Page 70 of Sincerely, Secretary of Doom

“Are you?” he asked, taking a step back. “Are you my secretary, Violet Miller? Apart from writing a few mediocre articles that are utterly bland and read like poor fiction, and causing me more trouble, what have you done?”

His words rang in her ears, and she closed her mouth. It was a cold punch to her gut—the one thing she dreaded hearing—and he’d said it. If Mor wanted to cut her confidence off at the knees, he’d done it well. Those words would haunt her.

Violet slid her jaw to the side. “Don’t send me away. I need this job,” she said, quieter this time. Though, this hardly had anything to do with The Fairy Post anymore.

“No, you need coin. The Fairy Post will give you plenty of that,” Mor stated. He opened and closed his mouth like he was deciding exactly how to put his next words. He swallowed, he hardened his jaw, then he looked her dead in the eyes. “I don’t want you as more than a secretary, and after that outburst of your feelings earlier, I don’t think I even want you as that anymore. Apart from that one disgraceful moment of curiosity on your porch stairs, I don’t have any interest in having your heart. We needed each other in the beginning, but now I don’t need you anymore. I’m relieved you’re leaving so you can stop getting in my way.”

Violet was quiet through his speech. She waited with her arms folded. Waited, as his words burned over her skin. Waited.

And then she smiled with tears in her eyes. Smiled, because she was sure that was the biggest, most pathetic lie he’d ever told. Tears, because a small fragment of her worried certain parts of it were true. He’d always pushed her away, he’d looked horrified when she’d suggested they love in secret. He’d been planning to send her away all morning, and she’d babbled on about how she felt, like an idiot. The thin layer holding back her seed of fear finally snapped, and the weight of abandonment settled in, filling her chest with coldness. She was sure she would never look at Mor warmly again.

“I hate you,” she reminded him quietly. “I hate all fairies. I hate the games, and the memory stealing, and the manipulation. You have nothing to worry about. It’s easy to stop caring about you.” Violet swallowed. “You owe me a paycheck for the work I’ve done,” she said from a thick throat.

Mor folded his arms. “I’ll pay you another way, Human.” Not Violet,Human. “What do you want from me?” He waited, and when Violet didn’t answer fast enough, he went on, “Do you want me to try and find who you were in your past? Do you want to learn who you really are, Violet Miller? Do you want me to go into your mind and attempt to locate whatever’s left of the memories from the years you lost and give them back to you so you can see them? Will that satisfy you enough to part ways?”

A streak of realization made something squeeze in her chest. “You can… find my memories?” He’d never told her that. In all their time side by side, he’d never once mentioned he had the ability to give her back the one thing she’d lost. The one thing she craved.

“Maybe not,” he stated. “It depends on the skill of the fairy who stole them. It’s a difficult feat, but I’m special. If the fairy left any threads of the memories behind, I may be able to start from the day you woke up and work backward—if there’s anything left.” He came back toward her, rolling up his sleeves. It was all business to him. He hardly looked her in the eyes as he lifted his hands. “This is my parting gift to you for the work you’ve done for me so far, Human. There’s no reason for us to see each other again after this.”

She didn’t move away, so he placed his fingers along her temples.

Instantly, Violet’s mind filled with a different day, with new surroundings from another time. Her eyes opened like she was really there, and she saw the same forest. A gasp escaped her as she recalled that moment, ten years ago, when she first woke up in the purple dress. A strange panic returned at the familiar smell of cotton candy and earthy tea. She heard the wind rustling the leaves above. Saw the bright light soaking the backs of the leaves and turning them fluorescent. She almost felt her stomach flexing with the motion of sitting up. She looked down at her violet dress and summer shell sandals.

Mor’s fingers tightened ever so slightly on her temples in real time.

Violet watched her memory unfold of how she climbed to her feet and looked around the forest. How she started running toward the distant sound of cars. How she came out of the trees on the cusp of a city and stopped in front of a modest news building with a glass storefront.

How she stared at her reflection in the windows, not even recognizing herself.

Mor ripped his hands away. He staggered back, breathing heavily as he looked at Violet with wide eyes like he was seeing a ghost.

Violet’s mind spun so fast from his exit, she teetered. Her hands couldn’t catch anything to steady herself as dizziness rushed in, and she tumbled toward the ground. She was hardly aware of him catching her. One single memory slipped in as everything went black.

30

Haley Whitefield and How it All Began Ten Years Ago

in the Violet Dress

It was raining the hour Haley Whitefield stood in a green forest with mud gushing up between her sandalled toes. In the distance, sounds of humans lifted from the city, humans who had no idea what sort of madness was hiding in their local park. Her stomach clenched with the need to heave up its contents, but she held them in—determined not to spew into the grass until the being before her departed.

Her dress was damp, and her hair was even wetter, sticking to her face in strings. She’d destroyed her beach sandals—the one’s she’d stolen from a street cart moments before she was taken to…

Theotherplace.

She could still hear the music. Could still taste the sweet flowers. Could still feel the nausea of it all.

She could still see his face.

The boy had seemed older than her, likely a teenager already, with sharp, metallic eyes, detailed tattoos, and sun-kissed skin. But his age hadn’t mattered. He’d still been able to tear his way through the other beings like him. He’d still been able to get her out. Haley looked back toward the way she thought theotherplace was, but truly, she had no idea which direction they’d come from.

“This is where I leave you, Human,” the being said. The man before her was tall and fair-skinned with pointed ears. Just like the ones who had captured Haley in the first place. “I was paid for two tasks though. First, to deliver you home, and second, to steal your memories of the Ever Corners so you won’t try and find your way back.”

“Find my way back?” Haley placed a hand over her restless stomach. “Why would I ever want to go back?”

The being shrugged. “Perhaps to find the fairy who saved you?” It seemed like a guess.

Haley pushed a strand of her wet hair behind her ear and stole another look in the direction she thought theotherplace was. No, she did not want to go back there. She did not want to experience the horrors ever again.

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