Chapter 90

I groan when I wake up the next morning, my face flat against the marble of my bathroom floor.

“Shhh!”

I turn my head to see Anton laying flat on his back, his hands covering his face.

“What?” I murmur, groggy and in pain.

“You’re being impossibly loud, Juniper,” Anton mumbles, massaging his eyes with his fingertips. “You’re killing me. Please. Silence yourself.”

“Oh, shut up,” I mutter, turning my face away. “How bad can it be? You’re already dead.”

“I’d kick you,” he says on a sigh. “If I could. First you get us all drunk, and then you rub in the fact that I’m dead? I’m hungover, June, go easy on me –“

“How can you be hungover you don’t even have a body –“

“And yet! The headache persists!”

I start to laugh, my whole body shaking as I turn over onto my own back and shake my head at him. “Shut up, Anton, you’re being ridiculous.”

He flaps a hand out towards me, pretending to smack, but it falls way too short.

I just grin at him and let my eyes drift shut, breathing softly, trying to put my mind back together. Then I laugh again, remembering something.

“What?” he asks.

“I thought you wanted me to be quiet?”

“Well, you’re already laughing, so my hopes for peaceful silence are gone. So, tell me what’s so funny.”

“I was thinking that it’s kind of cute,” I say, opening my eyes and peering at him again. “This is where we met, after all.”

He laughs too, smiling softly at me. “Yeah, adorable. The first time you saw me you screamed in terror and skittered away like a crab.”

I gasp a little, pretending offense. “Rude. My fear was justified - you were a gigantic blue wolf peering down into my face like you were going to lick me or eat me –“

“You did not look as delicious as you think you did, Princess –“

“Oh yes I did,” I say on a sigh, groaning as I force myself to sit up, rubbing at my temples. “As you said, I’m a badass demigoddess full of dark grace and majesty. You wanted to gobble me up – don’t try to pretend you didn’t.”

Anton grins as I say his words back to him. “You remember that?”

“I wasn’t that drunk,” I murmur.

He raises an eyebrow at me, tilting his head to the side.

“Fine,” I sigh, pointing a finger at him. “I wasn’t that drunk…yet. It’s only later in the evening that things get…fuzzy.”

I conjure up a glass of water as Anton continues to grin at me.

“How’d we get here?” I ask, taking a sip.

“Orion brought us, of course,” Anton says, sitting up as he laughs. “He wanted to put you in bed but you insisted that the marble floor was your nice cold friend.”

“Oh geeze,” I sigh, rubbing again at my temple. “There go my hopes at becoming Queen of the Underworld, after Orion has seen me all wasted and begging to be left with my friend, the bathroom floor.”

“No, you were very funny and cute,” Anton murmurs, smirking as he looks down at his hands.

“Mmmhmm,” I hum in sarcastic agreement, seriously doubting that.

“Wait,” Anton says, turning his face to me again, a huge grin breaking out on it. “Tell me you at least remember the sing-along.”

My face falls, my eyes going wide. “Wait, what?”

He bursts out laughing, letting his head tilt back, and my eyes move immediately to the long lines of his throat, the steady cut of his jaw. I swallow hard, clenching my teeth as I watch him laugh, wondering if…

Well, if there’s a prettier sight in the whole damn world.

Nope, my happy, lazy wolf says, curling contentedly in my soul.

“So, you have no memory,” Anton says, lifting his head and turning his shining eyes, all crinkled at the corners with joy, to me. “Of conjuring up a piano in the corner of the bar? And teaching everyone the words to Moon Valley folk songs and leading everyone in a rousing chorus!?”

“Oh my goddd,” I groan, putting my water down and covering my face with my hands, collapsing against the floor. “I didn’t. Tell me I didn’t.”

But even as Anton bursts out laughing again memories start to float back, of everyone standing in a circle around me, of me pounding at the keys.

“Sorry to say you did, lil Junie. Our songstress Queen.”

“Oh heavens. I never play in public…”

“Can’t claim that anymore, Princess. We all sang for hours –“

A tortured groan is my only response as he scootches closer to me.

“No, seriously, June! It was so much fun! Everyone loved it!”

I groan again, shaking my head, unable or unwilling to believe that.

“It was a blast,” he sighs, laying himself down next to me. “Seriously, we should do it again. Like every week.”

“How can we do that?” I murmur, turning my face to him, peering between my fingers.

“Well, you gave the bartender the piano –“

I groan louder, covering my eyes again.

Anton just laughs. “There are worse things than being a generous drunk, Junie –“

I just moan and shake my head back and forth while he continues to laugh. But eventually we both settle down and lay quietly next to each other on the cool floor. I sigh and let my hands drift to my stomach, staring up at the ceiling and then turning my head to look at my pretty ghost boy, at the straight cut of his nose as he continues to look up.

“We had fun though,” I whisper.

He hums his agreement, his adam’s apple bobbing once before he turns to look at me too. “How are you feeling?” He taps at his own chest, just above his heart, to let me know what he means.

I sigh and just give a little shrug. “Embarrassed still and…sad. Frustrated. Foolish.”

“Not heartbroken?”

I stare at him for a second before slowly shaking my head. “I loved him, Tony – I don’t want to deny that. But…the more time I spend down here the more I realize how shallow that love was. How much deeper it can and should go if you’re going to pledge yourself to someone forever. I was…well, I know you keep telling me to stop saying it. But I really was foolish. I let him talk me into not telling my parents, into thinking that he was some great solution to something that – now that I think about it – wasn’t really a problem.”

“What problem?” Anton asks, frowning at me.

“I didn’t feel like I fit in in my life,” I say with a shrug. “Didn’t feel like a princess. So…I was going to let him take me somewhere that I wasn’t a Princess.”

Anton smirks a little. “And now?”

“And now,” I sigh, turning my head and looking up at the ceiling. “I’m wondering if it was just that I was never meant to be a Princess for long. That I’m supposed to be a Queen.”

Anton is very quiet for long enough that I turn to him with a frown.

“You don’t think so?” I ask.

“Does it mean you’re going to marry Orion?”

I just stare at him, unsure of my answer. In my soul, my wolf snarls at the idea, getting to her feet and starting to scratch again at the edge of my soul like she’s trying to break through.

My lips part with my answer but before I can speak both Anton and I turn towards a new presence as it appears in my room.

“Are you two,” Orion says, looking at us with a frown on his face, arms crossed, “seriously still just laying on the floor?”

“Yeah,” Anton replies, quite simple, grinning up at his bestie bro. “June was right – it’s actually really nice. Come on down here, try it out.”

“Another time,” Orion replies, quite dry, reaching out a hand to help me up.

I sigh but take it, letting him pull me to my feet, simultaneously calling on the magic to smooth my hair, clear my face of any smudged makeup. Because as much as I don’t mind Anton seeing me that way, Orion, somehow, feels different.

“Why another time?” Anton asks, likewise pushing himself to his feet, frowning at the Prince.

“Because,” Orion says, dry, holding up his hand where a dark envelope appears. “My father sent out these this morning. It’s been sitting on your bed, June – I’m surprised you haven’t found it yet.”

“Haven’t been in there,” I murmur, starting to tear it open.

“Read it in my room, if you don’t mind,” Orion says, reaching out his hands to touch both Anton and me on the elbow. “I want to get back to Laila.”

I go a bit still, whipping my head up to Orion even as we vanish away into the air and then into the little living room that’s part of Orion’s suite.

I immediately forget all about my headache and the dark envelope in my hand, spinning around and looking for my friend. “Where…” I don’t see her anywhere – her or the little green cot she sleeps on when she’s here -

“So,” Anton says, slipping his hands into his pockets and grinning devilishly at Orion. “Where’s our girl?”

“She’s in there,” Orion says, pointing towards his bedroom and frowning at Anton, clearly wondering at his insinuating tone.

My eyes go wide as I spin towards the door just as Laila appears, her hair mussed, dressed in a very cute pajama set of seafoam-green silk, just a little pair of shorts and a tanktop. “Orion,” she calls, “do you want me to call up breakfa…”

Her words fade off, her mouth shaping into a surprised little “o” as she looks between Anton and I.

“Sure, breakfast sounds good,” Orion says, perfectly casual, walking over to the coffee machine.

“Hey, Lai,” Anton says, his wicked grin spreading wide across his face. “How’d you sleep? Also where? And with whom?”

“Um,” she replies, her eyes moving anxiously to me.

But all I can do is stare at her, completely shocked.