“It is a big responsibility,” Timothy added, pouring more tea into his cup. The woman taking Vivien’s measurements whisked out of the room, presumably done with that task. I had yet to be poked and prodded.
Needing to do something with my hands, I picked up the flute of champagne from the glass table next to me and took a swallow. I shouldn’t be drinking before going out to hunt tonight, but Xander had rattled me… bad. “The dog is pretty self-sufficient, actually. Jamal is instantly in love, as is my mother-in-law. But I just don’t know why he would... do that.”
“Get you a gift?” Vivien asked.
“To try and secure your affections?” Timothy guessed.
“But whythat?” Frustration crept into my voice. “Why would he go to the underworld to try and find a pet of mine? Or Afterlife, or whatever.” I threw up my hands.
Vivien and Timothy exchanged glances I couldn’t read. Timothy put his cup down. “You know he is… fond of you.” For a minute he seemed like he was going to choose a different word.
“He’s hopelessly, head over heels, dead blind in love with you,” Vivien corrected, stepping down to sit on the edge of the dais.
I sighed. “Xander’s been trapped underground for so long, he doesn’t know what he wants. I’m just the first person to show up who piqued his interest after lifetimes of misery and pain.” I paused. “That, or he is super into the fact I stabbed him to death nightly for a while there.”
Everyone had a kink. Death was his.
That or playing games with me. Both literally and metaphorically.
I went on. “But he’s free of the cage and he’s in the world now. He’ll find out soon enough that I’m nothing special and figure out where he really belongs.”
“Oh.”
I glanced up to find Vivien’s emerald eyes widening as if filling with some kind of understanding.
I furrowed my brows. “What?”
Timothy studied the tea in his cup a little too hard.
“What?” I asked defensively, suddenly on my feet, too agitated to be still a second longer. In fact, I was considering fleeing this place all together.
“You don’t think you're good enough for him,” Vivien said with a healthy dose of disbelief.
I squirmed in my seat. “That’s not what I said.”
Timothy set his cup down, his eyes meeting mine. “Miranda, despite my own reservations about your potential together, it’s evident that Xander’s feelings for you are… profound. His affection seems to stem from something deeper than mere whimsy.”
I crossed my arms, uncomfortable with where this was heading. “He doesn’t really know me. I get the sense he is a god trying to flex his power—that he just wants to conquer me as something to do.”
Liar, liar pants on fire,a voice in my head chanted.
I felt slimy even saying the untruth out loud, but I was desperately trying to wriggle out of Xander’s grip. It was slowly closing in around my heart, and I couldn’t let it trap me for good.
Vivien chimed in, her tone filled with a fierce conviction. “Come on, Miranda. What if it’s more than that? What ifyou’rethe something real he’s never known before? Something he desperately needs? You are as real as it gets.”
The truth about the dog situation jerked up into my throat. That story hadn’t been entirely real. I swallowed the lump back down.
I’d never shared with anyone about that day. Not even my late husband knew.
“Hey,” Vivien said, her face wrenching up in suspicion. “What the hell is this?”
“What the hell is what?” I asked.
“Don’t you guys see this?” Vivien stood and backed up, her eyes darting all about her.
“See what?” Timothy asked, his eyes focused on his cup as he sipped more tea.
“The pillows, the pillows!” she cried out, flapping her arms around her. “There’s dozens of them. They are all around me. I’m surrounded.”
