Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
Violet was so excited to see me when I got home, she couldn’t stop squeezing the sides of the elevator as we rose to the top floor—her version of a welcome-home hug. It was both adorable and deeply unsettling.
“Bath, please, Violet,” Cecil, back in his duocorn form, ordered, tapping on the doorframe with his hooves when we emerged. “Our Chosen One has an important date tonight. We need her ready.” He nodded at me. “I’ll get you a cocktail, and you can unwind in the bath for a bit.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as we walked into the drawing room. Coming home to Violet was like having your beloved pet bring you your slippers as soon as you walked in the door. “Is anyone else here?”
Violet nudged the sole of my foot twice, her way of saying nuh-uh.
“Nate’s not back? Or Cress?” I checked my phone to see a message had come through from Bronwyn. I need to speak to you urgently about your friend Cress.
My heart sank. “Oh, dear God, what did she do?” I moaned.
“Who?”
“Cress, of course.” I liked Bronwyn. She was an amazing therapist, a little unconventional, but she had a sixth sense about figuring out what was at the root of my problems and dragged me, kicking and screaming, to realization. Now, I had to find a new therapist.
It was terrible timing. I needed to know why I was suddenly experiencing incredibly vivid intrusive thoughts. Or waking dreams. Nightmares, whatever.
“I don’t think you need to worry about Cress,” Cecil said, bustling around me, taking my blazer and lifting my feet so he could scoop off my shoes.
“She might seem like a walking car crash, but she knows how to cover her tracks. She can be sensible. Occasionally.” He shrugged and started unzipping my skirt.
“It might be time to start worrying about Nate, though.”
I smacked his hooves away as he tried to unbutton my shirt. “He’s still in Faerie?”
Cecil nodded grimly. “And since the Prince is not here, I would hazard a guess that he’s taken a trip back to Faerie to get him. He’ll be back, Chosen, so don’t worry about that.”
“I miss the days when all I had to worry about was staff turnover and budget arguments with the executives. My department manager hat is so comfortable.” I sighed.
“The Chosen One hat hasn’t been properly worn in, yet.
There’s so much to worry about.” I ticked off my problems with my fingers, vaguely hoping that voicing them would make the worry go away.
“Mysterious faerie courtship rites you won’t tell me about.
Connor trash-talking me through every realm in the Middle World and building his army with disenfranchised misogynists and weak-minded fools.
Detective Striker stalking me, waiting for me to mess up so he can arrest me.
” I glared at the floor for a moment. “Cress, possibly murdering my therapist.”
The waking nightmare stuff I was definitely going to keep to myself. Hopefully, it would go away after a good night’s sleep.
Another thing occurred to me. I moved towards the window and looked out, trying to see the building next door. “And Audrina. Going to lunch with Juliette was a bust, because she didn’t tell me anything useful about her.”
I hesitated and frowned. Or did she? I felt like her name came up…
Juliette probably said something in passing, but nothing concrete.
I would have remembered otherwise. “I’m worried about her.
She’s not on her balcony. She’s never not on her balcony.
” I chewed on my lip for a second. “Hopefully, it’s a good sign.
Maybe her mom is doing right by her now.
Maybe she’s inside, being coddled by her parents.
Maybe her brothers are finally being nice to her.
Maybe her running away was the wake-up call they all needed.
” I didn’t believe my own words, not even for a second, but it would be nice if it were true. Audrina had been through so much.
I pulled out my phone. The temptation to text her and check in was almost overwhelming.
I couldn’t do it, though. I was off the hook for kidnapping her, but I doubted that Jessica ever stopped being suspicious of me.
Martina had stressed that it was important I stay out of this process.
She didn’t want to give the judge any reason to think that Audrina had been influenced to hate her mother by someone else.
A shiver under my feet stole my attention away; a hole opened up in the floorboards. A pair of binoculars, hanging on a brass pole, emerged. “Thanks, Violet. But I can see Audrina’s balcony from here, and she’s not on it.”
My house nudged my bare feet and jiggled the brass pole, and I understood what she was saying. Take them, and look.
Tentatively, I picked up the binoculars. “What am I looking at?”
The window expanded, bubbling out, down, and a little more to the left of where I stood. Following Violet’s lead, I looked in the direction she indicated.
My heart sank. There, under the awning, right in front of the building across the street, a familiar square-shaped figure in a trench coat stood with his eyes fixed on my building.
“Striker,” I hissed.
Cecil whinnied and sashayed over to the window, ripping the binoculars from my hands. “The wolf pig?”
“That’s the one. He’s staking out my place.”
Violet bristled under my feet. She was outraged, too. Striker was deliberately standing off her roots so she couldn’t murder him.
Cecil tossed the binoculars behind him. “You can’t worry about him, Chosen.”
“I can’t not worry about him, Cecil,” I snapped. “He’s stalking me.”
“He can’t do anything to you right now. He’s bound by the laws of this realm, both magical and mundane.
He can’t arrest you for nothing. And he can’t turn into a wolf and eat you.
Not in public, anyway. Now, come. We’ve got lots to do and not much time to do it!
We’ve got important rituals to complete. ”
I jolted. “Magical rituals?”
“Very magical.”
My pulse quickened. “Cecil, I thought you couldn’t tell me about the courtship rites. What do I have to do?”
“This is a very important ritual, involving hot wax and linen strips.”
I squinted at him. “What kind of magical rituals use hot wax and linen strips?”
“I have to wax your bikini line before your date tonight.”
“Cecil.”
He tossed his silky mane out of his eyes. “I’ve seen you naked, Chosen. That little bush you’ve got is a seventies throwback that nobody needs.”
“Cecil, no.” I fixed him with my most commanding stare. “I’m not doing a full Brazilian. I keep things nicely trimmed down there, but I am a woman. Pubic hair is natural.”
“It’s not natural when it’s stuck between someone’s teeth.” He shuddered dramatically.
“Too bad.” Speaking of hair… I pulled my hair out of my hair tie and scratched my head. The release from the tight ponytail felt so good. “Donovan will take me as I am, or not at all.”
“He won’t be able to take you if he can’t find it.”
I pointed at him. “I said no.”
Cecil sighed heavily and trotted away from me. “Fine. I’ll get your bath ready. Violet, make sure the weedwhacker has gas in it, would you? His Highness might need it later.”
“Don’t listen to him, Violet.”
He headed towards the bar. “And I’ll get you a champagne cocktail.
Maybe after you’ve loosened up in some hot water for a while, you’ll be more amenable to the idea.
We’ll need to do a mud-mask, too. Ooh, and maybe one of those fish pedicures.
Violet, do you think you could flush some little piranhas into the ensuite bathroom? ”
I tuned him out and turned towards the window. My eyes found Striker again—a tiny figure lurking across the street, hunched under the awning. Watching me. He was so still, like a predator waiting to strike. It raised goosebumps on my flesh.
After a minute, Violet gently nudged me towards my fairytale bathroom—a giant, steamy woodland cave inexplicably attached to my bedroom, where I stood on moss-covered smooth rocks and showered under a sparkly waterfall.
The deep pool on the far side of the cave held a swirling hot spring water with an earthy mineral-rich scent.
I hadn’t had the opportunity to bathe in it yet, but now was the perfect time.
I tested the water with my fingers; it was scalding. Perfect. As far as I was concerned, there was only one temperature for bath water. If it wasn’t piped directly from the hottest fires of hell and I didn’t risk the integrity of my epidermis by dunking myself in it, then I didn’t want it.
I stripped naked, stepped in, leaned back, closed my eyes, and sighed with pleasure. Then, a little apprehensive that the intrusive thoughts would return now my guard was down, I checked in on my mental state.
Nope, I was good. Better than good, actually.
Violet’s fairytale woodland-cave bathroom surrounded me like a cocoon—safe, cozy, and relaxing.
The hot water felt incredible. I was about to go on a date with the most spectacular man I’d ever met in my entire life, and even if he was doing it out of duty, I knew he liked me. I was determined to enjoy myself.
And, of course, get a great night's sleep afterwards. Sleep was vital to mental health. I clearly hadn’t been getting enough of it lately, and that would be remedied within a few hours. Slowly, I felt the knots in my shoulders relax, as the tension seeped out of my body.
My bush wasn’t that big. Cecil was being a drama queen over nothing.
I kept everything neatly trimmed, and I’d had laser hair removal on my bikini line as soon as it became available, but I always liked to have a little triangle of blonde curls right where it was supposed to be. It made me feel more womanly.