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"It's in my concert rider that I need a lot of food to prepare for my shows," I explain, not letting on that this is way out of the ordinary.
"But your show isn't until tomorrow," she says, humming when she samples a particularly tasty strawberry pastry.
"Haven't you ever heard of carb loading?" I ask her jokingly.
She rolls her eyes at me.
"I know you ordered all of this for us," she says, kissing my mouth. I take advantage of her closeness by deepening the kiss. My tongue sweeps through her mouth, enjoying the taste of strawberry and quintessential Eva.
We watch the light of day slowly fade into night, and Eva gasps in delight as the glittering lights of the Tower come on. Violin music from a street performer dances through the air and I pull her close. As we begin dancing I tell her how much I love her, how sorry I am for what she's had to go through. Her eyes are clouded with sweet tears. I sing the french lyrics to the violin song playing and she melts into my arms. I can't remember ever being happier.
Chapter 24
Eva
It's dark. I can't see Mason's face so it seems easier to admit things to him that I would normally keep buried deep in the darkest places of my heart.
"It wasn't all bad," I whisper to him, the words unfurling from me despite my best intentions.
"What do you mean?" he asks, the skepticism in his voice pronounced.
"Aiden made me feel strong for maybe the first time in my life. He made me feel like I didn't have to be protected every second. He wanted me to be powerful, even if it was only for his own gain, even if it ended up not being real. I still have that knowledge now. I know what being powerful feels like."
"Aiden is responsible for the downfall of an entire world," he tells me harshly. "He kidnapped you and tortured you. Am I…are we so awful that a monster gives you more than we do?" he asks, a hint of anger mixed with sadness laced through his words.
We're both quiet after that. The answer is complicated.
"Sometimes you don't see me as I really am," I finally tell him after a long moment.
"And who exactly are you?" he asks.
I pause before answering, finally knowing the answer to that question for the first time in this new life.
"I'm the Queen."
Epilogue
My phone buzzes with a text. I glance at it and see that it's from Lexi. "Can you meet?"it says. Lexi's another one who has been avoiding me since her initial relief in finding me. There's so much we need to talk about, so much I need to know. I've been trying to give her space to recover from using so much magic to find me, but I've been getting impatient and was finally going to call her tomorrow. Maybe now she's finally ready to give me answers.
I look over to the other side of the bed where Damon is, the one who has fallen asleep during a movie for once. Damon and I have tentatively patched things up. He just is refusing to talk about what happened. Beckham will be here in a little bit to sleep on the couch since he doesn't like to be away from me at night anymore. He had a late night of filming on the project that is still behind from when Beckham took time off to search for me. I should still have another hour until he arrives. I listen with my new and improved hearing. I can hear Mason softly snoring in his room.
I decide to go meet her, reasoning that I will be back before anyone even wakes up…and I'll leave a note. The guys never leave me alone for even a second since I've been back, not that I blame them, but Lexi wouldn't text me if it wasn't important.
I text Shelton that I need a car and wait for it to pull up to the front before hustling through the rain to get in the car.
"Does Damon know about this?" Shelton asks as I get in the car.
"I'm a grown woman," I pout. "I don't need to ask permission to do things...but I did leave a note."
"I'll text him," he replies with a sigh. "You didn't see how messed up he was...how messed up they all were when you disappeared. They blamed themselves."
A rush of guilt passes over me. "He hasn't been sleeping lately. I just didn't want to bother him,"I reply softly.
Shelton just smiles at me reassuringly and types out a text. I'm sure Damon will be along shortly to the address Lexi sent me.
We drive through the streets that are more empty than usual due to the rain. There's a solemn feeling in the air, a sense of expectancy. I'm nervous for the answers to all of the questions I have for Lexi.
Shelton pulls up to a park that's at the address Lexi gave me.
