Chapter 19 #2
He started frowning. “Why didn’t she teach you war?”
“Oh. Well, when I was very young, she tried to teach me how to fence, but I tripped and stabbed myself with my foil and broke my leg. I was laid up for three months while it healed. I read a lot of cookbooks.”
“Three months to heal?” He looked horrified. His scar was wonderfully good at accenting his emotions.
I sighed. “I know. If you’re horrified, think how she felt. So after that, she tried to teach me to be safe from dangerous things like tripping over my feet and falling off ladders. I went through a very clumsy stage, but happily I grew into my feet.”
“What skills did your father teach you?”
I wasn’t going to mention the two-brains thing. “I know how to speak goblin.”
His lip curled. “You know a language. Lovely. Anything else?”
“Well, goblin magic doesn’t work for me. I did learn to make poison, but it made me sick, so he forbade me from doing any more. It’s too bad I’m so sensitive. I think he could make me gear that could block out the fumes, but he refused to try again.”
He stared at me. “You’re entirely helpless? How are you not dead yet?”
“I make a point of avoiding trouble. Until my mother died, I mostly succeeded. But then I punched a fairy, broke my hand, and—”
He shook his head. “Stop. A goblin’s child broke her hand punching a fairy? You’re a fairy delicacy made out of spun glass.”
The way he said that hurt my feelings. “I haven’t had any accidents for ages,” I said then frowned and glanced over at the devil. It was like he’d been protecting me ever since I made the deal with him.
“You care for him a great deal,” he said, not mocking, just factual.
I stared at him then at the devil. “Well, my mother fell for a goblin. I come from a long line of fools in love.”
“Do you think she truly loved your father?”
I stared at him, bewildered. “Of course.”
“Why did she love him?” he asked, almost gently.
“He didn’t kill her when he had the chance. Instead, he saved her from the goblin dust.”
“A bit strange that a goblin would go from hunting her for vengeance to saving her. Almost like she’d cast a spell on him, wouldn’t you say?”
I stared at him. “Well…” I said slowly. “Maybe she did cast a spell on him, but it hit her too.”
“Or she played him, and then you happened.”
“She wanted to have me. She took a potion.”
“Do you think so?” He smiled at me. “It must be a lovely place.”
I looked around. “It’s very nice except for the comatose devil in the middle of the pond. That’s a bit creepy.”
“Your mind must be a lovely place, so empty of conspiracy and suspicion. A child of a goblin and a fairy, and yet you honestly believe your parents had you out of love.”
I blinked at him. “Thank you. I also think it’s lovely and would prefer to keep it free from conspiracy and suspicion, so if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell me that my mother didn’t love me. It’s not very polite.”
He raised a brow then his glass and sipped.
I hesitated then sipped too, and the rainbow elixir was absolutely delicious but didn’t change my feelings in any way. I lowered my drink and studied him. “Slow-acting poison?”
He laughed and reached forward to ruffle my hair.
I froze while his touch brushed me.
He smiled almost warmly. “Not entirely free of suspicion. That’s good to see. You could learn to be properly paranoid.”
“Yes, well, thank you. Can we eat? I need to get to bed. I haven’t slept since the night before last.”
“Right. You need to open your bakery then we’ll have dinner together again tomorrow.”
I glanced over at the devil then opened the basket, handed the fairy king a plate, put one in front of myself on the blanket, and served both of us.
I waited until he took a bite before copying him.
Not that he couldn’t consume things I never could.
He could probably drink pure goblin poison and be fine.
And I was going to have dinner with him again?
I needed the heart. But the enchantress had it, and apparently, she’d given the fairy king the job of dining with me.
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked as I hesitated over a peaches-and-grains combo that was pretty good for fairy food.
“You can ask.” His smile was mocking.
“Why did you agree to have dinner with me? What deal did the enchantress have with you that turned you into her grunt worker?” I winced once the words were out. That had to be an insult.
He laughed again, amused instead of deadly.
“Agree to have dinner with you? Oh, no, my dear. I arranged to have dinner with you. She helped me find your mother, but unfortunately, Fiora was already dying by then, more painfully than anything I could’ve done to her, so I had no pleasure in the discovery.
But you. I will have to kill you so carefully, or you’ll die too quickly. It will be a delicious challenge.”
My skin grew cold as I stared at the fairy king who was thinking about how to kill me slowly enough to keep me hurting for years. Decades.
“Wow. I guess everyone’s got to have a hobby,” I said, standing up and shaking out my skirt. “Can I get through the waterfall on my own, or do you need to take me?”
He stood with me and offered me his hand.
I looked at his hand then up at his face. “You just told me how much fun you’re going to have torturing me. If it’s all the same, I’d prefer not to touch you more than is absolutely necessary.”
His smile was a mockery. “If you’d like to leave, I’m afraid you will have to bear the discomfort.”
I sighed and put my hand on his arm, letting him help me up the stone ledge and through the rainbow waterfall into the darkness.
He didn’t light a match this time, just led me through until, with a click, the door opened and the Singsong lamps cast their light over the doorjamb.
I pulled my hand from his arm as I stepped outside, a clammy cold sheen over my skin.
“Tomorrow I’ll send a car for you,” he said, not stepping out into the evening.
I headed toward the car waiting at the curb, not answering him. I felt so cold and creepy. Did I have to actually touch him again tomorrow? I would die. I’d need to bake something that made me impervious to his creepiness.
I rode home next to the daffodil fairy, not looking or talking to him the entire ride.
“You look like you had all the happiness and joy sucked out of you. He’s incredible, isn’t he?”
I glanced at him. “Incredible. At this rate, I may kill myself before he gets a chance.”
He smiled at me. “Don’t say that. It would make him so sad.”
“Amazingly enough, I’m not really motivated by the fairy king’s happiness.”
The car pulled up in front of the bakery, and I climbed out, looking up at the charming rabbit poking out of the donut hole, his expression mischievous, a lot like the devil had looked when he hadn’t been in a coma. Somehow, I’d save him. No matter what.
I went straight to bed and snuggled Divinity until I stopped shivering.