Page 31 of Happily Ever Witch
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The Heart Castle
Esmeralda stared out the window, fuming over the torrential downpour. “I swear to God, you somehow did this. Iknowyou did.”
“Not even I can control the weather, darling. …Yet.”
Esmeralda’s mouth thinned, not appeased.
“You said yourself that Wonderland is deliberately causing us problems.” Trevelyan reminded her. “It seems like you were right. You wanted to run off and it stopped you.” He regarded her with total innocence. “Maybe you pissed it off, when you were so mean to me.”
Jackass.
It had been raining for hours, with no sign of letting up. “Perpetual spring” was pouring down all over the place. Off in the distance, thunder rolled in great lumps. The sound was incredibly odd and even more incredibly loud, as if the noise was knocking over everything in its path. And then there was all the damn water, clear and pure and toxic to her skin.
No matter how she considered it, there was no escaping the Heart Palace, even if she somehow got through the barrier. Not until the storm subsided. Esmeralda was reckless, but she wasn’t crazy enough to risk melting to death.
So, she was sticking with the dragon, for now.
“If you’re worried about me fondling you in the night, you can sleep on the floor.” Trevelyan offered in a solicitous tone, sprawled in a red velvet chair. “I won’t mind.”
“Fuck yourself, Trev.” Esmeralda headed across the red wooden floor to the red canopy bed and began yanking down the red comforter. “In the depths of hell.”
He chuckled.
The two of them were alone in a hideously decorated bedroom. Like Alice’s office, everything here was pink and red and heart-shaped. The drapes on the windows, the chandelier on the ceiling, the sink in the connected bathroom, the light switch by the door, the door itself… all of it pink and red and heart-shaped. Even the dots on the pink and red wallpaper were tiny pink and red hearts. Esmeralda would’ve almost preferred to stay in the creepy science lab, rather than spend the night surrounded by all the cuteness.
Still, this bedroom was the best one she could find. The Heart Palace was a continuing fanciful nightmare. The first room she’d tried had had a Cheshire Carpet. It remained unclear if an actual Cheshire Cat had been enspelled into a rug or if a regular rug had been enspelled to act like a Cheshire Cat. Either way, it was odd. The smiling mouths covering its pink-and-purple surface inexplicably changed position as it talked.
And itlovedto frigging talk.
How was Esmeralda supposed to sleep when the goddamn furniture was chatting about illegal chess moves? She couldn’t. Switching rooms had been a no-brainer. Sadly not all roommates were so easy to avoid.
“Do youreallyintend to sleep in here with me?” She asked Trevelyan in annoyance.
“It’s safer if we share a room, darling. Even you have to see that.” He arched a brow. “No matter how much you enjoy blaming me for every little thing, I’m the only person in Wonderland who’snota danger to you.”
“Aren’t you?” Esmeralda continued stacking heart-shaped pillows in a long row along the center of the heart-shaped bed. The heart-shaped mattress was the size of an average continent, so they could share it without touching.
Trevelyan clearly wasn’t going to leave and honestly Esmeralda wasn’t pushing hard for him to go. She hated rain. Since childhood, it had terrified her. Having someone else in the room, while the lightning flashed and thunder roared, was comforting. Even if that “someone” was an evil, stalking lunatic.
“Of course, I’m not a danger.” He lounged there like he owned the whole castle. Elegant and plotting. “As I said, I’m biologically incapable of harming my own True Love.”
There were a lot of ways to hurt someone without doing physical harm. He didn’t seem to get that, but Esmeralda did.
“And I’m content to wait until you’re ready, before I have my wicked way with you.” He continued with haughty assurance. “The chase is always the most interesting part of sex.”
“Then you’re doing sex wrong.”
His mouth curved. “Teach me the right way. I’m eager to learn. We can start practicing anytime you like.”
Esmeralda scoffed at the idea she could teach him anything. “Just stay on your side of the bed, okay?”
There was no sense in telling him to stay off of it completely. He wasn’t going to listen, just like he hadn’t listened when she’d requested that he die of a horrible, wasting skin disease.
