“Snow,” I hear him say even as I walk away. “I drink blood. But even if I didn’t, I don’t think I’d eat at a place called The Salty Bastard.”
“Don’t act so high and mighty,” Cinder counters coolly. “You’ve technically sucked on actual salty bastards.”
“Ew,” Ariel says while Snow makes retching sounds.
“Gross, babe,” he says, though I can hear his smile.
I force myself to pass Rap’s office where Talon is, and head to the break room. I pull up the phone and type in the number etched into memory. As a princess, I’d been given many means of communication should I ever need them. I just haven’t wanted to use them…until now.
The phone slips in my sweaty palm as it rings.
The call opens with a video and two people staring at me.
I give a little wave. “Hello, Mother. Father.”
Chapter 37
Going Home Again
TALON
Waking up to a drag queen healing me was only a little less of a surprise than realizing I was going to live.
“There ya go, hot boy,” Dame Kiki coos. “Right as rain. You just need a little rest, a truckload of food, and you’ll be breathing fire in no time.”
The Fairy Godmother gets up from her kneeling position next to me, and I realize I’m lying on a cot in Rap’s office. My boss is standing behind Kiki, arms crossed, expression tense.
I feel…wrong. Like my body’s been stitched together with thread too thin to hold. The heat inside me is gone, not smothered, but distant, buried under layers of cold ash. My limbs ache in ways no healing spell can fix, and my chest feels hollow where the fire used to burn. But I’m alive.
“Aura?” I ask, my voice cracking.
“Just outside,” Rap assures me. “I’ll get her.”
“We’ll give you two some space.” Kiki winks. She’s about to follow Rap when she pauses at the doorway. Kiki’s acrylic nails tap the doorframe a moment before looking back at me.
“Loving someone is hard,” Kiki murmurs, eyes soft now, her usual sassy attitude giving way to something older, weightier. “But you two…I’ve never seen a bond like it. It’s not tethered—it’sinterwoven. That kind of love doesn't come around often. And once it locks in? Baby, not even death can unfasten it.”
I try to absorb her words, but my head is too foggy and I’m too anxious to see Aurora. Before I can ask her what she means, the Fairy Godmother has gone.
Aurora sweeps in, and I struggle to sit up.
“Stop,” she orders, pushing me down with her bare hand against my chest.
“Guess I’ve cooled off again,” I say, my hands instantly closing around hers.
Fucking fae lords. I bring up her hand and kiss each of her knuckles. I revel in being able to touch her again.
“It won’t last,” she says gently.
“I know,” I say in between kisses. It’s why I have to take advantage of every moment we have.
I have to be pushed beyond the physical brink to cool to a touchable level. Some part of me is already thinking of ways I can achieve this in the future.
“Stop it,” she says.
“What?”
“You aren’t going to hurt yourself just so we can touch.”
