Melvin narrowed his eyes at the poor…butler.It was probably best to try to work within the bounds of the spell, rather than force Hedwig’s poor brain to work overtime.“Uh.Yeah.Yep.The queen asked me to get herfavoritenail polish for her.The eye-ball scorching pink one.”
Hedwig swallowed a few times, probably trying to get words out past the bind spell.Fuck’s sake.If Hedwig had enough awareness to be fighting the spell, then he must behorrified.The poor man, all bundled up in a suit and looking so stuffy and...old.
Hedwig didn’t say anything else.But hedidtake the towels to the bathroom and open one too many cabinet doors while he was putting them away.Melvin glared at the rows of nail polish that were revealed.Every single one of them was some shade of fuckingpink.
“God damn it,” he muttered, crouching to run a hand over the second shelf, feeling for magic.“If I never see the color pink again in mylife,I’ll die a happy man.”
The butler put his towels away and turned,accidentallyknocking over a whole row of nail polish with a well-placed elbow.“So sorry, sir.”
Melvin smothered a laugh, focusing his attention and his scan on the bottles Hedwig had just knocked down for him.There.A little buzz of not-right energy.That one right there.He held up the bottle, turning it to and fro, his trained eyejustcatching the barest flicker of dark magic.“Thanks Heddy,” he said with a smile at the butler.“I’ll bring it right back, so no need to worry.Or tell anyone.”
Then he pocketed the cursed nail polish along with one other bottle and hurried back down to his makeshift lab.
Time for a little old swaparoo.He ignored the gasps and splashes that echoed down the hall, refusing to feel left out or alone.Not like he wanted in onthatvanilla bullshit anyway.He just wanted his team back.He clutched the nail polish bottles desperately as he pulled them out of his pants pockets.This had to work.Once he broke through Mary’s delusion, then he could explain.
Thenthey could figure out how to get out of here before the entire place imploded around them.
Piece of cake.
He pricked his finger and squeezed a few drops of his blood into a bowl of ingredients he’d already distilled for a counter-curse, willing the red to shift to a perfect, petal pink.
It turned puke green.
Yeah, piece of fucking cake…until he blew himself up.Again.
Chapter 8
TheBadWizardwasapparently also just badatwizarding.That much was obvious from the nasty burn scars that were visible though his tattered, scorched clothing.You know, if thenewblisters and reddened skin from where he’d tried to blow up my new house weren’t evidence enough.
But the thing that really proved how evil he was…was the current state of my manicure!Some stupid instinct had sent me rushing in to see if the ugly burglar was alive.And somehow, he’d ended up getting his nasty, explosive goo all over my hands.My nails were ruined, the polish sticky and mostly dissolved.It was a wonder my damned skin hadn’t burned off along with the paint.“Fuck.”
And now I was swearing, apparently.So not cute.
But what was evenmoredistressing to my delicate, perfect pertness was the fact that I kinda wanted to pull the gangly, bungling,singedweirdo into my arms and make him promise to stop setting himself on fire for me.
So messed up.
I shook my head, backing away from the mess and into the hall, my goo-drenched hands held out before me, since I couldn’t even use them to cover my face against all the smoke.Gray sludge dripped from the dining room ceiling, and the pretty pink floral wallpaper was absolutelyruined.“I…don’t feel so good,” I said faintly.I batted my eyelashes at Dray and Cass in what I knew was an adorable helpless way.“I think I need to lie down.”
The Wizard of Woe pushed himself to his feet and stood swaying, a piece of his hair still smoking.“And repaint your nails, I’d imagine,” he said in a calm voice, holding out myPerfect Petal Pinkpolish.
Where the hell did he get my nail polish from?Had I left it down here?And damn it, I just swore again, didn’t I?Hell.I huffed at him.“Don’t think I’m going to just forget you tried to blow up my house,” I warned.“You can’t distract me.”
He shrugged and patted out the smoking strand of hair.“I’m sorry, Queen Mary Sue, Your Eliteness, Goddess Divine.”He arched a brow at me, looking all innocent.“But I’m pretty sure I saw Hedwig headed toward your room with bath salts and abig-asstray of chocolate.”
He batted his eyelashes atmeand handed me the nail polish.I frowned.My head hurt like someone was doing construction inside my skull.Probably from the stupid magic fumes or whatever.A bathdidsound nice.And some chocolate.And a new manicure.
Something didn’t seem right about all of this.There was a thought niggling at the back of my mind, but it refused to materialize into anything coherent.Eh.Couldn’t be that important.
“Fine,” I said tossing my head in an elegant and queenly way.“I’ll be in my room, recovering.But you,” I pointed a nasty, ruined finger at him.“You’ll stay in your room, or I’ll let my knights beat you into submission.”I turned and headed toward the stairs.“And no more fucking magic!”
I nearly slapped a goo-covered hand over my mouth.Oh no.Why was I swearing?Fuck.I mean…fiddlesticks.My head throbbed.
After a warm bath and a perfectly delicate female-sized serving of chocolate, (What?That tray wassmall.)I repainted my nailsPerfect Petal Pinkand collapsed into bed.Cass and Dray were as sweet as ever, but for some reason…I just wasn’t that into their perfectly perfectness.I drifted off to sleep with my head on the pillow next to Cass’s, his bright blue eyes the last thing I saw before sleep took me.
Sharp, intelligent blue eyes stared into mine, challenging and playfully mocking all at once from a handsome, angular face framed in gold curls.“Investigator?”a smooth voice said.“Seems more like thief to me.”The man had Cass’s eyes, but his face was all wrong—narrow and elfin, his expression full of wickedness and this sort of…barely contained glee.“I could help you…but it will cost you.”
My heart pounded in my chest, and I knew my hands were sweaty.He’d caught me red handed.But he wanted tohelp?I put one hand on my narrow hip and pushed my frizzy hair back off my damp forehead with the other.Wait?What?That wasn’t me….“I know better than to deal with fairies,” I said calmly.But I knew I was lying.I wanted his help.And…maybe more.
