“Ooh,” she says, rubbing her palms together. “Let’s see…I’ve gotten Botox on my forehead, and I might want to do it again someday. Once, I pretended my cat died to get out of a really bad date. Um…” She continues, listing them on her fingers now. “I pierced my sister’s ears with a thumbtack, they got infected, and I told my parents her friend did it. Sometimes I forget to wash my legs in the shower, and, oh! I’ve been known to flirt with the employees at Wendy’s so they’ll give me free fries.”
I sit there, awestruck, trying to absorb her list of offenses.
“What do you think? Can you still love a monster like me?”
I gently nip at the tip of her nose. “Nothing could ever make me stop.”
Epilogue
LINDSAY
A month later…
“Wait, can you show me again?” I ask Anton. We’re prepping ingredients in the kitchen, and he’s trying to teach me a cutting technique that I will never be able to replicate. It’s impressive as hell to watch, though.
“You put your cucumbers here, your tomatoes here, your onions here, and your potatoes here,” he says, pointing at the different vegetables on four separate cutting boards. “Then you get your knives,” he lifts four sharp blades in the air using his tentacles, “and you dice!” His limbs move at lightning speed as the veggies are diced into small, neat shapes. His eyes stay on me, while his tentacles move independently with expert precision.
“Wow,” I say with an appraising clap. “Incredible.”
He’s become one of my favorite people in town. We work well together in the kitchen, prepping ingredients, managingdifferent stations, and splitting the tasks evenly for the current dishes on the menu. We’ve been brainstorming a new spring selection––just a few new dishes that we can easily fold into the rush––and he’s just as eager to try new recipes as I am.
I still only work part time, but since my shift ends at four each day, Anton has everything measured out and organized before the dinner crowd rolls in. That also leaves me enough time to meet Jules when she gets home from science club.
“Lioness?” Nic calls out from the bar.
I find him standing in the middle of the floor with a hand behind his back and a smirk tugging at his lips.
“What are you up to?”
“I’ve got a surprise for you.” Then he nods for me to follow, and like a puppy, I do.
When we get outside, he stands behind me and covers my eyes as we continue to walk deeper into the field behind the bar. We must walk for ten minutes like this before he pulls us to a stop.
“Okay, open your eyes.”
It’s his trailer, but the door is hanging open.
“Step inside.”
I follow his command and find a completely empty space, apart from a stack of old desktop computer monitors and what looks like an old copy machine. On a chair in the corner sits a pair of safety goggles and a sledgehammer. “What exactly––”
“It’s a smash room,” he says with a grin.
“A smash room?”
He grabs the goggles and gently pulls them over my eyes. “Camilla said you need to manage your rage before you can start practicing your telekinesis with the coven, so I figured this could be a way to do that.”
He places the sledgehammer in my hands and backs out of the trailer.
“You want me to obliterate this shit with a hammer?” It’s not my birthday, but it certainly feels like it.
He pops his head through the open window. “Yes, darling. Bash it up good, okay? Remember, it’s for your craft, so don’t hold back.”
I swing the hammer up over my head and try to summon my most rage-filled memories. They come in waves, and I let my body take over. Hard plastics and sheet metal bend and crumple beneath my weapon, and I picture the faces of Billy, Gemma, and my former boss as I continue to swing and smash.
It doesn’t take long for my arms to tire out, and I can already feel the soreness setting in. Clearly, I need to work on my upper body strength if I plan to spend more time in the smash room, which I absolutely do.
I toss my goggles off, drop the hammer, and race into Nic’s arms as he stands outside, pride evident in his expression. Then I launch myself into his arms. He catches me easily and twirls me around.
