was staring at me. “Why are you trying to destroy my life?”
I swallowed. “I’m not. I’m trying to fix it.”
She stood up and held my gaze, hers burning with hatred. “How about you just go get your own life and stop screwing with mine.”
I flinched and she pushed past me and exited the building. I stayed where I was, about a foot away from the dead snake. Clara sat beside me, bathing her tail as the flurry of activity outside reached a crescendo. For a moment I worried they would come storming into the cabin and demand to know who I was. But then car doors closed and the vehicles dispersed. No crime to investigate and Joey hadn’t mentioned my presence.
“Thanks,” I said to the cat. “You were great. Way better than me.”
It was funny, I thought as I stepped out onto the porch. I’d hated and blamed myself for years but it was one thing to be disgusted by what I saw in the mirror, another thing entirely to meet my own gaze and recognize sheer hatred directed entirely at me.
And the day wasn’t over yet.
Robin stood on a small spit of beach a few hundred yards away from the cabin and stared at the flashing blue lights across the water.
“What’s going on?” I moved to stand beside him.
“Cops are dusting for fingerprints.” Robin looked down at me. “Good thing yours are legit.”
“Yup. And since Dad had been teaching me to drive, they won’t think a thing of it.” I closed my eyes and leaned back against a tree. “I hate myself.”
“And here I thought you hated me,” the fae prince murmured.
I shook my head. “I don’t hate you, Robin. But I’m not thrilled with you either. You hurt me.”
“How?”
I cracked a lid, trying to decipher if he was being serious. His brows were drawn together as though he were truly trying to puzzle it out.
“Because you’re going after Ursula. No woman wants to be with a guy who is constantly scanning the horizon for his next score.”
“Ursula is business.” He took a step closer. “You’re more.”
“How am I any different?” I shook my head. “She’s a divorced middle-aged woman desperate to change her life. And so am I. We’re both the type you target. And she’s had enough shit to deal with. She doesn’t need you, too.”
“And now you worry for her, this woman who you have considered an enemy for most of your life.” He shook his head. “Believe me, lamb. It may have started out as just another bargain but something is different. I can’t explain it, but I feel it here.” He thumped his heart over his chest.
“I’m not buying it, pal.” I was so over men and their bevy of lies. Bill, saying I was special to him. George promising to love me forever. Now Robin.
But the fae trickster didn’t back down. “You know I can’t utter a falsehood. There is something about you, Joey. Something unique and so rare it’s precious. In all my centuries I have never seen anyone as brave or as determined to do what is right. You are…pure goodness.”
I snorted. “Would pure goodness have considered having you enthrall Bill?”
He waved a hand as though erasing my argument. “You considered it because I offered. But you didn’t go through with it. Even if it is the easiest solution to your problem.”
“Taking someone’s free will away is wrong. Completely and totally wrong.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How messed up is it that I have to explain that to you?”
He flinched and backed away.
A distant rumble of thunder foretold of the coming storm. I blew out a breath. “Take me back to my house. I need to keep watch over myself. At least until after the accident.”
He was silent as he offered me his arm. I took it and we slid across town before I could ask what the price was.
Did it even matter? I was already in it up to my sagging boobs.
We appeared in the front parlor. The grandfather clock in the hall chimed three deep bongs. I staggered over to the fainting couch and put my head in my hands. Just a little over four more hours and then I could go back to my own time, having changed the future.
Why wasn’t I more excited about it?
“Are you sure this is wise?” Robin asked. “Waiting here? Won’t your mother and echo self be on the way back here directly?”