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CHAPTER THREE
LILY - MIA
The Nightshade estate is set well back from the hustle and bustle of the city, in the woods of Highland Park. The surrounding area is all hundred foot tall pines covered in gossamer threads. Sprites flit around the canopy overhead as we drive below.
Enormous flowers bloom in the night, the size of beach balls. They glow like the moon, and languid creatures loll inside them, watching us drive past.
"Are you enjoying the drive Mia?" Olivia asks.
The sound of her voice makes me jump. When I see the disapproval in her eyes, I pull it together quickly.We don’t jump. We also don’t cry. It's become my mantra. It's just I'm so close to the moment I'll meethim. It's like being on the edge of a cliff. I know I told them all I'd jump, but now I'm there and everyone looks ready to give me a push.
For Olivia and Zedona, it’s an unpleasant duty they’ll soon leave behind them. Once I’m married off to the monster, they’re out of here.
I’ll be on my own. It chills my blood just thinking about it.
"I hate driving, you know that," I tell Olivia, trying to sound appropriately waspish. Apparently I managed it, because she nods. "Why couldn't we take the chopper, Papa?"
Zedona frowns at me, without actually looking me in the eye. I've become such an accurate portrait of his daughter over the last two weeks that it must feel like razors inside him. On the rare occasions when he does meet my gaze, I see every bit of the hurt and pain in there.
Does Olivia feel it too? If she does, she never shows it.
It's like she told me: the men have their own kind of coldness. The women in the mafia are like absolute zero. Olivia's eyes are as cold as the other side of the moon. It's like she never even had a sister.
Which feels a little weird to me, but it’s not my business, so I let it pass.
Zedona opens his mouth to reply, but he only lets out a small growl and goes back to looking out the window, puffing on his huge cigar. He doesn't have the heart to play along if he doesn't need to. I don't blame him.
"What's wrong, Papa?" Olivia asks, with a dark smile. "You should be happy, yourfavoritedaughter is to be married. In just a few weeks, you'll give her away. Doesn't it make your heart bleed with joy? You must have thought fondly of this moment all her life. The pride of a father walking his daughter down the aisle? Of being able to hold the first child of your blood in your arms?"
Zedona glares at her, his eyes narrow and bloodshot.
"You have no soul, Olivia."
Olivia smiles.
"Nope."
We pull up to the gates, and a couple of burly orcs check with the driver and wave us through. They're wearing suits, and look tough. They don't bother trying to hide the submachine guns swinging under their jackets.
They're ready for an army.
The grounds are immaculate. Rose bushes line the long driveway. The drive curls around a large pond. Something with a human-like face looks back at me from the edge and then vanishes below the surface, sending ripples pulsing out across the water.
At the house, the driver lets us out. Olivia waits when the door opens, giving me a look that saysget your ass in gear. I hurry to exit first.
I make sure to stand the way she taught me, and to look haughty. I try, desperately, to not be impressed by the splendor I see. The kind of wealth and power it’d take to build a mansion like this in this part of town... I suddenly realize it’s the most expensive house I've ever been in.
And I've been to places run bycartels. But this is real luxury. Old money stuff. All oak and stained glass, statues and topiaries and stuff like that.
The doors to the mansion open, and a man waits for us. He stands at attention and has a small towel draped over his arm. A butler?Geez. What kind of people are they? Longhorns curl up from his head, like an antelope, and he wears a vest but no shirt. The clicking I hear on the ground is actually hooves and not shoes, and—whoa. He’s not wearing pants.
And he has a huge dick. Just…swinging there.
"His majesty will see you in the drawing room," the butler says. "I shall show you the way."
And he does. It’s hard not to notice the thing dangling between his legs as he walks. Thankfully, he has a fluffy tail partially obscuring it.
Olivia catches my eye and grins. I have a feeling this place is like party time for her.
