by Chani Feener
Still, she was nervous.
This place was located a lot closer to Rose Manor than her tiny house on the opposite side of town. She also didn’t know how closely Mavek monitored it, or if he’d be alerted that someone had entered without his permission. Technically, his name was on the deed, though he’d said he’d held onto it for her.
“If the bird was Mavek’s doing,” she told Eskel, “then this might not be the smartest hiding place.”
Eskel stepped closer, taking her hand in his. “If the bird was Mavek’s doing, he probably would have come out and said as much by now. Besides, who said we were hiding? It’s just too cold to stay in a dorm room with a busted window, that’s all. We didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
She inhaled and then motioned toward the stairs. “My room is up there. I’m not sure if it’s still furnished, but it doesn’t hurt to check.”
The steps creaked beneath their weight, the sound rivaling the pounding of her heart. She was nervous for some reason, restless at the prospect of what she might find up there. Maybe even a little excited too.
They kept the hallway light off as she maneuvered them down the left side, memory leading her down the hall to the door on the right. The brass knob was cold to the touch, the metal scraping a bit when she twisted it and pushed the door open. Inside was pitch black, the small window set across from the door offering little light. Fumbling for the switch, Arden flicked the light on, blinking against the sudden brightness. Once her eyes had adjusted, she risked taking a look, inhaling sharply when she did.
Her tiny twin sized bed had been replaced with a queen, set against the center of the far wall. The sheets were clean and wrinkle free, the color of pale pink roses with vibrant yellow accents throughout. The desk she’d used as a child was still there, pushed off in the corner, its surface polished and shining. A single bookcase stood in the opposite corner, the three shelves empty.
“This bed,” Arden’s fingers tightened around Eskel’s, “it’s not mine.”
Mavek must have put it here, either before or after her last visit.
“He expected you to come eventually,” Eskel caught on, moving around her to step farther into the room. It was a fairly decent size, with more than enough space for three people to sleep comfortably on the floor during a slumber party. The closet was also a walk-in, the white doors currently closed. He went over to them and yanked one open, an unreadable expression crossing over his face when he peered inside.
Arden frowned and moved closer to see for herself, eyes going wide to find the closet packed with clothing. Everything was carefully organized with sections for jackets, shirts, dresses, and pants. Hangers lined both the right and left walls, while the back one was made up of shelving that contained rows of shoes, purses, and accessories.
“What gave him the idea that I was interested in any of this?” Arden asked out loud. She’d never been the type to care about name brands.
“As far as bribes go,” Eskel whistled low as he flicked the tag on a nearby coat, “this one isn’t half bad. I mean, since you’re the target audience, I guess it does miss a few marks, but… there’s a lot of stuff here. I wonder when he planned on actually giving it to you?”
She clucked her tongue and pulled him away, slamming the closet doors shut once more with a resolute click. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t want it. That’s not why we’re here anyway.”
“Why are we here again?” There was a glimmer in his eye that was impossible to miss, yet she pretended to anyway. While the moment they’d shared back at his dorm had certainly been eye opening, she wasn’t in the mood to start up where they’d left off, the dead bird still on her mind.
“To sleep,” she told him, moving to shut the bedroom door and twist the lock into place. After that was done, she went to the bed and pulled the covers down.
“Together?” Eskel asked after a moment had passed in silence.
She stared at him, her face heating up. “Yes, but I mean really sleep. Fortunately, this bed is a lot bigger than the one I used as a kid, so yeah.”
He grunted. “I’m not really sure I agree that it’s ‘fortunate,’ but okay.”
Eskel dropped his bag on the top of the desk and unzipped it, pulling out two sets of clothing. He turned and tossed one at her, chuckling a little when she fumbled to catch it.
“What’s this?”
“You aren’t planning on sleeping in those jeans, are you?” He motioned to her outfit. “I brought a change of clothes for you too, just in case. Unless…” he glanced briefly at the closet, “you want to search in there for some pajamas?”
“No.” She clutched the items he’d thrown at her a bit more tightly than necessary. “This is fine, thanks.”
He nodded and then glanced around before settling on the closet once more. “I’ll change in there. Let me know when you’re done so I can come back out.”
As soon as he’d disappeared inside, Arden quickly got dressed in the oversized T-shirt and sweats he’d lent her. The shirt was a light blue, and had a strange logo for what she assumed was a beach on it. She was holding the material away from her so she could better see the design when he knocked from within the closet.
“I’m good,” she called, still checking out the shirt. Most of the writing had faded away, and she was trying to figure out if she was looking at an F or an S when he was suddenly standing at her side. “What does this say?”
He eased her body around so that she was facing him, then gave her a once over. When he suddenly dropped down to a crouch, she forgot all about the shirt.
“It says ‘Flamingo Hop’. It was a shake shack I used to go to a lot as a kid. It closed a few years ago and I got the shirt for free.” As he explained, he began rolling the ends of her sweat pants up so that they no longer touched the ground. Once he was done, he stood again, inspecting his handy work before noticing the way she was looking at him. He laughed. “We’re here to sleep, remember, Arden?”
At first she couldn’t mask her surprise, then she slapped lightly at his shoulder and turned away quickly before he could notice her reddened cheeks or her labored breathing.
She slipped into bed and began rearranging the comforter over herself, then checked her phone’s battery and set it aside on the nightstand. When she’d finished all of that and Eskel still hadn’t budged, she gave him a pointed look and said, “Well?”
They’d slept in the same room before, after the Tithe, but she tried not to think about how different this situation was.
“We should be safe here,” she said, pretending not to understand where his hesitation was coming from, ignoring the way her heart was thumping wildly in her chest. “We locked the front door, and the bedroom door, no one knows we’re here and this place is abandoned, so…”
“Someone visits, clearly,” he reminded her, motioning toward all of the things Mavek had left behind.
“You’re the one who said you weren’t worried about him.”
He snorted, but finally moved around to the other side of the bed, crawling in next to her. All the while he avoided eye contact, mirroring her earlier moves as he fidgeted with the comforter and dropped his cell phone on the end table at his side. “I said I don’t want him dictating our lives,” he corrected. “I’m not stupid though.”
“Do you want to leave?”
“No,” he blurted, and this time he was the one with red-stained cheeks. He cleared his throat. “I mean, it’s already super late and we’re both exhausted. It’d be dumb for us to leave. Plus, where would we even go? You’re right. This is the safest place at the moment.”
Tabby’s was probably the safest place, but neither of them corrected his statement.
Arden lay down, fluffing the pillow beneath her before turning to face him. After a moment, he followed suit, and she waited until he’d settled before telling him, “Thanks for coming with me.”
“A bird flew through my window.” He lifted a shoulder and grinned. “I wo
uld have come anyway.”
“I know. You’ve done so much for me already. I feel like it isn’t fair.”
“Why?” He lifted a blond brow. “Are you planning on turning me down come morning?”
She pretended to think it over, and then shook her head. He noticeably stilled some, a spark of hope lighting in his eyes, impossible to miss with such little space between them. “Earlier, you said that you like me. Tell me again.”
“Of course I like you.” She thought about Tabby’s scolding before, about how she’d gone on one date with Eskel and hadn’t brought up going on another since. “I’ve liked you for a while. I just—”
“You don’t have to explain,” he cut her off. “I already know. I’ve been around, remember? It’s okay.”
“If it was, you wouldn’t be asking me to repeat myself.” She sighed, realizing how true those words were.
“I do have a question,” he began tentatively. “Can I ask it?”
She nodded.
“I know I kept telling you that I understood, and that I was fine with waiting, but… Arden, did you draw this line between us because you’re actually torn between Mavek and me, or is it because you’re worried about my safety? You’ve mentioned the latter a few times, and if this is about protecting me, I just want you to know that it hurts more having to stand on the sidelines and watch you put yourself at risk. I hate that there’s nothing I can do to help you.” He chuckled humorlessly. “Hell, I didn’t even find the possible cure—Cole did.
“We’re a lot alike,” he continued. “We both hate feeling powerless. For a while now, it’s felt like all I can do for you is be supportive. I don’t want to be still anymore though, Arden. I want you to actually need me.”
“I do need you.” She’d known he was holding it in, at least to some degree. Despite his words, he couldn’t actually be okay with her constant deals with Mavek. Arden regretted that she hadn’t been able to put him first, her focus instead centered on herself and what was happening to her.
The fact of the matter was, even though she was the one undergoing the change, this wasn’t just happening to her. Her friends had been affected as well; they were struggling and suffering right alongside her, just trying to keep it together to make it through to the other side. She’d had that support system this entire time, yet she’d felt so alone.
She hadn’t been.
“That night,” she said, “the night of the Tithe, I fully intended to say yes the next morning. I wanted to give us a chance. I don’t think I ever told you that.”
“You didn’t, no.”
“I think…” she paused for a split second, then pushed past her nerves and reached out, gently running the tips of her fingers through his hair, “I think I want to give it a try now. A real try.”
He searched her expression for a moment. “What about Mavek?”
She exhaled shakily, buying herself a second to really sort through her thoughts. To really be sure. Eskel deserved that much and more from her.
“I have one session with him left before our deal is over.” She’d almost forgotten about it, and that it involved kissing him. “But after… after let’s go on another date. This time I’ll pick the place.”
“Just to be clear,” his voice was low, hesitant, “this is you choosing me, right?”
Arden shifted closer, moving to brush her lips lightly against his before she settled back down. “Yeah,” she clarified, breathless. “Yeah, this is me choosing you.”
It was far past time she learned to let the Midnight King go.
Cato was at the door the next morning.
He didn’t say anything to her when she and Eskel opened it, ready to step outside and go about their days. He merely gave them a silent once-over before stepping back and tipping his head in the direction of Rose Manor.
Arden had changed into the same clothes she’d worn yesterday, and tugged on the end of her shirt in hesitation. If she went looking like this, Mavek would know that she hadn’t spent the night at Tabby’s.
“It’s not like you can wear something from the closet upstairs,” Eskel pointed out, reading her thoughts.
“He already knows you were here,” Cato clarified before she could think to ask.
“Does he know about my window, too?” Eskel asked, eyes narrowing on the Puck.
The fae shook his head. “I arrived a bit too late to witness it, but I did see the bird. It took me almost all night to find you two—Mavek realized it just before me.”
“So,” she grimaced, “he also knows that we were together.” Perfect.
She didn’t have anything to feel ashamed about, but she was now worried about Eskel’s safety. She wondered if leaving him alone to go with Cato was such a good idea. Then again, bringing him along would be even more stupid, so she didn’t have much of a choice but to trust what Eskel had mentioned last night. Mavek was trying to gain her favor, and harming Eskel would not be to his benefit. Maybe that was also why he’d sent Cato here instead of coming himself.
She took a step toward Cato, pausing when Eskel reached out to tug lightly on her jacket sleeve.
“Be careful,” he told her, then added, “I’ll see you at Tabby’s later?”
“Yeah.” She smiled at him then let the Puck lead the way.
The manor wasn’t too far of a walk from her old house, but after a while, Arden got sick of the silence. “What, no warning remarks today?”
He glanced at her. “You should know what you’re doing by now.”
She grunted. “Ah. You’re afraid if you talk to me I’ll spill details about the super-secret plan to reverse—”
“Stop.” He didn’t so much as stumble a step, and his voice was firm. “You never know who’s listening nowadays.”
Arden opened her mouth, saw his stony expression, and changed tactics. “Is it Finch?”
“Apparently, there has been a few sightings, people claiming to have seen him here.”
“We already knew they weren’t just rumors,” she pointed out.
They reached the manor and he walked her straight to the front door.
“Don’t leave here without me tonight, okay? I’ll escort you to Tabitha’s myself.”
She thought it over, and then nodded. “Better safe than sorry, right?”
“Right.”
Arden pushed the door open and entered the manor, frowning when the parlor was empty. She’d just taken a step in the direction of the kitchen when footsteps resounded from a room off to the left. Glancing over, she watched as Mavek entered.
He was wearing a black silk dress shirt with the top three buttons undone and charcoal colored jeans. She felt incredibly overdressed in her jacket, and tensed when his gaze dropped down the length of her. She held her breath, waiting, but if he noticed that she was in the same clothes as yesterday, he didn’t comment.
“Find anything?” she asked when he still hadn’t spoken.
He shook his head. “Whoever shot that arrow at us knew they were fast enough to escape me. They didn’t leave any traces behind either, and nothing else has happened since. What about with you?”
“Something did happen last night. Any guesses who caused that?”
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “Are you asking if it was me?”
“That fact that you aren’t asking me to elaborate proves you already know about the bird incident,” she stated. “If you’re just going to play more games, I’m out. I didn’t come here for that.”
“That wasn’t my intention when I woke up this morning, either,” he told her, then moved to the other side of the room where a small wooden table was set close to the unlit fireplace. “Since neither of us seems to be in a good mood, let’s just get started, shall we?”
“So, you don’t know who did it?” She trailed after him, watching as he began to organize a row of small china plates on the table. There were five total, and each held a different type of fruit on its surface. It made her think back to the night of the crowning
and the rotten fruit Cole had eaten and she almost gagged.
“Someone taking orders from the Crown Prince,” he said. “I have no substantial proof yet however.”
“Finch.” She rocked back on her heels. “Guess even you have to be careful when it comes to pointing fingers at the Crown Prince, huh?”
He chuckled darkly. “Yes, you could certainly say that.”
She blinked at him questioningly when he suddenly spun on his heels to face her. It took her a moment longer than it should have to realize what he was asking for, and when she did, she rolled her eyes. Lifting onto the tips of her toes, Arden planted her mouth against his, falling back almost as soon as their lips made contact.
For a second, it looked as though he wanted to say something, a flicker of displeasure crossing his features, but without a word he turned back to motion at the plates on the table.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but if this is an offer to eat, I’m going to have to pass. Just the thought of eating fruit here makes me sick,” she said, scrunching up her nose.
He grunted. “That’s not what it’s for. You saw what Titania did that night, how she made one thing appear to be another. That’s what we’re working on today. That’s the final task for you to try. We’ve already gone over the basics like speed and night vision, and we’ve practiced using sway. This is the last major ability you have, and since it’s one you’ve yet to display, I thought it important to use as the last lesson.”
So this was it. The last time she’d have a good excuse to come to the manor. She’d collected two of the items needed in order to break the curse, but there was still one missing.
“If this involves food, shouldn’t we be doing it in the kitchen?” she suggested, realizing how suspicious that made her sound. Even if she did convince him to move there, snooping through his cabinets without him noticing would prove difficult.
When he’d left her on the porch yesterday, she should have taken the opportunity to search for the candied roses instead of going for the greenhouse. Picking a few rose petals was way easier, after all. Though, she supposed it had all worked out. If she hadn’t been there at that time, she wouldn’t have been able to procure his blood, and really, that was the hardest thing on the list to get.