Pink Princess Fairytini (Fairy Files #2) (3 page)

“Lucky for you,” I said, with a flirty smile. “Now, don’t you just feel so grateful you want to fix up my wrist?”

He rolled his eyes skyward like he was thinking, before he returned his gaze to me and smirked. “Nope. Come on, grasshopper.”

“Look at you with the human slang,” I said, not thinking he was cute at all. Still, I followed him, because wrist-breaker and annoyance that he was, he was the lesser of two evils. If I didn’t stick with him, I might get stuck with a worse trainer. Plus, there was no sense in making him angry and bringing my mother’s wrath down on me in the process.

Hieronymus led me to a fancy, black sedan that looked sleek and expensive. Cars don’t interest me, so I didn’t pay attention to the make or model, though I did hesitate before following Hieronymus into the car. With his long, lean form, expensive-looking clothes and almost metro sense of grooming, he looked like he could easily be the owner of such a vehicle. Hieronymus was the first fairy I’d met, other than myself, who wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous, but he wasn’t ugly by any means. His green eyes were a bit too close together and his nose and cheekbones were too sharp, but he had a confidence and a lethal calmness about him that made up for any physical failings. Like him, I also had somewhat aquiline features, and my body tended toward skinny rather than curvaceous, but I’d never dwelled on my looks, despite my mother’s constant harping on them. I believed that confidence and personality shone through and were more important than looks. If I thought about I knew I was pretty enough but, like Hieronymus, I lacked the ethereal beauty of the other fairies I’d met. My mother had always blamed my faun genes for my “pedestrian looks” but, after meeting the gorgeous Knuffington, I figured fae beauty had as much to do with the luck of the draw as human beauty.

“What are you doing with a car like this?” I asked.

He shrugged, sliding onto the leather seats. “The gatekeeper has connections and reason to keep on the queen’s good side.”

Or the gatekeeper was just playing every side he could. I hesitated to get into the car. Hieronymus had been a hard task master, training me at a local gym, and I knew he wouldn’t kill me or put me in any real danger. Still, he worked for my mother and I really had no reason to trust either of them. Having to play nice with some royal fae would be torture enough in my book. “Where are you taking me?”

“Nowhere if you don’t get in.”

I figured I could stand on the sidewalk all night and argue with him, or I could just go with him and see what he had to show me. If I’d had more energy, I’d have chosen the former option, but I was tired and wanted to go home, so I chose the latter.

It’s not that I don’t like luxuries, it’s that I don’t trust them unless I earned them myself. I’ve never believed in magic diet pills or get rich quick schemes
. – Chloe Frangipani

Appearances, darling, appearances are all that matter in the end
. –Althea Frangipani

When the car took us to the heart of downtown and pulled up in front of a fancy apartment building with a doorman, I shook my head. “I am not a prostitute,” I said. I’m not sure why that was the conclusion to which I leapt, that Hieronymus wanted to pimp me out to some wealthy fairy, but it probably had something to do with the lectures he’d given me about my royal obligations, particularly when it came to the men I chose to date and marry. I didn’t think he was literally going to pimp me out, more that my mother was, and not for sex, but for marriage. I wasn’t sure which was worse.

Hieronymus gave me a wide-eyed look and I was pretty sure I saw a pink blush creep up his cheeks. “I hope this is just another human slang I don’t understand.”

Not wanting to shock him any more than I already had, I nodded. “Yep, sure is. Why are we here?”

“You will see when we get inside.”

Everyone has their limit and being led into the lap of luxury with no explanation was mine. I leapt across the seats and straddled Hieronymus, wrapping my good hand around his throat. He shifted to fairy size like it was as easy as blinking and shot up to the car ceiling. I’m pretty sure he was yelling at me, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying because he was so tiny.

“I’m shocked,” I said. “That you just chose the coward’s way out instead of fighting me like a man.” Though Hieronymus had taught me to shift body parts to different sizes as a method of defense, he had sworn that shifting into an animal or flying fairy was the coward’s way out of a fight, and I’d never be respected as a warrior if I chose it. When it came down to a choice between life and death in a fight, I knew I’d choose the coward’s way and life in a heartbeat, but Hieronymus didn’t need to know that.

Hieronymus flew down to what had been my seat moments earlier and returned to human size. “I will not lower myself to fighting you in a car like a common human,” he said, puffing his chest. “It is not the coward’s way to shift to flying fairy when my opponent has already acted dishonorably.”

I sighed. “Please enlighten me. Jumping on you for answers is dishonorable? We fight all the time.”

He stared heavenward as though he were asking for assistance. “Yes. We fight to defend ourselves, to carry out orders, or to protect those we love. In a situation like this, the honorable course would be to use your brain.”

Really? He wanted me to use my brain at one in the morning after I’d worked all night, been ambushed by the mayor, and had to hear in depth and at length how unhappy Mercury’s ex was making him? “Why don’t you just tell me?”

“Because I wanted to surprise you, Clarinda,” he said. “As your mother wished. Now, I refuse to tell you on principle.”

“Fine,” I said, throwing my hands up. “Just give me a few hints. Does it involve sex, theft, or mingling?”

“Mingling?” Hieronymus asked, his cheeks pinking again.

“Yes, you know, a social situation where I need to be on my best manners and make enchanting small talk and charm everyone?”

His expression suggested he thought I was insane. “You are most definitely not ready for mingling.”

“Just answer the question. Sex, theft, or mingling?”

“No. We will be alone and we are stealing nothing.”

I needed no clarification on the sex part once he said we’d be alone. I was pretty sure Hieronymus found me as a tempting as a tree stump, and I felt the same way about him. “Okay, then. Lead the way.”

“Before we go in, may I?” He reached for my damaged wrist.

I offered it to him without hesitation. “Please.”

It took more than twenty minutes for him to fix the broken bones in my wrist, and I may have screamed at the pain like a little baby but, when we got out of the car, my wrist was fully healed.

I followed Hieronymus into the building, where he introduced me to the doorman and told him he was taking me up to see my new apartment. I would have said something to contradict him, except that my heart leapt into my throat, and I found it suddenly hard to speak. My mother had told me she’d set me up in my own place, a place befitting a princess, but I’d hoped she’d forgotten. I didn’t want her to control where I lived and know when I came and went. She was one of the two most powerful people in Rubalia, and I was pretty damn sure she didn’t have my best interests at heart, so I was less than enthused about giving her more access to my life.

Hieronymus led me up the stairs to the penthouse level, one that required a key to reach, and walked me down a short hall to one of two doors there. “Who lives next door?”

“Jared Valencia.”

I stopped in my tracks. “The man who owns half of Sarsaparilla?” I gripped Hieronymus’s shoulders hard. “How did my mother afford this place? Since when do the fae have human money?”

He flinched under my gaze and looked away, not meeting my eyes when he spoke. “Some things you are not yet permitted to know.”

“Really?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. “Well, I’m not going to live in a place paid for illegally or with some sort of blood money. If this place was paid for with the money made from that drug that gives humans magic, I’m not going to live here.”

Hieronymus met my gaze. “I assure you that the apartment is being paid for from the queen’s personal coffers. That’s all I know.”

Shit. Damn. Fuck. As much as I wanted to be principled, I wouldn’t ask Hieronymus to get in trouble. “When you see her, tell her I want to know how she can afford this place, or I will refuse to live here.”

Hieronymus nodded and we continued into the biggest apartment I had ever seen. I stood in the doorway and whispered “autonomy,” to steady myself and remind myself that my mother couldn’t control me, no matter where I lived. The apartment was all clean lines and muted tones, the sort of place I detested. It felt cold and empty and sterile. I didn’t even traipse through it to check out the kitchen or the bedrooms, I just nodded and turned to leave. “I’ve seen it. Now take me home.”

Hieronymus didn’t move. “Princess, I cannot return to your mother and lie to her, and if I tell her you chose not to live here, she will punish me.”

“She’ll punish you?” My mother could be selfish and shallow, but I couldn’t picture her punishing this man for something I’d done.

“She asked me to choose the place and decorate it and, if I tell her you hate it and refuse to live here, she’ll be angry.”

“Hi.” I stretched his nickname out to several syllables. “We’ve been training together for three months and you think I want to live in a place like this? It’s like you don’t know me at all.”

“It is a place befitting a princess.”

“Maybe, but it doesn’t befit me.” I sighed, resigning myself to my fate. “I’ll stay, but only because I don’t want you to be punished, Hi, and I know visiting my mother and trying to make her see my side will be an exercise in futility.”

He nodded, looking relieved.

“Still, I need clothes and my things, so please take me home.”

“I have purchased clothes and the necessary toiletries for you. A car will be at your disposal.”

He handed me a card with the number of a car service. “Fine. I will stay here tonight, but I’m not making any promises about staying here long-term.” I wanted to rage and fight, but I knew it would do no good. I’d agreed to my mother’s terms in exchange for her protection of me and my friends from any rogue fairies who might still feel obligated to come after us. However, there were a few other issues I wanted to discuss with her. “Has my mother agreed to a meeting with me, yet?”

He shook his head. “She is very busy and does not yet have time to meet with you.” Hieronymus was an excellent fighter, but he was a terrible liar. He always blinked rapidly when he wasn’t telling the whole truth.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

He took a step into the apartment and gestured wide. “Let me show you the state-of-the-art features of your new place.”

“Nope. Not until you tell me the truth.”

He stopped and faced me. “Sometimes, princess, I don’t tell you the whole truth because I’m protecting your feelings.”

“My feelings?” I asked, understanding dawning slowly. “She doesn’t want me to show my face there, does she? She’s embarrassed of me?”

“You haven’t yet learned all of the finer details of fairy etiquette, Princess. It is nothing personal.”

“Right.” I snorted, probably demonstrating another un-princess-like behavior. “So why haven’t you been teaching me etiquette?”

“There are many who want you dead, Princess. Your ability to protect yourself is the priority.”

“What happened to not hurting my feelings?”

He shrugged, a twinkle in his eyes, and walked through the apartment to the kitchen. He showed me all the features of the stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, and microwave. Then he showed me the formal dining room, the breakfast nook, the lounge, the two guest bedrooms and the master suite with Jacuzzi tub. I was so having a party in this place.

Then he showed me my new closet full of clothes and I almost fell over. “Is this some sort of joke?”

“What do you mean, Princess?”

I scanned the closet, full of beige and grey and cream and spun on him. “In what universe did you think I would want to wear clothes like these?”

“Look closer, Princess.”

I pulled at the first article of clothing and almost melted at the feel of the fabric under my fingers. It was a flowy grey top and it was back-less, so it could reveal the tattoo of my fairy wings or my actual fairy wings. I’d kept the tattoo covered as I usually did, since I’d gotten back, but I missed my wings and I loved the idea of being able to show off the tattoo and maybe my wings when I was alone.

I took my time looking over the rest of the shirts and pants and dresses and found that, though they weren’t brightly colored, each of them was back-less and each had a shiny, shimmery, night-club acceptable look to them. Several of them had sequins or some other bling and all of them were from high-end designers and well-made. I even found jeans and back-less t-shirts, high-quality lingerie and pajamas. “They’re gorgeous,” I said. “But I still don’t understand how my mother could afford all of this.”

“All will be explained in time,” Hieronymus said. “Now, you should get some sleep and I’ll see you after you’ve had a couple of days to settle in.”

I nodded, not quite sure what to make of it all.

After Hieronymus left, I called Sapphire to let her know I wouldn’t be home that night. I’d wait to tell her I was moving out for good in person, but I didn’t think she’d be too upset. I considered Knuffington a friend, but he and I just didn’t live together very well. He was a light sleeper and I kept weird hours and am apparently a loud walker. Who knew? We were all trying, but the tension had been getting pretty thick.

“Chloe.” Pierson sounded awake but annoyed, when I called him. “Did something happen at the club?”

“Nope, I just wanted to let you know we’re having a staff party tomorrow night. Can you make sure everyone knows about it?”

“Sure,” Pierson said, sounding less annoyed. I gave him the details, hung up, and lay down in my plush new bed to sleep.