Page 18 of Bombshell

We sat in silence for a beat before Cash clapped me on the back hard, a pitying expression on his face despite the fact that this was half his bleeding fault. “Well, Dall, you wanted a moment to talk to her. Now might be that moment.”

I shot him an incredulous look. “She’s more likely to strangle me with those vines of hers rather than let me talk.”

Cash shook his head, his silver eyes still locked on the doorway. I could tell he also wanted to follow Daphne, every muscle in his back and shoulders twitching with the desire to go andcomfort his upset mate. Even still, he finally turned to me with a sheepish expression. “Let’s be honest, if Effie was going to try and choke you out, she wouldn’t have run away to do it. She’d have strung you up in front of the whole shop and embarrassed the fuck out of you.”

Maybe he was right. I thought about Effie’s face before she turned to leave, and how at that point, there hadn’t been any anger. Just hurt and something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

The tentacles on my face curled inward with frustration. Why did everything with Effie have to be so fucking complicated? Why couldn’t we just be together the way Daphne and Cash were?

Standing up and pushing my chair back, I left Cash behind and followed the two women up to Effie’s apartment where I could already hear Daphne quietly talking to her and trying to calm her down.

“Was he really wrong, Eff? I’m worried that you are getting in too deep just for me…”

“And I keep telling you that it’s fine. I’d go back a thousand times if it meant you and the baby are healthy. Whose side are you on anyway?”

“Yours, always, but I also think you’re pushing people away because you’re worried about how attached you might—” Daphne’s words were cut off abruptly by Effie.

“Dallan, I know you’re out there,” Effie’s muffled voice came through the closed door. “You may as well come inside rather than stand outside and eavesdrop.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I opened the door and peeked inside to find Daphne sitting on the little sofa in the living room as she watched Effie flutter around her potions table. Whatever Effie was cooking up smelled awful and looked even worse as she sprinkled something inside of the clear pot, turning the green color into an even more putrid color.

“Are you finally making something to poison me with, Lass?” I tried to joke but Effie’s pinched expression quickly put an end to that as she pointed a steaming wooden spoon at me.

“If I wanted to kill you, I’d just smother you in your sleep.”

“Effie, you realize I have gills too right? Smothering me would be incredibly hard,”not to mention that I can hold my breath for an inordinately long time, I added silently in my head. Somewhere in my fucked up, salt-water addled brain her threat was actually somewhat affectionate… and at least it meant she’d be straddling me. Something I found myself missing more with each passing hour.

If I’d known our ink collection that night would be the last time I’d be able to feel her silky smooth skin against mine, I would have made it last longer.

“And on that note,” Daphne said as she stood up, her whiskey-colored eyes darting in between us. “I’m going to let you two fight it out.”

Effie’s eyes widened as she realized she was about to be alone in a room with me. Her mouth opened as if she was going to call Daphne back, but instead she dumped a little bowl of something in her potion and I watched the color change from a disgusting green to a deep shade of royal purple.

“If you hear screams you should come and save Dallan before I really do kill him,” she said, giving Daphne a jaunty wave despite her face still looking as angry as it had when I came into the apartment.

Daphne mouthed a silent good luck to me before firmly shutting the front door to the apartment, leaving me and Effie alone to our squabble.

Effie continued what she was doing with her potion, using a funnel to split the purple liquid into different vials and slamming her utensils down more roughly than she normally would have if she were in a better mood.

“Effie…” I began, trying to get her attention as I approached. I reached a hand out to her only to be stopped by one of her vines wrapping around my wrist.

“Don’t, Dallan,” she warned, not looking at me. “I’m still very angry with you.”

“You aren’t even going to let me explain? That’s not fair.” I waited for the vine to loosen its grip before pressing my hand flat into her back. All of the muscles were twisted together in a tight, tense bunch.

With my free hand I forced her to put the half-empty pot back on the hot plate and turned it down so the potion wouldn’t burn while we hashed things out.

“Effie,” I tried more firmly, gently reaching for her chin and turning her to face me. “Talk to me.”

The tense muscles in Effie’s back finally seemed to start to melt under my palm as her shoulders sank back down. “What’s there to talk about? None of you seem to agree with my decision to go back to the mayor’s mansion, but you also won’t acknowledge that Daphnelookshealthier now that Alexander is taking care of her. So fuck me for being a sucker who sacrifices herself for the people she loves, right?”

She wasn’t wrong. Color had returned to Daphne’s cheeks after only a few days of Finch’s spellcasting and so had her appetite.

“That’s all well and good, Lass, but what about you? You spent fifty years avoiding that house and the people in it and now it’s like you’ve never left.”

The part I didn’t say out loud—the part that had been worrying me ever since she made the deal with her father—was whispering nastily in my mind as Effie chewed on her bottom lip.

She’s going to go back for good now,’it hissed nastily.‘She belongs there finally, why would she want anything to do with you?’

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