Page 16 of Bombshell

“I think we need to take a different approach to it this time, try something new. Something more, ah,holistic.”

Even I had to admit that I was curious about his words. Even if he’d used the word holistic which I’d never heard the prim and proper man so much as ever utter in the sixty-seven yearsthat I’d known him. “New? What could we possibly try that you haven’t already forced me to try?”

He’d tried it all when I was younger. Special diets, training stamina, trying and failing to teach me to use magic the nymph way—turns out I couldn’t do any of that magic either. Nope, other than my love of plants and the vines on my back, I was basically a witch… except not really at all.

“I tried to teach you like a witch and I’ve tried to teach you like a nymph, but what if we tried somewhere in the middle? Obviously spell incantations don’t work for you and you can’t access the magic of the earth the way your nymph aunts could—that must mean you fall somewhere in the middle.”

I squinted at him, trying to figure out if the real Alexander Finch had been abducted and replaced by an alien. The man was always by the book—and by the book I mean the spellbook—he was a traditional wizard through and through, so for him to suggest that we throw the book away and go with a compromise like this…? It was weird as fuck.

Later, after our lesson had ended with only mumbled goodbyes from Alexander who seemed to still be deep in thought about his change in teaching methods, I was leaving the mansion to head back down the hill when I was quickly reminded of another reason I didn’t like being at the mayor’s mansion came strolling down the hall.

“So I see the prodigal daughter has finally returned,” Arsenio Sidhe greeted me as he practically floated down the steps to where I was standing. Ever the king of his own castle, he wasdressed in the finest suit money could buy—and even then I was pretty sure it was enchanted to the point of being stronger than any body armor. I wasn’t exactly sure how old the faerie man was, but he looked just like a movie star from the 40s, all windswept blond hair, tanned skin, and a deceptively friendly dimple. But even as handsome as he was, I hated the man with every fiber of my being. “We were out of town or else I would have greeted you sooner.”

I frowned, curious about who he meant by‘we’until I saw the big blue eyes peeking around his broad shoulders.

“Effie!” Odette Sidhe threw a jaunty wave in my direction, grinning at me until her father shot her a quelling look that made the pretty faerie cringe and stand up a little straighter.

Born only a couple of years after me, Odette had been the one person to make this house bearable when I lived here and losing her as a friend was one of my few regrets I had about leaving.

The birth of faerie children was a rare occurrence in the modern times, so Odette’s mere existence was exalted by everyone of her kind. But while she may have been treated like true royalty, I also knew that she was also lonelier than most. When we were little she was almost never allowed to go outside let alone leave the mansion grounds, so it was surprising that she seemed to be allowed to go out with Arsenio now.

I wanted to grin at her too, but her father’s hovering presence was making that hard. He always hated that we were friends, but despite living for at least a millennium on this mortal coil, therewas only one thing in the universe that could soften Arsenio up and that was his daughter.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I glared at the man, my vines tightening against my back with irritation. “I haven’t returned.”

Arsenio blinked, clearly forgetting that I wasn’t a scrawny eighteen year old that he could intimidate whenever he liked anymore.

While I’d been allowed to live in this fancy mansion with my father, Arsenio never let me forget what I was: a freak of nature, and worse than that? I was auselessfreak of nature.

Arsenio could abide anything if it was useful, but if it didn’t have a purpose? Then he tried his damndest to get it out of his sight. Like how you’d get bugs off of your windshield with the wipers, spraying and squishing them until they fly off on the interstate in smithereens.

I still hadn’t forgotten what he said to me fifty years ago the day before I ran away and it was all coming back up to the surface as we continued to glare at each other.

Odette’s blue eyes jumped between the both of us before she finally slipped around her father and hurried forward to take my hand. “I’ll walk Effie out, Daddy! I know you have that meeting!”

“Odette—” Arsenio began, a reprimand clear in his voice, but Odette ignored him, dragging me through the front doors and into the chilly afternoon air.

The sky overhead was dark and it looked like it would rain soon, but even the bleak surroundings couldn’t dull Odette’sinner shine. And by shine I quite literally meant the physical light coming out of her body. Young faeries couldn’t control their forms as well as their older counterparts which meant that the blonde woman in me seemed to glow with a pale gold light as we stood on the stone front porch of the mansion together.

“Sorry about Daddy,” she apologized sheepishly. “He’s been really stressed out lately and it’s making him grumpy.”

I snorted at that. There were a lot of words that I would use to describe Arsenio, but the word grumpy was definitely too cute for the tyrannical faerie that rules over Port Haven like it was his kingdom.

“Anyway, I was so happy to hear you’re finally coming back again! It’s been so lonely without you here all these years…” The way Odette said it made the same familiar twinge of guilt I always felt when I thought about her twist in my chest.

An apology quickly rose to my lips. “Sorry that I never reached out… I wasn’t even sure how to.”

Fifty years ago the mansion was kept under the tightest of security—no one got in or out without my father and his wards knowing about it and there was no way Alexander would have let me in after I vowed to never return. Young faeries are vulnerable and being the only daughter of the fae that ran the Northern hemisphere made her a target—which meant that my leaving barred me from seeing or speaking to her pretty much permanently.

“It’s all right,” Odette murmured with a shrug as she began to twist and wring her long blonde curls in her hands—a nervoustic that she seemed to never have grown out of. “But you’re going to come back again, right? Daddy said you’ll be taking magic lessons again from Alexander.”

I nodded. “Three times a week.”

Odette brightened immediately, her inner glow growing stronger again. “Does that mean you’ll hang out with me afterward? Alexander told me you run a tattoo shop and I’d love to show you my sketches. I’ve always been curious about tattoos, but don’t tell Daddy.”

It was strange that Alexander had talked about me at all, let alone told her about Monstrous Ink. It was no secret that Dallan was the biggest thorn in Arsenio’s, and by extension my father’s, side when it came to his Wharf redevelopment project.

“Oh, I don’t know…” I trailed off, not wanting to make her any promises that I wasn’t sure I could keep. I didn’t want to be at the mansion any longer than I needed to and post-lesson hang outs would mean exactly that..

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