The knight sidestepped Ren’s throat-jab, then lifted a hand in my direction. He didn’t touch me, didn’t come anywhere close to me. All he did was lift his hand, and suddenly my sock-covered feet were slipping backward across the hardwood floors. I hit the wall.
“What the hell?” I yelled, my eyes wide, staring at the knight.
Ren swung out with his other fist, landing a blow on the fae’s jaw. The knight turned his cheek and laughed. “That was funny?” muttered Ren. He flipped the stake, then lunged forward, slamming it into the knight’s chest. The knight grunted as Ren dragged it in a downward motion that would not end pretty.
“Whatever,” the knight replied, and then swung out with one arm, backhanding Ren across the face and knocking him aside. Ren crashed into the end table. The lamp fell to the floor, shattering into several large shards.
Oh hell to the no, he did not just hit Ren.
Seeing red, I pushed off the wall and launched myself forward as Ren got back up and kicked out, catching the ancient in the knee. The knight went down on one leg just as I reached him. I grabbed him by the top of his head and jerked his head back, my arm arcing—
The knight flung his hand out, and a second later, I was scooting across the room, bumping into a plant stand. The fern went over, spilling dirt all over the floor. This time I ended up over by the balcony doors.
“What the hell!” I shouted again.
Ren sprang forward, swinging out, but the knight dodged the attack. He caught Ren’s arm and spun him around, drawing his back to the knight’s chest. I pushed away from the doors, racing across the small distance. Shoving the dagger into the knight’s back, I yanked the blade out as I was then thrown across the floor once more, back toward the bedroom as the knight let go of Ren.
A cold, harsh reality set in as I caught myself by grabbing the doorframe. The knight was purposely keeping me out of the fight while going toe to toe with Ren.
Ren caught the knight by the shoulder with one hand and lifted his leg, thrusting his knee into the fae’s gut. The knight exhaled roughly as he shoved Ren back into my chair. The little footstool Tink used went flying.
Then they were going at each other, fists flying, with a lot of dodging and dipping. I shot forward again, this time determined to not get shoved aside like a piece of clothing. I was a foot away when movement to my right caught my attention.
Tink appeared in the hallway, just beyond the bathroom, his wings moving lazily as he yawned. He was wearing a . . . tiny nightcap? What in the holy fuck? He was even wearing miniature pajama bottoms, blue and white striped, and I had no idea where he’d gotten them from. No idea at all.
He was in the process of stretching his little arms out when he looked around the room. “What kind of tomfoolery is this?”
Tomfoolery?
The knight was distracted for a moment, eyeing Tink with surprise. A second later, the brownie’s eyes widened as all sleep vanished from his face. Tink shot into the living room as he ripped off his dainty nightcap and tossed it aside, the pale blue cap floating to the floor.
“Thou shall not pass!” Tink shouted, throwing out his hand in the direction of the knight and Ren.
I stopped.
Ren halted mid-swing.
The knight caught Ren’s arm, blocking the jab as he turned and cocked his head to the side, staring at the brownie.
Tink blinked slowly. “Well, shit. That worked in The Lord of the Rings.”
Oh my God.
Ignoring Tink and hoping he managed to stay out of the way and make it out of this alive, I darted toward the knight.
“This needs to stop right now. You’re cutting into my sleep time,” Tink announced, lowering his arms to his sides as he hovered near the coffee table. “And you don’t want to mess with my sleep time. I give you one more chance, sir. Leave, or else.”
“Jesus,” muttered Ren, ducking as the knight lunged for him. “What are you going to do, Tink? Annoy him to death? Because that might actually work.”
“You have no idea what I am capable of,” Tink shot back.
I shot forward, grabbing the knight’s arm and trying to flip him, but the knight turned suddenly. Lifting his arm and me, he tossed me over the back of the couch and dumped me onto the cushions. I started to scramble away when I saw Tink move toward where Ren and the knight were brawling.
“Stay back, Tink!” I shouted. Dammit, this was getting out of hand.
“I got this.” Tink looked at me, then drew in a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Ivy.”
I frowned as I rose from the couch. “You’re . . .”
A fine shimmer surrounded Tink, like a misty cloud of golden dust. He was completely covered, body and wings. The dust expanded, forming a cyclone that swirled down to the floor and halfway to the ceiling. It moved so fast and was so thick that I couldn’t see Tink inside of it.
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 wings, 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.”
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