The sound of gravel crunching under sandals gave her away before the shadow fell across my spot on the park bench.

  “Dan,” Eury said, voice cool as ever. “You look like someone ran you through the wash on ‘delicate’ and forgot the detergent. You smell of self-disappointment, guilt, and sexual frustration.”

  I rubbed my eyes. “That obvious?”

  “Obvious enough.” She slid down onto the bench beside me, all sun-bronze skin and marble-carved posture. Even sitting, she carried herself like a monument. Her mirrored lenses flashed as she tilted her head toward me. “What’s wrong this time?”

  “Talked to Lily.” My voice came out flat. “She’s upset. Wants in on what we’re doing. Wants to help.”

  Eury gave a humorless laugh. “Of course she does. She’s stubborn. That’s why she survived the Eidolich. That and you.”

  I shifted uncomfortably. “It wasn’t like that. What happened—it wasn’t… romance. It was survival. Medicine.”

  Her lips curved into a smirk sharp enough to cut. “Good Samaritan boning, then? Need to get me some of that…”

  I groaned. “Don’t say it like that.”

  “How else should I say it?” she asked, leaning back, arms crossed. “You saved her life. She attached meaning to your valorous act of penile rescue. Now she’s reaching out, and what are you doing? Sitting here sulking, trying to play both protector and martyr.”

  “I just don’t want her hurt again.”

  “And, in doing so, you’re hurting her differently. Congratulations.” She turned her head, the reflection of me warped in her lenses. “Dan, she feels shut out. Like she’s disposable compared to me and Elly.”

  “She’s not disposable—”

  “Then stop treating her like she is.” Eury’s voice cut like glass, calm but merciless. “Either trust her with the truth or be prepared to lose her. People don’t stay loyal to someone who insists on keeping them in the dark.”

  I clenched my fists on my knees. “You make it sound so simple.”

  “It is. You’re the one complicating it.” She let that hang in the air before adding, “And don’t pretend this is all about Lily. You’ve been orbiting Elly for weeks now, and you don’t even see it. You’re too busy hiding behind guilt. You like someone else, but you already slipped Lily the pickle, so you feel beholden to her like some 1400s maiden.”

  That hit harder than I wanted to admit.

  I muttered, “Just because I care doesn’t mean—”

  “Doesn’t mean what? That you’re not tangled up in this with her? That Lily doesn’t see it?”

  I couldn’t answer.

  Eury uncrossed her arms and stood, tall and sculpted, every movement deliberate. “Think about it, Dan. If you’re not ready to let Lily back in, if you’re not willing to sleep with her again or at least let her in on Jade’s little game, then don’t be surprised when she walks. People can only bang on a locked door for so long.”

  She turned, her sandals crunching against the gravel again, leaving me staring at the empty bench beside me. Empty except for the egg salad sandwich wrapper remains of my solitary lunch. I’d not been able to bring myself to reheat the delicious remains of last night’s scallops and pasta… to much guilt associated with that food.

  I hated that Eury was right.

  I shoved off the bench and followed her. We’d met for a reason, and it was time to do my thing. Our thing.

  If hell had a waiting room, it would look exactly like this: a nightclub where the bass hit harder than my last rent check, strobes flickered like lightning with epilepsy, and sweaty strangers pressed together in ways that should’ve required waivers.

  I hadn’t planned to be here. I’d planned to be home with garlic bread and RuneQuest. But then my phone lit up with a message from a client: “Mercer. Something’s wrong at Nyx. Everyone’s losing it. Please.”

  And, because I was apparently the patron saint of bad ideas, I decided to roll on this call with Eury. Hence our park meeting after the sad remains of my lunch.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Now here we were.

  She was five steps ahead of me, of course, cutting through the crowd like a blade. Tall, blonde, a Greco-Roman statue with mirrored sunglasses and an expression that dared anyone to touch her. Nobody did. The press of bodies parted like they knew better.

  Meanwhile, I was the idiot trailing behind, elbows in my ribs, hoodie already sticking to my skin.

  “This,” I yelled over the bass, “is not in my job description!”

  Eury didn’t glance back. “It’s in mine,” she said coolly. “Containment.”

  It didn’t take long to see the problem.

  The people on the dance floor weren’t just dancing. They were synchronized. Too smooth. Too perfect. Pupils blown wide, sweat dripping down like rain. Their mouths moved with moans that synced to the music.

  The DJ stood like a puppet master, glitter dust sparkling on his skin, glamour rolling out in waves.

  I swallowed. “That’s not normal.”

  “No,” Eury said flatly. “It’s compulsion. Dangerous. Without intervention, you’ll have cardiac arrests in ten minutes, public orgy in five.”

  “Awesome. So… what do we do?”

  Her lips curved. “We? You. Null-boy. Start making with the saliva.”

  Which is how I ended up with two bottles of water stolen from the bar (although I left a fiver in the tip jar), a stack of bar napkins, and my emergency chapstick, probably the world’s grossest toolkit. Bat utility belt, it was not.

  “This is my life now,” I muttered, spitting into a napkin.

  First victim: a glazed-eyed guy in a neon mesh tank top. Quick forehead dab. Zap. His eyes cleared, confusion flooding in. He staggered back, muttering thanks.

  Second: kiss to the cheek. Third: swipe to the lips. By the fifteenth, my hoodie was damp, and my chapstick was crying for mercy.

  By the twentieth, somebody in the crowd yelled, “Form a line!”

  And just like that, there was a licking line. It’s not nearly as sexy as it sounded. Really.

  People shuffled forward like communion at a very, very wrong church. I wanted to crawl into the floor, but my tongue did the crawling instead.

  “You’re doing great!” Eury called sweetly from the edge, voice cutting through the bass like a scalpel. “Heroic. Disgusting, but heroic.” She sounded halfway turned on and halfway appalled on my behalf, which was pretty accurate for the situation, I guess.

  The DJ noticed. His glitter-bright eyes narrowed. He muttered something sharp in fae tongue, and the bass doubled. The compulsion spiked.

  Half the room screamed. The other half clawed at each other, kissing, grinding, bodies tangling in chaos. The air turned thick with heat and pheromones. Clothes started to come off.

  Even I was tempted to lose the security blanket of a hoodie. Being amidst all these horny people with a blood-crusted outer layer seemed silly. Why wasn’t I naked? I staggered, knees buckling, mouth going dry. “This is—this is bad.”

  Eury’s hand clamped on my shoulder, iron-strong fingers digging into the meat almost painfully. “Stay strong. Resist the urges. You fall; we lose them all.” Her tone was calm, but there was steel under it.

  “Null up.” I nodded.

  I looked around at the writhing crowd, panicked. “This would be so much easier if Lily was here. She could—”

  “Yes,” Eury snapped. “She could modulate the pheromones, dial them down, stop this cold.” Her voice cut sharper. “Instead, she’s at home, while you keep pretending that she doesn’t belong in this, fighting beside us.”

  I gritted my teeth. “She’s not—she doesn’t need this mess.”

  “She’s already in it, Dan, directly or not.”

  I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Because right then, desperation overruled logic. I climbed onto the stage.

  The DJ sneered, square teeth flashing, pointy horns peeking out through his sweaty hair, his glamour crashing in tidal waves.

  I felt more than a twinge in my nether regions, and Eury was starting to look hella fine. That’s when I knew something was getting out of hand, because as gorgeous as she was, I knew she was danger of a type I wouldn’t survive. Look but don’t touch.

  Even Eury winced, my biting her lip, visibly struggling to stop her hips from moving to the beat. She was pushing her way through the undulating crowd, resisting the urge to do more than touch as she made her way through them.

  “Fuck this noise and the boner it rode in on.” This time I backwashed into the half-empty bottle in my hand. “Achtung!”

  The water bottle sailed, twisting and sloshing as it arced over into the DJ’s setup. The equipment sparked. Smoke hissed. The glamour snapped like a power line, cutting in a feedback shriek that nearly burst my eardrums.

  The crowd crumpled, confused, dazed. The DJ reeled. And that’s when Eury struck.

  Her glasses came off.

  For a heartbeat, her eyes burned molten gold. The DJ froze mid-sneer, body trembling but locked solid. Not stone. Not paralyzed forever. Just frozen in place by a power too old to name.

  She slid the glasses back on, smooth as ever. “Show’s over.”

  We spilled outside into the cool night. The crowd dispersed in confused mutters, tugging clothes back into place, looking like they’d survived some kind of psychic natural disaster.

  I leaned against a wall, hoodie damp, lips raw, hands trembling. “I need garlic bread. And maybe a full-body sanitizer bath.”

  Eury barely broke a sweat. She flicked her hair back, flawless as ever, but her shirt was unbuttoned. “We survived. Barely.”

  I groaned. “You are way too smug for someone with nipples poking out of her shirt. That music was getting to you, also. You’re not the made-of-stone goddess you always portray yourself to be.”

  She glanced down, shrugged, and smiled faintly. “Thanks for noticing. What can I say? I like to dance. We should go sometime.”

  “Not sure I’d make it through the first few steps.”

  “You don’t know until you try. Now, about Lily.”

  “I know…”

  “You’re way too stubborn.” She grumbled.

  And then I saw it.

  On one of the stumbling clubgoers, half-hidden under their sleeve, was a faint sticker. Glowing. Fading.

  A Collector’s tag.

  My stomach dropped.

  “Eury,” I rasped, pointing.

  She followed my gaze. Her lips thinned. “They were here, too.”

  The weight of it pressed down, heavier than the music had been.

  I exhaled, ragged. “Fine. You win. We bring Lily in. No more keeping her out.”

  Eury tilted her head, expression unreadable behind those mirrored lenses. Then, finally, she nodded. “About time.”