Page 51 of Iron Unicorn

If all that Carl had talked with me about proved to be the truth, I expected Olivia would be more than happy to be carted off—and I’d enjoy stealing a princess for a while. I’d have to figure out what to do with the tagalong queen, but I’d figure something out. I always did. “Maybe I’ll hold you for ransom and make your brother give me a new horse, too. Knowing my queen, I’m going to need numerous spares to keep up with her.”

“You just want your own herd,” she accused.

I nodded. “I mean, I am from Montana. One of the hiring perks is a horse. From the day I decided I was joining the RPS, I worked hard knowing I’d be getting a horse.”

“Having met your parents, they would have gotten you a horse had you asked.”

They would have. “They paid for riding lessons. I wanted my first horse to be from the RPS.”

The princess shook her head. “You’re something else, Terry.”

I regarded the window through narrowed eyes. “Are you sure we can’t escape out the window?”

“I’m sure, Terry. You’re just going to have to behave for the rest of the day.”

* * *

Olivia refusedto relax until we were safely in a hotel room for the night. Much like the hotel room in Houston, the suite featured several rooms, a kitchen, and a jetted tub. One of the Texan royal chefs invaded the room, and he came armed with a pair of lobsters, several buckets of crabs, and a staggering number of shrimp. As the whole lot of Texans wouldn’t leave me alone until I demonstrated I could handle being in the same room with some overly lively crustaceans, I held my ground. To make it clear I would not be losing to a bunch of shelled menaces, I conjured a spear with a sharp tip.

One way or another, I would win.

“While not necessary, that’s quite amusing,” the chef stated, and he grinned at me. “I’m Levi, and my job is to transform you into a lover of seafood. While I would normally leave the legs on, as I want you to learn to love the flavor of crab and shrimp, I will forgo that portion of dinner’s presentation. I have acquired Kobe beef for your enjoyment, a reward for putting up with so much nonsense today. Really, forcing you to deal with one crab for several hours would have been sufficient. You will have the freshest of feasts tonight. In the meantime, relax. Take a soak, as you could likely use one. If I need another pair of hands, I’m certain I can recruit the princess.”

Olivia saluted Levi. “Ready for duty, sir!”

“You will not be pilfering any delicacies early, missy. Your love of all things seafood is notorious. Youwillthieve from me if I take my eyes off you for even a moment.”

I loved the way Olivia pouted. Accepting the offer of escape, I headed for the bedroom, which had the jetted tub in the connecting bathroom. “If the temptation is too much, you can babysit and make sure I don’t fall asleep in the tub.”

According to Daphne, such offers had resulted in her luring her partner into the tub with her. While I held little hope the tactic might work for me, I’d be happy enough with luring her into the same bathroom. I wouldn’t be falling asleep with a conversational partner at the least.

“You better protect him, Your Highness. He is on the injured roster.”

“Am I on the injured roster because of the pneumonia or the double knock out?” I asked, pausing my mission long enough to regard the Texan chef with interest. “And can you make something so spicy I breathe fire? Maybe they’ll change my identifier to be the Iron Dragon. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with being the Iron Unicorn, but it does make me sound rather tame.”

Olivia huffed, puffed, and pressed her hands against my back, turned me, and marched me into the bedroom. “You can feed him something spicy, but you aren’t the Iron Unicorn because you’retame. You’re a wild spirit, and you’ll stab anyone who irritates you. Or stomp all over them. And if you like them, you make them unicorns.”

I wondered if Olivia would realize she owned the vast majority of the figurines I’d made over the years. I’d make her an entire herd of unicorns if needed to get the point across.

But I agreed with Carl on one key matter: she needed to understand her changed nose changed nothing between us.

“But dragons are so much more intimidating,” I complained.

“Yet you’re happy being Rachel’s Rat Guy.”

“I wouldn’t call it happy. I’d call it cheerfully resigned to the situation,” I informed her in a solemn tone.

“Go get your bath started, protect your delicate modesty however you see fit, and let me know when you’re ready for an invasion. We have books, and we finally have the time to enjoy them.”

I questioned what went on in her head, but as the mystery made the friendship with her even more enjoyable, I decided against asking. Instead, I went to work removing my shirt and heading into the bathroom. “That sounds like a plan.”

TWELVE

“Let’s put the brakes on the general pity party.”

According to the counter,I’d caught Olivia diving into the depths of despair over her surgery over two hundred times. How she had accumulated so many counts of self-deprecation baffled me. Initially, everything had been fine. In the bathroom, we’d talked about my poor relationship with crustaceans rather than read books. She’d expressed puzzlement over how someone as competent and capable as me could possibly have a disabling phobia of critters with ten or more legs.

Sometime after getting out of the tub and sampling the terrorizing crustaceans, she’d gone from boisterous to despondent.

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