Page 30 of Bombshell

I couldn’t help but prod her for more information. “Why were you arguing?”

When she shook her head, color rising in her pale cheeks, I reached out to slide my hand into hers. “Odette, I may have been a shitty friend for fifty years, leaving you here to the wolves, but I’m back now and youcantalk to me.”

She was being cagey, just like how Daphne was when she first came to work at Monstrous Ink. I didn’t even know Odette wascapableof such an emotion. My previous view of the faerie was that of a too-sheltered and too-innocent woman. To even be able to think of anything past bouts of loneliness outside of her life of relative comfort and adoration was strange to me.

Odette’s thin shoulders sank as she finally gave in. “James told me to marry him instead and he’d chase them all off.”

I recoiled back from her, my mouth agape as her words registered like the heavy slam of a hammer.

“You can’t do that!” The words burst out of my mouth in a shout that echoed off of the high ceilings of Odette’s bedroom.

Memories that I’d long since shoved deep down into my psyche came bubbling up to the surface along with a healthy dose of nausea. Suddenly I was sixteen and listening to similar promises from a boy who spent most of his time pretending I didn’t exist in exchange for fleeting kisses that made my stomach turn to even think about.

Odette looked at me like I was crazy. “I know that, Effie. I don’twantto marry James either.”

Relief was like ice coursing through me, and if not for my vines snaking out to hold me up, I would have slumped to the floor with it.

“Effie? Are you all right?” Odette’s warm, dry hands came up to my face as she pressed her palms to my forehead and cheeks. “You just got really pale—well paler than normal.”

“Fine,” I said airily, gripping the edge of the drafting table as I forced myself to stand up straight on my still wobbly feet. “Why don’t you want to marry him?”

“Well for one, Daddy would have a shit-fit,” Odette’s tongue seemed to struggle with the curse word, like she wasn’t used to using it, “And for two… I don’t want to marry justanyoneI want to be in love withmyperson! The kind of passionate love where you aren’t sure if you want to set yourself on fire or if you want to throw yourself off of a cliff for it!”

Odette’s sparkle was back as she spoke, her hands dancing through the air as if to enunciate her point.

“I want to find him. The man of my dreams,” Odette finished with a happy sigh, her eyes far away.

Despite still feeling a little queasy, I couldn’t help but huff a short laugh. “What if it’s not a man?”

“I’m not opposed to women, Effie, you know Fae are mostly ambivalent about gender when it comes to relationships. But I just know it’s a man who’s tall and fierce. He almost glows golden—like he’s got a halo of fire.”

My brows lifted with surprise. “That’s oddly specific for a hermit who never leaves the house.”

Odette shrugged one shoulder, a half-smile on her face. “I have an overactive imagination, remember? And for your information Idoleave the house, thank you very much.”

Just not without parental supervision,I thought silently as she continued on.

“Anyway, don’t think I’ve forgotten why we’re having this conversation in the first place, Euphemia Finch. Please say you’ll go with me to the next gala? Or else I might actually have to rely on James to help beat the faerie men off of me.”

I definitely didn’t want that. James was the next in line to lead the North Coast coven after Alexander stepped down and now had seemingly set his sights on Odette.

His sudden consolidation of power was… concerning and I made a note to talk to Alexander about it the next chance I got.

“I’ll think about it,” I finally said with a sigh as Odette squealed and threw herself at me.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Odette sang as if I’d agreed to go outright—which I guess with my track record I basically had agreed.

I just hoped she’d also foot the bill for a dress because my usual vintage style was definitely not going to cut it for something as swanky as the Port Haven charity gala.

Chapter 9

“The ocean has been strange! The currents have been off just in the bay, but when you go out into the open ocean everything seems fine again,” a siren lamented from her place in a tidal pool, her expressive face crestfallen as she stared at the water she was sitting in.

“Yeah, and my crab traps have been completely empty for nearly two weeks now. I’ve lived here for a century and that’s never happened before!” an umibozu man complained, and even though his body consisted of inky shadows and no face, I could still tell he was irritated by the stiff set of his shoulders and the tone of his voice.

As the rest of the water-based supernaturals that lived in Port Haven began to chime in with their own complaints about the change in the waters over the past couple of weeks, I was starting to get a migraine.

I should have known that when Charles the Kraken stepped down as the head a decade ago and tapped me that it was going to be a pain in the ass.

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