beyond twenty meters.�
“Activate stealth,� I ordered.
“Really?� His motors whined.
“Do we have to go through this every time?�
“It’s a terrible drain on my batteri—�
Sota received the look I reserved for assholes and disobedient drones everywhere.
@ 4%
“Its construction doesn’t match any in my databanks.�
If a tactical drone didn’t recognize it, then the rifle was rare, possibly unique.
“Self-guided projectiles,� Sota went on. “Neuro-controlled. This rifle is not human compatible.� Sota’s voice held a note of awe. “Is it wrong that I’m a little turned on right now?�
@ 5%
“I need to call in that favor.�
Kampa straightened. “Oh?�
“You see the stiff by the table in the corner?�
“The old guy on his own, pretending he can blend in like a whore at a virgin ceremony?�
“Go keep him company while I slip out the back?�
Scarlet lips broadened into a wide smile. “My pleasure,� she purred.
@ 10%
“It would take many years of voluntary exposure to human tek & a great deal of pain�
So, Larsen had slipped under the radar over years. Centuries? “How long have you been here?� I asked.
“It has been three hundred & forty-two years since the marshal detained me�
Kellee stiffened. Talen had revealed too much & the fae’s smile proved it.
I blinked, careful to school my features. The marshal was how old? I stared ahead, refusing to glance at Kellee despite needing to see his reaction.
@ 33%
"I had delivered some unusual messages—a happy birthday ditty at a funeral, dates for illegal inter-species rendezvous, packages of cyn, and parcels that squeaked in a decidedly living and illegal way. It wasn’t my job to query the messages, just deliver them. But an eighteen-second death threat delivered by a drone and what he saw as a harmless messenger girl? Yeah, some might consider it amusing."
For a few breathless moments, there was nothing around me but air and glittering glass. Then I hit the fifteen-degree building façade with a shuddering oomph and started tumbling, over and over. I threw out both arms, stopping the roll. Leather squeaked on glass. My coat had tangled around my legs. I half skidded, half fell. I flicked the whip at passing nodules—the large bolts used to fasten the panels to the building. The whip’s coils snagged on one and snapped me to a halt, wrenching agony through my arm.
"Oh! What A Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice To Deceive"