Page 9 of Wanted: A Roommate Who Isn't Evil

“I changed my mind. I’ll take the evening shift,” he murmured. He dove his hands into the sudsy water and began to scrub the Fae Café mugs, wondering why he couldn’t seem to spit it out to Cress that there was a dangerous nine tailed fox hiding in his dwelling. One they had all fought together. One they had hoped was gone from the human realm.

Why couldn’t Dranian even tell Cress that Luc wasn’t, in fact, back in the Ever Corners like they’d hoped? Whycould he not at least warn Cress and Mor that the fox who had tried to kill Mor was just an hour’s bus ride away?

Dranian grunted.

“If you’re in a mood, I’ll let you taste my new cherry-topped tarts,” Cress offered. “One of those ought to do the trick.” He ducked into the kitchen to go tart hunting, and Dranian sighed.

He tossed a washed mug onto the counter too hard, and the whole goblet smashed. Two females at a nearby table shrieked at the noise, and Dranian mustered as much of an apologetic look as he could with the stone-face the sky deities had given him to work with. He glanced back at the broken goblet split right down the middle—two burgundy chunks.

Even though it was mug chunks on the counter before him, Dranian saw an orange pumpkin with stringy seedy bits, broken and a mess. For a moment, he forgot his hands were resting in piping hot dishwater.

First, he’d knocked a pumpkin from its barrel. Then he’d smashed a mug atop the counter. Now, they were both just like him.

Broken.

4

Luc Zelsor and the Complimentary Mix of Shadows and Ice Cream

So, this was his destiny, then. To destroy a three-legged guard dog from the inside out and to commandeer a new home. It wasn’t an impossible task. It wasn’t even a difficult task, really. Luc had undone more fairy minds than he could count. It was how he knew it was rarely one great, terrible event that sent a mind into chaos. It was an accumulation of small, agonizing things, over and over, that typically drove a fae mad.

Luc smiled bitterly. He may even find it enjoyable to become the monster he was raised to be.

He tousled his beautiful rosy hair as he gazed at his reflectionin the bathroom mirror. He did a quick brush of his teeth for pleasure, too, and then popped into his room to fetch his black dandelion-peppered coat.

His room.

He’d slept in all kinds of forgotten, abandoned places in his long months hiding in the human realm. He’d dozed off on park benches, fallen asleep below trees, curled up in the corners of rundown buildings. He never expected he would be the unfortunate sort to have to search for a place to sleep, but even so, it was better than the alternative.

It was better than goingback.

Luc headed out of the apartment and down the stairs, pushing out the doors at the same time as he pushed all thoughts of the Dark Corner from his mind. The late afternoon sun hung heavily in the navy-grey sky. He looked both ways, trying to determine the direction of the ice cream shop from his new location.

It was a relief the miserable North Fairy,Dranian, had left. Luc needed time to let his choices settle in. He needed to truly decide if he could bear being in the presence of Mor’s ally. And he needed to weigh the odds of that mumbling, scowling fool telling MororCressica Alabastian about Luc’s existence.

His hand grazed over his chest where his fox tails hid below his shirt and coat. The five he had left.

“Why can’t I be rid of you, Trisencor?” he asked the wind with a huff as he slipped into it.

It took him six seconds of airslipping and following his nose tofind the ice cream shop. There was no line when he caught himself gracefully on his feet, so he walked right up to the window. He knocked on it, and a teenage girl with a pinking nose slid the window open and leaned out to meet him.

“You’re back again,” she said. As if Luc didn’t already know.

“I’ll be back tomorrow, too,” he promised, flashing her his dangerously magnetic smile.

She swooned a little, her cheeks flushing. “Well, today’s our last day open,” she said with a giggle, and Luc’s smile fell. “We close every fall. We open again in the spring,” she added.

Luc nearly staggered back a step.

“So, I guess this is the last time I get to serve you ice cream. You’re our most dedicated customer, so your cone today will be on the house,” she went on as though she hadn’t just spoken words that brought Luc’s entire world crumbling down. “Same flavour as yesterday? Strawberry?”

Luc nodded, but he couldn’t find any pretty words or lovely thoughts to thank her with today. She disappeared into the shop, and he stood on his tiptoes to watch his ice cream being scooped.

It was a big, divine heap of glorious pink magic when she brought it back. His smile returned. She’d given him an extra scoop.

“Here you go!” the girl said. “Enjoy! We’ll see you in the spring!” She waved as she handed him the ice cream cone. A second later, she slid the window closed upon all hishopes and dreams.

“Oh dear,” Luc sighed. What would he do without this shop to visit every day? This shop was the reason he continued to sneak back into the downtown area he swore he’d never return to. The ice cream had been worth the risk.

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