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slightly improved attitude. All she needed to do was make some friends, right? How hard could that be? The place was crawling with people looking to get friendly. What did you say to make friends? And you weren’t online?
    “Nice mask.” Some guy coming toward her pointed at her headdress.
    “Thanks.” Be friendly, she reminded herself. “You, too.” Not really. His looked like one of those cheap five-dollar ones. She downed some more of the peach smash, hoping it would help her missing social gene kick in.
    He slowed, his friends all busy with women of their own. “Hey what kind of bird are you?” His mouth bent in a lecherous grin. “A swallow?”
    “Really? Is that supposed to get me hot and bothered? Because, um,
no
.” She sighed and walked away.
    “Hey!” he yelled after her.
    She ignored him and took another long sip of her drink as she kept going. Obviously, she’d had a very different idea about the kind of night this was going to be and the kind of guy she might meet out here. Someone… nice. And not just looking to get some action. Of course, that was kind of what
she
was doing. She just didn’t want to do it with a Neanderthal. Heading back to the hotel was starting to look better and better. But she’d shelled out the cash for this mask. She caught a few of the feathers floating around her shoulders and rubbed her gloved fingers over them, imagining their silkiness.
    Maybe she could turn it into something for the next Comic Con she went to. At least then she’d be among her own kind. What character could she use this for? Some kind of—she stopped abruptly, causing a small collision of people behind her. What was she thinking? There was no next Comic Con. Not for her. Unless they held one in prison.
    Traffic flowed around her, human, fae or otherwise, and none of them had any idea the mess she was in. None of them would likely care, either. And yet, she was contemplating choosing one of them to spend one of her remaining nights of freedom with in exchange for what? Some consensual fun?
    She was a grown woman acting like a horny college girl on spring break. Sad. Maybe she’d just forget the hooking up part, walk around a little more while she finished her drink and enjoy the fact that no matter how sad she was, she still wasn’t as pathetic as some of these actual college kids. Most of whom appeared to be drunker than humanly possible. Hmm. The fact that she was contemplating walking around in this madness meant the alcohol was kicking in. She started to cut throughthe crowd to get to the sidewalk when two guys came tearing past her chasing each other.
    The second clipped her shoulder hard as he went by, spinning her around and knocking her drink out of her hand. As she fell, a high-pitched shriek cut through the chaos. A hand clamped down on her forearm, catching her before she hit the ground and pulling her upright.
    She glanced behind her, unable to believe she hadn’t hit the cobblestones.
    “You okay?”
    “Yeah, I’m—” She turned to see who her benefactor was. Tall, dark and—judging by the horns—definitely fae. She ignored the trippy shiver of desire the sight of him inspired. Her body was betraying her over a guy who was fae? Wow. That was so not awesome.
    “Are you kidding me?” A soggy brunette in a red glitter mask wiped peach smash out of her cleavage. She glared at Harlow from the side of her mysterious serpent-masked hero. “You spilled your drink all over me, you little—”
    He interrupted her. “It wasn’t her fault, Ginger.”
    Ginger? Harlow clamped her mouth shut, sensing this was not the time for snark. “Sorry about that. A guy ran into me and—”
    “Whatever,” the blonde on the other side of him said. She wore the same kind of red glitter mask as the brunette. She sighed and looked at him, her mouth pouty as she stroked her hand down his chest, her fingers dancing over what looked like hard, trim muscle. Fae, yes. Repulsive, no. “Can we go