Steal the Sun (6 page)

I hugged him and smiled brightly. “We’ll find someplace quiet and sunbathe nude. I promise you’ll match soon enough.”

“Fine,” he said with a pout.

I took his hand as the royal guard began to herd us toward the exit. We would walk to the palace surrounded by a phalanx of guards. Lee pulled his quarry behind him and Danny and Dev argued about how to prove Dev’s ex was behind everything. I held Neil’s hand and looked up at the white palace that got closer with each step.

“I already want to go home, Z,” Neil admitted.

I sighed and squeezed his hand because I knew the feeling.

Chapter Four

“She gave us three different rooms?” I asked the small creature who had guided me to what I assumed was our dressing room. Now I looked around and saw that only my luggage had been delivered.

When we’d reached the shining palace, we’d been divided up. Daniel had met with Padric and the two had decided the first order of business was to take the prisoner to the “holding cells.” They actually used those words as they looked at me like they didn’t want me to know there were dungeons. As I planned on visiting the dungeons later, I didn’t see how they were going to keep it from me. I had some questions for my would-be assassin that I would like answered, too. With Daniel, Lee, and Zack following Padric, Sarah and Felix were shown to their room. Dev had been told he had business with Declan, and that left me and Neil looking down at my brand new social secretary.

The small troll bit her lip and looked about, wondering how to respond to me. She was dressed in the same flowing skirts as the Seelie around her, though the style swallowed her small body. She had brown hair and eyes and her long tail peeked out from under the skirt. Even as Mara had introduced her to me, she seemed nervous and on the verge of tears. She reminded me of a scared little mouse.

It looked like Mara had decided to play games with me. I should have expected it. I’d been warned by my brother-in-law that the royal court was a place of back stabbing and mind games, but I’d been hoping for something better. I hadn’t missed the way Mara and her friends had laughed behind their hands as they introduced me to Bibi. I bet the rest of the royals didn’t have trolls for their social secretaries.

“I am sure that Mara wanted you to be comfortable, Your Grace. You have the whole room to yourself. Perhaps she thought you would like that.” Bibi’s voice was tremulous.

I began to understand that becoming a social secretary to the human wife of a high priest had probably not been her idea. It was Mara’s idea of an insult since the troll was obviously ill equipped to be involved in organizing a high-society social life. I wondered where Mara had picked her up. From the dirt under her nails, I suspected the gardens.

“I’m sure Mara wanted me to feel alone,” I murmured, looking around. The room was airy and magnificent. Every inch of the palace was natural stone, mostly white marble. It was stunning, but it wouldn’t do because I had no intention of being away from my husbands. It had been so long since I slept alone I doubted I would remember how to do it.

Neil jumped onto the bed. “Look at this, Z. It would barely hold you and me. What are these people thinking?”

He was right. The bed was maybe a queen when we were used to the oversized king in the penthouse that required specially made sheets to fit it. That bed was a monster but then it held me, Danny, and Dev, and occasionally Neil when he whined enough and Dev let him in. Neil wasn’t good at sleeping alone, either.

I cocked an amused eyebrow at Neil as I walked over to the window. The view was like a painting. Everything was vibrant and green, with slate-colored mountains touching the brilliant blue sky. I could see the snow-capped peaks in the distance, but here in the valley it was summertime and the air was gauzy and sweet. I let the sunlight warm my skin for a moment before getting back to the problem at hand.

“I think you’re going to have to sleep with Zack, babe. Three in a bed looks like it’s going to be hard here, much less trying for four.” Zack wouldn’t mind. Lee was the odd wolf who preferred to sleep alone, but Zack would think nothing of Neil crawling into bed with him. It was like that for werewolves. There was nothing sexual about it but they preferred a lot of physical contact.

Neil walked up to me and threaded his hand through mine. “That’s okay. I like Zack.”

I turned to him, and my question was laced with just a bit of fear. “You like Zack, or you like like Zack?”

I hoped that wasn’t it. He and Chad seemed happy the one night they’d had together in Colorado. Chad was due to come home from the Council in Paris in a few months, and he would expect his boyfriend to be waiting. Vampires don’t like it when you break up with them. They tend to be possessive creatures.

He rolled his eyes and contorted his face to let me know I’d said something distasteful. “No. Ewww. He’s like…”

My heart warmed because I knew what he was thinking. For the first time in his life, Neil had wolves around who didn’t hurt him or make him feel less. He had a small pack and it made him happy. “…a brother?”

“A real, actual one,” Neil said with a shrug, trying not to get too emotional. “I guess Zack is what I thought a brother should be like. He annoys me with his butt kissing and his perfect obedience. Most of the time, I want to throttle him. But then I know he has my back. I like hanging out with him. We might not have a ton in common, but that’s okay. I’m totally going to get him back for the arrow thing, though.”

I nodded. Revenge was important in our world. I turned and looked at Bibi, who only reached my shoulders, or she would if she stood up straight. Bibi seemed to be trying to shrink into herself. Still, she had a job to do, and it was time she learned how to do it. “Please inform Mara that I will be sleeping with my husband. She can either move my luggage or I will move it myself. Daniel will also be joining us in whatever room Prince Devinshea has been given. They might not recognize my marriage to Daniel, but Dev certainly does.”

Without a doubt, Dev would have the best room. He was a prince, after all.

“You want me to tell her?” Bibi asked, her dark eyes wide with fear. “You want me to speak to her?”

I walked back toward the troll. It was time to start making the best of things. If Mara thought I was going to bitch and complain and beg for a better assistant, then she was wrong. I sat down on the bed so I was at eye level with Bibi. “Yes, Bibi, I want you to tell Mara that she has made a dreadful error and must fix it right away. You tell her your mistress is insulted and will probably do something terrible if she doesn’t get her way.”

Bibi shrank back. Her whole body shook. “I will carry the luggage myself. Please don’t harm me.”

“No, sweetie.” Neil knelt down beside her. He was sincere as he dealt with the frightened girl who was probably older than all of us combined. “You aren’t getting it. She isn’t going to hurt you. You’re part of the team now. Zoey here is loyal to her crew. She might yank out that hair of Mara’s though.”

“What is a crew?” Bibi asked, shyly smiling at Neil. Her eyes were big as she took in Neil’s blond hair and light blue eyes. She sighed as he smiled at her.

Trolls have no gaydar.

“It means you’re with us now,” Neil explained. “You work for Zoey, so you’re one of the gang. If someone messes with you, then we handle it.”

Bibi thought about this for a moment. Big tears shone in her eyes as she looked up at me. “But I am a gardener and a troll. It is an insult to you. They meant to shame you by placing me in your household.”

“Then they did a terrible job, Bibi.” They hadn’t done their research on me. “Would you like to know a secret? I was practically raised by trolls. They were Huldrefolk, like you. Daniel and I spent many summers walking the bridges. You are not an insult to me. You’re a cherished reminder of my home.” Just the day before we left for Faery, I’d gone to say good-bye to my adoptive summer parents, Ingrid and Halle. They had been filled with advice on how to survive Faery.

“She told the others you would be upset by me,” Bibi told me. “She said I would be awful and you would come begging for her help.”

I was going to have to have a little talk with Mara. It sucked because my plan coming in was to try to blend in as much as possible. I was going to try to be what Devinshea needed me to be. I planned on learning how to be a member of this family, but it was looking more and more like I was going to have to be me. If terrifying trolls and going all mean girl on the new kid was what passed for family here, then they were going to get the full Zoey Wharton Donovan Quinn treatment.

“I think you’ll make a fine social secretary once we figure out what you’re supposed to do,” I assured the troll. “That will be the real challenge because I have never been a member of a royal court before. We’ll just have to learn together.”

I hoped not to have to learn too much, though. I had more to do than learn royal protocols. We had a war to deal with at home, and the truth was I was anxious to get back to it. I needed to find the stone for Marini and then figure out how I could screw him over with it.

“I have a schedule,” Bibi offered. “Tonight you have the meeting with the queen. I am supposed to make sure you are dressed properly. Prince Declan selected a gown for you.”

There was a large closet across the room. I decided to have a look at what Declan considered “proper.” I just hoped the damn dress actually had a bodice. I wouldn’t put it past him to give me something that showed off way too much of me. I stared at the dress that hung alone in the massive closet.

This was what I was supposed to wear to dinner with the queen tonight? I laughed because it was blatantly obvious someone had switched it out. Declan might be a complete dick, but he had no desire to humiliate me. Declan would never have picked out that bland color or the hideous cut of the dress. He considered himself a fashionable prince. The person who had swapped the dresses must have thought I was an idiot or didn’t know Declan. The prince would never in a million years have selected something that didn’t leave my boobs hanging out. I wondered where the real one was but decided it was long gone.

“Ewww, Z. Did Declan lose his mind?” Neil pulled at the mucky brown fabric.

Bibi walked up, shaking her head. “That is not the right gown. The one the prince ordered was beautiful. It was made of fine fabric and the color was a lovely green. This is terribly old-fashioned. It is a gown an elderly country woman would wear, certainly not the wife of a high priest.”

I giggled. I couldn’t help it. I was back in junior high. I should watch out because someone was going to try to steal my boyfriend next.

Bibi looked close to tears. “It is not funny, my mistress. You will be a laughingstock. Appearances are important here. There is no time to make another and I am afraid you will not fit into the other women’s dresses. They are much taller than you. This is a disaster.”

But Neil was already working on it. He had pulled open the oversized wardrobe Dev himself had packed for the three of us. It had designer wear in case we got tired of the middle ages. It was a mini closet and I felt bad for whoever had been forced to lug it from the
sithein
door all the way to the palace. I’d argued with Dev that there was no way we needed designer dresses and suits and now I would have to eat my words.

“I think the candy-red Vivienne Westwood,” he pronounced, pulling out the stunner with a heart-shaped bodice. “It’s both hot and haute!”

“Works for me.” If the mean girls thought they could get me down, they could think again. I might not fit in exactly, but in that dress I was going to stand out and not in a bad way. I hadn’t worn it yet but I expected Dev and Danny would like it. Besides, the flowy styles they preferred here were for tall, lithe women. I have curves and the Westwood would hug those curves in all the right places. And it would allow me to dump the slippers in favor of heels. I was tired of being the munchkin in the room. “Shoes?”

“Oh, there’s no question,” Neil said as though the answer was staring me in the face. “The gold d’Orsay pumps. The Manolos. They’re the perfect counterpoint to the Goddess Chain.” He opened the trunk that housed my shoes, and I watched Bibi’s mouth drop open.

“They are so beautiful,” Bibi breathed, looking at the shoes like she was an art student getting her first glimpse of a da Vinci. She looked at me for permission and I nodded. She pulled out my purple peep-toe Louboutins. She had a good eye.

“I think she’s having a shoegasm,” Neil said with a smile.

“Hey, she has small feet,” I noted. “She might be able to wear my shoes.”

Bibi looked startled. “You would let me wear your footwear?”

“Yes, but you have to practice first.” I didn’t want to be responsible for her broken ankle. “Those are four- to five-inch heels. They take some getting used to.”

“Yes, I remember several times my mistress almost broke an ankle trying to walk in her shoes,” a deep voice intoned. “It was then I knew she truly loved my master because it seemed like torture to me, yet she did it to please him.”

I smiled at Albert, who stood in the doorway holding a tray. The seven-foot demon looked stately in his white dress shirt and slacks. Our butler had traveled ahead to the palace days before. Albert had insisted he needed the time to whip the palace into shape.