Be Careful What You Wish For Read online

  He shook his head. “No. Because I don’t want you kissing me out of pity or to make anyone jealous.” He gave her a direct look. “I don’t want you to kiss me unless you mean it.”

  Cass felt her stomach do a funny little hop inside her but she tried to keep her face calm.

  “She’s your ex-fiancée, right? Glorianna deVan?”

  “I don’t remember mentioning her last name—or that she is my ex-fiancée.” Jake gave her a narrow look. “How exactly do you know about Glorianna, Cassandra?”

  Oops—busted! Cass’s stomach did another funny little hop—this one not nearly as pleasant.

  “I…I watched your personal news channel,” she admitted in a low voice. “I didn’t mean to—it just appeared when I touched the, uh, magic mirror-thingy at your house.”

  “You what?” Jake stopped moving, right at the bottom of the courthouse steps. His pale green eyes were absolutely furious. “How dare you? That is extremely personal.”

  “I’m sorry!” Cass exclaimed, feeling put on the defensive. “I told you I didn’t mean to!”

  “What else did you see?” Her court-appointed elf’s face was as dark as a thundercloud.

  “Nothing much besides how Glorianna is dating that monochrome brownie guy,” Cass said quickly but when he continued to glare at her, she realized she was going to have to come clean. “And…some stuff about how your parents are disappointed in you and hoping you’ll come back to them before it’s too late. And how the judge whose courtroom you left is mad at you…”

  Her voice had sunk to a whisper by this time. She wasn’t easily intimidated but the glare that Jake was giving her was enough to make her want to shrivel up and slip through the cracks in the sparkly pink sidewalk.

  “Viewing my U-News channel is beyond the pale, Cassandra.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have thought you would do something like that. It’s tantamount to me reading your private journal if I happened to find it lying around your messy room.”

  Damn it, now he was making her feel guilty! Cass hated to feel guilty. And he was also calling her a slob, which pissed her off—mainly because it was true.

  “I already told you several times I didn’t do it on purpose,” she snapped. “I don’t know what else you want me to say.”

  “There’s nothing to say.” Her court-appointed elf had a stony look on his face. “We should just get to court and get this hearing over with.”

  “Fine.” Though she didn’t want to admit it to herself, Cass was feeling hurt—beyond hurt. He’d been acting like some gallant knight, healing her and carrying her around like she was a freaking damsel in distress. And now he had gone all stern and disappointed and angry on her.

  “Fine,” Jake echoed. He started to carry her up the steps but Cass struggled in his arms.

  “Put me down,” she demanded. “I’m tired of you carrying me around like a baby—I can walk. I don’t need your help.”

  Jake’s face got even stonier.

  “As you wish, Miss Swann.” His deep voice dripped cold formality as he set her firmly on her feet.

  At the return to her last name, Cass felt more miserable than ever. She really hadn’t meant to snoop on his private life, although she probably should have tried to turn off the weird magic mirror TV sooner than she had. Still, was he going to hate her forever for one stupid mistake?

  It reminded her of a line from one of Phil’s favorite books—“My good opinion once lost is lost forever.”

  Who had said that? Cass couldn’t remember but it certainly seemed to apply to her arrogant, irritating, unforgiving court-appointed elf.

  So what? she thought rebelliously. Why should I care if he hates me now? It’s not like we’re in any kind of relationship. He’s just my lawyer, that’s all. Once this stupid case against the FG is resolved we’ll never see each other again.

  Somehow, however, this line of thinking failed to make her feel better.

  “Well? Are you coming?” Jake arched one blue-black eyebrow at her, a frown on his chiseled features. “We’re going to be late if we don’t hurry and Judge WaterLilly does not like to be kept waiting.”

  “I’m coming.” Cass wobbled on the four-inch heels and Jake held out a hand. She ignored it pointedly and grabbed for the dull gold railing which ran down the center of the steps instead.

  He shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling under his perfectly tailored charcoal-gray suit and turned to mount the steps himself. Clearly Cass was on her own.

  Feeling completely miserable as well as angry and guilty, she began climbing the steps as well as she could. Unfortunately, that wasn’t very well. The tall, skinny heels were so wobbly Cass was afraid she might turn an ankle any minute and she had to clutch at the railing for dear life with every step.

  She briefly considered taking a moment to stop and remove the damn shoes until they got to the courtroom. But Cass had a stubborn streak a mile-wide—she didn’t want to admit defeat. Also, what if perfect, skinny Glorianna came back? She didn’t want to give the bitchy fairy girl a chance to gloat. Cass could just hear her now…

  Oh look at the human—she can’t fly and now she can’t even walk without taking her shoes off. Poor little thing!

  No, removing the shoes was not an option—she would just have to soldier on and get through this court hearing. Hopefully it wouldn’t take long. Also, with a name like WaterLilly, it was possible that the judge was some kind of a water fae. In which case, Cass might get to take off the shoes after all in order to put on some kind of wet suit. She wasn’t looking forward to squeezing her big behind into a form-fitting outfit but if it meant getting to take off the extremely painful shoes, Cass thought she would go for it.

  After a lot of wobbling, she finally made it to the top where Jake was waiting for her, an impassive look on his face. Clenching her jaw, Cass took a step away from the banister, doing her best to keep her spine straight and look graceful instead of like a baby giraffe that might fall at any second. She half expected Jake to offer to carry her again but he only nodded and said tersely,

  “Come on.” Then he walked briskly ahead of her into the immense courthouse building, leaving Cass to wobble after him as best she could.

  Twenty-One

  The courthouse looked the same as it had on her first visit—with strange people and creatures bustling about. But this time they were directed to an upper level and there was no choice—Cass had to ride on one of the flying footstools which took people between levels.

  “Oh my God,” she muttered as she clambered onto an ottoman with long, feathery wings growing out of its sides. “I can’t believe I’m doing this!”

  Climbing onto the flying footstool wasn’t easy at all. It never actually landed—it just kind of hovered about an inch above the ground and wobbled all around when Cass tried to get her foot on it.

  She wondered uneasily if the spikey heel of her ridiculous shoe was hurting it? Maybe digging into its tender leather skin? What if it decided it didn’t like the way she felt and bucked her off in midair?

  All these thoughts ran through her head as she finally managed to stand shakily upright on the floating ottoman. Jake, who had stepped neatly and easily up onto his own flying footstool was watching her narrowly, as though assessing her in some way but he didn’t say a word.

  Cass lifted her chin and looked away from him, refusing to say anything either. He was probably thinking how clumsy she looked trying to get onto the damn footstool in the first place! Probably comparing her with the ultra-thin and graceful Glorianna.

  Well, let him, Cass fumed to herself. This will all be over and done with soon and then I’ll never have to see him ag—

  Her thoughts broke off as the footstool flapped its wings and rose abruptly into the air, threatening to pitch her over the side with its sudden motion.

  Cass gave a little shriek and braced herself as well as she could, arms outstretched to keep her balance as the flying ottoman soared straight up, headed for a higher level. In