Fairy Tale: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 3) (17 page)

Dirge practiced those moves ad nauseum. She could have done most of them in her sleep with muscle memory. I couldn’t. I stumbled through it in my head and guessed my way through it, relying on Shirajirashii to know what it was supposed to do. It was a situation that made it even more likely I would blow myself up and take everyone around me out too.

“Fine,” I growled through clenched teeth. “I’m not saying you’re right, but I’ll practice some of the spells.”

“I guess that’s all anyone can ask.” Mattoc sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand. “Now hurry up and get dressed or you’re going to be late.”

“Dressed? Late? I just woke up like five freaking seconds ago.” I glanced down at myself and knew instantly, I needed a bath… among other things.

“Which is good because the Fairy Queens are throwing a ball in your honor and you are expected to go.” Mattoc pointed at a clothing rack on the far side of the room. It was filled with fashionably chic dresses of every shade and material. Next to it was another rack filled with shoes.

My eyes widened, and I made a sort of mewling sound as I tried to close my mouth. “I’m going to step out and summon your hair and makeup people,” Mattoc said with the hint of amusement in his voice. I glanced at him as his broad shoulders vanished through the door. “And no, you can’t keep, and by keep, I mean steal, anything. I think it all turns to pumpkins at midnight, anyway.”

I wanted to glare at him, but he was already gone. I mean I didn’t plan on stealing anything even though there were so many shoes and dresses that it made me want to stuff them all in my spirit pouch and walk away whistling. Lillim Callina wasn’t a thief.

“Excuse me, Mistress,” squeaked a tiny voice that reminded me of a sparrow’s song.

I turned to see a tiny woman about the size of a Barbie doll fluttering a few feet in front of my face on gossamer dragonfly wings that beat impossibly fast. She had giant solid pink orbs for eyes in a face framed by spikey bubblegum pink hair. A silver stud protruded from her nose and silver rings adorned her eyebrows.

“Hi,” I said a little too quickly.

She paused, quirking one eyebrow as she studied me very carefully, thumb and forefinger rubbing her chin in an appraising gesture as she bobbed around me. “I can work with this,” she said to no one in particular before screaming over her shoulder at the top of her lungs. “Everyone in here quick. We need the Cinderella Express II, STAT!”

At least fifty more creatures ranging in all styles and colors swarmed into the room coming toward me armed with paint brushes, ribbon, and scissors. I shrieked and tried to throw myself away from them but the first pixie seized me by my bangs with both hands and eyed me very carefully.

“Don’t fight, it will only make things worse for both of us… but mostly you.” She narrowed her pink eyes at me. “And unless you want to go to the Fairy Queens’ Ball looking like Donner Party Barbie, I suggest you make things as easy as possible on us.”

Chapter 20

I wasn’t sure whether to feel ridiculous or beautiful. The pixies did me up in a lavender strapless ball gown that laced up the back so tightly that it felt like I was going to suffocate. The dress reached the floor but there were so many folds and trusses that it was hard to imagine it as a traditional hem. Lavender roses were pinned at the waist of the dress with diamonds glittering inside.

Snowflakes made of still more diamonds patterned the dress, making it so every time I took a step the light would catch them and make me sparkle. My hair was curled so it sort of bounced around my face. If that wasn’t enough, they covered my eyes in smoky eye shadow with just a hint of purple, and painted my lips with nude lipstick.

Still, I couldn’t help but blush. This was the most dressed up I’ve ever been, and I wasn’t sure I had the whole pretty princess look down. I bit my lip, resisting the urge to cry, barely, and glanced back at Azrael, the pink pixie.

“I look hideous,” I said, turning away from the mirror and shutting my eyes to keep the tears inside. “Everyone’s going to look at me and think I’m a painted troll.”

“Everyone is going to look at you and think you’re lovely,” Azrael cooed in her sparrow song voice. “And I’ve seen a painted troll. You look nothing like that.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said, swallowing back another sob.

“Girl, I’m going to beat you over the head with my hairbrush if you don’t stop whining,” Azrael screamed in exasperation. “You have no reason to be upset.”

“My arms are all muscular and gross. I have these muscles on my shoulders sticking out that I don’t even know what they’re called. I look like the top of a soda bottle.” I turned toward her and whatever I was about to say next was lost as I stared into the face of Caleb Oznek.

His mouth hung open at a weird angle as his eyes roamed over me. The scars on his cheek were plainly visible because his normally scruffy hair was styled into one of those spikey hairdos that reminded me of skateboarders. He was wearing a lavender shirt and tie beneath a black suit that hugged his body so tightly that I knew it must be fitted.

“You look amazing,” he said. His voice was strangely husky and strangled at the same time. He reached forward and took my wrist in one large hand. His touch sent a wave of heat rushing through me. My knees went a little weak, and my heart sped up as he slid a corsage with a single white rose and a single lavender rose onto my wrist. I looked at the ribbons trailing off the thing as he took my arm in his, pulling me so close to his body that I could feel his warmth.

“Are you sure?” I squeaked, half-surprised I was able to speak at all.

Caleb grinned at me, and it was like a baby bird taking flight for the first time. “You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. They say Helen had a face that launched a thousand ships. Well, you’d launch a thousand armadas.”

I felt heat rise on my face and put my head against his shoulder as he led me out of the room. “I didn’t know you were going to be my escort.”

“Who else would it be?” He sighed and shook his head in that way that made me think there was some sort of problem.

“The Prince doesn’t like, it does he?” I asked and felt him stiffen just a little as we walked.

“Not really, but only because he doesn’t want to get sucked into the affairs of Fairy. It has nothing to do with you,” Caleb said as we came to an immense door done up in gold and silver filigree. Rubies and sapphires the size of my head were set into the door to depict the image of two women sitting on thrones. The doors swung open onto a ballroom at least as big as a football field.

The floors glittered with flecks of gold and silver that laced through the white marble in the design of an enormous dragonfly. Huge crystalline chandeliers, hung from enormous rose vines, cast a soft natural moonlight over the entire room.

The place was packed with Sidhe, pixies, elves, and other fairyland creatures I didn’t recognize. The entire left side of the room was filled with large buffet tables covered in delicacies I couldn’t begin to describe let alone identify. The smell was enough to make my tummy rumble, and I wasn’t sure when the last time I’d eaten actually was.

Caleb smirked and glanced from me to the buffet table. “I’ll go get us something before you start drooling,” he said as he disengaged his arm from mine and headed off toward the food.

I wanted to shout after him not to forget to get some of the purple cakes at the end, but before I could open my mouth, something huge and black stepped in front of me. I looked up and up and up. The creature, if you could call it that, resembled a pillar of darkness rather than a humanoid form. It reached out one wispy tendril and took hold of my hand. A strange tickling, like a feather brushing over my skin, ran up my arm as I stared into the gaping blackness before me.

“Tis a pleasure to meet you, Miss Callina, Savior of Fairy,” the pillar said in a voice that rattled the inside of my head like a gong.

“The pleasure is all mine, I assure you,” I said as I dropped into a curtsey that was surprisingly easy to do in the ball gown. The thing laughed, the sound spilling over me like warm honey, and I had to resist the urge to wrap myself in it and roll around.

“May the wild magic bless you and keep you,” it said, releasing me and hovering off toward the refreshment table. I glanced around for Caleb, but he was nowhere to be found.

Dozens more people had already shown up so maybe he was busy greeting them in his role as the Blue Prince? I shook my head and sighed. Either way, I still didn’t have any food.

“Lillim? Lillim is that you?” I turned toward the voice and found Mattoc staring at me from just inside the doorway. He was wearing a white suit with a bright red rose in the lapel. “You look stunning,” he said after a long moment.

I blushed and heat spread across my cheeks as he walked over to me, and very carefully, took my hand in his. His touch was cool and the feel of it shocked me a little. I still wasn’t used to this whole Mattoc was corporeal in Fairy thing.

Mattoc was staring at me in a way I’ve never seen before, lips half-parted as his eyes lingered on me, stopping on my bare shoulder. He reached out, one slow, tentative movement with his hand. His fingers brushed my skin, and it was like an electric shock went through me. The blood seemed to swell in my head, rushing so quickly that I couldn’t hear anything over it.

“You know,” he said, his voice husky and clipped, “I haven’t touched anyone in almost thirty years. I’d forgotten…” His hand slid down my arm until he clasped my hand in his. “You’re so warm.”

I swallowed and tried to remember how to speak. Part of me wanted to run away from him before something weird happened. The other part of me didn’t know what to do at all but was pretty sure sprinting for the door would be the wrong thing to do.

Mattoc took a step past me, still holding my hand, and I turned, following. We took a couple more steps before he turned and slid his other arm around my back. It was only then that I noticed the music in the air. It fell down on us in a smooth beat that made me want to move and shake.

“Did you seriously just drag me onto the dance floor?” I asked, my eyes wide in horror.

“Yes. I haven’t been able to touch someone in a long time, and all I want is one dance with you.” Mattoc grinned, and my heart almost stopped. “Is that okay?”

Before I could respond, Mattoc swung his body around, shifting to the music in a wild arc that caused glittering purple light to flash from the ceiling above us and illuminate us before all of Fairy.

I tried to step away then, after all, what would Caleb think? Here I was in the middle of the dance floor with Mattoc. I mean, it was Mattoc, and Caleb had no reason to be jealous of a non-corporeal ghost. Only Mattoc wasn’t non-corporeal right now and that was an important difference, right?

Magic filled the air, making it taste like pink cotton candy. I took a deep breath and it thrummed along my skin, slipping over me like a silk sheets on a hot night.

Mattoc leaned in close to me, his breath cool on the skin of my neck. A shiver ran down my spine, and I would have stumbled if he hadn’t caught me in his arms. He turned his body, spinning me so that my back was toward him, and made us take a step forward.

“Don’t you know our game?” he cooed into my ear, and his voice melted over me like thick, rich caramel: sultry, sweet, and dangerously bad for you. “Don’t you feel the same?”

My body turned itself and magic slid up around me like a glove. I tried to scream, tried to open my mouth as the power of Fairy poured over me, drowning me there on the dance floor in front of all the guests.

“Do I feel the same?” I crooned with no idea how I’d done so as Mattoc intertwined his body with mine, locking us in a vicious tango. “Do I know this dangerous game?”

“It can all be ours.” Mattoc’s voice burst out past me, filling the dance floor as he dipped me backwards, moving my body in a graceful arc that surprised the hell out of me.

My hand reached up to touch his face as he pulled me back toward him, his cool body pressed tightly against mine.

“And don’t you know… And don’t you know,” we sang in unison as the lights around us began flashing in a multitude of colors. “We feel the same…”

The atmosphere changed at once, and I found myself drawn to the corner of the dance floor. Caleb stood there with a strange mix of horror and anger on his face. The thrum of the music lowered and throbbed, like a beating heart pulsing just below the surface of the beat.

A thick, cloying energy fell over us as Caleb threw back his arm and cast off his suit jacket. It flew into a crowd of pixies who seemed to swoon with delight, fainting to the ground under the flurry of black cloth.

“Now there’s something here,” Caleb sang, curling his finger toward me.

“I’m so confused because I’ve got to choose.” The words left me in a rush, tearing from me in a flurry of song as I pulled away from Mattoc and moved toward Caleb, my hand reaching toward him.

Caleb, somehow, was in the middle of the dance floor as his hips shifted to the beats. A high pitched keening threaded through the music and a tear came to my eye.

“Between what I know and what I want, but, somehow, I still play this same old game…” I finished as Caleb took two steps toward me, our hands touching for a moment before I threw his hand down. I found myself turning my back to him and stomping forward in a flurry of motion, shaking my head violently.

“I don’t want that feeling inside of me anymore.” I spun around, so close to Caleb now, our faces mere inches apart. “Cause then there is no choice.” I took a step back and placed my finger to his lips and wiggled backward.

“Are you the answer to all my feelings?” Caleb replied as I pushed him coyly.

“Why should I bother?” I asked as Mattoc stepped in between us, threw his arms around me, and spun me lightly.

“Is there even an answer to the question?” Mattoc crooned at Caleb from behind me, his voice seeming to attack the other man with the force of a whip.

The two began furiously grooving to the music, dancing around me in smooth arcs. Red rose petals rained down from the ceiling as they moved. “And so we’re forced to wonder forever,” they sang together, before spinning apart from each other, leaving me standing alone between them.