“I wasn’t trying to avoid you yesterday. It was because. . . . It’s complicated.” I hated all this secrecy Thatch forced down my throat.
“Really?” One side of her mouth lifted into a half smile. “Is it because you have a boyfriend you were ditching me for?”
“What? No.” I wondered if she suspected that the day before and that was why she’d looked so mortified when I said I’d been eating dinner with Thatch.
I thought back to that note. Someone out there knew he was my boyfriend. Maybe we weren’t being as secret as we thought.
She crossed her arms. “You’ve been sneaking off to see him again, haven’t you?”
“Again?” I’d never snuck off with Thatch before. “I don’t know what you—”
Her gaze fixed on something over my shoulder. “That’s why he’s here, isn’t he?”
“Here?” I whirled, expecting to see Thatch.
Instead, I found myself staring at a carriage on the path coming from the woods. I recognized the white unicorns, the coach looking like an intricately carved pumpkin glowing with light from inside. The carriage belonged to the Silver Court. It was too wide to fit across the pedestrian path toward Lachlan Falls, but that hadn’t stopped it from traveling by way of magic in the past.
I didn’t know if the occupant inside was Elric or his father. The Silver Court was here. Were they coming for me? Did they expect me to settle my debts with them right now? This really wasn’t my preferred time to give Elric an heir. I had a secret boyfriend.
Khaba ran forward, cutting across the grass to intercept the carriage. It sounded like he was swearing.
“I didn’t invite Elric here,” I said.
She smirked. “No, but your boyfriend has a habit of inviting himself.”
I shook my head. “He isn’t my boyfriend anymore.”
“I heard about the flowers he sent you.”
The shape of Khaba running on the grass blurred into mist, and then he appeared in front of the carriage out of a plume of smoke. I wondered if it was safe for him to use that kind of magic. He’d told me how important it was to keep his powers reined in.
Khaba hailed the driver. The white unicorns slowed to a stop. Khaba went around to the side of the carriage.
The door popped open. Khaba spoke to the occupants. The light that glowed through the ornate lace structure suggested three sat within.
Josie tugged on my arm. “Let’s go see your boyfriend.”
That wasn’t Elric’s coach. I ground my heels into the dirt of the path. “Have you met King Viridios of the Silver Court? We need to get back to the school and warn everyone if that’s him.”
Khaba extended a hand, and someone took it. I thought he meant to step inside, but out came Vega, holding the hem of a glittering evening dress that looked like it had come out of a Downton Abbey episode. Elric stepped out after her, holding a frilly umbrella over her head before handing it off to her.
Through the rain and drizzle, he was still radiant with beauty. My creativity sparked with inspiration, itching to draw, to paint him, to soak in his beauty. It was just muse magic, I told myself. But muse magic was a gateway drug for letting him touch me, and then it would really be over for me. I didn’t want to let him wittingly or unwittingly use me again.
He kissed her hand. The rain came down heavier, obscuring their expressions from my view. Khaba was shouting, but they were too far away to make out his words or Elric’s reply. I wondered who the other person was inside the carriage.
Pinky came up behind me, his voice a high squeal. “Did you know Vega Bloodmire was dating your ex-boyfriend?” Rain dripped down his fur despite the umbrella he held up. Patches of his sable fur had turned dark brown. He didn’t seem to mind the rain. Maybe it was a sasquatch version of a shower.
“No way!” Josie said. She huddled closer to me, apparently having forgotten about not wanting to stand too close. “Who in his right mind would date Vega?”
I stared at Elric, transfixed. “Vega had said something to the effect that they were dating, but I didn’t believe her. I thought she was being nasty to try to provoke me.” I couldn’t see who was in the carriage beside him.
The haze of rain blurred their faces, but Vega held herself like a queen in the black-and-silver gown she wore. The dress looked as though it were made of rain and thunderclouds more than fabric. I couldn’t tell if either Vega or Elric were smiling. Vega strode away from the carriage, holding up the hem of her long dress and sauntering toward the school. She left Khaba and Elric without looking back. Something about the way she carried herself looked like she was pissed about something. But when wasn’t Vega in a foul mood?
Could it be Vega and Elric actually were dating? Or was it just a ploy to try to make me jealous? I wanted to believe all the times Elric had taken Vega dancing as bribery to keep her from spilling her knowledge of our secrets might have allowed them to share a common interest. I wanted them to be happy together, but I didn’t see either of them having much in common besides dancing.
“What a bummer way to find out your roommate got her claws on your ex-boyfriend,” Josie said. “Do you still want to get back together with him?”
The idea took me off guard. It hadn’t even crossed my mind she could actually be interested in him. “I’m over him. I’m not jealous. I just worry he’s not over me.” After I said it, I realized how conceited it might sound. “Not that I think a mere Witchkin like myself would cause a five-hundred-year-old Fae prince that much heartache, but he did seem . . . disappointed when we broke up.” Mostly because I wouldn’t be bearing his heirs, I suspected.
He’d found a way around that without me as his mistress or wife. I’d proven I could turn any Witchkin into a fertile mate who could provide him with an heir. But he hadn’t brought up the alliance since the All Hallows’ Eve Open House. The weight of our latest bargain pressed in on me.
Perhaps that was the true reason he was at the school.
Josie patted my back. “Of course Elric would be disappointed you broke up with him. Who wouldn’t think you’re incredible?”
Vega was now a Red affinity. She could solve Elric’s fertility problems, though I wondered if she actually would. More likely she would string him along into believing she would consider it and milk him for all it was worth. Then I would be stuck with making him a wife who was a Red affinity to give him heirs—or give him one myself.
A spider hung from a strand of silk from Josie’s lacy lavender hat. I edged back.
I found Vega in her pajamas, sewing a little doll made out of fabric when I came in. Probably it was a voodoo doll to stab pins into to torture her enemies.
“You made quite an entrance tonight,” I said. “I take it Khaba didn’t appreciate you riding onto school grounds in a Fae carriage.”
“He can be such a hard-ass about rules. He gave me cafeteria duty for breakfast for the next two weeks as punishment. I don’t see what the problem is. Those unicorns were perfectly tame. And it was only Elric coming to drop me off in his father’s carriage. It wasn’t like it was King Viridios himself, though he didn’t seem that bad when I met him tonight. He was rather charming actually. I tend to think he was nasty to you because you bring out the worst in people.”
I wondered if the king recognized her from her cat form when she’d chaperoned me. “Is that where you were coming from? The Silver Court? Were you at a ball?” She was home early if she’d attended a ball, but time worked differently in the Fae Realm.
“No, just a dinner party to meet Elric’s family. He thought it was about that time in the relationship.” She waved a hand dismissively, as if having dinner with the royal family of the Silver Court was a simple matter. “They were surprisingly polite and restrained, but they clearly disapproved of the match. After the way Elric lamented about all that they’d done to thwart his previous relationships with humans and Witchkin, I was surprised they didn’t attempt to kill me right there.”
I sat
down on my bed, concerned she willingly had gone to meet the family that had tried to trick me into giving up my soul. “Did they test you? Did they try to make you bargain with them?”
“Of course they did. As if I would stand for such treatment. I told them I wasn’t going to fall for that sort of rubbish. I wasn’t born yesterday.” She lifted her chin, eyeing me with disdain.
I had a feeling she thought I would fall for their tricks. I sort of had.
She drummed long red fingernails over the body of the doll. “They did ask me all manner of silly questions, though. They said they had asked his last girlfriend the same questions. I suppose it’s standard policy.”
“Did they ask if you’d jump off a cliff to prove your love for Elric?” That was one of many questions they had asked me.
Her eyes glittered with delight. “I told them if anyone was going to ask anyone to prove their love it was going to be me demanding Elric jump off a cliff. That got a chuckle out of them.”
I couldn’t help laughing along with her. I wished I had thought of that. Vega was clever enough and wicked enough to keep up with any Fae. Maybe this wasn’t a bad match after all.
“Did they ask you about giving up your soul or proving you loved him in order to marry him?” I asked.
“They asked dozens of questions. I think it astonished them when I started asking them questions.”
She had dared make demands of Elric’s big fat Fae family? I couldn’t believe how audacious she was. Sometimes I hated her. Sometimes I wished I could be that cheeky.
Vega smirked. “When the king and queen asked why I wanted to marry their son, I asked why they thought I would want to marry their son. The queen wished to know the depths of my love for her son and wanted to see if I was worthy to marry him—should we decide to do so in the future. I asked what love had to do with marriage. Our relationship is a mutually beneficial agreement. There’s no room for sentimentality and feelings. Is it important in Fae marriages that their consorts love them? It isn’t for me. My questions both pleased them and shut them up.”
“Are you saying you don’t love Elric?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I love dancing with him. I love that he’s given me a closet full of school supplies—which, I might mention, you will die a horrible and painful death if you attempt to touch—and I enjoy that he takes me out to dinner so I don’t have to eat the horrible food here.”
I stared at her horror-struck. Vega didn’t love him? He deserved someone who appreciated him and cared about him.
Also, the school food wasn’t that bad now that we didn’t have an embezzling principal using school funds to line his pockets. The brownies had better ingredients and made decent meals these days.
She smiled. “And I love that he’s found vegan desserts for me that are also organic and fat-free.”
I couldn’t believe Elric was so naive as to allow Vega to walk all over him and use him like this. “What does Elric get out of this relationship? You said it was mutually beneficial.”
“He gets to bask in my presence, of course. That man is an absolute mess without a woman to guide him.” She sighed as if the idea of what she was saying wearied her. “His soul is incomplete without a beautiful woman to keep him from the woe of his miserable, immortal existence. He has to fill the void in his heart that you left there somehow. Apparently I’m the consolation prize.”
She didn’t sound regretful about being second place, but even if Vega was, I didn’t expect she would allow me to see that side of her.
“Well, whatever works for you,” I said, trying not to sound doubtful.
“It does work for me. This arrangement works very well.” She set her doll aside, her eyes narrowing. “And don’t you dare try to steal him back. He’s mine now. Do you understand?”
“I’m not going to try to take him from you.”
My life would have been easier if I could have told her why I wasn’t interested in Elric, perhaps the reason I had never been able to love him. Besides the fact that he was untrustworthy and a liar, I had been in love with Thatch.
I had the man I’d been pining for. If Vega had been trustworthy, I would have told her. Even knowing she wasn’t, I still longed to confess to her so she wouldn’t distrust me so much. Maybe if she didn’t see me as a threat, that spark of friendship between us that had started the year before wouldn’t snuff out. So long as I was a liar, I didn’t feel like I was really her friend. Or Josie’s.
“I just worry about you both,” I said. “This ‘mutually beneficial’ relationship doesn’t sound . . . healthy.”
“Healthy. Who needs healthy? That would be boring.”
For once, she didn’t threaten me with words—or by gluing me to the wall like she was wont to do. Instead she watched me with a predatory gaze. That was almost more unnerving than promising to kill me.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
One might have thought Thatch would give me a break on starting my magic lesson at the butt crack of dawn on a Saturday morning, especially after spending a late evening with him the night before, but no. He was still the dungeon master and expected me in his office at seven o’clock exactly. With clothes on.
Which was why I was so surprised to find him absent. The door to his classroom and office was unlocked. Priscilla, his familiar, was gone from her cage. I supposed Thatch might have been taking her outside, or he could have been called off to investigate magical occurrences. I sat in the comfy office chair behind his desk, avoiding the uncomfortable metal chair where I would be meditating.
Student papers were stacked in two neat columns on Thatch’s desk. Half of them were graded. I gazed into the crystal ball as I waited. Maybe he’d forgotten about our lesson.
I knew one way to draw his attention if he was nearby. I opened one of his drawers, and a blood-curdling scream rose into the air. Quickly, I closed the drawer. Still no Thatch. I glanced down at the desk, noticing the envelope on the wood for the first time.
Was I that unobservant not to have seen it before or had it appeared by magic? My name was written in elegant script on the front. The note inside said:
The location of our magic lesson has been changed. Meet me in my private chamber.
I couldn’t help laughing. Yep, I could imagine what kind of magic lesson he intended. I walked down the hallway, following the purple light of the sconces to his room. The moment I raised my hand to knock at his door, it swung open.
He took me by the wrist and tugged me into the room, poking his head out to inspect the hallway afterward. “Were you discreet? Did anyone see you come here?”
The door thudded closed behind me.
“Of course I was discreet.” I stared at him, distracted by his appearance. He wore a pair of black slacks and a white T-shirt. Never had I seen him so . . . dressed down, except perhaps in bed. The white lines of his tattoos were almost invisible against the pale skin of his arms.
I tried to keep a straight face, but I couldn’t not smile. “So . . . what kind of magic lesson do you have in store for me?”
His eyes twinkled with mischief. “I thought we might take a break from the chair.”
“Yay!” I threw my arms around his waist and hugged him. I sang, “No more teachers, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks.”
He laughed, the sound a deep rumble in his chest. “Not so fast. You’re still going to have a lesson.”
I traced a finger across the sculpted line of his collarbone. “Sure thing.”
“A magic lesson.” He released me.
He strode across the room and sat on the bed. “Disrobe.” He said it flatly enough I might have thought he was crabby, but the light in his eyes attested to his pleased mood.
He watched as I undressed down to my undergarments. His smile was mischievous, like he thought he had a secret. I didn’t have to be a witch to know he intended more than a magic lesson.
I fold
ed up my skirt and blouse and set them on his wardrobe. “You’re just as much of a trickster as any Fae.”
“You act surprised by that when you know full well we’re both descended from fairies.” He used the slang term for “Fae” casually, the term apparently not offending him.
I unhooked my bra and dropped it onto my heap of clothes. The room was as cold as the other rooms of the dungeon. Goosebumps rose on my skin. Thatch stared at me intently. His forehead crinkled, and I realized he was staring at the amulet I wore. If I could have taken it off, I would have. When I’d offered to give it to Vega if she could get it off me—without hurting me—she hadn’t succeeded at removing it either. The necklace served as a reminder of the hazards of Fae bargains and my ex-boyfriend for as long as I was stuck with it, which would probably be for a while.
As I started to roll down my black-and-white striped stockings from my knees, Thatch shook his head. “No, leave them on. And your shoes.”
“Why?”
“I intend to draw you in your stockings and shoes. They make you Clarissa Lawrence.” He hooked a finger in the front of my panties and pulled me closer to where he sat on the bed. “These will have to go.”
“It’s one of those kinds of drawings?” I burst into giggles.
No one had ever drawn me nude before. It was flattering.
He slid my panties down my thighs, his face leaning close to my hip as he did so. His breath was warm on my skin, a teasing tickle.
It felt strange to leave my socks and Mary Jane shoes on while walking around naked.
He rose and gestured to where he’d been sitting on the bed. “Make yourself comfortable.”
I threw back the covers and dove underneath. It was warm where he’d been sitting, and I snuggled into that spot. I tugged the blankets up to my chin, but I kept my feet outside the bed since I was still wearing my shoes. Some habits were hard to break. I didn’t want to get his bed dirty.
“Not that comfortable.” He tugged the blankets off me.
I laughed at his exasperated sigh. I propped my head up on an elbow and struck what I hoped was a sexy pose.
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