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He rubbed a hand over his jaw.“By the powers, I sound like a petulant child.Simply thinking about the man reduces me to the seven-year-old he left behind.”
She’d known the basic facts of his abandonment from the file Alexei had put together, but reading bullet points on a page didn’t carry the same emotional punch as seeing Perry struggle to talk about the man who had left him.“I searched for you after the first prison break, and your father showed up at my roommate’s fight.It seemed like fate, a chance for you to talk with your dad.”
“Fate?More like you tracked him down.The same as you did me.”
The accusation stung.“I didn’t.But ifIfound him, what’s left of your Senate could.Or our killer.”
He thumped his knuckles against the doorframe, ata-thump-dumpthat cut off when he spoke.“You’re right.He’s not safe, no matter what has happened with the Senate.That’s all the more reason for us to lure the killer to your home realm.Maybe you can figure out a way to stop her or trap her in that world.”
“Careful.Taking out a killer or locking her up in Kradnovtl would take the cooperation of the king.Or outright defiance of the crown.You could be encouraging that anarchy you warned me about.”
“Luckily, I know a princess.”He curved one side of his mouth into a ridiculously sexy smirk.
“Already using your royal connections.”
He hesitated, seeming to consider much more than her teasing.“You win.I’ll meet with my father, but you’re coming with me.We get the amethyst, and we get out.”
“Deal.”
She didn’t regret her agreement.Not when Alexei insisted on an armed escort.Not when Alys teased her for being witch-whipped.Not when Perry tried stall tactics.Not even the next night when she stood with him outside the dumpy downtown LA bookshop.
“You’re kidding, right?”Perry gestured toward the storefront with blackened windows and cement walls tinted by decades of bruise-colored water stains.The sidewalk they stood on was cracked in broken concrete shambles, the trees planted along this side of the street shriveled as though cursed.
Everything about the building screamed, “keep away.”The bodyguards that Alexei had sent did just that, circling the entrance without crowding them.Vori pushed down the spell-induced instinct to join them.
“Where’s the trust?”Staring at the shop, her vision blurred around the edges, but she refused to blink.There.At the edges of the building, a ripple ofothershimmered.The glamour and repulsion spells.
“I’ve seen more reputable establishments run by drug rings that catered to the down and truly out.There’s not enough sage in this city to rid this place of its sulfur demon stench.”
“We’re going in.No matter how much you complain.Don’t touch the books.”
“I wasn’t planning on touching anything.Wouldn’t want to contract some horrible disease just in time to sample the goblin realm’s healthcare system.”
If only the threat was that trivial.“The books are magical.Open the wrong one, and you might not have to worry about traveling to Kradnovtl, as you’ll be sucked to another dimension between the covers.”
“So you’re saying avoid getting eaten or transported by the merchandise?”
“Yes.”
“Of course.That’s totally normal.Why hadn’t I considered that first?Life as your fake fiancé is insane.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.Wait until I take you home to meet whatever is left of my family.”Hopefully not dearest deranged Daddy.She pushed open the door.
She stepped over the threshold, and the shop’s glamour fell.The storefront had spotless display windows filled with books that moved as though synchronized cogs in a giant clock, clicking to shape one elaborate sculpture, then another.A tree with dog-eared pages for leaves was there one moment, replaced by a tower that might be inhabited by a paper princess in the next.The sparkling clean glass had “Dorgaris Books: Rarities, Curiosities, and Antiquities” etched in sharp serif.
Inside, books zipped through the air to arrange and rearrange themselves on shelves that stretched triple the length of the building’s exterior.Ladders hooked to the bookcases.Some were the normal rails-and-rungs type as the ones sold in home improvement stores everywhere.Others resembled pegboards with grooved holds as though someone had constructed narrow indoor climbing walls.The ceiling’s dark sky of paper clouds clustered around a large atlas that served as a moon orbiting through the mosaic of bindings and covers.
“Whoa,” Perry whispered from beside her as though this was an ancient library instead of a store.
“Exactly.”That’d been her first impression of the place.Although the store had changed so much in the few days since she’d been here.
She glanced at the sky that had shifted again.The spines connected to form seven peaks.A mountain range?No.Other hardbacks curved below as though making a half circle.Smaller paperbacks jutted out as though they were thorns.“The wicked crown.”
“What?”
She pointed to the creation that was already undoing itself.“Thatis the goblin crown.”
“The blood one?”
The one worn by the original goblin queen.The one that had driven so many subsequent monarchs mad.The one with the amethysts she needed.
How had the store known who she was?Whatshe was?The blood vows she’d made?“It didn’t do this the last time I was here.”
Her heartbeat sped to match the clicking of the books, and the rows closed in on her.The thump of approaching footsteps had her slipping into the reveal-nothing-expression that her mad king father had scared her into perfecting.
“Can I help you?”A man turned the corner.
Perry answered.“Hello, Dad.”
