Read Knight in Leather for Free Online

I can’t tell you that .”
    “You just made that implication.”
    Hestia blinked several times.
    Sighing, Simone set the crown of her head atop the back of her seat. “Okay, so you can’t be direct. I understand how this goes. And I guess you can’t tell me when this important event is supposed to occur.”
    “No, and I’m not saying no because I have to, but because no one knows. That hasn’t been ordained. The Fates have cleared the slate on the timeline. There are too many parties involved and the disorder and upheaval could have them working overtime to balance the scales when all is said and done, depending on how circumstances play out. The fairy realm is unstable and shrinking because the magic that was used to create it always had an expiration date. All I can say for certain is that magic folk still in the realm need to get out or they’ll cease to exist when it implodes.”
    “My maternal grandparents live there, so do you have any idea of when that might be?”
    “Less than a year. I can’t calculate specifically without entering the realm, and I’m barred from going there.”
    “God damn it , Hestia! That’s a lot of people who need to be relocated. Where are they gonna go? We can’t have trolls and ogres integrating with humans. They’re not going to pass as normal, and there’s not, like, a large continent we can drop them on.”
    “I’m quite certain you’ll figure something out.”
    Simone’s hazel eyes went comically wide. “ Me ?”
    Hestia polished her nails on her robe. “Well, you are a fairy princess, both by birth through your father’s tribe and through marriage. If finding a home for the displaced is anyone’s job, it’s yours. Isn’t that so exciting?”
    Simone rubbed her temples again and ground her teeth.
    “Cheer up, dear. I’m certain that if you put the right minds together, everything will work out swimmingly.”
    “Any idea of where I might find those minds?”
    Hestia turned her hands over and performed one of those long, drawn-out shrugs that even Dasha knew was chock-full o’ bullshit.
    “I don’t envy you, Simone,” Dasha said. “Better you than me, though.”
    “Don’t get too comfortable, Miss Maurice.” Hestia polished her nails some more.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    Hestia glanced up at her curiously, narrowed her eyes, and then vanished just like that.
    Dasha pinned her gaze on Simone.
    Simone was still grinding her teeth and staring at the chair Hestia had vacated.
    The seat wasn’t empty for too long, though. Dasha blinked, and then suddenly in her periphery, there was another woman. Wisps of reddish hair peeked out of her knit cap. Dasha’s gaze fell to the stranger’s shiny brown clogs and sky blue stockings. Fashionable, the lady was not.
    “Um, hello,” Simone said carefully. “And who might you be?”
    “Obviously not the aforementioned shady Persian goddess,” Dasha muttered. “Too pale.”
    “You can call me… Nikki ,” the woman said after a long pause.
    If that’s the woman’s name for real, I’ll eat my scarf.
    Nikki laced her fingers atop her thighs and looked out the window behind her.
    With her distracted, Dasha took a moment to give Simone a withering look.
    Simone gave Dasha a this-shit-happens-to-me-all-the-time look in exchange.
    Nikki cleared her throat and faced them again. She looked at Simone, and her gaze tracked slowly to Dasha.
    Oh, hell .
    “Yes, I think you’ll do,” she said quietly. And then she disappeared.
    “What the fuck?” Dasha spat.
    Simone rubbed her temples some more. “I hate how they always do that.”
    “What did she just do? What was she trying to say?”
    “I don’t know, but if I had to guess, I’d say she’s someone’s patron. If not yours, then Ethan’s. Probably Ethan’s. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but being on a goddess’s radar can be a frustrating station, to say the least.”
    “What did she mean when she said that I’d do?”
    “How the