The Lightning-Struck Heart (Tales From Verania 1)

I shrugged. “I’m sore, but it’s not too bad. If I stay here, I’ll just be brooding. It’s best for me to get out. It’ll be my last chance to see the City of Lockes for a while. I just want to say good-bye.”

“We’ll be back, you know. It’s not good-bye so much as it’s so long. You’ll see.”

I just nodded and closed the door. I didn’t have the heart to tell him how apt I thought the good-bye had been.

CHAPTER 10

Are You a Foxy Lady or a Sam Girl?

I DIDN’T even want to go to the stupid meeting.

Stupid Ryan Fucking Foxheart.

He was such an asshole.

But I had to go.

Because it was my turn to bring muffins.

And I would never hear the end of it if I didn’t show when it was my turn to bring the muffins.

I stopped by the kitchen and picked up the basket Cook had prepared as I’d requested in secret. He never asked what it was for because at least he thought I was mysterious. I’m sure he thought I took the muffins to the Dark Woods and crumbled them over goat’s blood as I cast a spell that invited demons to suckle on my soul.

Or, he just didn’t care and made me food because he was Cook and that was his job.

Whatever.

So I mysteriously took the basket of poppy seed muffins and absconded from the castle. Once I was outside the gates, I pushed my way through the crowds into a narrow alleyway, looking back to make sure I wasn’t followed. The coast was clear.

I set down the basket and opened my rucksack. I pulled out a floppy brown wig and pulled it over my hair. The wig covered my forehead and ears, the hair curling out at the tips. There was a matching beard that covered most of my face and came down to the middle of my chest. And finally, a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.

Mervin had returned.

Yes, I could have probably easily altered my looks with magic. But I’d made a promise to Morgan early on not to use it for such frivolous things. And shaping magic could be dangerous. Addictive. Alterations here and there until you completely forgot what your original shape looked like. I never wanted to forget.

I went out of the alley at the opposite end and crossed three more blocks until I reached a café on the corner.

Look. I’d faced some pretty terrible things in my life. The Dark wizards. Fire geckos. An elf who had somehow thought we were meant to be and wanted to go through the elven rite of passage where during the act of consummation, he’d need to eat one of my fingers (No, Svenel, I don’t want to make love to you while you eat my thumb, you fucking asshole!). I’d been cursed, burned, stabbed, hexed, kicked, punched, and on one memorable occasion, had somehow ended up tied to a table while an ogre whipped my bare ass and grunted how pretty my reddened skin was (I knew I wasn’t a prude. Suck it, Gary!). Hell, just yesterday, I’d faced down a dragon.

But no matter where I’d been, no matter everything I’d seen, there was one opponent that rose above all others. An adversary so devious and cunning and bloodthirsty that she put all the others to shame.

Her eyes fell upon me from her seat at the head of the table outside the shop. The rest of the club was spread out around her like she was a queen and they were her subjects. Except she was more of a tyrant than anything else. One who had no scruples nor a kind bone in her body.

Her gaze grew calculating.

My hackles raised and I prepared for battle.

Lady Tina DeSilva.

The president of the Ryan Foxheart Fan Club Castle Lockes Chapter.

And my most mortal of enemies.

“Oh look, everyone. Mervin has arrived and he brought the muffins. If past experiences have any prescience as to what we can expect, then they’re sure to be as dry as his conversational skills.”

She was also sixteen years old.

And evil.