Page 18 of The Shadow Prince's Ruin
The door swings open, making my heart stop, and I suddenly can’t breathe.
“How many times have I told you about splashing water around everywhere?” Mrs. Moor yells, but the moment her eyes land on me and Hawk, shescreams.
Behind me, Hawk starts awake too, backing away from me and removing the comforter from my naked body in the process. I try to protect my modesty, but it’s no use when Hawk cries out, falling into the gap between my bed and the wall, wrapped up in our only covering like a body prepared for burial.
“How dare you fornicate under my roof?” Mrs. Moor shrieks like the evil witch character from a cartoon I saw a few days ago. She might be an average human woman in her forties, with short blonde hair, but her soul is as ugly as a creature from the deepest sea. “I was doing you a favor, but you’re a pervert like my ungrateful son! Out! Out!”
I grab the only thing left on the bed, a pillow, and cover my crotch. I ammortified. If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume I was bitten by a despair, and now I’m living my worst nightmare while my physical body slowly dies from the beast’s poison. All that’s needed to complete the picture would be my mother shaking her head, and my dead brother saying I don’t need a pillow this big to cover my privates.
“Mrs. Moor, please, it’s a misunderstanding. You must allow me to explai—”
“There is nothing to explain! There is a man in your bed! I thought I was helping out a polite young man in need of a Samaritan’s hand…” She takes a deep breath and squints at me.“You have ten minutes to gather your things andleave. I will not support your perversion inmyhouse!”
And worst of all is that the disgust in her gaze mirrors a look I’ve so often been given by my family members.
Underdeveloped.
Useless.
Not fit for the position I was born into.
A failure. And it doesn’t matter that her reasons for being angry are utterly ridiculous.
She storms off, leaving me with scattered thoughts and goosebumps all over my skin. Nausea rises in my throat, but before I can consider running off to the bathroom, the bed shifts away from the wall, and Hawk rises from the floor, wrapped in the comforter as if it were a hooded cloak.
“What the fuck is her problem?”
My breath is ragged, and I can’t speak, because my throat is too clenched with panic. I’ve just lost my lodgings in an unfamiliar world.
But even though my body wishes to shut down, I get up on weak knees and throw away the pillow, fighting my instinct to hide. Hawk has seen me naked and had no complaints, so there is no reason to get coy now. I am a Goldweed, and Iwillsurvive this. Somehow. I must.
“Her son’s gay, and so she’s taking out her unreasonable hate on me,” I say and start moving even though I can barely breathe. I need to gather the few possessions I have. That is my priority, and if I can focus on the task at hand, I will be able to ignore any feelings trying to crawl out of my chest.
“Some people really shouldn’t have children. My parents weren’t great, but they tried,” Hawk mumbles, crawling back onto the bed and shedding the comforter. I can’t bear looking at him now, so I pull on a fresh pair of underwear and glance around, relieved my belongings are so few and far between thatI might succeed at packing them all within those ten minutes the evil witch of Blackwood has allocated for it.
But then my gaze settles on the trunk servants carried in when I first moved here. Hope leaves my body. There’sno wayI can carry that thing.
“What should we grab?” Hawk asks behind me, and the sound of a zipper tells me he’s getting dressed as well.
How is he so calm about it? I’m guessing it’s because it’s not his life falling apart. I hoped to come back here after Boston to plan my way back to the Nightmare Realm, but it wasn’t meant to be.
I stuff my journal into my bag, along with some writing supplies, clothes that may be useful, my jewelry. It is only then that my mind registers his question.
He saidwe. Like this is somehow his problem.
“Do not fret, this is not your burden,” I say with my chest tight.
He pulls on his hoodie, his body completely hidden under the fabric as he cocks his head. “What do you mean? We’ve got to stick together. Just tell me what I can do. Is everything in this room yours?” he asks as I open the trunk marked with my family crest and stare at all the things I haven’t bothered to unpack, since they would have made me stand out too much.
The fine silks, the heeled shoes which make me that little bit taller, and most of all, my books on alchemy. If I leave them here, Mrs. Moor will likely burn them.
“Fuck!” I let myself lose patience as I try to choose one or two to take with me. I needed two servants to lift this damn trunk. “I don’t have that much, the bare bones of this room belonged to her son. But I can’t leave the books behind. Is there any chance you might lift this with me?”
He frowns, shuts the lid of the trunk, and then, like a madman, grabs the handle on one side with both hands. I roll my eyes, about to tell him it’s no use, but then my luggage leaves theground, and Hawk exhales. “What the hell do you have in there? Rocks?” he asks as he places it on the bed. “Do you have rope? Will be easier if I can tie it to my back.”
I stare at him for a moment, but I appreciate his ingenuity. And strength. “Yes, I think this could work.” I pull off the rope tying the curtains, then watch him fashion it into a strap while I finish dressing in the drab human clothes. It has to be said that they will be comfortable for travel. I don’t even know how far away Boston is.
It doesn’t take us long to grab every single item I own, including my lava lamp, and the ugly human toothbrush made of white plastic. I'm numb as I assist him with tying the trunk to his back. He looks like an overgrown turtle but still smiles at me in encouragement, as if this is all nothing. “Just one thing. I want to be discreet. Can you distract her so she doesn’t see my face?”
