I flip on the defroster, shivering while my car warms up. “Except I need a job. Unless you’ve figured out a way to magically create money?”
“Still working on that spell, sis.”
The distant sound of a knock on the door and my brother’s muffled response of “just a minute,” reach me before Stellan gets back on the phone. “I’ve got to get going, but listen. You can quit your job. You can stay with me for as long as you like.” He pauses for a minute before going on. “You stand up for your friends and the people you love all the time, but you don’t stand up for yourself. Maybe it’s time you did.”
“Ugh. Go whisper that bullshit into the impressionable ears of the youths.”
“They don’t listen either. Bye, Ava. Grow a pair, I know you’ve got it in you.” Stellan chuckles.
“Shut up. Goodbye.” I hang up on my brother and drive to the Grand Mystic Resort.
4
BRAM
“Mr. Blackthorn?” Jes, one of our front desk workers, waves me down when I reach the lobby.
“Morning, what’s up?” I sip my coffee, but I swear my father has ruined the taste, leaving shadows in his wake and plummeting my already middling mood.
“Sir, um, one of the guests is complaining that the birds outside his room are too loud.” Jes grimaces, and I pinch the bridge of my nose. Where’s Roman? He’s better at this bullshit than me. I have to physically snap my mouth shut to keep from telling these people to get a fucking life. It’s the middle of winter. What birds is he even hearing?
“Do we have any rooms available at the front of the hotel?” There are slightly fewer trees on the parking lot side, but we’re in the fucking woods. That’s part of the appeal.
“I offered that, sir, but he says he paid for a lake view.”
Fucking Crone. “Move him to the top floor and comp him a free breakfast at the cafe.” I’d really like to tell the guy to eat shit, but that’s not how the hospitality business works.
“Yes, sir.”
“Sir? Really? Do you make them bow as well?”
My heart stutters and then thumps a heavy beat to catch up at the sound of Avalon Vandenberg’s voice. It’s surprisingly sultry, although I doubt she intends it to be.
I spin on my heel and find the dowdy woman smirking up at me. I don’t know what it is about Ava, but she gets under my skin. Everything from her oversized poop-brown sweater, to her flat brown hair covered in a ridiculous stocking cap with a puff on the top of it. I can’t tell if she has absolutely zero sense of style, or if she’s purposefully trying to look like she crawled out of a dusty corner of a bookstore that exclusively sells self-help books.
I give her the glare that makes most people run away from me. “Yes, right after they kiss my feet. It’s good for the ego.”
She makes a strange snorting noise. “As if it needs to get any bigger.”
I cock my head and look her over. She’s wearing a pair of snow boots, some wide leg pants that are wet at the hem, and holding a cup of coffee.
“What are you doing here? That coffee is horrible. Come. Let’s go get you a real coffee.”
Mouth dropping open, her brows furrow as she looks down at her to go cup. I don’t wait for her reply before I take off toward the cafe.
“What’s wrong with my coffee?” Her boots squeak on the tile floor as she scrambles after me.
“Their coffee sucks.” I turn my head to look at her. “How do you take it?”
Ava runs into my back with a grunt when I stop at the cafe counter. She fumbles with her coffee cup and nearly drops the thing. It would be better than ingesting that swill.
“What?” She sounds breathless.
I turn around to stare at her. Did she not see me stop? Why are her cheeks pink? “How do you take it?”
“Just, like, the normal way.” She coughs and her cheeks are rosy. It takes me a moment to figure out what she means. I almost burst out laughing when I realize how she interpreted my question.
“Mother, Maiden, Crone Ava. Your coffee, how do you take your coffee?” I clarify, raising one eyebrow.
