“Fuck off,” I sneer, not bothering to defend myself against those claims. “At least I’m not being protected by my daddy. Did you know he threatened me?” I laugh a little, annoying her even more as her cheeks brighten. “Seems like even your dad knows you can’t win this test. He knows you will lose.”
I expect it when she lifts her hand and tries to punch me, and I catch her fist mid-air, surprising her even as that hit my hand. I twist her arm and kick her hard between her legs.
She might not be a guy, but I know that fucking hurts either way. She screams and falls to her knees and then looks up as I let her arm go. Her whole body starts to pull in shadows around her.
“Daesyn, enough,” Finn gently suggests right behind me, and he wraps his arm around my waist. I don’t have time to wonder what he is doing before we are falling through a shadow portal, and he holds me up as we land in an apartment I don’t know.
“What was that?” I question, pulling his arm off me and spinning around. “You need to let me fight my own battles once in a while, Finn!”
He doesn’t agree or disagree with me, ignoring my outburst and walking to a small kitchen on the other side of the room. This room mimics Seth’s, and I realise it must be Finn’s. I glance around and pause when I notice a line of big white crystals in a circle in front of the bed. “Would you like a drink?”
“Sure,” I reply, pulling my eyes from the crystals, the willingness to fight with Finn about Catherine leaving me. I sit down on the sofa, pulling my legs under me. “The fae king turning up is a surprise, I assume?”
“Yes. It has been ten years since the fae king came through the Otherworld portal,” he explains to me, and I’m interested to learn this, considering he was one of the leaders that took down my own race. “And I think you should avoid the ball, considering what you are. So far the queen of the reapers and everyone else simply believe you have distant Seelie blood in your system, but the king might be able to sense your power as I can.”
He comes over to the sofa, sitting near me and handing me a wine glass filled with fae wine by the smell of it. He has a beer and takes a long sip.
“Thank you for the advice and drink,” I say. “Out of curiosity, can you get drunk?”
“Yes,” he replies with a smile. “It takes about five bottles of whiskey. Maybe more, I do not remember much after the fifth bottle.”
“I would like to see you drunk, Finn,” I admit.
His eyes trace my face. “I think it would be quite dangerous for us both, in all honesty.”
I smile and look away, taking a deep drink of the fae wine. It’s not as nice as the royal fae wine Seb showed me, but fae wine is always nice in its own way.
“What are the crystals?” I question. “Please don’t say they are some kinky bedroom shit gods like to do.”
Finn laughs and it makes the room seem warmer. Safer. A feeling of being home, something I’ve not particularly felt since I was a kid. “No, that was simply a clean space to place them. They are a form of poetry, of stories that only gods can hear and understand.”
“Oh,” I whisper. “Do you like stories and poetry then?”
“Mortals write such sweet and sad poems, it is hard not to be enchanted by them,” he replies. “You must think I am odd, being that my aunt was human and I grew up with her, but I did not experience the human world much. I was never sent to school, and I never left the house other than the gardens. My whole life was created from when I was here in this castle and then with the gods.”
“I don’t think you’re odd at all,” I tell him. “I mean, I’m a half Unseelie fae fighting for the throne of a race which has murdered or enslaved my entire race. You must think I’m odd for being here.”
“The gods chose this path for you,” he replies, and I look up to meet his gaze. “You may not understand the hand you’ve been given, but they do. Everything is set on its own path, as my mother would say.”
“And what is your path, Finn?” I question.
He thinks about it for a long time. “My mother’s redemption. I simply wish to find happiness in what I must do here with the mortals. My task is not easy.”
“Tell me about it,” I ask.
His expression changes, drifting cold once more. “I think it is best you leave to get ready, Daesyn. I do hope to see you tonight for a brief time.”
He waves his hand, and a shadow portal appears on the floor right in front of me. I only have to stand. I down the rest of my drink and brace myself for the fall.
“You don’t have to do that,” I tell Finn. “With me. I can see through the shield you’ve just put up. I can see you.”
“And one day you will wish you couldn’t,” he replies and swings his hand. A shadow gently hits me in the back, pushing me off the sofa, and I fall into the portal of shadows. Within seconds, I land on my bed, bouncing from the impact.
“Oh, where did you go?” Poppy asks from the doorway, a folded letter in her hand. I sit up, rubbing my face a little bit.
“I was at Finn’s,” I tell her. She looks divided, and I cock my head to the side. “What’s up, Pops?”
“It can wait,” she finally breathes out. Before I can question her on it, Mossy runs into the room and jumps on the bed.
And I burst into laughter with Poppy. Mossy is pink, head to toe, and covered in glitter. His eyes are the only thing on him that isn’t a luminous pink.
“What the hell happened to you?” I question.
“The dog set a trap, but there will be payback!” Mossy huffs and jumps off the bed, walking out of the room, leaving a trail of glitter in his wake.
Life would be pretty boring without my monkey bestie, that’s for sure.
Chapter 31
I look like a tree. Well, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but my green dress looks like millions of leaves have made a tornado around my body and stuck to me. The leaves are all different shades of green and fit tightly on the upper half of my body, and flow out into a skirt that falls to the floor. My hair is twisted up into a knot, half of it falling down my neck in curls, and a leaf tiara is clipped into my hair.
“I love the theme of this ball,” Poppy exclaims, and I turn to see her twirl around in her deep green satin dress that has flowers at the base of the skirt. It looks like she is sitting in a meadow. Poppy’s hair mimics mine tonight, down to a similar tiara, but hers has silver flowers instead of leaves. She pauses and smooths her dress down a few times. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” I answer, crossing my arms and looking to the lift as it clicks itself open.
“Erm...how do you get a guy to like you?” she cautiously asks. “I mean, I don’t know—”
