The color of Daphne’s eyes shifted, the amber depths seeming to glow for a moment as the sound of her heartbeat slowed the way it always did when I touched her before everything went back to normal.
It always happened so fast that I was never sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me or not. I wasn’t sure what was happening to her, but I definitely needed to find more information about it, and fast.
“It was lonely,” I told her honestly, my mind conjuring up memories of the first few years where I spoke to no one and hid myself away. “But I eventually got involved in the underground monster community and that helped. Dallan and the rest became my clan.”
If I didn’t have Monstrous Ink, I wasn’t sure I would have survived as long as I had. It helped to keep the madness of solitude at bay. The same madness that Ronan had surrendered himself to over a decade ago.
“Have you ever met another Wingless?” Daphne asked, as if she was reading my thoughts.
“A few, but I’ve only become friends with one. His name is Ronan. I was actually supposed to go see him in a couple of days, but I may have to put that trip off for a bit with everything that’s been going on,” I explained. I didn’t want to leave her by herself, even if everyone at the shop was looking out for her.
“I could go with you,” Daphne offered, “If you’d like.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know how good of an idea that is, Ronan isn’t the most predictable creature and you’re much more breakable than I am.”
I’d never seen Ronan hurt more than himself or the trailer he lived in, but I found that when it came to Daphne I wanted to be as risk averse as possible. If I could roll her up in bubble wrap and keep her inside the house, I would.
Daphne’s lips twisted. “I’m notthatbreakable. I did make it across the country on my own after living in a nightmare for five years.”
I couldn’t argue with her there.
“I’ll think about it,” I said gently, tugging the blanket out from under her elbows and pulling it up to her chin. “But for now, you should get some rest, we’ve only got a couple of hours until morning chores.”
Daphne scooted down with a playful pout. “You’d think that an angry ex-husband would get me out of farm chores for at least one day.”
A chuckle rumbled out of my chest. “The farm sleeps for no one, not even crazy exes, dragonfly. The goats still demand to be fed and if you don’t pet Como like you usually do he might just implode.”
I swear the emu liked her better than he liked me and I’d had him since he was a one-eyed chick.
“Well we wouldn’t want Como bits everywhere,” she said around a yawn.
Reaching for the bedside table lamp, I flicked the light off and waited for her breathing to even out before quietly stepping out of the room.
I had a lot of things to get done, but the first thing I wanted to do was update my security systems. The barns were all wired, but it was time to do the same for the house. I could handle most things, but Daphne didn’t have claws or super strength, so cameras and alarms would just have to do.
Fifteen
“Wow, your ex sounds like a real cunt,” Effie said, giving the ‘T’ in cunt a hard enunciation before slurping on her straw loudly.
I’d waited until lunch to tell her my story, so she’d spent the morning buzzing between the front desk and whatever she was brewing upstairs. It had only taken one loud explosion in her apartment for Dallan to finally kick us out an hour early to eat.
It felt easier to tell Effie everything than it had been with Cash. It was like the wall of silence I’d placed on myself had been torn down and I could finally say the words without wanting to melt into a puddle of tears.
“He was definitely something,” I said, not wanting to say the word out loud, but agreeing with her whole-heartedly.
“Should I put a curse on him? I could totally do that if you had an item of his,” Effie offered, glaring at her pasta as she stabbed it viciously with her fork.
I shook my head. “No I don’t have anything like that, and isn’t it illegal to curse someone? Don’t they have witches and warlocks who work for the government to track that kind of stuff?”
Effie scoffed. “Pssh, I can get around a few measly government narcs easily, Daphne, who do you think I am?”
I’d never seen Effie do much magic aside from her ink making, but Cash told me that when she was younger she was known for hexing people who pissed her off. I always just assumed she could do more magic than she let on.
One of Effie’s vines snaked out from under her shirt and took the fork out of her hands before she could shatter the plate.
Effie glared at it. “I wasn’t going to break it, Jiminy,” she told the appendage sullenly.
It took me almost a week to ask her why she spoke to her vines as if they were people. Apparently they had a mind of their own, and she’d even nicknamed each of the six vines.
