Chapter 9
Cambria
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“They just keep...staring,” Atlas complains, looking around uncomfortably at all of the fae openly gawking at them as we make our way to the grocery store.
When a beautiful woman with long ebony hair and violet eyes that pop dramatically against her dark skin gets too close to Dorian, trailing a hand down his shoulder, I yank him away and bare my teeth at her with a hiss. She rolls her eyes and trails her tongue across her teeth.
“Honestly, Cambria, like you aren’t selfish enough already? You just love to take anything that isn’t nailed down, don’t you?” She flips her hair over her shoulder and saunters away without looking back.
We keep walking as Lucien pipes up, “So, it’s a dominance thing here?” as he tries to understand the dynamics of a completely different world.
I try to laugh, but it sounds more forced than I’d like. “No, but people are the same no matter where you go. Act like a crazy bitch and they take a step back.”
Dorian grins, still holding my hand from where I jerked him away and rubbing his thumb over his mark. I know logically I should pull away, know he’s testing the waters, but what can I say? It’s been far too long since anyone has shown me any real affection that isn’t fake. I’m a lady of simple pleasures in a world of assholes, so sue me if the hot guy showing some interest doesn’t immediately get the boot.
“I thought you said we were free to make our own choices?” Lucien presses, pinning me with a look.
Tucking my hair behind my ear to steady my hand, I act like his words never sting. “And you are, so long as they’refreechoices. As I told you before, while you’re here, part of my job is making sure no one uses their abilities to manipulate you into doing something you don’t want to do. And the chick pawing at Dorian here is notorious for compulsion and mind fucks.” I pat his hand. “I might have killed my turtle, but I’ll do better this time with my humans.”
Luce’s lips twitch as he fights a smile. “Who’s protecting whose virtue now?”
I flip him off, but wink so he knows I’m not actually upset. We press closer to the building beside us since there isn’t a sidewalk, just an extra-large street, as a horse and open carriage pass by. The beast appears solid black with a mane and tail of living flames, and each stamp of his hooves sends a shower of sparks flaring out.
“What in the world?” Atlas asks, craning his neck as it passes.
Dorian and I continue to walk past him, slowing our pace so that he doesn’t get left behind. Because despite the several pets I accidentally killed growing up, I can keep my humans alive, thank you very much. And to be fair, I’m still convinced my cousin Piper poisoned them behind my back.
“Don’t look so impressed,” I warn. “Nearly everything here is fake or enhanced to look more impressive than it is.”
We make it to the grocery store and I count out my money before grabbing a basket. “Okay, if we play our cards right, we can make things stretch to next week for the four of us.”
I only make it a few steps before Atlas is plucking the basket out of my hand and replacing it with a cart. “Don’t make this into a thing. I’m not starving for a week for your pride.”
If he thinks I’ll be annoyed about that, he’s so wrong it’s comical. I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If they want to pitch in for food, that’s fine by me. I usually scrape by as it is, and I’ve seen the way these three eat. There’s a reason I worked the crowd extra last night as well as skimming a little from Atlas and Dorian’s friends at work; how else was I going to make ends meet with three new mouths to feed?
“We can only stay a max of three days,” Lucien argues. “That should be more than enough time for you to get back to normal and if it’s sooner, all the better.”
This time, I do narrow my eyes in annoyance, biting the inside of my cheek, but I don’t argue. I’m not trashy enough to start some huge argument in the middle of the grocery store when we’re already the talk of the town, I just hate his flippant barbs. I’m not even sure he’s aware of them, or if he means them to come across as insulting as they do, more focused on logic and thinking aloud instead of before opening his mouth. I’ll save the theatrics for something worthy of a scene if it comes down to it, but grocery money doesn’t fit into that category for me so I try to shrug it off, while considering throwing a marker in with his laundry.
“It just looks so,” Dorian trails off, looking around in almost disappointment, “normal.”
I shrug, because I get where he’s coming from. “Well, fae have to eat, and it’s not like we snort glitter. There really isn’t any processed junk, but beyond that you should recognize the majority of what’s on the shelves. Some of the produce is different than what you’re used to, but it’s pretty clear what’s a fruit and what’s a vegetable.”
