Page 23 of Let Me Win You

Mother shrugged with a sigh of regret. “What a pity. It seems like a win-win solution to me.”

Hope was slipping through my fingers like water between the rocks in the creek. I leaned forward in the desperate attempt to hold on to it.

“Please, Mother, let me speak to her. Lift the wards. Let me see her.”

“What for? Do you think you can talk her into agreeing to become the prize in our little competition?”

I exhaled a humorless laugh. “First, I’m afraid, I’d have to find a way to convince her that being with me is the prize worth winning.”

“Sadly, it’d be of no use. The girl doesn’t want to speak with you. She’s terrified of you.” Mother shook her head with a mournful expression. “How could you have fucked it up so badly, sweetie? Despite your hermit ways and gloomy disposition, I always believed there was a charming streak in you, an ability to handle delicate matters with forethought and finesse. What were you thinking, bringing her here, then spooking her away like that?”

The problem was that at some point while being with Nicole, I had stopped thinking. I simplyfelt. And it was marvelous.

I missed that feeling so badly. I missed having her close again.

“Well,” Mother said. “I should go. Gul is coming for tea this afternoon.”

“Gul is coming to the teahouse?” I leaned on the table so hard, one of its legs cracked.

“Oops.” Mother jumped to her feet and away from the broken table as it collapsed. “You need sturdier furniture, Invi.” She brushed down her skirts that slowly turned turquoise as she finally snapped out of her prolonged green phase. “I’ll say hi to Gul from you, since you can’t be there yourself, with the wards and the human girl staying at the teahouse now. I hope she’ll like the cannelloni that Gul is bringing to tea. I don’t care much for food, but humans love those things. And I mean, you know your brother. Everybody loves Gul.”

As I watched Mother leave through my forest and toward Gul’s sunflower fields, I couldn’t help my concerns.

Mother was right about one thing for sure.

Everybody loved Gul.

All my brothers got along well with him. Every single soul that had ever passed through Purgatory enjoyed his company. Even my sisters tolerated him better than any one of us. Though he had some friction with Temperance every now and then.

And now Gul, my most insufferably lovable brother, was spending this afternoon with my Nicole.

MyNicole, who wished nothing to do with me.

And all I could do about it was just to circle the teahouse from the closest distance that Mother’s wards would allow me to approach.

A tortured groan erupted from my chest. Enraged, I whipped with my tail so hard, it tossed the broken table against the long-suffering willow tree. I wished I could slam it against Gul’s thick skull graced with a pair of ram horns.

I had planned my trip to Nicole’s world for weeks. I’d snatched a cupful of transcendence potion on one rare occasion when Avar forgot to lock it up. I’d swiped his magical moonstone ring at the first opportunity, fully prepared to face his wrath upon my return to Purgatory.

Against all odds, I managed to find the woman I could see myself happily spending the centuries to come.

And it felt like I’d lost her already.

No amount of rage or self-loathing would bring Nicole back into my arms now. No matter how many of my brothers I punched or how many tables I broke, it won’t help me win her over.

Only this wasn’t about my brothers and not even about my feelings. It was about Nicole and what she felt for me. And right now, she hated me. For a very good reason too.

But maybe, just maybe I could try and change that?

This was a delicate matter, like Mother had said. I’d fucked it up badly already. If there was any chance to fix it, I had to handle it withforethought and finessefrom now on.

8

Nicole

The warm scent of freshly baked pastries tickled my nostrils, waking me up. I climbed out of the white frilly bedding in the cute little bedroom on the second floor of the teahouse in Purgatory and padded to the ensuite bathroom, then put on the dress that Kindness gave me.

Most of the spirits in Purgatory wore no clothes at all. Some had clothes that appeared to be an extension of their beings, like Pandora’s flowy gowns that changed colors along with the rest of her. But Charity and Kindness wore real garments made from fabric.

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