Troll calls me and asks if I can fetch him from the hotel bar, because he won’t listen to anyone right now. He was already buzzed when I left to make our room romantic, take a bath, and just… doll up for him. My heart is a stone when I enter the bar and find him in a corner booth, gesticulating over yet another glass of Jameson, an older hotel guest who’s equally drunk his rapt listener. Shandor is there. His mouth is so thin I see no lips as he glares at me. What? I mouth before I lay an arm around my plague. I understand why Shandor is worried. He hasn’t objected since his initial meltdown when I revealed Emil’s and my agreement, but he’s not happy. Just my luck that Troll stranded him to babysit Emil. “Hey, sweetie,” I murmur, finding his ear with my mouth and kissing it. “Ooh, here’s the good one. She’z not whom I told you about,” Emil informs the hotel guest, who looks up with eyes that can’t focus.
