“I liked it. I should get that more often.”

“All right, time to get ready for bed, love. Let’s head upstairs.”

“But I’m hungry.”

“Didn’t you guys eat?” He brushed some hair away from my face.

“Nope. Not a thing.”

“What do you want?”

“Whipped cream.” I laughed.

“On second thought, are you up for a flight?”

“Why?”

“I wouldn’t mind another night in the cave.”

“Ohhh, yes! Let’s do that.”

He laughed. “Let’s grab you something from the kitchen and then we’ll go.”

“Perfect.”

“You’re perfect.” He kissed me gently.

“You really love me, don’t you?” There was only one answer to that question I could handle hearing. I hated that I even had to doubt it now. It had been the one secure thing I had in all the craziness of my life.

“Of course. Why would you even ask that?”

“I couldn’t stand it if you didn’t.”

He leaned in to whisper in my ear. “New goal of the night—spend all of it making sure you never question my feelings for you again.”

“And food. I need food.”

“I got that the first time.” He led me into the kitchen. Instead of giving me whipped cream, Levi made me a grilled cheese sandwich. I’m not sure how he guessed—but it completely hit the spot. I finished my sandwich and a couple glasses of water before we walked out onto the back porch. I settled down on a couch, and I must have fallen asleep. The next thing I knew, I was curled up in Levi’s arms in the little bed in the cave.

I snuggled in closer to him. I was wearing just my tank top and underwear. He’d taken off my sweater and skirt. Levi was wearing nothing but his boxers. No surprise there. “Sorry I fell asleep.”

“No sorry. It’s nice having you here with me. ”

“I can’t think of a single place I’d rather be.” I closed my eyes again and let sleep take me back under.

Chapter Twelve

“Tell me everything.” Hailey yanked open the door before I could turn the lock.

“Hello to you, too.”

“Did Georgina know anything?”

“Yes, but you need to sit down for this, and so do I.” I hung up my coat and put my boots up in my closet. I hated leaving things out.

“You have to be the slowest person in the universe.”

“Or you’re incredibly impatient.” Really I was just trying to build up the nerve to spill out the story. I wasn’t exactly proud of being an enchantress. Essentially, it meant I was a Pteron sex magnet.

“Come on, spill.” Hailey took a seat on my bed.

I let out a deep breath and sat down next to her. “I need to tell you something I don’t want getting back to Levi.”

She grinned. “I’m good at keeping things from Levi.”

I took a few more seconds to ready myself and then spilled it out. “We think I’m something called an enchantress. Long story short—I attract all the possible heirs and theoretically have the power to choose the next king.”

“How is that even possible? The line continues unless there’s no heir.”

“Supposedly, some women can change things, and evidently I’m one of them.”

“So what happens?”

“Theoretically, it should be over. I have Levi’s ring, but I think he messed it all up by tricking me into it. He didn’t give me a choice so I didn’t officially pick him.”

Hailey gasped. “That idiot.”

“We have to figure out a way to redo it, or make it more permanent. Until then, the Blackwells, and technically any other royal line family, could keep trying to mess with me.” I’d just put two and two together and realized there were probably other heirs I needed to stay away from.

“So what’s next? What do we do?”

“Georgina told me to look inside myself or flirt information out of Toby.”

“What? That’s an interesting set of choices.”

I laughed. “I know. I’m looking inside without luck, but flirting with Toby sounds harder.”

“Are you going to call him?”

“I want to, but I don’t know what to say. He’s going to know I’m faking.”

“Text him.”

“How do you flirt through text?” I pulled my knees up to my chest.

“I’m not sure, but I know someone who would.” Hailey got up and disappeared into the hallway. I wasn’t shocked at all when she returned with Anne.

“What’s up?” Anne was as bubbly as usual. “How was your weekend?”

I thought about my response for a moment. “Interesting.”

Anne put a hand in the pocket of her pink sweats. She was the kind of girl who could pull off bright colored pants. “Good interesting? Bad interesting?”

Hailey didn’t give me a chance to respond. “We need your help.”

Anne perked up even more. “What kind of help?”

“Can I help too?” Tiffany walked in with an English poetry book in her hand. Hailey must have interrupted her reading when she came in for Anne.

“Sure, but close the door,” Hailey said quickly.

Tiffany closed and locked it.

“We need you to text dirty with Allie’s ex.” Hailey just blurted it out to Anne.

Anne laughed. “First of all, why? And second of all, why me?”

Hailey removed her hair clip and shook out her hair. “The second part is obvious. The first doesn’t matter. We need information.”

Anne seemed less excited. “I’m guessing Levi doesn’t know about this?”

“Since when are you concerned about Levi?” Hailey asked.

“I’m not, but I just wanted to make sure…” Anne looked at me as she answered.

“Do you mind helping? I know it’s weird.” I pulled a sleeve of my sweater over my hand.

Anne grinned. “This is going to be fun, but you’re going to still have to help.”

I opened my contact list and clicked on Toby. Our breakup hadn’t been the type where we deleted each other’s number, at least not on my end. I handed Anne my phone, and everyone huddled around to watch.

Hey.

This is a surprise.

I was just thinking about you.

Oh?

Thinking about what it used to be like.

I thought you were over me.