I didn’t care about what color tablecloths we used, or if silverware came prewrapped. There wasn’t a difference between the ivory napkins and the cream ones. And for the love of the Gods, I couldn’t physically imagine the setup like she could. Everything blended together in my head, so I let her keep it organized in her mind. By the way her smile glowed and her eyes shined, she didn’t seem to mind the job.
Besides, I had a birthday party to focus on.
The Lockes’ house, the birthday party location, had a spacious bathroom for me to dress into costume. Surrounded by brick, the room would have been dark, but the raised window along the wall allowed more than enough natural light in. The scent of their rose candles filled the space, smelling like the essence of fine riches. A large black tub sat behind me, new and unscathed with gold handles and drain. Charcoal tiles chilled my bare feet as I stripped and opened my costume in a hurry because being naked in a stranger’s house felt vulnerable.
The costume—the warrior princess from Olive’s favorite books—was actually pretty cool for a kid and I respected her decisions.
I hadn’t told Laken what exactly we were dressing up as, afraid he’d refuse, so I prayed he wasn’t too mad when he opened his bag. All of my focus went to my current problem—these Gods-damned leather pants were fitting like a second skin I couldn’t pull past my knees.
Sweat beaded on my hairline and I knew the time for my last resort had come. Squat—jump—wiggle—wiggle. I repeated as necessary, bending at the knees and yanking as I jumped, shaking my hips in with a little rocking-side-to-side action. When they finally gave over my ass, I dropped my arms to my side and tilted my head back, panting. “Fucking hell.”
Onto the next pieces: the leather vest and scabbard with a fake sword. Those I added easily. Looking in their mirror,
I felt good in the costume. Being a warrior princess made me feel as though I could slit some throats, kick some necks off—take names and kick ass if you will. However, fitting my thick wavy hair into the black braided wig wasn’t going to happen as smoothly.
Thankfully, whoever was supposed to be dressing in the costume had thought of that and stuffed at least twenty hairpins into the bag. It took twelve. The hair did itch, and added heat, but it made the fit. Go big or go home, right? Lastly, I topped it with the small, dainty silver crown adorned with silver jewels. Time to party.
Opening the door, I stopped dead in my tracks the second my eyes locked on to Laken.
Laken, my dragon sidekick. Behind the black maskpainted to look like dragon scales hanging over his eyes, his blue eyes narrowed. Unable to determine how mad he was, I braced myself.In my defense…
“This is quite possibly the best job I’ve ever gotten.”
What?My eyes widened.
“The Warrior Princessis a classic,” he said. “I love Axron.” Axron.The dragon.
Observing his full outfit, he wore an onyx metallic scaled shirt with spiked shoulders. Two little black horns stood atop his head. He even wore black wings on his back. Luckily, he wore regular black pants. Gods, I couldn’t have imagined Laken trying to slither into leather pants. Or… maybe I could’ve.
“You do him justice.”
Only after his confession did he fully examine me in my costume. Noticing his attention, I spun for him. I knew my ass popped in these pants. A troublesome grin split his lips as he came my way, offering an arm. “Come on.” He nodded. “You know you look good.”
I didn’t know I looked good—I knew he’d think I did. Slight difference.
“Oh!” I’d almost forgotten and reached for my scabbard. “Look at this.” I pulled out my fake sword. “After you showed me your moves, maybe I could actually hurt you with this thing.”
“Whoa there, killer.” Laken snatched it from me. “If you’re going to swing a sword, you must do it right.” Taking a step back, he gave himself a safe distance before slinging the swordaround his wrist and between his fingers.Yeah, yeah, cool assassin shit.
I yanked the sword back. “Show-off.”
Unbeknownst to me, our relationship was hard to shake. Impossible, one might say. He unraveled me, my walls crumbled around him. Any defenses I’d built shattered. It took one conversation and I’d lean right into anything he said, like a trance. I lost all direction, all sense.
You know when you say you aren’t tired, but then you curl up in bed and wrap yourself up in your favorite warm, coziest blanket? You feel so comfortable and at home you don’t want to move again. Slowly, you start to drift off and fall asleep before even realizing it.
That’s what being around Laken felt like, like a warm and cozy blanket. And I could never say no to a good warm and cozy blanket.
Olive’s mother, Freya Locke, materialized in front of us, looking a bit frantic. “Oh, thank the Gods.” She sighed but wasted no time in grabbing our wrists and directing us to the back door. “Just in time.” Laken and I threw each other a puzzled look; at least she’d missed the sword-swinging battle. Meeting her again and seeing her so frazzled made more sense after seeing her at the tavern. I’d thought she’d been in an uproar about finding someone to dress up, but it was coming to my realization she might actually bethatintense.
We made it to the door, and she instructed us to wait. Tables were set up around the yard, one stacked with cake and plates. The others sat four guests and were set up for stationssuch as painting. That’d probably be one of our jobs. Family chatted and little ones ran screaming around with ribbon wands and bubbles. Bright and cool weather made for a perfect outside party, the sun shining enough to be beautiful but not hot.
What an odd thing, I thought,how we love the sun only when it gives exactly enough.
As Freya gathered her daughter and her friends, I leaned into Laken. “Thank you for doing this, by the way.” I paused. “Since it has nothing to do with illegal creature catchers.”
He scoffed. “Anytime, McCarthen. You know you can always ask me to dress up for a seven-year-old’s birthday.” The tone of his voice turned sharp.
Too focused on avoiding eye contact and pretending not to care, I almost missed Freya introducing us. “Olive, you have some special guests.” It wasn’t until Laken entered the yard that I realized I was supposed to be following him.
