The Wayward Deed (Vacancy Book 2) by A. K. Caggiano

Author:A. K. Caggiano [Caggiano, A. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-19T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

PEACE OFFERING

It’s hard to avoid a person when both are confined to a single room, but Conrad was doing a pretty good job. He had come back a day or two earlier, Lorelei wasn’t sure which as he hadn’t spoken to her, but he also hadn’t gone out of his way to tell her he was still angry, so she insisted to herself that things could be much worse.

Things could always be worse, this was a colloquially popular statement and happened to be one of the guidelines of magic which wasn’t a rule, per se, but always good to keep in mind just in case one wanted to avoid tempting fate and asking magic, hypothetically, “Can things get any worse?” Magic doesn’t really do hypotheticals, so one can imagine how the answer typically goes.

Ziah wasn’t letting any of them leave the sitting room until they’d experienced the correct amount of holiday cheer, the extent of which she refused to clarify. It was okay she’d gotten Christmas Eve confused with Christmas day, parties were better in the evening anyway, she said, and she demanded all of their presences—and their presents—on the evening of the 24th of December, a call to which Conrad had obliged.

Mr. Ecknees was also in attendance, if passively, and a number of the manor guests came and went. Arista, Seamus, and Ando were even convinced to stop by and eat the cultural delicacies of pigs in blankets and a figgy pudding Hana slaved over for two weeks and looked, well—it certainly looked two weeks old. Ziah had also ordered some vinyl records, which were scratchy and somber when played on the turntable she’d dusted off in the room’s corner, but with the fire burning and the hearth sprites hopping about rhythmically, even the tension Lorelei felt of being trapped together and not speaking was eased a bit.

“How are things?” Ziah asked, sauntering up to her and taking her hands to sway with the music. She was a little tipsy.

“Great,” she lied.

Ziah hummed as if she didn’t agree and made her do an awkward twirl. “You know I can feel that’s not true, right?” She wore a red cocktail dress and a slouchy Santa hat with a soft, white pompom at its end, so long it trailed down over her shoulder and kept falling into her cleavage. She’d been having the time of her life up until that point, pushing drinks into hands and dancing with whoever was available, study books and clients forgotten, but just touching Lorelei was visibly bringing her down. “What’s wrong?”

“I was just thinking about my mom,” she said, more convincing than she expected. “This is the first Christmas I haven’t seen her. I just hope she’s having fun on the beach with her new boyfriend.”

Ziah raised her eyebrows. “Oh, way to go, Mama Fischer.” When she saw that made Lorelei laugh, she handed her a candy cane. “There, look you’re already cheering up.” Then she pointed out Grier who’d been outfitted with a pair of fuzzy antlers but was supplying his own grimace.

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