Read Online Heir of the Dog Black Dog by Hailey Edwards - Free Book Online

His voice . I should have recognized it. “You collected the Morrigan’s tithe from me.”
    His black eyes gleamed. “I did indeed.”
    Wishing I had my cell to call for backup, I demanded, “Who are you?”
    “I am the Morrigan’s son.”
    I drew up short. “Fae can’t lie.”
    “Fae tell the truth so well it might as well be a lie,” he replied.
    Tell me something I don’t know.
    “Okay, for the sake of argument, let’s say you are Raven.” I humored him. “What do you want from me?”
    “Come inside where we can talk.” He promised, “I won’t hurt you.”
    I stared past him and shivered. “Was it just me, or did I hear an unspoken you don’t have a choice in there?”
    Short of tossing me over his shoulder, nothing was getting me inside that apartment.
    A wisp of amusement lightened his voice. “I bring news of your father.”
    Except maybe that.
    “That’s why you’ve been hanging around me?”
    “It is a matter of some delicacy, perhaps not best discussed out in the open.” He pushed the door wider and lowered his hand. “Even empty halls have ears.”
    “This isn’t a trick to lure me inside so you can reap my soul and leave my body for the crows?”
    Oh wait. He was the crow.
    “No.” His laughter rang with silky promise. “You are safe from harm with me.”
    What I heard between the lines was that he wouldn’t personally hurt me, which wasn’t the same as protecting me, and it didn’t rule out him enticing me into his apartment so someone else could do it for him.
    He must have understood my predicament. His first real smile knocked the air from my lungs.
    “Thierry Thackeray, I, son of the Morrigan, sworn into service by the Unseelie House, swear that no harm will befall you by my hand or any other’s as long as you enjoy my hospitality.”
    Tempted as I was to nibble, I still didn’t take his bait. His vow hinged on him being the Morrigan’s son. Twice now he claimed to be Raven. Fae were tricky, but there was zero wiggle room in his statement.
    I am the Morrigan’s son is a concrete statement of fact. Okay, so, following that logic, this guy must be Raven. How he got here or what his plans were I wouldn’t know unless I took him at his word and entered his apartment, which had Very Bad Idea written all over it.
    I worried my thumbnail with my teeth. This lead might crack our case and fling open an even bigger one. A Faerie prince here? Without proper documentation? The magistrates would lay golden eggs when they found out.
    “I vow I will return you to this spot, where you surrendered yourself into my most humble care, unmolested, under identical conditions to the ones from which you left. Do these terms please you?”
    Raven offered his hand again, and this time I sucked in a sharp breath and took it.
    He guided me over the threshold into his empty living room and shut the door behind us.
    All the other doors stood open. All the other rooms sat empty. “Can I ask an honest question?”
    “As long as you don’t expect an honest answer.”
    My head whipped toward him. “Was that a joke?”
    “That question is only asked when the joke fails to perform.” Raven snapped his fingers, and a faded couch resembling the one in my living room appeared. He led me to it. “Have a seat. I want you to be comfortable.” He noticed my preoccupation with his sofa. “Your roommate is sleeping. You are away. I see no reason why we can’t use your couch, do you?”
    “I— No.” There was comfort in the familiar, especially under such peculiar circumstances. “This is fine.”
    I sat on the middle cushion, amused when a familiar spring poked me in the butt. Raven perched on the arm closest to me. Despite his posture and casual clothes, he evoked this primal fear response in me. As if death were more hideous because of his beauty, and I had zero doubts Raven was a killer.
    His stillness unnerved me, made me feel like a field mouse trying to outmaneuver a bird of prey who saw the