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For a minute, however brief, the giggles and the whispering with Nicole chased away the dark feelings. The jealousy, the insecurity, the distractions all faded to the background as I felt almost normal.
“Hush your mouth, Cora, I’m not trying to have anyone know,” Nicole hissed under her breath as she kept her mouth half covered.
“Okay, okay. Your secret is safe with me, you harlot.”
Nicole turned her back to the others, facing me and giving me a stink eye. “Harlot? Now I’d say you’re trying to pick a fight so you can continue to avoid the whole reason we started this conversation. Which was, what is going on with you?”
Opening up. Showing more of myself to Nicole. That should be easy. She was a friend after all, the best I had. But sharing this ugly part of me felt like too much. Her stare down told me she wasn’t going anywhere until I talked though. Maybe, just maybe the ugly side of things was okay once in a while.
“I’m jealous. Seeing Vanessa with Noah made me want to rush the stairs and tackle her. Or scream. Or…” I paused and set my cup of water down. “I don’t know what. I haven’t seen Noah in a few days—he tells me he’s seeing this fae woman, she shows up and it’s made this jealousy feel like it’s a separate side of me that’s a raging bitch.”
“I’m sorry,” Nicole said. Her voice wasn’t as sympathetic as her words, but she looked at me with pity. Glancing over her right shoulder, then her left, she took a step closer to me, closing the gap between us slightly. “Cora, everyone’s still talking about how he kissed you in the dungeons. The staff, even a few fae have heard the rumors. While the fae are writing it off as impossible, the staff know Aleita well enough to know that she wouldn’t make something like that up.”
I huffed. “No, just share it with everyone to spread gossip.”
“Right. Still, if you think for one minute those rumors weren’t in the queen’s ear, you’re mistaken. Some of the staff are speculating that she set Noah up with Vanessa because of them. Because until that rumor had been well circulated…there was no Vanessa and Noah.”
The jealousy was morphing into full rage now. Of course the queen would want Noah far away from me and far beyond the reach of any rumor that he’d dare associate with a mere human feeder.
“Cora, you have to understand—” Nicole started.
I stared at her, cutting her off completely from the next thought. “Understand what? If you think—"
It was my turn to be cut off this time. Brigette came flying into the courtyard, resting her hands on her knees. “Is Whalen pissed?” she asked us.
Whalen, one of Noah’s friends, was only at training to show off and hang out. Noah’s talk of the fae’s warrior spirit didn’t seem to extend to him. In fact, I’d be shocked if he survived in war at all if it came down to it. Social hour was what he thought training was.
“He barely noticed you were gone. You could probably pretend you’ve been here the whole time,” Nicole said. “What has you more frazzled than normal?”
Brigette, who was a certified airhead most days, was red in the face and squeezed her hands into fists. A move I was sure she’d never done before.
“Well I am frazzled. And…and…” She growled and shook her fists. “Angry.”
I stared at the normally silly, giddy Brigette with shock.
“That Vanessa is horrible. She’s awful. She’s—”
Nicole put a hand on Brigette’s shoulder. “How about you take this water and a few deep breaths before you tell us what happened.”
She nodded vigorously, obeying Nicole and gulping down a cup of water. “Vanessa is a total, well, she’s a total bitch.”
I chuckled, but Brigette’s wide hazel eyes bored into me like I wasn’t understanding her fully.
“I mean it. I was part of the staff helping her settle in, and she was shoving bags at us so forcefully, she knocked one of the kitchen girls over. She was ordering us around like she was the queen herself. Then she’d talk about us in third person, like we weren’t standing right there, unless she was giving us an order or complaining about how horrible we were. She made Lizette cry in the hallway and she wasn’t even part of the group of us assisting her.”
Hearing that Vanessa was a monster should not have brought me joy. It shouldn’t have. Especially since we would all be bearing the brunt of her attitude at some point. But it made me feel better. Because she couldn’t hide her true colors forever from Noah.
Although, Noah was usually a strong judge of character, and to know he could be close to someone who was that cruel to staff was unsettling. While feeders and the staff weren’t treated like they were fae, we certainly weren’t disrespected. At least not beyond the whole feeding on us thing, which no one truly thought was disrespectful to begin with, save for Noah.
“Great, a real prima donna fae. I’d hate to be on her detail while she’s here,” Nicole muttered under her breath.
“Oh no…I wonder if because we settled her in, that means I am on her detail.” Brigette looked around nervously. “I’m going to try to get Whalen to think he trained hard and needs to feed. He won’t give up a feeder then maybe, right?”
She ran off before either of us could utter another word.
As I turned to watch her attempts at telling Whalen he did a good job, I eyed the captain making his way toward Nicole and me.
But he wasn’t looking at her at all. His gaze was trained on me, and based on the stiff way his jaw was set, he didn’t look happy about it.
“Cora.” His voice was stern and I straightened my shoulders, approaching him. “You’ve been ordered to make your way to the throne room.”
I nodded, not sure why that had him all in a huff. Either Noah needed me or I was getting lucky and getting time to look at the library by myself.
“Should I look for Noah?” I asked.
Aron shook his head once. “The queen has requested your presence. Immediately.”
Oh shit.
