Queen of The Hill (Knight Games) (2 page)

“You look like a princess,” Soleil said.

“A kind and thoughtful princess who would never forget about her best friend, or not tell her best friend important things about her life,” Michelle added cheerfully.

I gave her a sharp look, twisting left and then right to get a better look at the plunging back. The dress seemed to defy gravity, like it was holding itself up by magic alone. My smile faded. I stared at my naked scapula in the mirror for a second, then at the pile of discarded clothing next to my purse in the changing room.

“What is wrong, Grateful?” Soleil asked.

“I just realized I can’t wear this dress.”

“Why?” Soleil pointed a graceful hand in my direction. “It is beautiful.”

Lips pressed together, I turned toward them, my eyes filling with tears. “Nightshade. There’s nothing on my back to conceal her. I don’t want my father to walk me down the aisle knowing I have a sword strapped to my back.”

Michelle rolled her eyes. “Don’t you think you could go one afternoon without Nightshade? I mean, the wedding will be during the day, right? Rick will be there.”

I bit my lip and shook my head.

Soleil tried to back me up. “She can’t risk it. Not after what happened with Bathory.”

Oh hell. I’d never actually told Michelle about Anna Bathory, the ancient vampire who had almost killed me in order to complete an invincibility spell from
The Book of Flesh and Bone
. The omission was a definite violation of our unwritten best friend agreement.

“What happened with Bathory?” Michelle asked. Her accusing stare darted from me to Soleil with an expression that went from questioning to disappointed pretty damn quick.

I spread my hands. “I’m sorry, Michelle. For your safety—”

“For my safety? For my safety, you didn’t tell me what?” Michelle crossed her arms again and glared at me. If looks could kill, I would have burst into flames. Thing is, I still didn’t think it was a good idea to tell her I’d almost been sacrificed on a stone altar less than a month ago. Bathory was still out there, along with her leprechaun sidekick, Naill. Neither would hesitate to destroy Michelle to get to me. I would protect her, but knowing she was vulnerable could ruin her life. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

With a defeated sigh, I met Michelle’s eyes but gestured toward Gertrude, who was busily straightening racks. “Later, okay?”

Michelle gave a curt nod. “Okay.”

Contrary to her words, as her best friend, I was certain she was not okay. In fact, she was pissed at me. Pissed to the point of silence for fear speaking even one syllable might release a deluge of pointed criticisms.

“Perhaps you should try another dress,” Soleil suggested, attempting to defuse the tension between us.

“Good idea.” I jumped at the opportunity to change the subject. I did a quick change into a vintage style that was mostly layers of antique ivory lace with a black lace overlay at the top. It wasn’t my favorite but would conceal Nightshade. I returned to the box in front of the three-way mirror. Michelle still looked like she wanted to kill me, and Soleil didn’t even humor me with a pity compliment.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“I think the style does not do justice to your curves,” Soleil said.

Michelle turned pursed lips toward me. “Beautiful,” she spat, crisp and short with no resemblance to its proper meaning. “Hey, speaking of the wedding, have you figured out where you are going to live yet?”

Damn.
Buttons successfully pushed. Michelle knew this was a touchy subject with me and no doubt intended the question as verbal retribution. I sidestepped. “I’m going to live in my house.”

“No. After you’re married. Is Rick going to move in with you? Or are you going to live with him?”

Ah, so she wasn’t going to let it go. “It’s complicated.” My magic was fueled by the element of air, hence the importance of my attic. Rick’s was fueled by earth, hence his stone cottage. Our differences made us stronger on the battlefield but made living together problematic.

“Right,” Michelle said. “Because you need different things than he does. Funny how I know that because I can be trusted … Because I’m your best friend.”

“You are not going to live together?” Soleil interrupted, appalled.

A drum line kicked off in my heart—
lub-dub, lub-dub, lubidy dub
. My hands started to sweat. I didn’t want to talk about this. I didn’t want to think about this right now.

Michelle didn’t quit. She was like a pit bull with her teeth in me. “Are you going to keep your nursing job when you are Mrs. Ordenez? Wait? Will you be Mrs. Ordenez? Are you going to change your name?” Michelle fired off the questions like bullets.

Soleil’s gaze bounced between Michelle and me as if she were watching a tennis match.

The room grew hot. I took a deep breath. The walls swayed, and my stomach twisted. Saliva filled my mouth. I swallowed and swallowed again, but it just kept coming.

“Are you going to adopt kids?” Michelle asked.

That did it. I was going to be sick. I raced for the nearest door, one that led to the back alley.

“Nein! You khen not go out of dooers, Miss Knight,” Gertrude shrieked, but I was already in the alley, the mid-January cold biting into my skin. I doubled over and heaved toward the pavement. Nothing came out. I hadn’t eaten anything all day.

An arm slipped around my shoulders, and Michelle’s dark head and concerned face appeared next to mine. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Grateful. I was angry at you, but I didn’t mean to make you ill.”

“No. I deserved it. I should have told you everything. I just didn’t want to burden you. My life is so—”

“Crazy?”

“You have no idea.”

“It’s okay, all right? You don’t have to tell me about what happened with Bathory, and you certainly don’t have to decide all that stuff I threw at you today. It’s not worth getting sick over.”

“You are not the reason I feel sick.”

Michelle blinked at me curiously. “Then why are we out here?”

For a long time, I didn’t say anything. Thoughts swirled loose and disorganized inside my skull. I leaned my back against the wall near the door, the sound of Soleil arguing with Gertrude reminding me I was on borrowed time. “You know how I told you Rick asked me to marry him at Christmas?”

“Yeah.”

“I may have omitted part of the story.”

She raised eyebrows at me.

“He actually asked me when he was about to die.”

“What?” Michelle wrinkled her nose.

I took a deep breath. How could I explain this to her in a way she would understand? “Before our engagement, before I understood our history, I pushed Rick away. I took him for granted. He’d thought I didn’t want him anymore and sought out another witch, like me, for help. She gave him a magic candle that could have broken our connection permanently by making him human. While the candle was burning, Rick sustained injuries that would have resulted in his death. I stopped the candle before it burned all the way down, halting the magic spell and allowing Rick to recover from his temporary humanity. I agreed to marry him on the floor of his stone cottage, amid a broken ring of skulls and magic. My answer in the affirmative was the only way to end the spell and make him immortal again. My ‘yes’ saved his life.”

Michelle’s mouth dropped open and a small disgusted sound came from the back of her throat. “Are you saying he extorted marriage out of you?”

I shook my head. “No. Well … Not exactly.”

She narrowed her eyes and tipped her head, her arms crossed defensively across her ample chest.

“I love Rick.” I met her eyes and made sure she knew I was serious. “I really love Rick. To my core. And I
want
to marry him. I’m happy about the way things are going.”

“But?”

“Have you ever heard the expression, ‘I’m not afraid of flying; I’m afraid of crashing’?”

“I love that one. Who’s not afraid of crashing?”

“I’m not afraid of marrying Rick. I’m afraid it won’t work out. We can’t even live in the same
house,
Michelle. How are we going to build a life together?” I stared hopelessly at the snow-covered pavement, the cold seeping through my skin like a poison.

Michelle pondered my words for a minute, then squatted down next to me so her shoulder grazed mine. She nudged me slightly to get my attention. “You’ll figure it out. One day at a time, together.”

“Did you read that on an embroidered pillow?”

“I’m serious. If you are in love and committed, you will figure it out. People work out all sorts of arrangements. There’s a nurse in ICU who works opposite shifts as her husband and only sees him on weekends. They have two kids. They’re making it work.”

“What if it doesn’t?”

“No one promised you easy. Every couple has challenges.”

I widened my eyes at her, my jaw dropping.

“I know your challenges are a bit more … unconventional, but you are blessed to be loved, Grateful. Rick’s love for you has straddled lifetimes. Never forget that.”

With an air of gratitude, I pulled her into a tight hug.

Clangorously, the door behind us opened, and Gertrude berated me in German. I didn’t understand her words, but her gestures clearly meant, “Get inside my damn shop.” The look on Soleil’s face told me she’d done her best to detain Gertrude. I squeezed her shoulder as I re-entered the building to let her know I understood.

Slipping past Gertrude, I ducked into the changing room and checked to ensure the dress I was wearing was clean and dry, apologizing profusely while simultaneously changing out of it. Gertrude’s German chastisement rose in intensity. I’m pretty sure the small fireball of a woman was throwing me out. I hung the antique lace number on the hanger, and pressed it onto the too-full hook. The pressure knocked a dress from the back to the floor. As I bent down to pick it up, a tingle ran up my arm. I lifted the dress and turned it this way and that, checking it out in the mirror. Fashion insta-lust swept over me.

“I’ll take this one,” I said, bounding from the changing room and handing the dress to Gertrude.

“Aren’t you going to try it on?” Michelle asked.

“Gertrude will need measurements,” Soleil said.

“I’m feeling lucky. I’ll try it on at home. If I need any adjustments, I’ll call.”

Lips pursed, Gertrude shook her head. “No returns,” she said, suddenly speaking accent-free English.

I nodded. “I’ll take it.”

She rang me up in record time and zipped the dress into a vinyl bag. “Six thousand.”

“Okay.”

The girls looked at me like I was insane, and maybe I was. Who bought a six thousand-dollar wedding dress without trying it on? Me, that’s who.

I grabbed my purchase and led the way out the door. If every decision were this easy, this wedding would be a cinch. We’d just climbed into the back of Soleil’s town car when Michelle completely ruined my sense of accomplishment.

“The way you hurled in the alley earlier reminded me of when I had morning sickness with Manny Junior.” She snorted. “It’s a good thing you know you can’t be pregnant.”

P
regnant.
I could be pregnant
. I trudged into my kitchen with my new dress in one hand and a Red Grove pharmacy bag in the other. The first I hung in the hall closet. The second I stared at blankly while images and incantations swirled through my brain. I attempted to make sense of the emotions brewing within me, but couldn’t sort them out.

As I stripped out of my winter clothes, my raven familiar, Poe, swept into the room on wide black wings.

“We need to speak, Witchy Woman,” Poe said. He landed on the back of the couch.

“What’s up?” I asked absently.

“Only that you have still not retrieved
The Book of Light
from the ghost-man Logan’s home. May I remind you once again that the rightful place for your magical grimoire is in your attic?”

“Ugh.” I tipped forward, conking my head on the kitchen island. “I know. I know. I know.” I banged my head in time with the mantra. “I keep texting him, and he’s always busy with the restaurant.”

“Perhaps pick up a phone? Get off your spell-casting ass and take back what is yours? Grow a spine and stop taking ‘later’ as an answer?”

“It’s not that easy. Logan gave me a key. Rick destroyed the key. Then, in the same conversation as I told Logan about the crushed key, I had to tell him I was engaged. I think I broke his heart.”

“More than enough reason to demand your book of magic back,” Poe insisted.

“I know. I know. I know.”
Bang, bang, bang.
“I’m just hoping if I give him enough time, he’ll get over it. I miss his friendship.” I straightened, scrubbing my face with my hands.

Poe scrutinized me from head to toe. “This isn’t just about
The Book of Light
, is it? As the kids say, what is up, buttercup? You have the pale malaise of a human suffering from the dengue.”

“I threw up this morning. Still nauseous.”

“The flu, perhaps?” Looking bored, he picked at his feathers with his beak.

I toyed with the corner of the bag on the counter. I was late. Not a lot late. Just about a week. “Can I ask you something?”

Poe shrugged his bird shoulders. “You can ask. I can’t guarantee an answer.”

“Do you think … with the candle Rick used … Do you think he was human? Like entirely human?”

“At the end? When you saved him?” Poe asked.

I nodded.

“As close to human as he could be. He was dying. If you hadn’t put out the candle, you’d be up witch creek without a paddle.”

The bag rumpled and ripped as I pulled it open and removed the pregnancy test.

“Bloody hell! You think you’re pregnant!” Poe covered his beak with one wing.

Mouth gaping like a fish, I tapped the package down on the counter. “I don’t know. I mean, I hope not. I haven’t been on birth control since Gary, and Rick and I definitely did the sexual healing thing when he was human-like.” I raised both eyebrows. “Plus, I’m late and perpetually nauseous.”

“You said it yourself. Human-like. Not fully human.” Poe gave a cynical snort. “The chances are …”