Lullaby (The Fable Series, Book 2)

Chapter Twenty One

By the time we get to my house, my feet are aching from walking around all day.

It's already 5pm – only two hours until we're meant to meet Jade and his friend Cameron. Jade texted Kitty earlier to say that some of Cameron's work is on show at an exhibition near my house, so we'll stop there before grabbing something to eat at the Artisan Foods Market in Byleth Park.

Jade offered to pick us up of course, but Kitty wouldn't hear of it – on the first date, she says, it's important to maintain an air of mystery and independence. Arrive and leave on your own terms, insist on paying half the bill, and absolutely no kissing.

I'm sure I won't struggle with that last one – I've never even met Cameron before, after all. We'll probably just end up spending the night in an awkward conversation, counting down the minutes while Kitty and Jade cozy up to one another.

I'm starting to seriously regret saying yes to the whole date thing. It was a spur of the moment decision, a knee-jerk reaction to Felix telling me that I couldn't go.

I'd love nothing better than to curl up with a book and a cup of tea tonight. Not only are my feet sore, but my scar is more painful than usual. I'm exhausted, and I feel like it shows.

While Kitty's in my ensuite shower loudly belting out the lyrics to I Knew You Were Trouble, I scrutinize my reflection in front of a full-length mirror.

I allow the fluffy white towel wrapped around me to slip down to my waist, so that I can see the scar above my left breast. It's still an angry purple, stinging with remembered pain over the spot where the silver serpent floating in the woods hit me a few weeks ago.

This is the same spot that Felix stabbed me in my dream. The same spot that the long shard of shattered glass embedded itself into my ribs during the accident.

The accident.

Maybe it's time to finally wear the dress.

I let the towel drop the ground, and I walk over to my wardrobe, swinging open the doors before I lose my resolve. At the back of the wardrobe, a single dress hangs apart from all the others.

I slip it off the hanger, bringing it out into the light where I can see it properly for the first time in two years.

A simple, pale blue silk sheath ending just above the knee. I bought it the day before the bus accident, after Mia said that she thought Evan was going to ask me as his date to the Freshman Formal.

The theme was going to be Winter Wonderland, and I'd already put so much thought into my outfit, even though the dance was months away. I even bought a tiara, to complete the Ice Queen look I was going for.

And stupidest of all, I bought a matching bow tie for Evan. I saw it at the formalwear shop where I bought my dress, and it seemed like a good way of making the whole date thing come true. Like if I bought it for him, and I already had it, then the universe would have to make him ask me.

I couldn't have known then just how differently things would turn out.

Evan's blue bow tie is at the top of my wardrobe, in a box. The same box the shop assistant put it in when I bought it.

I had a dream about a month after the accident, that the box in my closet was a tiny wooden coffin, and the bow tie inside had transformed into Evan, but tiny, doll-sized, his skin blue as the bow tie's fabric, drowned and cold and wet. A small, broken, dead thing, curled up on the dark satin. I remember that I woke up screaming.

That's why I've never opened it, and I'm not going to now. It's too painful.

Pushing aside thoughts of the accident, I hold the dress up and slip into it, feeling the cool fabric caress my skin like a shower of icy kisses. The silk is like liquid, flowing and light, perfect for the unusually hot evening.