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“I see you two are getting along nicely.” King Windre stood up, giving Red and I a good view of each other’s scowls.
“Pompous asshole,” she whispered.
“Bitch,” I whispered back, but something happy sparked inside me. Biting my lip painfully hard, I looked away from her, trying to push the notion out of me.
You don’t like this. This is not foreplay, Milo. She hates you. You hate her.What was wrong with me? Clearly, something fundamental.
“Can I read that?” the girl, Hattie, said, emerging through the throngs of Nymphs to arrive at King Windre’s side.
King Windre watched her move closer to him. I didn’t have to guess where his eyes went as they traced the silhouette of her body and the sway of her hips as she walked. If she wasn’t careful he might eat her up for breakfast, right on this table, with that intense stare.
Pushing up from my chair, I stuffed as much food into my mouth as I could and cupped some in my hand to take with me as I left. This would have to do. I was suffocating in this storm of Nymphs and Fae, and if Red said one more mean thing to me I might start looking at her like King Windre looked at Hattie.
You can’t get close to people, I reminded myself.Red doesn’t want to get close to you anyway.
Red stood too, scrutinizing me as she swayed slightly in her spot. It was apparent she had no tolerance whatsoever, especially if we were going off our past experiences. Anyone else would be this drunk if they’d been drinking all day. Not her. Lightweight.
“What are you doing?” she snapped.
“I’m leaving. What are you doing?”
“I’m going to my room.”
King Windre and Hattie, now fully immersed in their own conversation, stepped aside as they saw us move, neither bothered or seeming to care that we were moving in the same direction. Didn’t they know that was dangerous?
“Why don’t I walk you to your room?” I said the words, immediately regretting them.
Why would you do that, Milo? You HATE each other, remember??
“I don’t need your help.” She stepped forward and her foot caught on the leg of the chair. Red’s upper half fell forward until she caught herself on the back of the chair, but she wasn’t fast enough to keep the glass in her hand from hurtling toward the ground.
I snatched it before it hit the floor, and examined the glass like it was at fault, then turned to her. “Man, that jumped right out of your totally sober, ‘doesn’t need my help’ hands.”
A male Nymph walked by, happily talking to a woman, and I placed the empty glass in his hand and gave him a pat on his back. “Get that girl a drink, why don’t you!”
He grimaced with a nod and I took that as my exit cue. Nymphs still didn’t try to move out of the way for me. I even tried a simple ‘excuse me,’ though my tone was far from kind, and it only made them get in my way more. I could hear Red’s clumsy steps behind me. A few times it sounded like she even got assistance from Nymphs standing around as she passed and stumbled into them. She wouldn’t get a single glance from me. She didn’t need my help.
Reaching the door, I shooed a Nymph away and caught the sight of Fiddle and Birdie making their way to us a few feet behind Red. The crowd didn’t part for them either.
Quickly, I opened the door and ushered Red through, though she was already grumbling under her breath.
“We are going the same way, anyway.” Then I pulled the door closed.
I watched Red walk like a newborn deer down the hallway, her hands out at her sides for a semblance of balance. The point of her nose was rosy, and she stuck it up in the air.
“See, I don’t need assistance.”
“Such an independent woman.” I stuck my hands back in my pockets and strolled behind Red, not minding the view as much as I should have.
“Are you planning on hating me forever?” I purred, mostly to annoy her.
Red teetered as she spun on her heel. “Milo Piercing. You knowingly brought me to a certain death. You whipped me until I wept in a puddle of my own blood.” Her voice didn’t waver with drunkenness this time. She wobbled forward, her body tipping over.
With one large step forward, I grabbed her shoulders and put her right again. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“That’s bullshit. There is always some choice. You could have turned around when I was begging you at the front gates. We could have run off into the forest and found some kind of a life out there.” Her voice caught, and she refused to meet my gaze.
“That would have never worked.” I could feel my voice rising, the frustration of her accusations making my head fuzzy.
