Seven Black Diamonds (Seven Black Diamonds #1)(30)

When Zephyr met her in one of her many, many classes, he became an accessory. He didn’t mind. She was amazing. Hapless instructors would tell her rock star daddy that she was a very talented young woman, but had trouble with authority. Zephyr was the perfect boyfriend for that girl.

By the time she was twelve, she could play everything from the lute to synthesizer, tribal drums to cello. Any instrument was a perfect fit in her hands. By sixteen, her father had her in studios performing like a trained monkey. Zephyr wanted to beat the man for not noticing how hard Alkamy tried to get his attention. He was clueless, never even suspecting that her inhuman gift for music was fae or questioning her unearthly beauty when she became a teenager. Alkamy’s handler had noticed though and began to teach her how to feed lies to the media so she seemed that she had to work at looking like a doll. Without her handler, Alkamy would’ve been outed as fae before she was thirteen. Since then, Zephyr had helped, as had his handler, who was now their shared liaison with the courts.

He opened the door to her suite and looked around. Alkamy was stretched out inside the soil she stored inside her sofa. The sofa cushions were on the floor, revealing a bed of soil where Alkamy was currently half-submerged and mostly naked. She did, at least, have underwear on.

“No roommate yet then, Kamy?” he asked. It wasn’t something she did in front of suitemates.

“Why don’t you ever knock?” She flung a handful of soil at him. “What if I were naked? Or sleeping? Or naked and sleeping?”

He stepped into the soil and tilted his face upward like he was stepping under a water shower. Then, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. “You are naked, by the way.”

“I am not. Underwear means not naked.” She rolled over and wiggled her hips a little so she sank deeper.

Relieved that she had moved so he wasn’t trying to talk to her without letting his gaze drop to her bare chest, Zephyr started scooping soil over her back. He didn’t comment on the fact that she needed so much soil-time every single time she returned to campus. They’d fought about it enough to know all the lines already.

You need to tell him to keep his cigarettes and cigarette-smoking friends out of the house.

That’s not my character.

You’re not a character, Kamy. You’re a person.

I’m a person whose father is a whisky-drinking, cigarette-smoking rock star. If I want him to be sympathetic to me, if I want to avoid being detained as fae, I need to be the daughter he wants. You know that.

What I know is that you need to stop drinking.

Zephyr didn’t ask if she ever smoked too. Alkamy had enough self-induced sickening all on her own, and Zephyr didn’t want to add to it.

“You could try being my public girlfriend again. Go vegan and organic because you’re so into me.” He rubbed the soil into her back, never once letting his hands even brush the top seam of her underwear. “Stop drinking, at least. Pretend like I do.”

Even though Zephyr flirted, slept around like the spoiled New Hollywood child he was thought to be, and had publicly admitted to choosing dates to coordinate with his clothes, he’d always treated Alkamy with respect. Now that they were platonic, she nagged him that he didn’t show that kind of respect to other girls.

Of course, there was Vi. Sometimes, he wasn’t sure that he respected her as much as feared her. Her element was fire. In theory, an earth-aligned fae would balance her, but Zephyr wasn’t sure there was a faery born who could balance her. She was volatility in motion. He respected her, but he gave her wide berth when possible. Now there was the third female member of their cell.

“I met Lilywhite.”

Alkamy didn’t budge. “Seelie?”

“I don’t know,” he said, not wanting to broach that topic. If Lily was Seelie, she’d obviously not be blood family. He could love her a little if he wanted . . . at least, he could if the queen allowed. Real love was a mistake though; it led to fighting, hurt, and desperation.

“Lilywhite could be Unseelie, I guess,” Zephyr commented. “Or maybe her human upbringing confuses things. She was raised by Nicolas Abernathy, who makes monsters seem cuddly.” His hands paused on Alkamy’s shoulders for a moment. “Usually I have a pretty good guess. I couldn’t tell with her.”

There was a note in his voice that made Alkamy lift her head. No one else would’ve noticed. There were layers of things he’d need to confess in time. Today wasn’t that day.

Alkamy looked back at him. “Guesses? Really? So you could be wrong about everyone in the cell.”

“Maybe.”

“I could be Seelie for all you know,” she continued.

“Too pale,” Zephyr pointed out, even though it wasn’t true proof. The only sure way to tell was skin tone. The Unseelie, the more monstrous of the two, were pale like they’d only ever walked in moonlight. The Seelie, however, could vary in skin tone.

“Anyhow,” Zephyr said, dragging out the word. “Lilywhite had no idea who she was.”

“What?” Alkamy jerked upright, flinging soil everywhere with her sudden movement. “How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know.” He brushed the loose dirt from her arms and shoulders. “She knows she has some fae blood, but she doesn’t know about the Sleepers.”

“But . . . her handler? How could she make it this long without knowing that she was one of us?”