Steal the Sun (Thieves #4)(90)

“It’s time to go.” Daniel took my hand. Neil and Lee were already moving toward the front of the palace. We would exit through the front gates and from there we would be completely on our own.

Strangers in a strange land.

I turned away. Daniel was right. It was time to change this world. I had to. My world depended on it.





Chapter Twenty-One





“Is this like the Lucky Charms guys or the ones who ate Jennifer Aniston?” Neil asked as we peeked over a hill and looked down on the small encampment. There were several tents and two large campfires. Someone was having a party down there, and it sounded a little raucous.

“I think she survived that film.” This was definitely the place. There was that sucker in his green suit with his green and gold hat perched on his head. So stereotypical. Leprechauns had a uniform. They also had what looked like a roaming casino going.

“Huh,” Neil said thoughtfully. “I must have fallen asleep during that movie. It would have been better my way.”

“Don’t try to eat the leprechaun.” Daniel crawled up to us on his belly, keeping his head down. Even though it was well after dark, we didn’t want anyone to see us watching. “At least not until we figure out where he stashed his treasure. Then, man, feel free ’cause I was awake for that whole movie and they get pissed off when you take their gold.”

It had taken us two days, but we tracked them down. Normally leprechauns are solitary Fae creatures, but there were two down in the field working their short con. Even from this distance, I could see they had two tables of card games going. There were twelve faeries watching or playing along, and they all looked to be warriors, probably on their way to the palace. The war was already proving to be a boon to the plane’s con artists.

“He can keep his gold,” I muttered. “I just want the Blood Stone.”

Daniel had relaxed, so much more comfortable now that it was dark. We had thought to try to sleep through most of the day, shielding Daniel from the sun and reserving his strength. Unfortunately, the only way to track the leprechauns was by following their rainbow, and it was only visible during the day. Without Dev’s magic to feed from on a daily basis, his strength in the daytime was failing. He could still daywalk and the sun didn’t burn him to a crisp, but it was painful. We got along by protecting Danny’s skin with a black hoodie and sunglasses, but it was hot. He was so much happier now that he was able to get rid of the hoodie and gloves and pare down to his T-shirt and jeans. He was at full strength now that darkness had fallen.

“Well, I doubt the stone is down there, baby,” Daniel said, looking things over. “Harry dealt with them on the Earth plane. You remember he used one for a job back in the nineties. They don’t keep their treasure on them. They stash it away.”

My dad, Harry Wharton, had used a leprechaun once. He’d needed a person of small stature to get through a series of caves and unlock a door for the rest of the crew. Danny and I had been kids so we hadn’t been in on the heist. I just remembered how foulmouthed the little guy was and how much he’d liked beer. I also remembered that the leprechaun had buried his piece of the action. I don’t know why he had been against a bank, but he preferred the hard ground to Wells Fargo.

“So what’s the plan?” Neil asked, his gaze focused solely on me. If I’d hoped that close quarters would bring my husband and my best friend to some sort of understanding, I’d been wrong. They still avoided each other like the plague.

I watched as Lee prowled the edges of the forest down below. He clung to shadows and if I hadn’t known what to look for, hadn’t watched him work, I would never have seen him. He was being his normal, careful self. Lee never liked to walk into a situation until he’d taken a cautious inventory of every risk involved.

“Well,” I said, getting around to Neil’s question as Daniel settled himself down on the ground, his hand planted firmly on my ass. “I thought we would try to talk to them first. We should see if we can buy it from them.”

Neil rolled his eyes. “Z, they stole it in the first place.”

Danny leaned his head against my shoulder and squeezed a cheek. He didn’t care that we weren’t alone. Since we’d broken through his reserve back in Colorado, he never held back with the PDA. “No, they didn’t. They conned her out of it. Z’s right. We gotta respect a good con. If we don’t, what the hell kind of criminals are we?”

“The horny kind?” I asked because he was kissing on my shoulder, working his way toward my neck.

The last two days had been illuminating. In the course of our normal, daily lives, Daniel was very busy. Back home he was responsible for training new vampires and had all the work the Council gave him. He and Dev worked on their coup plans all the time. Sex was certainly something we slipped into the schedule, but not like this. I discovered that when Danny had nothing to do, he constantly tried to do me.

“I can’t help it.” A wicked grin brought out Daniel’s ridiculously cute dimples. No one who had killed as much as Daniel had should have adorable dimples. They always made me sigh. “I’ve started to think of this trip as a long overdue honeymoon, baby.”

“Oh, yes, Danny, this is all terribly romantic,” I whispered sarcastically. “When I think of a honeymoon, I think of Hawaii and a big comfy suite. I don’t think of tents and sleeping bags and hiking through Faery forests all day. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since we left the palace.”