Chapter 24 #3
“Hm. Is that so,” she said, like she was appraising a piece of furniture. “Well, perhaps I can loan her to you for a bit longer. In fact, that can serve as a basis for our negotiation. You get my gold star for the week, and you lend me yours.”
Ileana pointed over Yasmine’s shoulder towards Rebecca, who was watching the whole affair from a distance with thinly veiled concern.
Yasmine balked. “My assistant? She is not up for sale.”
“Come on, darling. It will only be a week. I just need someone who can get our affairs in order before we travel back home.”
She’s lying, Bella wanted to shout, but it stayed clenched between her teeth.
She didn’t know what her mother wanted Rebecca for, but it probably had to do with the contract.
And anything that got her closer to an enthralling device was a horrible idea.
So Bella shook her head vigorously and finally stopped being a wet blanket.
“Anything you need arranged, I can arrange it, Mother,” she said, letting go of Yasmine’s hand even as she ached to hold it. “You don’t need to poach Yasmine’s employees. I can book plane tickets and hotels just as well as any human.”
Ileana shot her that irritated smile that said don’t interrupt when Mommy’s working. It was the same one that Bella received when humans would come to visit their shop back in Dacia, and eager, friendly little Bella would try and strike up a conversation with the human customers.
Her mother didn’t like her fraternizing too much with the food.
“I’m sorry, but no,” Yasmine said, stepping away from the table. “No Rebecca, no Bella. No gift bags. This is not a birthday party.”
“Yasmine—” Bella began, but Yasmine cut her off, rounding the edge of the table and extending her hand to Ileana.
“It was a pleasure to meet you. Don’t get lost on your way to the door.”
Ileana let out a startled laugh. For the first time, she could not seem to find a way to deflect the conversation back in her favor. Yasmine had offered her a brick wall.
Ileana turned with knives in her eyes towards Bella. Bella could see the implicit question in them—
Who are you loyal to?
It made Bella’s entire body tremble. Her stomach clenched horribly.
Her wings, pressed so deeply into her back that she sometimes forgot they were there, started to itch.
This was the worst possible outcome. Worse even than a fight, a deadly one; at least a battle left room for ambiguity. Bella could pretend to be hurt, she could make herself bleed, she could flee and hide in the woods like she used to.
This, however, was a binary choice. Staying with Yasmine would invite a series of consequences she had spent her entire life living in fear of.
Bella’s body sagged with that weight. The new world had made her feel so very brave and reinvented, this bold new version of herself, untouchable, and yet the illusion of that freedom crumpled under one irritated look from her mother.
Two thousand years old, and she was still the same child hiding in the closet, counting how many days had passed since her mother had locked the door.
She turned to Yasmine, and reached out for her hand, squeezing it. “Don’t worry, I won’t miss a day at the lab. I’ll text you once I see them off to the airport, okay?”
Yasmine blinked in disbelief. In that small way, Yasmine was similar to Ileana—she was thoroughly unused to not getting what she wanted.
It’s not like she actually wants you. She’s just being a good friend.
Yasmine gripped her hand, not letting go. “Bella, no.”
“Just have a nice rest of your party. Rebecca put so much effort in.”
Yasmine’s eyes were going red again. “Stop it.”
“It’s really not a big deal. It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“But you’re not,” Yasmine’s voice broke quietly. “You’re so scared. It’s all I can feel.”
The devastated expression on Yasmine’s face—it felt like someone had buried their hand in Bella’s chest and squeezed her heart with their bare hands. There was so much emotion in her voice; she’d never heard it so stricken.
Bella knew that Yasmine’s powers allowed her to sense fear more palpably than other people, but she was usually so calm, so collected—it was hard to imagine that it actually affected her. But she could see it now. Yasmine was trembling.
All because of me, Bella realized in dismay. I caused this. She's absorbing all my fear.
A pit the size of a boulder lodged itself in Bella’s throat. She opened up her mouth to say something, anything, to assuage her panic, but then something dripped from the ceiling onto the table. It looked like black sludge.
“Fuck,” Yasmine breathed, eyes fixating on the stain. “No, no, no. Get it together.”
Sludge began to dribble out of the walls. Slow at first—seeping out from behind paintings, pushing through the wrinkles in the curtains—until suddenly, it was as if a pipe had burst.
A tsunami of black swallowed the room.
Ileana shrieked, and her wings burst from her back, so she could fly out of the way of the waves. Yasmine grabbed Bella, pressing her to her chest.
“Close your eyes,” she shouted. “Please. I promise it’ll be over soon. It’s not real.”
Around them, the entire room had descended into a frenzy. Guests were swimming and running and spilling out into the foyer. The sludge pounded into the walls, tore into the wallpaper, ate away at the curtains.
Her heart hammering, she pried herself from Yasmine’s chest, and held her panicked face delicately. “Yasmine, what’s happening?”
Bella saw the reflection of a strange, blurry image in Yasmine's eyes when she confessed, “I’m having a nightmare.”