Heidi stands in the doorway in leggings, an oversized pink T-shirt that says "Bake It' Til You Make It," and a pair of fuzzy socks with tiny cartoon deer on them. Her warm light brown hair is down today, curling slightly around her face and down her back. She's wearing makeup that hides any trace of her birthmark, just like she was yesterday when these guys showed up.
But when her beautiful brown eyes meet mine, a slight pink blush crawls up into her neck and cheeks that the makeup can't completely hide. She clearly hasn't forgotten the way I almost pounced on her last night.
Godsdamn, she's so fucking adorable.
The color in her face only deepens when she sees Ian standing behind me. Her gaze moves to Zak and Kaenon, then back to me. It's like she can't look straight at any of us for more than a second without self-combusting, and she's started fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.
"Good morning! Sorry that I slept in for about eight million years."
"No sorries needed. All healed up now, Candy?" Zak checks. "Feeling better?"
"Oh, yeah—I'm great. Good. Super great-good. Gods, I'm repeating myself again," she sighs before smiling brightly. "Are you guys hungry? I can make a late breakfast or something. Iwantto make you all something," she asserts when she sees meopening my mouth to remind her we can feed our own damn selves. "I'm your host, and so far, all I've done is sleep. Just play along and let me be all host-ish now, okay?"
The half-demon grins. "In that case, whatever you wanna make, I'll eat."
She debates, looking between us. "How about a light soup and turkey sandwiches on homemade bread? Does anyone here not eat meat? Any allergies I should know about?"
Each of the others is telling her that they'll eat anything, but I notice that Ian's barely stopping himself from scowling as his eyes linger on Heidi's face. When she beams again and says she'll whip up something we'll like, she practically skips down the hall out of earshot.
I arch my brow at the thrall. "What's up your ass?"
"She's wearing makeup again."
"Why the hell does it matter if she likes wearing makeup? She can wear what she wants."
"No shit. I just hate that Heidi feels like she has to cover up her birthmark," he huffs.
She does? I frown.
Kaenon tips his head. "Birthmark? Where? I have not beheld such a mark on my mate."
"First I've heard of it," Zak agrees.
Ian glances at the door to make sure Heidi won't overhear before lowering his voice further just to be safe.
"Heidi was born with a port wine stain birthmark on her face. When we were really little, it was a much darker shade of red. And thenDaphnehappened," he grits.
"Daphne?" Kaenon repeats, also whispering to not be overheard.
"Heidi's mother," I tell him, though just the idea of Heidi being born into the Frost family I met still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
"Only by birth," Ian asserts, glaring at nothing in particular as he fumes. "Daphne was the furthest thing from anactualmother to her kids. The Frosts were fucking awful to Heidi almost from the day she was born, but Daphne was the worst. She was constantly trying to "fix" her daughter—especially her face. She started with creams. Lightening serums. Lemon juice. Bleach. You name it, she smeared it on Heidi's face morning and night. When none of that worked, she brought in healers."
"Healers?" Zak scoffs, indignant.
"Yep. Ones who specialized in removing scars with magic. When they told Daphne that they could only heal scars, not birthmarks, and that those aren't something that need to be fixed, she didn't like that answer. So she moved on to human procedures instead. Cosmetic laser treatments on a fuckingseven-year-old,"he spits. "When Heidi had a bad reaction to the first lasers and her face blistered badly, Daphne just had her face healed, took her to a different practitioner, and kept trying."
My fingers dig into my biceps through my shirt.
I figured the famously rich Frosts were nasty pieces of work even before they captured the Amatos and me after Maven returned. They had some guy nearly beat me to death while they watched, asking all kinds of questions about thetelumthat I never bothered answering.
But picturing Heidi, young and innocent and terrified, having to be anywhere near those people with a mother who was constantly trying to change her appearance…
Makes me fucking sick.
Ian is still glaring at nothing in particular. "Eventually, Heidi's birthmark faded to a lighter pink. I'm not sure if it was the lasers or creams or just time passing. But it would never go away completely, so Daphne decided on a simpler solution."
"Makeup," Zak understands, voice tight.
