Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
We came out into the overcast afternoon where the snail shell car waited at the bottom of the steps. Everything seemed so normal, so real, but that kiss had been anything but. Would my mouth ever stop tingling again?
When I slid into the backseat, I turned to look at my devil with his gleaming eyes and his devilishly soft mouth. “To the cemetery?”
“Of course. Unless you’d rather do something else.” The way he raised a brow at the last word made my heart ache.
Like kiss him? I shook my head then looked out the window, watching the city pass by so I didn’t burst into tears or drown in my mixed-up feelings about kissing him.
No one would ever fail the weight test again.
The devil might be dangerous, and not have the best grip on morals, but he wasn’t like Fern.
When we pulled up the long drive of the cemetery arboretum, I finally turned to smile at him.
“Thank you.”
“I adore your smiles,” he said as he got out and helped me after him. “But don’t feel you have to perform them for me. I’m here for you, not your good manners.”
“Me, good manners?” I let my smile fade then leaned against him until his arm came around my shoulders, holding me close as we slowly walked toward my mother’s plot. He felt so warm and right. Being in the cemetery where my mother rested was wrong but having him with me made it bearable.
Near the plot where she was buried, the tall and imposing figure of my great-uncle stood at the graveside, dour and depressed.
He always looked like that, but this felt more.
I pulled back, because the last time I’d seen him there, he’d had his ogre bodyguards escort me to the police.
His bodyguards were standing back, giving him privacy.
Was he actually mourning my mother? How peculiar.
He’d always been so distant when she was alive.
I’d been meaning to talk to him, and this was the perfect opportunity. It wasn’t the time to give in to fear or discomfort.
“Great-Uncle Draskri, I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” I said, straightening away from the devil and his warm safety.
The fairy raised his head to frown at me then at the devil before he sniffed. “I cannot say the same.”
I ignored that not-so-subtle insult. “Why did you tell the daffodil fairy boy that I was a goblin? He took my goods without paying, and that was after I made vegan sweetbreads for him.”
He stared at me unblinking for a long moment. “A daffodil fairy boy? I know no such person.”
“The fairy princeling,” the devil said, and with a gesture of his hand brought the image of the daffodil fairy boy up above his palm.
My great-uncle shook his head. “He’s in Europe. Whoever you saw was not that person.”
“He smelled the same,” the devil said. “Had the same magical imprint. Had all the right mannerisms and expressions. Perhaps you have an imposter taking the prince’s place while he plays in Song.”
“If so, I would be very surprised. He’s trying to impress the king, his uncle.”
“But you said he liked goblins,” I said.
He turned and started walking away from the plot. “Indeed. His uncle also likes goblins. Did I not mention that?” His voice was laced with disapproval.
“The fairy king dates goblins?”
He turned his head to give me a bracing look.
“Dates? I really couldn’t say whether he is capable of such a thing.
He hires them.” He continued walking away, and I almost started after him.
People hired goblin assassins. Was that what he was insinuating?
The fairy king was hiring assassin goblins, and it had something to do with me?
There was the band of goblins who’d taken my father’s debts and raided my living room, but those weren’t assassins.
But someone had hired them to release the Lady of the Wild Woods to kill the devil while he was weak. Or to kill me.
My head started to ache along with my heart. It was my birthday, my mother was dead, and I didn’t want to deal with my great-uncle or worry about psycho killers.
I was here to visit my mother. Full stop. Whether the fairy boy was actually a prince or a pretender didn’t make any difference to me. And whether the fairy king had hired goblins to release a psycho killer to kill me or the devil…
I shook my head and went over to the gravestone, which was a six-foot white marble statue of her, wings spread, a light in her eyes that she hadn’t had for the last year of her life.
Had Dad really ordered something this expensive?
He was mad. It was beautiful, though. It stood out in the cemetery where all the richest people were buried.
“I think it would take me more than five years just to pay that off,” I said, staring at the statue.
“It was an anonymous donation.”
“Ah, because she had royal blood?”
“Perhaps. Do you like it?”
“It’s gorgeous. And so expensive.”
He laughed and clasped my hand, letting his warmth flow through me while we stood there, in front of the heap of earth beneath the outstretched arms of the over-sized fairy.
I slowly leaned over until I had my head against his arm, soaking up the peace of the place, the warmth of him, and the bittersweet happiness I’d never thought I’d find without my mother.
Was it real? Did it matter that the devil didn’t have a heart when he could love me so well with only half a soul?
We spent a long time like that, until it started drizzling and we headed back to the car, the sky appropriately weeping so I didn’t have to.
After the cemetery, we went to dinner in my kitchen, the devil cooking while I sat in my cozy chair reading a recipe book, snuggling my rabbit, and feeling full of love, happiness, and hope.
Hope that I could be so content for the rest of my life.
That the devil could be part of my life forever.
Silly, but I was a natural-born optimist. Or an unnaturally born optimist. Whichever.
“Do you want dessert first or last?” he asked, holding up two covered trays.
“Both, obviously.”
He took the lid off with a flourish, to reveal a molten lava chocolate cake, burning beautifully.
I laughed while he put it down in front of me then I ate around the flame, feeding him bites of the fire, which he ate with a slight sizzling as the flames met his tongue.
It was delicious. He was delicious, and I’d never tasted anything so perfect, even if the consistency of the crumb wasn’t quite ideal, and the chocolate sauce was a hint too sweet.
After dinner, which ended with a lovely light salad, cress and walnut, with a hint of lemon and pomegranate and then more chocolate, he leaned forward.
“And now, my birthday princess, I would like to take you to a ball.” His eyes had dark orange sparks in them, liquid eyes that glowed with life.
I stared at him. “A ball?”
“In Wonderland. A ball with the right sort of dancing from the beginning. Will you join me? It might go quite late, and you might have to sleep in tomorrow and open the shop the day after.”
I beamed at him. Dancing with him? I still dreamed of the night in the club, but in an actual ballroom as magical as Wonderland could be?
I nodded and tried not to act too ridiculously excited.
It was just that I’d never gone to a dance before, and he was the one person in the world I wanted to dance with.
“I’d love that,” I said, trying to sound calm.
He smiled back at me and bowed regally before gesturing to the stairs. “I await you breathlessly.”
For a second, I almost kissed him, but instead, I skipped up the stairs to my room to dress.
The packages of all the clothing my personal shopper had gotten for me lined the walls. Half a dozen ball gowns that looked like spun sugar and frosted macarons were already hung up.
I grabbed the prettiest, frothiest one, and put it on, spinning in delight as all the layers slid around my legs. So soft. So silky. So light and glorious! And it glowed! And little silk butterflies perched here and there, slowly flapping their glowing wings.
Once I was ready, I squeezed my rabbit one last time then opened the door to find my devil waiting in an indigo suit and silver vest with his pocket chains and watches tucked inside. On his head a top hat perched behind his small obsidian horns.
“You look dashing,” I said, trying not to stare at him like a lunatic. He was just so delicious and perfect.
His eyes glowed as he studied me. “And you look like magic and beauty come to life. You are so utterly enchanting.” A frown creased his brows, before he kissed my hand then tucked it into his arm. “And now we’ll dance until dawn.”
“Thank you. This is the best birthday I could’ve had…”
“Without your mother. Perhaps she’s here with you, just out of sight.”
I smiled and let him lead me through the door and into Wonderland.
We danced with other guests dressed in gowns that glowed, sparkled, or smoked. No one cut in, but we did take breaks between songs to go to the long table in an alcove filled with sparkling drinks and dizzying desserts.
“None of them compare to yours,” the devil said, picking up a piece of meringue and feeding it to me.
I sighed happily as the lemon silk dissolved on my tongue. “Their technique is better than mine, but what I lack in skill, I make up for in baking magic.”
“Everything about you is magic,” he murmured, drawing me back into the dance.
He felt like golden light and happiness, like home and family, like good and right. How had it happened? Well, he was so much of everything I’d never known I’d always wanted. And I’d snuggled his soul every night for ages.
We danced, drank, ate, and danced, until the stars hanging in the dome above us faded and pale gray light spread its fingers down the glass.
A bell gonged then the devil danced with me to the edge of the floor. He released me with a sigh and walked beside me out the doors, to the stairs that stretched up forever. I was suddenly exhausted and couldn’t possibly take a single step.