Page 70 of Necromancers Don't Raise

“Is everything all right?” he asked, studying me too intently.

I sighed and wrapped my arms around his arm, snuggling against his shoulder as we walked, not caring if it smudged my makeup. I wasn’t here for a merger, but for good food with the man I loved. I wasn’t Cassandra Clarence anymore, and I never would be again.

“Yes. Everything is perfect,” I said, smiling up at him.

A flash went off in my face, then another and another.

“Miss Star, could you turn this way, please?” an assertively friendly reporter asked with blazing red hair that I’d helped her pick out the first time we’d met and she was wearing something with purple tints that did the most miserable things to her complexion. Was Miss Star supposed to be me? It was catchy. Nova Star. I sounded like a celebrity, not a businesswoman.

Of course, the reporters would love to see me. I was click bait these days, but today I wasn’t wearing anything sheer and I had no intention of making out with Mercury publicly. In private… I turned and gave them a polite smile, giving the shot she was after. She flashed her teeth in a greedy smile. “Miss Star! What’s your relationship with Mr. Good?”

I stared at her, my heart racing as I clung even tighter to Mercury. How did they know? They didn’t. They couldn’t.

“I beg your pardon?” I asked in my coldest, most polite tone.

She looked slightly embarrassed but pressed on because it was her duty as a journalist. “You inherited all of Mr. Good’s assets. Were you together before you took up with the Dealer? Is that why he hates Mr. Good? Did he raise you for Mr. Good, Viva the famous dancer, but then?—”

Mercury pushed past her, leading me towards the doors. “Apparently, Mr. Good has informed the public,” he murmured after we got through the press and entered the sanctum of delicious scents and impeccable service.

I frowned and nodded. But why would Mr. Good do such a thing? What was I missing? Had he actually given me his whole business? For what purpose?

“I should buy some networks so I can profit off my publicity. Nova Star is such excellent click bait.” I kept my body relaxed in spite of the impulse I had to run as far and fast as possible. I could handle public pressure easily enough. I was here to eat with Mercury, so that’s what I’d do. And maybe if I were very lucky, I’d get out of here without shooting someone.

Chapter

Eighteen

The maître d’ was quick to lead us to the table off to the side, somewhere it would be easier to talk and not feel like we were in a fishbowl. I’d never come here without an entourage of bodyguards, as well as my parents and Philip. I’d never realized how many of these polite and well-mannered people could curl their lips with such clear contempt. They never shown half that much life and expression with the Clarences. Mercury was hated and envied, while I was ogled and desired, also held in utter contempt. Maybe being able to read people wasn’t always a blessing.

I grabbed the waiter before he could leave to get our waters. “I’ll have the lamb shank navarin with whatever sauce Francoise is making tonight. My companion will have the Bouillabaisse. No wine. Thank you.” I turned to smile at Mercury, who was looking at me with a slightly puzzled smile as the maître d’ hurried off. Oh. I’d just ordered for him like I would normally when I went out to dinner with people at a restaurant I knew. I was officially rattled.

I grabbed his arm. “I’m sorry. I should have let you order. I’m just nervous. It’s our first date, and I am not sure what to do. Sorry. You should probably distract me by taking off your shirt.”

He covered my hand with his, the connection silencing the rest of the world. “Bouillabaisse is perfect. Ever since the boat, I’ve been craving a nice, hearty fish soup. If I took off my shirt, absolutely no one would be more surprised and appalled than they already are. My existence is an insult. Shall we go? The food was supposed to be good, but the atmosphere is not.” His glance around at the other diners was twice as condescending and contemptuous as theirs.

I snickered, smiling up at him and fighting an extremely strong urge to climb into his lap. “You’re so French.”

“Not French. I just lived there for some time,” he said with a marvelous twitch of his eyebrow.

“A hundred years is some time.”

“So is a month. You’re clearly more familiar with this restaurant than I assumed. Did you come here often?”

I stared at him, frozen in the act of lifting my water glass. I didn’t want to tell him about my engagement dinner with Philip when I was trying to focus on the present with Mercury. “It’s very good food, but it’s a place where you go to be displayed. Have you come here often?”

He shook his head. “I have not, but it was recommended to me by…”

“The gothic lord of darkness actually came out in public? Is this the third time in a year?” Vincent Bellham approached our table with a charming smile that was slightly too delighted, followed by Anna, Gabby, and the president’s son, Apples. Gabby dragged a chair from a nearby table, not trying to minimize the noise.

“Please, allow me,” a waiter said, forcibly ripping the chair away from her. The redhead raised her hands in surrender and then let the waiter arrange four more chairs around our table. I sat there watching the proceedings while my heart pounded faster and I wanted to lay my head on Mercury’s shoulder andshoot someone. What a barbaric impulse. It must be the goblin in me. I didn’t want our dinner interrupted, even by friends, but we had to be polite. Or did we?

Nova didn’t care what she did in public, and neither did my necromancer. I stood up, warring with the manners that my mother had instilled at me from the womb, and then with chin lifted high, I sat on Mercury’s lap and firmly put my head on his shoulder. I stared stonily at Gabby, daring her or anyone else to comment on my public display of affection.

“Good idea sharing a chair,” Anna the Grand Sorcerer said, glancing casually at her husband. “Except it might get in the way of eating.”

“It’s very good food,” he said, giving her a smile and raising her hand, kissing the back of it, “But is anything worth the distance of the space between chairs?”

She laughed and shook her head at him. “Don’t ask me to choose between you and sushi. Don’t ask.”

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