Page 7 of Wicked Thirst
Okay. Why was I getting so used to these kinds of conversations after only a few days? The thing with Ophelia was she’d give the world to any of her friends at any point in time. She’d offer up their enemies on a silver platter . . . or just their heads. But Ophelia did everything on Ophelia’s timetable. Somehow, I had to convince her to move on my timetable and get me off this island and to Piper. “And I am so grateful for that, and I’m sorry I could only put together a handmade thing, but there are no stores on this island?—”
She spun around to face me, and a fistful of glitter flew from her hand and landed on my shirt. Or the black T-shirt I’d been given. When Kylian dropped me here I had only the clothing on my back. What an asshole move that was. She tilted her head to the side and looked at the glitter mess. “Don’t knock my present. You made it for me with your bare hands. That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“Thanks.” Cross grumbled below his breath. He was perched at the edge of the little platform where the empty throne sat. Dark strands of his hair fell over his eyes and into his face, but I still felt his eyes lingering on the two of us, like he couldn’t stop watching her. Even I had to admit it was intense being in the same room with the two of them. Their quiet connection was nearly palpable. She moved, he moved. His eyes never left her, even when he was pretending to be preoccupied with other things.
“I mean, I thought a strangle wire seemed like something you’d like, but don’t you think it’s time for me to leave?”I’d made the damn thing out of spare wire I’d found lying around and two small, thick pieces of wood for handles on each end. Sure, I’d taken the time to carve the wood with funny faces because why wouldn’t someone laugh at a funny tree face when strangling the life from someone?
“Leave?” Her brow furrowed as she turned and walked away from me. “Nope. Don’t think so.”
I followed her as she sauntered around the throne room, or as I liked to think of it now: the hall of Christmas trees, where she’s lined the walls with dozens of them all decorated a different way. It was like the Christmas store blew up in here and threw up on all the trees. It would be fun, and I couldn’t wait to tell Piper about my time here, but I had to go. It was time for me to get to her. Deep in the pit of my stomach, I knew she wasn’t okay and that she needed me.
“Look, I know you don’t get it, but I feel like she needs me.”
“Oh, I get it.” Ophelia nodded. “And she definitely does.”
Cross chuckled from his perch on the stairs leading up to the throne. A crossbow sat beside him while he sharpened the points of his arrows on a stone. It would’ve looked like a peaceful thing to do if I didn’t know that those arrows were meant to actually kill someone and not target practice. “Yeah, Maze with his creepy shit wasn’t the most comforting. Blood on the streets! Blood on the streets! He’s my friend, but he is one disturbing fucker.”
I shook my head and ran my hands through my hair. Visions of that freaky fucker ran through my head all day long with his milky-white eyes and swirling neon power. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge. When I’d met Maze the first time, I thought they were common Salem psychics, but he was so much more. They’d led me to Piper once before, but this time it seemed they were totally against me finding her. Or at least Maze’s visions were.
“No, it wasn’t comforting at all, which is why I need to go there.”
“Which is why you’re not going.” She walked over to a tree and sprinkled some glittering dust on it, and it grew three feet taller and fuller. Some of the decorations popped and fell to the floor, but she shrugged and seemed to like the broken glass ornaments littering the floor.
“What? Why?”I didn’t want to sound like I was whining or frustrated. But the truth was that being trapped here was frustrating as hell. I hated being stuck here. The only benefit was the heat.
“Piper put me in charge of your little mortal ass, which means your mortal ass is going to stay put in the cushy castle . . . Jeeze. You should’ve lived here with my dad, then you’d appreciate how cushy it is now and want to stay.” She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Bit ungrateful if you ask me.”
“If one of your twenty-eight besties was in trouble, you’d be there in a heartbeat.” I hoped if I appealed to the loyalty she showed to others, I might be able to convince her to do one of those crazy portal things and get me to Piper.
“Twenty-nine.” She plucked a small dagger ornament from a tree and held it up toward the light.
I hesitated, feeling like I’d gotten lost in the conversation. “I’m sorry, twenty-nine what?”
“Besties.” She turned and met my gaze with her own huge dark eyes. “You’re number twenty-nine.”
For some reason, that warmed me from the inside out. I pressed my hands to my chest and smiled at her. The only other friend I’d ever had was Piper. If I was being honest, I liked Ophelia. “Aww, I’m flattered.”
She wrinkled her nose and moved to another tree. “Don’t get emotional on me or you’re off the list. I don’t do tears.”
“I wasn’t crying.” I glanced back at Cross, wondering if he was watching this wild exchange.
“In any case, the universe provides with all these friends, and it is quite exhausting,” she said. “I never deny what the universe sends me, but honestly, you’re kind of worse than a goldfish.”
All Cross did was chuckle and shake his head.
I was so confused. “How am I worse than a goldfish?”
“At least if you put goldfish in a nice place, feed them, keep them in the water, they just keep on swimming and living. You insist on going to get yourself killed, and it makes the job of best friend so much more taxing.”
Like I was planning on getting myself killed? “I feel like you could understand wanting to help a best friend.”
“Anyways, about Piper.”Ophelia sighed and turned to face me once more. “The answer is no. You’re like a defenseless baby deer to the rest of the things in our world . . . in Piper’s world. It’d be like shooting fish in the lake to kill you off.”
“You mean barrel,” Cross called from where he sat.
“Right. Barrel. Anyways, easily dead, easily killed, totally murderable, like an easy practice kill.”When she looked at me with those round dark eyes, it was hard not to think of her as innocent. Yet here she was telling me how killable I really was. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe her, it was that I didn’t want to. If I was so easily killed in this new world of Piper’s, then how was she also not in the same amount of danger?
“There’s such thing as a practice kill?” I shook my head and held my hand up stopping her before she could answer. “Don’t answer that.”
