Page 32 of Wicked

The shelf for fox shifters has homemade stew from one of New York City’s local fox shifter pubs and beer from their brewery. I buy two jars of the stew in case it has sentimental value for Candlewick, and head back out into the street laden with shopping bags.

As I stand on the sidewalk, the cold morning air turning my breath to fog, the guilt and anxiety from last night are completely gone. Today, I’m going to do right by Candlewick and show him how much love I have to give.

I get a text message from Anne.

Where are you?

I message her back.

Going to apologize to Candlewick.

She sends me a thumbs-up.

Bring him to Dorian’s house when you get the chance. Buddy will want to see him.

I hail a cab and give him Revolver’s address. I forgot it, but I was able to retrace my steps this morning through Google maps and my memory of a few landmarks. It’s a short drive from Animalistic. In less than five minutes, I’m standing in front of the same doorman who was unsure about letting us in because of my strange clothing.

“I see you’ve changed,” he says.

“Yeah.”

He opens the door for me.

I approach the front desk slowly. Elise is sitting in front of her computer, chewing her gum loudly.

“You already back with your tail between your legs?” she says.

I hold up my shopping bags. “And bearing gifts.”

“Good man. Did ya bring anything for me?”

I stare back her, unsure if she’s serious. Then rummage through my bags until I find one of the jars of spruce-tip jelly and set it on the desk.

She reads the label and forces a smile. “Oh… thank you. What is spruce tip?”

“The tip of a spruce tree. You know, the evergreen tree? It helps prevent scurvy,” I say, before I can stop myself.

“Oh. Great. That’s… just what I wanted.” She keeps the fake smile plastered on her face as she picks up her phone. “Let me call David and see if he’s up for a visitor.”

I stand there awkwardly while she waits for Revolver to pick up. She has to call two times before she says, “Davie? You will not believe who is here already. Guess.”

David guesses several times, and Elise says, “No, guess again.” After the fifth time she rolls her eyes. “Do you even know Taika Waititi? Fine, I’ll tell you. It’s that taco-cat alpha from last night.”

I hold my breath. If Candlewick doesn’t want to see me, I’ll have no choice but to wait and try again.

“I will absolutely deliver that message word for word. Thanks Davie.” She ends the call and smiles up at me. “David says Candlewick is willing to see you, but he wants you to know that he has friends who will murder you and hide the body so well no one will ever find you if you hurt his friend again. So… go up there at your own risk. You’ve been warned.”

Fair enough. I walk to the elevator and try to remember which floor Revolver lives on.

“They’re on the eleventh floor. Can I give you some advice?”

“Yeah. Okay.” I’ll take any help I can get.

“Don’t give him the scurvy jelly,” she says.

I hold back a smile. “Okay. Thanks.”

“In the future, flowers and jewelry are great gifts. A bouquet of roses doesn’t imply that you’re going to kidnap him and keep him imprisoned in a remote cabin in the woods where he’d have to live on hard tac and might get scurvy if he doesn’t have that handy jelly.”

---