Page 145 of Facade

“Me too,” I cut in, unable to stomach more. “You’re bleeding—I’ll go get Veda to come change your bandage.”

I moved quickly to duck past him as he grabbed the soaked-through bandage, but bumped into him instead. He instinctively reached out to steady me, and a dizzying wave hit me as his skin met mine. A guttural sound rumbled low in his chest.

“Evanee…” he said, ending in a growl as part of his Gargoyle showed, canines elongating further and eyes brightening. Heat coiled in my stomach, inching its way down until my core was aching.

Bang, Bang, Bang.

“Sorry to disturb!” Lyra yelled from outside. “The captain said you need to see something, Evanee!”

My eyes briefly met Ryker's. His jaw tightened before he cast his eyes down, stepping far away from me until he was pressed against the opposite wall.

“Evanee. I—” Ryker started.

“Sounds pretty serious!” she insisted.

Ryker growled at the door. It was a fight not to do the same. I desperately wanted to hear what he had to say—see if he’d changed his mind on just being friends.

It would seem he hadn’t, in the way he avoided my eyes, nearly shrinking away from my presence as I’d tried to do with Aiden.

The mask I plastered on was one of indifference as I wordlessly turned for the door, leaving behind a part of me I feared I’d never get back.

43

Lyra

I knew that Evanee only told me to get snacks for the animals because she didn’t want me working too hard or fussing over anyone. Ha! Didn’t she know that Mama and I did nothing but work for everyone else?

On a boat this big, I didn’t expect to find such a small, inadequate kitchen. That Thaddeus fella certainly didn’t go out of his way to give us anything as fine as the fancy toilet on this thing. Nope—just buckets. How am I supposed to hike up these skirts for a bucket? Sure, I did it without a hitch back at the Fae bitch’s Castle. But we’re not there anymore, are we? And what if these sailors got buckets mixed up, and some of the buckets in here for the dishes have been used… elsewhere?

That’s it. I’m gonna lodge a complaint with Captain Gideon and make sure he tells Thaddeus that this is unacceptable.

My other issue was the stingy Cook. He started fussing at me in some weird accent when I was rummaging through the cabinets to see what he had. Rude. I assured the wimpy fella that I knew my way around a kitchen and was even nice enough to give him one of my leftover muffins. Just to prove how good I could bake. Admittedly, I forgot they were laced.

That poor bastard’s been missing for ten minutes now…

Oh well! I didn’t need his help anyway. I’ll just get started. He won’t mind.

Let’s see—pots, pans, silverware, more pans. Where the hell was the food?

Ah ha!

I did a giddy dance as I found his hidden stash—potatoes, carrots, a medley of dried herbs—

“What are you doing down here?”

I scowled at the pup standing in the doorway.

“What do you think I’m doing?” I shook my head, not even deigning to turn and look at him.

“Yeah, but I thought Evanee just wanted you to grab snacks for the animals? The carrots are right there.” He pointed behind me.

“Aren’t you an animal?”

“No,” he scoffed before scratching his head. “Well, I mean sometimes I guess—”

I whipped around, throwing a carrot at him. It smacked him square in the eye.

“Ow. What the hell, Lyra?” he whined, clamping a hand over his face.