Chapter 7

SEVEN

WILLEM

"Wait, this is a surprise party?"

Archer closed his eyes and sighed. " Willem ."

I glanced around at all of the other party guests scurrying to find hiding spots behind booths and walls. Connor and Caleb were behind the bar cleaning wine glasses that were already clean. Jethro and Brian sat at the table directly in line with the door so Bash would see them first. They were playing that game where they flicked a ball between their fingers held up like a goal post. Dad was reading the Megelle Times newspaper . . . upside down.

Ivy flew across the room carrying a stack of presents in pretty metallic-blue wrapping paper with more gifts in bags hanging from her fingers. "Boys, he'll be here any minute. At least try to look normal?" She shook her head as she began arranging the gifts on the table in front of us.

Jethro flicked his shot but missed. He cursed. "In Will's defense, we have been super careful with this since Bash is a mind reader?—"

"He doesn't actively use that gift though." Ivy shuddered and her wings trembled. "What a horrible gift."

Brian arched one eyebrow at her. "You sure know a lot about a guy that isn't your soulmate?—"

" Brian, " Archer snapped with a sharp edge in his stare. "Watch yourself?—"

"I'm fae, Brian. Just like Bash." Ivy stepped in between my eldest and youngest brothers. "Actually, that's not true. He's my prince. If I were to get deported today, it would be him I report to in Third Realm. So, I know about him in the way you all know about Queen Savina and her brother, Prince Stellan."

"Or Prince Riven now." It was Brian's turn to shiver.

"Hold on . . . this is exactly my point. We're throwing a surprise party for Bash ?"

"Why is this so complicated to understand, Lemon Drop?" Connor opened a bottle of wine, then began pouring it into a glass. "It's his birthday. He's never celebrated it before, so we're giving him the proper experience."

Caleb snatched the full glass of wine, then strolled closer to me, ignoring his twin's glare. "Where'd we lose you?"

"Bash isn't just our adopted brother. He is Prince Bastien of Third Realm, son of Queen Tephine, the fae who's been torturing the realms for a few thousand years." I glanced around to my family members. "Did you all forget Bash just murdered his entire family?"

Their eyes all widened as they stopped in their tracks.

"Obviously they deserved it as they were monsters . . ." I made a slashing motion with my hand. "He cut off at least one sister's head."

They all frowned, then rubbed their throats.

"He just was in a literal war in Third Realm." I waved my arms wildly. "I get that you've accepted him as our new fae brother, but he's not a First Realm fae like the Grahams or Ivy or literally any other fae you know. His power outranks the entire Vauntero family."

They glanced back and forth to each other, their faces pale. They had forgotten this detail, apparently, which was both endearing and alarming.

"You basically are throwing a surprise party for Prince Riven?—"

Archer cursed violently and shuddered.

"That's what I'm saying!" I chuckled nervously. "How do we know he won't attack us when we jump out of the dark at him?"

Their jaws dropped.

" Boys ." Ivy giggled. When we all turned to her, she just rolled her eyes. "So late to the game. Collins warned your mother of this the second she found out about this surprise party. If his soulmate approved, then you need to have more faith."

I turned to my mother who was a few feet away checking that Bash's three-tier custom cake with blue flames was perfect. "Mother?"

She waved me off without looking at me. "I'm one step ahead of you, dearie."

I opened my mouth to protest that she couldn't possibly have this under control when the front door to the restaurant opened. I turned to see if it was my new brother and gasped. There were six people standing just inside the door, and I could not believe they were here.

Oh my God. The mages from Second Realm are here.

Sometimes I forgot that the world was bigger than First Realm, which was silly since it wouldn't have been called First if there weren't others. It was just easy to forget the other realms existed, mostly because it was impossible to travel to them. It was kind of like knowing there were other planets in the solar system while knowing there was only one way to go to any of them. And while being an astronaut and shooting into space on a rocket ship was different than getting deported to another realm . . . it was still somehow the same. Equally as unlikely.

I'd found that the supernaturals who remained on Megelle Island all the time were constantly reminded of the other realms, but those of us who chose to work among the humans blended in with society too much. Not for the first time, I wondered what it would be like if all of the world was like Megelle Island, a place where supernaturals didn't have to hide their magic and could live freely and openly among the humans. But shows like True Blood and X-Men proved why that was nearly impossible.

Two thousand years ago, they all lived here. All of the species shared one realm, all living as neighbors with the humans. Granted, back then there were only humans and Nephilim—the half-breed children of angels and humans. I knew the whole history about the magical stones that turned the Nephilim into mages, vampires, and fae . . . and then the brutal bloodbath of a civil war that resulted in the non-humans being kicked out and put into separate realms. It was the angel Araqiel's equivalent of when my mother used to make me and my brothers go to our separate rooms when we were fighting. The humans got to keep First Realm. The mages were sent to Second Realm, the fae into Third, and the vampires into Fourth.

As I stood there with my jaw dragging the floor as the Queen of Second Realm, the queen of all mages, walked into my brothers' restaurant, I remembered just how lucky we all were for King and Queen Vauntero—two vampires who hated violence and set up camp on this remote island off of New York to avoid the war altogether, and then took in any refugees who wanted to escape it with them. Araqiel had granted them Megelle Island and any supernatural who swore to peace. That was why there was a no-violence law with a zero-tolerance policy. If we committed a violent act on a supernatural or human, we were deported to our home realms.

If not for the Vaunteros, I would've been born into Second Realm where they lived in the equivalent of the 1800's Victorian England. No electricity, no television, no photography. The only reason we even knew what the other realms were like was because the royals from them were allowed to travel back here whenever they wanted to. Queen Savina Wentworth had lived with us for a year when war started in the realm of mages. Mother had healed her so she could return to save her people. Our people.

We'd all gotten a taste of war back in November here. Not from the mages, Savina and her team had handled that internally. But the evil, twisted Queen Tephine of the fae in Third Realm had brought their own war to our doorstep. They were scary times. The realms were at war, civil wars, which shouldn't have been surprising given the reasons they were kicked out of First Realm. We didn't know all the details of these wars. We just knew they were happening and that special super-soldiers were born with the destiny to help end them. Those poor, unfortunate superhero supernaturals were called Stonekeepers.

All of this was a great reminder of how good we had it here.

Of how lucky we were.

It was why Mother was so eager to embrace and adopt Bash back in November. His mother was the monster of all monsters, a brutal tyrant who killed for fun. He was Prince Bastien of Third Realm, a super-powerful eighty-year-old fae whose power superseded any fae on this Island—except for his own soulmate. Collins was the fae Stonekeeper.

The girl with long black hair and violet eyes standing behind Queen Savina was the mage Stonekeeper, the single most powerful mage in all the realms, though she'd tell you herself Savina was scary close. Everyone on the Island knew this group by now. They'd come to help defend us from Tephine. They were the reason we were alive still. Prince Stellan was the Queen's younger brother and Ellie's soulmate. The two dark-haired, light-eyed brothers were Weston and Shylock, and the beautiful dark-skinned girl was Nickel— they were a special breed of half-mage and half-angel.

No one in the restaurant spoke a word. Everyone just stared at the powerful six newcomers like they were afraid to make a sound and spook them. Even I found myself slightly choked up.

But not my mother, she squealed and dashed across the restaurant to tackle Savina with a hug. "You're here! You're here!"

Savina's long blond hair fell over my mother's shoulder as chuckled and she hugged her back. She was taller than my mother and slender. If I didn't know what kind of power she held I might've thought her to be one of Archer's model friends. She beamed down at my mom. "As if we would miss Bash's first ever birthday party."

My chest tightened just thinking about what my new brother endured for decades at the hands of his family. They hated him. Tortured him. One of his sisters even cursed him and stole his voice for sixty years until Collins broke the curse. Sure, all of their actions drove him to be their enemy and defeat them all in gnarly ways, but still, everyone deserved to have a family that loved them. Besides, Bastien Bow had a nice ring to it.

"Bold of you lot to plan a bloody surprise party for Bash," Stellan said with a laugh in that thick accent of his. "Bullocks if you ask me."

"That's ‘cause you're a daft plonker, ya old sod." Weston bounced into the restaurant with a wide grin. He headed straight for Brian and Jethro. "Oi, I wanna play!"

His twin, Shylock, rolled his blue eyes. "I question our genetic relations more often lately, twin."

Connor smacked the bar. "Thank you. I say that to Caleb all the time."

Weston pointed at Shylock. "That's because you're a selfish git, you are."

"Easy, Twinothy." Caleb took a sip of his wine. "Don't get yourself flustered this early in the night."

"So . . ." Archer cleared his throat. "Willem here brought up an excellent point and cause for concern?—"

"No, no, it's fine. Next, let's throw a surprise party for Prince Riven."

Ellie grinned and let out a little cackle. Her purple eyes bounced with excitement and little sparks danced within her wild dark hair. "I actually would love to see that."

Stellan ran his hand through his thick sandy blonde hair and closed his eyes. When he reopened his green eyes, he looked to my brothers. "Red twins, is that wine by chance?"

"Sure is. Fancy a glass?" Caleb held a full bottle out to him.

"I'm just saying. After everything we've learned about Riven?—"

"No, no, no, Ellie." I held my hands up. "I'm still adjusting to him turning me into a bloodsucker. I am not ready to feel any pity or sympathy for him."

Ellie grimaced. "Forgot about that."

Savina walked up and frowned. "Let me see fangs."

I opened my mouth but couldn't get my fangs to slide down. But Archer had no problems with it. Savina tapped on one, then whistled and shook her head before turning to greet Ivy with a wide grin and a hug.

"Anyhoo, no one worry about Bash's magic coming out to play." Ellie wiggled her fingers in the air and little purple flames danced along her nails. She winked. "We're here, so have no fear."

Only the Realm Royals and Stonekeepers could perform wandless magic like that, and I was very, very jealous, especially as I had a knack for losing or misplacing my wand.

Nickel rubbed her hands together. "Right, so I just got a text from Collins and they're two shops away. Everyone, hide?"

Mom cursed and shooed everyone into a hiding spot except for my immediate family.

"Wait, where are Jimbo and Sal?" I glanced around suspiciously. "They've already attacked us once tonight?—"

"All part of the plan they think they're in on. It's kind of like working with toddlers." Archer rolled his eyes as he sat down beside me at the table. "We told them their job was to attack us first to help keep the secret for the party, then they were to go out and run amuck for Mischief Monday so Bash wouldn't suspect anything."

"Oh. Brilliant."

I glanced around. There were dozens of people here. It warmed my heart to see just how many people on this Island had welcomed Bash as one of us. While I thought the surprise element was a bad idea, I couldn't wait to see his face when he saw his friends gathered for his special day.

" Hey, how old is he now ?" Brian whispered.

" I think eighty-one? "

" Shhhh, " Mom hushed me.

Then I saw them walking up from the left, Bash towering over his petite little soulmate, Collins. As Bash opened the door for them, he was clearly distracted by something because he was talking very animatedly while Collins just wore a little knowing smile. Her aquamarine eyes sparkled like crystals when she stepped through the front door and the warm candlelight washed over them. Bash's pale-blue hair and matching eyes almost looked white in the dimmed lighting.

Bash took one step inside and everyone hiding lunged into view yelling, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY! "

But Bash wasn't ready. He threw his hands out and neon-blue flames shot out in every direction. A scream left his mouth that was so high-pitched we all dropped to our knees and gripped our ears. Black smoke billowed around his feet. Faster than I could even count, that black smoke stole everything from me until I saw nothing but darkness.

"BASH!" Collins shouted.

Ellie chuckled. "You're okay, big guy."

I couldn't see anything. It was just solid-black. My heart was racing. After a few moments, my vision came back. Ellie stood right beside Bash with those blue flames coiling around her hand. The tables, chairs, and windows were all frozen solid with ice.

"See? We're good."

Bash exhaled in a rush. He bent over and put his hands on his knees. "Holy shit. That startled me. Sorry, sorry."

Mom came flying out of nowhere and sped right up to him. She threw her arms wide to hug him. "Happy birthday! Surprise!"

He grinned and hugged her back. When he pulled back, his smile was even wider. He looked around to everyone and said hello and gave hugs. "My first birthday party and it's a surprise party? Too good to be true. Thank you."

We all dove for him, tackling him in a hug—myself included. When we all finally broke away, he had glistening unshed tears in his eyes. He ran his hands through his pale-blue hair. Then he held his hands out and all the ice vanished. Ellie followed suit, using her purple magic to get the restaurant back in party-shape.

"This means so much to me. Thank you. Thank you."

Mom appeared from out of nowhere yet again. Her new vampire speed was unnerving even for me. "We've got drinks, an appetizer buffet, a special custom-crafted menu for meal options, and . . . charades."

Bash gasped. "Charades? Where?"

Mom pointed. "Right there?—"

"That's . . . that's incredible." He just shook his head. "I can't believe you did this. A whole surprise party."

"Here, another surprise for you." Caleb held out a fancy bottle of wine with a shiny silver label. The wine inside was a deep, dark red but the bow wrapped around the stem of the bottle was a bright apple-red. "It was a gift I was told to keep safe for you."

Bash frowned down at the bottle. "A gift? From whom?"

Caleb rolled his eyes. "So distrusting?—"

"Well, we've been almost killed a lot." Collins giggled, which was definitely an inappropriate response to her words. "So, yeah, who is it from?"

"I don't know who it's from." Caleb held one hand up. "But it was delivered by Lexington Prescott personally, who, by the way, promises he'll be back. There was some crisis in New York he had to run to."

"Oh, there's a note." Collins pointed to it. She grabbed the bottle, then handed it to Bash. "Read it."

Bash took the bottle and then flipped open the silver paper. His pale-blue brows sank deep over his moonstone eyes. "It's . . . it's . . . huh."

"What's it say?" I leaned over his shoulder and spotted the most elegant scrolled handwriting ever. "It's in French?"

The mages from Second Realm all gasped and froze in place.

Stellan groaned. "Bloody ancient vampire with his stupid pretty French. Read it out loud for us in English."

Bash sighed. "It's not French?—"

"Whatever. The wanker isn't here. It's French."

Bash smirked to Stellan, then held the note up. "It says, Joyeux anniversaire, la jeune flamme bleue. Tu as bien mérité cette célébration. Profite de ta nouvelle famille. Cette bouteille de vin t'aidera à résoudre ce qui te tracasse. Jusqu'à ce que tes services soient requis, Prince Riven, which is both kind and unnerving."

"Not unlike the man himself." Collins scowled. "But what did Riven say?"

"OH, let me try? I'm learning French." I held my hand out for the bottle. When he gave it to me, I read over the lines. "Umm . . . okay, so he said, Happy birthday, young blue flame. You've earned this celebration. Enjoy your new family . . . uh, then something about a bottle of wine?"

Bash grinned. "Very good, Willem. Tu apprends vite. He said, this bottle of wine will help you solve whatever's bothering you. Until your services are required, Prince Riven."

Archer shuddered. "That's cryptic as all hell."

Stellen threw his hands up. "It is bloody cryptic. At least someone reacts appropriately."

Collins nodded. "You're still mad about the kiss, eh?"

I scowled. "What kiss?"

Ellie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "While trying to save my soulmate's life, Riven tricked me into kissing him, and somebody hasn't gotten over it . . . despite everything we've learned about the ancient vampire prince."

Stellan sulked in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. "Thinks he's so pretty."

"He is pretty." Caleb giggled. "He's drop dead gorgeous. I'm just saying . . . anytime, anywhere."

Connor's face scrunched in disgust. "You have a boyfriend, Caleb."

"Who refuses to become immortal." Caleb grabbed the bottle of wine from me and began opening it. "Don't look at me like that. I am not ready to talk about it. Now, let's pour birthday boy a glass of his super special Riven wine, which we'll all pretend we don't think is blood."

Collins shrugged. "I've had his blood. It's really not bad."

Stellan leaned forward and gestured to Collins. "Bash, that doesn't bother you?"

Bash just laughed and watched Caleb pour wine into his empty glass. "Stellan, you weren't tortured enough as a child and it shows."

Savina snort-laughed so hard the wine she'd been drinking sprayed out of her mouth. Weston and Shylock threw their heads back and cackled. Ellie giggled and wrapped her arms around her soulmate.

Collins shook her head.

"What?" Bash looked down at her. "Did I not use that saying right? I thought I did good."

"Don't ask me. I'm known to get commonly used phrases wrong." Collins winked and tossed her pink and purple hair over her shoulder.

As their gang delved into the proper and improper usages of certain sayings, I found myself lost in Collins' hair. Figuratively. It was down to her hips, and she was barely five feet tall. I had questions. Starting with why? Not that it wasn't super pretty, it was, but the logistics weren't adding up for me. I wondered how she sat on a toilet with all that hair. Or how she slept and what she did with it all. Was it heavy? Did her neck hurt? Did it ever get caught in her wings that were made of crystals? And how was the dye always so perfectly vibrant? Wait, why did Prince Riven have Collins' drink his blood? Why was no one else concerned about it? Even Stellan wasn't, despite his jokes. I had questions about the mage prince as well. He acted grumpy and surly, yet the second you looked away, he'd smirk or laugh, so it was clearly a front but to what end? Who was it a show for?

I was quite fascinated by the Realm Royals and Stonekeepers. I would never dare stare at Riven for more than a second, but this crew . . . they were friends.

Someone cleared their throat practically in my ear.

I jumped and turned only to find Archer standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me. I cringed and stepped aside. "Dude, why?"

"You're telling me. You know how long I had to stand there with our shoulders touching without you noticing?" Archer pulled a chair out and sat down at the table. He pointed to me and narrowed his gold eyes. "You are not okay."

I rolled my eyes. "I am fine."

He kicked the seat in front of me out, then leaned forward and gestured to it. "I am your only older brother?—"

"Bash is significantly older?—"

"And he basically just met you." Archer leaned back in his seat, then gestured behind me. "Hence, why he, along with the rest of the party, moved along to play charades while you delved into some existential crisis right here."

I frowned and followed his pointed finger only to find everyone had literally gone over to the other side of the restaurant where the twins had a small appetizer buffet set up on a long table by the front windows. The normal tables had been cleared out and replaced with short, narrow tables so people could sit in rows all looking at the same empty wall —wait.

I scowled harder. "Did you say charades?"

Archer chuckled. "Took you long enough."

"Why charades? The dude is old." I scratched my head and watched as Brian set up some kind of card dispenser. "Bash likes charades?"

"Loves it. LOVES it." Archer cracked his knuckles. "He likes it because no one can talk. He's really good at it."

I pursed my lips. "Kinda feels like cheating, though I know it's not."

"I don't disagree, but hey, it's his birthday."

"Fair." I sat down in the chair he'd pushed out for me while watching Bash bounce on his toes like a little kid on Christmas morning. "Look at him. Terrifying and adorable."

"It's a combo we can all strive for."

"Does it bother you to not be the oldest anymore?"

"Uh . . ." Archer paused long enough to force me to look over, only to find him looking at his phone. "Uh, no. Sorry, no. Not at all. I still know you dorks the best while Bash knows other stuff. It's like we get to share the eldest's responsibilities."

"Right." I nodded. He wasn't looking at me, he was focused on his phone. I reached out and grabbed his phone right out of his hands. But when I looked down, I found the screen on the Neverland Dating app. My eyes widened. "Everything okay with Ivy?"

He rolled his eyes and laughed. "With my soulmate? Yes, we're great."

"Then why are you on a dating app?"

"I'm not. You are." He arched one eyebrow. "Unless you thought using the same passwords since high school was a good idea?"

My heart sank. I cursed. "Why are you doing this to me? This isn't like you to meddle."

"It's for your own good. You need it." He leaned forward and swiped left on the girl who had just been on my screen. "I dated that one once, ages ago, you don't want that."

"I don't want a date?—"

"You need it." He held his hands up and leaned back. "Just swipe through and see if anyone catches your eye."

I sighed and swiped to the next person, then the next, and again. They were all perfectly pretty and probably acceptable. But online dating apps just didn't feel right to me. Or maybe it was the way my family was pushing me into it that put me off. I swiped again and gasped.

A familiar face filled the screen. The girl, or woman, had long, brown wavy hair and warm, kind brown eyes that reminded me of freshly baked brownies. I hadn't seen this face in a decade, yet everything was entirely familiar, except that was impossible. It must have been someone else.

But when I looked at the name it said: Zita Moretti. Age 30.

"What the hell . . . is this Zita? " I whisper-shouted.

Archer took his phone back to look at the screen, then nodded. "Yeah, sure is."

"Sure is? That's it? What the hell? She went missing, I thought we all assumed she was dead?—"

"She was deported to Third Realm. Just got back in November."

My jaw dropped. "How have you not told me this by now?"

"I forgot you weren't here when she got back." He tapped on his phone screen, then held his phone to his ear. "Hey! Just checking in—oh, yeah, that tracks. Just ditch ‘em. Bash is already here. Okay, yeah, for sure—see you soon."

I scowled. "Who was that?"

He shoved his phone back in his pocket. "Zita. She was babysitting Jimbo and Sal for us, but she's on her way here now."

My stomach sank. "I didn't say I wanted to date her."

Archer arched one eyebrow at me. "You suck at dating. I'm helping."

"I don't suck at dating, or I didn't used to. It's just so hard now as a vampire because I just think about what their blood tastes like. Like my date last week ate onion rings and all I could think was would her blood taste like them? And how do I know if they have a heart condition or if they're anemic? What if I kill them on accident?"

Archer pursed his lips and nodded. "Yeah, maybe you should stick around the Island a while."

"Archer."

"Willem." He chuckled and stood. "Brace yourself, Lemon Drop. Zita's almost here."

As he walked toward our mother, I pulled my phone out and messaged Andi. ‘ Well, my brother just tricked me and I fell for it hook, line, and sinker.'

Andi responded immediately. ‘I'm afraid to ask . . . but how?'

‘Let's just say I'm about sixty seconds away from an impromptu date.'

‘We're so codependent we're living the same lives.' She sent back with cry-laughing emojis.

‘ Basically. ' I sent, then started looking for a dramatic gif when the front door opened and that same familiar face strolled inside. ‘Oh, she's here.'

‘DEETS. is she hot?'

I looked up at my old friend and smiled. I'd known her since we were in diapers, so I'd never thought of her that way, but I wasn't blind. ‘She's beautiful?'

‘Love the question in there.'

"ZITA!" Archer hurried over to her, passing Jimbo and Sal on his way as they rushed to join the charades game. "How was babysitting?"

I looked down to my phone. ‘ When people say someone is painfully beautiful, she is what they mean.'

‘Oh, you poor unfortunate soul. How ever will you recover?'

I sent the eye-rolling emoji. ‘ First of all, she's an old friend that I haven't seen in years, so I'm caught off guard. Secondly, I don't care what she looks like. I care more about what she's into.'

‘ Well, let's hope she's into arrowhead . . . '

I frowned. Then my brain got the joke and I gasped. Loud. ‘ ANDI JONES. That's terrible.'

In response, she sent a GIF of Steve Carrell's character from Anchorman talking about a party in his pants.

‘ I'm putting you in time-out. Go think about what you did.'

"Willem!"

I jumped so hard I threw my phone. Archer snatched it out of the air, then just stared at me with one eyebrow raised. I sighed. My stomach was in knots. "Sorry, sorry—oh shit. Zita. Hi. Hello. Hey?—"

"Hi, hello, hey to you too." She giggled. The sound of her voice took my breath away. I hadn't heard it in ten years, and I'd assumed I never would again. But there she was grinning at me and waving just five feet away. "Look at you, Lemon Drop. All grown up."

My face flushed with heat. I got to my feet, then hurried around the table to give her a hug. "Zita Bambita. Holy shit. I think I'm a little in shock right now."

"I've been getting that a lot." She tucked her hair behind her pointed ears, and I spotted crystals hanging from silver hoops all the way up to the points.

All I could do was stare. It was the same girl. Same face, same voice. Yet she looked different. Her skin shimmered in ways it never had before. She was thinner, even down to her fingers being bonier. I was trying to ignore what looked like scars on her hands and arms.

Archer cleared his throat. "Come over here."

I let him lead me across the restaurant only to belatedly realize he was sitting us in the corner booth. By then it was too late, I was already seated with her across from me.

"Right. Have fun, kiddos?—"

"Archer, wait, what are you doing?—"

"Look, Will, you suck at dating. Zita hasn't dated anyone since she got back." He gestured between me and her. "Two birds, one stone. Have a date, even if it's just a practice round."

I opened my mouth to resist, but he darted away from our table.

"He's not very subtle, is he?" She laughed.

"Normally, yes." I smiled over at her and just shook my head. "But my family is playing quite the matchmaker since I got home yesterday. They signed me up for the Neverland Dating app without my consent."

"That sounds about right for the Bows."

I scrubbed my face with my hands, then dropped them to the table. "Zita, what the hell happened to you? You vanished ten years ago . . . We all searched everywhere. You were just gone?—"

"Deported." She grimaced. "Well, technically, I was kidnapped by Queen Tephine, but she made me think I'd been deported."

I whistled and leaned back against the booth. "So you've been in Third Realm for ten years?"

She nodded. "I made friends, especially Bash. I was able to get back in November."

"Your family had to have lost their minds?—"

"Oh, they still are. Every time I come home, I am smothered." She laughed but her cheeks were pink.

"What's it like in Third?"

"When I lived there, it was frozen. Everything was covered in snow and ice. It was miserable." Her whole face fell. "Bash and Collins insist it's paradise now. They want me to come back and see it now that they're in charge but . . ."

"I imagine you never want to go back."

She nodded and tugged on her long-sleeve shirt. "I don't even like to think about it. So, tell me about you? You a fashion photographer like Archer?"

"No, no, I'm not." I frowned. "I traveled with him a lot when I was younger and learned photography. I love it, but I am a travel writer. I get paid to travel the world and write about all the stuff I see."

One of the waitresses walked by so Zita threw her hand up to catch her, then she leaned in to face me. "Well, since apparently we both suck at dating, why don't we take advantage of this moment?"

I grabbed one of the menus off the table. "You have to try their penne a la vodka."