Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
I reposition the logs inside the stove so there’s less airflow before heading to the kitchen. Seth is doing the same to the larger stove we use for cooking while Thorin is eyeing the three covered plates on the counter as if they’ll explode.
His gaze rises to meet mine, and I almost laugh at the panic in them as he says, “I’m not eating that.”
“We have to.” I chuckle as I walk over to take a closer look. “Kind of sends a mixed message if we don’t, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t care,” Thorin says. He’s shaking his head and backing away. “I’ll die.”
I roll my eyes at him and then lean over the counter to study the food because it can’t be that bad.
It’s worse.
It looks like…shit.
The food looks like shit. And smells like death.
“How the hell is she getting worse?”
I’d left Aurelia the cookbooks before heading out this morning. I can see a couple of them open on the counter, so I don’t have to question if she’d at least made an effort.
“Who the hell cares?” Thorin grumbles. “I’m not eating it.”
“Don’t be a baby. You—”
“Hey, fellas.”
Our gazes shift to the opening, where Aurelia is standing with a suspiciously bright smile on her face. The front of her dress is soaked through, but I don’t get a chance to ask what the hell she’s been up to because she says, “You’re home.” There’s a stumbling pause as she searches for something else to say to us. “How was your day?”
It’s forced and awkward.
“Fine,” Thorin snaps. The grouchy son of a bitch is glaring at her now like those things he said at the camp never happened.
The skin under Aurelia’s eyes looks a little lighter, giving her a sickly pallor. Considering our struggle to keep anything down earlier, it’s obvious Aurelia had gotten sick, too. She hadn’t eaten as much as the three of us, yet she looked worse off.
“Feeling all right?”
Aurelia makes eye contact with me, and I can see the indecision in her eyes before she looks away. “Yup! I hope you’re hungry. I made dinner.”
I rub the back of my neck. “Yeah. Um…”
Noticing my hesitation, the weird smile on her face falls. “What’s the matter?”
“Aurelia, what is this?” I gesture to the food.
“Your dinner.”
“Right, but what is it?”
“Beans.”
“Beans and what?”
“Mice.”
“Excuse me?”
“Mice.” The practiced smile is back, and it’s creepy as fuck. “I found some caught in your traps and thought, why not, you know? It was kind of tricky because they smell god-awful, and I’m pretty sure they’re diseased and don’t taste very well. Plus, there was no recipe for mice stew in those books you left for me. Thank you for that, by the way. Real helpful. Anyway, I managed. Bon appétit, boys.”
Before any of us can think of what to say to her, Aurelia turns and flounces off back to wherever she came from.
This girl is fucking crazier than I thought.
“Do you think mice are a rich person’s delicacy where she comes from?” Seth asks once she’s gone. “Like caviar? Oh, shit. I think I see an eyeball.” Seth points it out, and sure enough, there’s a fucking mouse eye staring back at us.
I gag while Thorin swears and grabs the plates. He tosses them in the trash along with our “dinner.”
But he doesn’t stop there.
Thorin yanks the bag out of the bin and storms out the side door to toss it in the barrel, where we burn whatever we can’t compost or recycle. I can see him pour lighter fluid over it before grabbing the matches. The flames roar to life and chase away the night until I can see his hard profile clearly through the window. The ticking muscles in his jaw tell me he’s thinking about his next move and resisting it even harder.
Whatever he decides, Seth and I have his back. Well, I do. Seth is still a wildcard.
When Thorin finally steps back inside, we lock gazes. “I think it’s safe to say we gave our guest every chance to get with the program, don’t you?”
“Yeah…” My smile is slow to come, but it grows from anticipation of the night ahead. “I’d say so. She’s basically calling us out at this point. Seth?”
“Can I go first?” He jumps right to the point.
“No. You’re the reason she tried to feed us rodents for dinner.”
“That’s debatable,” Seth says petulantly.
“It’s really not,” I return as we leave the kitchen.
Aurelia’s clearly still pissed about last night. Seth took away the only hope she had because he was desensitized to human emotion.
We find Aurelia downstairs in the laundry room.
Thorin and Seth hang back while I block her only exit. Aurelia’s humming and bouncing to some tune only she can hear while hanging Thorin’s flannel that she’d been wearing on the clothesline. I know I don’t make a sound, but she must feel me watching her because the song in her head ends abruptly, and she turns around.