Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
My skin broke into goosebumps as soon as I walked out of my building thanks to the icy wind chill coming off the water. Autumn had settled on the city—the days were still sunny, but the nights had turned cold.
Cress, Nate, and Eryk melted into the darkness immediately—apparently, they were going to be shadowing us, watching for signs of Connor and his creepy banwyn army in case they decided to ambush us en route.
“Where is your carriage?” Donovan asked.
“I don’t have a carriage.”
“Your mount, then. Where is your stable?”
“No mounts either,” I said, thumbing my phone. “And sorry, we’re all out of stables.” I had just enough money left on my credit card to grab an Uber, but it was going to have to be the cheapest ride. Idly, I wondered if Professor Owen would give me some leftovers to take to work for lunch tomorrow.
“Susan!” Audrina, my lovely teenage songbird neighbor, loped towards me from across the street, long limbs swinging awkwardly.
Those long arms were handy when they were wrapped around her guitar, but she still hadn’t figured out how to walk with them without looking like a neanderthal dragging her knuckles behind her.
She stopped a few feet away, eyes round with wonder. “Wow. You look… wow!”
I smiled. “Thanks, Audrina.”
Her eyes swung towards Donovan and widened further. “Wow.”
“Yes. Audrina, this is my friend Donovan. Donovan, this is my neighbor, Audrina.”
Audrina seemed to have lost the power of speech. She just stood and stared at Donovan. I could hardly blame her; the man looked like he’d just stepped off a catwalk.
His eyes flashed. “This is the one you called the Chosen. The one you sent us to—”
I shushed him. “Uh, yes. This is the lovely Audrina, the songbird of Nob Hill.” I frowned. “Okay, don’t put that on an album cover, it sounds weird.”
Just then, I noticed she had her guitar slung on her back, and two large duffel bags over each shoulder. I frowned. “Where are you going?”
She still stared at Donovan.
I clapped my hands, and she flinched. “Audrina, where are you going?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Mom took the boys for ice cream in the park today. They saw me singing.”
Oh, no.
“I didn’t spot them until it was too late.
I was in the middle of a song, and I had my eyes closed.
Something cold smacked me in the face, and when I opened them, I saw my brothers laughing like hyenas.
One of them tossed his ice cream at me. They thought it was the funniest thing they’d ever seen, but Mom went ballistic.
” The tears spilled down her cheeks. “She dragged me home. I’m grounded.
Forever, apparently. Mom said she’d never been more humiliated in her life.
Apparently, me busking is the most embarrassing thing to ever happen to her. ”
“You’re running away, aren’t you?”
She nodded.
“Audrina,” I sighed. “You can’t run away. Anything might seem better than living with those bullies, but you have to be practical. You’ll get eaten alive on the streets.”
“I can’t go back there.” She let out a sob.
“I can’t, Susan. Everyone thinks I’ve got such a privileged life.
Yeah, we’re so rich, Mom and Dad were famous, but it’s hell.
My brothers think that bullying me is a sport.
They actually compete to see who can be the first to make me cry every day.
Mom tells me to suck it up, and I just have to get thicker skin, and nobody can make me feel anything I don’t want to feel.
But I can’t. It hurts so much.” Audrina’s face turned blotchy as tears poured down her cheeks.
“I can’t take it anymore. I even told my mom I was thinking of ending it all. And she… she…”
Nausea lurched up in my gut. I knew what Audrina was going to say.
Her mother was fucking awful. Jessica was the kind of person that saw everything in her life as an object to be used.
She used her talented and handsome sons as trophies, and she used her husband for his money and status. But to her, Audrina was worthless.
“Mom’s eyes lit up when I said that,” Audrina whispered, her voice hitching.
“She was actually excited about the idea of me committing suicide. She’d get everything she wanted.
I’d be gone, I wouldn’t be around to embarrass her anymore, and she’d get more attention and lots of sympathy.
I could see the thoughts ticking in her brain. ”
I sighed sadly. Audrina wasn’t being dramatic. Jessica was probably already planning the name of the mental health charity she would set up once her daughter was gone.
“Chosen…” Donovan was suddenly standing too close. My thoughts scattered.
Oh, yeah. We were already late. “Please, Donovan. Just wait a moment. I can’t leave her out here like this.”
He let out a soft grunt, then turned, and whistled a low note.
Suddenly, Nate was standing next to us. Audrina froze, mid-sob.
Donovan spoke to him. “Take this young woman upstairs to Violet House. The guest quarters,” he said pointedly.
“Keep Cecil away from her, but inform him that she will need…” He frowned.
“All the things that young mortal women need to keep her occupied.”
Audrina’s eyes widened again. “You’ll let me stay with you?”
“Of course,” I said. “Just until we can figure out a plan. You need to let your family know you’re safe, though. But don’t tell them you’re staying with me,” I added hastily. The last thing I needed was to get arrested for kidnapping.
She nodded frantically. “I will. I’ll do anything, Susan.
Oh, thank you!” She threw herself forward, but instead of hugging me, she veered away at the last second and wrapped her arms around Donovan’s waist and squeezed him around the middle, pushing her face into his hard stomach.
He froze. She rubbed her cheek against him like a cat, desperate for affection.
I held back a laugh; Donovan looked almost alarmed. After a moment, he patted her on top of her head once, then again. “There, there.”
Gently, Nate untangled her and led her away. Just in time, too. My phone buzzed in my hand. Our ride was here. “Let’s go,” I said to Donovan. I walked up to the red hatchback that had just pulled up, swinging my hips and relishing how the silk brushed over my skin as I walked.
Somehow, Donovan got there before me. He opened the back door, looked inside, then hesitated. “This is not your carriage.”
“Yes, it is,” I said brightly, shuffling past him. I stuck my head inside. “Hello, Amir,” I said to the driver.
The driver turned and gave me a huge smile. He had a thick pelt of black hair and the most impressive black handlebar mustache I’d ever seen in my life. “You are Miss Susan? Yes?”
“Yes, I am! How are you this evening?”
“Good, good. Haight-Ashbury, yes?”
“Yes.” I shuffled in next to the two other passengers—two teenage boys, both wearing thick glasses and shirts with anime characters on them, both clutching comic tote bags to their chests. “Hello,” I said, smiling.
Both of them blinked at me and held their tote bags tighter. Neither responded. “Donovan, you’ll have to get in the front.”
He didn’t move. I glanced up and saw him clench his jaw. “Chosen. This is not acceptable.”
“This is our ride to the Professor's house, Donovan. Get in.”
“You have small flightcraft in this realm. You have long vehicles with partition screens and small bars installed in them, I have seen pictures. Why are we sharing this small carriage with commoners?” He glared into the back of the car. The two teens cringed into their seats.
Amir hit a button on his phone. “Wait time fee, Miss Susan. Sorry, sorry.”
“That’s fine, Amir,” I said, letting out a sigh. The wait time fee would chew up the last of the money in my account. I turned back to Donovan. “I am a commoner,” I said, a little sharply. “This is perfectly decent transportation, Donovan, and it’s all I can afford right now.”
He frowned. “You cannot afford a carriage of your own?”
“No.”
He glanced at Amir. “Are you an honorable man?”
“Yes, yes,” Amir said, smiling so wide I thought his face might break in two. “Five-star rating. Three months driving in this country, my home, United States. You check.”
“Then the Chosen will sit in front.” Donovan’s tone indicated there would be no arguing. He stepped back.
“Fine.” I shuffled back out of my seat, while he held the front passenger door open. I settled into my seat. Donovan leaned in one more time and glared at Amir.
“If you touch her, I will disembowel you with a fork and use your entrails to string you from that bridge.”
“Donovan!”
Amir giggled. “No problem, no problem, my friend. No need to disembowel today. I do best service. Five stars! We go now, yes?”
“Yes, please,” I said faintly, as Donovan got in.
I didn’t want to look, but I heard a whimper of fear from the two young men in the back seat, and I couldn’t help but turn my head.
Donovan, huge, long-legged, wildly intimidating, sprawled out behind me, the picture of terrifying grace and menacing power.
He took up most of the space in the back seat.
The boys looked as scared as if they were sharing a backseat with a hungry panther.
Both of them were sandwiched up against the other window, staring at Donovan like he was a god.
Amir pulled out onto Pine Street, heading towards Haight-Ashbury, and we weaved through the nighttime city traffic in silence for a few minutes.
Mostly silence, anyway. I could hear one of the boys in the back breathing heavily through his mouth.
Panting, almost. “We must get you your own carriage,” Donovan said gruffly. “This is unacceptable.”
“Five stars!” Amir’s mustache quivered in outrage. “I have five stars. You will not take my stars away from me.”
“It’s okay, Amir. We’ll give you five stars.”
His mustache pouted. “I am good service.”
“You’re doing great. Thank you.”