Chapter 21 #2
Cress shoved her face into my line of sight. “You will be distressed to hear this, Chosen, and I know you think you have more important things to worry about, but I must get it out of the way. I revoke my claim on your heart. I cannot be your mate, for I have fallen for another.”
“Sorry.” I stared at her. “What?”
“I will no longer challenge my brother for your heart,” she announced.
“Oh… kay.”
There was a moment of awkward silence. “I see you are upset and confused,” Cress continued. “As well you should be. I understand this is devastating for you, Chosen.”
These hallucinations were out of control. “You… Cress… you’re with Bronwyn?”
“She is my mate,” Cress said loudly. “The love of all of my lives, the entirety of my existence, my purpose for living. She is the one person who has bested me in battle, the only one who has forced me to submit. Lady Bronwyn is a goddess. And I will worship her with my body and bind her soul to mine for all eternity.”
“That’s… uh. That’s nice, Cress.”
“I am sorry, Chosen. The window of opportunity for our burgeoning romance is closed, and I am pledged to Lady Bronwyn forever. We have already performed most of the fae rites of courtship; our bond has already been magically blessed.”
I stared at her stupidly for a whole minute. The absurdity of this episode was quite nice. It made a change from the darkness, the endless panic, the despair, so I decided to roll with it. “Magically blessed, huh?” I nodded at both of them. “Is that right?”
“I took her to my jujitsu academy for our first date,” Bronwyn confided. “Both of us fought off challengers. We treated each other's injuries.”
“And we completed an important human ritual, too. We have summoned a U-Haul,” Cress announced.
I rolled my eyes. Lesbians. “Don’t you usually wait until the second date to move in?”
Bronwyn blushed. “Sorry, Susan. I know this is not a good time, and I realize that it’s quite unprofessional. But the second Cress walked into my office, I… I…” she trailed off and looked at Cress.
Cress stared back at her.
Neither of them spoke for a long time.
I rubbed my temples. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. This is where you’ve been this whole time, Cress? On a date with my therapist?”
Cress’s head whipped back to me, her eyes narrowed. “She’s my therapist now. You will not go near her. You touch her, and I will break your arms.”
“Cress.” Bronwyn gave her a pointed look.
“Oh.” She looked chastened. “Sorry, my love. I forget myself.”
Bronwyn patted her arm. “We’ll work on it.
” She turned back to me. “And we’re working on getting you out of here, Susan.
Martina has already filed a grievance against Striker.
Bart told us he’d been stalking you, and she managed to get enough evidence of him lurking outside your building, so she’s stirred up enough doubt to force his superiors to take a closer look at your arrest. As of right now, all they’ve got is a statement from Jessica Morningside to say that you threatened her outside Romeo’s.
And Striker violently arresting you for that looks like a severe overreaction.
From a mundane level, we can get you off the hook and out of here really, really soon. ”
I took a shallow breath. My chest was so sore, I felt like I’d been screaming for centuries. It should be a relief…
But the psych unit was next door. They would take me there and lock me up. Leave me there, forever.
Panic clawed at the edges of my psyche again.
“But… This is important. Donovan is…” Bronwyn took a deep breath. “Donovan has disappeared.”
Donovan.
Reality slipped sideways, jolting me hard and slamming me right back into my own body. He was real; I knew he was. I knew it with a bone-deep certainty.
And if he was real, then… then maybe this was, too.
“We don’t know where he is,” Cress cut in, nudging me hard and forcing me more firmly into my body.
“I realize you are cursed, Chosen, and you are currently incarcerated and haunted by your worst fears, and it is all very bad timing, but I am concerned for my brother. Eryk and Nate are scouring the city, searching for him. Cecil has lost his mind. In between howling outside the window, here,” she said, jerking her head towards the window, “waiting for someone to let him in, he keeps turning himself into a bloodhound and is sniffing the streets, trying to locate the prince. I have had to pick him up from the pound four times so far. They are becoming suspicious about all the whips and paddles.”
He'd never told them? Why wouldn’t he tell them? “Donovan…” Panic clawed my chest and despair threatened to pull me under again. “He’s in the Under.”
Cress’s head whipped towards me. “In the Under?” She swore loudly in a foreign tongue and leapt off the bed, pacing back and forth.
“No! He swore he would not go. We all discussed it. Nate warned him. It is madness.” She reached out and grabbed at me.
“You must save him, Chosen. You must save my brother.”
“How can I?” My voice broke. “How can I save him, when I can’t even save myself?” The darkness pressed in on me again, swallowing Cress completely.