“Ha, ha. Demi doesn’t bathe me.”
“A fact I’m sure he isn’t pleased with.”
“You’re one smooth talker. You bathe any helpless young lovelies lately?” I tilted my head to the side to study him. “I never even thought to ask if you were seeing anyone.”
“No. Intimacy is sort of difficult for me.” He stood and folded the partition that separated me from the room, exposing the tub to the window’s light. “There, that’s better.”
I waited a few beats for him to explain his intimacy comment, but he didn’t, so I let that one go. “I heard it mentioned around the watercooler that you’ve been gone for a couple decades. Did you do anything cool while you were away?”
He shrugged, his forearms propped across his bent knees. “There are obscure parts of this world I escape to every now and again when life grows tiresome. The Daughters of Avalon were quite irritating after a while. When your father fell ill, there was nothing to stick around for.” His eyes lost their focus, the corners of his mouth tugging down into a frown. “I can’t believe he’s been alive all this time. I thought his brain was asleep. I never would’ve… I tried everything. I never even thought of Hemlock. Urien’s one of my few friends. He must think I abandoned him to Morgan. I guess maybe I did.”
I reached my hand out of the tub and leaned over to clutch his fingers. “Hey, you didn’t know. And now that you do, you’re doing all you can to help him, right?”
“Of course. This afternoon I started cultivating a plant that’s been extinct for years. If harvested properly, it could be used as an antidote for the Hemlock.”
“I didn’t realize you cultivated things. I thought it was more like you rubbed your temples, thought of a flower, and blammo, it appeared.”
Kerdik scooted closer to the tub with a small smile. “Sort of like this?” With his free hand, he made a fist. Two seconds later, a bouquet of yellow roses with short six-inch, thornless stems sprouted from his fist.
I dropped the soap in the tub when he handed the flowers to me, blinking at him with a surprised bashfulness. “For me?”
“Of course.”
I gaped at the beauties, examining them from all angles. “No man’s ever brought me flowers before. You seriously just did that?”
Kerdik chuckled at my astonishment. “You fall to pieces over the simplest things.”
I inhaled the luscious fragrance, pressing the delicate softness to my nose so I could indulge in the full sensation of the gift. The petals were silky, caressing my cheeks with their loveliness. “Thank you, Kerdik. They’re amazing.” I tugged him closer, making sure my body stayed concealed in the tub when I reached out to peck his cheek. “You make beautiful things,” I said quietly. My lips heated his skin by the smallest degree, drawing out a coy dimple from him that was positively adorable.
“Only for you,” he admitted. “Anyone else would ruin them by searching for imperfections, or asking for more.”
I settled back into the water, admiring my new treasure. “Well, I was going to ask you for a giraffe, but I guess that’s shot now.”
“What’s a giraffe?”
I tried to explain the proper proportions of the animal everyone in my world knew like the back of their hand, but I think I only confused him more when I described a detailed vision of the long neck.
“You’re making that up,” he scoffed, turning his head when the first sounds of a storm reached us through the window. The smell of fresh rain wafted in, making us inhale in unison. “There’s no such things as giraffes; I’m certain of it.”
I guffawed at his blatant disbelief as the raindrops picked up, coming down faster than a drizzle. “That settles it. When you come to Common with me, we’re going bowling first thing, then we’re going to the zoo. Oh, and we’re going to Doc Harvey’s Ice Cream and Soda Shoppe.” I frowned. “Wait, do you even eat? I don’t want to wave the best butterscotch malts in the universe in front of your face if immortals can’t eat or something.”
Kerdik chortled through his nose. “I can eat, but I don’t need to. Take me anywhere and everywhere, darling. Where else will we go?”
“Oh, there’s this great park near campus. You’d love it. Not as pretty as Avalon, but it’s got a running track and a whole series of quirky, handmade bird houses. Super awesome. Lane will tell you the one that looks like the post office is the coolest, but she’s wrong. It’s the cottage birdhouse that’s the cutest. It’s a birdhouse that’s got a fake birdhouse in the design. That’s like, way existential. Blows my mind every time.”
Kerdik sniggered at my enthusiasm. “I can’t imagine anything better,” he allowed, pacifying me with his allegiance.
28
The Worst Bath of my Life
I’m sure I was boring Kerdik with my mundane plans for what we would do if we could hang together in my world, but to me, simple fun was the one thing missing from my life.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand. You’re strapped to a machine that launches you into the air and whips you around, turns you in circles – and this is supposed to be fun?”
I grinned at him, not holding back on my explanation of the most harrowing roller coasters that Lane, Judah and I had ever ridden on. “If you come to Common someday, you can’t be using your gifts to shazam yourself out of the harness. You have to go for the ride.”
“It sounds frightening.”
“The best things in life often are.”
Kerdik’s gaze turned soft and affectionate as he studied my face. “You really spend time planning days for us to enjoy together in your world?”
I shrugged, wondering if that was weird. “Of course I do. Avalon is too harrowing. Simplicity. That’s what you need.” I fished around for the soap and ran the slippery bar over my toes, making sure my flowers didn’t drop into the water. Thunder crashed in the distance, making me smile at the cozy feeling storms gave me (when they weren’t accompanied by mind-warping leeches and whatnot). “I didn’t realize Lane’s life used to be like this.”
“You wouldn’t have had much of a childhood if you’d stayed here, I imagine.”
“Did you know your parents?” I wanted to know if he understood the loneliness that comes with being an orphan. If we were the same. We got along so easily; I wondered if that commonality was the reason. “Hold up, how does immortality here work? Like, were you ever even a child?” I asked, unsure if this was a thing everyone knew. “Were you born, or created as an adult?”
Kerdik’s expression twisted, his tone turning sharp on a dime. “Why do you want to talk about that? I can’t imagine how it’s important.”
I swallowed, my eyes on the soap. “You can’t be short with me, especially when I’m vulnerable and naked like this. I was only curious to know more about you. That’s normal, K. We’re friends. It’s good that I want to know more about you.”
“You’re prying.”
My shoulders slumped, unsure how our easy back and forth got derailed so quickly. Apparently I had a bad habit of sticking my foot in my mouth when it came to all things Avalon. At this rate, I doubted I’d ever find a place to truly fit in.
I handed the bouquet back to him with a stalwart expression that told him he was being a jag for no reason. “Okay, now I’m sending you away. I was being nice, and you’re treating me like I’m going to sell details of your childhood for a pack of cigarettes.”
“You know,” he accused me. The second crash of thunder made me jump. My birds flew in through the open window, screeching that a storm was here, and they wanted to hide out inside with me. Kerdik’s temper swung with the hard rain that fell outside. “You know the answer. Why did you ask? Did Urien tell you?”
His accusation stung me. “Look, I don’t know any of it, and I definitely didn’t know it was a sore subject. I’ve only ever been nice to you. Go away. You’re being a butthole.”
The flowers I handed him crumbled to ash in his rage-filled grip, utterly destroying my beautiful gift. “You’re only being
nice to get information out of me! I see what you’re doing. Taking your clothes off for me, too? Morgan’s daughter, indeed.”
I flinched at the verbal slap. I turned inward, going back to my introverted tendencies that had never deserted me when I needed them. I scooped water between my breasts, hissing at the sting from the gemstone as I rubbed the hard soap over the swells. I ignored his tantrum completely, and addressed the birds instead. “You can stay, guys. Tell the other birds out there to come on in, if they like. As many as you can fit in here is fine. Just leave my bed free so I can take a nap.” I yawned again, a new layer of fatigue pushing my shoulders down into the water. The crows were talking over each other to tell me about the new nests they were building, the fun things they’d been up to, and where they were pretty sure a good stash of worms would come up in the wake of the storm.
“You can’t talk to them this much, or you’ll drain your magic,” Kerdik scolded me with a scowl. His usual indulgent expression was gone, making it look like it had never even been there to begin with.
“Don’t boss me. You can’t be nice, then be a jackwagon, and then pretend to care about me in the same hour. I can figure it all out myself. I know talking to animals and using my Compass drains me, but I don’t care. It’s worth it to have friends who I know like me. No bird has ever snapped at me the way you’re doing.”
The birds kept cheeping, and then started singing to me a song about the rebirth the rain gave the earth. I loved their sweetness. I don’t remember ever singing about rain with such passion as they did.
The water started to cool more rapidly than I anticipated. “What the…” My eyes widened when a slight fog started to rise from the surface, and the water turned painfully freezing in a heartbeat. “Kerdik, what’s happening?” I tried to jump out of the tub, but I was stuck there. The water turned to a solid block of ice, ensnaring me in the tub. I screamed, afraid and in pain. “Help me!”
“You know about my beginnings!” he raged, and I realized with thunderous shock that it was his magic that did this to me. “You know I was the one who… You know! Why are you making me talk about it?”
“You’re hurting me! Let me out!” I chattered, struggling to free myself from the ice that had me trapped. I was scared and pissed, and tried wriggling myself free from the block of ice with all the gusto I had in me. The edges of the ice sliced at my skin, scraping at my arms, back and breasts as I thrashed, still in prison, and mired in growing agony. The pointy edges ripped at my flesh in long cuts, warning me to be still, but I was too terrified to listen.
I heard a fist banging on the door. “Help!” I screamed. “Somebody help me!”
“I trusted you, but all you want is to find out my secrets so you can use them against me. The Daughters of Avalon are all the same. I can’t believe you fooled me this long.”
My teeth chattered so hard, I worried my words couldn’t be understood. “I asked you b-because I d-d-didn’t know, and thought it would be c-c-cool to learn more ab…ab…about you.” I tried to squirm sideways, but nothing gave me more than half an inch of space. My ribs were barely contracting; the ice was more unforgiving than the corset. “I c-c-can’t feel my toes!”
My birds were furious. They attacked Kerdik, pelting him with their beaks and flapping their wings in his face to get him to stop. “Be gone!” he roared, and with a flip of his chartreuse hand, the entire flock fell to their deaths, thudding on my wood floor.
Stunned tears rolled out of me as I thrashed to get away, to go to them to see if there was anything I could do. “No! No! It’s okay, b-b-babies! I’ll fix it! I’ll f-fix it!” Only there was no fixing it. They were motionless and splayed in unnatural positions. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t save myself, much less them.
Blood started pooling onto the surface of the ice block, and for some reason this snapped Kerdik out of his blind fury. “Rosie, stop moving!” His hands came near my head, and I shrieked anew. He melted the ice back into water, but it was still too cold for me to feel it. My body convulsed recklessly, twitching as it went into some kind of shock.
The door burst open, and I heard Bastien calling for me. I didn’t care about our fight; I cared that he was there. “Help!” I howled out my agony and fear as I lost control of my body and ended up completely submerged in the blood-streaked water.
Kerdik’s hands jerked me up. His eyes were wild, his white dress shirt and pressed vest sopping as he held my seizing body in place so I didn’t drown. He was scared, angry and too many other things for my brain to catalog. “Why did you ask me that?”
“Because I d-didn’t know if you were s-s-sad, like me!” A spasm rocked through my body, renewing my shriek with each movement that jarred me. “You hurt me! Let go! Let go!” I thrashed against him, wanting to punch my way free, but unable to get my limbs to move from my body.
Bastien beelined for me letting out a bleat of fear when he saw the water that had turned red with my blood. “What did you do to her?” he accused Kerdik, who was completely thrown into speechlessness by my honest answer.
Kerdik dropped me as if only just realizing what his hands were doing. He gaped at my body in horror, like he had no idea how we’d gotten to the place where I had ribbons of crimson streaking down my frozen skin. Kerdik glanced up at Bastien like a kid who’d gotten caught with his hands in the cookie jar. “I didn’t mean to! She… I… She said…”
“You did this?” Bastien forgot his place in the pecking order and crossed over to Kerdik, socking him hard across the face. Kerdik didn’t bleed, and he didn’t retaliate. I heard Link swear, and then turned my head to see him backing away in fear.
“I want to go home!” I howled, unable to hide my pain any longer.
“Darling, I wasn’t thinking. I…” Kerdik tried to cup the side of my face, but I screamed at him to go away. He looked down, his eyes shut to fend off the pain of my rejection. “I’ll leave you, then. Please believe that I didn’t…” Without another word, Kerdik vanished into thin air.
29
The Worst Time to be Naked
“Mad! Link! Help me with Rosie.” Bastien grabbed my towel and threw it at Madigan, who opened it without understand everything that was going on. He trusted Bastien, and obeyed without question, turning his head to the side so he didn’t see my body when Link and Bastien hoisted my frozen, seizing, naked and bleeding form out of the water. The worst time to be naked is in front of your guy’s buddies, but we managed the four-tiered grimace with a firm code of “be cool.”
The towel went around me, and Link tore the comforter from my bed to add another layer to fend off the cold and my nudity. Mad didn’t need instructions, but ran out down the hallway, and came back a minute later with another blanket.
Bastien carried my crumpled body past the flock of lifeless birds to the bed, laying us both down so Mad could cover us with the feather comforter he’d stolen from who knows where.
Link gaped at the floor in horror. “They’re all dead, Bastien! What madness happened in here? Ye were only gone a wee bit.”
I tried to reach for a bird, but my arms were frozen like a tyrannosaurus rex. “Bird!” I begged.
Mad lifted a dead crow with the edge of a hand towel and displayed it to me. “They’re all dead, Rosie.”
“I n-n-need it,” I worked out through clenched teeth. “Give it h-h-here.”
Bastien’s body tried to warm mine, but it was useless. I’d gone past being able to feel the cold, and only felt numbness everywhere. “Easy, honey. I’ve got you. He’s gone now, and you don’t have to be afraid. I’m here.”
I couldn’t calm my body down, much less my terror.
Mad brought the bird closer, but I wasn’t satisfied until the lifeless feathers brushed against my cheek. He rested it on the pillow so my tears could fall freely over its dead body. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” I wept over the bird, feeling the weight of the death of the whole flock. They wouldn’t have been there if I hadn’t told them to come in out of the
rain. They would be at their nests, and now their babies would have no parents. I’d orphaned an entire flock, and now the children would all live with that same sadness I’d carried – if they lived at all. I’d offered the birds a shelter, what they’d thought would be a safe harbor from the storm. I didn’t realize the worst of nature was inside, and that I was no longer a safe place for innocent things.
A horrible cry broke from my lips, but Bastien didn’t pull away. He took off his shirt and opened my blankets and towel so he could press his skin against me to warm my body. He nodded to Mad, who did the same. Though Madigan didn’t give two rips about me, he would do whatever Bastien needed. In this case, it was get half-naked with a completely naked woman in bed with him. “Ah! She’s an icicle, Bastien. Link, go fetch some hot water bottles. Broth, too.”
I sobbed uncontrollably between them as sensation slowly started to come back to my outermost extremities. The numbness had been a kindness, and now it was deserting me. My arms and legs seized as if they were being stabbed repeatedly.
Mad rolled me onto my side so I could only see Bastien. He flinched at my cold when he pressed his bare chest firmly to my back to warm me. “Bastien, this is bad.”
Bastien’s expression was hard, his gaze drilling into mine mere inches from my face. “What did Kerdik do to you?” He undid his pants and slipped them off, so he was only in his underwear under the covers. This incited a fresh worry in me, but he kept his eyes locked in on mine. “Easy, honey. I’m just trying to get you warm. Here, wrap your legs around me. Skin to skin as much as you can.”
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