Tenebrous ↠ Volturi Kings {1} ✓

025

"How about this one?"

"No."

"This one?"

"No."

"This one?"

"Definitely not."

"What's wrong with it?" I asked, gesturing plaintively at the dress I currently held. "It's nice!"

Jane sniffed, turning up her nose at it. "It most certainly is not your color, my q- Rowan."

"It's not like it's traffic cone orange!" I exclaimed, waving around the mustard yellow dress.

"It might as well be," she said. "I'm looking out for your best interests."

"Let's see what Felix thinks."

"He doesn't care."

"We'll see," I said, whirling around to where Felix sat hunched on a bench outside the dressing room. "Felix!"

He looked up from his book when I called his name. "Yes?"

"What do you think of this dress?"

"I dunno. It's fine," he said, lifting his shoulder in a half-shrug as he looked back down at his book.

I let out a long sight through my nose. "Thank you for that enlightening response."

"Glad I could be of use," he intoned, not looking up.

"They carry it in green," Jane said, reappearing by my side and shoving the green dress in my hand. "Try this one instead."

"I'll try both."

The lift of her eyebrows was enough to tell me exactly what she thought of that plan, but she said nothing other than, "Very well."

I disappeared into one of the dressing rooms, changing first into the mustard yellow and then into the forest green that Jane had forcibly given me. When I was finished, I walked out and tossed the yellow dress to her without a word.

"Told you so," she said, looking incredibly smug as she darted off to put the dress back.

I sat down next to Felix. "Every time I think it's a good idea to go shopping with vampires, and every time I'm wrong."

"Hmm," he said.

"Are you listening?"

"Yes," Felix said, before reciting word-for-word what I had just told him, all while not looking up from his book. "This is why I order my clothes online whenever possible. Or just have Heidi buy them for me."

"Are you and Heidi..."

"A thing?" he finished, finally looking up. "Nah. We get asked that a lot."

"Probably because you spend half your time talking about her," Jane said, returning with another dress, four tops, and three pairs of shorts in her arms. "Try these on, I think you'll like them."

"If you say so," I said, taking them from her. My stomach growled. "But after this, lunch."

Nearly a week had passed since the fight that occurred between Marcus and I. True to her promise, Jane had taken me out shopping, as the sun was concealed by a thick layer of clouds, though it was still quite warm. Felix, taken both as a second guard and as designated bag-carrier, had actually volunteered to go with us. I strongly suspected he did this in order to avoid participating in trials all day.

We stopped by a quaint restaurant so that I could eat. Felix whipped out his phone and began texting rapidly as soon as he sat down. I raised my brow. "Anything you care to share?"