“Oh, this is Javier. I got you some help. I didn’t want this to be all on you for such an important day.”
My heart sank. There would have been a time when Evie would have trusted me with her life. I gave the woman her first job at my bakery, followed her out of our secret village into the larger Harrowlands. I stood by her and cheered her on as she found her mate and took her crown. She didn’t trust me to pull off a dinner for a few hundred monsters?
My arm hooked hers and I dragged her out of the kitchen, away from the prying eyes that would spread this gossip faster than a caramel burned. We took the first turn into a room off the kitchen, which turned out to be the cold storage with the ducks. Shutting the door, Evie provided some light with her dragon magic, holding an orb of it in her palm. I picked the duck off the floor, gathering my wits so I didn’t yell. We were already forty-six minutes behind and the to-do list was growing with every passing wasted moment.
“This is my dinner, Evie.”
I shouldn’t have let Lenora help. Evie somehow knew I wasn’t up for it.
She wrung her hands. “I mean of-of course it is. Uh, I didn’t mean…”
I stared at the floor as if it would draw us back together again. “Is this about Ward? I didn’t know he was teasing you about the Devil’s Bell. Okay? I only broke his pinkie.”
She blurted the rest out. “You just haven’t seemed yourself and I was worried it would be too much for one person.”
“But that person is me!” I meant it as a joke, but it came out too strangled. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t know about the Fever. It wasn't like I told anyone. What if they wanted to… help? I tried again in a more reasonable tone. “I’m going to work extra hard on this. Don’t worry.”
I held out my hands to keep this at bay beforeI realized that duck covered them. Evie’s face grew distinctly green. She turned away to answer.
“It’s not that, Fallon. You’re tired. You disappear for whole days at a time. When you’re not working, you look…blank.”
I startled as if she’d scalded me, my brow creasing into deep furrows. I most certainly did not! Maybe I felt a little blank when the pain was especially bad, but I just needed to catch up. Get through this night.
“I haven’t really slept for the past week getting this menu together. I’ve got this.”
She put her hand on my shoulder. “I know. And Declan always helps.”
“I don’t need help or Declan. I need space to just get it done!”
“But Fallon,” she said, her face stricken.
I didn’t want to hear ‘buts’. My volume increased. “This is my kitchen and–”
A polite knock preceded Ward’s quiet menace seeping through the door. “Ladies. The discussion needs to slip down a notch if it’s going to continue.”
“Don’t mind him. He’s extra protective?—”
A loud clang of a falling pot reverberated through the closet.
My fists forgot any pain left in them as my nails formed half moons in my palms.What in the seven hells is that butt waffle doing in my kitchen?I asked Declan.
“What?” Evie said, staring at the cold room door.
The door ripped open a second later and Declan poked his head in, Ward looming behind him.
“Don’t shout at me. That butt waffle is trying to use your good pot for making a braise.”
Every muscle I owned clenched in fury. “You see, Evie!”
“When did you start that?” she asked instead, pointing to her forehead.
“What, mind speaking to Declan? Since we met. All of us magic-types can do that now, right?” The last thing I needed was one of her tangents when another set of clangs rocked the kitchen.
“Oh, girl,” she said. “You can’t ignore–”
I hung my head. “Please don’t add one more thing to my plate if you’re not getting rid of that man.”
“You need him, Fallon.”
