Page 161 of Malicent
“You’re an idiot, Felix. Can you shut up for two seconds so I can talk?”
“Ilovetalking. And you love hearing me talk. Just look at that face. Priceless.”
He reaches up and squeezes my cheek. I bare my teeth and snap at him. It only makes him laugh harder.
We round the corner to the private dining hall. I try my request again. “I need a cursed subject, alive.”
Felix sighs in exacerbation, like we’ve been on this topic too long. “Why can’t you ask for a puppy? Or a diamond necklace? Like normal women?”
“Why are you so against it?”
He gives me a look like I’ve started speaking in tongues. “You haven’t seen what people become under the influence of that—curse, right? Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Yes, Felix.” My jaw tightens and my eye twitches at the remark.
“These people within my walls could easily become victims,” Felix explains, keeping his voice low. “Each infection behaves differently, and we still don’t know what a full manifestation looks like.”
He pauses. “I will agree if Kalix or Cage is on board.”
The dining hall doors swing open ahead of us. Gold gleams everywhere—plating, cutlery, and far too many candles. The light nearly blinds me.
“Don’t trust me to contain it?” I ask. “Remove my collar and—”
“Only Cage can remove it,” he interrupts, not even glancing at me. “And youdidtry to kill Kalix. So again, go ask them.”
I stop short at the threshold, resisting the urge to scream or pout. The price Cage would demand for such an ask would be unfillable because he is never taking this off until he deems it safe, and the bastard is on a power trip.
Felix swaggers to the head of the table, collapsing into his chair with all the grace of a spoiled prince.
“Tell you what,” he says, flashing me the biggest shit-eating grin. “Go track down some infected humans. Then come back andconvinceme they’re worth keeping alive.”
“Fine, I will.”
I hold my chin high and pivot to leave, only to find two nervous guards blocking my exit.
Slowly, I turn back. Felix still wears that smug grin, one hand raised in a command.
“Millicent,” he says sweetly. “Come have lunch. You look pale.Andskinny.”
I stomp toward the table, uncaring that it makes me look like a sulking child. I drop into the seat opposite him at the other end of the table with a dramatic huff.
“You’re so far away. I feel like a divorced couple,” Felix chuckles, laying a napkin across his lap.
Servants file in with silver trays filled with meat, fruit, cheese, and of course, wine.
“Daddy issues flaring up already?” I smirk, accepting a glass of wine from a servant just as another begins plating my food.
“And mommy issues,” he adds. “Can’t forget about Mother Dearest.”
“Is she around?”
“Father is dead—hence the crown. Mother’s alive, unfortunately. You’d hate her.”
He winks at the servant girl arranging his plate. She blushes almost immediately.
“She’d hate me,” I counter, lifting my knife to slice into the lamb.
“True. She despises witches and anyone lowborn. Don’t worry. She’s too obsessed with high society to grace us with her presence.”
