I rolled my eyes but grabbed the damn jar anyway.
The painter resumed his brushstrokes on the giant canvas, adding another layer of green to Feo’s already obnoxious throne.
With a heavy sigh, I dipped the brush into the sticky glitter, tapping off the excess. François, grinning like he wasthrilledby this turn of events, sat just below Feo, his skin already gleaming. I knelt into the lush carpet, brushing glitter across the sculpted planes of his abs.
He winked at me.
I narrowed my eyes, snapping out of my Feo-induced haze of absurdity. I glared up at her. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”
Feo blinked down at me, all innocence and false confusion. “You’ll have to be more specific, darling. I am not a mind reader.”
I furrowed my brows, sure that my eyes were nothing but narrow slits. Instead of arguing with her over the semantics, I went right in. “You said you had no information on the curse, and yet you forced an innocent and kind man to take up an entire career based on that one curse.”
Feo laughed. “Forced? Is that what Gentry said?”
“No, of course not. He doesn’t even know who you are.”
“Fate can do whatever it pleases,” Feo answered. “Besides, just as I said to you, he has free will. He did not have to follow the path I set before him; I only made it available. If not Gentry, I would have found some other way to provide you the answers you needed, Astoria.”
I chewed on that a moment, moving on to run a few strokes over Francois’ chest. “Why Gentry?”
Feo turned to me, her arrogant expression softening. “He’s kind and loyal. Fiercely loving. He also asked me to.” She turned back to her position, snapping her fingers and pointing at the man standing in the corner. “Add some to the ends of his wings, will you?”
After finishing the man’s wings, I set the glitter down back on the counter. Mulling it all over. “He asked you?”
Feodora groaned. “Yes, Astoria. You are not the only one who has pleaded for help from something outside your world. Gentry needed a bit of guidance, he was unhappy. You were—” she laughed, correcting herself, “Youareunhappy. You have helped one another in ways unseen. Perhaps it is time to put your worries to bed.”
Picking at the remnants of gold that coated my fingers, I thought of Gentry—his willingness to help, no questions asked.
“Sometimes it’s good to have a friend, someone in your corner. You wanted help breaking your curse, you got help,” she tutted. “Now go, I have a portrait to finish. But do come back soon and bring Gentry with you. I’d like to see him again.”
I gathered my bag, moving toward the door where Day had finally come in and lingered, waiting for me. “One more thing,” I called back.
“Hmm?”
“That day you showed up at Grim’s… you knew what Death was doing.” It wasn’t so much a question, but Feo stood then, crossing the room in the blink of an eye. Her arms came tight around me. “What was it you wanted him to choose?” I asked.
She pulled back, her golden eyes fixed onto mine. “His heart,” she said softly, “though I fear I may have been wrong.”
I blinked. “What do you mean?”
A faint smile ghosted across her lips. “It seems he did choose his heart.”
thirty-six
Astoria
November 2019
Feo’s shrill laugh rang throughout the small cottage. Gentry stood dumbfounded, his hand pressed firmly against his chest as he clung to a dining room chair for support. In true Gentry fashion, he stammered over his words, his head swinging back and forth between me and Feo.
“She was… this is…” he choked.
“The librarian?” Feo roared, her head tipping back as she continued to laugh at Gentry’s expense.
His barrage of questions pulled me back as I went about setting the table, readying for our weekly game night.
“Can she do that? Just upend people’s lives?”
