Chapter 24
Dinner at Krakens Hollow was usually loud. Comfortably loud. The kind of loud that came from too many personalities crammed around one table and no one possessing the self-control to take turns speaking.
Tonight, however, it seemed somehow louder, mostly because Binky had discovered the intoxicating power of dramatic storytelling.
“And then… ARSE,” Binky declared from the centre of the table, wings flaring wide for emphasis, “I arrived just in time to prevent an emotionally catastrophic BELLEND event.”
“That’s not dramatic at all,” Bas muttered around a mouthful of food.
“It nearly kissed her… ARSE.”
Edith nearly inhaled her fork. “I did not nearly kiss anyone,” she spluttered immediately. “Especially not his arse.”
Across the table, Jessica looked deeply unconvinced but hid her smirk behind her hand. Maeve looked delighted. Isabeau looked like Christmas had come early, and Dave straight up cackled.
“You absolutely nearly kissed the bounty hunter,” Maeve wheezed.
“I did not.”
“You fell into his BELLEND… arms,” Binky accused, his slightly wonky eyes looking innocent behind his wide-rimmed glasses.
“I tripped.”
“Romantically.”
“That’s not a thing!”
Binky puffed his feathers smugly. “It absolutely ARSE is.”
Edith groaned and dropped her forehead briefly against the table. This was an actual nightmare. She should have stayed a Dragon. Not that she had had a choice. No one took Dragons seriously in romantic situations. Humans, apparently, were subjected to public humiliation immediately.
“You should’ve seen her face,” Bas added lazily. “Looked like someone unplugged
BELLEND her brain.”
Edith pointed a fork at him without lifting her head. “I will bite you.”
“See?” Bas said to the others. “Still Edith.” That, annoyingly, got a laugh out of everyone.
Edith sat back in her chair slowly, glaring at the entire table, but inside, she felt her heart warm… if only a little.
Traitors… every single one of them.
Binky hopped importantly onto the salt shaker. “The point,” he announced, “is that the male is suspicious.”
“That’s because he’s a bounty hunter,” Jessica said dryly.
“No,” Binky corrected. “He’s suspicious and an… ARSE bounty hunter. Important distinction.”
Edith should have been listening. Because objectively speaking, the fact Spencer now knew exactly who she was should have been the most pressing concern in her life.
Instead, her brain had completely betrayed her. Because every time she tried to focus on the seriousness of everything She remembered his hands on her waist. Which was deeply unhelpful.
Edith pushed her food around her plate aimlessly. The near kiss replaying in her head again.
The way he’d caught her so easily. The way he’d looked at her afterward… Gods.
Why had he looked at her like that? And why had she nearly let him kiss her?!
She was supposed to be afraid of him. Not mentally replaying the shape of his mouth like a complete idiot.
“And then he looked at her like she BELLEND personally hung the moon,” Binky continued dramatically.
Edith choked on air. “I hate you,” she informed him weakly as she grabbed a glass of water.
Binky ignored her. “He had yearning posture.”
Dave lost it, laughing again, his mouth was full of food yet that didn’t stop him.
“What,” Edith demanded, horrified, “does that even mean?!”
“It means,” Isabeau said helpfully, “he wants to kiss you.”
Edith made a strangled sound and stuffed bread into her mouth to avoid responding. Unfortunately, silence only made everyone look more suspicious.
Jessica narrowed her eyes slowly. “You like him.”
Edith almost launched herself bodily through the nearest window. “I do not.”
Maeve gasped theatrically. “Oh no, she absolutely does.”
“I met him twice!”
“That’s enough for fate to work with,” Isabeau pointed out.
Edith dropped her head back dramatically. “Why is everyone in this house insane?”
“Magic,” Bas said.
“Lead paint,” Isabeau suggested.
“Poor parenting,” Maeve added.
Grundlepus snored softly under the table, entirely disconnected from the chaos the Lucky bastard.
Edith rubbed both hands over her face. The absolute worst part was that underneath the embarrassment and panic and chaos… she had wanted him to kiss her, and that terrified her far more than the bounty ever had.
Spencer was exactly the kind of male she should stay far away from, quietly intense, protective in ways he probably didn’t even realise yet, and capable of making her feel seen with one look.
Which meant one thing… Disaster.
“Edith.”
She blinked. Jessica was watching her carefully now.
Apparently, everyone else had moved on from mocking her love life and into the “genuine concern” phase of the evening. Edith straightened slightly. “What?”
Jessica tilted her head. “You’ve pushed the same pea around your plate for five minutes.”
Edith looked down, the said pea sat sadly near the edge of the plate.
“I’m thinking.”
Maeve grinned immediately. “About Spencer?”
Edith pointed at her. “No magic for a week.”
“You can’t enforce that.”
“I can bloody well try.”
Binky fluttered onto Edith’s shoulder suddenly, lowering his voice just enough to sound serious for once.
“Jokes aside,” he murmured, “be careful.”
The room quieted slightly and Edith’s stomach tightened, because there it was.
The reality for the moment. Spencer wasn’t just some handsome male she’d accidentally almost kissed on a cliff path.
He was still a hunter, and dangerous. Still capable of taking her back if he decided the bounty mattered more than whatever strange thing was happening between them.
Edith stared down at her untouched pea. “I know,” she said quietly. And somewhere deep inside her, the terrifying part was that she wasn’t entirely sure which outcome would hurt more.