Page 5 of Partnering with the Artist

Oh, crap. I saidthataloud to one of the Bachelors… “Oh. Sorry. Um. Y-yeah. My mom, she…she’s positive that Morana—my twin sister—and I have moved into a cult? The process for applying to live here is…”

“Rigorous?”

“Yeah. Very.”

“It’s why our crime rate for local misconduct is zero percent.”

I nod. “And why everything is so beautiful and well taken care of. I honestly still can’t believe we were approved. We used to live just outside Washington, DC. Neither my sister nor I liked the city. Falling asleep to sirens, never feeling safe… We wanted to live somewhere we could consider raising families, especially since…since I thought I was going to marry Harry soon.”

Zakery’s mouth falls open. “Ha-rry?”

“My ex. The…” My eyes roll. “…wolfkinwho was chasing us. His name’s Harry.”

Zakery turns away from me, barks a laugh, then absolutely descends into a fit. “His name isHarry? And he identifies withwolves, which arehairy? No. No. Stop. I can’t.”

Clearly.

“That’spriceless. You’re so right. Your lifeisa joke.”

I am not smiling.

He is wiping tears from his eyes. “Gracious. I like you, princess. You’re fun. What’s your name?”

“Maelin.”

“Maelin?” Realization lights, and he nods. “Ah, yes. Maelin and Morana. Twin sister matching M names. That makes sense.” He looks at my face as he battles to contain himself, failing pitifully. “Oh, princess, don’t look so glum. You dodged a…silverbullet. I don’t thinkhairy Harrywould have passed the assessments to live here.”

“I still loved him. A lot. For years.”

“Yes, his loss, isn’t it? He threw away a beautiful, talented, loving woman for…” His lips roll into his mouth. “What did you say before? Apack? A pack of what? Friends? Animals? Other lunatics who would chase someone in a fursuit through a convention hall?” He cusses. “I hope there’s only one of those kinds of people in my general vicinity.”

Dry, I say, “Thank you very much for helping me, Mr. Bachelor. If you wouldn’t mind helping me back into my fursuit head, I think I’ll hope that security got my ex taken care of so I can find my sister in peace.”

He twists the fox head away from me before I can paw at it. “Ah, ah. A moment more, if you’d be so kind.”

I do not wish to be kind. But I awkwardly fold my furry arms and huff anyway. “What? You have another one-liner you want to throw at me and add to the joke that is my life?”

“Please.” He lays his free hand against his chest. “My sincerest apologies. I don’t mean to insult you. It’s simply the most outrageous story I’ve heard in a long time. Anyone would be hard pressed to keep a straight face.”

My sister wasn’t. She kept a very straight face as she curled my sobbing body up in her arms and gritted out how she was going tokillHarry. I certainly hope she didn’t vanish on me today to find a knife…however, that would make it easier for me to forgive her for disappearing on me. “I’m well aware it’s insane, and Harry’s probably on something that he didn’t tell me about, butstill. It’s not polite to laugh when someone tells you that the past six years of their life just flushed down the toilet in a most unbelievable way. I loved Harry before he tossed me out of his life without ever even giving me a chance to understand him. That’s the most painful thing. Istilllove him. It hurts. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know where this has come from. I don’t know why he discovered something new about himself and immediately decided I wouldn’tget it…when I’ve spent years trying to get a deeper understanding of him because I’ve loved him that much. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with myself now. Just…Lookat me.” I spread my fuzzy, sweating paws. “I wentthisfar, desperate to see if I could find what I was missing from afar by seeing him with his new girl in this new life, and I got chased through a convention for it. I don’t know what I want. I don’t know how to get closure. I don’t know if I want him to regret losing me, or if I just want to forget everything I guess we never had…”

“Forgive me,” Zakery says. “I’m not the most…adept…at feelings. I’m rather self-centered, all things considered, so it’s hard for me to walk a mile in someone else’s padded furry feet. From where I’m standing, though, you are a gem, and if Harry didn’t give you a chance to show how perfectly precious you are when he made life-changing decisions, he’s an idiot. Or, assuming substances spurred this change, he was stupid enough to start. Any way you look at it, he’s dumb, and you’re spared. Those facts trump feelings in my brain. Because, princess, feelings will fade. But you? You will begin again.”

Beginning again sounds so impossible right now when I feel so raw. So…stupid. Because if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t think Harry’s on something.

I think I excused a lot of his selfishness. Now that he’s found someone better than me—because she’s popular, and a beautiful trophy, and draws eyes that aren’t just curious because she’s bleached from head to toe—I’m useless to him.

Harry has always loved control and being the center of attention.

Good or bad attention doesn’t matter. He justneedsit.

Heneedsto be in a spotlight so large it may as well be the sun.

In contrast, I can’t even go out in the sunlight for long without risking skin cancer or feeling like my eyes are on fire.

Being with someone who makes a living keeping house and doing laundry isn’t what he’s ever wanted. Being with someone who, in many instances, was considered afreak—not a catch—isn’t what he’s ever wanted.

And to think for years I thought he took the attention off me for my sake. To protect me from everyone whose gaze was a little too demanding…

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