“You’ll be fine, bud.” I grip his shoulder. “She doesn’t bite much.” My lips twitch as I skate away, calling for Maddie, but she’s already in her car when I find her, and I get the urge to go somewhere first before her apartment.
Thebellperchedabovethe door chimes as I enter the dusty bookstore with a sigh of relief. I’ve only tried to visit the store once since we’ve been sent here, but the door was locked that time, and I’ve been too busy getting ready for my bowl game and “studying” to try again.
“Ellie? Hello?” I call, shuffling to the counter. The drag of my feet echoes in the store.
The roll of a chair gliding across the wooden floor rumbles from the back room. “Oh, here he is, Chia. I told you he would come today. Figured out he has a soulmate and wants to make her feel better.” She sings, dancing her way to the counter. The tabby Bengal weaves through her feet and rubs against her shin as they approach.
If this lady hadn’t already cut my hair, blew powder in my face, and then sent me down a hole to an alternate universe, I might be concerned by her behavior, but now, well, any action is fair game in this bookstore, I guess.
“Come to use your hour, I assume?” She smirks, pulling a pencil out from behind her head. Long blonde hair falls past her shoulders, and the transformation around her glowing face startles me. Her cat eyes flicker to my face. “Oh darn, I took the glamour down, didn’t I? Never mind, yes, I’m charming. Your hour, boy, focus.”
“Right.” I clear my throat. “Um.” Panic seizes my chest, and I bury it back down. Maddie needs me. I can do this. “Can you stop her flare?”
Ellie’s lips flatten, and her shimmer fades. “No, child, unfortunately, I can’t.”
“Oh.” I rake my fingernails through the clipped hair on the back of my head. I only had one plan when I came here, and now I’m at a loss.
“But I can ensure she’s comfortable and happy for the next hour if you’d like to use it that way.”
“Sure, whatever will take the edge off everything, please, do that.” I flex my hand at my side, working out the tremor.
“Soulmate bond is getting stronger with you two, I see.” She smirks, motioning to my hand. “That’s good. You both needed to learn that love doesn’t come attached to some status you gain, like your quarterback status or her Greek whatever. But I’m worried about her, she needed to learn to love herself too before you both go back at Christmas, and I don’t know if she’s going to get there at this rate.”
What Ellie is saying makes zero sense to me. Madeline Finch is the most self-confident human I have ever met. If anything, she should have had to learn to love herself less.
“I’m sorry, are we talking about the same person? Because I didn’t think it was possible for Madeline Finch to love herself more.”
Ellie clicks her tongue with a shake of her head. “We all wear masks when we’re scared. Hers happens to be a very well-crafted one. Not saying it’s right. Oh no, she was a piece. Just saying she may be more fragile than she lets on.”
The hurt that hung in Maddie’s eyes tonight suddenly makes more sense. In the chaos of the panic flushing over me, I figured it was just because she was in pain, and she was. But it wasn’t just the physical kind.
“You’ll have to grovel a bit, but you’ll make it right, never you mind. Just take this cookie dough—” She plops a yellow tube of chocolate chip goodness in my hand—where the hell did that come from? “And I’ll send you on your way to right the ship.”
“Thank you?” I blink as she blows a bit of dust from her hand into my face, and I’m suddenly falling into another black hole.
The words “Don’t fart in the hole. Faeries live down there” echoes in the void.
And I manage a frustrated “Seriously? I could have walked” before my mind goes blank.
Chapter sixteen
Die Hard
Maddie
Ihateeverything,andeverything hurts.
My back. My ovaries. A random spot under my ribs and neck. My uterus. My heart.
I barely got to the bathroom as the cramps intensified before I found myself with my head in the toilet, losing the pills I had just tried to swallow.
Oh, it’s going to be one of those days, then. The kind where I writhe on the bathroom floor and beg for mercy until my body is so exhausted I fall asleep. Cool, cool, cool. At least my heart will be distracted.
I hug my heating pad tight to my midsection and let the cool tile relax me just a fraction.
I don’t know what it is because, on any good day, I don’t yearn to go face-first onto the bathroom floor, but you add that pain and nausea in, and that tile is suddenly a freaking oasis.
The spasms hold my pelvic floor hostage. With a groan, I crunch into the fetal position and push the heat in, hoping it’ll ease it. My skin grows hot with the heightened warmth, but I don’t care, so I’ll burn my skin a little. It’s the only chance I have of getting this under control.
