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My face is contorted into a mixture of frustration and a wonky grimace when the door opens, exposing my crazy to anyone walking in. Allwyn steps in with Jacob trailing behind him. They both stop and I glance over at his reflection in the mirror. He looks at me like I am the most intriguing puzzle he’s ever seen. Jacob however, is snorting because he’s laughing so hard.
“Shut up, I was trying to do a glamour," I shoot Jacob my best attempt at a glare, but how do you really glare at someone who’s snorting openly? Allwyn even cracks a small smile.
“Sorry, sorry," Jacob wipes his tears and tries to compose himself. “We brought food, does that help?”
“Yes!” I pump my fist into the air and practically bounce my way over to the bag in Jacob’s outstretched hand. Allwyn’s eyebrows shoot up as he steps out of my way. I’m a woman on a mission when food’s involved.
We all settle into chairs around the kitchen table and I reach into the bag and pull out two burgers, two fries, and a salad. I immediately slide the salad to Allwyn. I know Jacob wouldn’t have ordered something that healthy for either of us. He’s the king of drinking protein shakes with kale for breakfast, and eating junk the rest of the day.
“How did you know it wasn’t mine?” Jacob asks while feigning offense. I roll my eyes in response and unwrap my burger. Allwyn eyes our food like we’re cannibals snacking on an arm. I cock an eyebrow and take an exhagerated bite to torture him. Instead of the taste of cheese and meat, a horrible taste explodes in my mouth. Nausea rolls through me and it takes everything I have not to puke. I spit my bite out into my napkin and stare accusingly at my lunch. What the heck, I love burgers. Jacob eyes me and takes a tentative bite of his, relaxing and taking a second bite after it apparently tastes fine.
“Bells, it tastes fine. What’s wrong with it?” He questions his bite of food.
“I wondered if you’d be able to tolerate it," Allwyn remarks and starts in on his salad, as if proving his food is superior.
“Tolerate what?” I bite out. Now I’m hangry, and definitely not in the mood for his evasive riddles.
“Meat. Fae can’t eat the meat here,” he states it like it’s a fact I should have known, yet I’m trying not to panic.
“I thought River just didn’t like harming animals or something," I mumble and push my burger towards Jacob, who looks way too happy to get my leftovers. Jerk.
“No,” is the only explanation he offers. Jacob and I raise an eyebrow at each other. Allwyn is so hot and cold with his personality, that I find him intriguing and infuriating. Some moments he’s so formal and sweet, then the next it’s as if I’m a petulant child sent here to personally bother him.
“I’ll just go get something else,” I say, standing up. It’s only when they both protest that I realize I can’t just leave anymore. “So am I stuck indoors for the rest of my life, or what? Do you glamour your skin here?” I refuse to be a hermit, there has to be a solution to this.
“I don’t glamour my skin.” Allwyn looks appalled by the idea. He’s such a drama queen, maybe even surpassing Jacob.
“Calm down killer. There’s no way I can get around like this.” I hold my hand close to his face in case he forgot how shiny it is. “See, shimmery!”
“It’s not shimmering, dork," Jacob laughs. “It just has a pearly sheen to it.” Okay, he has a way better word for describing it, but my point still stands. “You aren’t going to go outside and refract light like a walking glitter bomb.”
“Are you sure? Because either way, this isn’t normal. Were my parents pearl-skinned too?” I direct that question to Allwyn, who looks at us like we’ve lost our minds. He wouldn’t be the first to get annoyed by our back and forth. “Don’t judge me, I just turned from human to fae and got shot all in one go.”
“No, your mother had a light golden tone like mine. Your father was of Winter, so he was very pale. You’re the only fae I’ve ever seen with the ‘pearl’ skin. It’s fitting for a hybrid queen,” he explains with a slight tilt of his head. Allwyn always talks in such an ancient way. Maybe that’s the way all fae spoke back in Faerie and most have lost it thanks to being stranded on Earth. Before I can say anything, he excuses himself, most likely to avoid more questions.
Now that we’re alone I notice Jacob is spaced out, his lips turned into a frown. In all the chaos I forgot to check in on him and get the details about Sam. Before I force my friend to talk, I run to the fridge and grab one of the prepackaged salads Allwyn had kept there. When I sit down with it and take a bite, I wrinkle my nose. I’d expected it to taste different, but it’s not any more satisfying than they usually are. I definitely still wish I could eat my burger.
“Alright, spill Jacob. What happened?” I ask in a serious voice, he can’t avoid the topic any longer, and I need to talk about something that doesn’t have to do with me being a supposed queen.
“My place was the closest, so we brought you here. Taking you to a hospital would have been a bad idea because of your changes. Your appearance was literally blinking back and forth at the time. The gunshot must have broken the final pieces of your bindings or spell, whatever it is. So we came in and Sam was working on his laptop. We clearly freaked him out, but he didn’t even ask if I was hurt. Not like I wasn’t covered in your blood or anything,” he adds sarcastically. “He took one look at all of the fae and you passed out in Allwyn’s arms, and said he couldn’t do this anymore. He said I was mixed up in things that he didn’t want to be a part of. I explained that you were still you, just fae now, but he didn’t care. Then he proceeded to tell me that I was too much drama. He literally packed all of his stuff, loaded his car, and drove away without looking back once. No tears. No emotion.” He looks crushed, understandably so. He loved Sam.
“I’m so sorry. I can’t believe he just left like that. I know he’d been distant, but leaving in a crisis just proves that he was looking for a way out. You deserved better than that.” I know whatever I say isn’t going to help. And I’m so fucking mad at Sam. He broke my best friend’s heart in the worst way, and that’s unforgivable.
“Can we drown our sorrows in ice cream and movies? I need a good comedy,” he whines dramatically.
“I think that sounds like a brilliant plan, my friend.” I start to reach for my jacket and wallet when I realize I can’t go get us what we need. “Damnit, I can’t go to the store. Worst best friend ever, right here.” My heart sinks. He took care of me and I can’t even go get him some freaking ice cream.
“I’ll go," Allwyn offers. I don’t even think, I just react... throwing myself at Allwyn, crushing him in a bear hug. Whoops.
Not wanting to make it more weird, I pull away and quickly write down a list of what to get and hand him some cash.
“You know the worst part of all this?” Jacob is clearly still lost in thought and didn’t notice my random hugging or Allwyn’s gallant rescue.
“What, sweetie?” I asked quietly. He looks at me with his big, sad eyes and my heart splinters. Seeing him so depressed is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to witness. Even his grayish blue eyes look a dull gray now.
“I’m not as heartbroken as I should be. I’m sad at what we lost, but it doesn’t feel any different without him here. He’d been pulling away and I watched it happen. What does that say about me?” He sounds disgusted with himself, and we aren’t going down that road. This is on Sam.
“That doesn’t make you anything. You noticed, and you tried babe. You can’t fix something that was one sided. You can’t turn the blame on yourself," I encourage as I pull him into another hug.
