Chapter 12 – Sleepless
Jesse
I walk back to the castle at Daphne’s side, my hands clasped behind my back. I look up, studiously avoiding staring at her, which is what I’d probably be doing if I had my way. Instead, I study the battlements of the ancient castle that rises above us, thinking about our insane night that started so peacefully in Ariel’s tiny house.
Just a kid having a temper tantrum when not allowed to color on the wall, and then suddenly we’re in the Underworld.
Did I really just tuck Juniper, a ghost, and a Selkie Princess away in my aunt and uncle’s house?
I smirk, thinking that Rafe just left a few hours ago and already missed all this. But a determined little mew has me turning my face down to peer into the pocket of Daphne’s apron, where a smoky grey head emerges, looking quite rumpled after a long nap.
My face bursts into a grin.
“Hey, you!” I say, laughing and reaching out a finger, stroking it over Mittens’s little head. “Where’ve you been?”
“Oh, he’s on strict orders to stay hidden,” Daphne says, flashing a grin up at me, her bright blue eyes sparkling. “I don’t know if Midnight…knows about him. Or how she’d react if she did.”
I nod as Mittens climbs out of his pocket, using his little shadow claws to climb up Daphne’s front and settle on her shoulder – a spot to which he is clearly accustomed. “You look good with some magic on you,” I say, quite pleased as we come to the base of the castle. I open the door for Daphne, bowing and waving her in ahead of me.
I am a gentleman, you see.
Most of the time.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Daphne murmurs, looking over at Mittens and petting his head. I don’t miss the blush on her cheek. I never do. “Mittens might be enough magic for me.”
“Ah, that’s crap,” I murmur, sliding my hands into my pockets as I stroll by Daphne’s side through the castle’s lowest floor.
She grins as she turns her face to me. “Oh, so you know better than I how much magic suits my life?”
“To begin, Daph, you are magic, so to imply you need less is a reduction of your self-worth that I find utterly intolerable –“
She laughs and shoves me. I can’t help but smile.
“And to follow,” I continue, looking at her, hoping she takes me more seriously this time. “You liked it, tonight. Being whisked away to the Underworld. A little bit of magic, a little bit of danger. Come on, admit it – even just to me.”
Her lovely mouth twists to the side and I do my damnedest to keep my eyes on the upper half of her face.
“All right,” she says, her voice playful, giving in as we turn a corner, heading into the servants’ halls where her rooms are located. “I did like it. But I’m just a seamstress, Jesse –“
“Oh, you can cut that nonsense right away,” I mutter, turning my eyes away even as I smirk. “You’re so much more than –“
“Jess,” she says, her voice more serious, more formal now.
I stop and turn to her when she wraps a hand around my elbow, pulling me back. I tilt my head as she looks up into my face.
“You can’t make me be more complicated than ‘just a seamstress’ just because you want that,” she says, soft but firm.
“All right,” I murmur, nodding, understanding suddenly how what I said could have felt dismissive. “But I’m serious, Daph. If that’s what you want from your life – to be a seamstress, to stop it there – then I think that’s fantastic. I just…” I shrug, looking for words that will be encouraging but not feel condescending. “I think that sometimes you maybe want more? And talk yourself out of thinking you can have it, or that you deserve it?”
She takes a deep breath, her mouth pressing to a thin line like she doesn’t quite like that I’ve seen that about her.
“I saw you tonight,” I say, stepping closer, looking down into her face, hoping she hears me. “You liked that other world, Daph. You liked the adventure – you…lit up.”
She bites her lip as she grins, a tacit admission.
“If you want to do more,” I say, shrugging, hoping to hell that I’m being casual as I deny every urge from my wolf telling me to snatch her up in my arms. “Then…I’ll help you.”
“All right,” she whispers, giving a slow nod as we come to a stop at the end of the hall – the point where my continuing on takes me fully out of the path toward my room. “Maybe…I’ll think about it.”
“Good,” I say, my left hand balling into a fist in my pocket. “That’s…good.”
Fall down, my wolf says, panting in my soul. Pretend to break our ankle – or pretend we’re sick – if we’re sick she’ll take us to her room and be nice to us – maybe even –
I shove him away, sighing inwardly. My wolf has…zero chill. Which is usually a feature I admire and encourage, though…not today.
“Night, Jesse,” Daphne says, smiling up at me, playing with the ends of her hair.
My wolf howls, a wild, choked, and gurgling sound, dashing off into the wilderness of my soul, at a complete loss for what else to do with himself.
“Night, Daph,” I say, grinning at her. “The world is at your feet, tailor. If you want more of it, and I can help you get it…all you have to do is ask.”
She nods to me and turns, walking away.
I exhale slowly through my nose, watching her for a second too long before I force myself to start up the winding stairs.
If we just…hurl ourselves down these… my wolf muses, and make a lot of racket… I mean, she’ll probably hear us and come back –
I just laugh and shove him away again, unable to help my smile.
Enough hope is blooming in my chest without those kinds of antics. Hope I don’t need but…desperately want.
Juniper
I take a deep breath, scrunching the soft blankets in my fist, a little shiver running through me. I frown, my eyes still closed as I snuggle down in the blankets. Why is it…cold?
It’s never cold here in the Under-
My eyes fly open as I suddenly remember that, of course, I’m not in the Underworld.
“Morning, babe,” Anton says, grinning down at me from his spot seated next to me on the bed, one long leg extended and the other bent at the knee. I frown because…I don’t know. He just looks different. A bit worn or something. “I’d ask how you slept but…it seemed to go pretty well.”
I give a half-hearted little groan, glaring around at my parents’ bedroom in the half-light of dawn. “I wanna go back to the Underworld,” I croak. “I like the darkness of winter without the cold, please. Plus, I could do this -” I hold out a hand flat and glare at it. “And have instant coffee. Which is woefully absent here.”
“Sorry,” Tony says with a sigh, grinning down at me. “I was promised a body today and despite the lure of semi-arid eternal night…I’d quite like that bargain fulfilled.”
I grin at him, suddenly excited, sleep slipping away from me.
I sit up, wrapping the big duvet around me like a giant hoodie coat. Anton laughs, probably because I look like a big fat walrus or something all cozied up like this. “How did you sleep?” I ask, grinning at him. “Or did you not manage it, because you were thinking about all the body stuff?”
He sighs, looking down at the comforter. “Actually, I think I would have liked the sleep,” he murmurs. “But…this ghostly form seems set against it.”
“Whaaat,” I breathe, leaning towards him, surprised. “You didn’t sleep!? At all!?”
“Nope,” he says, turning his face back towards me, smirking a little to hide his sadness and worry. “Trust me, I tried – it’s just…not in the cards.”
“So, what’d you do all night?”
“Oh,” he says, his face dead serious. “Just, stared at you adoringly, memorized your features, counted each of your lovely breaths –“
I laugh, swatting out a hand at him, which he neatly dodges. I bite my lip and whisper an apology – because honestly, I forgot that I’m not supposed to touch him now. He just shrugs, brushing it off.
“It sucked,” he says with a sigh. “Way, way too much time alone with my thoughts.”
“What’d you think about?” I whisper.
“Oh, the ten thousand ways this might not work,” he murmurs. “What…happens next. Whether it’s going to hurt. What my bodyis doing all alone underground like that…like, are there bugs?” He shudders. “Where my blood went. Like, do they just…throw that out? How –“
“Okay okay –“ I say, a little sing-song, pushing my duvet enclosure away from my body and scooting as close to him as I can get. I look up into my boyfriend’s face and he sighs, holding my gaze with his sparkly blue one. “You know it’s going to work, right?”
“But what if I’m all worm-infested?” He makes a face.
“You’re not,” I say, very solid even though…god, I hope that’s not a lie. “It’s gonna work.”
He sighs. “We can’t know that.”
“I can,” I say, soft and surer than I feel. “I’m a Goddess. And a Queen. I shall will it so.”
“If anyone can, it’s you, baby bat.” His eyes move over me as he grins that wolfish smirk that always makes my stomach somersault. I grin right back, desperately impatient to get him into his body.
I’ve got some…things I want to try out.
But both of our faces fall and snap to the window, completely distracted by a sudden shriek followed by the sound of desperate sobbing.
“What the –“ I whisper, eyes flashing wide.
“Is that…Laila!?” Anton leaps to his feet and rushes for the door.