AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Worse than an orc boil. A troll’s fart.
Hellebore got to me . . . that’s not an excuse but, please just text me back.
I’m worried about you.
And the Winter Prince.
If you don’t message me back, I will come to your house and kick your ass.
I blow out a breath, sending my greasy hair flying away from my face, and check my last text message from Valerian. It’s from the night at Yule.
I can’t wait to see you in that dress.
My throat tightens, and I scroll to my texts with Mack. Her last message was from the night of the party.
Where are you? Jace is hooking up with a satyr and Richard is drunk-crying over Evelyn. Need reinforcements STAT.
Now, I send off a quick, Hope you’re doing okay, and wait.
Nothing.
I sit up in bed as Zinnia’s footsteps echo down the hall. A moment later, my door creaks open.
“I come bearing gifts,” Zinnia calls, waltzing inside with a tray of goodies. I stare at the sliced and buttered banana bread. The sweaty glass of sweet iced tea.
And burst into tears.
“Oh, darling. Don’t cry.” She deposits the tray on my desk and rushes over.
I’ve been trying to keep it together. Trying to focus on the gauntlet and be strong. But the second she wraps her plump arms around me, I can’t stem the tide of tears.
I bury my head in her chest and let everything out.
She caresses my hair, the smell of her cheap vanilla perfume from the Dollar General comforting. “Remember when I used to do this?”
I shake my head.
“You were nine going on sixteen, so angry and sad and confused. I used to just hold you and let you cry. Afterward, I’d offer you a plate of cornbread or a slice of homemade apple pie with some sweet tea and you’d be all better.”
I lift my head, smiling through my tears. “And here we are again.”
“Yes, but I suspect this time, you need more than some bread and tea to fix you up.” Her gaze flicks to my facedown phone, back to me. “Friend trouble or boy trouble?”
“Both.” I wipe my sleeve over my cheek, collecting the tears.
A knowing look dawns on her face. “Nick said Mack’s been struggling this year. He thinks it’s his fault, that they’ve pushed her for so long that she doesn’t know what she actually wants.”
“He said that?” I forget that Zinnia and Nick have each other on speed dial and gossip about us constantly.
“Yes, he’s been worried sick about her. It must be hard for the sweet girl, especially when you know exactly what you want to do after you graduate, while she’s . . . confused. I told Nick he should step back and let her make her own choices.”
“I always thought she wanted to work at her dads’ firms.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I think back on all the times we discussed our majors. While I blabbered on and on about finding a job to help protect mortals from the Fae and make our lives better, she was always strangely quiet.
She’s never once said she wants to be a lawyer, and when we discussed Guardian jobs after school, she always changed the subject.
Zinnia reaches over and hands me my glass of iced tea. “Now tell me about this boy. Is he cute? Does he have nice parents?”
Cute? Nice parents? Titania save me, how do I explain Valerian Sylverfrost? I take a long sip of my drink, the tea so sweet my teeth ache, and say, “What if it wasn’t a . . . boy?”
