Chapter 5
5
The stuffed mushroom nearly sends me over the edge.
The mushroom I was enjoying, specifically, from the servers dressed in Elytheum livery. The cook captured something unusual. Spicy, smoky, decadent with warm cheese. I could imagine Kethryn’s courtly cooks concocting the appetizer—immersion even in dinner.
And now it’s gone.
Cleared innocently while I fought with the one man I shouldn’t have to deal with here!
Stomach rumbling, I decide I won’t let Scott ruin the Experience. I just need to pretend he’s not here.
Fortunately, I have the ideal distraction right in front of me. Kethryn sits regally straight on her throne, regarding us. Val’s proclamation has spread reverent silence over the costumed crowd.
I’m used to reaching for escape in my favorite stories. I’ve found refuge in books, especially fantasy, for as long as I can remember. Growing up in Oklahoma City, I was, well—weird. I could never join casual activities or make connections easily. Definitely not compared to my sister, Sarah, who was athletic, supplying her a ready-made team of friends for every season.
I knew my peers found me shy sometimes, overenthusiastic at others. I just couldn’t figure out how to control the extremes. When I finally did, entering high school, I wound up scared to distinguish myself in any way. If I was a knight in the kingdom of Oklahoma, they would have called me “Jennifer the Ordinary.”
Finding friendship requires putting yourself out there. Putting yourself out there requires…vulnerability. I’m not good at vulnerability. I would really rather not show strangers exactly who I am, only for them to reject me. No way.
Instead, I wait for people to approach me. Has it made me the most popular twenty-six-year-old woman in New York City? My minuscule Instagram following would indicate not. Whatever. I have Amelia. I have college friends I FaceTime with approximately once every fiscal quarter. I had a semi-serious boyfriend to take me to dinner and give me orgasms.
And…here I am, dwelling on my mediocre ex.
No . I’m here for the companions who’ve never left me, the loves who’ve never hurt me. In the pages, I don’t just find fictional friends. I find places where I can feel everything I won’t let myself in real life, knowing the emotions could disappoint or mislead me. I can feel heartbroken or proud or excited, and it doesn’t have to be more than a feeling. It doesn’t have to scare me to see the well of emotion inside.
As I grew up, my favorite stories led me to my closest friends, to my career. They held my hand when my emotions got too big, or when I didn’t know how I felt—or when I just needed something to look forward to after college, when life started to stretch in front of me in one long winding road with no more signposts or traffic lights.
They taught me what falling in love should feel like, what sex could be with the right partner.
Long before my unfortunate dating history, they taught me heartbreak. How characters I considered reflections of myself could journey on past unimaginable hardship. How they could lose love or family or destiny without losing themselves.
The stories I love led me here. They prepared me for this very moment.
I need only hold on to them now.
Kethryn rises, impeccably in character. She’s everything, not in the vernacular sense—Winters wrote her as the embodiment of uncompromising, intending to prove how the Queen’s elegant grace could cohere with her hard-core combat skill and her hard head for statecraft.
The actress is capturing her manner perfectly. Her lips part in fond indulgence of a smile.
“Welcome,” she says, “to my court.”
I lean forward. Finally , my hope of immersing myself, distracting myself, is working . It feels unimaginably good.
“Your presence here honors me and my crown. While I know you are here to enjoy the finest entertainments our court can provide—and you shall—I hope you find the greatest treasures among those seated beside you,” Kethryn continues. “Elytheum’s magic lives in every greeting between strangers, every smile among friends, every embrace of lovers.”
Oh. Oh no. Jennifer the Ordinary might cry.
Did Winters herself script Kethryn’s introduction? It’s not a speech from the series, yet the message and the melody are pure Elytheum.
What else is pure Elytheum is the longing look Kethryn gives Val next to her. Her perfectly tortured paramour. I have the feeling of finding myself exactly where I’m meant to be. Just mere moments of dialogue in, the Elytheum Experience is proving to be everything I’d hoped.
For some reason, I glance at Scott. I guess the Queen’s speech has moved me, despite my sounder judgment, to some fantasizing of my own. It’s what inspiring writing does, right? In the fantastical version of this week, Scott comes to me saying he was a fool for rejecting me, apologizing for his unconscionable manner, and professing how wrong he was for ever implying the Elytheum books were uninteresting.
I would meet his eyes, finding the volatile combination of hatred and longing I know from Val fan art. We would have the perfect enemies-to-lovers romance where he ultimately changes every unlikable quality about himself and I deign to give him a chance…
Instead, Scott is, irritatingly, not looking at me.
Fantasy fail.
He’s watching Kethryn. I don’t know why I ever expected otherwise. Scott could never embody the heart-stopping, heart-rending perfection of my favorite scenes and characters. He’s way too boring, introverted, and judgmental.
Why would I ever daydream otherwise? What was it Jordan said? If you want the kind of fantasy love story you read about, I hope you’re ready to wait forever.
Kethryn continues, conjuring fantasy where Scott Daniels can’t. “May your stay here prove nothing short of magical. On your final night in our illustrious court, we invite you to join us in the richest of courtly festivities,” Kethryn entreats us. “A masked ball, in this very room.”
I straighten, heart fluttering. From the ooh s and whispered chatter rising from my cohort, I know everyone is having the same reaction. Or, everyone except one improbably costumed marketing coordinator. Friends grab one another’s arms, whisper in each other’s ears, or squeal in anticipation. The Elytheum Experience’s vague description on the website invited eagerness but was low on details—everything Kethryn shares of our schedule this week is the first we’re learning of the particulars of the inaugural Experience.
“However,” Kethryn continues.
A hush descends comically quickly over the room.
“One word of warning,” she says. “We have enemies here at court who have hatched a devious plot against us.”
Now I really can’t help glancing at Scott. Once more, no return glance. He’s fixated on Kethryn’s performance. Pretending the world of Elytheum is oh so fascinating instead of the subject he’s dismissed in every departmental meeting.
Enemies indeed .
“While you may rely on the protection of the captain of my guard, Lord Valance, standing to my right, I urge you to keep your eyes open,” Kethryn entreats us.
With the first utterance of his name from Kethryn herself, or, okay, the Kethryn actress—whatever—everyone in the room indeed keeps their eyes open. Pointed in one direction, in fact. We needed no encouragement.
Val welcomes our regard. His dark gaze capturing everyone and no one, he straight-up smolders . I know no other word for the intense look he gives us. He’s really good, honestly. Perfectly cast, with his ink-wash hair, his inhumanly symmetrical, combat-ready musculature. It’s very hard to imagine this guy waiting tables or doing deodorant commercials instead of defending the court from demonic incursions, and I choose not to.
“In fact…”
Kethryn interrupts our collective fantasizing.
The playful note in her voice catches my interest. Like she’s excited for what she’s going to say next. I wonder if she’s a fan. What if this is her dream made real just like it’s ours, except differently?
“Our foes have hidden clues to their plan throughout my court. Perhaps you will find some. Find three, and you’ll save us,” Kethryn elaborates, her voice humming with precarious promise. “Of course,” she goes on, “I would wish to reward such a hero and to relay such valuable information to my captain of the guard.”
Clues .
Excitement hurries my heartbeat. Kethryn is promising us…a game. A hunt.
The room holds its breath, each of us realizing in the same moment what I have. No scavenger hunt is complete without a prize.
Hints on the next spinoff series? My eager mind starts outpacing my heart. Deleted scenes for the winner’s eyes only?
“The first to find three clues,” Kethryn says slowly—playing with us, pausing while we lean in—“will attend a private dinner with Lord Valance.”
Oh, this is much, much more important than deleted scenes.
No one here needs this like I need this. Respectfully. Me, Jennifer Worth, who ended her six-month relationship this morning. I need the rebound to end all rebounds.
A dinner date with Lord Valance.
Val responds perfectly, pretending Kethryn’s invocation really has surprised him. Of course, on his nobly unmoving, ever-wary features, incredulity registers only the faintest of reactions. One dark eyebrow quirks.
“Surely I’m no reward for these fine people,” he replies. The crowd giggles. Pretending he finds Kethryn’s orations irritating while honoring her every request is very Val. Even his voice, resonant in the first full sentence I’ve heard the performer speak, is perfect. Velvet the color of night. I wonder how many courses one would be permitted to order during the prize dinner.
“Don’t play humble, Val,” Kethryn chides.
“Are you saying my company pleases you, my queen?”
“On occasion,” Kethryn replies drolly. “On others, it vexes me.”
Okay, Winters must have scripted this.
Val crosses his massive arms. He regards Kethryn. The look he gives her is…impossibly dreamy. Inhumanly dreamy. Unfairly dreamy. I can practically see the sparks flinting off his charged gaze.
“Well, we can’t have that,” Val murmurs. “I aspire to vex you always and forever.”
My heart melts. Like, into chocolate fondue. It is everything I’ve imagined in every reread of every favorite scene. This is what love should look like.
“ Ho-ly shit ,” the woman next to me says.
The comment unlocks the table’s collective chatter, like everyone’s simultaneously realized we’re watching the same shared dream play out.
And wishing the same wish.
“I wonder what kind of clues,” my other neighbor says. “God, if only I was good at puzzles.”
“Maybe they’ll be, like, challenges? Sort of Survivor- style?” her friend offers. They’re dressed in full demon garb. It’s kind of intimidating, honestly, while they speculate on the clue challenges. Fierce competitors.
The first woman who spoke leans her elbows on the table. “If I have to balance on a beam for an hour to go on a date with my literal book boyfriend, I will. I don’t care if I look ridiculous.”
The chatter continues, its import settling upon me. Lord Valance isn’t just my book boyfriend. He’s the paramour of the pages for…everyone here. If I’m going to win the dinner date of my daydreams, the cure for Jordan Jenkins and lobby breakups, I’ll need to outplay the ultimate competition—Elytheum fans as avid as me, who’ve shown up for the very first immersion in our favorite fantasy.
They don’t have heartbreak going for them , I comfort myself.
“In order to succeed in this task, one must possess secrecy. Loyalty. Temerity and aptitude,” Kethryn counsels us, managing to cease exchanging lustful looks with her captain of the guard.
Despite myself, I wince. Temerity and aptitude? Kind of a mouthful, where I usually prize my favorite series’ poetry. Guess Winters didn’t necessarily script every line of dialogue.
“Work together, help one another, and embrace adventure,” Kethryn continues.
Movement in front of me distracts me from her speech and from the continued murmur of strategizing and enthusiasm from the guests around me. Scott is no longer watching Kethryn—which I find frustratingly, satisfyingly predictable until I notice what he’s doing instead.
Hunched over his lap, he’s writing . In his ubiquitous black notebook, his companion for every marketing meeting. The notebook’s presence here viscerally upsets me. In a profession devoted to sharing the writing we love, Scott manages to drab-ify every discussion with analytics pointedly presented from its pages, which invariably contradict whatever I’m proposing or excited about. Funny how that happens!
He has one of his favorite pens, the brand he praises for the easy, precise roll of the ink. I wish I didn’t know him well enough to remember this detail. And he’s…taking notes on Kethryn’s speech?
I narrow my gaze. He’s completely focused on the actors. Why? What game is he playing? He said he wasn’t here for work…But what other reason could he possibly have for wanting to get dinner with fake Lord Valance? None. I expected competition from Elytheum fangirls. I did not expect it from him.
Immediately, I realize I can’t just ignore him this week. Not amid the scavenger hunt. No, if he’s going to play hard and I have to watch Scott Daniels win dinner with my book boyfriend, my Elytheum Experience will become a literal nightmare.
No. If I can’t convince him to go home, I’m going to have to beat him.
In the same moment I make my resolution, Scott looks up. His eyes meet mine. I hope he reads the declaration of war in the glare I give him.
Scott smiles and fucking winks.