Be Careful What You Wish For Read online

  “Oh, my, that was over rather quickly, wasn’t it?” Nana murmured, pushing her sodden silver hair out of her eyes as they passed out of the strange courtroom and the double wooden doors banged shut behind them.

  “Yes, it was.” Rory pried the filter mask off her face and sneezed explosively. “I’m freezing,” she complained, trying to wring the water out of her long red hair.

  “I can’t believe she did that!” Cass exploded hoarsely, wrenching at the filter mask that covered her mouth and nose and throwing it back on the table beside the attendant. “I mean, can she do that? Just dismiss the case out of hand without hearing the evidence?”

  Phil looked horribly unhappy. “I’m afraid she can, Cass. I told you—the fairy court isn’t anything like ours. The judge has complete discretion to do what she wants and apparently she only wanted to hear the FG’s side of the story.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered miserably as a trickle of water ran down her neck. “I’m so sorry—now the FG is going to be horrible to you about your birthday wish and it’s all my fault.”

  “It is not your fault,” O’Shea spoke up unexpectedly. “I’d wager everything I own that your fairy godmother was the one who maneuvered to get both the judge and the court time changed so that she could have an old friend as a judge and plenty of time to convince her of her own innocence before we arrived.”

  His deep voice was hard and angry and the white shirt he wore was crisp no longer. It clung to his broad chest and arms, outlining some of the most impressive musculature Cass had ever seen. When he pushed his wet, blue-black hair off his high forehead, everything rippled appealingly.

  Again the artist part of her itched for a sketch pad and a piece of charcoal—what a model he would make! Then the rest of her brain realized that she was still pissed off and she got back to the topic at hand.

  “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “The fact is that we lost and Phil’s right—I’m screwed. The FG can find a way to twist any wish into disaster.”

  “Not this time.” The look in their court-appointed elf’s pale green eyes was frightening to behold. Cass thought uneasily that if their fairy godmother could see him now she might rethink her position. He turned to her and put both hands on her shoulders, staring intently into her eyes. “You’re going to keep me informed of exactly what happens when you make that wish. If anything, and I do mean anything out of the ordinary happens, I want to know about it immediately. Do you understand, Cassandra?”

  “All right, all ready, Jake.” Cass shrugged his hands off her shoulders, a little unnerved by the intensity of his look. “I get the picture, let’s just…just….” She covered her mouth with her hand and sneezed lightly three times in succession. “Let’s just get out of here and into the sun before we all get pneumonia,” she finished in a croak.

  Great, she had already been hoarse from the voice loss charm the trows had put on her and now, thanks to being drenched twice in the crazy courtroom, she sounded even worse. If she lost her voice completely, how would she teach art to the spoiled rich kids at the Tight-Ass Academy tomorrow?

  “Very well, I’ll take you back.” Being wet didn’t seem to bother O’Shea at all, Cass noticed sourly. He didn’t sneeze or shiver once as he led the way out.

  Still irritated, she followed his broad back in the transparent white shirt out of the huge courthouse and into the sunlight. Well, at least they were on the way home and she wouldn’t have to deal with their court-appointed elf much longer.

  Ten

  The trip back home was a silent one, even the second ride on a flying couch. O’Shea kept one impersonal arm around her waist the entire time and Cass mostly kept her eyes closed and wished he wouldn’t hold her so tightly. She knew he was only doing his job and looking out for her safety but it was still annoying to be in such a dependant position to a man (or elf).

  Also, having his big, hard body so close to hers seemed to do strange things to her heart. Though she tried to tell herself it was pounding because of her fear of heights, she couldn’t help thinking that the feeling of his muscular arm around her waist and the warm, spicy scent of his skin might have something to do with her out-of-control pulse.

  Which was ridiculous, of course—she was with Brandon…her model…her muse. And she was perfectly happy with him. But a traitorous little voice in the back of her head wouldn’t stop whispering that O’Shea would make an even better model…if only she could see him without his shirt. Cass tried to nip that idea in the bud but it kept recurring which made being close to the big elf even more uncomfortable.

  From time to time, Nana pointed out landmarks to Phil and Rory but for the most part, everyone was quiet. Cass’s voice had gotten worse and she didn’t think she could talk if she wanted to but she knew Phil was worrying about the trouble she’d caused and Rory was probably still thinking about the black horse O’Shea had called a phooka.

  At any rate, it wasn’t likely her little sister would ever see the horse creature again since Cass had no intention of calling Jake O’Shea, no matter what happened with her birthday wish. He would just want to drag them all back to the Realm of the Fae for another court date and she had no intention of going through all this drama again for nothing.

  In her opinion, this entire trip had been a huge waste of time and effort when she could have been painting and getting ready for the show at the I.C.U. gallery. She and her sisters had been dealing with their fairy godmother’s screw ups for years without the help of the highhanded, (if extremely muscular) elf, and they would probably manage to muddle through on their own a while longer.

  The couch put them down not far from the ‘cell’ made of the sparkly pink and gold bricks which O’Shea told them was a ‘way station’, also known as a ‘willow door’ even though Cass saw nothing resembling a willow tree anywhere in the vicinity. It was, he said, an entry point between the Realm of the Fae and the human world where the magic that divided them was thin. He ‘fed’ their flying couch and Cass watched it flap away, hoping she’d never have to get on such a sick-making mode of transportation ever again.

  O’Shea muttered the words in Gaelic that formed the arch in the bricks and took them home with no trouble. As the navy-blue smoke cleared in the living room, Cass thought she had never been so happy to see the brown leather furniture and hardwood floors of her grandmother’s house on States Street in her life. It was good to be home.

  “Well, Mister O’Shea.” Phil stuck out her hand to the elf with a nice, professional smile. “Thank you for all your help today.”

  “Yes, thank you very much, young man.” Nana shook his hand as well. She was somewhat bedraggled and windblown, as they all were from the drenching in the courtroom and the flight on the couch, but she managed to retain her dignity as always.

  “You’re all very welcome,” O’Shea answered, shaking with Rory as well when she dutifully held out her hand. “I only wish things had gone better.”

  “You did the best you could,” Phil said, trying to smile. “It isn’t your fault the FG…er, I mean our fairy godmother got to the judge before we got there. I’m sure Cass feels the same way. Don’t you, Cass? Cass, where are you going?”

  Crap! Cass was already halfway up the stairs and she turned back to face the small knot of people still gathered in the living room. She had been planning to sneak quietly up to her room, change clothes and con Rory into returning O’Shea’s jacket to him. That way she could avoid hearing any more about how she had to notify him immediately if her birthday wish blew up in her face and she wouldn’t have to say a lot of nice polite bullshit she didn’t mean.

  “Cassandra? Are you leaving without saying goodbye?” O’Shea arched one blue-black eyebrow at her as she stood frozen on the steps.

  “Uh…” Cass cleared her throat. She was so hoarse now it was difficult to make herself heard across the room and she had no idea how she was going to teach the next day. “I was just going to go change