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A dazzling grin lit up his face "Yeah, they do, don’t they? Talk about perplexing the fuck out of Ryodan," he said, and laughed "Should have seen his face the day I ith hiave ave hiot the Rhino-boys’ number, and a few other lower castes, too, but I haven’t her castes yet Got diverted, working on the song" He reached down and pushed up the cuff of his jeans, revealing a sort of watch strapped around his ankle with a shts "I got started thinking one night about how the Fae are s and invisible fences and silent whistles and things like that work, so I began experi frequencies on the Fae, goal being to repel, not kill Sooal would be both quicker to attain and virtually as effective I figured if I could invent so that kept all the Fae away from you, well, I’d be the Shit"

"You’re already the Shit, Dancer," I told him

"Yeah but I want to be even shittier shit," he said, and waggled his brows atmyself not to let the sadness I felt show I couldn’t do that to him It wouldn’t be fair "You’re the shittiest shit I know and probably ever will"

He sobered quickly, looking intointensity "Shittier than Ryodan?"

I was instantly wary, defensive "What do you mean? What does Ryodan have to do with any of e’re talking about?"

"Don’t be a porcupine, Mega Not prying or judging It’s just that sometimes I think he…well, hed, and shoved a hand into his thick hair, ruffling it "I’ll never be like hieeky seventeen-year-old with a bad heart Not muchyou are and I’m not"

I bristled "Don’t you ever tell ot the biggest heart in the world You bring out the best in everyone around you and people love you But you’re right You’re not like him and never will be"

He shifted unco both hands through it I let hi to absorb this bizarre h that it made hiot distracted watching his ar out was for him, I admired even more deeply the patient will that had found a way to ithin liive up I’d learned at a young age that every dayyou could do to it Dancer had learned it, too

"Wow Not helping ht one of his hands in ether I’d never taken a man’s hand of my own desire before, open to theI was in such uncharted territory and this was so not the way I’d always i down That would be like willingly ascending the ht before the inevitable avalanche ca to happen But I wasn’t averse to adth coth co you’re not You’re the one with the superpower in my book And it’s only one of theto kiss you now"

I inhaled deep, exhaled slow We’d never gone here, and once we did, there would be no turning back Our friendship would be forever changed You can’t unkiss a man you’ve kissed

I let hi around in disbelief