Page 73 of Cherish

“Of course. Ask away,” Arnst tells me as he serves himself another heaping spoon of pouspous.

“We’re here because we need to meet up with the Shadow Queen. How do you—”

“The Shadow Queen?” Maroly interrupts, clearly horrified. “Why on earth would you want to have a meeting with her? The last time Hudson was here, she nearly killed him!”

“Like that would have been the worst thing in the world,” Flint mutters under his breath. Then yells, “Ouch!” and glares at Macy, who looks completely innocent as she takes a bite of her dinner. Or at least as innocent as someone with heavy cat-eye linercanlook.

She obviously took the words “freshening up for dinner” seriously.

“She’s definitely not our first choice of people to hang out with,” I tell Maroly. “But she’s got information we need, and there’s no one else we can think of to go to for it.”

“What information are you looking for?” Arnst asks. “If it’s something from Adarie, maybe we can help you.”

I don’t think that’s true—if everyone in the Shadow Realm knew the cure for shadow poison, surely it would be common knowledge by now—but in the end, I figure it can’t hurt to ask. “Our friend was bitten by one of her shadow bugs. We’re trying to find a way to save him.”

“He’s been poisoned with the queen’s shadow magic?” Maroly asks, horrified.

Tiola bursts into tears at the mere mention of the words. Which isn’t terrifying at all.

“You mean he’s going to die? That’s howwible!” she tells us through her sobs.

“That’s why we’re here,” Heather explains. “To stop that from happening.”

“But he is!” she says as she climbs off her chair. “He is going to die.” Then, to everyone’s shock, she walks over to Hudson and throws her arms around him. “I don’t want your friend to die.”

For a second, the vampire looks stunned as he stares down at the sobbing little girl. Then he wraps his arms around her and pulls her up to sit on his lap. “It’s okay,” Hudson tells her as he rocks her. “I promise, he’ll be okay.”

She pulls back and looks him in the eye, tears still running down her face. “Do you pwomise?”

“I—” He breaks off, glancing around the table at the rest of us in obvious consternation.

“I promise,” I tell her. “We’re going to save him.”

“Absolutely,” my mate agrees. “We’re here to find a cure for Mekhi, and we’re not leaving until we have one. Of that much, I can assure you.”

Tiola looks torn between believing her hero and believing what she knows about shadow poison, which is a lot, apparently. But in the end, Hudson’s words must comfort her, because she stops crying. And then wipes her snotty face all over the front of his T-shirt.

“Tiola!” Maroly gasps, standing up and reaching for her. “I’m so sorry—”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s probably an improvement to the shirt,” Hudson tells her with his easygoing grin.

“You think?” Tiola asks.

“Absolutely!” he assures her. “I love it.”

“Me too.” She snuggles closer into him, then lays her head on his non-snotified shoulder. “I love you, Hudson.”

He gently pats her back. “I love you, too, Tiola.”

Watching them together makes me melt on the inside.

“Well, a promise is a promise,” Arnst says into the ensuing silence. “So we’d better figure out a way to help you keep it, hadn’t we?”

42

I’m Not

A-Posed

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