She’d only managed to say something vague about Reapers before they’d found Cormac here, prowling for any hint of Emile.
Cormac lounged against the wall across the alley, focus on the quay beyond. Not even the vendors selling touristy crap came here. “Well?” the Avallen Prince asked, not taking his attention from the Black Dock.
“You can teleport,” Bryce said, voice low. That made Hunt’s eyes widen. He kept himself contained, though, solid and still as a statue, wings tucked in—but brimming with power. One blink, and Hunt would unleash lightning on the prince.
“What of it?” Cormac asked with no small hint of haughtiness.
“What did you do to the Reapers you teleported out?”
“Put them about half a mile up in the sky.” The Avallen Prince smiled darkly. “They weren’t happy.”
Hunt’s brows rose. But Bryce asked, “You can go that far? It’s that precise?”
“I need to know the spot. If it’s a trickier location—indoors, or a specific room—I need exact coordinates,” Cormac said. “My accuracy is within two feet.”
Well, that explained how he’d shown up at Ruhn’s house party. Dec’s tech had picked up Cormac teleporting around the house’s perimeter to calculate where he wanted to appear to make his grand entrance. Once he’d had them, he’d simply walked right out of a shadow in the doorway.
Hunt pointed to a dumpster halfway down the alley. “Teleport there.”
Cormac bowed mockingly. “Left side or right side?”
Hunt leveled a cool stare at him. “Left,” he challenged. Bryce suppressed a smile.
But Cormac bowed at the waist again—and vanished.
Within a blink, he reappeared where Hunt had indicated.
“Well, fuck,” Hunt muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. Then, Cormac reappeared before them, right where he’d been standing.
Bryce pushed off the wall. “How the Hel do you do that?”
Cormac slicked back his blond hair. “You have to picture where you want to go. Then simply allow yourself to take that step. As if you’re folding two points on a piece of paper so that the two points can meet.”
“Like a wormhole,” Hunt mused, wings rustling.
Cormac waved a dismissive hand. “Wormhole, teleportation, yes. Whatever you want to call it.”
Bryce blew out an impressed breath. But it didn’t explain— “How’d you know where to find me and Ruhn?”
“I was on my way to meet you, remember?” Cormac rolled his eyes, as if she should have figured it out by now. Asshole. “I saw you run into the sewer, and I did some mental calculations for the jump. Thankfully, they were right.”
Hunt let out an approving grunt, but said nothing.
So Bryce said, “You’re going to teach me how to do that. Teleport.”
Hunt whipped his head to her. But Cormac simply nodded. “If it’s within your wheelhouse, I will.”
Hunt blurted, “I’m sorry, but Fae can just do this shit?”
“I can do this shit,” Cormac countered. “If Bryce has as much Starborn ability as she seems to, she might also be able to do this shit.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m the Super Powerful and Special Magic Starborn Princess,” Bryce answered, waggling her eyebrows.
Cormac said, “You should treat your title and gifts with the reverence they are due.”
“You sound like a Reaper,” she said, and leaned against Hunt. He tucked her into his side. Her clothes were still soaked. And smelled atrocious.
But Hunt didn’t so much as sniff as he asked Cormac, “Where did you inherit the ability from?”
Cormac squared his shoulders, every inch the proud prince as he said, “It was once a gift of the Starborn. It was the reason I became so … focused on attaining the Starsword. I thought my ability to teleport meant that the bloodline had resurfaced in me, as I’ve never met anyone else who can do it.” His eyes guttered as he added, “As you know, I was wrong. Some Starborn blood, apparently, but not enough to be worthy of the blade.”
Bryce wasn’t going to touch that one. So she retied her wet hair into a tight bun atop her head. “What are the odds that I have the gift, too?”
Cormac gave her a slashing smile. “Only one way to find out.”
Bryce’s eyes glowed with the challenge. “It would be handy.”
Hunt murmured, his voice awed, “It would make you unstoppable.”