House Of Madness

Chapter 15 Caterpillar

"Come now, put your mask on, the longer I'm here the more my absence will be noticed!"
That was true but it wasn't why Nik hurried Ivy.
He hurried her because he needed her to get in the ball unnoticed by his parents the king and queen.
The king and queen only arrive at midnight for the harvest, if all went to plan Ivy would be long gone by than.
Ivy couldn't believe what she was hearing!
"You're entirely bonkers if you think I'm going to a fae ball!"
Nik leaned into Ivy, "I may be bonkers but all the best people are."

Ivy was pissed to learn the ball was happening downstairs.
She was being held tightly by her right arm,
Once again in her ridiculously beautiful silver dress, matching rabbit mask and the ruby jewellery dangling from her ears and neck.
"You can let go of me, it's not like I can go anywhere", Ivy was more than pissed at Nik.
"I wouldn't put it past you to find a way or be an overall exception to my magic."
Ivy scoffed at his reply.
"By the way if it isn't obvious you look truly stunning, especially with my jewellery", Nik said in a breathy whisper before they walked into the chaos of the masquerade ball.
They walked in together, with Nik having a firm hand on Ivy.
Ivy instantly found Kit's eyes,
Kit visibly relaxed while standing beside Zade when she saw Ivy.
"Lose her again and I will kill you", Nik said to Terrett who had appeared out of thin air.
"Confidence is an admirable trait, arrogance however is not."
Terrett knew he could take Nik in a fight, high prince or not.
Ivy hissed at Nik, before he could say or do anything terrible to Terrett, "threats are the words of a man with no vocabulary."
Nik smiled as he went off to network.

"Ivy I was so worried when you weren't in the ballroom", Terrett hadn't seem worried.
But he could say it so he must have been.
Ivy apologized Terrett instantly forgave her, Kit and Zade came over to scold her but it the end they both forgave her.
Nivens was last to approach Ivy, he hugged her and that gesture made her feel worse than any scolding.

Ari was at the masquerade ball, he had spent the whole evening looking for Ivy.
All magic had a price, Nik was very powerful but sometimes his magic had a mind of its own.
Nik's magic had been toying with Ari, it had convinced him that Ivy was in the ballroom the whole time.
She wasn't, she was passed out cold in his bed with Nik watching over her.
Now that Ivy was in the ballroom Ari had left, convinced she was elsewhere.
This wasn't Nik's doing, at least not intentionally.
His magic played a wicked game, a game Ari would loose.

Finn was stationed out of the ballroom, he had seen Ivy almost immediately.
Even with the mask she looked out of place, it was painfully obvious she was human.
Finn couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.
To him Ivy was just a regular, ordinary mortal.
He didn't understand why Victor wanted her so bad or why he was willing to risk everything important to him to get her back.
More specifically he hadn't understood why Victor expected him to care and risk everything to get one mortal child back.

The music was breathtaking, it was jazz.
The atmosphere of the ball was something out of this world.
Ivy heated how much she already loved the ball.
It had been her primary goal, her only goal to hate the ball but she had failed after about three minutes.
Ivy felt out of place but she pretended that she wasn't.
She danced with Kit, drank only water that was it in a fancy glass and talked to Zade, Terrett and Nivens.
She needed to figure out a way to find Ari, that was the goal.
She knew she could she just needed to get away from all the watching eyes.
Which was a problem because everyone was watching her, Ivy blamed his on the fact she had walked in with Nik.
Nik, the lovely high fae bachelor prince, it was nauseating watching all the fae women and men throw themselves at him.
'And they think I'm mad', Ivy laughed at her own joke.
"What has you laughing?"
Ivy mouth closed and turned into a frown.
"Fine. Be that way, it's best I get on with it anyway", Nik said bored.
Nik leaned in, "you see that man, that man has something I want."
Ivy wanted to roll her eyes, "so what?
Why do I care?"
"Do you see the man or not?"
There were hundreds of men but instead of pointing this out Ivy said, "the blue green one smoking? The one that looks like a bug?"
Nik had to bite his tongue to stop himself from laughing, "he is half animal fae (caterpillar) and half mythical fae (gargoyle.)
Don't let his looks fool you, he is very old and very powerful.
By the way his name is Chessler."
"What kind of name is that?"
"What kind of name is Ivy?"
Ivy couldn't argue with that.
"He has a pack of playing cards, I want them."
"So why don't you get them?"
This spy mission sounded more like a useless game to get her killed.
"It's funny to me that you think you have a choice", Nik said to Ivy in an annoyed tone.
"Here's an idea, why don't you just go and buy yourself a nice new pack of playing cards?"
"Now why would I do that when I have a helpful little lying human spy thief to steal them for me?"
"You are seriously going to get me killed over a deck of cards?" Ivy laughed, she couldn't help it.
Nik wasn't going to get her killed over anything because Ivy had her own gift, she could steal.
Though, in Ivy's mind this scenario hadn't been funny because she was going to die over a deck of cards.
This scenario was funny because it was déjà vu, from when she had been eleven and almost died from stealing a compass.
Speaking of, "why don't I just steal the compass back from Victor?"
The fact Ivy hadn't put up more of a fight showed her poor mental health.
She was ready to die.
"I don't want the compass anymore", "seriously. You're giving me whiplash, make up your bloody mind!"
"Pack of Cards from Chessler,  you have until midnight that's when the harvest will commence."
Ivy rolled her eyes but was on her way to talk to Chessler.