She beamed at me. “I’ve been working on it since the moment you returned to the Reserve.” She tried to push it into my arms, but I just stood there like a mute. “Try it on.”
“I don’t think so.” My face flamed at the thought of where such a beautiful piece of art might end up, given what I was planning to do with it. Celine seemed to sense my concern. Her eyes blazed with mischief.
“Try it on,” she urged.
With my skin feeling like it was being heated by invisible flames, I undressed and slipped into the garment. It felt like I was wearing nothing and looked just slightly more than that. The straps that held up the bodice were tied together in bows that would come apart with the slightest tug. Two layers of skirt that was so mini I kept bending over so I didn’t flash myself made up the bottom half of the camisole. The bodice was fitted with scalloping detail that arched upward from my breastbone. And all over it sparkled with the most delicate touch of starlight that I couldn’t help staring at it, transfixed.
The rush of air as someone pushed aside the curtain and broke the locking ward had me squealing. Celine poked her head in.
“What are you doing?” I screamed. Two pairs of wide eyes looked over her shoulder. I could have died right there. I promised never to do it to Lex again. No wonder she had turned into a harpy.
“Wow,” Diana said. “Somebody better prepare a ward in the infirmary because Max is going to have a heart attack.”
“Get out!” I screeched. My skin was so hot it felt like I was burning up from lava in my blood.
“Sophie,” Celine admonished. “It’s nothing to be bashful about.”
“If you don’t leave right now, I’m going to march out of here and never come back.”
Pressing her lips together to stop herself from laughing, she let the curtain drop and then reengaged the spell. I blew out a breath. My jaw locked as all three of them burst out laughing outside the change room. I was never going to live this down.
And yet, I didn’t even consider not buying the garment. Celine pushed the box into my arms.
“My gift to you,” she said.
“No. I can’t.”
“Sophie.” There was that exasperation again. “I’ve spent the last six months making Fae battle gowns. It was a good excuse to remember why I got into this business. Please let me have this bit of relief.”
The way she said the word relief made something flutter in my stomach. How was I supposed to refuse after that? It was only as I was leaving and she opened the curtain to the back room that I caught sight of something soft and heavenly white on the dress mannequin. One that was short enough that I was almost certain I knew who she imagined wearing that dress. “What’s that?” I asked without thinking.
Celine paused. Her arm lowered to cover the opening. “Hope,” she said before nodding her head at me and disappearing.
Hope.
I couldn’t get it out of my head even though I spent most of the day cooking. “Can you mate with me instead?” Diana asked when I forced another appetiser down her throat.
“Maybe in the next life.”
She snorted. “I think Max has called dibs on eternity,” she said with her mouth full.
“Better or worse?”
She grimaced. “At this point, it’s all starting to taste the same.” My face dropped. She made a stalling motion at me. “I mean, it’s delicious, but honestly, you could give him a rotten apple and he’d still eat it and think it’s gourmet.”
I promptly burst into tears.
“Aww jeez, Soph.”
She came around the side of the bench and hugged me. “You’re putting so much pressure on yourself. This is almost as bad as that breakdown you had before the last semester trials. I just meant that it’s all fantastic.”
“You are so full of crap,” I sniffed.
“I think you need to lie down or something.”
“I have heaps of prep to do.”
She eyed the mountains of food and the bubbling cauldron. “I think you’ve done enough. Go!”
I wouldn’t move from the kitchen, so she made me lie down on the day bed that she dragged out of the living area while she cleaned up. Filling a glass with the health elixir and some bubbling ambrosia, she placed the glass in front of my face. “Drink this. You’re probably dehydrated.”
I didn’t think anything of it until my eyes closed for a second. “Diana!”
She made an apologetic face at me. “It’s just for a few hours. You need to rest or you’re going to have an aneurysm. I’ll clean–”
I fell asleep.
When I woke, it was dark outside. Crap!
My limbs still felt heavy, but I was determined to drag myself to the bathroom. The warm spray of the shower worked wonders to clear my head a little. Back in the kitchen I saw that Diana had made everything spotless. The soup was still bubbling, but everything else had been packed away or placed uniformly onto serving dishes.
I smiled at her soldier efficiency.
With nothing else left to do, I went and slipped into the camisole. And then I paced around the bedroom for half an hour, psyching myself up to call Max. I was about to do another lap when something crashed in the kitchen.
The protection circle snapped into place around me. Logic said that inside the Reserve it couldn’t be anything too dangerous, but there was no telling with the threat of the malachim still lurking in the shadows.
And then I heard Andrei groaning. When I stepped into the kitchen, his bloodshot eyes widened. He lurched and massaged his throat before promptly throwing up all over the food I had prepared.
45
On any other day of the year, the first thing that I would have felt was concern. I darted out as soon as I saw his chest convulsing, but I didn’t
