Page 8 of Wanted: A Roommate Who Isn't Evil

Dranian growled. “That will never happen.”This washisapartment. This apartment had been here for him when others weren’t. This apartment was the one thing he had—even if it was difficult to get groceries here from the market and the journey to Fae Café was long and tiresome. “I will repay the cruelty you showed me by stealing my arm,” he promised instead. “I will call upon my brothers, and we will finish you once and for all.”

Luc’s face fell at the mention of Dranian’s brothers. The fox hopped up off the couch, slid his hands into his pockets, and sauntered around the furniture. His expression turned serious as he looked Dranian over, taking particular interest in the arm that hung slightly limp at Dranian’s side. He smiled again, like he was reliving a fond memory, and a fresh growl stirred in Dranian’s throat.

“Have you always needed someone to take care of you, North Fairy?” Luc asked with a falsely sympathetic tilt of his head. He pursed his lips, then added, “Are you truly so broken?”

Dranian found his hand wrapped around the handle of his spear in his back pocket. He didn’t dare draw it out, didn’t dare attempt to start a fight with the powerful nine tailed fox in his condition. But his heart hammered, his arm injury burning its way through his body, through his soul.

“It seems you can’t even hold your own territory by yourself,” Luc mused. He flicked his hand toward Dranian. “But go. Run to your caretakers, by all means. I won’t stop you if you don’t think you can accomplish a single thing on your own.”

Dranian’s stomach dropped.

On.

Your.

Own.

Dranian’s fingers slowly uncurled from his weapon. He wasn’t naïve. He didn’t truly think this Shadow Fairy was right…

Cress would have destroyed everything in the room at a moment like this. The Prince refused to accept comments of disrespect. Mor might have gone quiet and thought it over, but he would have come to the same conclusion—that pointed comments ought to be ignored. He would have handled it his own way, through cunning and rules.

Shayne was probably the only fairy that would have plotted revenge for no good reason.

But Dranian…

Dranian swallowed as he realized that his first instinct was, and always had been, to call upon his brothers. He would not have jumped to tear apart the fairy with his own two hands like Cress, he would not have gone to lengths to solve the problem like Mor, he would not have plotted a scandalous retaliation like Shayne.

He would have called for help. He would have let Cress handle it. He would have sat back and done whatever he was told.

And though it had never bothered him before, for the very first time, he hated himself for it.

Luc’s dazzling silver eyes darted back up as if waiting for an answer to a question he never officially asked. At the look in those stormy gray eyes, it dawned on Dranian what he must do. What he would live or dietrying to do.

“I will take back this apartment. I will drive you out all on my own,” he promised the fox. “And onceyou’veended the contract yourself, and I am no longer bound by it, I shall kill you.”

Luc’s smile had no place in the conversation, but he put it back on anyway. “We’ll see who drives out whom,” he said in his sweet, syrupy voice.

The fox sauntered back to the couch, sat, laid back, and pulled his arms up behind his head. He closed his eyes like he didn’t fear Dranian, like he couldn’t possibly imagine Dranian being capable of grabbing the coffee table and using it to crush all of Luc’s bones as he lay there.

Also, Luc was resting in Dranian’s favourite spot on the couch. The seat beside had an uneven cushion, and Dranian despised placing his rear upon a cushion that would force him to sit at a tilt.

Dranian stifled a growl as he grabbed his rolled-up jacket off the end table. It seemed he would go to work today after all. He needed space to think. To plot.

He just needed space.

“I thought you said you didn’t want to come in today. That you were invokingpart time.” Cress put his hands on his hips when Dranian walked rigidly into Fae Café where a dozen customers were scattered around tables. The air smelled of cookies with secret enchantments and freshly brewed coffee. Dranian stared at thePrince he had spent so many years serving. Whom he had killed for. Whom he had fought for. Whom he would still die for.

There were many words trapped in Dranian’s mouth. There were many words trapped in his ears, too.

“Run to your caretakers, by all means. I won’t stop you if you don’t think you can accomplish a single thing on your own.”

Dranian turned for the hallway to hang his jacket and went to find his apron without a word. He struggled to get it on, but once he had the thing somewhat tied by the strength of one good arm, he came back around and headed for the counter to begin washing the mugs that had piled up.

He filled the basin with water from the pump, and he squeezed in a dollop of soap. The soap began to bubble like a hot cauldron.

When he looked up at Cress again, he found the North Prince with a wide smile. “You couldn’t stay away, could you?” he asked. “You love this place so much.”

A presumptuous fox lounging on a couch flashed through Dranian’s mind before he could stop it.

---