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He looked around and noticed for the first time that the apartment was clean, but filled with second-hand furniture.
    The mother was single with a growing son, he knew that much from Cilia. That must use the bulk of her resources. Fiach decided when he left he would gift the pair with a luck enchantment. It would draw wealth and prosperity to them as long as they did not abuse it. If Cilia’s devotion to the pair was anything to go by, they deserved a period of good fortune. Once his time was up, Arvel would safely return the humans from Faerie, and they could begin a more propitious life.
    The fact Cilia put so much stock in the pair gave him pause, just as the casework he’d seen in her briefcase had. She was a puzzle…an otherworldly being who’d nested in the mortal world. Her actions tonight had put him in his place, without question. And in doing so, she’d become an enigma. Someone who resisted his power seemingly effortlessly, the very essence that made him Fae, Demon.
    Did he want to pursue her, when other women fell at his feet? Oh yes, he thought, as the memory of her scent aroused him all over again. But he needed to think, needed to plan. Needed to eat; he laughed aloud as his stomach growled.
    He had just located a frozen dinner when someone knocked on the door. Fiach looked at it with resignation. There was only one person it could be. He felt in his bones that Cilia waited on the other side. He’d wanted more time to consider how to go about winning her. He slid the box back into the freezer and went to open the door. At the last minute, he left the chain on, as a petty reminder of her earlier treatment of him.
    She stood in the hall barefoot wearing cut-off jeans and a long baggy sweater that hung down to the frayed cuffs. She held a six-pack of soft drinks in one hand and two pizza boxes balanced in the other. He looked at her and tried to determine her motives, but couldn’t think of any. A puzzle indeed.
    “Truce?” she offered.
    The pizza did smell better than the block of ice in the freezer. He shut the door enough to slip the chain free and bade her entry. She scooted past him and dropped the boxes on the coffee table, then went into the kitchen and started rattling around. She reappeared a few minutes later with plates, cups of ice, and a roll of paper towels. She settled on the sofa and started dishing up the food and drinks. It was clear she spent a lot of time here and was as much at home on this side of the hall as her own.
    She looked up and patted the cushion next to her while holding out a plate of pizza with the other. Fiach took the proffered plate, but settled into a chair instead. He took a bite. It was good pizza.
    Cilia seemed to take that as an opening. “I’m really sorry for what I did. There’s no excuse for treating another person that way.”
    “Even if that other person is me?”
    “Even you. Especially you. I have no right to judge what you do or don’t do.” Cilia stood with her plate in one hand and an unopened can in the other. “I’ll leave you to enjoy your dinner.” When she reached the door she paused. “I mean it, Fiach. I am sorry.”
    “Don’t worry about it. It’s time someone put me in my place. I just didn’t expect that person would do it quite so effectively.” He looked at her. “Thanks for dinner, Cilia.”
    “You’re welcome. Sleep well.”
    Then she was gone and he was alone. He needed some time to think. He bit into another slice of pizza. There had to be a way to earn her approval. And he found he wanted that approval almost more than he wanted his next breath. Yes, part of it was because she was more than human, and presented a challenge. But it was more, as if her treatment of him earlier today had opened a window in his mind, shown him a brief sliver of what he’d become, how he was living up to the worst pieces of each of his parents. For some reason, he didn’t want to be that person around Cilia.
    A plan formed and he almost