Page 37 of Illusory

“A spy?” repeated Tessa, laughing. “I think if someone was going to send in a mole, they’d be a little less conspicuous about it.”

“Maybe being conspicuous was exactly their plan! Maybe that’s exactly what they wanted you to think so we’d let our guards down and let her in!” I barked out haphazardly and then marched over to Isadora, leaning down into her personal space to grab her attention. She didn’t bother meeting my eyes. “Where do you come from? Who sent you here?” I demanded, blowing out each word slowly and loudly as though she were visiting us from another planet and didn’t understand our native tongue.

“Mr. Huntington sent me, of course,” she answered calmly as she sprinkled grated cheese into the frying pan.

“Mr. Huntington?” I recoiled in bafflement, apparentlynot too quick on the uptake without my morning coffee. “You mean Dominic?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Miss Blackburn. He didn’t supply his first name.”

I scoffed. Of course he didn’t. He was too busy stealing her free will to remember his manners.

Why in the world would Dominic send a compelled human chef over to my house, against their will, and think I’d be okay with that? He’d obviously lost all sense right along with his feelings.

I turned back to Isadora, determined to make this right. “Look, I’m sorry that you came all the way here for nothing, but there’s a been a mistake. We aren’t looking for any help so if you just tell me how much I owe you for the day, we’ll get you squared up and you can be on your way. That sound good?”

“No can do. My salary has already been paid for the next six months,” she informed and then turned back to the stove, folding over the omelet she was dutifully preparing.

“Six months?” I glanced back at Tessa, searching for some kind of commiseration in my shock and outrage, but she was too busy ramming more food into her mouth to notice. “So, we’re all just okay with this?” I asked, my question directed at Gabriel then. Surely,hewould have a problem with some helpless mortal being compelled to serve us like we were a bunch of blue-blooded nobles.

“I don’t see the harm in it,” he answered with a wary shrug of his shoulders. “She’s being paid, very well I’m sure, and youdoneed to eat.”

“Yes, and I can cook for my damn self, thank you very much.”

Gabriel made a pained face, like he’d smelled one of my past kitchen concoctions firsthand while Tessa snortedbetween chews.

Okay, so I couldn’t cook for myself,per say, but I could freaking learn. If Iwantedto. How hard could it be?

“I think he did a nice thing here,” concluded Gabriel.

“A nice thing?” I repeated and then pointed over to Isadora who was still paying me and my outburst no mind. “He’s compelling her!” I shrieked like it was the scandal of the century.

I wasn’t sure why I was so worked up about it, but after how we’d left things off last night, it just seemed like something I should feel indignant about. He’d literally walked out on me two days ago and then returned like it was nothing equipped with intel, only to refuse to let me track down the lead with him, because he “worked better alone” to then being concerned about whether I had eaten or not only to end the night by practically throwing me back into Trace’s figurative arms. Forgive me if I felt a little disoriented.

“Perhaps he’s just looking out for you the only way he knows how to,” suggested Gabriel, his tone softer then, as though worried he might further set me off.

“By forcing a human to cater to me?”

“By making sure you’re taken care of. That you stay properly nourished.”

“I mean, youarelooking a little gaunt lately,” pointed out Tessa—still chewing and still not helping.

“If he was so concerned about me, he’d be here with me, wouldn’t he?” I retorted, ignoring Tessa’s dig because I definitely hadn’t been eating well as of late and could probably stand to pack on a few extra pounds. “If he cared about me, he wouldn’t keep walking out on me,” I murmured, mostly to myself. Because they hadn’t been there last night. They hadn’t seen the way he’d toyed with me like it was all just a game to him.

LikeIwas a game.

“Maybe this is the best he could do right now, given the circumstances,” offered Gabriel, his gaze unintentionally veering to the hallway that led to the basement door.

Turmoil seized my chest and stomach, making my mind spiral with questions.

Was Gabriel implying that Dominic was doing this because of Trace? That he was looking out for me—caring for me—in the only way he knew how to now—from afar? But why, and to what end?

None of this made any sense to me, I realized as I slumped down into the chair at the kitchen table across from Tessa, the fiery outrage simmering to a dull roar.

Isadora was beside me in an instant, setting down a plate of food brimming with bacon, fresh fruit and the omelet she had been working on moments earlier.

My shoulders sagged in defeat as I inhaled the delicious aromas wafting up from my plate. Tessa shot me a knowing smirk like she knew my armor was cracking with every sniff.

“Fresh pepper?” asked Isadora, holding the wooden peppercorn grinder above my omelet.

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