Chapter 7
“Hello?” I called softly as I walked through Jacob’s apartment. I woke up to a silent house and I was apparently home alone. I had expected to wake up to someone hovering nearby, like all of the other times I woke up. Instead I woke up to dormouse nestle into my hair and neck. At least he didn’t poop all over me while he was getting more comfortable.
It was a bit lonely here, and frankly I stood out a bit much to go back to my apartment just yet. Maybe if I could put up a glamour again I wouldn’t be so noticeable. I don’t even care about the ears, it was more the silvery white hair and weird skin. I went to the mirror in the living room and concentrated on changing my appearance.
My face was contorted into a mixture of frustration and attempted concentration, when the door opened. Allwyn walked in with Jacob trailing behind him. Allwyn stopped and I glanced over at his image in the mirror. He looked at me like I was the most intriguing thing he had ever seen. Jacob however, was snorting because he was laughing so hard.
“Shut up, I was trying to do a glamour.” I shot Jacob my best attempt at a glare, but how do you really glare at someone who is snorting openly? Allwyn even cracked a small smile at that.
“Sorry, sorry.” Jacob wiped his tears and tried to compose himself. “We brought food, does that help?”
“Yes!” I pumped my fist into the air and practically bounced my way over to the bag in Jacob’s outstretched hand. Allwyn’s eyebrows shot up as he stepped out of my way. I was a woman on a mission when food was involved.
We all settled into chairs around the kitchen table. I reached into the bag and pulled out two burgers, two fries, and a salad. I immediately slid the salad to Allwyn. I knew Jacob wouldn’t have ordered something that healthy. He was the king of drinking protein shakes with kale for breakfast, and eating junk the rest of the day.
“How did you know it wasn’t mine?” Jacob asked while feigning offense. I rolled my eyes in response and unwrapped my burger. Allwyn eyed our food like we were cannibals snacking on an arm. I cocked an eyebrow and took a bite. I started to chew and was immediately nauseous. It didn’t even taste appealing. I spit my bite out into my napkin and stared accusingly at my lunch. What the heck, I loved burgers. Jacob took a tentative bite of his and gave me an odd look.
“Bells, it tastes fine. What’s wrong with it?” He questioned around his bite of food.
“I wondered if you would be able to tolerate it.” Allwyn remarked and started in on his salad.
“Tolerate what?” I bit out. I already didn’t get to enjoy my lunch, I wasn’t in the mood for his evasive riddles.
“Meat. Fae can’t eat the meat here.” He stated it like it was a fact I should have known.
“I thought River just didn’t like harming animals or something.” I mumbled and pushed my burger towards Jacob.
“No.” Was the only explanation he offered. Jacob and I raised an eyebrow at each other. I gave a shrug and went to work on my fries.
“So am I stuck indoors for the rest of my life, or what? Do you glamour your skin here?” I refused to be stuck indoors, there had to be a solution to this.
“I don’t glamour my skin.” Allwyn looked appalled at the idea.
“Calm down killer. There’s no way I can get around like this.” I held my hand close to his face in case he forgot how shimmery it was. “See, shimmery.”
“It’s not shimmering, dork.” Jacob laughed. “It just has a pearly sheen to it.” Ok, he had a way better word for describing it. “You aren’t going to go outside and refract light like a walking glitter bomb.”
“Are you sure? Because either way, this isn’t normal. Were my parent’s pearl skinned too?” I directed that question to Allwyn, who looked at us like we had lost our minds. “Don’t judge me, I just turned from human to Fae, and got shot all in one go.”
“No, your mother had a light golden tone like mine. Your father was of Winter, so he was very
pale. You are the only Fae I have ever seen with the pearl skin. It’s fitting for a hybrid new queen.” He explained in his somber tone. Allwyn always talked in such an ancient way. Maybe that was the way all Fae spoke back in Faerie and most had lost it thanks to being stranded on Earth. He excused himself, most likely to avoid more questions, leaving me and Jacob alone.
“Alright, spill Jacob, what happened?” I asked in a serious voice. He couldn’t avoid the topic any longer, and I needed to talk about something that didn’t have to do with me being a supposed queen.
“My place was the closest, so we brought you here. Taking you to a hospital would have been a bad idea because of your changes. Your appearance was literally blinking back and forth at the time. The gunshot must have broken the final pieces of your bindings. So we came in and Sam was working on his laptop. We clearly freaked him out, but he didn’t even ask if I was hurt. I was covered in your blood and dirt. He took one look at all of the Fae and you passed out in Allwyn’s arms, and said he couldn’t do this anymore. He said I was mixed up in things that he didn’t want to be a part of. I explained that you were still you, just Fae now, but he didn’t care. He literally packed all of his stuff, loaded his car, and drove away.” He looked crushed. He loved Sam.
“I’m so sorry. I can’t believe he just left like that. I know he had been distant, but leaving in a crisis just proves that he was looking for a way out. You deserved better than that.” I knew whatever I said wasn’t going to help. I was so mad at Sam, he broke my best friend’s heart in the worst way, and that was unforgivable.
“Can we drown our sorrows in ice cream and movies? I need a good comedy.” He whined dramatically.
“I think that sounds like a brilliant plan, my friend.” I started to reach for my jacket and wallet when I realized I couldn’t go get us what we needed. “Damnit, I can’t go to the store. Worst best friend ever, right here.” My heart sunk. He took care of me and I couldn’t even go get him some freaking ice cream.
“I’ll go.” Allwyn offered. I didn’t even think, I just reacted and threw myself at Allwyn. I crushed him in a bear hug. I wrote down a list of what to get and gave him some money.
“You know the worst part of all this?” Jacob was clearly still lost in thought and hadn’t witnessed my random hugging or Allwyn’s gallant rescue.
“What, sweetie?” I asked quietly. He looked at me with his big, sad eyes and my heart splintered. I hated seeing him so sad.
“I’m not as heartbroken as I should be. I’m sad at what we lost, but it doesn’t feel any different without him here. He had been pulling away and I didn’t even notice. What does that say about me?” He sounded disgusted with himself.
“That doesn’t make you anything. You noticed, and you tried babe. You can’t fix something that was one sided. You can’t turn the blame on yourself.” I encouraged as I pulled him into a hug.
“Alright, tonight we wallow. Tomorrow is a new day and we need to figure out how to turn you from an earth girl in a Fae disguise into a regal hybrid queen. Nothing big.” He declared, like it was a done deal.
“I love you Jacob. You didn’t even bat an eye at me being a living disco ball. You embraced it and are helping me figure it out. That says so much about you, don’t ever doubt how much you care. You put everything you are into those you love.” I reminded him in a firm voice. Jacob had the biggest heart, he just forgets sometimes.
“I love you too, and that’s why. You didn’t turn into a different person because of all of this. Well you did physically, but that isn’t what I mean.” He joked. I laughed and dragged him over to the couch. We spent the next few minutes trying to find something to watch and I tried to continue ignoring that awful tugging feeling that never really went away.
“Hurry up, Queenie!” Jacob yelled from the couch. I was pulling a batch of brownies out of the oven and finished cooking a ludicrous combination of his favorite foods.
“I’m coming, Prince Jacob!” I bellowed back. I lined up the food on the breakfast bar and pulled out champagne and beer. We were fancy like that.
“OH! I love that title!” He announced, turning the corner to join me in the kitchen. He looked around at what I was cooking and his eyes went wide. “You really are the best friend ever.”
“Woah.” Andras looked overwhelmed at the amount of food I had cooked. “Are we expecting an Army?”
“No, just Gwen and River. They had to stop for something first.” I replied as I set aside the shrimp I had prepared for his favorite tacos.
“Andras, do you eat seafood, or does that count as meat for Fae?” I asked, the pout clearly shining through in my voice.
“We eat certain meat from Faerie, but here we can’t tolerate the meat.” He looked sorry to be breaking the news.
“I couldn’t even swallow my first bite, that can’t be normal.” I argued. It hadn’t even had a chance to make me sick.
“That probably has more to do with all of your power being released. A strong intuition was a royal trait of the Spring Court. We are weaker here, so I am impressed by how much power you have. Even if you were born here, that’s an unheard of amount. That might be why hybrids were unheard of.” At least Andras wasn’t afraid to explain things. I was mostly just happy he wasn’t bowing down to me anymore. That was too weird to handle.
“Is it done now?” Jacob asked, already pulling a plate free.
“Yours is, Prince. Dig in. I’m going to finish up these black beans. Then I’m going to eat them and pretend it’s meat.” I pouted openly. Jacob gave a sympathetic look that lasted all of half of a second, before loading shrimp onto his tortillas. His sympathy was clearly on point.
“We have the rest of the supplies!” Gwen announced as she walked into the kitchen with River trailing behind her. She handed over her bag, which had orange juice inside. I added it to the breakfast bar next to the Champagne, quickly making up a few mimosas. They were also Jacob’s favorite.
“Alright, it’s done! Time to eat, guys!” I announced as I brought over the black beans for the vegetarians.
I waited until everyone made their plates before piling food on my own. I was about to join the table when Gwen groaned. I looked over and she had her eyes closed in pure happiness.
“This is the best Macaroni and cheese I have ever tasted.” She announced as she opened her eyes.
“Girl, Queenie is the best cook I know.” Jacob announced proudly. “She knows the way to my heart.” He gave me a fake dreamy look that had me laughing.
“Thank you for cooking for us, Arabella.” Allwyn announced formally, with a slight bow of his head. At least he didn’t call me his queen this time. Progress is progress.
“You are all welcome. This is what we do when someone is sad. We feed them until they are too full to function. Then we snuggle them on the couch with a good movie.” I laughed at his wary look. He didn’t seem like the cuddle on the couch type.
“How are you feeling, Arabella, is the magic overwhelming?” Andras asked.
“I’m ok, the weird tug in my stomach won’t stop, but other than that I feel pretty much the same.” I shrugged it off, taking another bite of cheesy goodness.
“The healer couldn’t explain the tugging, maybe it’s your magic settling into your body?” Gwen suggested.
“Maybe, I wish it would stop though. I can ignore it if I’m busy, but it’s always there.” I replied.
“Ok, is everyone done? It’s movie time.” Jacob announced, heading into the living room.
“I’ll be right in, start without me.” I replied as I finished the last few bites. The others got up to join Jacob and I started in on the mess. After collecting all of the plates and throwing away what I didn’t need to put in the fridge, I started on the dishes. I was halfway done when I heard a throat clear behind me. I jumped, since I was so focused on getting the dishes done.
“Sorry, my queen. I didn’t realize you were in here working. You are a queen, why are you doing servant work?” Allwyn asked softly. I couldn’t help but turn and give him a shocked look.
“Allwyn, I am a supposed queen of a dead land. I don’t have a servant, and I certainly don’t have a castle. Even if I did, it wouldn’t change anything. I have taken care of myself for many years, and I will continue to do so. I will never be afraid to get my hands dirty. Doesn’t that make me a better queen, that I understand what needs to be done?” I calmly explained. A look of respect flashed across his face.
“May I help?” He asked, using a relaxed tone this time. Apparently he was getting more comfortable around me. It gave his voice a nice husky quality. I nodded and he picked up a dishtowel. I handed over the dishes and he dried them, setting them aside to be put away. We made quick work of it and I gave him a shy smile before we made our way back to the living room.
I couldn’t help but notice the way Andras was sneaking glances at Jacob. I internally squealed before sitting down at Jacob’s feet.
“Thanks, Queenie.” Jacob whispered and put his hand on my head. I turned and gave him a smile, before settling in to watch the movie.