Chapter 1 #2
Donovan knew his mother would be a problem.
Ancient, powerful, arrogant and complacent, the High Fae Queen had held the throne for a thousand years and expected to hold it for a thousand more.
She was so far removed from reality she thought of herself as a goddess, above the petty squabbles of the other realms in the Upper World, let alone any of the Lower Worlds.
The Queen considered Connor to be her naughty little boy rather than a genocidal monster and thought he’d been inspired by the prophecy, rather than the actual subject of it.
For her, the concept of a Ruler of All the Worlds was something that might happen thousands of years from now, when she was long dead.
Because of course, it wouldn’t happen while she was Queen of the most powerful realm in the Upper World.
Donovan knew that when Connor showed up at Court, the Queen would probably roll her eyes and get one of her advisers to scold him for a minute or two, then let him go.
He’d disappear and carry on his mission to devour more spark stones, destroy entire supernatural species, and gain more and more power.
We couldn’t let it happen. We had to catch him while he was at Court.
The problem was getting there. Eryk and Nate tried to open a gateway, but the planets weren’t aligned enough to make it an easy process.
Cress and Donovan joined them, attempting to widen the gateway so we could get through, but it was no use.
The whole company had gone for days without sleep, and all of them had drained their magical resources to nothing in order to send me to the Under and bring Donovan and me home.
Exhausted, frustrated and more than a little bit panicked, I tried to help but accidently used my siren command on Bronwyn, ordering her to move away from Cress so she could concentrate.
Bronwyn immediately marched away from the tiny portal and plonked herself down in an armchair, looking a little stunned.
I still felt sick about it. Not only had I been wrong in the moment—Bronwyn was helping Cress, not hindering her—I instantly regretted using the mermaid spark stone’s magic gift to take away someone’s autonomy.
I apologized to Bronwyn profusely, and she forgave me, but I saw the wariness in her eyes.
It made me deeply uncomfortable. We were going to have to dig into this during our therapy sessions.
After trying for a whole hour, both Nate and Eryk collapsed, and the gateway still wouldn’t open wide enough.
Donovan contacted a royal emissary here in the human realm and ordered him to get a message through to his father—who was much more pragmatic about Connor’s intentions—begging him to hold Connor until we could get there.
There was nothing else we could do, and all of us desperately needed both food and rest so we could get the gateway open when the planets aligned properly.
Violet ferried in deep-dish pepperoni pizzas, and Cecil made cocktails.
After only five minutes, both Nate and Eryk fell asleep on the floor, still holding slices of pizza in their hands.
Cress and Bronwyn excused themselves, heading to the east wing of the house, arms wrapped around each other.
Cecil tried to stay awake, but he, too, was worn down to nothing. I wordlessly directed Violet to swap his espresso martini to decaf and waited for the inevitable. Within a few minutes, he was asleep on the drawing room floor.
Violet gently carried them all away. I managed to squash down my shame and guilt at having used my siren power on Bronwyn, shelved my despair that Connor might slip through our fingers again, and threw myself at Donovan.
We spent our first night together, wrapped up in each other's arms so tightly that I didn’t know where I ended and he began. It was perfect.
Until now. Now that this pervy duocorn had somehow invaded my love-bubble.
Within milliseconds, Donovan was standing and pulling on a pair of boxers. My eyes betrayed me and forced me to watch him wrestle his stiff anaconda into his underwear.
With enormous difficulty, I turned my attention to the elephant in the room. Or, rather, the overly familiar duocorn. “What the hell are you doing in here?” I scooped up my robe from the floor and tried to wrestle it on.
Cecil reared back, offended. “I’m guarding you, you ungrateful bitch. What do you think I’m doing?”
“Have you been here the whole time?”
He shrugged. “Not the whole time. Just since I woke up. Oh, I did a quick trip to the markets to get something for breakfast.”
“How did you even get in here? Violet sealed the room on my orders.”
“You’re here.” He shrugged again. “I can find you wherever you are.”
“What, did you just magically genie-pop your way in here?”
“Well…” He stared at me. “Yeeeah.”
I squinted back. “Yeah?”
“Like it’s hard,” he drawled sarcastically.
I hesitated for a moment. “I just didn’t know that you could do that.”
“Gods, Chosen, do you ever listen? I’m unicorn stock first, a spoil of war second.
I am bound to serve you, so my spoil magic gives me the power to teleport to you.
I told you that if you ever needed me, you could order me to appear, and I would appear before you.
Even though I explained it all very clearly, you went and got yourself arrested and thrown in jail and shunted off to the hospital, and you still didn’t ask for me. ”
“Because of the consequences,” I said pointedly.
I might not have listened to him properly, but I heard the consequences part loud and clear. It was especially poignant now, since my little fuck-up with accidently using my siren command on Bronwyn.
If I started ordering him around, Cecil would quickly lose his autonomy and become a mindless drone. It was the last thing I wanted.
“I’m not going to give you orders, Cecil.” Untangling my robe sash, I finally managed to cover myself. “I’m going to ask nicely, or not at all. I don’t care how much trouble I might be in; no danger is ever too big to warrant you losing your Cecil-ness.”
There was an awkward moment of silence, punctuated by Donovan rummaging through his clothes, still looking for something to stab Cecil with.
“Aww.” Cecil wiped away a tear. “That’s nice, Chosen.”
“But I would like to point out, I didn’t order you to appear just now, Cecil,” I said snippily, tying my robe around my waist firmly.
“I heard you begging for something.” He tossed his mane. “It’s not my fault I’m both overprotective and a little hard of hearing.”
I blustered for a second. It was true that I loved him exactly the way he was—except when he pulled shit like this. “And I most certainly didn’t order you to come in here to watch Donovan and me…” I trailed off, my cheeks flushing with heat.
“Well, no, I guess technically you didn’t order me to come, but I came anyway.”
I huffed out a breath. “How?”
“It’s easy for me in here. I’m your servant, and so is Violet.
She’s a Domicile, like a sentient pocket dimension in her own right, so the laws of magic are different here.
Out in the human realm I wouldn’t be able to come unless you ordered me to come.
In here, I can appear wherever I need to be.
And right now, you need me to be here, because it’s just after six.
You said you needed to go into work early, and I’ve got to do hair and makeup. ”
“Oh.” I checked the clock, and some of my irritation vanished. “Okay, that’s fair enough.”
“I will take my leave.” Donovan pulled his hair up and tied it in a topknot.
For a moment, I was mesmerized by his rolling, bulging biceps and dumbstruck by the absolutely fascinating way his abdominals rolled under his gorgeous tan skin.
“I know nothing will drag you from your duty, Chosen.” He crossed the distance between us with two steps and kissed me.
It was too brief. I itched to pull him back into bed. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, Donovan.” He was right, though. Both of us were suckers for responsibility. And right now, I had been seriously neglecting my mundane responsibilities.
Donovan left my bedroom, and my heart whined as soon as he shut the door. I felt like a mopey teenager.
Cecil clapped his hooves. “Is there anything I can say to talk you out of going to work today, Chosen?”
I pursed my lips, then sighed. “No. I’ve thought about it a lot over the last few days, Cecil.
It would make my life so much easier if I just quit my day job and focused on the Chosen One stuff, but I just…
” I hitched my shoulders helplessly. “I can’t.
Like Donovan said, it’s my duty. I worked hard to get that job, and now that I’ve got it, I want to do it justice. ”
“Your priorities are astonishingly bizarre,” Cecil said, rummaging in my wardrobe.
“On one hand, you’ve got the fate of the entire Worlds.
All three of them,” he emphasized. “And on the other, you’ve got a motley gaggle of stuffy old morons and idiot hipsters who can’t get through a day of taking boring phone calls without you holding their hands. ”
“I know,” I sighed. “I get it, I really do. But those forty people who work directly under me are their own worlds. They’re their own universes. I committed to being their manager, and for me, that means being committed to making their work-life as easy as possible so they can get their jobs done.”
“You’re too noble.” He tossed a handful of lacy garments onto the bed. “And astonishingly silly. You’re putting the comfort of a few before the safety of billions of creatures.”
“Don’t be an ass, Cecil. I’m not. Look, I like my job.
Funnily enough, despite the less-than-stellar remuneration, this is the most people I’ve ever had working under me, and I like it.
I’m going to keep doing it until I can't anymore. But don’t worry.
I know that being The Chosen One is the priority, and that will always come first.”
Keeping my job was going to be a challenge, but I was always up for a challenge.
“You’re a dick,” he said cheerfully, ushering me through the door. “But I understand you. You’re like a noble superhero, refusing to sacrifice one innocent life to save the whole world.”
I cringed. “It doesn’t sound good when you say it like that.”
“Go and shower,” he ordered. “Get your ass moving.”
I wandered down to my fairytale woodland cave bathroom, my stomach churning a little. I’d been absent from work for a whole day yesterday. It was my first week as Department Manager for the Customer Experience and Solutions Contact Center, and I’d gone AWOL. Again.
Granted, I had a good excuse. I got arrested and thrown in jail. Then, of course, I had a complete breakdown, got buried in my nightmares, then escaped the hospital, abducted Audrina from the psych ward next door, and finally, threw myself head-first into the Underworld to find Donovan.
I couldn’t tell the bitches in human resources any of that, though.
Last night, during a short break of exploring every inch of Donovan’s skin, I checked my messages and shot off a quick email to Lydia, the Operations Manager and my direct boss, apologizing profusely for my absence.
I checked my other emails and messages, and luckily, it didn’t look like anything terrible had happened while I was gone.
My absence was noted, though. I was supposed to be doing interviews for the vacant team leader position. Both applicants had emailed, asking if their interviews were still on, since I wasn’t in my office at the appointed time.
I didn’t need this job. In fact, life would be so much easier if I just gave it up. But the more that I thought about it, the more I wanted to keep it. My manager job was a key part of the Old Susan that I loved. And that was a part that I wanted to keep.