Rowan Wood Legends, page 17
part #2 of The Lost Clan Series
“Okay. I love you. And call me if you need anything else.”
“Love you too, Dad.”
My phone pinged with my father’s text. I opened the picture and went back inside the office where Cass was flipping through paperbacks with catchy cover designs. “He’s letting me keep all of these,” she said, pointing to a small pile next to the box.
“That’s really cool.” I turned to Mr. Thompson. “I have my great-great-grandmother’s birth certificate. She was Ley’s twin sister. It doesn’t mention Ley’s name, but the last name’s the same.” I handed him my phone, hoping, praying it would do.
He looked up from my phone’s screen.
“I promise it’s not for resale. I had a copy of the book, but it was stolen from me. I just want to replace it.” If he turned me down, I didn’t know what I would do. Steal the metal plates? File a court order to have them handed to me? I felt my body heat up with angst, my brand flare. I shoved my hand in my jeans back pocket.
He handed my phone back to me, then cracked his knuckles. “It’s going to be costly. The leather cover alone was worth over a grand then. It’ll cost more today.”
I swallowed.
“As for the ink, unless you have some, I’m going to have to phone a supplier, but I can’t guarantee he has any on hand.”
“Okay.”
He dialed a number. I supposed his supplier’s number. He spun in his office chair, until he was facing the window.
“Hi,” he said. “I’m looking for diatomaceous ink…Yes. For printing…Great…Ten ounces should do…Two hundred dollars? Let me ask.” He spun back toward me, covering the receiver. “Is two hundred dollars okay?”
I nodded.
“Tomorrow morning? That would be great…Thank you. See you tomorrow.” He hung up. “You’re in luck. He has some.”
Hope invaded me. Excitement even.
“So with the two hundred dollars and the leather cover and the same paper…it comes out to”—he tapped on his phone’s calculator—“three-thousand-seven-hundred dollars.”
“What?” I breathed.
“Without the cover, you could probably get it down to twenty-three hundred. Would you like me to remove the leather cover?”
I pressed my hand to my abdomen. “Uh. I don’t know.”
“Well you have to decide.”
Where would I find twenty-three hundred dollars? “Could I pay in installments?” I asked, my voice cracking.
I could feel Cass looking at me, taking in my glowing cheeks, my trembling lower lip.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t accept installments. As for the cover…I would need to know fast…” He was still speaking, but his voice had faded.
I thought I was going to start crying. I’d had such high, stupid hopes. In the midst of feeling terribly sorry for myself, an idea burst into my mind. I would influence him to give it to me. If I could even influence him. I’d only consciously tried on one person. “Please,” I said, my voice firm, solid, loud. “Can you make me the book? It would mean the world to me.”
He gazed at me in silence for so long that I thought my magic had cracked his stubborn veneer. He blinked, then looked away. “I’m really sorry, Miss Price, but I really can’t afford to have it printed without payment.”
“I will pay. Eventually, I promise.”
He shook his head.
My eyes heated up. Maybe I didn’t have the influence. Maybe the last time was a fluke. Tears rolled down my burning cheeks. I slumped into the nearest seat, my legs shaking, threatening to give out. I was being ridiculous. I needed to stop crying. Especially over a damn book. Did I really even need it? What exactly was I chasing?
I heard Cass tell him that my mother had died not long ago…could he really not give me a discount? I closed my eyes and smiled even though disappointment raged inside me. I would just ask him to give me the box. It belonged to my family, so he had to, right?
I felt a hand trap mine, squeeze it gently. I imagined it was Cass, but the fingers were longer, thicker, warmer. I flipped my lids open, horrified it could be the owner’s. But instead I met a set of blazing blue eyes. When the surprise of seeing Ace wore off, I yanked my hand away.
“You can charge the full amount to the card,” he told the owner.
“Of course,” the man said.
“This guy.” Cass beamed at Ace. “If you weren’t engaged and having a baby, I would seriously make a play for you.”
He smiled at her. “I’m flattered.”
“I’ll be right back,” the manager said, rushing out of his office with the black credit card.
I gaped at Ace. “It’s going to take me forever to pay you back—”
“I’m not in any hurry.”
“Do I owe you a gajoï now?” I asked.
He shot me that cocky grin of his.
“A what-oy?” Cass asked.
“A gajoï. It’s uh…Gottwa for favor,” I explained.
“You speak Gottwa, Ace?”
“Catori’s teaching me a couple words.”
“I didn’t even know she knew a few words,” Cass said, eyeing me suspiciously.
I shrugged. “I’m learning.”
“Dinner tonight will do,” Ace said.
“What?” I asked, tipping my face back up to his.
“Have dinner with me tonight, and we’ll be even.”
Cass’s eyes opened so wide I thought they might just pop through her bangs and land on my lap.
I flushed. “I have to drive Cass home.”
“I can take the bus,” she offered.
“No.”
“How about you take Catori’s car? I can drive her back. She has to wait for the book anyway.”
“But it might take days to print,” I said. “I’m not going to hang around Detroit—”
“Mr. Thompson seemed quite certain it could be ready by tomorrow morning.”
“Really?” I asked, eyes wide.
“That’s fine with me,” my friend said. “If it’s fine with her, of course. Is it fine with you, Cat?”
Did I even have a choice?
The manager returned with Ace’s card and receipt. Beads of perspiration coated his bald spot as though he’d run to the credit card machine. Even his breathing had quickened. Maybe they kept the accounting on another floor? “As soon as I receive the ink, I’ll get this printed. See you tomorrow, Miss Price.”
Was I imagining his edginess? I rose from my chair and moved as rigidly as those green soldier figurines made of casted plastic. Ace strode out ahead of us. I turned to Cass and murmured, “Did the guy seem nervous to you?”
“He was in the presence of a Wood. It’s like meeting the queen of England.”
Was that it? It didn’t sit right, but then again, nothing sat right at that moment. Especially my upcoming dinner with Ace. When I caught up to him, I tried bartering it down to a coffee.
Cass elbowed me in the ribs.
“Kitty Cat, we’re both spending the night in Detroit, and we both need to eat.”
“What I need is to check back into my hotel.”
“I happen to have a suite with a lot of empty bedrooms.”
Cass made a noise that sounded a hell of a lot like a squeal.
“Don’t,” I warned her.
She grinned, clutching the bag full of books Mr. Thompson had given her against her chest. “Well, I’ll be on my way. Keys, please.”
“I need stuff from the car,” I muttered.
Ace’s phone rang. He picked up and paced in front of the brick building while I followed Cass. Maybe I could return to my hotel without him noticing. I dug my keys out of my bag, beeped the car open, grabbed the CVS bag, and then tendered the keys to Cass. She was making big eyes at me.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
“He wants to have dinner,” she hissed excitedly.
“Lots of people want to have dinner. We’re human beings. We need to eat.” Well, he wasn’t human, but apparently he still needed to eat. “Plus he’s having a baby. And he’s not my type.”
“Extraordinarily handsome is everyone’s type.”
“He’s not that handsome.”
She rolled her eyes and grinned.
“Drop it.”
“Fine.” Her grin turned into a slight frown. “Do you want me to stay? If I leave at four I can make it back in time for my shift.”
“You’re not driving two hundred miles at four o’clock in the morning.” I hugged her. “Thank you for asking though. And thank you for coming with me on this crazy expedition.”
“It was so much fun. Seriously. Whenevs, honey.”
I handed her the keys, she handed me her mascara and red lipstick, and then I watched her drive away. I glanced toward the building. Ace was still on the phone. He even had his back to me. I could get away, tell him I forgot something in the hotel and then pretend I’d fallen asleep. As long as my pulse stayed steady, he couldn’t find me. Yep, that was a solid dinner-flaking scenario.
I started walking, fast. Really fast. But then, when I turned the corner, my stomach cramped. Violently. Which made my pulse zing and the W blaze. And then Ace was in front of me, grinning that cocky smile of his.
“I should probably take it badly that you’re trying to escape dinner with moi.”
“I wasn’t trying to escape. I was…I was looking for a shop. I need clean clothes.”
He smirked. “I love shopping for women’s clothes. Especially underwear.”
“I’m so never buying underwear with you.”
“Commando works for me too.”
“Any blue moons rising tonight?”
He chuckled. “I chose a fancy restaurant, so you need a fancy dress, and those don’t come cheap.”
“Can’t you make one appear with dust?”
“I could, but you can see through dust, and so can I, so I’m not sure how comfortable you’d be wearing it.”
“Ugh.”
I went into three stores with Ace in tow. It was nerve-racking—shopping with a guy—but it was also somewhat amusing as he got a lot of attention. From the saleswoman to the customers, women gravitated toward him.
“You should tone down that captis of yours,” I whispered after we left the last shop. I’d found a really pretty red dress and paid for it myself. Dad would kill me, but at least I didn’t owe the faerie anything…well, anything more.
“I have a secret for you. I’m not using any.”
I rolled my eyes. “Right.”
When we reached the five-star hotel Ace had booked a suite at, I insisted on getting a room. One that wasn’t in his suite. “What are you scared of?” he asked, which made me flush.
“I just like my privacy.”
“Uh-huh.” He dropped it after that.
I was shown to a room on the third floor. “Pick you up at 8 PM, Kitty Cat.” And then he took the elevator all the way up.
27
The Non-Date
I phoned my father to tell him I would be back the next afternoon. And then I took a bath in my giant marble tub with bubbles all the way up to my elbows. I must’ve spent an hour in there. My fingertips pruned. I was always amazed at how our bodies transformed to adapt to our habitat. When I’d read that fingertips pruned to give hands more traction in a slippery environment, biology had officially become my favorite subject. I wondered if the humans who lived in Neverra had to adapt to their habitat, or did they return to Earth every so often?
I grabbed a handful of scented bubbles and watched them slither down my skin, popping along the way. The soap smelled masculine, all at once spicy and heady. Patchouli and black peppercorns, I read. I took a picture of the label and sent it to Aylen for inspiration. She sent me a smiley face that made me smile. But then a glimpse at my phone’s clock dimmed that smile.
7:38 PM. Ace would be at my door in twenty minutes. If I could’ve slipped under the foam and stayed there all night, I would’ve, but one, I had a wound that needed to stay dry, and two, I didn’t particularly want to experience stomach cramps again.
Why was I so nervous about dinner with Ace anyway? It wouldn’t be the first time we’d sit at a table together. And it wasn’t the first time we’d be alone—well as alone as two people could be in a restaurant. Plus I was almost a hunter, which made me an almost-enemy. He’d made it crystal clear what he thought of hunters and faeries together. I was making a boulder out of a molehill, or whatever the expression. Unfortunately that made me think of the Unseelie who lived in the—what did he call it again?—hareni.
Sighing, I got out of the bath and dried off, and then I rubbed the divine-smelling lotion onto my legs and applied Cass’s mascara and lipstick. I didn’t want to go to dinner, but I didn’t want to look unkempt.
I blow-dried my hair straight and slid on the red dress. It was really bright. Like stoplight-bright. I should probably have gone with a more demure color. Too late. I was about to put on my boots, not having any other shoes, when the doorbell rang.
I pulled the door open wide.
Ace’s face seemed particularly tanned tonight. Perhaps it was in contrast to his sky-blue shirt, which he wore unbuttoned underneath a pearl-gray dinner jacket. The spotlight over his head cast a golden sheen over his slicked back hair and clear blue eyes. The day I’d spent in the attic going through Mom’s boxes surged into mind. I remembered watching him rock in Mom’s yellow chair and thinking how lucky I was to be immune to Ace. Had it been true, or had I simply tried to convince myself because I didn’t want to be attracted to another faerie?
I gazed away from his face, then busied myself with slipping my feet in my boots.
“Wait,” he said.
I looked up.
He handed me a red shoebox. “I had some time to kill and happened to walk in front of a store that sold nice shoes.”
“And you happened to know my size?”
“I’m observant. Plus you can’t wear that dress with those boots.”
“Are all faeries as fashion-forward as you?”
He pushed the box into my hand. “Just take them.”
I took them and opened the box, parting the silk paper. What lay in that box was the most beautiful pair of shoes I’d ever seen, carved out of mirrored gold. They were also the highest heels I’d ever owned. I was going to resemble a beanstalk in these.
I put the lid back on top. “I can’t wear them.”
“Why not?”
“I…” I was going to use the excuse of not owing him any more than I already did, but instead, I went with the truth. “I’m already tall.”
He frowned. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. You’re a guy. You don’t have to worry about height.”
“Supermodels are tall.”
“They’re supermodels. They’ve got the looks to go with the height.”
“What exactly do you think you look like, Catori?”
“Like Shaquille O’Neal and Sacagawea had a baby.”
“Not sure who Sacagawea is.”
“A Native who helped Lewis and Clark during their Louisiana expedition.”
“Good to know, but my question was actually rhetorical.”
I blushed a little. I wasn’t sure why, since I wasn’t even sure it was a compliment.
“Anyway, wear the heels. If anyone dares make fun of you, I’ll burn their dinner to a crisp.”
I smiled as I sat on the ochre velvet pouf in front of my bed and slid the red-soled shoes on. They fit perfectly. “What’s this going to cost me?”
“Presents are not bargains.”
“How come the book wasn’t considered a present then?”
“Because you insisted on paying me back. So it stayed a favor.”
I folded my arms. “So if I tell you I won’t pay you back, then I don’t need to go to dinner with you?”
“Too late to change your mind.”
I grumbled, “One day, I’m going to become a pro at faerie bargains.”
“I have a century on you,” he said, as I finally rose. “That’s a lot of catching up to do.”
I was eye-level with Ace, except his eyes weren’t on mine; they were on the shoes.
“If you liked them so much, why didn’t you get them in your size?” I teased.
He chuckled. And then he asked, more seriously, “Can you walk in them?”
I stepped forward. “Apparently I can. How far’s the restaurant?”
“Just upstairs.”
My mouth went dry. “Upstairs?”
“Relax, Kitty Cat. It’s not in my room. It’s on the hotel’s rooftop. They have a highly rated Asian restaurant.”
He held the door open. I swiped the key card and phone from the console, then walked past him, trying to make my strides fluid. It was hard work but a glimpse in the hallway mirror reassured me I was doing okay.
“They’re really pretty, Ace. Thank you.”
“I think the last hunter to thank a faerie so much was Taeewa when Jacobiah saved his life.”
“He didn’t exactly save him.”
“He brought him back from the dead.”
“But he killed him first.”
“And brought him back afterward,” Ace insisted. “And then he kept him hidden from faeries. In my book, protecting is a form of saving.”
“So lying to Gregor was you trying to save me?” I had my back pressed against one of the mirrored panels of the elevator.
His lips formed a hard line. “Lying to Gregor was me apologizing for duping you.”
The air was so thick and hot in the closed metal box that sweat slicked my palms and magnified the spicy scent of Ace’s cologne. It was everywhere, leather and ginger mixed with cloves. I was pretty sure I would smell like him all throughout dinner now. The elevator pinged, and it felt as though I were being released from a maximum-security prison. I walked out ahead of Ace into the air-conditioned restaurant. The walls—which were all bookcases showcasing terracotta statues and multicolored earthenware—were lacquered black, as well as the tables. High-backed chairs covered in midnight-blue velvet were arranged around the round dining tables.
A hostess clad in a black, mandarin-collared dress sat us down. She was so mesmerized by Ace that she didn’t pull out my chair. She didn’t even look at me.
