𝔀𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓲 𝓵𝓲𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾?| 𝓪𝓵𝓮𝓬 𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝔀𝓸𝓸𝓭

Chapter Thirty-Seven

(not me writing this a day in advance hehe :) i'm so anxious and excited for this book to be finished- first book i've ever finished! just a little note that "teeth" chapter one will be posted on april 12th :) ily all and tysm for 300 reads!! that's crazy, and i appreciate every single one of you. sotc is i can't decide by the scissor sisters. happy reading loves <3)

Ness chewed her lip as she sat in the chair in the middle of the oval room, another Seelie opposite her. He looked a little familiar, with his nervous brown eyes (boring, mud colour...nothing like Alec's) that were beady and deep-set into his pasty pudgy face, but then again, she'd probably seen him around. She half smiled at him, her nerves showing through the corners of her mouth, but he just rolled his eyes and tapped his leg against the chair.

"I'm so damn hungry" he whined, and Ness stared at him in total disbelief.

"You're about to have a possibly life-threatening ritual performed on you where you get the power of the devil's hellfire, which mind you could burn you to death and disintegrate your insides which from what I imagine, is less than pleasant and you're worrying about food?" she asked incredulously, her eyes wide, as if she was trying to see how that could make any sense. 

"Yup" he shrugged, chewing the inside of his mouth thoughtfully. Ness shook her head.

"Hell, my sister would love you...I think" she told him jokingly, expecting a laugh or at the very least a smile. Instead, he scowled, twisting his swinish but harmless features in a way that made him look less nervously sweet and more like someone you'd like to avoid on a dark night.

"Liar!" he accused furiously, his nostrils flaring as he pointed a stubby finger at her, as if he were condemning her to life imprisonment. She sat back in her chair, slightly wary, but more annoyed.

"Excuse me?" she asked, lips pursed, eyebrow raised, arms folded, glaring at him in a way that Alec would have described as her "facial shotgun"- an expression that even made Jace back off it was so scary. Well. 

 Being the daughter of hell has its perks, I guess.

Namely resurrected the boy you treated like shit for most of his life from the dead.

"You don't have a sister!" he continued, his voice shaking with an uncalled-for rage. This guy didn't know her at all, and he was calling her a liar.

Wait shit.

He did know her.

He knew her because she'd killed him five years ago.

As the realisation dawned on her face, he smirked at her, clearly proud of the fact that he'd induced such a shock. She opened her mouth, but no words came out, as if the guilt of the twenty third had clogged her throat.

"Why would you lie to me, V?" he pressed, sneering. "I know you don't have a sister. But then you lied to me about a lot of things, didn't you?"

"Mason" she whispered, his name escaping her throat like a dart of poison. "But I... you...I thought?"

Mason rolled his beady eyes at her pretentiously, obviously trying to look condescending, but instead looked pathetically pious, his chin jutted up in the air righteously, his fleshy nostrils flared, his pale lips leering smugly as he attempted to extract inhumane amounts of guilty fear from his would-be-murderer. 

"Ha!" he laughed, his voice jeering and nasty rather than amused. "You thought you killed me? Ha! Well, you didn't, did you V? You just thought you did because her Majesty wanted to try you out to see if you were as powerful Daddykins made out you were! Well, you weren't! Loser!"

And suddenly, the guilty spell he'd cast over her broke from the weight of his arrogance. 

However he desired to affect her, Ness strongly suspected that he wasn't succeeding, because the only emotions she felt were mild irritation and maybe a little bit of amusement, because the only Mason was doing to her was invoking the emotions she felt when she encountered an annoying twelve-year-old.

But she wasn't going to play the bitchy card just yet. This could be very beneficial if she played her cards right. 

She leaned forward in her chair, knowing that if she couldn't use her "social butterfly" (note the sarcasm) tactics on him, she did know one method that she could use.

Q) What is guaranteed to sway any straight man in your favour?

A) Your boobs. 

Ness was strictly a feminist, but sometimes, she could use a tad of misogyny to her advantage.

Her corset style shirt was baby blue and conveniently kind to her in the cleavage sense, and as she leaned forward it was even more generous, catching Mason's eye. Ness smirked as the usual look of enchantment that followed straight men viewing boobs appeared on his pasty face.

Hah. Gotcha.

"May, I'm sorry" she murmured softly, her face filled with guilt. "I honestly had no control over it, I..."

Good job he wasn't looking into her eyes, for fear that he'd see the static amusement that dancing in her irises.

"Well, you didn't even hurt me which was so dumb" he sneered, but with less conviction this time. "So, don't waste your energy." 

Section A executed successfully.

B) Giving him the chance to feel superior.

"What even was she testing?" Ness asked, her face now adopting an adorably clueless expression. "Nobody ever told me what went on." 

Mason smirked smugly.

"You don't even know?" he gloated, his chest puffing out at the thought of grasping the sensation of superiority like every other man. His testosterone was gearing up. "An' you want me to explain it you, because you're like...totally clueless?"

Mhm, I'm the clueless one here honey. 

"Yes, please" she nodded eagerly, and he smirked, trying to look wise and nonchalant.

"Hmm" he stroked his thick chin thoughtfully. "What do I get out of it?"

How about I don't kill you?

"Gosh, I don't know M" she replied, nibbling her lip nervously, a perfect picture of the damsel in distress. "I don't think I can give you anything. I just asked you because I know you're pretty smart and you can explain stuff well but....I guess I can ask the Queen?"

C) Snatch the superiority as fast as you gave it to them, and dangle the carrot in front of their nose.

"No, no, there's no need for that!" he rushed. "I'll tell you, I will. I'll tell you now. Where do I start?"