Brush of Darkness by Allison Pang Page B

angel, and he had the good sense to hastily resume nursing his beer. I swallowed a laugh. That had been a “no nookie tonight” look if I’d ever seen one. She sipped her Cosmopolitan before glancing over at me. A typical stalling tactic and we both knew it. “We don’t know, actually. He’d been with Moira for years. They were really close.” Her eyes darted toward the angel. “Like us.”
    Lovers.
    “A permanent Contract?” I raised my brows. “I didn’t think Moira was the type. Besides, she damn near bit my head off when she found out about my little . . . indiscretion with Jett. Why would she get involved with her TouchStone?”
    The angel snorted, sliding his empty bottle toward the center of the table. “Hypocrites, the lot of them. There’s not a damn Faery in the world that doesn’t talk sideways out of their mouth; Moira is no exception. Don’t get me wrong”—he held up a hand as I started to bristle—“she’s been a great Protectorate, but she’s as flighty as the rest of them. As far as what happened to Maurice . . .” He shrugged. “Nobody knows. One day they were as thick as thieves and the next . . . gone.”
    “We always figured it was some sort of lovers’ quarrel,but we never dreamed she’d break the Contract.” Charlie bit her lip. “It was the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room, Abby. He’d been with her for
years
. And the next thing we knew, you showed up and . . . well, you didn’t really seem to know anything at all. We didn’t know what to think.”
    I focused on the MudSlide resting between my knees; Brystion’s words to me about my ignorance the night before were suddenly becoming clear. “And I’m just a straw horse, is that it? A shadow replacement for the status quo?” The words rang hollow in my mouth, the bitter truth leaving an aftertaste of shame and bile.
    “That’s not it, Abby, but even you have to admit things don’t add up. Why would she replace such a loyal companion with . . . well, you? You’re perfectly lovely, but if she was going to be gone for such an extended period, she probably should have had a TouchStone with more experience.”
    “I didn’t ask for this,” I reminded them, ignoring the dagger slice of betrayal that lanced through my gut. “I didn’t know what I was getting into when I signed the Contract. I didn’t even know what a TouchStone
was,
let alone what the duty entailed. And I sure as fuck didn’t think I’d be stuck doing it all alone.”
    “I know.” Charlie reached out to squeeze my arm. “Unfortunately, declaring ignorance isn’t going to help right now. We didn’t realize she had left you without any resources.”
    Robert’s head snapped toward me. “You’ve been running the Marketplace by yourself all this time?”
    “Well, it’s not like there’s anyone else lining up for the job, now is there?” I retorted.
    “You should have come to us. To
me
.” His hand slammed on the table, the empty bottle tipping on its side. “That’s what I’m here for.”
    I bared my teeth at him and then bit down hard on thestraw. “Really? Because somehow I don’t see you stooping to scrub the hoof prints off the hardwood floor of the Marketplace.”
    He shot me a piercing look, ignoring my last comment. “I’m going to have to insist that you curb your activities for a while until we can see about getting you some kind of bodyguard.”
    “What if I don’t want to?” I frowned at him. “I’m not some kind of child; this is my life too, you know.”
    “You’re our last link to Moira,” he said. “I don’t know what happens if something happens to you.”
    Charlie reached out and gently stroked his arm. “We’ll figure it out. You know we will.” Her eyes were full of sympathy and pride, gentle with sorrow.
    I could only nod, turning away as my senses reeled with this latest impact. Apparently I was responsible not only for the existence of my TouchStone mistress, but for that of everyone else