It must be playing in Krolic’s thoughts as well because he’s busy checking his watch again as I step onto the cobblestone street. Catum is right behind me, the portal dissipating in his wake.
“Well?” he prompts.
Krolic grins. “Time to play.”
My own lips curl in response. Those three words are music to my ears.
Because playing, I can do. And playing, I do very, very well.
I pull out my cards to shuffle the deck. “Lead the way, K.”
CHAPTER TEN
AILSA
Thus far,the Tea Village is the most normal place I’ve seen in Monsterland. I mean, apart from the fact that we are sitting inside a teacup that’s bigger than Baroness Clarice’s mansion.
I gaze up at the colorful ceiling, noting the way it gathers together at a point… just like the cap of a teacup.
And naturally, we’re all drinking out of teacups, too.
The theme is clear.
Only it’s not at all what it seems.
I pick up the muffin sitting on my plate, my lips twisting to the side. Because it’s not a muffin at all. It just looks like one. But it tastes like spaghetti.
And my tea? Yeah, it’s not tea. It’s something bubbly and a little too sweet for my taste buds.
Beast—Krolic—gave me some water, probably the only “normal” item on the table. They all have varying degrees of strangeness on their own plates.
Well, Master Pillar has nothing. He’s just leaning back in the shadows lurking along the wall behind him, smoking a pipe.
Craze is nursing a cup of something that makes him hiccup every few seconds.
And Krolic… has a plate of dirt. Or what looks like dirt, anyway. He said it’s actually a kind of meat and offered a spoonful for me to try. I declined.
“Hey, handsome,” a female with long red hair murmurs as she approaches Craze. At some point, he changed his skull makeup to reflect a white mask with black around his eyes.
He arches a single brow at her, causing the paint to stretch along his forehead. “Do I look like I’m shopping, darlin’?” he drawls, the Southern twang different from his usual accent. It’s the second time he’s used it, making me wonder what it means.
Craze referred to himself asmercurialearlier. It definitely seems like an accurate adjective.
The slender woman shrugs. “Maybe I’m the one shopping.”
“Hmm,” he hums, setting his cup on the table and leaning toward her. “And what are you looking for?”
My gaze narrows. Craze has said I’m his intended mate all day, and he has the audacity to flirt with this female in front of me?
Rude, I decide.
“A good time,” she purrs at him.
“Define ‘a good time’ for me,” he says, his card deck appearing in his hands. The sight of it sends a chill down my spine. I’ve learned what those cards do. And it’s nothing good.
Master Pillar puffs out a cloud of smoke as he says, “Silence is my idea of a good time.”
“I wasn’t asking you,” Craze murmurs. “I was talking to the lady shopping for some fun.”
