He shook his head. “No. Because I don’t want you kissing me out of pity or to make anyone jealous.” He gave her a direct look. “I don’t want you to kiss me unless you mean it.”
Cass felt her stomach do a funny little hop inside her but she tried to keep her face calm.
“She’s your ex-fiancée, right? Glorianna deVan?”
“I don’t remember mentioning her last name—or that she is my ex-fiancée.” Jake gave her a narrow look. “How exactly do you know about Glorianna, Cassandra?”
Oops—busted! Cass’s stomach did another funny little hop—this one not nearly as pleasant.
“I…I watched your personal news channel,” she admitted in a low voice. “I didn’t mean to—it just appeared when I touched the, uh, magic mirror-thingy at your house.”
“You what?” Jake stopped moving, right at the bottom of the courthouse steps. His pale green eyes were absolutely furious. “How dare you? That is extremely personal.”
“I’m sorry!” Cass exclaimed, feeling put on the defensive. “I told you I didn’t mean to!”
“What else did you see?” Her court-appointed elf’s face was as dark as a thundercloud.
“Nothing much besides how Glorianna is dating that monochrome brownie guy,” Cass said quickly but when he continued to glare at her, she realized she was going to have to come clean. “And…some stuff about how your parents are disappointed in you and hoping you’ll come back to them before it’s too late. And how the judge whose courtroom you left is mad at you…”
Her voice had sunk to a whisper by this time. She wasn’t easily intimidated but the glare that Jake was giving her was enough to make her want to shrivel up and slip through the cracks in the sparkly pink sidewalk.
“Viewing my U-News channel is beyond the pale, Cassandra.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have thought you would do something like that. It’s tantamount to me reading your private journal if I happened to find it lying around your messy room.”
Damn it, now he was making her feel guilty! Cass hated to feel guilty. And he was also calling her a slob, which pissed her off—mainly because it was true.
“I already told you several times I didn’t do it on purpose,” she snapped. “I don’t know what else you want me to say.”
“There’s nothing to say.” Her court-appointed elf had a stony look on his face. “We should just get to court and get this hearing over with.”
“Fine.” Though she didn’t want to admit it to herself, Cass was feeling hurt—beyond hurt. He’d been acting like some gallant knight, healing her and carrying her around like she was a freaking damsel in distress. And now he had gone all stern and disappointed and angry on her.
“Fine,” Jake echoed. He started to carry her up the steps but Cass struggled in his arms.
“Put me down,” she demanded. “I’m tired of you carrying me around like a baby—I can walk. I don’t need your help.”
Jake’s face got even stonier.
“As you wish, Miss Swann.” His deep voice dripped cold formality as he set her firmly on her feet.
At the return to her last name, Cass felt more miserable than ever. She really hadn’t meant to snoop on his private life, although she probably should have tried to turn off the weird magic mirror TV sooner than she had. Still, was he going to hate her forever for one stupid mistake?
It reminded her of a line from one of Phil’s favorite books—“My good opinion once lost is lost forever.”
Who had said that? Cass couldn’t remember but it certainly seemed to apply to her arrogant, irritating, unforgiving court-appointed elf.
So what? she thought rebelliously. Why should I care if he hates me now? It’s not like we’re in any kind of relationship. He’s just my lawyer, that’s all. Once this stupid case against the FG is resolved we’ll never see each other again.
Somehow, however, this line of thinking failed to make her feel better.
“Well? Are you coming?” Jake arched one blue-black eyebrow at her, a frown on his chiseled features. “We’re going to be late if we don’t hurry and Judge WaterLilly does not like to be kept waiting.”
“I’m coming.” Cass wobbled on the four-inch heels and Jake held out a hand. She ignored it pointedly and grabbed for the dull gold railing which ran down the center of the steps instead.
He shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling under his perfectly tailored charcoal-gray suit and turned to mount the steps himself. Clearly Cass was on her own.
Feeling completely miserable as well as angry and guilty, she began climbing the steps as well as she could. Unfortunately, that wasn’t very well. The tall, skinny heels were so wobbly Cass was afraid she might turn an ankle any minute and she had to clutch at the railing for dear life with every step.
She briefly considered taking a moment to stop and remove the damn shoes until they got to the courtroom. But Cass had a stubborn streak a mile-wide—she didn’t want to admit defeat. Also, what if perfect, skinny Glorianna came back? She didn’t want to give the bitchy fairy girl a chance to gloat. Cass could just hear her now…
Oh look at the human—she can’t fly and now she can’t even walk without taking her shoes off. Poor little thing!
No, removing the shoes was not an option—she would just have to soldier on and get through this court hearing. Hopefully it wouldn’t take long. Also, with a name like WaterLilly, it was possible that the judge was some kind of a water fae. In which case, Cass might get to take off the shoes after all in order to put on some kind of wet suit. She wasn’t looking forward to squeezing her big behind into a form-fitting outfit but if it meant getting to take off the extremely painful shoes, Cass thought she would go for it.
After a lot of wobbling, she finally made it to the top where Jake was waiting for her, an impassive look on his face. Clenching her jaw, Cass took a step away from the banister, doing her best to keep her spine straight and look graceful instead of like a baby giraffe that might fall at any second. She half expected Jake to offer to carry her again but he only nodded and said tersely,
“Come on.” Then he walked briskly ahead of her into the immense courthouse building, leaving Cass to wobble after him as best she could.
Twenty-One
The courthouse looked the same as it had on her first visit—with strange people and creatures bustling about. But this time they were directed to an upper level and there was no choice—Cass had to ride on one of the flying footstools which took people between levels.
“Oh my God,” she muttered as she clambered onto an ottoman with long, feathery wings growing out of its sides. “I can’t believe I’m doing this!”
Climbing onto the flying footstool wasn’t easy at all. It never actually landed—it just kind of hovered about an inch above the ground and wobbled all around when Cass tried to get her foot on it.
She wondered uneasily if the spikey heel of her ridiculous shoe was hurting it? Maybe digging into its tender leather skin? What if it decided it didn’t like the way she felt and bucked her off in midair?
All these thoughts ran through her head as she finally managed to stand shakily upright on the floating ottoman. Jake, who had stepped neatly and easily up onto his own flying footstool was watching her narrowly, as though assessing her in some way but he didn’t say a word.
Cass lifted her chin and looked away from him, refusing to say anything either. He was probably thinking how clumsy she looked trying to get onto the damn footstool in the first place! Probably comparing her with the ultra-thin and graceful Glorianna.
Well, let him, Cass fumed to herself. This will all be over and done with soon and then I’ll never have to see him ag—
Her thoughts broke off as the footstool flapped its wings and rose abruptly into the air, threatening to pitch her over the side with its sudden motion.
Cass gave a little shriek and braced herself as well as she could, arms outstretched to keep her balance as the flying ottoman soared straight up, headed for a higher level. In
only seconds the floor was alarmingly far away and it felt like Cass had left her stomach down in the lobby.
For a moment she felt like she had during the one and only time she had ever tried to surf. She had balanced on the board and managed to get upright exactly once before a wave had bowled her over. In that instant of balance she’d also had an instant of dread—a premonition of her own failure and the knowledge that she was doomed to fall.
But I’m not going to fall this time, she told herself, feeling panicky as she balanced on the cushy leather seat of the ottoman in her ridiculously high heels. I can’t fall because if I fall I’ll die.
She wished she could look away from the floor which was now so far below her the people and creatures walking around the lobby area looked like dolls. But somehow her eyes were glued in the down position as the footstool flapped its wings and rose higher and higher…
We must be almost there, Cass thought desperately. How many stories does this stupid courthouse have anyway? We must be five or six floors up already. If we just—
Suddenly another footstool came whizzing by them, nearly colliding with the one Cass was riding on. Her own ottoman dipped and dove out of the way, tilting dangerously down. Abruptly, Cass’s precarious center of gravity was lost and she felt herself tipping forward, a scream rising to her lips as she headed for the distant floor below.
A strong hand grabbed her upper arm before she could fall completely off the footstool and she looked over to see Jake hanging onto her, a grim look on his face. He didn’t say a word, just continued to hold her steady as her footstool righted itself and they flew a few more feet to be deposited at the correct floor. Only after Cass had stepped down off her footstool and walked a safe distance from the edge did he release his grip on her arm.
Cass didn’t know what to say. Part of her was still reeling and panicky inside from the near-miss. She’d almost died! She wished she could thank Jake, (or maybe she ought to go back to calling him “Jacobin” or even “Counselor O’Shea now,”) but he was clearly still angry with her—which made her mad as well.
Taking some deep breaths to steady her nerves, she wobbled after him in the increasingly painful shoes towards a courtroom with an attendant handing out what looked like snorkels and flippers. Good, so at least she would be able to take off the hooker heels and put on flippers instead! Cass couldn’t wait.
But when Jake spoke to the door guard—who looked like a cross between a lizard and a fish—Cass saw him (or her? She really couldn’t be sure of the sex, let alone the species of the guard) shaking their head.
“I’m sorry, Counselor O’Shea,” the guard said in a deep, burbling voice. “But your client’s case has been moved to another courtroom.”
“Again?” Jake’s face was like a thundercloud. “I wasn’t even notified! I’ve had my Tell-me on this whole time. Under whose authority was the venue changed? If it has anything to do with the plaintiff trying to manipulate the case for her own benefit—”
“No, no.” The door guard shook his/her head quickly. “The plaintiff had nothing to do with it. Another judge requested that Judge WaterLilly cede the case to him and she agreed as a professional courtesy.”
“And what judge is that? What courtroom should I appear in?”
“Courtroom 639 on Sub-thirteen,” the attendant burbled. “It’s in the sub-basement level. If you hurry, you should just make it.”
Jake looked grim but he only nodded curtly.
“Very well. Thank you for informing me.” He turned to Cass and took her arm. “Come—we need to hurry.”
Cass wished she could protest that she could handle herself and he should let go of her arm. But after her near miss at becoming courtroom pâté on their trip up, she decided she would just have to put up with her court-appointed elf’s high-handedness a little while longer.
They walked to the edge and Jake whistled piercingly, bringing a flying footstool flapping towards them. This one was long enough for two, so they stepped forward in tandem onto its broad leather-upholstered surface.
Cass wobbled alarmingly at first but Jake steadied her without a word and soon they were descending rapidly in silence. They reached the lobby but instead of getting off, Jake spoke in a firm voice.
“Sub level thirteen,” he directed the footstool. It hovered uncertainly for a moment but then the floor under it opened as easily as though an invisible hand had unzipped the marble like fabric.
Cass looked down as the footstool dropped abruptly into the hole that had been created in the seemingly-solid floor and had to bite her lip to keep from gasping. It looked like they were dropping into a mineshaft of some kind—there were stone walls all around and nothing but darkness below.
She wished she could ask Jake what was going on—which judge they had been transferred to and what it meant for her case. But her court-appointed elf was tight-lipped and silent, saying nothing but keeping a firm grip on her arm as they dropped down through the earth.
At last the footstool stopped falling and came to rest beside a ledge of crumbling stone. They stepped off it together and a narrow walkway led them deeper into the dark, subterranean depths which were lit by glowing, beach-ball- sized globes which floated overhead at intervals and gave off a weak, greenish-yellow light.
Cass’s shoes were hurting her feet more and more—it felt like someone had driven spikes into her arches—and walking on the stony path didn’t help. But she gritted her teeth and told herself she would have to stand it just a little longer. After all, how long could the case take?
They came at last to what looked like the door of a dungeon. It was made of some thick, dark wood and bound with black iron bands. It as also about three times taller than Cass’s head and seemed to stretch up forbiddingly into the gloom where she could see spider webs hanging from its rounded top.
Sitting outside the door was a little man with gray skin, tiny, squinty eyes, and long, pointed, hairy ears. He was hunched over a table which contained a strange array of equipment that Cass couldn’t immediately identify. It looked like a bunch of little black boxes with wires sticking out of them and straps attached on the sides. They appeared to be some kind of bizarre watches but there was no readout on the boxes to tell the time that she could see.
“Counselor O’Shea reporting,” Jake said to the attendant, stepping forward. “I trust that I and my client are on time.”
“Just barely,” snarled the gray-skinned man. “Before you can go in, I have to fit you both with a pain amplifier.”
“A what?” Cass took a step back involuntarily and nearly fell as she wobbled on her ridiculous shoes. “What kind of pain are we supposed to be getting? I thought this was a court case, not a torture session!”
“Well, with Judge StoneThroat, it can be both,” the little man informed her. He snickered as though he’d made a joke. “But don’t worry—you shouldn’t be subject to any pain as long as you don’t irritate His Honor.”
“Judge…StoneThroat?” Cass had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Wasn’t that the name of the judge whose courtroom Jake had been forced to leave early in order to rescue her from the soul-sucker? Hadn’t he vowed to get some kind of vengeance on her court-appointed elf?
She was almost certain that was what the reporter on the U-news had said. She vividly remembered the image of the irate, gray-skinned judge pounding his granite gavel and swearing to get Jake the next time he was in his courtroom.
And next time is apparently now, Cass thought dismally. Oh crap—what are we doing to do?
“Jake,” she said earnestly, plucking at his elbow. “Isn’t this the judge you pissed off when you came to help me last time?”
He shot her a cold look.
“As a matter of fact, it is. I don’t need to ask how you came by the information.”
“Damn it, will you just get over that already?” Cass demanded. “The point isn’t that I found out by watching your U-news—the point is that we need to get away from here. This
guy has it in for you—we’re in big trouble if we go into his courtroom!”
“We’re in bigger trouble if we don’t,” Jake informed her, frowning. “Failing to appear on a scheduled court date is an automatic contempt of court charge.”
“So what does that mean? A fine? Some days in prison?” Cass tried to remember what she’d learned from Phil when she’d been working as a paralegal.
Jake barked a laugh with absolutely no humor in it.
“Maybe in the human world. Not in the Realm of the Fae. If we’re held in contempt in Judge StoneThroat’s court, we’ll be lucky to keep our skins. Literally,” he emphasized when Cass started to protest. “He will not hesitate to have his imps peel our skins from our bodies in long, bloody strips, Cassandra. So we need to get fitted for our amplifiers and go in right now, before he decides that we’re late.”
Cass felt like she was going to be sick. Pain Amplifiers? Imps peeling their skin from their bodies? What kind of horrible place was this courtroom? And what kind of a sadist was Judge StoneThroat?
“Here you go, girly,” husked the gray skinned man—who Cass supposed must be one of the judge’s imps—as he strapped a pain amplifier around her wrist. The black box came to life and began humming ominously as it settled snuggly against the back of her hand. The wires sticking out of it poked uncomfortably into her skin.
“Give me an amplifier with a transference loop,” Jake directed the imp as he held out his own wrist.
The imp frowned, his bushy eyebrows wiggling.
“You sure about that, Counselor? Judge StoneThroat’s in an awful mood today and he’s being pretty free with his sanctions. Double the pain is going to be rough to take.”
“Just do it.” Jake glared at him. “And please hurry—we will be late in a moment.”
“Can’t have that.” Shrugging, the imp wired a second, smaller black box to the wristband he was holding out to Jake before fastening it around the elf’s arm.
Cass wanted to ask what in the world a transference loop was and what had just happened but they were out of time. As soon as Jake had the wristband fastened securely, the gray imp hopped up and pulled open the vast wooden dungeon door, which creaked ominously as it swung to one side.
Be Careful What You Wish For Page 20