it had always been a refuge. A place to heal. Over the years, others, invited by Mamie, found that same healing.
“It was just a question,” I muttered, instantly feeling like the angry fourteen-year-old boy I’d been when I first came to live here.
She made another annoyed tut but then waved my churlishness aside with a swat of her hand. “She’s arriving today. I thought we could have coffee and cakes at around four.”
Instantly, I knew where this was going. But I played ignorant. Partly because dread prickled down my back and partly because it would annoy my grandmother. Ah, the games we played. The realization that it was the only type of game I could play anymore sank my mood faster than a stone plummeting into a cold, dark well.
“All right.” I stepped down from the ladder. “Do you want me to stop working while you have your party?”
A string of muffled French curses followed before a sharp pinch to my side nearly made me yelp.
Mamie’s eyes narrowed to frost-green slits. “Oh, you test me these days, Titou.”
I knew I did. Regret thickened in my throat. I was shit to be around. Mamie was the only one who could stand me anymore. I knew all this. That I couldn’t seem to pull out of it was the problem. My entire life had gone to shit. Most days, it was all I could do not to scream and rage until my voice gave out.
Not talking unless absolutely necessary seemed the best and safest solution.
I couldn’t even give my grandmother an apology. It was stuck there, a big-ass lump at the center of my chest.
Again she sighed. She peered at me with those cool-green eyes that were the exact shade of my own. People often said that looking into them was like gazing into a mirror—they were so reflective. Those eyes could cut a person to shreds with one look. The saying wasn’t exactly wrong; I felt flayed just now.
Her cool knobby fingers caressed my cheek for a brief moment, and I fought the urge to flinch. I didn’t like people touching me now. At all.
Her hand drifted down, and she visibly regrouped. “Now then. I expect you to join us.”
“No.”
Perfectly plucked brows lifted high. “No?”
I felt all of two years old. And just as damn petulant. Rubbing a hand over my face, I tried again. “I’ll only end up accidentally insulting your guest or messing it up in some equally embarrassing way for you.”
This wasn’t a lie. I’d lost all my ability to charm; it had leaked out of me and never returned. Some days I wondered about that, about how I’d changed so much, so quickly that I no longer felt right in my own skin.
“I believe our guest will be able to handle the likes of you,” Mamie said dryly.
Don’t fall for it.
“And why is that?”
I fell for it. Damn it.
Her smile was nothing short of smug and victorious. “She is Emma Maron. You know of her, yes?”
Emma Maron. The name danced around my sorely abused brain. I knew that name. But how? Emma . . . an image of wide-set, big doe eyes the color of indigo ink and a plush, pouty mouth filled my mind’s eye. Oval face surrounded by white hair with electric-blue tips.
Recognition slammed into me like a blindside hit. Princess Anya. Emma Maron was one of the stars on Dark Castle. The delicately beautiful but brutally fierce Princess Anya, who led armies alongside her lover, Arasmus, the Warrior King. Okay, I was a fan. Of the show. In which there were at least four main story lines. Even so, I couldn’t believe it took me so long to place her name. Then again, my brain was crap these days.
“You’ve invited an actress here?”
“I’ve been told famous people prefer to lick their wounds in a private setting,” Mamie deadpanned.
Point to Mamie.
“Why does she need to lick her wounds?” I felt compelled to ask. “She’s a star of the most popular cable show running.”
“Not anymore, the poor dear. Apparently, she’s been cut. Some evil wizard removes her head with an ax at the end of the season.”
“No shit?” Frankly, I was shocked. Anya was insanely popular. The season finale had yet to air, but I was guessing there’d be an uproar about it.
“Language, Titou.”
“Apologies, Mamie.” The woman had a fouler mouth than me when she got pissed off, but she was still my grandmother.
“Hmm.” She eyed me for a second. “I said too much. That bit