Seventeen - Evangeline
Lunch was held in a cosy dining hall inside the same building, with one long wooden table set out for ten. Grey lace-lined placemats organised us beside our significant others, and I glanced around, looking for Ashema’s as well as mine. We were to sit at opposite ends of the table. I wouldn’t really get to speak to her while we ate, but at least I would finally know what she looked like.
Chris, the scary-looking man with the arm tats sat down to the right of me. Shaina, his redheaded lover, sat beside him. He looked at her, but she avoided his gaze, going so far as to twist her chair around, her shoulders tight with tension. I clearly didn’t have to worry about them taking our therapy crown.
Across from us sat the foursome. Jessica and –I dipped my gaze to the card to her right– Joshua sat in the middle of the four, with Noah and Lynton (the two who were mad at each other) at both ends, the latter sitting across from Redric.
“Hi,” I said to Jessica, reaching across the table. “I’m Elana and this is Redric.”
She took my hand with a warm smile and introduced herself. Joshua and Lynton shook my hand too before moving on to Redric. Scooting his chair back, scraping it across the floor, Noah leaned over the table from the other end with a scowl-stretched smile and grabbed my hand. “Hi,” he said sharply, clearly not wanting to be left out.
Lynton looked at him coldly, and my grin spread as I pumped Noah’s hand up and down. It was going to be so easy to start fights between these two. I bet I could get a proper full on brawl going given the energy crackling across the table.
Joshua tensed as he leaned over and said something to Noah. Jessica’s left arm moved under the table, no doubt squeezing Lynton’s leg to get him to calm down. He glanced at her, and his gaze softened, but his jaw was still locked with anger.
“Ooooh. This is going to be so easy to win.”
“You cannot break them up, Ev,” Aurelia scolded, her voice cold and oh-so-serious.
“Oh, I think you’ll find I can quite easily.” I’d triggered whole wars before; this was going to be a piece of way-too-dense, burnt, can-you-really-call-that-bread bread – which was so much easier to make than cake.
“Evangeline!”
Snickering inside, I ignored her. “So tell me,” I said, looking at Jessica as Noah settled back in his chair. “How in the Seven Planes do you tolerate having three men? I can barely handle one.”
Redric snorted. “You can’t handle me at all.”
I flicked him a glare, unable to let it go despite trying to get intel on Jessica. “You got me once,” I snapped. “It won’t happen again.”
He smirked. “Wanna bet?”
My eyes narrowed. For the next two days, I couldn’t use my magic without most likely blowing my cover. He was stronger than me. We were stuck in the same room. I couldn’t kill him. I couldn’t even hurt him with any weapon here. Fuck. “Bet,” I said regardless.
“You are so going to lose,” Aurelia said, laughing her ass off, not being supportive in the slightest.
Jessica said something, but my brain didn’t register her words, too focused on Redric’s too-smug face. I wished we were served soup for lunch so I could dump my bowl on top of his head.
My stomach growled in protest at that, having not had tea or breakfast.
The rest of me said, “Dooo iiiiit.”
I was going with the rest of me. The shit he pulled in the shower couldn’t stand.
“If I win, my debt to you is cleared.” Despite having joked we were already even for me not having arrested him for kidnapping Dee and Ziny, we both knew that had been bullshit. He was a Vylian noble. He’d most definitely just be immediately released to stop any tensions between our two kingdoms. Not to mention, King Morningstar had personally accepted the two kids into his Royal Guard training program. He’d probably already sent Jace to find their mum so he could kill her so there’d be no one to file a report that would come back to bite his ass.
The one thing I liked about Richard Morningstar was that he didn’t hesitate to get his hands dirty. It was why Aurelia had chosen him to be her successor. Why she had sacrificed her life so he could rule. Richard had been able to make the hard decisions she couldn’t, and he wasn’t a psychopath like their older sister Sephora had been.
As much as I hated to admit it, Richard had saved this kingdom by killing the two of them. Aurelia had been too soft to be the warrior queen we’d needed, and Sephora had been the wrong kind of crazy.
“And if I win,” Redric said with a cocky sneer as if he already had, “then you’re going to obey everything I say.”
I hesitated for the slightest of seconds, all those points from before screaming over each other inside my skull. He’s stronger than you! You can’t use magic! You’ll most definitely lo– Thrusting out my hand, I squashed all their voices. “Deal.”
His fingers tightened on mine. I dug my nails into his soft flesh. He squeezed harder. I scratched deep, drawing blood.
The Dame appeared in the doorway across from us, and we both quickly released each other. As much as we were butting heads, we seemed to be on the same page when it came to winning at therapy. That was nice.
He was going to need some sort of comfort win when I crushed him in this bet of ours.
“Do you even know what the bet is?” Aurelia asked in exasperation. “Because I didn’t hear any terms at all.”
“I’m going to crush him.”
“In what?”
“Everything.”
“…” I could literally hear Aurelia’s judging ellipsis. “You have a serious problem, you know that right?”
“Yeah, his name is Redric, but don’t worry. He won’t be a problem for long.”
She rolled her eyes. Inside my mind, I rubbed my hands together and cackled evilly.
Externally, I focused on the Dame as she stopped at the other end of the table, between Ashema and Remi. Servers came out of the hallway behind her, carrying sizzling plates of stir fry in a dark-red sauce. Two of them carried bottles of a wine on a tray filled with glasses. As they bustled around us, the Dame started to speak.
“After lunch, I will meet with each pairing individually, starting with Ashema and Remi, then Shaina and Chris.” She nodded at the foursome. “You four will be next, and Elana and Redric will be last. Each session will be two hours, and we will discuss what you wish to accomplish here. Please hold up your envelopes for me to collect, then I will leave you to enjoy your lunch of Awincis.”
She walked around the table, picking up our answers. The food was all laid out and glasses had been filled with wine. A server stood behind each of us, and as the Dame stood back at the head of the table and nodded at them, each one leaned forward with a small spoon. Dipping it into our food, they then straightened and ate.
We all waited to see if any of them died. Although no one had ever been assassinated at the Dame’s retreats, most of her clientele had bounties on their heads.
When none of the testers collapsed, the Dame smiled. “Enjoy,” she said as she bowed her head and the servers retreated back down the hall. She followed soon after, her heels clicking on the wooden floor.
Stabbing forkfuls of fried vegetables and caterpillar, I shovelled food into my mouth to ease my crying stomach. Rich spices flavoured every bite, and moans of approval were the only noise for a solid five minutes. After that, I’d finished eating.
Redric glanced at me. “Did you even chew?”
I burped in response, then picked up my glass of wine and drained it.
His eyes narrowing in disgust, he turned his attention back to his meal.
“So, Chris,” I said as twisted to look at him. “What do your tats mean?”
“They’re tallies.”
“I got that. But what of? What are they counting?”
He swallowed, then placed both thick arms on the table around his plate, admiring the hundreds of black lines on his skin. “How many tattoos I have,” he said proudly.
“That’s so co– Wait, what?” I asked, his words finally kicking in.
“You heard him correctly,” Shaina snapped.
I whistled low. “I can see why you dragged him here.” He needed serious help.
“We’re not here because he likes to count his tattoos.” She glared at me as she stabbed a piece of caterpillar with her fork. “We’re here because Chris cheated on me.”
The silence that had been so comfortable just a few minutes ago was now taunt with tension. Most of us fairies weren’t monogamous; with Raza hard at war and most adults fighting in the army, monogamy meant you’d never get laid. But there were still rules to polygamy, and cheaters were still venomously hated.
“Worse, he did it with my grandma!” she screeched.
The silence streeetched.
“Now, hold on! You’re making everyone think I slept with her,” Chris said.
Shaina snorted and crossed her arms, turning her head away from him. “I rather wished you had.”
“Wait, what?” Jessica gasped.
Gritting his teeth, Chris slammed down his fork and shoved his chair back. “She’s calling me a cheater because I killed someone without her,” he said.
“Woah!”
“Not cool!”
“Why the fuck would you do that?”
The table erupted into judgmental cries from everyone except for Ashema, Remi, and Redric. The couple at the end were engaged in their own little world (barf), and Redric was clearly shocked into silence by how murderous we all were.
It was like he still didn’t get the whole mafia thing.
“Do you always kill together?” Lynton asked, leaning forward.
“Yes.”
“So why did you do it without her?”
“Did this other person have a bigger knife set?”
“She had a massive set of double blades, didn’t she?’
“No. I didn’t even notice her assets. I just… I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
“So why’d you do it?” Jessica demanded. “Didn’t you know it would hurt her?” She nodded at Shaina.
“It was an accident,” Chris protested. “My knife just slipped into them.”
I snorted. “Yeah. Okay. We’ve all heard that before.”
“It’s true! One moment I’m tossing my blade up into the air, just chilling out in her mother’s basement. The next, her grandma comes in with some target gagged and bound. She stabs him over the permanent tarp spot. I grab my knife to get up to give her some privacy and then…”
“And then what?” Joshua pressed.
He rubbed a hand over his bald head. “And then, the next thing I know I have my knife in him.”
“Seventy-three times!” Shaina shouted, jumping to her feet. “You thrusted inside of him seventy-three times! That’s not an accident!”
Picking up her plate, she threw it at the wall with a scream. “You know how much I hate my grandma! Why’d it have to be with her of all people?”
“She means nothing to me!” he whined as he rose to his feet. “I promise!”
“You disgust me! I can’t look at you right now.”
Grabbing his half-eaten plate, she stormed off for the hallway, leaving us all in judgmental silence. We were all clearly on her side given the glares aimed at Chris from every direction.
Stomping back into the dining room, Shaina grabbed his fork, then marched back out with a muttered curse.
He sighed, watching her go. Then dropped his head into his hands as the rest continued eating. As his biceps flexed, I asked, “So those are really tallies for how many tattoos you’ve got, huh?”
He didn’t reply.
“What happens if you get a non-tally tattoo? That’ll screw you up forever.”
Glaring at me, he shoved his chair back and stood. “Shaina!” he called out, finally realising he should have headed after her.
The idiot. He should’ve followed when she’d come back for the fork. If she’d really wanted to be left alone, she would’ve eaten with her hands or asked one of the servers to get her one.
“You’re evil,” Aurelia said as we watched him disappear around the corner of the hallway.
“No,” I murmured with a smile. “I’m a winner.”
One team down. Two to go.
I glanced at Noah. He was definitely the weakest link.