Page 4 of Shadow & Stars
Tall, blond, and demonic!
I almost dropped my tea at the cry of my real self.
The tall, platinum blond demon with blue eyes and pearlescent skin. The one who shifted into various spidery forms. The guy with the abs and the muscles to get my lust spiking and my heart jackhammering. The first man to get under my skin and make me believe in something more than being Queen Margarite’s killing dog.
“Xavier,” I said out loud.
Grandma didn’t notice because she wasn’t really here. She carried on talking about seeing me and the guy from the bakery down the road making a handsome couple.
“He’s so beautiful, just like my grandson. I can picture him here right now, telling me how wonderful my banana cake is.”
“If he even likes banana cake,” I countered through a laugh.
“In my world, he does.”
I had no idea where her obsession with the baker guy came from, or why she seemed to ship me with him endlessly.
Wake up, for God’s sake!
She carried on talking about him, but I broke from the script. “I’m dating someone, Grandma. It’s this guy I saved. Yeah. Saved.” Tears brimmed in my eyes. I tried to fight them but they broke free, leaving hot tracks down my cheeks. “Oh, God.”
If you just wake up, everything will be?—
“I don’t want you to panic when I tell you this,” I cut my rational voice off, “but he’s a demon. I know, I know. Did I hit my head? The answer is something else hit me. Cupid’s arrow or whatever. I don’t know. But he’s amazing. You’ll love him. He’s strong and kind and so incredible. I’m falling for him. He’s changed my life. He’s opened my eyes to new possibilities. I can have a better future, a life worth fighting for because of him. I think I’m?—”
“I’m thinking of making a beef suet pie for Sunday lunch,” she said, not hearing me. “What do you think?”
Somewhere in time, I answered that beef suet pie sounded great. But here, I said, “If onlyhecould taste your banana bread.”
The tears burned hot as they ran free.
Wake up!
I wiped at my eyes with the sleeve of my jumper. “Oh, Grandma.”
“Have another biscuit, sweetheart.”
“I have to wake up now,” I responded. “I have to go back to him. And to my best friend. They need me. There’s…” I frowned, a different memory flaring in the back of my skull. “They’re in danger.”
“I said to Rose I couldn’t go to the craft club on Friday…”
My frown deepened as I focused hard on the rising images of my present.
The frozen beach. The device in my chest exploding to bring about the end of magic as Butterfly wanted, tainted by Una’s fairy magic to give it a weird twist. The demon monarchs climbing out of the frozen lake of Level 666. Me killing Margarite, only for her to get back up again. Some fucker smacking me with a baseball bat.
“Danger,” I whispered. “Xavier and Darcy are in danger.”
It all fell into place. Somehow, I’d vanished from the demon realm, transported to the queen’s side. Had it been because of me thinking,Give me Margarite any day!
Oh, God. Seriously? Had I been given me some sort of ability to wish for things?
“Think about it later,” I grumbled.
Right now, I needed out of this, to get my fighting head back on.
My stomach tightened at the thought of all those monarchs, of the hate on Ismael’s face. Xavier’s ex demon-king lover was out for blood, but he wouldn’t be having Xavier. Oh, hell no. The demon and my bestie would be with me again.
Okay. Think, think, think. How did I wake up? Could I wake up by demanding it happen, or even asking for the frozen beach?
