“Okay. I’m ready.” I blink down at Gabrio.
Gripping the key ring, he stands from Grandma’s old gold sofa and looks me over with wide eyes. “You look…very fierce. I am immensely aroused. Especially because I have experienced the soft wetness of your—”
“Please don’t go there.” I know it’s customary in their world to say these sexual things out loud, so I just let that one go. “Master, I want you to stay here.”
“He cannot. He has vowed to protect you,” Gabrio states.
I reach out and stroke Master’s soft pointy ear with black specks mixed into the grayish-white fur. “If you come with me, I’ll spend my time worrying about you, boy. It’ll put my life in more danger, not less.”
Gabrio looks at Master, who snarls at me.
I drop my hand.
“You have insulted him,” says Gabrio. “He does not need your protection. You need his. Thus the reason he’s sworn to protect you with his life. I might also add that he can help translate your words for those who are unfamiliar with your tongue.”
“Christ,” I mutter and scrub my face with my hands. “My dog can translate to monster speak.”
“He is not a dog. He is a—”
“Nope. Nope.” I hold out my hand. “The topic is still off-limits.”
“As you wish.” Gabrio looks at Master, then me. “Nevertheless, Master insists on coming. And you cannot sentence him to a No One fate.” Gabrio stands and walks over to the big fireplace. “Woman-talk time is over. You must go now. You cannot arrive late.”
Woman-talk time?
“Lake, why are you still standing there?”
“So where’s the door?” I ask.
Gabrio picks up the key ring. “There.” He points to the big sooty fireplace. “It leads into the fireplace of the great war hall. They usually light it when there are meetings, but Tiago is expecting you.”
“I hope so.” I can’t think of anything worse than going over that bridge, feeling like you’re being burned alive, only to wake up actually on fire.
“You are our queen. He will ensure you are kept safe,” he says with a melancholy tone. He steps in closer, and I see the sadness in his eyes again. I don’t know what I mean to him, exactly, but he obviously cares about me.
“Hold down the fort for me, okay?” I say softly.
Gabrio pushes a key right into a brick toward the back of the fireplace. A window pops up, but I can’t see what’s on the other side. It’s too hazy.
“This is not a fort,” he says. “It is a very sad dwelling, lacking children, life, and proper maintenance. It is a blemish on your Norfolk name.”
Tell me how you really feel about my crappy family home. “Awesome pep talk. Thanks, Gabrio.”
Master yowls.
“He says you are going to be late.” Gabrio points to the window.
“Fine. Whatever. Just keep yourself safe. Please?”
“I will, Lake Norfolk.”
We lock eyes, and he suddenly leans in to place a soft kiss on my lips. I don’t object. Even though he didn’t say so, I know I might never see him again. Now, more than ever, I feel like everything around me is disappearing. Grandma, Bard, Dave, my reality. What’s next?
“Goodbye, Gabrio.”
I turn to step into the window. As my body is sucked in, I hear him say, “Take care, my queen.”
CHAPTER TEN
“Ow, ow, ow,” I groan. “Why does that suck so bad?” I lie on my back for several minutes, the searing-hot pain rolling through my body. Underneath me is a cool stone floor, and to my side is Master, who whimpers. He’s probably agreeing with me about the suck. That was my third time over a bridge, and it doesn’t get any easier. Like going through a paper shredder, inside a volcano.
“Fucking hell. Ow, ow, ow…”
Like before, I can’t open my eyes or move, so I just breathe and wait for my body to “settle,” as they call it. Between the burning agony, my mind calls out the fact that wherever I am, it’s extremely quiet. Maybe I’m early for this meeting.
“Are you done whining yet?” says the familiar sound of Tiago’s gravelly voice. He snarl-speaks most of his words.
“No. And fuck you,” I grunt. “I’d like to see you try crossing.”
“I do not fear it,” he says smugly. “And I guarantee I would not cry like a baby as you do.”
“Lick my ass, Tiago.”
“Do not make offers you are not willing to keep.”
Gross. “You would like that. All you Monsterland creatures are nasty.”
I finally open my eyes. When I do, it takes a moment, but Tiago’s huge head comes into focus. Like Alwar, Tiago is about fifty feet tall. His dark hair has also been cropped, and his long dark beard is gone. He has bruises and cuts along his arms and torso. One of his golden eyes is bloodshot.
“You look like shit,” I say.
“You still look like a malnourished little Skin, unworthy of becoming a meal.”