AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Who’s to say they don’t sometimes?” Ollie’s lips quirk. “We just accept that chaos is a part of life and respectfully create places where it’s allowed here. Cael’s kingdom is a community of people who care about each other. That care binds us.” He twists me down a new hallway that slowly ebbs out of mossy tides in order to spill into glass walls filled with brilliant fish and…and…I mean, of course, why am I even surprised? And mermaids. One with luminescent purple fins flicks up to the glass and waves at me before her eyes blink vertically and she darts away.
My hand is still stuck in a returning wave as Ollie says, “We are allowed and encouraged to embrace the wonder of existence.” Ollie dips us down a corridor that turns the glass walls into a cove of bookcases that soar right up to a rounded ceiling. Magically, none of the massive volumes above my head drop out on top of us as we approach the dead end. Sighing, Ollie says, “So…of course…that just leaves one person with all the hard work and none of the naps.” He pulls a book forward, and a door pops open to reveal a dimly-lit room.
A curse whispers from the shadows. “Sephin’s found me…” A pause. “No… Wait.”
Ollie sweeps me inside before closing the door behind us, and I find myself standing in an office tinted with the sweet aroma of caramel. It is overburdened with cherry dark shades, books, papers, precariously-placed candles…and, unless I’m mistaken, many, many, many moths.
Chapter 20
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just get over it, I guess?
“My.” Prince Cael’s amber gaze peruses me as I sit in front of his cluttered desk holding a tea cup of something that smells dreadfully sweet. I’m stiff. And I know it. But there are approximately a million bugs in here, and I don’t know what to do with myself.
They just have…so many legs. And it’s rather dim, given that the only lighting is from the precariously strewn candles. I am a tiny bit frightened.
It’s as though something instinctual inside me recognizes that the man before me is someone ancient and powerful. I have no idea how to act in order to keep from offending him. I feel marvelously underdressed. Heck, I can’t remember the last time I showered, yet here I am sitting across from royalty as though I did so at some point after driving for six hours yesterday then playing with glitter.
Spoiler Alert: I did not.
“You overworking yourself?” Ollie asks, seated in the chair beside mine as he kicks his boots up onto the slimmest visible edge of Prince Cael’s desk. Dropping his legs a moment later, he sits up straight and juts a thumb at my tea cup. “Wait a second. Is that wine?”
“She appears of age.” Cael’s smooth voice drifts calmly, and the moth wings surrounding him shiver. A large yellow moth lands on one of his long, pointed ears.
Ollie removes the cup from my fingers. “No, no, no. She does not need to be in a coma. Repeat after me, Cael: human blood and faerie wine equal problems. Equal paperwork.”
Cael’s lips tip into the slightest pout. “Have you come to be boring, Ollie?”
“Oi.”
The prince plants his chin in his hand, and his mid-length bronze hair slips against his cheek. “It’s a simple question.”
“Did you just get out of a meeting?” Ollie snaps as he marches to a cabinet on the other side of the room. All the moths flutter out of his way as he throws it open to reveal a number of bottles and a puff of icy air. “You’re acting like a royal prick. You act like a royal prick after meetings.”
Oh.
Okay.
We can just talk to the prince like that.
Wonderful.
I cross my ankles and try not to die.
Ollie continues, “I also don’t appreciate how with Zy’s mate you’re all careful like oh no, the vampire might rebel if I say one wrong thing to his precious little starlight, and then with mine you’re like here, have some—” He swears as he jerks a bottle out of the cabinet and slams the door closed behind him. “—wine.”
Cael barely flinches as the large yellow plumes protruding from his head lay back into his hair. He’s like a moth. All he’s missing are the wings. “Forgive me for being hospitable.”
“Are you well?” Ollie puts the glass bottle in my hands, and I peer up at him to see if he’s talking to me, but his brows are low and his attention focuses fully on Cael.
“Are you well?” the prince remarks. “You smell stressed.”
“That’s a lazy deflection.”
Cael’s brows rise. “Do I smell stressed?”
“Do you ever?”
