I took a step forward as fear for Tink rose in my gut, but the shimmering cyclone stilled and then fell to the floor in a rush of sparkling golden dust and . . .
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
The knight stopped fighting. So did Ren. The entire world would have stopped, because they were seeing what I was seeing, which was insane. Absolutely freaking insane.
A man stood where Tink had hovered—a fully grown man who was as tall as the knight, and that man, whoever he was, looked like Tink. He had shockingly white hair and blue eyes. Tink’s handsome little face was now transformed into a normal-sized handsome face. He was tall and broad, with defined pecs and abs, and—oh my God, he was naked. Like legit naked! And I couldn’t un-see any of that, because . . .
Because this fully grown male was Tink.
“Oh my God.” I took a step sideways and then my knees gave out. I plopped down onto the couch.
“What in the actual fuck of all fuckdoms?” Ren exclaimed.
That summed up everything.
Striding forward, Tink headed straight for the stunned knight. Ren stepped aside, and I think it was completely out of shock, because there were things hanging and dangling—and I was scarred for life.
“There are none of your kind in this realm,” the knight said. “You’re not to be—”
“Nope. Nope. Nope. It’s the middle of the night and I ain’t got the time nor the care to listen to you,” Tink stated.
Then Tink moved so fast that one second he was stalking all naked-like toward the knight, and then the next second the knight’s neck was splitting wide open. Bluish-red blood poured down the front of the knight’s shirt as the head rolled to the side and off the shoulder.
The sickening thump of its head hitting the floor echoed in the silence, and then the body followed, folding like a paper sack.
“Yeah, ancients don’t go poof. We’re going to have to do something about the body. Probably before morning,” Tink explained. “Because they tend to decompose fast, and there’s going to be a lot more than just blood seeping through the floorboards.”
Um . . .
Tink handed the thorn stake back to Ren. Somehow, I had no idea how, he’d gotten it from Ren. Tink smiled proudly as he brushed his hands together and looked down at the body of the fallen knight. “Good day to you, sir!”
“What in the actual fuck?” Ren demanded again.
My mouth gaped open.
Ren was staring too, his gaze moving from where the knight lay in pieces, to the fully grown Tink—fully grown, naked Tink. His jaw was moving, but it was like he couldn’t find the words. I couldn’t blame him. All I could do was stare at Tink.
“How?” I whispered, and I didn’t know if I was asking how he managed to get rid of the ancient or how he was fully grown.
It took Tink a moment to realize I was talking about him. “I’m very powerful, Ivy. I’ve told you that a hundred thousand times before, but you probably just ignored me. Big things come in small packages.”
“That . . . explains nothing,” I stated.
He cocked his head to the side. “Well, I am kind of like a house elf.”
“Oh my God!” I shrieked, jumping off the couch. “You are not a house elf! This isn’t the wizarding world of fucked up! You’re fully grown. Like man-sized grown.”
“I’m going to pretend you did not speak of the wizarding world in such a tone,’” he replied snottily. “Anyway, I’m a brownie. We have a remarkable ability that allows us to shrink ourselves. It’s sort of like a defense mechanism. Just like opossums playing dead.”
My entire face scrunched up. “That . . . that is not the same as an opossum playing dead.”
“But it’s the same idea. We can make ourselves smaller so that we are grossly underestimated,” Tink explained with a shrug. “It works. Obviously. None of you thought I could—”
I held up a hand, and he must have read the crazy in my face, because he shut up. “So, you’re telling me that this entire time you’ve actually been pretending to be small?”
“Not exactly pretending,” he replied thoughtfully. “Being small is the same as being large.”
I widened my eyes. “That makes no sense.”
“I warned you, Ivy. I even asked you if you knew what you had living in your house.” Ren kindly took that exact moment to remind me of this.
I turned devil eyes on him. “Did you know he was actually six-and-a-half-feet tall and anatomically correct?”
Ren’s nose wrinkled. “Well, no.”
“Then shut the hell up!”
Ren threw his hands up. “Alrighty then.”
“Why would you think I wasn’t anatomically correct in the first place?” Tink asked, sounding offended.
Turning back to naked, person-sized Tink, I ignored his question and shouted, “And where are your goddamn wings?”
He frowned. “I have them hidden now. In this form, they’re pretty big and would be knocking shit over left and right, and considering how unstable you are, I doubt that’s—”
“I’m unstable because you’re not the size of a fucking Barbie doll.”
“I don’t see how this is a problem,” Tink responded. “I’m actually more useful this way. You don’t have to carry my deliveries when I’m—”
“Oh my God!” I screamed once more. I couldn’t believe it. Tink wasn’t the size of a doll at all. He’d just chosen that size, and the whole time he’d been living here, he was really like Ren-sized, and he’d seen me in my bra and undies, and . . .”Oh my God, I’m going to kill you!”
Tink drew back, his eyes wide. “That’s a little drastic.”
“I can get behind that thought process,” Ren said dryly.
“I saved your life,” Tink gasped, whirling toward Ren. “How dare you?”
Ren rolled his eyes. “I had it handled.”
“It looked like the only thing you had handled was the art of getting your ass kicked.”
I sat back down on the couch, having absolutely no idea of what was happening.
“Keep telling yourself that.” Ren came around the side of the couch and picked up the damaged lamp. He placed it on the end table. “Can you put some damn clothes on?”
Tink arched a brow. “You have a problem with male nudity?”
“I have a problem with your dick hanging out.”
“You didn’t have a problem walking around the apartment with your junk all out and in everyone’s face,” Tink retorted, referencing the first morning those two met.
“That’s because I didn’t know you were here.”
Tink smirked. “You know what I think the problem is? You’re intimidated by my size.”
Oh my God.
Ren laughed. “Yeah, I’m not intimated. That’s not a problem.”
Considering I fortunately knew Ren’s size and unfortunately now knew Tink’s size, I could confirm that was, indeed, not a problem. Picking up a throw pillow, I tossed it at Tink. He caught it and sighed, holding it so it covered up parts of him I hadn’t wanted to ever see.
I pressed my fingers to my temples. “This is a nightmare. I’m going to wake up in a few minutes, the lock on my front door won’t be broken, there will have been no knight, and Tink will still be a foot tall playing with troll dolls.”
“Oh, I’ll still play with them,” Tink replied.I squeezed my eyes shut.
“If it makes you feel better, I can return to your Tink-approved size,” he offered.
“It’s not going to make me feel better.” I opened my eyes. “Now that I know you’re really full grown.”
“Okay.” He sat down on the edge of the coffee table, bare ass and balls just everywhere. Jesus. He stretched out his long legs. “So . . . this is awkward.”
No shit. This entire time I thought I’d been living with this cute little brownie, but really I’d been living with this extraordinarily hot, super tall, fully-grown male creature of the Otherworld. Because I’d thought of him as this tiny thing with wing
s, I had never really worried about accidentally flashing him with my boobs or worse.
“While this shit show over here is a pretty big deal,” Ren said, gesturing at Tink, who, as expected looked offended by his word choice, “I’m going to have to ask one more fucked-up question in a series of fucked-up questions.” Ren sat on the arm of the couch. “I know things were crazy—well, are still crazy.” He eyed the new life-sized version of Tink. “But that knight was gunning for my ass, and I mean that. He didn’t want anything to do with Ivy.”
My eyes widened. Oh no. Ren had noticed that. Of course he had. Not like the knight wasn’t being particularly obvious about it. I had no idea what to say. And I didn’t get a chance to really get creative, because Tink spoke from his naked perch on the edge of my coffee table.
“Probably because the knight went after the one he viewed as more of a threat,” he said. “That’s what I would do. Take out the one who is stronger first.”
My brows slammed down.
Tink studiously ignored me. “Knights are very tactical. They’re strategists.”
I had no idea if he was telling the truth or just covering for me.
Ren looked over at me. “This is a big deal,” he said.
Everything about the last twenty-four hours was a big deal.
“If the knights are coming to Order members’ houses in the middle of the night . . .” Ren thrust his hand through his hair then dropped it to his side. “This changes everything.”
My gaze met Tink’s. Everything had already changed.
Chapter Ten
“I’m sorry, Ivy Divy.” Tink followed me into my bedroom.
“Stop with the cute shit.” I cut him off as I walked to my closet and yanked the door open. “Calling me ‘Ivy Divy’ isn’t cute anymore, not when you’re like two freaking feet taller than me.”
“I’m not that much taller than you.”
I looked over my shoulder at him, shooting him a glare worthy of shriveling up the man-parts now concealed by a towel wrapped around his waist, because apparently he didn’t have any dude-sized clothing on hand.
“Okay.” He backed off . . . by a couple inches. “I never said anything, because I—”
“Let me guess. Because you never thought it would be an issue?” I laughed harshly as I pulled a sweater off a hanger. Shoving the door shut, I faced Tink—man-sized Tink. “I’ve heard that excuse before.”
“I know.” He glanced out into the living room. Ren had left with the body to go do God knew what with it, but he could return at any minute. “It’s just that when we enter the human realm, we always take this form. It’s a protective measure, and you found me in that form, and I thought it was best—”
“Oh my God, Tink, you could’ve just said something. Like, oh, I don’t know. ‘Hey, I may look small, but I’m really a giant dickhead.’ That would’ve been helpful.” I pulled the sweater on over my head then stomped out into the living room, walking around the shimmery blood that smelled faintly of berries and cream. I just couldn’t even deal with that. “You’re cleaning that up!” I shouted at Tink.
“I’ll clean it up, Ivy, but I don’t like it when you’re mad at me.”
I snort-laughed as I walked into the kitchen, grabbing the broom and dustpan out of the pantry. “Then how about being honest with me, completely honest with me? That would stop me from being pissed at you.”
Tink followed me back into the living room, watching as I brushed up the pile of dirt. “If you knew that I could be this size, you wouldn’t have been comfortable with me staying here,” he said.
I stopped and looked up at him. Damn straight I wouldn’t have been comfortable. “Correct.”
“See?! You probably would’ve tried to kill me. You knew me in my smaller form, so I stayed that way until I felt like I had to intervene.” Tink sighed. “Look, Ren might’ve handled the knight, but knights are extremely deadly and powerful. I reacted without thinking.”
I returned to the mess on the floor, scooping up more dirt. “I’m glad you took care of the knight, but that doesn’t change the fact that you haven’t been up front with me this whole time.” Bending down, I picked up the dustpan and brought it over to where the lamp had landed, stepping around the puddle of bluish-colored blood. “There’s so much you haven’t been honest about.”
Tink was quiet as he righted the plant stand, then plopped the fern back onto it. By some act of dark magic, the towel secured around his waist stayed there.
I didn’t know what to say to him. There was so much going on and my mind was focused in so many different directions that I almost didn’t have the brain space for him.
Tink appeared at my side. “Hey, at least I killed the warrior with my sheer strength and skill.”
I snorted as I brushed up the pieces of broken lamp. “More like you shocked him with your nakedness.”
“Well,” he said, grinning. “My girth is impressive.”
“Ew,” I muttered, and then faced him. A couple of moments passed. “I need to seriously know if there is anything else that you haven’t told me. I’m being so serious this time. If you lie to me again—” I cut myself off and swallowed a sudden knot in my throat. If there were more lies, that was it. It was too much. “Now is the time to be completely honest.”
Tink’s pale blue eyes met mine. “There’s nothing else, Ivy. You now know everything about me.”
“What I asked you earlier about . . . about communities of fae that might not be . . . bad? Were you telling the truth then?” I asked.
“Yes.” He nodded for extra emphasis. It was hard holding his stare right now, because Tink was . . . he was hot and that just made me feel kind of gross. I had never thought of him that way before. It never once had crossed my mind. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. They may be out there, but I honestly don’t know. And I really haven’t left here,” he said, his brows knitted together. “It was overwhelming when I came through the gate. Everything was so loud and . . . and yeah, I haven’t gone back out.”
Was Tink actually afraid of going out into the world? That could explain his obsession with Amazon. I’d always thought it was because, well, he was tiny and it was kind of hard to blend in when you were only a foot or so tall and had wings. Obviously, he could’ve switched into this form at any time when I wasn’t around and left this apartment to party it up on Bourbon Street.
“You’ve really haven’t gotten back out there?” I asked.
Tink shook his head. “I’ve thought about it, but I haven’t taken this form since I came to this side.” He glanced down at himself. “It’s weird. Being this size, that is.” Drawing in a deep breath, he lifted his gaze to mine and said, “It’s easier being smaller here. There’s none of my kind. No one. It’s just easier for me.”
I suddenly felt pretty bad for Tink, and I didn’t want to, because he’d lied to me so many times. Harboring anger was easier than forgiveness and understanding. He had valid reasons for his lies, but they still stung. I set the dustpan on the coffee table.
“Are you still mad?” Tink ventured closer to the couch. “I can stop ordering from Amazon. Okay, well, I can cut back on ordering from Amazon. Like maybe down to three orders a—”
“You don’t need to stop ordering from Amazon.” I clutched the broom as my gaze drifted to the door.
Ren was stopping at the Walmart about ten minutes down the road to pick up a new lock. It was going to be a long night, and even with the lock changed, how safe was it to be here now?
“We never had to worry about the fae searching us out before,” I said. “This . . . I don’t even know what to think of this.”
Tink said nothing, because what could be said?
Ren and I were going to have to talk to David about what had happened. There was no way around that. This was too important, too dangerous.
I thought about the prince and how the knight had behaved. My fingers trembled around the broom, so I propped it against the couch. “I saw the prince
earlier.”
“What?” Tink’s response was sharp and high.
I repeated myself. “I saw him when I left here. I went to get beignets and he walked up behind me.”