by Lucia Ashta
“Definitely. I’ve made my interest in you clear from the start.”
He blinked at me a few times. “I guess you have.”
“So, do you have plans to get your head out of your ass anytime soon? Are you going to be taking me up on all that I’m offering?”
He leaned an inch closer to me. When we were already this close, an inch felt like he was drawing our worlds together—just as I’d been hoping for. “What are you offering?”
I tilted my head and studied him thoughtfully. “I’m not sure. For starters, all of this.” I ran a hand along my body until it trailed beneath the table. I was in the school uniform that every other student was obligated to wear. Even so, I made mine my own. I couldn’t get around the sky-blue button-down shirt or the blue and white plaid skirt, but I wore my shirtsleeves folded up to just beneath the elbows, and my skirt short enough to reveal some serious stretches of my nice legs. Today I wore knee-high Betty Boop socks with little red hearts, and my Doc Martens Mary Janes. Shaking my hair out, my nose ring swung, flashing the cubic zirconium in the setting.
When Ky realized he’d been staring for a while, he shook his head as if to clear a daze, and turned back to his pizza. But not before I caught that heat in his bright eyes again.
“That’s a pretty good offer,” he mumbled toward his food, not acting at all like his usual confident self.
I barked out an incredulous laugh. “Uh, hell yeah it is.”
Right then I made a decision. “You know, Ky…” I said, voice low. Boone was telling a story that had everyone laughing, allowing the two of us a semblance of privacy amid our friends. “I’ve never pussyfooted around you. I imagine you realized I was into you from the beginning.”
He hesitated, then nodded, still staring down at his blue, plastic dining hall tray and the slice and a half of pizza that remained on his plate.
“Good. You would’ve had to be denser than a rock not to notice all the looks I threw your way. Hell, I invited you to the freaking Paranormal Party of Pleasantries.”
Again, he nodded. He was rarely this silent. What the hell was up with him lately? Where was his natural swagger?
I plowed on. “I’ve given you a chance. Fuck, I’ve given you tons of them. Now that your sister is with one of your best friends, the excuse that you don’t want to be with me because of her is stupid.”
His arm muscles clenched, but he didn’t say a word.
Broody motherfucker.
“Let’s be real here. I’m all that and a bag of chips. I’m the frosting on a fucking cupcake. I’m the chocolate the freaking strawberry gets dipped into. I’m the gooey cream in the éclair.”
I waited, and Ky nodded again, more silent than I’d ever seen him before.
“I’m not gonna just keep waiting around on you. There are lots of other fish in this crazy-ass pond we’re in and I’m ready to have some big fun. So jump on the ride or get out of line. I’ve all but exhausted my patience.”
Then I did my own silent waiting, which just about killed me. I kept thinking of new things to say. In the end, I held my tongue, listening to our friends’ boisterous laughter around us, as they were seemingly oblivious to the intense moment Ky and I were having.
I hadn’t planned on giving him a sort of ultimatum; it just slipped out. But once it did, I realized they were my true thoughts. Ky was a catch, but so was I. If he wasn’t going to make a move on me, I was going to look elsewhere. Life was too short not to live it sexed up.
He pushed his tray of food forward and faced me.
Staring into those fucking incredible eyes of his, my heart thumped a few times, making me resist the urge to rub at my chest. His eyes were molten. His eyes … blazed.
He opened his mouth and I leaned forward, wondering what he was about to say. Or maybe he was about to kiss me in front of everyone, consequences be damned.
His brows drew forward from his intensity, suggesting it was entirely possible.
And then the pygmy troll Rina had nicknamed Orangesicle—all the trolls either had unpronounceable names or ones impossible to remember—climbed onto the bench seat next to Ky, and the two of us turned to take him in. With his fluorescent orange fro-hawk that was three times taller than his head, his smooth pot belly hanging over his loincloth, and his butt waving around in the air, it was literally impossible to ignore him. His little old man face was scrunched in lines of concern.
“Have any of you heard from my woman?” he asked, booming his question across the entire table, cutting through the laughter. Either he was too preoccupied to notice we’d all been in the middle of something or he didn’t care. Given the trolls’ piss-and-vinegar attitude, I was guessing the latter.
His woman was Sadie, the kickass Enforcer, who was technically a witch, but too fierce to behave like anything less than a shifter. The Academy Spell had realized it right away, and though she was a mage, she’d attended the Magical Creatures Academy anyway.
Fierce as she was, I’d heard her tell Orangesicle she wasn’t his woman several times. Once more, Orangesicle didn’t care. He went right on mooning over her.
“I haven’t heard from her since I last saw her here,” Rina answered him, her pretty face contorting in sudden worry. “Do you think something’s going on with her? Is there reason to be worried? Is she okay?”
“Pfft.” I paused to chew. “No need to get all worked up about it. Sadie’s a badass. She’s fine.”
The troll rose to his knees, slid Ky’s tray to the side, and leaned his forearms on the table so he could peer down the length of it. Of course, he also exposed his buttocks to the world.
A smattering of gasps from the table behind us confirmed that the students between us and the door were getting an eyeful.
Orangesicle didn’t seem to notice—or, again, didn’t care. The pygmy trolls ruled the roost; the dining hall was their domain.
“I don’t hear from her as often as I’d like. My woman, she’s been busy on top-secret Enforcer business. But she usually sends me a Talk-a-Letter every few days.”
I had a feeling they were probably filled with leave-me-the-hell-alone messages, since Sadie never held back, but what the hell did I know? Maybe trolls hid some impressive equipment beneath those loincloths.
“How long’s it been since you heard from her?” Leo asked, his sharp eyes trained on Orangesicle. Since Leander Verion was a prince of the fae, the troll was theoretically a part of the people ruled by his father. Trolls were some of the least agreeable of the fae; they kept mostly to their own kind in the fae’s Golden Forest. However, Orangesicle was still a fae, and Leo took his people’s concerns seriously.
Orangesicle rubbed at his face though it was smooth as a baby’s bottom—or his bottom—while his dark, pupil-less eyes swept upward and he considered: “It’s been nearly two weeks.” He bit his lip. “That’s not normal for my woman. I know she can take care of herself, but what if something’s happened to her?”
“We should contact Damon,” Boone said right away. “He’s her partner.”
“In work only,” Orangesicle quickly interjected. “And they don’t always work together. I’m not sure he went off on this secret mission of hers.”
“But did she specifically say?” Leo asked.
“No. My woman knows how to keep secrets. She didn’t tell me much, just like she was supposed to do.”
“Then we start with Damon,” Ky said intently, and I allowed myself a moment of lament that whatever he and I’d been about to share had taken off, fluttered in a passing breeze, and gone to fucking die somewhere.
“Maybe we should talk to Fianna or Nessa too,” Wren suggested. “They always know what’s going on.”
“At the school…” Rina said.
“They’re nosy enough to know more than that,” Adalia said.
“They probably know what Sir Lancelot and the half-dead wizards are up to,” I added with a heavy sigh, accepting that the topic of conversation was important enough to move on. “Whate
ver secret thing they’re doing might be somehow connected to Sadie.”
“In the supernatural community, things are more often connected than not,” Dave chimed in, and we all nodded our somber agreement.
The magical community was a mess of power-hungry supes.
Secrets in the magical world were rarely a good thing.
Secret affairs, however, were another story. I flicked a glance at Ky, but he was looking at Rina, like he couldn’t shake the memories of how badly things might have gone for the two of them over the past year and a half plus.
Where the hell might Sadie be? Wherever she was, she’d have her two trusty curved blades with her. She could take care of herself.
Unless shit had taken a sinister turn.
I liked Sadie. She was a take-no-crap kind of woman.
I wished I could find her.
I blinked, and Orangesicle, Ky, and the rest of my friends vanished in an instant.
10
I fell on my ass, landing most ungracefully. I flung my hands out behind me to avoid hitting my head, but my legs flopped out in front of me, my short skirt bunched up by my waist.
I blinked at my new, bright surroundings, trying to make sense of things.
I was to one side of a clearing in the middle of a dense forest … and Sadie was staring at me, her mouth open in shock. Behind her, Sir Lancelot, Albacus, and Mordecai were gaping at me as well. A bunch of others I didn’t recognize looked at me too.
Along with two supes who definitely shouldn’t be there.
Fury and Laredo were supposed to be locked up somewhere, paying for their many crimes—including kidnapping Rina, Wren, and me at the end of last term.
Fury, the shifter who’d given away his power to save his brother, and then stolen more from Rina, and then lost his shifter magic again, looked at me passively, seeming less shocked than the rest of the dozen or so creatures in the clearing.
Laredo, however, pursed his lips. That fucker oozed dark magic. He’d assisted Fury’s brother in kidnapping my friends and me. He was definitely supposed to be locked up in a dungeon somewhere, the key to his cell at the bottom of a stinky garbage heap.
Suddenly aware that my jaw was hanging all the way open, I snapped it shut. When Sir Lancelot’s huge owl eyes appeared ready to burst free of their sockets, I followed the direction of his attention to my skirt, tugging it down so as not to continue flashing the crowd.
Sadie was the first to react. “Jas? Is that you?”
Numbly, I nodded. Probably the first time in my entire life I’d been at a loss for words.
Sadie cast a glance behind her at the others, then approached, her hands at the hilts of her blades strapped to her waist, scanning the forest like she expected Ewoks to scramble out of it.
After I appeared out of nowhere, I didn’t blame her.
She reached my side and offered me a hand up. I took it, and I ran shaky fingers through my hair.
“What’s going on?” I asked Sadie, unable to keep the tremble from my voice.
“You’re going to have to tell me that. You’re the one that just popped up in the middle of our meeting.”
“What kind of meeting?” Despite the fact that my mind was like a circus up there, all bright, swirling lights mixed in with a crazy-ass funhouse effect, I couldn’t help the suspicion that was mounting.
We had a fierce Enforcer, two half-dead wizards of immense power, a pygmy owl headmaster of a school of magic who’d lived for nearly a thousand years, a now-powerless former shifter and former second-in-command of the rogue Shifter Alliance, and a sketchy-ass dark sorcerer. Along with … oh! Egan, the pegataur professor of the academy was here too, along with Professor Burl Quickfoot, the gnome in his pointy red hat, who was currently running a caressing hand along the handle of his axe, which was nearly as long as he was tall. Count Vladimir Vabu, vampire as well as a professor at the MCA, was here too.
A handful of other magical creatures, who were certain to be warriors of some sort based on the ferocity of their scowls, peered at me like I was some personal affront to them for invading their obviously false sense of security.
What the fuck had I just stumbled into?
And how in fuck’s name had I stumbled into it?
“Jas,” Sadie prompted, and I had no idea if she’d asked a question or not.
“Hunh?”
“How did you get here?”
“I have no idea.”
“That’s not possible,” said some asshole I didn’t know but who’d obviously been visited by a fairy godmother with an ugly stick for a wand. “No one pops up in the Golden Forest without an idea of how. King Dillmon Erion forbids any entrance to his kingdom without his express permission or that of someone in the royal court.”
The dude with hooves for feet, scrawny goat legs, and a sneer turning up a hideous lip, took a few steps toward me. Clop, clop, clop. “She’s a liar.”
My mind zapped right back into proper functioning and I realized I was still holding my fork. Throwing it to the ground, I crossed my arms over my chest. “If you call me a liar again, I’m going to kick your hairy ass to kingdom come. I don’t lie.”
Not about this, anyway.
“Lady Jolly,” Sir Lancelot said with a gasp from his place atop a tree stump. It was the only way for him to be readily visible among the larger creatures surrounding him. “You shouldn’t speak that way to Lord—”
“Honestly, Sir Lancelot, I don’t really care who he is. I have all the respect for you, but I don’t know this fool, and he sure as shit doesn’t know me. If he’s going to be throwing around random accusations to slander a girl he doesn’t even know, then he can deal with my shoe up his ass.”
Sadie nodded enthusiastically before Sir Lancelot turned his big yellow eyes on her.
“What?” she said. “She’s right. Tomlin is being an ass.”
“She’s deflecting, trying to distract us from her lies,” Tomlin said, earning a growl from Sadie and me.
Sadie rocked.
“Nobody gets into the Golden Forest without an escort from the royal court,” Tomlin persisted. “She arrived alone, without announcement. This reeks of dark magic.” He and a few others pinned suspicion on Laredo, whose face had been blank, bored even, up until that moment.
“I am here on invitation of Albacus and Mordecai,” Laredo said. “I’m trying to help.”
“Are you? Or are you trying to pull a fast one over us? You’ve managed to convince them of your innocence—not me,” Ugly Stick said.
Laredo and several others erupted in outrage.
“Enough!” Sadie roared, and everyone promptly shut the fuck up. “Boys, let’s be smart and find out what she knows before flinging around accusations to see what sticks like stink on manure.”
For the first time, I noticed that Sadie was the only female among them, and also that all of those she’d accused appeared livid she referred to them as boys.
Hey, if the shoe fits…
Once Sadie finished giving them all the stink-eye, she turned back to me. “You’ve got to know something. Are you looking for someone?”
“Yeah, you.”
“Me? Why me?”
“Orangesicle was worried about you. He said he hadn’t heard from you in a while.”
Sadie groaned.
“What’s this about, Sadie?” Sir Lancelot asked. “Who’s this ‘Orangesicle?’” His feathers around his beak scrunched in distaste at the nickname.
“Jas is referring to Tanmroosh. He’s taken a liking to me.”
I chuckled. That was one way to put it.
Ugly Stick groaned. “I told you women aren’t to be trusted! Sadie shouldn’t have been part of our group. Now she’s revealed our secrets.”
In a few swift, furious strides, Sadie was right up in Tomlin’s ugly face, which was human, but still somehow goat-like. He probably wouldn’t have been half as hideous if he didn’t let the nature of his insides leach out into his face.
Sadie
stabbed him in the chest with a pointer finger. “I would never reveal a secret I’ve sworn to keep. I can’t help that men find me irresistible and think about me. Now, you’d better shut the fuck up with your nonsense or I’ll shut you up. Permanently. I’m starting to think the world will be a better place without you in it.”
Her dirty blond ponytail swung high on her head as she dug into his chest some more. Beneath his long-sleeved shirt, it was hard to tell if it was goat or man.
Of average height and weight, Sadie wasn’t particularly threatening … until you added in the ferocity of her personality.
I was seriously girl crushing on her. I loved it when women stood up for themselves. Men too.
But Tomlin didn’t back down, as if the buffoon couldn’t help but be the biggest ass in the forest.
“We all know the dangers of pillow talk,” he said, and I worked really hard not to picture him involved in some sort of amorous liaison. “If Tanmroosh knows of our secrets, then he’ll spread them.”
“First of all,” Sadie legit growled, “I literally just explained that I’m not having an affair with the troll. And second of all, you prick, pygmy trolls keep secrets better than most creatures.”
His mouth spread in an ugly sneer to reveal even uglier, yellowed teeth. “Unless it’s a feast day. If our enemies catch him on a feast day, he’ll spill his guts.”
“I’m thinking I should spill your guts.” She stepped forward so that she was chest to chest with him; her fingers twitched on the hilts of her blades.
I crossed the clearing and moved behind her. If she was going to take on Ugly Stick, I was going to have her back. I might only be a skunk shifter, but I wasn’t afraid of a scuffle.
“Sadie,” Sir Lancelot started, but he didn’t sound as affronted by her threat as I would’ve expected. Maybe Ugly Stick was ruffling his feathers too.
Before the owl could say anything else, Egan intervened.
“Tomlin, you’re playing a fool.” The pegataur, elegant with his lower body horse half in ways that Tomlin couldn’t touch, moved to their side. “She’s proven her loyalty a hundred times over. You, however…”