“No,” he replied with a grin as the fairy landed a solid punch to his stomach.

But Kaillen returned the hit, while Barnabas and Fallon were doing the same. All six of the fairies, along with Kaillen and his friends, were duking it out like a boxing ring.

“Now, now, it’s not my fault that you can’t count cards—” Barnabas ducked when one of the fairies aimed for his throat.

A sprawling punch from Fallon had one of the fairies launching at me, but I released a rush of telekinetic magic, strengthened with a maximizer spell and combined with a binding one.

The fairy froze mid-air, before I sent him flying through a window, glass shattering everywhere, because seriously, this fight needed to stop. We had a madman to catch.

Fallon lifted his gaze, surprise flaring in his eyes, as he held one of the fairies in a headlock. “She can fight?”

“Better than you two losers can,” Kaillen replied with a crooked grin as he punched another fairy right in the gut.

The fairy doubled over, sputtering, just as Barnabas pounced on him. The vamp sent him careening through the same window that I’d smashed a second before.

I could only imagine what the passersby on the street were thinking.

Fallon tightened his hold on the fairy he still held in a headlock. “Concede. It’s not our fault we beat all of you. It was a legitimate game.”

The fairy sputtered and thrashed. “Fuck you, Fallon! I lost three months of pay!” The fairy tried to lean down and bite Fallon’s forearm, but the assassin merely tightened his grip, and the fairy’s face turned purple.

“You know it was all an unfortunate outcome,” Barnabas said pacifyingly to the two fairies whom he towered over on the floor. Both had split lips and wore irritated glares. “Why don’t you fellows put your pesky feelings aside, and we’ll all sit down for a nice drink.”

A taller fairy, with flaming red hair, who was currently beneath Barnabas’s boot, glanced my way. His gaze raked over my frame.

A low growl came from Kaillen.

“Who’s the new female?” Flaming Hair said curiously.

“She’s mine,” Kaillen replied.

“Yours?” Flaming Hair’s friend—a Solis fairy from the looks of it, since he had wings, white hair, and crystalline blue eyes—leered at me. “Quite a looker. Did you hire her? ’Cause I wouldn’t mind giving her a ride on my cock when you’re done.”

Kaillen snarled, then whipped into a blur so fast that I didn’t have time to tell the Solis fairy that I was not in fact a hooker.

Barnabas dusted his fingernails off on his shirt, as Kaillen landed a nasty uppercut to the downed fairy. “I have a feeling that was the wrong thing to say to a newly mated werewolf,” the vamp said under his breath to me.

“No kidding?” But while I would have loved to let the Solis fairy know that I wasn’t actually a prostitute, when Kaillen finally reappeared, his chest heaving as gold and fire flamed in his eyes, the two who had been taunting me lay immobile on the floor.

“Are they dead?” I gaped as the other patrons continued to enjoy their drinks around us.

“Oh no,” Barnabas replied just as Fallon released his hold from his fairy who slumped to the ground, apparently unconscious after being deprived of oxygen for so many minutes. “Just subdued. We don’t actually have time for this. We have a villain to catch, remember?”

Kaillen drifted to my side, rage still swirling in his eyes.

“I’m sure he was kidding, friend.” Barnabas patted him on the back. “He probably saw Tala’s mating mark and wanted to get your goat.”

Fallon let out a low whistle. “Kaillen’s got it bad,” he said in a low voice to Barnabas, but of course, I still heard it.

“As I also noted.” Barnabas leaned his forearm across the bar top as the bartender, a tall willowy female fairy, sauntered over. “I need to speak with Valahan. Is he free?”

“Yeah, he just finished with a new client. You can head on back.” She jerked her thumb toward a corner back door. “But before you go, what about my window?”

“I’ll get it,” Fallon said, stepping forward. He waved his hand toward the shards of glass that remained in the windowpane, and a gush of magic flowed from him.

The shattered glass on the floor floated into the air, then reformed in the pane, sealing together, as if melting under an invisible flame, until the window was whole again, no debris to be found anywhere.

The bartender inclined her head in thanks to Fallon.

My eyes widened into saucers. All fairies had magic to some degree, but to be able to repair something that intricate? That took a lot of magic. The yellow-haired assassin had some serious magical mojo.

Barnabas ambled toward the back corner, as Kaillen pinned himself to my side.

A few of the patrons appraised me when we passed, their curious eyes skittering to the mating mark on my neck as we followed the vamp to the back room.

As we entered, Barnabas called, “Valahan, I need a minute.”

A short and squat troll turned his way.

I drew up short. The troll’s large yellow eyes turned to slits. “What do you want, bloodsucker?”

Barnabas pulled a chair out, swung it backward, then straddled it. “I’m looking for a fellow who goes by the name of Jakub. He’s possibly traveling with a group. All of them have tattoos on their necks in the shape of a constellation. Do you know his whereabouts?”

Valahan’s stench wafted toward me more as he shifted from his squatting position. I did my best not to gag . . . but holy mother of gods in all the realms . . . his scent was foul with a capital F. Like decaying corpse mixed with rotting meat and a side of fermented eggs.

I brought a hand discreetly to my mouth, to hide my reaction, but Valahan’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s she?” he asked in a deep, disjointed voice that made me wonder if he ate gravel for breakfast.

Kaillen stepped in front of me, but his protective stance was fine by me. Being hidden behind his broad back and shoulders allowed me to have a gag or two.

Fallon looked down, pretending to inspect one of his blades, but I still caught the amused curve of his lips.

“She’s mine.” Kaillen crossed his arms.

I stifled an eye roll. Apparently, that was my new way of being introduced.

“Mated, I see?” Valahan commented, as he studied the mark on Kaillen’s neck curiously. I had a feeling he’d never seen that mark on a male before.

Kaillen only grunted.

“Valahan?” Barnabas said in a smooth tone that reminded me of melted butter. “We’re in a bit of a time crunch. What can you tell me about Jakub?”

The troll held out his hand, the large appendage twice the size of a dinner plate. “A thousand rulibs.”

My eyes bulged. A thousand fae rulibs was the equivalent of ten thousand US dollars.

Barnabas sighed as Kaillen whipped a pouch from his harness and threw it at the troll. Say what? Kaillen was so rich that he owned fifty thousand acres of land in Montana and carried the fae equivalent of thousands of dollars in his pocket like it was no big deal? Just how wealthy was my mate?

“The information, please?” Barnabas asked in that sweet tone again.

“He’s with a large group,” Valahan replied. “All of them have those tattoos. They just left port an hour ago.”

My breath caught.

“Going where?” Kaillen asked.

“Beats me.” Valahan shrugged. “I don’t care where the scum go after they leave my city. All I care about is that they pay their dues to pass through.”

Kaillen grumbled as an excited gleam grew in Barnabas’s eyes. “And which direction were they headed?”

“West.” Valahan opened the pouch my mate had given him, his thick fingers counting the coins.

If Jakub and his men had gone west, then they’d gone out to sea, just as Commander Klebus had feared. My stomach bottomed out. There was no way we could catch him now. We were too late.