Hours slipped by.
Days maybe—fuckingweeks—until Rubi showed up and filled the doorway to a room that had begun to feel like a padded cell. “How much do you love me, Rangie Roo?”
I sat up on the bed, searching for Vik on autopilot.
“The queen stole Vicky,” Rubi supplied. “Change of scenery will do him good.”
“How come he gets day release from the asylum?”
“He’s nicer.”
Couldn’t argue with that.
I eased back down as Rubi came closer.
“Brought you something.”
“Unless it’s a spell to teleport my-fucking-self out of this room, I don’t give a shit.”
“Where would you go?”
Wherever Vik is.
I managed not to speak my heart out loud this time, but Rubi heard me all the same and handed me the paper bag he’d been hiding behind his back.
Warm. Greasy. Magical.
“You brought me nuggets?”
Rubi scowled. “Don’t say it out loud. Makes it real.”
I opened the bag. Twenty nuggets waited for me, and I was suddenly more hungry than I’d ever been my whole life.
And scared that they’d come up as fast as I wanted to eat them, but I knew Rubi. How he felt about the lifeblood that was my favourite junk food. Didn’t want to give him the chance to change his mind, so I demolished them in record time, feeling every ounce of salt, fat, sugar, and who the fuck cared what else hit my bloodstream. Loving it, almost as much as I loved Viktor.
Rubi took the bag and crushed it in his inked fists. “You’re a monster. A lucky one. Riv went to the drive-thru. If it had been me, you’d have got a happy meal.”
“Just one?”
“Maybe two,” Rubi conceded, taking a perch on the edge of the bed. “How’s the noggin?”
“Still there.”
“Still hurt?”
I shrugged. “It’s better. Can I leave soon?”
“Nopety nope.” Rubi shook his big shaggy head. “Put the time in now so it doesn’t ruin your life later.”
Like it had his—I’d had all this from Cam already. Wasn’t in the mood to have it again.
Grimacing, I shifted onto my side, my whole body aching from inactivity. “I might fossilise in here.”
“Viktor not entertaining enough?”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“I will not.” Rubi hooted a laugh. “This is the best tea we’ve had since it turned out Folk and Deeky bumped uglies in the army.”
