The Glass Prince (4 page)

"
I should go to
this," Daniel said thoughtfully. "They'll shit their pants when
they see me."

Suddenly, he felt his mood light
en and he stood with a laugh. "I'll scare the crap
out of everybody."

*~*~*

As
expected
, the owner of
the Royal Mall hadn't expected Daniel Everwood to show up to the
opening. The guests of honour were Rae Weslin, an actor from
overseas—Daniel couldn't remember where, and who had an accent
which Daniel personally found annoying, but apparently everyone
else loved—and his wife, Tina Weslin, owner of a rather successful
art gallery. They'd even brought their two-year-old daughter with
them. Daniel assumed they were too cheap to hire a babysitter for
the occasion.

They
both looked rather
nonplussed when Daniel strode up to them. They might have
been the ones to officially cut the ribbon, but it was Daniel the
press wanted to photograph. It was rather amusing. He took some
satisfaction in knowing he could upstage someone just by walking
in.

There
was a rush for people to get things ready for hi
m, find a place for him to sit that was
well away from the nervous VIP guests, and to get him actual plates
to serve on. People at the food court apparently ate from tacky,
hard-plastic everything: plates, cutlery, serving dishes. The
manager of the food court, a tall, pleasant-looking blonde in a
tight skirt and white shirt with the mall logo embossed on her
lapel, rushed to him.

"
It's a great
honour that you've decided to come here," she said, only a little
breathlessly.

Daniel
gave her points for retaining her composure
, and wondered if there was a way to lure
her to his restaurant.

"
I had to come.
I'm in the food industry myself and I like to see what my
competition is like." The blonde coloured, probably taking his
words for the insult it was.

"
The
photographer for the All Publicity is over there," she pointed to
him. "The press was asked to allow the guests to eat in peace, but
they might approach you. If someone bothers you, please let me
know."

Daniel
was used to the press
and knew how to handle them. After all, he owned and
single-handedly ran Alaskan Tower, the city's, no, the country's
most expensive restaurant, located in the base of the glass tower
in which he lived. A mere food court such as this was hardly
competition, but it was fun. Daniel looked around with a smirk.
There were all sorts of people: families in flip-flops and kids
with balloons, all so colourful and alien to him. They were all
staring at him with open curiosity, but no one was bold enough to
approach. His reputation as someone who occasionally threw glass
arrows deterred even the boldest.

It was
so different from the Alaskan Tower
. He fixed his eyes on a couple of children
playing around underfoot and grimaced. His restaurant was full of
well-dressed people who spoke in low voices and ordered in French.
They never brought any children, unless they could sit quietly in
their chairs without spilling anything.

"
Would you like
to order from the menu, sir?" said a voice next to him, and Daniel
looked up to realise there was a young man standing next to him,
looking nervous. He was dressed in the baggy uniform Daniel had
seen the serving staff wear, and he held a note pad and a
pen.
How
very … pedestrian
,
Daniel thought. His serving staff were taught to memorise all
orders perfectly, no note pads or pens, and they wore tailored
suits which accentuated their bodies. Daniel made a point to only
employ good-looking people. He had a reputation to keep.

"
Sir." The youth
cleared his throat, clearly uneasy because of Daniel's
stare.

"
You look
ridiculous in that cap," Daniel told him, referring to the red cap
all the mall employees wore.

"
Yes, sir." The
cap disappeared under his armpit.

Daniel
looked at the young man
through narrowed eyes. He was tall, though not as tall as
Daniel, with a shock of black hair and dark eyes. His skin was
tanned dark and his fingernails on the notepad were cut short and
clean. His name tag said Luke. On the whole, he was a rather
unremarkable person. "I'd like a burger and a lemonade," Daniel
said after a quick look at the menu. Did they really have something
called Poison in the Veins and a Lick of Death? It sounded so
flashy and cheap, just like the place. Daniel wondered why he'd
come in the first place. He was being stared at by strange people.
He was used to that, but out of his usual element and away from
Lucian, Daniel felt self-conscious.

He had
recovered by the time Luke had returned with the
food
, and was busy
tapping away at his phone. Luke placed the food right next to
Daniel and smiled; a quick forced twist of his lips. "Would that be
all, sir?"

Daniel,
who
'd been staring at
the wilted green leaf poking out of the side of his burger—opening
day and he was being served day-old—what was that, lettuce or
grass? It was disgusting. He turned to Luke sharply to complain
about the quality of the food being served, when he was supposed to
be a guest of honour, when his elbow knocked against the glass of
lemonade. It fell onto the table, over his phone and his left hand,
soaking his glove in urine-coloured liquid.

He
watched Luke stare at him in horror and rush away, probably to hide
in the kitchen
. Daniel
sighed as he pulled off his glove and shook it loose. He normally
didn't remove his gloves in public, not wanting to accidentally
touch someone. The only person who tolerated his touch was Lucian,
who had learned a thing or two about being thick-skinned from his
sister, Tisuki.

He
looked around carefully for something to wipe his
hand
. He carefully
pushed his phone out of the puddle, happy to see it was still
working despite the soaking, when Luke rushed back to his
side.

"
Very sorry,
sir," he mumbled as he tried to mop up the spill with a brown dish
rag. "Please don't—" he started to say but stopped short and
grimaced, throwing a quick look over his shoulder at the manager
who was luckily occupied elsewhere, escorting a rather forward
teenager back to her table. She had been trying to kiss Rae, from
what Daniel understood. He gave her points for trying to step on
Tina to reach her husband.

With
Daniel distracted, he didn
't notice until the last moment as Luke gripped his
hand—his un-gloved hand, and wiped it with an antiseptic wipe, one
quick gesture.

"
What are you—"
Daniel stood up so quickly his chair fell over, and for once, he
wasn't overreacting. He pulled his hand free, breaking the skin
contact as soon as possible and waited for the inevitable scream of
pain that usually followed in the wake of discovering a hand full
of glass shards.

His
magic made it so he couldn
't touch anyone without hurting them.

Luke
looked at him in surprise and sighed, looking
defeated
. "I'm sorry I
touched you, I… I guess most people don't like it."

"
Why aren't you
bleeding?" Daniel asked in surprise.

Luke
bristled at that and drew back, his eyes flashing
. "I don't know what—"

"
No," said
Daniel waving a hand dismissively. "You touched the bare skin of my
hand. I can't touch anyone without them bleeding all over
me."

"
Oh, that." Luke
sounded so totally dismissive that Daniel relaxed. And felt a rush
of disappointment so great that he expected his knees to buckle. He
hadn't realised it until then, but he had half-expected
something—he'd finally gotten his stupid magic under control or
he'd run out of magic. That he was finally able to touch people
without killing them.

But then
he looked at Luke
and
waited for an explanation since he wanted to know why Luke was able
to touch him when—

"
Luke, is
everything alright?" It turned out to be the manager. She took in
the lemonade-soaked table, Daniel standing with one glove off, and
the chair on the floor and took action immediately. "I'm extremely
sorry," she said moving to usher Daniel to the next table. "I'll
get someone to clean your phone—we'll pay for any damages and… let
me…" she moved to pull out a chair out for him.

"
No," said
Daniel. "I'm not sure I want to…" he could see now that everyone
was watching him and Luke. In his initial excitement at having
touched someone, even if it had been a brief touch, had made him
careless and now the entire food court was staring at
him.

"
Please," the
manager said, a tad insistently, obviously not wanting their star
guest to storm out in the middle of the grand opening, and pulled
harder at the chair, as if it would persuade him to sit in
it.

"
I really should
be going," said Daniel putting a hand to push it back in… and his
hand closed on the manager's hand. It was a momentary touch, but it
was enough—he felt his magic flutter and there was a gasp of pain
as she pulled her hand back, eyes wide with fear. On her hand, a
fine shard of glass appeared, just grazing her skin. But the
message was clear and from the way her lower lip trembled, she was
one step from either screaming or ordering him out of the
place.

Daniel
made it easy for her
. He
turned around and walked out the door, ignoring the reporters
outside, his hand clenched in a fist, feeling his heart hammer
inside his ribcage. He couldn't remember how he returned to his
Tower, but the next thing he clearly remembered was standing in his
sitting room, a spun glass figure in front of him. He remembered
vaguely driving back and rushing inside, where he'd unleashed his
magic in the safety of his sitting room and the result was
breath-taking, even by his standard. An improvement, as he hadn't
even used his calming spray.

He
showered, dressed, put on a new pair of gloves and reached for his
cell phone
, when he
realised he'd left it in the food court. He shrugged, pulled his
latest glass creation with him, and took the elevator to the
restaurant on the ground floor.

There
, he handed
over the newest addition to his restaurant manager, and then walked
the floor, speaking a few words to his guests. He knew most guests
came to see him, and he rarely visited the ground floor. Once he'd
spoken to over twelve tables, he decided he'd pleased his manager
enough and walked back to him.

"
What do you
want, Daniel?" Matthew Frey was a distinguished-looking gentleman
of middle years with salt-and-pepper hair and a moustache, who
treated everyone at the restaurant as if they were family. He had
nerves of steel and was the only one whom Estelle, the head chef,
listened to.

"
What makes you
think I want something?" Daniel asked casually. Matthew always made
him feel about ten years old.

"
Then I'm glad
you came to grace your restaurant," Matthew said as he started to
turn. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to see why the order for
table twenty-six is—"

"
Actually,"
Daniel said hastily. "I… I went to the opening of the Royal Mall
food court today."

"
Yes?" Matthew
said with mock patience.

"
I want you to
find out everything you can about a young man there, a waiter by
the name of Luke," Daniel added quickly before he changed his
mind.

"
I'll see what I
can do," Matthew nodded and walked away, leaving Daniel by the
front table. He shrugged and decided to eat at the chef's table in
the kitchen. It would surprise Estelle, which was never a good
thing, but still, she was the only person he knew who had a better
palate than he did.

*~*~*

"
He's
twenty-two, lives with his wheelchair-bound mother on Adam's
Street, house number forty-three," Matthew said as soon as he
stepped into Daniel's penthouse. He didn't look at the view as many
people, even Lucian, tended to do, his eyes fixed on Daniel's
face.

"
I really
appreciate you finding that out for me," Daniel said
absentmindedly. He had been relaxing in front of the TV, shirt
unbuttoned, enjoying a glass of malt from his special collection,
when Matthew knocked on his door. He had pulled on his gloves at
the sound of the knocking and knew he looked a little strange in
his state of undress with gloves on. At least Matthew was used to
him dressing like this.

"
Don't do
anything stupid," Matthew told him.

"
Why should I?"
Daniel said with a shrug. He had convinced himself it was nothing
but a fluke: nothing to get excited about. "I'm going back to my—"
he pointed at the television, though he couldn't remember what he
had been watching—"if that's all."