I thought for the first time in my life I was sick, a mixture of migraine and maybe heart trouble. Every breath was painful, I had a shard in my guts that never left, and I hadn’t gotten more than two hours of sleep in a week. But it turned out to be absolutely nothing, just a figment of my imagination. The doctor or most likely my surgeon brother, had asked me if I was going through a painful event, but I was fine. I was always fine.
All of that didn’t explain why I was standing like a fool in the middle of an amusement park, holding a bouquet of flowers to help my case. Maybe because I wanted to silence my ills for a moment. My plane was leaving in a couple of hours, but I had to see Aurore one last time before leaving. I had to be sure she’d be okay. This wasn’t rational, but the world had never seemed so cold without her.
I crossed the door to her workplace and gave a quick glance around the room. Aurore wasn’t there, but two other women I’d never noticed before had taken her place.
“Excuse me, do you know where Aurore Bardot is? She usually works here on weekends,” I asked bluntly, not caring about the queue of people.
The gaze of the woman with purple hair pierced me before narrowing on the bouquet as if she wanted to burn the blooms in hell. “She quit working here, and she didn’t even show up for her last working day, that snarky girl.”
I remained stoic. It wasn’t like Aurore to miss her last day of work.
“Ajax.” Anyone calling out to me other than Aurore in this place seemed improbable and unrealistic, but it happened.
Turning to the voice, I recognized the blonde woman from the gala—not for the fact that she couldn’t be dressed more touristically as she was for an amusement park, but by the sound of her voice and the way her eyes took me in as if she was shocked by my own existence.
“We’ve never been properly introduced,” she continued. “I’m Emma or, as you know, Aurore’s best friend, who strongly advises her on what’s good for her.”
“Ajax.” The teenage girl next to her, holding a huge candy like a sword, shot me a smile. “It’s nice to see you again.”
“The ghost knight, or should I say Luna. Aurore’s sister,” I replied to her before focusing my attention back on Emma. “I’m Ajax. The one she probably described as an asshole, and we both know Aurore never listens to advice.”
Apparently, I was either funny or truthful judging by the way Emma chuckled, and Luna pursed her lips to the side in a mischievous grin—just like Archi when he knew something I didn’t and tried to blackmail me.
Emma crossed her arms. “What are you doing here? Are you searching for Aurore? She didn’t come to work today.”
“But it’s the weekend. She’s always working here on the weekends.” I didn’t like this nor the muscle working in my jaw. “Is she okay?”
“She asked Emma to show me around the park because she was… busy. She’s not answering our texts right now.” Luna shrugged.
Emma didn’t miss a beat and bit on her inner cheek, her cold eyes on me. “Perhaps, because you broke her heart in some way.”
She was blunt, which took me by surprise. “I wouldn’t.”
“Aurore is the kindest and most protective person I know. I don’t know what happened between you guys, but if you don’t fight for her, you may lose her because she’s coveted by someone else.”
Something bitter ravaged my cells as slow, deadly words escaped my lips. “Someone else?”
“Yeah, and I’m not a huge fan of his. I was rooting for you.”
Luna let out a chuckle while Emma didn’t budge, like a referee announcing the start of a fight.
“Who is he?” I articulated in a rather murderous way. Did she start dating someone else? Why did I have no clue about this? I had no right to be jealous—she wasn’t mine, and I wanted her happiness, and yet… and yet I was ready to fight like a caveman with this moron, whoever he was.
“Look at the look of jealousy on your face. Nice.” And now she was smiling. “Let’s say he’s an artist and the kind of jerk who always gets what he wants.”
“I like him,” Luna continued, her stare juggling between the both of us. “He actually did something huge for her yesterday. Something better than… peonies.”
And now, it was my flower’s turn to get insulted. I readjusted the sleeves of my dress shirt. They were both part of Aurore’s life, and I was doing a terrific job at being liked by them. Charming people was not my forte. Human relationships were too complex and difficult.
“You’re talking about Spectre?” Which meant I’d been jealous of myself, not forgetting that I’d been described as a jerk. The opposite would have surprised me though.
“You knew?” Emma opened her mouth agape. “Well, she’s probably with that jackass right now.”
Jackass. I cleared my throat. “Impossible.”
“How do you know that? She can only be with him.”
“Yeah, how do you know that, Ajax?” Luna gave me a twisted smile, gunning her eyes on me in an almost scary way.
Because I’m the motherfucker you all hate. “Do you know where she is?”
“I won’t tell you. I don’t want to betray her trust.” Emma was a pain.
“What makes you believe she’s with him?” I deadpanned, losing my patience. I made my knuckles crack. At this stage, I was almost sure to smother the flowers.
“Because!” she hissed. “If you know about Spectre, you should know she’s his muse, and apparently, they are still collaborating together.”
“Impossible,” I repeated.
This whole situation didn’t make any sense.
“Look,” she sighed. “I know you’re jealous, but I’m very well aware of what my best friend does—”
“Emma. She’s not with Spectre, I can assure you. Please.” I articulated each word painfully between clenched teeth.
Emma’s mouth parted slightly as she pointed a finger up at me. Her face went white, and I succeeded in muting her. Fuck it. Fuck everything.
“Uh-oh, I think she guessed it.” Luna gave me an almost apologetic smile. That vicious, smart teenager. She knew who I was all along.
Emma swallowed the news. “You are—”
“Emma, please.” I didn’t acknowledge what she had already guessed: I was the jerk in question.
“Scheisse, I should have seen that coming.” She took a deep breath. “She went to the school of art or something, and when I asked her if she would be meeting with Spectre, she nodded. She said she’d be late, while we were supposed to—”
“She wore one of her dresses,” Luna added, and that piece of information made me lose it.
“Take the peonies.” I offered the bouquet to Luna, who frowned, definitely having a thing against flowers, and I rushed away from them in a not-so-polite way to head to the only place that crossed my mind.
Les Beaux Arts. But why was she there again?
“Wait! Where are you going?” Emma screamed after me.
“Wait, Ajax.” Luna stopped me. “She’s there to protect you, silly, and she’d kill me if she knew I was telling you this.”
I tightened my fist and turned around, gritting my teeth. “Telling me what?”
“Who she’s really with and why.”
Time was against me.
I had my plane and a new life to catch in less than two hours.
