“Your image—”
“To hell with my image. With the optics. With this entire damned campaign. I’m losing the love of my life.”
“Love,” Henry, a realist to his core, scoffed.
“Yes, love.”
“Love is … inconvenient.”
“It always is,” Finn shot back. “But it is worth it. To have onerealthing in my life.”
He stormed away from Henry to move into the doorway of Monty’s bedroom. Where he found the bird picking up the cat and trying to shove him into one of his many bags.
“You can’t take Checkers.”
“He likes Iris more than you,” Monty sniffed, attempting to zip up the bag around the cat.
“Iris lives in the ocean.” Monty’s gaze flicked away. Too quickly. “She went to the ocean, didn’t she?”
“Where was all this concern for my magnificent sea wench last night?”
“Monty, do you know where she is?”
“I’m her emotional support bird. I always know where she is.” He shoved several of his little vests into another bag as Checkers started to wiggle out of the head hole Monty left for him. “Besides, the fish at the aquarium were trying to leap out of their tanks to get to her. One of them was spelling outHELPin bubbles, I swear.”
“What?”
“The fish were trying to get to her.”
“Why?”
“Do you knowanythingabout that resplendent creature?” Monty asked, turning to cross his wings and glare at him.
“I know everything she’s been willing to share with me so far.”
That seemed to soften the bird slightly. His wings fell. “The fish swim to her when she cries. It’s some oceanic princess magic, I guess. Which I imagine is charminginthe ocean. But mildly horrifying on land.”
“She was crying?” Finn asked, stomach dropping.
“Of course she was crying. And I hope that witch cursed you with each spilt tear.”
“The witch?” Finn asked, grasping onto that with both hands.
Monty sighed.
“She’s with Selene?”
“I can’t tell you that.” Monty lifted his enormous beak. But as Checkers finally emerged from the bag, he turned. “Get back here, you beast, or I’ll store you somewhere else much less favorable.”
“Do not put the cat in your beak.”
“He won’t stay in the bag!” Monty threw a wing out dramatically.
“Listen, how about you put a pin in stealing my cat. And in your packing. Let me go see Iris. I want to fix this.”
The pelican seemed unconvinced.
“I love her.”
