Page 44 of House of Lilith

“Where the hell is Ricky?” I hear him ask one of his own.

“Don’t know, Boss.”

Boss? Ugh.

I turn to Hilde, squeezing the glass in my hand and gritting my teeth. What the fuck did he mean by that?I’ll start to think he doesn’t exist. He’s making it sound as if I’m stalking his arrogant ass.

But I guess when you’re His Hotness, you expecteveryoneto constantly be in fucking awe of you.

“It smells good,” I hear Hilde say, but I’m not really listening.

“Welcome, everyone,” his voice snaps me out of it.

I watch him come to stand near the fire with his own glass in his hand, his eyes sweeping over the crowd. “And a special welcome to all the Grimms we’ve managed to drag out here tonight, despite everything.”

There are sounds of laughing and clapping coming from all around me.

“Now, before we start enjoying ourselves, there’ssomething I’d like to say. I won’t be long, don’t worry. But the drink you’re about to have…”

He looks around, making sure he has everyone’s attention. He does.

“It’s from one of the last batches my mother ever made,” he finally says, making a low murmur rise from all around the circle and my eyebrows pull down. “Why am I bringing it out tonight?”

I’m still annoyed, but my ears still prick up.

Howe smiles and starts pacing around the fire. “In less than three months, on the day of the Winter Solstice, we’ll have our Second Game. It’ll also be the twelfth anniversary of my mother’s death.”

A pang of sympathy shoots through me and I start watching him even more intently.

“Now, her being one of the most powerful matriarchs in the history of our pack, most of you here have known this story since you were kids. But none of you Grimms do.”

True.

“So twelve years ago,” he keeps going, turning a bit more serious, “back where we come from, things were bad, really really bad. I mean, not as bad as they arenow, but worse than they’d ever been before. You probably all know what the Umbrage did to our Academy so I won’t bore you with details. Suffice to say, its Heart never stopped deteriorating and it was making magic in our land scarce, unpredictable and vengeful. But now, now it was starting to makepeopleturn on each other as well.”

Holy shit, I never knew it was that bad.

“Now, my mother wasn’t a softie,” he says with a laugh. “She’s still the toughest,strongestwoman I’ve ever known. In the Council Room, she was able to wipe the floor with any man or woman who dared challenge her. On the battle ground, she was able to single-handedly change the course of the events.”

My eyes dart left right, seeing he’s still keeping everyone on their toes. “But these spats and pointless murders… For a while, she just didn’t know what to do about them.”

He pauses for a second, lifting a finger. “Until one day, twelve years ago, she usedhermother’s tricks and made a dozen barrels of this. And she ordered all the towns and villages under the Academy’s wing to host at least one dance a month, so there’d be a party going on every single week. And for a really long time, life didn’t get any easier and we still haven’t managed to stop the curse, but you’ll see…”

Smiling, he slows to a stop and raises his glass, making all of us follow his lead.

“A couple of glasses of this and you’ll not only fall in love with the taste, you’ll put all our remaining differences aside and just. Have. Fun.”

A smile tugs at my lips and at the same moment as everyone else, I down the alcohol, the liquid burning my throat and sending a wave of pleasant heat down my body.

“Well,” Hilde says as she clears her throat, “itiswhiskey, but I actually like it.”

“Yeah, me too,” I say in a soft, pensive voice as I watch students, both Fiains and Grimms, start approaching Howe.

Glad I could come, he said.

It surprises me, when he just keeps talking to the people he’s found himself surrounded by.

And all of a sudden, I feel so stupid, thinking he’d come back to talk to us. As if we’re anything to him.

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