Page 2 of Demon Queen
“Yeah, Gloria told me, too. Also that she’s a werewolf.” She chuckled.
I was quiet for a long time. Was I supposed to laugh or ask if she meant that Honey was now a furry? I should probably just go with it. “Honey would make a great werewolf. You think I need to bring a monster to this club to protect me?” Honey was truly terrifying, furry or not.
“Yeah.”
That wasn’t ominous at all, but it didn’t matter. “Fine. I’ll call up Gloria right now. We’ll go after the shop closes for the night. It’ll be perfect.” Candy Kingdom closed at ten, and the fight club should stay open until far past midnight if it was anything likethe strip club I’d worked at thirteen years ago. It would be like old times. And now I was shivering.
“How long has it been since you left the shop?” Cathy asked, in her quiet way.
That was another thing that had been years. I didn’t go out, I built out. Maurice thought it was a part of my brand, the Candy Queen can’t leave her candy land, but it wasn’t that pretty. It was panic, and disorientation, and other names for mental breakdowns.
“It’ll be fine.” I mean, if I was at a fight club my unhinged screaming would hardly be notable.
“You won’t be able to help anyone if you’re hysterical.”
“I’ll take drugs.”
She sighed heavily. “It’s probably not him. All these years, hanging onto something, not moving on, not dating, not leaving your house... it’s not healthy.”
I laughed, sounding hysterical before I managed to zip it. “Thanks for the update. I had no idea that my mental health was so precarious. I’m dressed like a cupcake duchess. Somehow I survive in my unhealthy state. Will you meet me after work?”
“So I can carry you to my car kicking and screaming?”
“It’s for Wilkie. I’ll be carrying you.” Nothing mattered more than finding my baby, not even the fear that clawed at me the second I stepped outside of my domain.
“Call Gloria, get Honey, and yes, we’ll all go to the house tonight at ten. Don’t get your hopes up.”
The hope was a very real monster, battling with the fear and the anxiety. “Of course not. It’ll be a fun little outing with my foster sisters to a fight club. We’ll watch a few fights, place some bets, get some drinks, and then go home.” Because I left my home. Ever. But if there was any chance at all that my baby had grown up to be a cage fighter… Well, I’d break him out of thereno matter what it took. Even if I had a nervous breakdown doing it.
“If you’re sure. Call Gloria.” She hung up, leaving me with a cupcake duchess in the mirror and a dial tone.
I called Gloria.
“Mystic Mayhem, speak, and I will see…” Her voice was quavery, ominous, creepy.
“It’s me, Sandy.”
“I see a billowing tower of marshmallow hearts. You mean Candy. The Candy Queen has deigned to call a humble practitioner of the all-seeing arts?”
It had been a long time. I should do a fortune-teller theme some time. I cleared my throat. “I have some fresh rum chocolate truffles, and I thought of you.”
“Hmm. And that’s the only reason you called?”
My skin itched. I didn’t do so well talking on the phone, either. “You’re so suspicious. Now that you mention it, I wondered if you’ve kept in touch with Honey.”
“Really? I thought you were hermitting. That’s how she was until she recently came out of the woodwork to accept her place as the Wolf’s wife.”
“Wolf’s wife?” I shook my head. Talking to Gloria was confusing at the best of times, and whether Honey actually married another furry didn’t matter. “Excellent! Could you give me her number?”
“I could. Are you sure you want it? If you get it, you’ll probably have to call her, and then you’ll have to talk to her, and then she’ll drag you somewhere with people and things, you know, other than yourself.” Gloria made me sound like I had an actual phobia. I didn’t. Not really, I just chose to stay at the shop and… Fine, it was probably a phobia, but it was based on the reality that I had to keep a low profile so that I wasn’t discovered by Dorian.
“Yes! I’m going to go out to a club after tonight’s big opening.”
“To celebrate your candy shop?”
“Of course.” I mean, I’d be celebrating if my son was there. Otherwise, I’d be scraping my heart and my hopes off the floor.
“And you want to invite Honey, but not me?”
