Chapter Thirty
I went through the whole two cups of coins, but I couldn’t get even a single stuffy to fall into the chute for me. Soyer looked at the bottom of the last cup.
“There’s one coin left in here. Amory, would you like me to get you another cuddly thing?”
I groaned. “Yeah, please. You’re cheating, aren’t you? There is no way this is right.”
He cleared his throat. “You got remarkably close with the jellyfish.”
“I guess.” Two of its long arms had dangled into the chute, but that was it.
Soyer picked the last coin from the bottom of the cup. “I’ll get you that one.”
He pointed to a black dog with blue eyes. It looked like a cutely stylized version of a werewolf.
“That’s how you see me?”
“No. I can’t see you as anything but who you are. But that’s as close to a black shuck as we’re going to get here, and I want you to have something to cuddle when I’m not there.”
“Oh.”
“Watch me.”
I did. It went exactly like the last two times he’d done this, the coin twirling in the air, him catching it, then picking the toy shuck right out from the pile it was hiding in. The way he did it was just too easy.
“You have to be cheating.”
He waited for the shuck to come through, then handed it to me. “No. And for your information, it took me a lot more coins than you used today to get this good. Hold this guard dog dear, my heart.”
I took his fluffy offering. “Thank you. He’s cute. Could be your twin.”
He snorted. “Whatever. So about the dare. How about I pick the next ride we go on?”
“Not the waterslide?”
He offered me his hand, and I took it. “No. It’s actually too cold for that. I thought we could try the Ferris wheel.”
I gaped. Even as a kid, when we’d gone here, we hadn’t always made it to the Ferris wheel.
It was a comparatively slow ride, and there’d been so many other things.
I thought back to Soyer and me coming here before and how perfect that would have been for our second date—him and me in the enclosed space, high up above everything else.
“Let’s do it.”
“And here I thought you might want to go on the water ride again.”
I blushed as we made our way past a group of three who looked like they had a friendly competition of Space Invaders going. “I did think about it, but…maybe we can do that next year. For our anniversary?”
“An excellent idea. Which date do we use for that? When you held my hand or when you gave me this name?”
He didn’t have to elaborate. I knew what he meant, and the answer was clear: Not the day he’d died in my arms. That wasn’t going to be what we celebrated.
“When I gave you the name you picked yourself, technically.”
“Very well. We’ll go visit Poseidon again on that date precisely next year.”
Dusk had fallen, and it lay over the world with the weight of a winter sky laden with snow. A few flakes were coming down, but it felt as if there were more to come.
With our passes, we easily made it to the front of the line and got into the first gondola.
The attendant smiled at us before closing it. “A pleasant ride, sirs.”
“Pawn?” I asked when the gondola started moving.
“Yes.” Soyer put his arm around me. “Are you warm enough?”
“I am. Are you?”
He held up his bunny. “How could I not be, with this keeping me warm? And with you in my arms.”
I leaned against him. “Did you think we’d come back here? After that first time, I mean.”
“I knew we had to. Like I told you then, you don’t have enough fun. I don’t even want to think about the fun deficit you accumulated over the years. We’ll have to find a lot more fun things for you to do to improve that.”
“Yesterday was a good start. I had a lot of fun yesterday.”
He sighed. “No one broke a plate or even a glass.”
“That’s a good thing. Also not really that surprising, considering most of us work in the restaurant sector.”
“Hmm. I was looking forward to taking you with me when I bought replacement plates and glasses. Not even the children were any use in that regard.”
“You’re really good with children, by the way. I’m not.”
He looked at me. “What are you saying, exactly? Did Simeon put you up to this?”
I adjusted my position so I could get closer to him and pulled off my gloves. “Simeon? What does Simeon have to do with that? I just mean because you had money ready for Laura and made a milkshake for Ella.”
“Those children. I don’t particularly enjoy spending time with them, and Ella simply had to fall for a Star-Garbed. They’re meddlesome with their pies and their fucking Christmas candy.”
I was slowly putting the pieces together, but I was getting a sense of what the entire picture might look like. “Jules asked me about holiday candy. Is that why? Because you don’t like it but they think I do?”
Soyer narrowed his eyes at me. “What did you tell the house pawn, my heart?”
I shrugged. “Oh, just… I don’t remember. I think I said I like marzipan.”
Soyer frowned. “I see.”
“Was that bad?”
He shook his head. “Of course not. It’s just that they think—it actually doesn’t matter. They’re a meddlesome lot, difficult to get them to stay away from you. That’s all you need to know.”
“I like Jules though. He’s nice. Oh, should we give them some of the cookies we’re going to bake too? As a thank-you for that table, maybe?”
He looked at me. I wasn’t exactly sure how to read his expression, and while the gondola had some lights, it wasn’t brightly illuminated. I thought his left brow twitched once, but I really couldn’t be sure.
“If that is what you want, my heart, we’ll certainly do it.”
I rocked back and forth with excitement. “We’re going to have to make an extra big batch of cookies for everyone.”
“That seems to be the case.” His gaze moved past me. “Take a look, my heart. We’re so high up.”
I did, turning in his arms to take in the view.
It was especially stunning because it was mostly dark, though grayish blue remained in the distance where the sky met the horizon’s edge.
I was looking away from the city where the falling darkness easily claimed the lightless landscape.
But when I turned, there was a glow, shining up against the clouds. Newstaten was bright in the night.
“Do you think we’ll be able to see Sundial Tower from here?”
“Are you making another phallic commentary about our building?”
I counted to three before responding. “I’d never.”
“You absolutely have more energy now that you have free time.”
“Is that bad? Don’t you like me not commenting on phallic architecture?”
Soyer chuckled. “You are such a shimmering soul, my heart. How could I not like having you here with me to make dick jokes about buildings? Who else is going to do that? And even if I tried it, who would listen to me and see me like you do, and make outrageous assumptions about me enjoying the company of children?”
“I’m not making any assumptions at all.” I was about to tell him that I was a child when I went to Lake Eureka the last time before he’d taken me, but then I thought about it and wasn’t so sure anymore.
It could’ve been Florence’s birthday just as easily as mine.
I couldn’t even really remember anymore, as if all the years before I’d met my firebird were but a dream.
Soyer being Soyer, he tightened his hold on me and rubbed my arm, not that it was that cold. When he did though, I made a half-throttled noise, things falling into place that somehow had slipped by me before now.
“What is it?” Soyer asked.
I turned to him. “When’s your birthday?”
“My birthday?”
“Yeah. Fuck. I’m sorry I didn’t ask you that. Mine is February twenty-fifth. We should’ve talked about that. I’m so sorry.”
Soyer pulled me close. “No reason to apologize. We can come here for your birthday, maybe have them close the park to the general public and open it only to whoever you’d like to have here with you.”
I was about to tell him that that was even worse than the VIP pass, which I liked far too much, when I realized what he was doing.
“Are you changing the subject right now?” I frowned. “Or is this… Don’t you know what day you were born? Because it was back then?”
He sighed. “It’s not important when my birthday is.”
“So you know when?”
He rolled his eyes. “I know when. You’re not going to like it though. Amory, I’ll tell you, but you must promise me that you won’t be too mad at me.”
“Why would I be mad at you?”
“November twenty-fifth. That’s my birthday.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you fucking kidding me? That was…that only just passed.”
He pointed at my face. “Do you see what I mean? You promised not to be mad.”
“It’s the same day, but a different month. And yours only just passed.”
“No getting mad, Amory.”
I was so agitated that I made the gondola sway. We were almost at the top now, and it was beautiful. Soyer was beautiful.
I let out a breath. “I should’ve asked you sooner.
This is my fault. I should’ve known this, but you just…
You’re immortal, and you took me to the underground and showed me all those invisible wonders of the world.
” I turned in his arms, pulling my legs up on the bench.
“Oh, wait. That was Monday. Your birthday was on Monday. When there was construction at the diner.”
“So?”
Tears were coming to my eyes. I’d made a mistake, ever since I’d been with Soyer, I’d made a mistake. I’d forgotten that there were always two people in a relationship. That it took two people to make something like what we were doing work, to make it last.
“You wanted to spend your birthday with me. And I didn’t know that because I was blinded by vampires and werewolves and everyone who has more or less limbs than what is generally the norm.”
“Amory, I don’t think I like the idea of you counting any pawn’s limbs. It’s not something you should spend your time on when you’re engaged to be married.”
I let my head drop to my chest. “I got you to get engaged to me, and I didn’t even ask this.”
“My heart, I planned on giving you my ring. I count myself lucky that you stole it first. You were the one who caught the hint. Who cares when I was born? It was centuries ago.”
“Yeah, but you’ve never celebrated with me, have you? And now we’re going to have to wait another year.”
Soyer frowned. “Amory, what is that? Are you pouting at me right now?”
“Uh, well…”
“Stop. I had you all to myself. I woke up next to you and fell asleep with you safe in my arms. As far as I’m concerned, it was the best birthday I’ve had since I was born, and this—” He pointed at my face again. “—this isn’t necessary.”
“I didn’t even get to give you a present.”
He hugged me close. “You know what I like. Anything for my rampant libido is always appreciated. Only if you want to give it, of course.”
“I can’t believe we didn’t talk about this sooner.”
“Hmm. Look at the view though. The view is fantastic from up here.”
It was. I looked around. “We’re at the top. I think you’re supposed to kiss when you’re at the top.”
Soyer liked hearing that. I could see that in his smile, in the way his dark eyes shimmered with desire.
We were so close already that it didn’t take much to kiss.
Even if the gondola only kept some of the cold at bay, his warm skin against my own soothed me like a blanket, like all the comfy shirts and pants he’d bought for me to make sure I felt at home in his phoenix nest.
In that moment, when our lips connected and our breath mingled, I made a promise to myself.
I wanted to be better for Soyer, wanted to make sure to return the love he gave me, the care with which he surrounded me.
I wasn’t him, and I couldn’t cook like he could or command supernaturals with my mere presence, but I could bake a birthday cake for him and drag him to a surprise party.
Maybe I could even… Maybe I could even think of how I could make myself sexier for him.
Soyer, my firebird, deserved all of that and more.