Page 17 of Bombshell

Odette gave my hands a plaintive squeeze. “Please, Effie? I haven’t had a real female friend since you left and all of the girls that Alexander sends from the coven are the worst.”

At that, I found my resolve crumbling. I knew exactly what kind of girls that were our age belonged to the North Coast coven and I couldn’t blame Odette for not wanting to be around them.

“I’ll think about it,” I finally surrendered, gently pulling my hands from hers as I turned to hurry down the stone steps to where my little moped was waiting for me.

My words seemed to be enough for Odette because she bounced up and down where she was standing, her grin wide as she waved at me. “That’s good enough for me! See you on Friday!”

Then she turned and hurried into the house, leaving me standing next to my scooter with a dazed expression.

It had only taken forty-eight hours for me to start to blend back into life at the mansion and it worried me.

By the time Daphne gave birth, just how ingrained would I be again and would I still be able to retain my freedom in the end?

I wasn’t sure, but even as I drove down the long winding driveway, back toward Port Haven, my instincts seemed to be screaming at me to drive as far away from the mansion as possible and never look back.

Chapter 5

“Idon’t like it any more than you do, Dall, but what else am I supposed to do?” Cash muttered quietly as we sat together in my tattooing suite.

Today was the second time that Cash, Daphne, and Effie went to the mayor’s mansion and I’d practically crawled up the walls for the duration. I was definitely going to need to pack the days that they went up the hill full of clients or I was sure I was going to lose my damn mind.

As usual, Daphne and Cash returned first, Daphne looking healthier than she had in the morning with color in her cheeks and Cash looking less like his entire world was about to crumble around him at a moment’s notice.

But also, as usual, Effie remained at the mansion for several hours for her ‘lessons’ with Alexander Finch. Lessons that I was expressly forbidden from sitting in on.

“I’m not blaming you for this, Cash,” I shot back with a shake of my head as my fists tightened in my lap. “It’s a shit situation all around, I just wish she didn’t feel like she needs to save everyone all the time.”

Despite her sometimes prickly exterior, Euphemia Finch had a heart of gold and a savior complex to top it off. It was probably one of the reasons I’d fallen head over heels for her—even if it also made me want to throttle her at times.

When she’d cut the deal with Alexander that night I’d been absolutely livid. That mansion at the top of the hill had been a prison for her when she was younger and she’d willingly made a deal to keep Daphne safe without considering any other possibilities first.

Though, if I was being honest, I wasn’t having any luck finding another magic user that could cast protective spells on a human pregnant with a supernatural creature’s baby and would be willing to venture into the North Coast coven’s territory.

Not only that, with the creation of the Accords that allowed monsterkind to step into the light of society, so too had come with it laws about casting spells on humans—even if they were meant to help—so most of the witches and wizards capable of it had gone underground and even my contacts were struggling to find anyone.

We could have tried to find a warlock as they seemed to be a dime a dozen these days, but warlocks were of infernal origins thanks to their demon parentage and they were more likely to try and take the child in the deal rather than just the money.

No, I wouldn’t risk Daphne for that. The human woman had been through too much in her short life to be subjected to a grimy warlock—even Alexander was a better option than that.

“If it makes you feel any better she seems to be taking it all in stride. She wouldn’t even let me come and pick her up today and is riding her scooter,” Cash pointed out as he sat back against the wall of the room. “It doesn’t help that I’m also worried if I say the wrong thing they’ll boot me out too and I’ll go nuts if Daphne isn’t nearby. My instincts are already going haywire with a pregnant mate. I can’t even imagine how they’ll feel once there’s an actual baby here.”

It was sometimes easy to forget that there was so much that even Cash didn’t know about being a gargoyle. He’d been kicked out of his clan at such a young age and had only old Ronan the crazy gargoyle to go to for counsel so he was almost as much in the dark as the rest of us.

We’d agreed not to alert the local gargoyle clan about Daphne’s pregnancy unless we absolutely needed to—there was no telling what those snobby assholes would think about a halfling gargoyle—but I almost wondered if it would be worth it if only to get information about what gargoyle pregnancies are usually like.

“Effie always pretends like everything is fine. The woman wouldn’t admit she was hurting even if she wanted to. She’s toodamn prideful to do that,” I grumbled, my mind turning to her avoidance of me over the past week ever since she’d let me hold her the night of her panic attack. She wouldn’t even make eye contact with me most days and it was driving me fucking crazy.

“Wellexcusemefor not wanting to put my problems on others,” the sharp snap of Effie’s voice made both of us jump. Whirling around to the now open door of my suite where the half-nymph was standing with her arms crossed over her chest and a furious expression on her face.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Neither of us had even heard her enter the room because we were so wrapped up in our conversation. Daphne was hovering just behind her shoulder silently waving for the both of us to shut the fuck up, but it was far too late for that as Effie’s face flushed with anger.

“Lass—” I began, but Effie cut me off before I could even start to get the words out.

“Don’t you ‘Lass’ me, Dallan Elder, and I don’t ‘pretend like everything is fine,’ because I don’t need to. Everythingisfine.” With that, she whirled on her heel and gently pushed past Daphne before stomping back down the hall.

“I hope you know that you’re both idiots,” Daphne said before she turned to follow her friend, leaving me and Cash behind.

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